Chapter 279 Award Ceremony

The final strike was blocked by his master, leaving Xu Jingming feeling somewhat regretful. But after calming down, he understood, "In a one-on-one situation, Master only used a single saber before. The combination of shield and saber is his true strength. Even the Shadowless Thrust cannot threaten Master now."

Leaving the battle space, Xu Jingming returned to the Xia country's official livestream and went to the stands where his family and friends were.

"Captain!"

"Jingming!"

"Old Xu!"

"Son!"

Various greetings came as the group welcomed him with smiles. No one felt regret, as they all knew that Liu Hai was currently number one in the world, and his strength was far greater than Xu Jingming's.

Yang Qingshuo laughed, "When we formed the team, I never dared to imagine that we could reach the finals, the Huozhong Cup National Tournament… second in the nation! Runner-up, defeating so many powerful teams."

"We were just carried to victory," Heng Fang said, putting his arm around Yang Qingshuo. "We were eliminated so early so many times; I knew that this time, we could win entirely thanks to Old Xu and Sister Yi."

"It's all thanks to the captain," Wang Yi said. "I only managed to break through in the semifinals. If I weren't in the Pearwood team, in other weaker teams, I might have been eliminated long ago, and my breakthrough might have been delayed much longer."

"We're a team, and teamwork makes us stronger," Xu Jingming said. "We only reached the finals because we had Sister Yi."

"You great experts, I'm the one who benefited the most without contributing much to the team," Li Miaomiao cupped her hands in thanks. "Thank you all, thank you so much, for letting me become popular. And do you all know how much the downloads of my single, 'Pearwood,' increased during the Huozhong Cup Tournament?"

Wang Yi and the others weren't sure.

Heng Fang simply went to check the song's downloads.

"56 million downloads," Li Miaomiao said happily. "And these are paid downloads! More than the number of downloads in the past few years combined. And it's also boosting my other songs. How wonderful."

"Our team's theme song has a cumulative paid download of less than 100 million," Heng Fang said, looking at the song download data. "As a member of the Pearwood team, I feel it's necessary to help Sister-in-law promote it properly."

"We have to promote Maomao properly," Wang Yi nodded. "I agree."

"Brother Xu, our publicity isn't enough," Yang Qingshuo said, looking at Xu Jingming. "It has to be you, Brother Xu, to promote it. After this tournament, your popularity will definitely explode. The more you promote Sister-in-law, the more popular her song will become. 'Pearwood' is our team's theme song; we have to promote it even more."

"Promote, definitely promote," Xu Jingming said decisively, noticing Li Miaomiao's gaze.

At this moment, the burly Liu Hai appeared with a smile and walked over.

"Captain," Xu Hong and Dai Tongda said, immediately greeting him.

"Master," Xu Jingming, Yang Qingshuo, and Heng Fang were surprised and went to greet him.

Liu Hai looked at Xu Jingming with a smile. "This competition was good. That final thrust was especially good. Did your spearmanship break through?"

"A slight breakthrough," Xu Jingming nodded. He had immediately checked his personal combat strength panel after returning to the battle space after the match.

"It's good to have a breakthrough," Liu Hai nodded. "But the gap between you and your master is still quite large. Work hard! I'm waiting for you… to defeat me. As a master, I look forward to the day when you disciples can surpass me."

Yang Qingshuo and Heng Fang looked at each other. Surpass?

They felt the gap was only getting bigger.

Xu Jingming stepped forward and asked in a low voice, "Master, I want to ask, how much of your strength did you use when you fought me?"

"Hmm…" Liu Hai pondered for a moment. "Five levels, maybe." (The original is literally "50%", but levels fits the context better here)

"Five levels?" Xu Jingming barely had a vague idea of his own strength compared to his master's.

"Keep working hard," Liu Hai said with a smile, looking forward to it. Perhaps it was because he was getting older, or perhaps it was because he had been a master for too long, but he really enjoyed teaching his disciples, and seeing them succeed made him happier than his own breakthroughs.

He tried his best to break down combat techniques and explain them as clearly as possible to his disciples.

In the process of teaching, he himself understood more and more thoroughly, and his realm became higher and higher. With the arrival of the virtual world, he directly became the world's number one. But what he looked forward to most was that his disciples could catch up with him and surpass him.

"Captain, get ready. As the champion team, you have to go on stage to receive the award," Xu Hong said, seeing the prompt and immediately reminding him.

"We still have to go on stage to receive the award? What a hassle." Liu Hai still immediately gathered his teammates from the Liu Hai Oldies team.

