I will be stronger after the remake

But this only applies to ordinary people. Tang Ping had already anticipated his opponent's target. The moment his opponent drew his gun, goosebumps appeared on his right shoulder. His opponent seemed to be attacking his lower body, but the real target was his upper body.

At this moment, if he were to try to overcome strength with softness and deflect a thousand pounds with four ounces, he would be treating the opponent like a complete novice. The fact that the opponent could concentrate his strength in one place would make him a master of the peak of Ming Jin in the martial arts world. Combined with his super physical qualities enhanced by his spiritual power, even a master of Hua Jin would have to retreat in the face of him.

Of course, if it were a life-or-death duel, Tang Ping would have a hundred ways to defeat his opponent, but right now it's just a ring match. Defeating his opponent without getting injured is the true mark of a master, so he doesn't have many options.

Despite his many thoughts, to outsiders, Tang Ping showed no hesitation and responded instantly. He twisted his waist and straightened his shoulders, lowered his hips and slumped his back, his bones and tendons bulged, and he became one with the blade. He spun around and swung his blade, and as his spiritual energy circulated, the blade resembled a dragon spewing thunder and rolling in the clouds.

Thunder and lightning flashed!

Tang Ping had already used the Spirit Martial Technique, but considering that he was not dealing with a monster, there was no need to be greedy for that slight enhancement, so he did not shout out the name of the technique.

Almost simultaneously, the spear tip, which was heading towards Tang Ping's lower body, made a "V"-shaped upward slash, aiming directly at Tang Ping's shoulder, but was struck squarely by a thunderous slash.

Li Zhenlong was not shocked. Given his opponent's martial arts level in the previous matches, it was not surprising that he could see through his strengths and weaknesses. It would be surprising if he fell into a trap.

The key to his shot was not variation, but power. It was about concentrating power in one place to break through the surface and overcome skill with force. He immediately gripped the pole with one hand and twisted it, while pressing down on the bottom of the pole with the other, and pushed forward with all his might, creating a spiraling vibration of the spear!

The two weapons clashed without any chance of avoidance, producing a sharp metallic clang.

Li Zhenlong felt an unprecedented force traveling along the gun, causing him excruciating pain in his tiger's mouth and trembling fingers, making him almost unable to hold on.

If someone knocks your weapon away, how will you ever face anyone!

He gritted his teeth and, ultimately violating the rules of the competition, activated his spiritual energy resonance to strengthen his physical body. Ignoring the pain in his fingers, he forcefully gripped the gun barrel.

"You've fallen into a trap!"

Tang Ping's blade suddenly softened from hard to soft, using the opponent's force to pull it outwards.

Li Zhenlong could no longer hold on, and the gun flew out of his hand. Not only that, the gun head broke off under the pull of the two forces, drawing a silver arc and flying straight out in the opposite direction from the gun body, embedding itself in a large tree and shaking down a pile of dead leaves.

Li Zhenlong's tiger's mouth split open, and he was pulled forward by his own force, staggering and falling. He managed to steady himself with his solid horse stance, managing not to fall flat on his face. However, due to the backlash from his own force, a metallic taste rose in his throat, which he forcibly suppressed and swallowed back down.

The referee glanced at Li Zhenlong but did not announce the winner.

Although this is a weapons competition, there is no rule that losing means losing. As long as you have thick skin, you can continue fighting with your bare hands.

As for a comeback, it's basically impossible unless the opponent is seriously injured.

In a fight between an unarmed martial artist wielding a knife and a martial artist wielding a sword, the odds are 30/70. The master of the Transformation Realm only has a 30% chance of winning—provided that the martial artist doesn't possess extraordinary energy like spiritual power.

Li Zhenlong clearly still had some pride. In fact, he had already conceded defeat when he used the Spirit Resonance, but he wanted to lose in a less embarrassing way, although he ultimately failed to achieve this goal.

After a moment, Li Zhenlong suppressed his internal injuries, turned his head to look at the gun barrel without the spearhead, and clasped his hands in a fist and said to Tang Ping, "I have lost, and I admit defeat wholeheartedly."

