Everyone, You Are the Torchbearers of Humanity

The words may be crude, but the truth isn't.

The fantasies of many young boys and girls—of single-handedly dominating the Origin Realm—were mercilessly shattered by reality.

They had been humbled.

Forget about reaching the peak of the fifth tier.

In their entire class, not even half a person had stepped into the fifth tier, the Shadowflame Realm.

The fourth tier, the peak of Spark Realm, was already their limit.

"Alright, enough with the long faces. I’m just saying you probably won’t get to be lone heroes—the Great Xia doesn’t encourage individualism anyway. In recent years, plenty of teams have made their mark. I’ve never believed your potential ends here."

"Otherwise, why would a sixth-tier Shadowflame expert like me bother teaching a bunch of brats like you?"

"A single spark can start a prairie fire."

"All of you are the embers of humanity."

Seeing that he might have crushed their spirits too hard, Teacher Li quickly tossed in a few words of praise.

Admittedly, his teaching skills weren’t half bad.

At the very least, the initial resistance to the concept of "teamwork" had noticeably faded.

"Come up and collect your scoring bracelets."

"Give it your all!"

...

"Xu Kun!"

Teacher Li called out the students’ names one by one.

When Xu Kun, standing at the end of the line, heard his name, he stepped forward immediately.

Teacher Li glanced at the record that read "fourth-tier Spark Realm, peak level," gave a slight nod, and handed him a metallic bracelet.

Xu Kun stood at an impressive 180 cm tall, with strikingly handsome features—though his androgynous face, framed by a center-parted hairstyle, was his only flaw.

The moment he stepped forward, the boys’ gazes burned with envy, while the girls’ eyes glazed over, utterly captivated. If not for the inappropriate setting, some might have already flocked to him.

Aside from his less-than-illustrious family background, in the eyes of many goddesses, he was practically flawless—no weaknesses to be found.

Facing the complex mix of stares around him, Xu Kun remained unshaken.

With practiced ease, he slipped the metallic bracelet onto his wrist.

Once the last student had received their bracelet, Teacher Li spoke again.

"Now, within a thirty-meter radius around me—this is the arena. Free-for-all brawl."

"The last two standing will be the team captains."

"Don’t hold back. I’ll be watching."

...

The moment Teacher Li gave the order, everyone immediately distanced themselves from their nearest classmates.

The atmosphere tensed instantly.

Yet, the students only exchanged wary glances—no one dared to strike first.

After all, a free-for-all sounded simple, but these were their usual classmates. Going all out against them still felt unnatural.

"What, all scared now?" Teacher Li raised an eyebrow, his tone teasing. "Weren’t some of you just dreaming of dominating the Origin Realm? Now you don’t even have the guts to throw a punch?"

His words were like a lit fuse.

Unnatural? Screw that—plenty of them had grudges to settle.

"Go!" Someone shouted, and in the next instant, nearly a dozen students lunged into action simultaneously.

Liu Yuan stood at the edge of the crowd, her eyes swiftly scanning the chaos.

She didn’t recklessly charge into the center of the melee.

"Conserve strength. Wait until they’ve worn each other down…"

But things didn’t go as smoothly as she’d hoped.

Liu Yuan whipped her head around just in time to see a male classmate charging at her, fist already raised high.

She sidestepped narrowly, barely avoiding the blow.

Teacher Li observed the battlefield calmly.

This exercise was meant to test their adaptability in chaos—and whether they had the ruthlessness to survive.

Everything was proceeding as he’d expected.

Most of these students were only at the third or fourth tier, still in the "brawling" phase. At this stage, they lacked the energy for long-range attacks, making supervision relatively easy…

Suddenly, Teacher Li’s expression stiffened.

He snapped his fingers sharply.

The student who’d tried to ambush Liu Yuan blinked in confusion—something had appeared in front of him.

Then, a chilling sensation spread across his chest and back as his uniform exploded into tatters, revealing a metal plate strapped to his torso.

His mouth fell open in shock. Blood roared in his ears, his vision swam with stars, and the last thing his dazed mind registered was Liu Yuan’s blurred figure.

Clang.

The steel plate hit the ground with a dull thud.

A closer look revealed a fist-shaped dent sunken deep into its surface.

If Teacher Li hadn’t reacted in time, that punch would have shattered the student’s ribcage.

For a moment, even the brawl came to a halt.

Every eye was locked on the fallen steel plate.

Swallows of nervous saliva were audible.

Eighty percent of them were now wondering: Could I have survived that hit?

And since when did Liu Yuan—usually mid-tier at best—hide this much strength?

With a performance like that, even if she wasn’t at the peak of the fourth tier, she couldn’t be far off.

Even Teacher Li frowned, flipping rapidly through the student records.

Soon, he found Liu Yuan’s file.

Third-tier Spark Realm, peak level…

That couldn’t be right.

Card Masters specialized in mental energy. Unlike martial artists or cultivators, whose physical abilities surged with each breakthrough, Card Masters’ advancements only allowed them to wield higher-tier cards or activate more simultaneously.

This meant their physical attributes relied entirely on equipment cards—and those had limits.

Excluding low-cost specialty cards, a Spark Realm Card Master could sustain roughly two equipment cards at once. Any more risked mental collapse.

An average adult male’s strength stat hovered around 5.

Liu Yuan’s punch had just clocked in at at least 35.

Assuming a four-star rare equipment card granted +10 attributes…

So she was currently wielding two four-star epic-tier equipment cards?

"Liu Yuan, step forward."

"Huh? Oh…"

Liu Yuan wore an expression of pure innocence.

Had she messed up?

This really wasn’t her fault!

Even she hadn’t expected that punch to be so devastating.

Her current strength stat should’ve been 4 + 7 + 8 + 16.

Two three-star rare equipment cards (7 and 8 points) plus… white stockings.

Yep.

Only when she threw that punch did she realize—the "Lewd Courage" card…

Had a hidden trait.

Its first special ability, when active, seemed to be self-sustaining?

Meaning if she lacked the soul energy to maintain it, the card could power itself.

It lost its auto-cultivation feature—or, more accurately, converted cultivation gains into activation costs.

Effectively stacking an extra card atop her limit.

Damn…

Could her "brother" have been born into some ancient family… and stolen this god-tier card meant for his future wife to give to her instead?

Honestly, it wasn’t paranoia—she’d never even heard of a card like this!