Overall, Chang Xinyuan's modification was successful. However, to truly dig out the full potential of this mecha, one day was not enough. Ling Lan knew that she had to take some leave now even if she did not want to. In order to complete the final adjustments on the mecha as soon as possible, she would need to hole up with Chang Xinyuan in their battle clan's mecha modification research centre for these last three days.
In this manner, aside from Ling Lan, who took a sudden leave of absence, the other members of the Lingtian Mecha Clan continued to attend classes as usual. Of course, Li Lanfeng bravely volunteered to be Ling Lan's sparring opponent. And so, every day, he was abused so terribly one could hardly bear the sight of it, and yet, he took joy in it and showed no intentions of retreating. This resilience caused Qi Long and the others to be profoundly awed — they who had been tormented by Boss Lan all this way knew very well how gruelling it was on both mind and body to be Boss Lan's opponent ...
On the last day before the great fight, the thus far calm Lingtian Mecha Clan finally stirred. All of the regiment commanders and the various team leaders requested leave from their respective instructors. As the mecha battle between Lingtian and Leiting had already been set as an open fight, the administrators of the academy gave the green light to both mecha clans, requesting the instructors to cooperate fully. Thus, the instructors gave them no trouble; everyone had their leave requests approved.
Right then, Qiao Ting, who was in the mecha training hall in Mecha World training on his own, suddenly received an emergency call from outside. With a flicker of his mind, Qiao Ting logged off.
Outside the virtual login pod, his confidant was already waiting. The hatch to his pod had just opened when his confidant attentively offered him a towel."Have you received proper news?" Qiao Ting accepted the towel and asked lowly.
"Yes, Regiment Commander, we have obtained the actual participant list of the Lingtian Mecha Clan." The confidant's expression was rather grim. They had always thought that the representatives of the Lingtian Mecha Clan would consist of only the regiment commanders and some of the team leaders, but unexpectedly, the other side had successfully accepted two fifth-year cadets into their fold with none the wiser. And one of them was ranked within the top five of the campus-wide combat power ranking. This made his heart feel somewhat heavy.
"Anyone we did not expect?" Qiao Ting walked into the washroom, and seeing his confidant's complicated expression in the reflection of the mirror, he knew that something had come up.
"Yes, I've already sent the detailed name list to your communicator, Regiment Commander. Take a look later and you'll understand," said the confidant.
Qiao Ting nodded in response. Washing his face, he sobered up a little more, and he then turned on his communicator and clicked on the Lingtian Mecha Clan name list his confidant had sent to him.
The first on the list was, without question, the number one regiment commander of the Lingtian Mecha Clan, Ling Lan. He would also be the leader of the battle team this time.
The second was Qi Long. This was also someone they had managed to predict. Since the other was strong enough to be the second regiment commander of the Lingtian Mecha Clan, he must certainly be the second strongest under Ling Lan.The third and the fourth also did not deviate from their predictions, being the third regiment commander Wu Jiong and the fourth regiment commander Li Yingjie. All four main regiment commanders of the Lingtian Mecha Clan would be participating in this mecha fight. It looked like the other side was going to give their all in this challenge and was not at all planning to just submit and admit defeat.
At this point, Qiao Ting was smirking in his mind. This was the best — for the Lingtian Mecha Clan to try their hardest only to be crushed easily by his hand ... only this way could his strength be proven!
However, the subsequent names on the list made Qiao Ting frown. They were not the team leaders Leiting had expected. Other than Luo Lang whom he had some memory of due to his involvement in the previous New Cadet Regiment fight, the other names were all rather unfamiliar to him. Qiao Ting very quickly realised that these people should be members from Ling Lan's battle clan.
At this point, Qiao Ting found his estimation of Ling Lan rising considerably. Knowing to set aside the stronger team leaders in favour of his own battle clan members with better internal rapport — this would undoubtedly let the battle team learn how to work together within the shortest amount of time, and would also increase the combat power of the battle team. It was a masterful decision.
Even though, other than the five or six names they had managed to guess, the other names within the first ten names on the list had surprised them, Qiao Ting still did not feel pressured. Even if the opponent's battle team had better rapport because of this, these people were after all still freshmen. Their mecha control skills and experience were totally incomparable to that of the members representing Leiting. Qiao Ting could not comprehend why his confidant would reveal such a grave expression.
However, Qiao Ting soon learned the reason. Seeing the final two names on the list, even someone as composed and confident as Qiao Ting could not help but be shaken.
"Zhao Jun, Li Lanfeng!" Qiao Ting shouted. "Aren't they part of Wuji? Why have they gone to Lingtian now?"
Although Li Lanfeng and Zhao Jun had already refused Han Yu's invitation at the start of the academic year, this news had been kept under wraps by Han Yu all this while. Despite his anger and hatred of the two, Han Yu also did not want his rivals to find out about this news and somehow manage to recruit those two into their ranks. This was also why Leiting had remained completely oblivious about this.
In the military academy, even though there was the possibility of members switching factions, this mostly occurred among the lower ranks. The true upper ranks of the factions would never have cases where members transitioned to other factions. Furthermore, Zhao Jun was a primary combat force of Wuji, while Li Lanfeng was the head adviser of Wuji — in Wuji, they held absolutely key positions. Normal people would never willingly let go of the power they wielded, and even if the conflict they had with the faction was too deep and they really wanted to leave, the faction would also use any means at their disposal to stop it from happening.
