Translated by Luxican
Edited by Leighann
Black Guardian had been promoted to B-rank?!
This shocked the members of Phoenix.
It was only the third day of their assessment; how could Black Guardian already be B-rank?
"Black Guardian's tactics were too vicious. After winning the first round against Sacred Armor, their second opponent was also directly defeated and seriously injured, if not killed. In the third round, there were no more C-rank mercenary squads willing to compete with them, so they directly abstained. When Black Guardian selected the B-rank Mercenary Squad they would challenge, they chose Jungle Tiger," Feng Kuo had already found out what had happened from Jungle Tiger's captain's mouth.
While in the Rank-Up Assessment, the opposing mercenary squads of the same rank would be randomly picked by the Mercenary Union, but after passing the initial requirements, the mercenary squad could choose, which higher-rank mercenary squad they wanted to fight against themselves.
So, the C-rank Mercenary Squads could choose any of the B-rank Mercenary Squads staying in Inaba Mountain for their final match.
Jungle Tiger had only passed the assessment last year and was promoted to B-rank at that time.
Black Guardian had chosen Jungle Tiger just because of this.
Jungle Tiger's captain, Li Tai, was only slightly weaker than Feng Kuo. The other three team members were also very good, no worse than Wen Renhuo and Mu Nan Yan.
Neither Lin Tai nor Feng Kuo had expected Jungle Tiger to suffer such a devastating defeat.
Not even the veteran mercenary squad Jungle Tiger could stop Black Guardian, let alone the other weaker mercenary squads.
When Feng Kuo heard this, his face was livid.
Today's incident fueled his anger towards Black Guardian even more.
"Boss Feng, it's Black Guardian," from within the sub-field, four burly figures walked out. The four Hei Brothers, who had already advanced to B-rank, walked out proudly.
When they saw Phoenix, Hei Er loud cry: "If it isn't Phoenix, I heard that you guys are very lucky, encountering only the easy to pinch persimmons!"
"Second Brother, you're wrong, it should be said that all Great Zhou Empire mercenary squads are soft tomatoes," the fourth brother said, and they all let out a loud laugh. Their arrogance causing the mercenaries present to become red in rage.
The four of them walked away.
Feng Kuo had tightened his fists, his chest heaving, he was clearly furious. He roared, as he struck his fist against a wall, the punch was so powerful, his fist was bloodied.
"Boss," Mu Nan Yan and Wen Renhuo were no less angry, but there was nothing they could do. Even Jungle Tiger had trouble against Black Guardian, and Phoenix wasn't much better than them, not to mention that they still had Yun Sheng to think about.
"Brother Li is a good man; he once saved my life. His hometown was destroyed by a flood, and many people died. All these years the money he earned as a mercenary was sent back to his hometown to support the widows and orphans. He also said that after two or three more years as mercenary, he would go back to marry a good wife and take care of his parents. Damned Black Guardian!" If it wasn't for Wen Renhuo and Mu Nan Yan holding him back, Feng Kuo would have seriously injured his fists.
"Then in the next match, we'll challenge Black Guardian," a crisp and quite voice interrupted Feng Kuo's actions.
"Little Sheng, what did you say? You're saying, we should challenge Black Guardian?" Wen Renhuo had an odd expression on his face.
"That's right, we'll have to pick a B-rank mercenary squad for the next round anyway. Black Guardian challenged the youngest of the B-rank mercenary squads, so why shouldn't we do the same? There shouldn't be a younger B-rank Mercenary Squad than Black Guardian," Yun Sheng blinked as if she was making a perfectly logical point.
"Little Sheng, you've seen the strength of Black Guardian, do you think we.... can win?" In fact, even without Yun Sheng, the idea of beating Black Guardian to death had flashed in the minds of the three other members of Phoenix countless times.
But the biggest risk in Phoenix battling against Black Guardian would be Yun Sheng.
In the earlier three rounds, Feng Kuo had protected Yun Sheng to the point were not even a drop of water would be able to touch her, but against Black Guardian, this wouldn't be possible.
"The other party's summoner is also not stronger than me, but if I'm not able to hold on, I can always summon Bobo," Yun Sheng looked confident.
Yun Sheng's greatest advantage lay in the fact that everyone thought her summoned beast was Xiao Hei who was following her around, while Bobo was her last life-saving card!
As the other three listened, they also felt that what she had said was reasonable, in the worst-case scenario Yun Sheng could just summon her crying egg, that alone would be enough to give Black Guardian a headache.
"Little Sheng, then let's agree that if anything unexpected happens, you don't have to care about winning or losing, you just ask the judge for help," Feng Kuo felt a pang of guilt at the thought of letting Yun Sheng risk her life along with them.
But the idea of slaughtering Black Guardian and avenging Jungle Tiger, as well as the other mercenary squads of Great Zhou Empire, was just too alluring.
After making this decision, Feng Kuo went to the Mercenary Union to settle the matter of challenging Black Guardian.
***
Only half an hour later, within Inaba Mountain, every mercenary had received the news that the C-rank Mercenary Squad Phoenix would be challenging the B-rank Mercenary Squad Black Guardian.
This was undoubtedly, by far the most head-turning of the mercenary squad competitions.
In the arena, Soul, who's ban had been recently lifted, was just fighting in their second match.
"Oh, you're saying that Phoenix is going to challenge Black Guardian?" After Shen Feng had been repeatedly warned by Ba Tu until he just squatted at the side, while the other members of Soul would fight their opponents. It was only a matter of time until they advanced to B-rank.
"You don't seem very worried about that little girl, your subordinate thought you were quite interested in her," While Soul was banned, Shen Feng set out early everyday to see the little girls matches.
When it was Phoenix's turn, he also wanted to cheer for them loudly, but was stopped by General Ba Tu, who begged him to please mind his image. He still had to maintain the Early Ju Empire's Royal Family. After all, Early Ju Empire and Great Zhou Empire were not too friendly. On behalf of the other party, it was better if he didn't overdo it.
"The little one will be fine; she is very clever. It's just that I'm curious what her summoned beast is, the little black dog following her doesn't have a summoning mark on it," Shen Feng rubbed his chin. He was probably the only one, except for the other members of Phoenix, that knew Xiao Hei wasn't Yun Sheng's summoned beast.
Shen Feng decided he must get up early to cheer for Yun Sheng in the match, Phoenix vs Black Guardian.
T/N: Thank you for reading and Happy Halloween!
I made some simple Fanart, but Wattpad won't let me upload it... So, I uploaded it on my Instagram instead, if anyone is interested.
(My Instagram Account is : thoughtlessinsecurities)