Martial Arts Livestreaming
Chapter 382 - 350 Between Jokes

Chapter 382: Chapter 350 Between Jokes

"You’re doing this, aren’t you afraid that those people will expose you on the internet, saying you’re manipulating the competition?"

After the first day’s live broadcast ended, Li San suddenly asked Wu Li during their casual chat.

When Li San learned about Wu Li’s grouping arrangements, he couldn’t help but marvel at Wu Li’s audacity and ruthlessness. Was he really not afraid that people would find out he was controlling the competition? Was this Wu Li’s so-called strategy? It was just too darn rough...

"What’s there to fear, I have my own ingenious plans," Wu Li said to Li San with a laugh.

...

"Expose him! He must be exposed!"

That same evening, the organizers of the three major competitions gathered together again, clamoring to expose this matter.

"He’s too arrogant, with absolutely no concealment, just by revealing this group list, everyone will know Wu Li is manipulating the competition!"

"Exactly, there’s no fairness at all, why even hold a damned competition!"

"I’ll go contact a few media journalists!"

"I’ll go buy trending searches!"

"I’ll go find paid trolls!"

In just a few words, they all agreed on a plan. In fact, they had been prepared for quite some time, ready to create online rumors about the Yanhuang Competition having a scandal, saying Wu Li was favoring people from his own Martial Arts Hall. Because such things are human nature—where there’s smoke, there’s fire!

But what they didn’t expect was that Wu Li was truly rigging the competition; they didn’t even need to make anything up...

However, the next day, these people realized something was wrong.

The media journalists they contacted, as soon as they heard it was about exposing the scandal of the Yanhuang Competition, all refused.

They had approached every well-known domestic media outlet, and all of them refused!

The purchase of trending searches was also denied; they didn’t even get a quote.

Meanwhile, the paid trolls they found online to post on Weibo, Zhihu, and various other well-known forums and discussion boards, their posts were deleted almost as soon as they were posted, and they were quickly banned from speaking.

It seemed as if a powerful force was blocking all negative news related to the Yanhuang Competition, shocking the organizers of the three major competitions and even filling them with a hint of fear.

When did Wu Li have such influence?

...

On the second day of the Yanhuang Competition, all was calm.

There were some whispers online about the scandal involving the Yanhuang Competition, but they didn’t spread, nor did they attract much attention.

Curious, Li San asked Wu Li, "How did you manage this?"

Wu Li: "Because I have a supreme ’God’ power online."

Li San: "What?"

Wu Li: "The power of the ’river crab.’"

Li San: "...Speak human."

Wu Li: "I have connections at the top!"

Li San: "That’s it?"

Wu Li: "What else?"

Li San: "Impressive..."

Wu Li: "How about it, does it have the bearing of a Confucian general?"

Li San: "You’re anything but a Confucian general."

...

"These years, the higher-ups have always wanted to export our culture, but had little success. Wu Li’s emergence has given them a glimpse of possible success."

"Wu Li has made a name for Chinese Martial Arts abroad, capturing foreign attention, respect, and even adoration for Chinese Martial Arts once again. So many of the top leaders have mentioned his name."

"Moreover, his deeds have always been filled with positive energy, promoting Traditional culture, busting fakes, rescuing Drug Enforcement Police, fighting drug traffickers, winning championships for the glory of the nation... So now, as long as what he wants to do aligns with the main theme, those at the top are very willing to provide him protection and support."

"He’s mainly holding the Yanhuang Competition this time to promote Traditional Martial Arts. Plus, it’s better for our own people to dominate the domestic combat sports market than foreigners. Instead of spending a lot of money every year on the UFC broadcasting rights, why not let our citizens watch our local competitions? In the future, we might even get foreigners to pay to watch our matches."

"Hua Country doesn’t have a world-class sporting event with significant influence. Basketball has NBA, football has Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, combat sports have UFC, and there are the four major boxing competitions... All these events get global attention, but Hua Country doesn’t have such contests, so the higher-ups might hope Wu Li’s Yanhuang Competition could become another UFC, becoming a world-class sporting event in the future!"

The next evening, the organizers of the three major events gathered again to discuss. This time, combining information overheard from others with their own inferences, they nearly understood why their plans had failed.

"Hmph, the audience isn’t stupid. If in the end Wu Li relies on deceit to let Bo Yuan Martial Arts Hall’s students perform well, it’ll be seen through sooner or later! Professional fighters in the circle will also grow to despise the Yanhuang Competition, and no one will want to compete in it in the future. Let the people from Bo Yuan Martial Arts Hall play by themselves!"