As the champions of the first national tournament in Xia country, the Huozhong Cup Tournament, the members of the Liu Hai Oldies team smiled happily as they went on stage to begin the award ceremony.

…

Xu Jingming and the others watched from below the stage, envious.

"500 million in prize money," Liu Chongyuan said, looking on in amazement and envy as the prize money was being awarded.

"Our prize money has also arrived," Yang Qingshuo said, always paying attention to his personal account. He noticed the change in his account and immediately reminded everyone.

"Wow…"

"So much money! I'm rich, I'm rich! After so many years, I've finally made a fortune!"

Heng Fang and Liu Chongyuan were overjoyed. Liu Chongyuan even cried tears of joy; he had never made so much money before.

"I'm a substitute player, and my after-tax income is 9.6 million?" Li Miaomiao was also very happy. "The tournament officials are really efficient; they directly withheld the taxes for us."

Xu Jingming and Wang Yi smiled as they watched, both relatively calm.

Wang Yi earned a lot of money to begin with, and Xu Jingming had earned enough from the rewards he received after participating in the Huozhong Cup Tournament. From the battle where he defeated Tie Lianyuan, each battle brought Xu Jingming a lot of rewards. The more popular he was, the more fans he had, and the more rewards he received.

After a few matches, Xu Jingming was known throughout the country. After all, those few matches had over a billion viewers each.

In terms of martial arts player fame, Xu Jingming was definitely among the top few in the country, even surpassing Wang Yi, who had extremely high national recognition. In the past, any real-world event's influence in the country was far less than that of the virtual world's Huozhong Cup Tournament.

******

The Blue Star Alliance envoy delegation also began to leave after watching the award ceremony.

"This observation has been an eye-opener," the leading white-haired elder said with a smile. "Xia country's experts are indeed extraordinary, whether it's Liu Hai, the world's number one, or the younger generation, that spearmanship expert and the goddess archer, all of them are excellent. I believe that as the entire Blue Star civilization enters a new era, Xia country will definitely make a greater contribution to the Blue Star civilization."

Director Zhou said with a smile, "Xia country is a member of Blue Star, and we will naturally do our best for the entire Blue Star civilization."

"With great power comes great responsibility," the Roman country's envoy said. "Currently, Xia country occupies two of the world's top five experts. Xia country's strength is obvious, but Xia country's efforts on Firefly Star are not enough."

"In terms of experts, the White Eagle Federation also occupies two on the Starry Sky Rankings," Director Zhou said. "Moreover, in terms of contributing to the power on Firefly Star, we initially agreed on each other's share of the burden. Our Xia country has not been short of a single point of effort. On the other hand, the funding provided by the Tianzhu country has only fulfilled one-third of its promise so far."

The Tianzhu country's envoy quickly said, "We are already working hard, our burden…"

"We'll discuss it at the next alliance meeting," the leading white-haired elder said. "In any case, Xia country's finals were still very pleasing to the eye."

"Welcome to visit again next time. Xia country has always been a land of etiquette, and welcomes any friend," Director Zhou said.

The envoy delegation quietly left.

Director Zhou and the vice directors also disappeared and left the livestream.

…

Xia country, Life Evolution Bureau.

Director Zhou and three vice directors gathered in the conference room. Vice Director Liang Qian attended the meeting via projection.

"The Huozhong Cup Tournament has come to an end," Director Zhou said, looking at the others present. "We must determine the second batch of national key cultivation lists. According to the rules, the five of us will discuss it first. The results of the discussion will be submitted to the highest authority."

"This cultivation is different from the first batch. The first batch had the same cultivation intensity for everyone. Now that we can see the experts' strength and speed of progress, we will focus on cultivating the top three, and the remaining seventeen will have the same cultivation intensity as the previous batch."

"So the list of the top three is especially important. First, who should be selected as the first person on the new list?" Director Zhou said.

"The first person on the new list must be chosen from Fang Yu and Xu Jingming," Vice Director Liang Qian said via projection.

"I agree with choosing Fang Yu. He's only twenty years old this year, and he has grown to this point without any professional competition experience in the past. Moreover, he is the only expert in the country with a compatibility of more than 100% with the evolutionary method, a compatibility of 103%… Everyone should know that it is normal to find it difficult to break through the limit when cultivating to the later stages," Vice Director Wang Shuqi said. "When everyone is stuck at the limit and unable to break through, Fang Yu with a compatibility of 103% will be the strongest, because his body surpasses other players in all aspects."

"Such a genius must be cultivated, and cultivated vigorously," Wang Shuqi said.