Chapter 477: Chapter 73: Press Conference
“Is there no certainty?” asked the voice on the other side of the phone.
“No,” Zhang Huaide replied.
He knew in his heart that the Chief Envoy only wanted to hear “We will win.”
But Comrade Zhang was the type who would never say ten if it was nine, and facing the Zhenhai Team led by Yan Yu, who could say they were certain?
After hanging up the phone, Zhang Huaide remained silent for a long ti before he sighed deeply.
The higher-ups had placed great importance on this match, even going against regulations to leak information about the Mysterious Realm to the team, revealing their intense hopes for the Huofeng Team to win.
...
Unfortunately, the battlefield ultimately depended on strength. Man plans; heaven decides. Whether human effort could overturn an overall disadvantage in strength was anybody’s guess.
All I could do was give my best effort… regardless of victory or defeat, I would have no regrets!
“Captain Zhang,” Hou Qing’s voice ca from outside, “the news conference for Zhenhai has started.”
“It’s Deputy Captain Zhang,” Zhang Huaide corrected him and nodded, “All right, I’ll be right there.”
He removed the plain glasses from the bridge of his nose and ticulously cleaned them with a cloth before carefully putting them back on.
Leaving the room to et up with his teammates, the mbers of the Huofeng Team headed together to the lounge, waiting to be called to the news conference.
Speaking of news interviews, the dia journalists at the conference had a love-hate relationship with the Zhenhai Team.
Among the four major teams, Dragon Cavalry Team was actually the easiest to interview; Deputy Captain Ye Jun was communicative and didn’t just spout official platitudes, making it easy for journalists to obtain news-worthy material. Next was the Qing An Team; Li Minghu was also quite understanding, basically responding straightforwardly to questions without beating around the bush.
Zhang Huaide of the Huofeng Team spoke evenly and tightly, and although one couldn’t say there was anything wrong with his attitude, his answers tended to be rather bland as far as news material was concerned.
As for the Zhenhai Team, which currently had the highest fan count and was the hottest team, they were particularly troubleso for journalists. Deputy Captain Chen Lingyun spoke freely, seemingly taking pleasure in teasing the dia; born to a high-ranking official, if journalists drafted their articles truthfully, they would be scolded by their editors upon returning: You dare to write such explosive stuff? Where is your brain?
But if they didn’t write about the exciting stuff, what were they supposed to do about their KPI?
The Zhenhai Team proceeded onto the stage, and the reporters below readied their long and short caras, setting up their positions.
The host arranged by the Pingxi Army scanned the audience with a stern expression and piercing eyes, as if warning everyone not to stir up trouble, before announcing the start of the press conference.
The first to get the microphone, a beautiful young girl who had just graduated from university, flashed a radiant smile at Yan Yu on stage and then asked:
“I would like to ask Captain Yan to briefly comnt on the strength of each mber of the Huofeng Team, whom you will be mock-competing against in this match. Thank you.”
The other journalists looked on with a cold eye, silently laughing to themselves.
Sending a female intern to ask questions was clearly a ploy to employ a honey trap, to see if Captain Yan would fall for it—if he was easily approachable by a female university student, then one could imagine that in future interviews regarding Zhenhai Team’s matches, the questions would definitely be posed by intern female students hired by various dia outlets, undoubtedly one more beautiful than the next.
“Comnt, huh,” Yan Yu pondered for a mont, then looked toward the Pingxi Army host next to him.
The host seed puzzled, What are you looking at for?
He ca over to the edge of the interview platform and asked in a low voice:
“Is it inconvenient to answer?”
The reporters near the front row perked up their ears, only to hear Yan Yu ask:
“If I were to comnt on your Captain Zhou, could I speak freely?”
Pingxi Army spokesperson really wanted to say “Of course not,” but with so many reporters watching, he could only reluctantly straighten up and say:
“Just answer truthfully.”
“Well, let’s go one by one,” Yan Yu began to talk eloquently in front of the caras, “Captain Zhou Hongyu specializes in large-scale destructive Taoism thods. In this aspect, if soone claims to be the second best in the country, I don’t think anyone dares to claim they are the best—not even Liu Longtao if he were here.”
The reporters below imdiately perked up, and the spokesperson subtly breathed a sigh of relief: good, he didn’t completely trash Zhou Hongyu.
