423 Not Much After All!

"Shut up." How could Qiao Ting know the truth of Ling Lan's words? He was thoroughly enraged by these seemingly disdainful words. Pointing his beam saber angrily at Ling Lan, he laughed wildly and said, "Hahaha ... if you want to kill me, just you all, Lingtian, are not qualified enough."

"Not qualified enough?" Ling Lan was unconcerned that she was being looked down on, but she would not allow her companions and teammates to be looked down on. She could not help but sneer at Qiao Ting's words, and she then slowly pulled out a weapon from behind her back. Just like that, a sword-type cold weapon that was even bigger and even heavier than Qi Long's had been emerged before the crowd.

Ling Lan held the sword with one hand, and with an easy swing, a strong gust of wind was produced out of nowhere. This scene astounded all the spectating cadets and caused Qiao Ting's gaze to narrow as well, his expression turning even grimmer.

Ling Lan's expression was nonchalant as she held this giant cold weapon. She said measuredly, "Who exactly is not qualified enough? Let's battle it out."

"My pleasure," responded Qiao Ting coldly, beam saber in hand. For his dreams, for his ambitions, he could not lose here.

After saying that, Qiao Ting faced Ling Lan from a distance. Neither side made a move, merely hovering in the air like two statues.

The spectating students all knew that both combatants were looking for openings in the other's defence. As soon as one found a chance, a grand fight would begin ...

Five seconds, ten seconds, thirty seconds, one minute, three minutes, five minutes ... time passed bit by bit, and the two still did not make a move. Just as everyone was about to lose their patience, the two combatants finally moved.

Almost at the same time, the two mecha rushed at each other. Perhaps because they had had plenty of time to prepare, their speeds were like light, suddenly crossing paths then suddenly breaking apart again. The spectating students did not even actually see the two of them move. All they saw was a beam of cold light and a beam of white light shining against one another and then disappearing abruptly ... by the time they could see the two mecha clearly again, the two combatants had already crossed each other and swapped positions.

The only change was that they were now back to back instead of facing each other. The two mecha still maintained their attack stances, each holding their respective weapons ...

"Is it a draw?" The spectators could not tell. They all began discussing with the people around them, trying to figure out the result of that last exchange. Unfortunately, the people around them were similarly in the dark. Equally confused, they never managed to find a proper answer.

"Ah, they're moving!" Someone yelled out, drawing everyone's attention back to the battlefield.

Ling Lan could be seen slowly sliding the giant sword in her hand back into the sheath slot on her mecha's back. With an audible 'click', the giant sword slid back into place.

Following this sound, Qiao Ting's mecha which had been suspended in the air, still and silent, suddenly broke apart ... only then did the audience see that Qiao Ting's mecha had actually been forcibly split in half, and the split even encompassed Qiao Ting's cockpit.

It turned out that, when the two mecha had attacked as they passed each other, Ling Lan had instantly split apart Qiao Ting's mecha and its cockpit, defeating Qiao Ting in one blow without giving him any chance to fight back.

"Thunder King Qiao Ting, not much after all!" Ling Lan commented coldly. She turned her head around to watch dispassionately as Qiao Ting's mecha broke apart to fall to the ground.

This image was etched into everyone's minds — a black mecha with its back to the crowd, hovering in the air. Its head was turned around slightly, and the faint blue light shining from the mecha's eyes seemed to look down at everyone, announcing that the new king had arrived.

"Beep!" All the spectating students received this notification alert from the mainframe. It officially declared the end of the match, for Leiting's headcount of remaining members had changed from 1 to 0.

The entire venue exploded with noise. This reality sent the entire academy into a frenzy — the number one of the military academy, the one and only ace operator Qiao Ting, had really been defeated. And the one who had defeated him was actually a junior cadet who had just entered their second year.

The mainframe quickly announced that the Lingtian Mecha Clan had obtained the victory of this challenge match. When the members of the Lingtian Mecha Clan saw this result, they all leapt up in exhilaration. Some of them were even moved to tears. Before the big fight, none of them had dared to imagine that they would really be able to obtain victory. The only reason they had not chosen to withdraw from the clan was that they did not want to submit to an older faction, just as it had been back during their days at the Central Scout Academy, when they had rather instigate a grand armed melee than submit to the 10th graders.

"Your juniors performed very well ..." In another viewing room, someone said to another, "Unfortunately, they established a new mecha clan. If they had joined the Dwotong faction, the position of number one faction would have been at our fingertips." These people were part of Zhang Jing-an's group, part of the number four faction in the military academy, the Dwotong Mecha Clan.

Zhang Jing-an huffed coldly at the other's words and said, "Stop dreaming. That person, Ling Lan, cannot be taken down by anyone." In the past, Zhang Jing-an had tried, only to be crushed so badly by the other that he had no face to continue staying at the Doha Central Scout Academy. He had only been able to slink away to the First Men's Military Academy to lick his wounds. Now, the number one of the military academy, Qiao Ting, had also wanted to bring Ling Lan to heel, and he had likewise been beaten so badly by the other that he had lost all direction ...

"An instant kill! Qiao Ting has disgraced himself big time this time." Recalling the past, Zhang Jing-an indeed felt very humiliated. However, in comparison to the current Qiao Ting, he felt his experience was really nothing after all, and so his mood improved considerably.

