The day the Wanlong Association’s core membership surpassed ten thousand, Liu Yutong was in her office listening to Yun Cheng’s report.
“Miss, the promotion list for the latest batch of core members has been compiled.”
“After these promotions, our total number of core members has officially surpassed ten thousand—10,086 to be exact.”
“Miss, we’ve accomplished the goal we set back then!” A rare trace of excitement appeared on Yun Cheng’s usually stern face.
Back in Wushui County, when Miss had said she wanted to break away from the Yilian Society and establish the Wanlong Association, they had jokingly come up with the name Wanlong Association and said they would one day grow to ten thousand members.
Everyone knew it was only a joke. No one had seriously believed they could actually do it.
Because it was simply too difficult.
Yet just three years later, they had accomplished what had once seemed like an impossible goal.
Liu Yutong took the thick stack of membership lists and began flipping through them page by page.
It had all started in Wushui County, with just a few dozen street toughs who knew nothing but how to run with the wrong crowd. Now, three full years had passed.
Among the old-timers who had followed her from the beginning, some had passed the bar exam, some had earned associate degrees through adult education, some had become technical specialists, and others had moved into management positions.
Everyone was moving forward, desperately striving to become better.
Of course, most of the names on the list were unfamiliar to her. Or rather, she had seen some of them before but could no longer remember their names. There were simply too many people now.
After casually looking through the list, she closed it.
“Now that we have enough people, get ready to launch the tournament.”
News that the Wanlong Association Group would be hosting the Longteng Cup had been announced half a year earlier, at the annual meeting.
At the time, Liu Yutong had declared in front of more than ten thousand people that once the core membership surpassed ten thousand, they would hold an internal martial arts tournament.
The competition would consist of three categories: combat, physical fitness, and legal knowledge. Liu Yutong herself would present awards to the top three teams and individuals, with total prize money of no less than fifty million yuan.
Now, the core membership had truly surpassed ten thousand.
It was time to fulfill that promise.
The following day.
The rules for the Longteng Cup were quickly announced through the group’s internal channels.
The country was divided into six regional divisions—East China, South China, North China, Central China, Southwest China, and Northwest China—along with a headquarters division directly under the Pearl City headquarters, for a total of seven divisions.
Each division would first hold preliminary ranking rounds, also known as ranking matches. The top one hundred contestants from each division would advance to the next round of elimination matches, followed by the final championship tournament.
To support the competition, they had also created a ranking board.
The Wanlong Rankings.
The Digital Business Group had specially developed an internal scoring system for the rankings. It covered the three dimensions of combat, physical fitness, and the bar exam, producing both an overall ranking and rankings for each individual category.
Each category had specific quantitative standards and corresponding weightings. The rankings were updated once a day and were visible to everyone.
Naturally, the rankings were only published on the group’s internal forum. To ensure fairness, they were also divided into men’s and women’s rankings.
As soon as the rankings appeared, people began challenging one another impatiently, all in the hope of making the list and showing off their abilities.
The rankings changed rapidly. Someone ranked first today might be pushed down tomorrow.
The pressure of this real-time competition drove the group’s entire core membership into a frenzy of training.
The preliminary matches for the Pearl City division were held at the newly renovated training center behind Shunchang Building.
The facility had originally been the Wanlong Association’s security department training base. For the Longteng Cup, it had been expanded to twice its original size and outfitted with regulation fighting rings and a complete set of physical fitness testing equipment.
Of course, two people did not participate in the inaugural Longteng Cup.
One was Ma Da.
His reason for sitting out was simple—and shameless. He said he had to be the commentator and did not have time to compete, and that the younger members should be given more opportunities.
The truth was that his build limited his performance.
The other was naturally Ji Yu.
Ji Yu had already surpassed the limits of ordinary humanity. For safety reasons, he had no choice but to be excluded from the competition.
As soon as the Pearl City ranking matches began, Ma Da took the microphone and climbed onto the stage.
“Brothers and sisters! Today is the third day of the Longteng Cup Pearl City Division preliminary matches!”
“Today, your commentator is none other than Brother Ma!”
“Before the matches begin, let me tell you about the current standings in the Pearl City division.”
“As expected, Brother Yun remains number one in the men’s overall rankings! His current total score is 102.7 points, and he ranks first in all three categories!”
“Brother Yun is awesome!”
The spectators erupted in cheers.
“Brother Yun is awesome!”
“Brother Yun is awesome!”
“...”
On the fighting ring, Yun Cheng stood in a black training uniform, expressionless as he watched his latest challenger step forward.
He had entered the Longteng Cup purely because this was the first tournament. As the head of the security department, he needed to demonstrate his abilities in front of all the brothers and sisters so that they would respect his authority.
After all, the Wanlong Association had far too many core members. Many of the newer recruits had never seen him fight, and it was inevitable that some of them might secretly refuse to acknowledge him.
That was why he had chosen to compete and let his strength speak for itself.
Today’s first challenger was a newly promoted core member of the Pearl City security department.
He was in his early twenties with a well-built physique. As soon as he stepped into the ring, he respectfully cupped his fists in salute.
“Brother Yun, please give me some guidance!”
Yun Cheng gave a slight nod. “Come on.”
Less than ten seconds later, the young man was lying on the ground, staring at the ceiling and questioning his life choices. It had happened so quickly that he had not even seen how he had been taken down.
Still, he had only joined recently and could not compare with those who had been training for years—especially not with an opponent like Yun Cheng.
Ma Da leaped to his feet, microphone in hand, visibly excited.
“Ten seconds! Brother Yun has once again broken his own record for the fastest victory! Don’t be discouraged, brother. At least you lasted ten seconds and made it into double digits!”
“Hahahaha...”
The entire venue burst into laughter.
The defeated young man climbed to his feet, scratched his head, and gave an embarrassed smile. Then he bowed to Yun Cheng and quietly left the ring.
At the same time, he secretly vowed to train twice as hard and fight for a better ranking in the rounds ahead.
The ranking matches were based on overall scores. Losing did not mean immediate elimination. He still had opportunities.
The only person tied with Yun Cheng at the top of the rankings was Chu Yang, another head of the security department. He was likewise a monster whose scores in all three categories were close to perfect.
The two had traded victories in several small-scale bouts, and their scores were extremely close. Chu Yang might rank first today, only for Yun Cheng to overtake him tomorrow. The number-one and number-two positions on the rankings changed almost every day.
According to the schedule, the preliminary matches for the six regional divisions and the Pearl City headquarters division would take approximately three months to complete.
Only after those three months would the elimination rounds begin, which would last about another month before the final championship tournament.
The schedule was not intentionally drawn out. Everyone still had their regular jobs or studies, so most of the matches were held in the evenings.
This was also to prevent the competition from interfering with everyone’s work and careers. So many people were taking part—if they all stopped working for the sake of the competition, the company would be left with countless vacant positions. How could the group continue operating?
That was why the schedule had been stretched out for so long: to give everyone enough time to participate.
The ranking rounds and elimination rounds would end just in time for the group’s annual gala. The final winner could then be decided at the gala, with all the group’s employees in attendance. Wouldn’t that make it even more exciting?
From then on, the preliminary and elimination rounds of the annual competition would begin in August and conclude in December, with the grand finals held at the company’s annual gala the following year.