Tang Ping returned the gesture with clasped hands, saying, "You flatter me."

Seeing this, the referee then announced the winner of the match.

Li Zhenlong shook his head and sighed, "There's no need for me to be modest. I should be thanking you for saving my face. I thought I had taken you seriously enough, but I underestimated you. In the previous match, you deliberately displayed the technique of using softness to overcome hardness, just to make others think that you were not strong enough and not good at head-on confrontation. In reality, you didn't need to defend or counterattack at all. You could have easily won with a first strike. You just deliberately held back so that your opponent wouldn't lose too badly."

"Well, not really."

Actually, Tang Ping just wanted to see if any psionicists had innovated their techniques and created kung fu that was different from ordinary martial arts, so that he could learn something from it.

Judging from the results, no one created martial arts techniques using spiritual power, but people are not just NPCs who only follow the program. Indeed, quite a few people thought of using spiritual power to enhance their moves.

Like Li Zhenlong's last shot, its power had already exceeded the scope of normal martial arts, but the use of spiritual power was still at a very rudimentary level, far inferior to the Zen Sea Saber Technique.

"In short, I'm not as good as you, so there's nothing to say. I hope you can win in the end and take the championship. That way, when I talk to others, I can claim that I forced you to reveal your hidden trump card, which will be some consolation."

Li Zhenlong gave a self-deprecating laugh and turned to leave.

Tang Ping handed the weapon to the referee and then returned to the audience, where he received congratulations from everyone.

Ling Chong added, "Congratulations! It seems I can wish you victory in advance."

"Isn't it a bit too early to congratulate me? I've only made it to the semifinals; there are still two matches to go."

Tang Ping chose to be cautious to avoid setting the stage for a champagne party in the second half.

"It's not early, because that Li Zhenlong was the strongest in the second-tier group besides you. Back then, it was me, him, and Yuan Ji who competed for the championship. I watched the other three finalists, and none of them were as strong as Li Zhenlong. Only one of them was somewhat comparable."

Ling Chong paused for a moment, then lowered his voice and said, "Don't underestimate Li Zhenlong. He's a martial arts instructor in the army, nicknamed 'Instructor of the Imperial Guards.' If I hadn't been defeated by Yuan Ji in the semifinals, I would have had to rely on luck to win against him."

"Try your luck?"

"If it were a bare-handed match, I'm confident I could beat him, but if it were a weapons match, I would definitely lose."

The martial arts tournament allows the use of weapons, but both sides must agree beforehand. If there is a disagreement, the use of weapons will be decided by drawing lots.

Therefore, contestants who want to win in the end must be well-rounded and proficient in both unarmed and weaponry. If they are severely unbalanced and only know one skill, then unless they are extremely lucky, they may not even make it to the top four.

Based on Tang Ping's combat experience, if the opponent had a foundation in martial arts before becoming a psychic, they are usually proficient in both unarmed and weapon skills. Conversely, if they only learned martial arts after becoming a psychic, they will show specialization based on their psychic type.

Because learning martial arts definitely requires learning weapons. For example, practicing Bajiquan requires knowing how to wield a spear, Taijiquan has Taiji sword, Baguaquan has Bagua staff, and Xingyiquan requires learning everything.

Yu Shujiang asked curiously, "The contestant you mentioned earlier, could it be that he's hiding his strength like Tang Ping?"

Ling Chong waved his hand and said, "You're overthinking it. Hiding your strength isn't easy, especially in public with so many people watching. It's even more difficult unless the other person is also a master who has returned to simplicity. But so far, I've only met one such master, your brother. Yuan Ji was very strong back then, but he didn't reach this level. Let alone returning to simplicity, he couldn't even conceal his sharpness. As for why I said this person is worth mentioning, it's because she's quite famous. You might all know her."

"Who?"

"Zhao Yeman".

Tang Ping and Yun Yanzi looked at each other, clearly not having heard of the name.

Yu Shujiang exclaimed "Ah!" and then asked in surprise, "Zhao Yeman is also a psychic?"