“The only problem is her stubborn personality.” Yan Yu continued, “Ever since she lost to in the Four Institutes Exchange Match, she has been obsessed with defeating . I heard that in her chat friends list, she has even marked as a special focus, with the note ‘defeat him.’ Haha, she’s an interesting woman…”
“Cough, cough!” The Pingxi Army spokesperson hurriedly coughed loudly to remind him, “Captain Yan, please watch the ti. Less talk about things unrelated to the match.”
Reporters, however, beca collectively more animated: Is this so new type of crush?
Of course, one can’t make unfounded claims, but everyone can employ a bit of finesse in their writing. Soon, there will be reckless social dia accounts boldly proclaiming “Huofeng Team’s Zhou Hongyu has a crush on Yan Yu,” drawing massive public traffic to search for their more conventional reports.
When the news reached the break room, Zhou Hongyu’s face was cold as frost, and her eyes blazed with fire, while the other team mbers were so frightened that they all fell silent, especially Tang Xiaolian, who maintained a poker face but was terrified inside.
“Cough.” Zhang Huaide coughed and told everyone, “In the future, keep private matters within the team from getting out.”
It didn’t really matter who leaked it, what mattered was how to resolve Zhou Hongyu’s fixation—if you keep fixating on Yan Yu like this, it will inevitably lead to speculation and wild guesses from the outside.
At the press conference, Yan Yu continued with his comnts:
“Deputy Captain Zhang Huaide has exceptionally good tactical thinking and intelligence, the only problem is his poor swordsmanship skill. Does he even rember he’s a Sword Immortal? I’d suggest he better practice his sword control technique…”
“Cough, cough, cough.” The Pingxi Army spokesperson coughed again.
Give so face, Captain Yan! How can you criticize the ho team like this at an away ga?
“Of course, I’m quite close with Xiao Zhang, so it’s okay to criticize him casually,” Yan Yu caught the hint and imdiately rectified, “You all should be careful in your reporting, Zhang Huaide’s swordsmanship might not seem like much to , but it’s already better than seventy or eighty percent of Sword Immortals in the country. So things I can say, you shouldn’t repeat them to the outside, understand?”
The reporters opened their mouths as if they wanted to curse, yet fell uniformly silent.
Look at this, the Captain Yan of the Zhenhai Team, famously difficult to handle!
“Qin ng, I heard that his Dragon Elephant Nirvana Divine Skill has made minor achievents, claiming to be impervious to blades and spears,” Yan Yu smoothly returned to the topic and comnted, “Unfortunately, the shortcoming of his short hands and legs hasn’t been solved. I think he should also practice sword control technique to address his limited attack range.”
The reporters remained expressionless. Asking a body cultivating cultivator to practice sword control technique? Captain Yan, you sure can say it! The biggest advantage of a body cultivating cultivator lies in their brute strength. Wielding a sword is one thing, but sword control doesn’t rely on human strength, it depends on the depth of True Yuan, so what use is there in him practicing sword control technique?
“Tang Xiaolian, a cultivator who commands insects, it’s a pity that her Hundred Poison Golden Silkworm Gu has not fully matured, preventing her from participating,” Yan Yu said, pausing for a mont, “I wonder who is more powerful between her and our team’s Chen Lingyun, both being envoy cultivators. If there’s a chance, we could arrange a one-on-one duel between them to see who is better.”
Chickens pecking at each other, right? The reporters all looked down silently. Envoy cultivators are famously weak in combat, who would want to watch two envoy cultivators duel?
“ng Qingxi’s Kongtong Seal and the newly joined Sword Immortal Hou Qing, because I am not familiar with them, so I won’t comnt,” Yan Yu said, suddenly turning solemn, “But I think they might very well be Huofeng Team’s secret weapons.”
The reporters felt numb. Writing this down is problematic, not writing it down is also problematic… Report it accurately, and if these two perform terribly in the match, the netizens will co back with retrospective criticism, making a laughingstock of our dia!
But if we don’t report it, what if these two really are secret weapons, aren’t we missing a big scoop?
Damn it, Captain Yan, are you seriously saying this, or just ssing with us?!
“That’s all,” Yan Yu handed the microphone back to the host, then turned and started whispering with Chen Lingyun.
When the host asked “who’s next for the interview,” for a mont, no one responded.
Everyone was a bit dazed.
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