It should be said that the true details behind Li Lanfeng and Zhao Jun's collaboration with Wuji were unknown by the other factions, which was why such a misunderstanding could occur. From the start, Li Lanfeng had taken advantage of Wuji's desperation to retrieve its position as the number three faction. In negotiations with Wuji, he had ensured that the conditions set were advantageous to himself. Therefore, there was nothing at all within their contract which Wuji could use to restrict Li Lanfeng and Zhao Jun from leaving. This was also why although Han Yu was filled with rage and frustration, he could only watch helplessly as the two left.
"Who'd have expected them to actually have something like this up their sleeves?" Qiao Ting frowned slightly. It looked like his plan to finish off the Lingtian Mecha Clan in a split second had been foiled. With Zhao Jun there, he would certainly have to put in some actual effort. And with the addition of that wily and resourceful Li Lanfeng, who liked to scheme and set up traps in secret, this fight would probably not be as simple as he had imagined it to be.
"Call all the members to assemble. We need to make some arrangements," ordered Qiao Ting decisively.
Although the Lingtian Mecha Clan had managed to get Zhao Jun and Li Lanfeng, making this fight a little more difficult, so what? With him, Qiao Ting, around, victory was certain to belong to Leiting, certain to belong to him, Qiao Ting!
Still, he wanted to accomplish a beautiful win. He wanted to win cleanly and efficiently, and as such, he needed to make some preparations. Qiao Ting had chosen this time to challenge the Lingtian Mecha Clan because he wanted to use his strength to shock all the factions in the academy into submission — he would tell them with his victory that the king of the military academy had appeared.
"Yes, Regiment Commander!" Seeing the bright gleam in Qiao Ting's eyes as well as the unrestrained ambition within them, the confidant was once again deeply moved by his regiment commander. This was the strong person he had chosen to follow — only someone like this had the right to his submission.
"Also, get someone to notify the person who leaked this name list to us. As soon as the battle ends, give him the elevated position of first line team leader!" Qiao Ting did not mind giving the person who betrayed their original leader what they wanted. He was even more unafraid that this kind of person would do the same to him in future, because he believed that as long as he was strong enough, no one would ever dare to betray him.
"Yes, Regiment Commander. I will notify him," replied the confidant, head bowed. A swift flash of envy passed through his gaze — he had not expected just the simple leak of a name list like this could net a first line team leader position in the Leiting Mecha Clan. That person who had betrayed his mecha clan was truly wise. Instead of staying put in the Lingtian Mecha Clan with its uncertain future, he might as well take a gamble — now, his gamble had paid off in the form of a meteoric rise.
********
On Ling Lan's end, after leading away the 11 people participating in the fight, they entered a combat training hall in Mecha World, heading straight for a pre-booked private room to conduct some final adjustments. Meanwhile, the other team leaders opened another private training room under Ling Lan's instructions and held a practice session of their own.
Over the course of the day, all 11 participants finally understood Ling Lan's instructions thoroughly. Only then did Ling Lan dismiss everyone, and the next time they gathered would be at the life-or-death fight against the Leiting Mecha Clan tomorrow.
After watching the other team leaders leave Mecha World one after another, Ling Lan led the 11 participants to leave as well, returning to the real world.
By the time she opened her virtual login pod, the other five in her villa had already sat up. Qi Long was the first to jump out of his pod to say, "Wu Jiong just told me that he'll be coming over here soon with Li Yingjie."
Ling Lan's eyes flickered at these words, but she only nodded and said, "Understood." That said, she walked out of the virtual login pod room to return to her own bedroom and took a good shower. Refreshed, only then did she go down to the hall below.
Wu Jiong and Li Yingjie had already arrived; they must have sprinted straight for Ling Lan's place immediately after logging off. Li Yingjie brought over some freshly-brewed coffee and poured each of them a cup. Then, again from the kitchen, he brought out a cup of plain water for Ling Lan.
Wu Jiong lifted his coffee cup and took a sip. The bitter flavour quickly spread across his tongue, as bitter as his current mood.
"Coming here so urgently, has something happened?" Ling Lan drank a sip of her water, placed her cup down, and then asked with a calm expression.
"Our name list has been leaked," said Wu Jiong bitterly, a trace of pain flashing through his eyes.
Ling Lan interlaced her fingers and, after a few beats of silence, she asked, "Who is the traitor?"
Wu Jiong reflexively looked towards Li Yingjie. At this moment, Li Yingjie still had not touched his cup of coffee — his face was dark, hands clasped tightly. His long and slender fingers were almost digging into the back of his hands, his entire person trembling uncontrollably.
"It's one of Li Yingjie's." It was clear with one look — what else was there for Ling Lan to figure out? She had initially thought that those who might waver would be those not from the Central Scout Academy, but unexpectedly, it was one of their own who had stepped wrongly.
"I did not think he would do something like this ..." Li Yingjie suddenly lowered his head. Even though they could not see his expression, they could hear the pain in his voice, like that of a cornered animal. Even the most arrogant and overbearing person would be gravely hurt when they were betrayed by someone they trusted; they may even be unable to bear it.