"Yes, Qiao Ting can be said to have thoroughly flipped his boat in the gutter this time. He's lost all the honour and prestige he had worked so hard to build up these past four years." The person beside him agreed wholeheartedly. His eyes did not hide any of his own ambition. "Perhaps, this will be our chance ..."

"Don't act rashly. Tianji and Wuji still haven't acted. Our Dwotong should not stick our necks out first," said Zhang Jing-an in warning. He did not want to pit himself against Ling Lan once again; that fellow is really too unfathomable ...

Unfortunately, the other person did not seem to take Zhang Jing-an's words seriously. Seeing this, Zhang Jing-an's mouth twitched, but he held himself back in the end and did not say anything more to dissuade the other.

Zhang Jing-an did not continue to dissuade the other because he was about to apply for enlistment with the army divisions, so he had already officially stepped down as the regiment commander of the Dwotong Mecha Clan. The newly appointed regiment commander was not from the Doha Central Scout Academy, and so he did not know Ling Lan's true capabilities. No matter how formidable he painted Ling Lan to be, the other would not believe him. As such, he might as well let the other experience Ling Lan's fearsomeness for himself — that would be much more persuasive.

Everyone was excited over Lingtian's upset win over Leiting, and they were especially filled with envy-jealousy-hate when it came to Lingtian's regiment commander, Ling Lan ... because Ling Lan was the one who had dislodged the undefeated legend from his high horse, and on top of that, he had accomplished a one-hit kill on Qiao Ting. This was an unrealizable dream for all of the cadets, but Ling Lan had realized it.

"Is Lingtian's regiment commander really very strong?" This was the question in all the cadets' hearts. If he was not strong, then how had he managed to kill the half-crippled Thunder King in one second? Even half-crippled, the Thunder King was still the Thunder King ...

Right then, the VIP viewing room was already completely silent. Lingtian's successful reversal made the expressions of the administrators turn very sour. If they had known this would be the outcome, they would not have requested for the principal to make this an open match. This way, they might still have used their authority to declare this match null and void, but everything was irrefutable now.

After all, Qiao Ting's defeat had been before the eyes of all the cadets; the outcome could no longer be changed. Their initial plans were now completely dashed. Besides that, Qiao Ting, whom they had carefully cultivated over the past four years, had utterly lost his value due to this defeat. What was even more worrying was that this loss had caused Leiting to lose their title as number one faction of the military academy. Three months later, the Federation would be holding the All Federation Military Academy Grand Mecha Tournament. If they really sent the Lingtian Mecha Clan which had gained the position of number one faction by defeating Leiting here today to represent the academy, would this cause the First Men's Military Academy to become the bottom last school, thus becoming the laughingstock of the entire Federation?

The administrators were distraught at the very thought — they very quickly gathered together once more to begin discussing how they would resolve this issue. In the end, they decided they would let Tianji and Wuji, part of the top three factions, to take turns to challenge the Lingtian Mecha Clan within these three months, and strive to pull the Lingtian Mecha Clan down from that top spot.

This fight had pretty much exposed the full strength of the Lingtian Mecha Clan. If Qiao Ting had not been overconfident and had sent a few more special-class operators onto the field, the outcome might have been different ... at this thought, the administrators were extremely upset, becoming displeased with Qiao Ting's arrogance and overconfidence.

The only two who were not part of the plotting were Tang Yu and the principal — they were currently deeply stunned. In those final moments of the match, they had discovered a secret. In that final clash between Ling Lan and Qiao Ting, everyone had been fooled by the outer appearance of Ling Lan's mecha. They believed that Qiao Ting had only been killed instantly by Ling Lan's special-class mecha because Qiao Ting's mecha had been too severely damaged.

However, all of this could not deceive the keen eyes of these two people. The two of them shared a glance, a look in their eyes that only the two of them understood. Everything that Ling Lan displayed in that moment where she had killed Qiao Ting proved that the mecha she was operating could not be a special-class mecha. Whether it was in terms of explosive power or in terms of attack force, special-class mecha could never achieve those stats.

Although special-class mecha and ace mecha seemed to just be one level apart, in truth, the difference between all aspects of performance of the two level of mecha was like heaven and earth. Truth be told, even the most beat up ace mecha could not have been destroyed instantly by a special-class mecha. If ace mecha could be so easily defeated and destroyed, it would not have become the king of the battlefield.

To be able to achieve a one-hit kill against an ace mecha, only another ace mecha could do so. As such, without a doubt, Lingtian No.1, that is, the mecha Ling Lan was operating, was definitely no special-class mecha but a true ace mecha.

The principal and Tang Yu had discovered Ling Lan's secret, but they both decided in unplanned unison to keep silent. They were well aware of the parable of how the tallest tree in the forest would be destroyed — in order to protect this aberrant talent, they must bury the truth of the matter deep in their hearts.

"Tang Yu, that kid Ling Lan, I'll leave him to you," said the principal solemnly to Tang Yu. In the military academy, the only one he could trust completely was Tang Yu.

Tang Yu nodded gravely back and said, "Understood, principal. I will protect him well." Advancing to ace operator level in his second year ... Tang Yu knew that as soon as this news got out, it was not impossible for another enemy nation air invasion to be drawn to the school. The Federation's nemeses would never allow another Ling Xiao to appear in the Federation.Zhang Jing-an is the CSA senior whom Ling Lan defeated in the grand armed melee. His faction in the military academy was previously introduced as the Doha faction, after the planet sector he and his members are from. So, either the author has changed the name now, or it's still the Doha faction, but the Dwotong Mecha Clan.