She then explained to Tang Ping, "Zhao Yeman is a star who just debuted last year. She has acted in several period dramas, and the response has been very good. She is quite popular now. She has resources, looks, and acting skills. The key is that she can also do martial arts scenes. Everyone is very optimistic about her future. It is said that she will be filming a high-budget commercial movie this year."

Ling Chong asked in confusion, "You know her, how come you didn't notice that she also participated in the martial arts tournament?"

Yu Shujiang defended herself, saying, "I just know her, but I'm not her fan. Celebrities look very different on screen than in real life, so it's normal not to recognize them."

Ling Chong said, "I think you only paid attention to Tang Ping's match and didn't notice anyone else."

Yu Shujiang blushed slightly and quickly changed the subject, saying, "Since Zhao Yeman chose to become a star, it must be to portray a spirit, but I don't understand, what kind of spirit can be associated with both martial arts and stardom at the same time?"

Ling Chong didn't keep her in suspense and said, "Her spirit type is the wandering knight series. A knight uses martial arts to break the law, but in modern society, where would she have the opportunity to use martial arts to break the law? She can only indulge in it in TV dramas. So all the works she has acted in since her debut have been period martial arts dramas."

Chapter 210 Private Transactions

During Tangping's participation in the martial arts tournament, Yu Shujiang also participated in the preliminary round of the flying competition, but was eliminated in the first round.

There's no way around it. Putting aside the fact that she was forced into this role and hadn't practiced flying much before, even if she were an expert, she couldn't compare to someone who specializes in it.

Chang'e can indeed fly, but her flight mode is an elegant glide, mainly in the vertical direction. Flight competitions, on the other hand, test the ability to fly horizontally and avoid obstacles. Yu Shujiang is naturally no match for those psychics with bird-like spiritual attributes in this regard.

The above are the reasons for Yu Shujiang's elimination, which Tang Ping neither agreed nor disagreed with.

Of the eight people who have advanced to the finals of the flying competition, only four are bird spirits, while the rest are witches, ghosts, horses, and tree spirits.

Witches are one thing, since in Western stories they are depicted as flying through the sky on broomsticks, but ghosts can only float, while horses, though fast, cannot fly.

Even if we take a step back and assume that the wandering spirit and the horse can barely be related to flying racing, the tree spirit simply cannot move. Its psionicist only made it to the finals by relying on its superb wind-based escape techniques.

However, even if you see through it, don't say it out loud. You still need to protect your god-sister's self-esteem. Tang Ping isn't the kind of person who is completely ignorant of social etiquette.

In addition, Yunyanzi quietly made it through the semi-finals of the cooking competition and entered the one-on-one final.

The Taoist priest who was favored by many beforehand and created a "glowing dish" and "clothes-bursting effect" with his Buddha Jumps Over the Wall dish was eliminated because he did not control the heat of the alchemy furnace well during the competition, resulting in too much residual poison in the final work. This poisoned the first judge who was eager to try it, and the other four judges were so frightened that they refused to taste it and all gave it a score of 0.

Yunyanzi's opponent in the title of Chef King was a fat monk with a big head and ears. He had also kept a low profile in the previous competitions and did not use any eye-catching special effects. He qualified for the finals with a famous dish from Daxiangguo Temple, "Luohan Noodles".

In Stephen Chow's "The God of Cookery," the Shaolin Temple's kitchen is set as a Chinese culinary training academy. This is certainly intended to create a nonsensical and absurd effect, but upon closer examination, it is not without reason.

The large temples in Bianjing (Kaifeng) during the Song Dynasty were not only religious sites, but also hosted royal ceremonies, banquets for officials, receptions for foreign guests, and accommodations for scholars taking the imperial examinations. They were like ancient versions of large shopping malls.

The Great Xiangguo Temple is one of the best among them. They do not only serve vegetarian food, but are also good at meat dishes. They not only do not prohibit alcohol and meat, but also sell pork. For this purpose, they set up a special "Shaozhuyuan" (Braised Pork Courtyard), which has many signature dishes.

The "Hua Man Lu" records: "When Xiangguo Temple burned down the Zhu Yuan, there used to be a monk named Huiming who was good at cooking, especially pork, which he could eat five jin in one meal. Yang Danian went with him and often led his fellow monks to prepare a meal."

