Chapter 276: Chapter 157: Identity Exposed? Regional Arena Tournament

The moment this person spoke, it was as if some strange switch had been flipped. Many people felt the figure looked somewhat familiar.

Deng Ankang and Qian Zhong grew excited as well. “You all think he looks familiar? I do too!”

Reading the messages in the group chat, Li Chang’an felt a cold sweat run down his back.

To avoid being recognized, he had not only pixelated himself but also chosen an incredibly cringey nickname. If he was exposed by the group right here and now, Li Chang’an felt he might just die of social embarrassment for a while.

Su Ruobing, who had been lurking the whole time, suddenly said, “This person kind of looks like Chang’an?”

Su Ruobing had known Li Chang’an longer than anyone else in the group and understood him best. Thus, she recognized him after just a few glances.

After this hint, Deng Ankang, Qian Zhong, and the others all came to a realization. Someone spoke up, “Now that you mention it, I finally know why he looks so familiar. Could this person really be Brother Chang’an?”

After the message was sent,

The group chat fell silent for some reason.

At this point, Li Chang’an was doing more than just sweating; he was racking his brain, wondering whether he should come clean or deny everything to the bitter end.

But after a long silence, everyone started laughing out loud, as if the matter had never been brought up.

Only Zhao Suran, the City Lord of Bajia City, casually replied, “He does look a bit like our junior, Chang’an, from behind. But this is a fight between Tier Six Martial Artists, and Chang’an has been a Reincarnator for less than a year. It’s definitely not him, hahaha…”

Clearly, while everyone knew Li Chang’an was impressive, they couldn’t bring themselves to believe he was the same mysterious figure who had defeated the Martial Arts Emperor.

Even Su Ruobing, who had been the first to bring it up, didn’t take the matter to heart.

She had only mentioned it offhandedly because of the resemblance; she hadn’t taken it seriously either.

Seeing this, Li Chang’an stopped sweating and let out a heavy sigh of relief.

’Thank goodness. I managed to fool them.’

After a few more exchanges in the group chat, Su Ruobing said, “By the way, the triennial Regional Tournament is about to begin. Last time, the representatives for Linjiang were Fire Lion Deng Ankang, Blood Shadow Qian Zhong, and Red Tassel Spear Zhao Xiaowan. Does anyone have any thoughts on this year’s participants?”

Hearing the two words “Regional Tournament,” all the members in the group immediately stopped joking around.

Many even stopped daring to post at all.

Su Ruobing ignored their silence and continued in the group chat, “This matter is of great importance. In the next few days, Vice Chairman Cao Shuran and I will come up with a generous reward package as quickly as possible. To all of you who are confident in your strength, please be sure to sign up enthusiastically!”

At this point, she tagged the three participants from last year and asked, “@Deng Ankang, @Qian Zhong, @Zhao Xiaowan, what do you three veterans say about this year?”

Seeing her ask them by name, Deng Ankang was the first to respond. “Chairman Su, of course we have no reason to refuse something like this… But as you should have seen last year, with Qian’s and my strength, the most we can do is ensure you avoid any penalties. It’ll be difficult to truly make a name for ourselves!”

Hua Country has a total of thirty-six provinces, over five hundred prefectures, and more than eighteen thousand cities.

In previous years, among the more than five hundred prefecture-level cities, the Linjiang Reincarnators ranked somewhere around 280th in the Regional Tournament.

This result wasn’t good.

But it wasn’t bad enough for Su Ruobing to face penalties.

Although the main combatant was Zhao Xiaowan,

Deng Ankang and Qian Zhong still put in a lot of effort, contributing through sheer hard work even if they didn’t achieve great merits.

Otherwise, with the resources of a remote city like Linjiang,

Their tournament ranking would probably have been past 300th.

Hearing Su Ruobing’s question, Qian Zhong quickly added, “That’s right. Among the three of us, only Xiaowan is strong enough. She’s a rebirth maniac, so her strength must have improved greatly over the past three years. You should ask her. They say she could bind a great dragon with that Red Tassel Spear of hers. When it comes to the best fighter among us Linjiang Reincarnators, she’s absolutely at the top…”

At this, Qian Zhong paused.

Then, choosing his words carefully, he replied, “As for Deng and I, we’re both getting old. When it comes to life-and-death battles, we really can’t compare to those monstrous newcomers. Especially since there’s a good chance of running into the ’Divine Emperor’ this year, we’re even more hesitant to step up… If Chairman Su has better candidates, we two old bones hope to step aside for someone more capable!”

Qian Zhong’s words were tactful, but his meaning was very clear.

The two of them were already quite old for Reincarnators, and over the years, they had lost their competitive drive.

If they had a choice, they didn’t want to compete with the younger generation for a spot.

Zhao Xiaowan remained silent and didn’t reply the entire time.

The others didn’t find her silence strange.

—This was because Zhao Xiaowan herself was a maniac who was obsessed with rebirth.

All year round, she was either practicing her Martial Arts in seclusion or inside a Rebirth World. If no one actively sought her out, you would likely never see her appear in the group chat.

Su Ruobing understood what the two of them meant.

She pondered for a long time without speaking, clearly considering candidates.

The triennial Regional Tournament was a major event that the entirety of Linjiang, and indeed the entire Reincarnator community, had to treat with the utmost seriousness.

First, the results of the Regional Tournament would affect the annual performance evaluation metrics for each regional Reincarnator Association.

In high-ranking cities, all Reincarnators would receive an extra subsidy issued by the Rebirth Association headquarters.

In other words, if they could rank high in the regional competition, then for the next three years, the Reincarnators of that region could receive more Rebirth Points from their Reincarnator Association.

Moreover, the success or failure of this event didn’t just have a direct impact on ordinary Reincarnators.

It also had huge repercussions for the officials of the regional Reincarnator Associations.

If the Reincarnators performed poorly in the competition, at most they would receive a smaller subsidy for the next three years.

But if the towns under a governing official’s jurisdiction performed poorly in several consecutive evaluations,

Then the Chairman of the Reincarnator Association might have to take the fall. In a light case, their salary would be docked for three years; in a severe case, they could be directly dismissed from their post as the governing official.

Su Ruobing thought for a long time, her mind feeling a bit chaotic.

She immediately stopped discussing the matter in the group chat and turned to look up some information instead.

The group chat didn’t fall silent just because of Su Ruobing’s departure. The other Reincarnators were all discussing which representatives should be sent to the tournament this year.

…

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