A Clean Sweep

On the drilling ground outside the Head of Base Defense office building.

The Base Defense consisted of soldiers from the military and the police forces controlled by the government. Although the government and three armies ran this department together, the government was in charge. The drilling ground a place for the soldiers and police to practice and improve. It was about one thousand square meters with all kinds of workout equipment in it. There was one empty space for solo fights. The open-air "gym" seemed crude, but it was enough in the doomsday.

Even in normal days, the drilling ground never lacked exercisers. Today, it was packed with people. There were delegates of the three armies and the government, the superfunction possessors that attended the conference, as well as the soldiers and policemen that were already here before others came. They formed a large circle around the empty space. Mo Wenyang and Major General Wang respectively took a side. The atmosphere was kind of intense. Everybody silently held their breaths, waiting for the duel to begin.

"Wang, it's not too late to quit."

Mo Wenyang faced the sun on the left side. Still, his flippancy remained with him. Major General Wang darted a cold look at him from the opposite. He unfastened the buttons on his uniform one by one. "I'm fine if you quit."

"Oh, it seems we can't make a deal."

Feigning to feel sorry, Mo Wenyang removed the loose outfit from him and threw it to the back.

Booooom!

Without warning, basketball-sized clods were flying right at Mo. If he got hit by them, it'd be more serious than some lumps on the head. Concentrated, Mo Wenyang drew an oval in front of himself with his right hand to conjure a water shield. And with a push of his left hand, the water shield was abruptly enlarged to block the incoming clods. When the hard clods met the pliable water shield, they mixed together and the clods dropped to the ground as mud.

"Shit! Can't believe water superfunction is capable of that! Commander Mo got some moves. I always thought all he could do was give orders."

"What do you know? Our boss is just not competitive. We're not like you, you Wei Army wants to be the best in everything."

"As if! So explain to me what's Commander Mo doing now?"

"Is water a combat attribute? How did he conjure the water shield? If water shield is feasible, then water arrow is also possible, isn't it?"

"We don't know yet. Let's keep watching."

Only one move that Mo Wenyang made brought about the discussion among the crowd that saw someone fight with water superfunction for the first time. The reason water wasn't suitable for combat was because it wouldn't coagulate. Even if it could, the superfunction would turn into a splash of water when it hit an object. The water shield that Mo Wenyang cast was clearly something unique. It just neutralized the clods from Major General Wang, though, the way it worked seemed like a fluke. It wouldn't be possible for water to neutralize the knives of gold superfunction. Still, it was already shocking enough.

Without question, Major General Wang, too, was shocked as Mo's opponent. He squinted and brought forth all of his aggression. As he turned his wrists, the earth started to shake. Mo Wenyang felt like something was coming out of the cracking ground.

Boom!

"So close! I was nearly sent to the sky."

Mo Wenyang's tiptoe tapped on the ground and made several backflips when a clay wall rose from where he was. Everybody was amused when they saw Mo Wenyang dramatically pat on his chest. Spurts of water then shot out from the ground. Mo Wenyang clenched his fists, the columns of water merged into a thick waterspout. While everybody thought he was going to crush the clay wall with the waterspout, he didn't. In a mysterious way, he turned the thick spout into a whip of water.

Ka-boom!

The transparent, illusive whip of water aimed at the wall at a speed that no naked eye could see. Almost instantly, the wall cracked and collapsed.

"You attacked me twice. Now it's my turn."

Bang!

Right after Mo Wenyang said it, he dashed forward and lashed the whip of water at Major General Wang. When the whip was centimeters away from him, Wang Guoan raised his hand to summon another wall from the earth, as well as the boulders from the sky. It was obvious that Wang wasn't playing around.

Thump!

Boom!

However, the whip of water in Mo Wenyang's hand swept over in various shapes as if it was alive, the wall and the boulders were smashed into bits, followed by a regular spurt to flush away the crumbs.

Everybody was aghast. No one believed that the series of attacks were performed by water superfunction. "Is that water superfunction for real? Is that not some other superfunction that pretends to be water? How could water superfunction be so powerful? It's nearly as powerful as gold, the greatest superfunction in five-element superfunction." Doubts and questions kept popping out of everybody's head.

"It's about time to get serious."

When everybody was in shock, Yun Che came back to Xing Feng and watched the duel impassively. Mo Wenyang had done testing the waters. Now that he'd gotten the hang of water superfunction, he could crush earth superfunction with one hit.

"Wenyang has found treasure."

Said Xing Feng sincerely when he turned to Yun Che. From his experience, he could tell that the water shield was an experiment, the whip of water was conjured due to his own ingenuity. After several rounds of attacks, a smart man like Mo Wenyang must have learned the ropes.

"He sure has! But it's a great loss for me because I have to teach the guy who shit-talk me to use water superfunction."

Yun Che complained as if he did have been hurt emotionally. Xing Feng straight-up held his hand and soothed him, "I'll make it up to you."

"Oh, how? You yourself as the compensation again? Ugh, it's not even interesting anymore."

"How about I cook for you?"

"You cook?"