The culinary skills of Daxiangguo Temple were unanimously praised by the emperors of the Song Dynasty. Its food culture has a long history and is not the same as those local delicacies that try to pass off as "Emperor Qianlong's trip to the countryside" or "Cixi's westward escape". It has a real heritage.

Therefore, compared to Yunyanzi, everyone was more optimistic about her opponent. Even Tang Ping and Ling Chong only supported her because they were colleagues.

Ling Chong fought his way through the Unlimited Group and has advanced to the top four. During this time, he did not use any spiritual martial arts and defeated his opponents purely with his strength.

Although he is a newly promoted third-tier cultivator and lacks sufficient foundation, his spirit type "Vajra" is a typical melee-type spirit type, and his spirit energy "Immovable Vajra" is practically an impenetrable fortress when the opponent cannot use active spirit energy.

The effect of "Immovable Vajra" is that when a psionicist stands still, their physical attributes will be greatly enhanced, and they will gain a layer of defensive aura.

It can be said that as long as Ling Chong is thick-skinned enough, he can just stand still in the first place when the battle starts, and his opponent will have no way to deal with him. He can just stand there and let his opponent attack him, and he can exhaust his opponent.

However, Ling Chong still has some sense of shame, so he doesn't use it under normal circumstances. He only uses "Immovable Vajra" to defend when he is forced into a dangerous situation by his opponent or when his opponent launches a special move.

As for not using it at all... he just cares about his reputation, he's not stupid. "Immovable Vajra" is his spiritual energy, not some external object like a magic weapon or talisman. He paid an extremely high price for it, so why shouldn't he use it?

Tang Ping glanced at the match schedule and smiled, "Ling Chong's next opponent is the fierce tiger Yuan Ji that he mentioned. He can finally get his wish."

The rules of the martial arts tournament are very simple: it's an elimination system. There are no group stages or revival rounds. In a sense, luck is also a very important factor. Otherwise, a player with the strength of a runner-up would be eliminated in the round of 16 if he encountered a player with the strength of a champion.

There had been previous suggestions to change the competition rules, but these were rejected after discussion.

The martial artist's idea is simple: as long as you have the strongest strength, you can win the championship no matter what kind of schedule you encounter. As for the runner-up falling in the round of 16 early—there is no second place in martial arts, who the hell cares who the second place is!

Yu Shujiang said, "We've reached the semi-finals. The remaining contestants should all be truly talented, so it'll be a fierce battle, right?"

After being teased by Ling Chong for only caring about Tang Ping's matches, she deliberately went to watch a few martial arts matches in the unlimited category, only to be greatly disappointed.

Unfortunately, no restrictions mean anyone can sign up. In matches where the skill gap is huge, the outcome is often decided in a single move. In terms of entertainment value, it is far inferior to the evenly matched first and second-tier groups.

It should be noted that even Tang Ping would let his opponent finish his entire set of martial arts moves before launching a counterattack to decide the outcome. In particular, his skill of using softness to overcome hardness and borrowing force to strike was quite spectacular.

Not everyone in the world has self-awareness, and many people genuinely don't know how strong a third-tier psionicist really is. They think they are among the best in the second tier and might be able to compete with a third-tier psionicist, only to be easily defeated.

Of course, there are also true geniuses who possess the ability to transcend levels. Yuan Ji is one such example. She is currently a second-level tiger demon and has already defeated a third-level spiritual energy user during her advancement to the top four, proving that she did not rely purely on luck.

Tang Ping said, "There are three third-level spiritual energy users among the top four, which is quite impressive. But this also proves that Ling Chong's nemesis is indeed quite capable."

Yu Shujiang nodded, looking forward to it, "This Yuan Ji is a woman, and she's not even that much older than me. I want to cheer her on."

Her statement was not without reason; it was simply because there were too few female contestants who could enter the finals, with the ratio of female to male contestants being about 1:3.

Despite the fact that the slight physiological differences between men and women are negligible in the face of the boost that Spirit Rank provides to physical fitness, male psychics still hold a clear advantage in the psychic games.