In the end, the organizers who didn’t dare to openly cause trouble could only curse bitterly.

However, the development of events quickly took an unexpected turn again...

On July 22nd, the third day of the Yanhuang Competition, the group stage was completely over, and it was about to enter the knockout stage.

On this day, an explosive piece of news blew up online: Bo Yuan Martial Arts Hall’s competitors were being targeted!

It started with someone posting a series of photos on Weibo, which were of Bo Yuan Martial Arts Hall’s injured students. Each photo was gruesome, seemingly very alarming at first glance.

There was also a text description accompanying the photos: Many people intentionally targeted those from Bo Yuan Martial Arts Hall during the group matches of the Yanhuang Competition. Whenever they encountered them on the field, they would go as far as both suffering injuries, preferring to miss their next matches if they could seriously injure someone from Bo Yuan Martial Arts Hall!

There was also a video, a compilation of matches featuring students from Bo Yuan Martial Arts Hall against other competitors, which showed opponents not defending at all, fighting fiercely, aiming to trade injury for injury.

If it was one or two, it could be explained as other competitors’ styles, but when the fighting styles of more than twenty people in the video were this way, that was enough proof to substantiate the text description as true!

This news quickly reached the number one spot on the trending searches, sparking a massive discussion.

"Holy shit, were they paid? This is brutal!"

"These people are obviously doing it on purpose!"

"It’s normal, Bo Yuan Martial Arts Hall teaches Traditional Martial Arts, which naturally conflicts with modern fighting styles. They must have offended quite a few people."

"This involves deep issues, those who understand, understand..."

...

That afternoon, the situation escalated further when someone exposed a chat record online. It contained a conversation where one person mentioned being paid to injure a Bo Yuan Martial Arts Hall student during a match – a thousand for a minor injury, ten thousand for an injury leading to withdrawal!

Thus, the matter completely exploded. It was quickly made public that those paying off competitors were individuals from Jianghu Wind Co., Ltd. Furthermore, Glory Warrior and Emei Decision were also exposed for doing the same.

The main promoters of the three major events were at a loss for words. They knew the chat record online was fake, definitely fabricated by Wu Li, but the issue was genuine. Apart from sending their own competitors, they did indeed bribe many other fighters to intentionally injure students from Bo Yuan Martial Arts Hall.

...

That same evening, Wu Li posted the matched-up table for the sixty-four strong in the knockout stage of the Yanhuang Competition on Weibo, and with it a message: Since so many people don’t wish to see Traditional Martial Arts rise, let’s settle this with our skills!

This Weibo post was quickly shared over two hundred million times and rapidly claimed the top spot in the trending searches!

Netizens noticed something fishy about the matchup table: In the various weight classes, many of Bo Yuan Martial Arts Hall’s students were pitted against quite famous national professional fighters, many from the three major combat events.

"Direct confrontation between Traditional Martial Arts and modern fighting!"

"The three major combat events join forces to challenge the Yanhuang Competition!"

"Will Traditional Martial Arts truly rise or will it be a fleeting glory?"

...

All kinds of discussions surfaced online, with netizens eagerly looking forward to the upcoming knockout rounds.

"This move, I’ve learned it from the UFC."

That night, Wu Li said to Li San.

"Before the match, there’s all sorts of trash talk and hype; in short, you need to raise the audience’s expectations. Let everyone know that the competitors are arch-enemies, eager to fight to the death. That’s what makes a match interesting to watch."

Li San asked, "Apart from this, do you have any other objectives?"

Wu Li nodded, "Yes, too many people don’t want Bo Yuan Martial Arts Hall’s students to perform well. So, I’ll help my students out during the group stages, trying my best to avoid them being maliciously injured. But for the knockouts, I want them to win through their own strength!"

"This is my event. If in the future, my students earn good results, it’s inevitable that people will suspect inside deals or say I manipulated the matches. But by highlighting the conflict, letting everyone know that it’s impossible for Bo Yuan Martial Arts Hall’s opponents to go easy, my students’ good results will be well-deserved!"

"By heating things up and adding authenticity to the match, while also taking a dig at the three major combat competitions – not bad for a strategy, right?" Wu Li asked with a smile.

Li San nodded, "Mmm, that has a bit of the grandeur of a warrior-scholar."