Yun Che was intrigued. He always thought these dudes didn't know anything about household chores, but his man hid his culinary skill quite well.

"Anyone can cook, it's just a matter of the taste."

Xing Feng flicked Yun Che's forehead gently. Do keep in mind that they were soldiers in a special force, and they were required to learn everything. Even a new recruit needed to learn how to build a fire and cook in the wild or else they'd starve to death, wouldn't they? Plus, Xing Feng had been living on his own for all these years and he was a picky eater, so don't be surprised that he could cook. It was just no one else had tasted the dishes he cooked other than himself.

"Now I'm less interested in your cooking then. I, too, know how to throw raw stuff into a pot and heat them up."

Yun Che intentionally wore a teasing look on the face. Xing Feng just shook his head. "What else do you want?"

"Nah, I go with your cooking. I mean it's your cooking, I'll have to eat it even if it's noxious."

"Well, I can assure you that you won't die."

"Hope so. Are you trying to be a housewife now?"

Yun Che nodded and kept mocking him regardless of the intense duel over there.

"If that's what you like, I'll have to be one."

After taking a glance at the duel, Xing Feng said the cutest thing he could to make Yun Che happy. Neither of them was worried about the fight. Yun Che believed in the power of water superfunction and Xing Feng had faith in Mo Wenyang.

Boom! Bang!

"I'm sick of it. Off you go, Wang!"

After smashing the defensive clay walls several times, Mo Wenyang was very proficient at the attack patterns of water superfunction. He decided he was done for the game. He flung his arm, the pliable water whip turned into a straight line, which aimed at Major General Wang like a water jet cutter.

Thud!

Major General Wang could barely keep up Mo Wenyang's pace. He fell to the ground when he tried to avoid further injury after his left thigh got cut open by the jet of water. The tip of the water jet was less than one centimeter away from his neck when he raised his head again. If he made the smallest move, his throat could get pierced through. His wide-open eyes were full of terror and shock. He never even imagined that one day, he would lose to Mo Wenyang who defeated him with water superfunction only.

"I lose!"

Major General Wang squeezed the two words out of his teeth. His fingernails were hurting his own flesh of his clenched fists but the flesh wounds hurt much less than the pain on his heart. He lost not only the leadership with which he could win over most of the superfunction possessors, but also the honor of Wang Army.

"You could have said it earlier."

After withdrawing the superfunction, Mo Wenyang returned to his old flippant character while deep down, he was more shocked than anyone else. Before the duel, when Yun Che told him to compress water superfunction with psychological power as much as he could to simulate a high-pressure water jet cutter, Mo Wenyang wasn't sure of it at all. It wasn't easy to compress any kind of superfunction with psychological power. First of all, you would need to learn the right method; secondly, your psychological power would need to be stronger than that of average people. On top of that, one wasn't supposed to master it at the first attempt. Mo Wenyang didn't have any chance to practice, all he could do was set his teeth. He wanted to conjure the water whip to counter Wang Guoan's first attack, but the psychological power that he exerted was only enough for a water shield. Fortunately, he succeeded at the second attempt. After a few rounds of back-and-forthing, he finally learned it the hard way. Be that as it may, he still couldn't believe everything that just happened.

"Now that Major General Wang has admitted defeat, Major General Mo will lead the troops as we agreed. Am I right, Mr. Jiang?"

While everybody was still amazed by the fact that water defeated, well, crushed earth, Yun Che's voice broke the silence and brought most people back to earth. Much as they were in shock, what they wanted to know the most was how on earth Mo Wenyang defeated Major General Wang with water superfunction.

"Uh, well… I…"

When being called, Jiang Wanshan got jitters. He looked at Mo Wenyang, then at Wang Guoan, but couldn't say the word. The government wouldn't like any force to grow strong, but at the moment, both Wang and Wei Army wore an unpleasant look on their faces. The government had always followed the strong and never was the real decision-maker. Jiang Wanshan was right in a pickle.

"What? You regret? I can't believe a government official goes back on his word!"

Yun Che raised his eyebrows and put on a scornful face. The look on the faces of delegates of Wei, Wang Army and the government got glummer. Major General Wang got up with his people's help and spit out the words. "I lose and I'm a man of my word. I agree that Major General Mo leads the troops."

At least he got the basic decency.

"We never said yes but it's 2 votes against 1, we have no other choice."

Although Lin Xian was calm now, Wei Army had lost its place already. The best he could do was concede the leadership to Mo Army. Jiang Wanshan finally made the official announcement. Now that the problem was solved, Yun Che felt like there was no point in sticking around. Before he left, he spoke out loud to Jiang Wanshan, "Mr. Jiang, please send us a copy of the information on the superfunction soldiers and your schedule, as well as your tactics. Don't make another mistake in printing this time."

Before he left, he rubbed more salt into Jiang Wanshan's wound. The Head of Base Defense cried inside, but no one really gave a damn about his feeling. The three armies and the government left in succession, the superfunction possessors, too. Soon, the drilling ground returned to normal. The soldiers and policemen started to gossip. What they cared about wasn't the result of the duel but the power of water superfunction that Mo Wenyang demonstrated.