Chapter 2103 — The Third Match
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"The third contest—and the first of today—is a trial of martial arts!" Once Han Tianba had registered, placed his wager, and taken his seat, Old Master Zhao began to explain the day's rules of competition. "A martial arts contest means that each competitor unleashes a single martial arts technique, and the target of that technique is a single hard boulder. Whoever shatters the boulder into the greatest number of fragments wins! Naturally, only fragments larger than a fist are counted; dust and debris are not. Does anyone object?"
After all, even breaking a great stone into two pieces might produce any number of tiny fragments. If every last speck were to be counted one by one, the tally would be impossible—so naturally, fist-sized stones were the standard for counting.
"What sort of rule is that? What if someone smashes the boulder to powder with a single punch, so that most of the fragments are smaller than a fist—by your reckoning, would that count as a loss?" Han Xiaohu had listened carefully to the rules and immediately spotted the flaw in them.
In truth, it was not that the others could not find such flaws, but that they had never bothered to think them through. After all, the predetermined champion of this round was the Hidden Pi Family—whatever happened, they would win—so no one had examined the rules so closely.
But now that Han Xiaohu had raised it, Old Master Zhao was momentarily at a loss for words. Indeed—if that were so, would the rule not be flawed?
"That is easily handled. What Elder Zhao described is the first rule. Should the situation Han Xiaohu describes indeed arise, then each competitor shall produce the largest fragment from his own pile of rubble, and whoever's largest fragment is the smallest shall be the winner!" Old Master Pi assumed that Han Xiaohu, having heard the rules, thought his own chances slim and was being a poor loser, deliberately picking a quarrel—so he calmly added another rule.
"But that still does not prove that the one with the smallest largest fragment shattered the stone into the most pieces!" Han Xiaohu said.
"Then what do you propose?" Old Master Pi frowned with some impatience. It seemed the contest rules would have to be made stricter in future—at the very least, Han Xiaohu must not be allowed to spot the flaws so easily. As for his realizing it afterward, that would no longer count.
"Never mind, Xiaopo. Let it be this rule." Wei Zhao shook his head, stopping Han Xiaohu from pressing further. As far as Wei Zhao was concerned, the rule posed no problem at all.
"If the competitors have no objections, then non-competitors should not make trouble!" Seeing Wei Zhao speak up, Old Master Pi breathed a sigh of relief. He assumed Wei Zhao had no confidence of winning no matter what, and so did not wish Han Xiaohu to keep haggling—he wanted the contest over with as quickly as possible.
"Good. Since no one has any objections, then let us proceed to the trial grounds behind the council hall. Everyone to your positions—make ready for the contest to begin!" Old Master Zhao brought down his hammer of finality.
It was still the same ground where the projectile-evasion contest had been held the night before, except that today a number of great boulders, identical in size and shape, had been brought in beforehand, with a wide gap between each pair—this, too, to prevent competitors from affecting one another when they unleashed their techniques.