Some experts believe this is because men are more combative, have a stronger competitive spirit, and are more eager to be number one than women, while Lingo itself is a power system that places great emphasis on spiritual practice.

"Hey, hey, hey, we're all in this together, don't be a traitor!"

Ling Chong walked out of the players' lounge and happened to overhear Yu Shujiang's words, and couldn't help but complain.

Tang Ping noticed that Ling Chong's expression was strange and asked, "What happened?"

"It's nothing," Ling Chong waved his hand.

Tang Ping said, "If you don't want people to worry, don't lie. Just say you don't want to talk about it. That's better than lying and denying it."

“It’s not that I don’t want to tell you…” Ling Chong hesitated for a moment, then sighed in resignation, “Fine, I’ll tell you anyway. Just now in the rest room, someone talked to me, hoping that I would throw the next match and let Yuan Ji win.”

Upon hearing this, Yu Shujiang looked as if she had heard Americans confessing that they needed to sell their blood to maintain a normal life. She showed an incredulous expression and then said indignantly, "Why should we!"

Ling Chong said helplessly, "They said that Yuan Ji wants to use this martial arts tournament to demonstrate his spiritual power and try to break through to the third level. I won the championship, but I only gained glory and no other benefits. However, Yuan Ji's victory can give the country one more third-level spiritual energy user. Therefore, they hope that I can consider the big picture. If I want to fight Yuan Ji and settle the score properly, they can arrange a private duel between us after the tournament."

Tang Ping remained noncommittal, then smiled and said, "That's an interesting point. So, what's your answer? Will you agree or refuse?"

"I think I need to think about it."

"What are you even considering? Of course we'll refuse this kind of underhanded request!" Yu Shujiang was both angry and disappointed. "I even wanted to cheer her on, but I never expected her to be this kind of person! If you're so capable, win the championship fairly and squarely. What kind of nonsense is it to ask the other party to let you win in private? Even if you win the championship this way, don't you feel ashamed?!"

Ling Chong defended his opponent, saying, "I think Yuan Ji probably didn't know about this. It was an official who persuaded her privately. After all, from the perspective of national interests, it is indeed more valuable for her to win the championship than for me to win it."

"Who knows if she knew or not? Maybe she heard the rumors and pretended not to know because she thought it would be in her own interest," Yu Shujiang said, her impression reversed, and she didn't hesitate to speculate about the other party with the utmost malice. "Maybe she used the same method to defeat the third-level psionicist in that match before!"

"No way. I watched her match. She fought her opponent to a standstill, and there were several close calls. There was no sign of her holding back."

"Who knows if her opponent is playing along with her?"

"It can't be acting. Put yourself in their shoes. If I agreed to their demands, I would already be very unhappy. Why would I want to cooperate with them in acting? It's one thing for me to be willing to sacrifice some personal honor for the national interest, but it's another thing to cooperate with them in acting. How could a third-stage psychic not have a temper?"

Yu Shujiang's eyes widened, and she said with displeasure, "Why are you still speaking up for her? Could it be that because the other person is a woman, you've fallen for her after the initial conflict?"

Ling Chong smirked: "You girls really like to think about romance. My type is a gentle, generous, thrifty, and traditional woman. How could I possibly be interested in that tigress?"

"But didn't you just defend her again and again?"

“Martial artists connect through battle. What you just said, ‘No fight, no friendship,’ is not wrong. From my perspective, Yuan Ji is not the kind of person who hopes the other party will go easy on him.”

"Since the opponent isn't that kind of person, isn't that even better? Let's go both ways and have a fair and just competition. What are you hesitating for?"

"That being said, I don't really care that much about the championship. Fighting in private and fighting in public at the martial arts tournament make no difference to me. Besides, if Yuan Ji can advance to the third level through this, we'll be on the same starting line and can fight fairly."

“What do you mean by ‘a fair fight’? The Unlimited Group doesn’t have any requirements on cultivation level. She participated voluntarily, and no one forced her. Everything is in accordance with the rules. How is it unfair for you to fight her?” Yu Shujiang shook her head in confusion. “I completely cannot understand your thinking.”

Ling Chong looked troubled: "I can't explain it clearly in a short time."