Red should have been the highest quality, but as Chen Guan stared at the Growth Type displayed on the panel, he couldn’t help feeling a flicker of anticipation.
Could there be an even more powerful quality above red?
Elsewhere, the ear-piercing noise of repairs tore through the post-match silence. The deafening roar did nothing to dispel the oppressive mood. Instead, it made everyone’s hearts pound uneasily.
Dozens of engineering drones hovered over the arena, casting down high-intensity repair beams.
Magnetic cranes struggled to lift the alloy floor tiles that had been severed—and in some places partially melted—by the bloody blade light. The entire scene looked like a reconstruction effort amid the ruins of an apocalypse.
When Hiiragi Seihaku was carried away, everyone from Kamitani Academy wore faces as pale as paper.
They didn’t utter a single harsh word. They simply followed mechanically behind the stretcher, their eyes vacant and their steps unsteady, like living corpses drained of all vitality.
No one dared look at the figure who had returned to Huaqing’s rest area as though he were merely another student.
That level of combat was beyond anything a student should have been capable of.
How was it any different from a natural disaster?
“Repairs are expected to take thirty minutes. All contestants, please wait patiently.”
An Changsong’s voice rang out through the broadcast system as he struggled to maintain a steady tone.
Who could have imagined that a battle between students would nearly destroy a professional arena built from military-grade materials? The shocking incident alone was enough to make headlines across the entire planet.
[Don’t ask. The answer is simple: he’s a monster. I’m seriously starting to suspect Brother Coffin is actually a high-level aberrant beast wearing human skin.]
[Kamitani Academy’s people look like their souls have been scared out of them. That was their strongest Hundred Demons Night Parade Legion, and Hiiragi Seihaku will be haunted by this for the rest of his life.]
[There’s no time to mourn Hiiragi Seihaku. I just want to know who the next unlucky bastard to enter the battlefield will be.]
In Zero Academy’s rest area, Ross stared fixedly at the bloody blade light replaying on the screen.
The instant it tore through heaven and earth made him instinctively reach for his neck, which felt ice-cold.
His vaunted Atomic Reconstruction—would it really be of any use against that kind of absolute energy, powerful enough to annihilate everything?
He didn’t know, and he had no desire to find out.
Cherish life. Stay away from cheaters.
When he went home this time, he was definitely going to dig out last year’s photograph and have it framed on the wall. He would even start a separate page in the family genealogy with himself.
At North City Academy, Bai Huanran stared at the unforgettable scene before him, dumbfounded.
“Has he… always been this strong?”
Bai Huanran’s lips trembled as he looked toward Yan Feiyan.
He no longer needed an answer.
Time passed slowly in the suffocating atmosphere.
Thirty minutes later, after repairs that cost several times the original budget, the arena was finally restored well enough for the competition to continue. Brand-new alloy tiles had been fitted among the old tiles, which were covered in scratches. The mismatched patches looked jarring, but at least the matches could go on.
“Ahem.”
An Changsong cleared his throat. His voice once again echoed throughout the arena. He skipped all unnecessary pleasantries, wanting only to get the damned competition back on track as quickly as possible.
“The Round of Sixteen will now continue.”
“Next up, we have…”
Everyone’s attention was drawn once more to the enormous holographic screen.
After witnessing the world-shattering storm that had just taken place, the audience desperately needed a normal match to ease the nerves stretched to their breaking point.
The lights on the screen flashed rapidly before finally settling on two new portraits.
“North City Academy, Bai Huanran, versus Kamitani Academy, Nakamura Yu.”
On the massive holographic screen, the portraits of Bai Huanran and Nakamura Yu appeared side by side.
The atmosphere inside the arena did not ease in the slightest with the start of the new match. If anything, it grew even stranger.
The spectators whispered among themselves, keeping their voices low. But clearly, their discussion had little to do with the two contestants on the screen.
[Honestly, every match feels boring after what we just saw.]
[I feel sorry for Bai Huanran. He fought tooth and nail to win his last match, thinking he could finally restore some of his pride—only to turn around and witness a god. He’s probably wondering why he’s even standing here.]
[That guy from Kamitani, Nakamura Yu, has it even worse. His captain was exorcised right in front of him, and now he’s been matched against the other team’s captain. He’s practically here to be fed to the slaughter.]
In North City Academy’s rest area, Yan Feiyan watched Bai Huanran’s back. Her lips moved, but in the end, she couldn’t make a sound.
She wanted to tell him to do his best, but those words seemed so pale and ridiculous at a time like this.
As if sensing the gaze behind him, Bai Huanran paused. Without turning around, he said,
“I’ll be back soon.”
On the other side, in Kamitani Academy’s rest area, Nakamura Yu walked step by step toward the arena that had already become a monument to humiliation.
He didn’t know whether he could win. He didn’t even know why he was fighting.
He only knew that if he didn’t even have the courage to step onto the arena today, then Kamitani Academy would truly be dead—dead even more completely than those shikigami that had been devoured.
Even if he lost, he would lose with dignity!
The two of them took their positions at the center of the arena.
The referee looked at the two young men before him. Even lifting his arm felt as though he were raising a thousand pounds.
He opened his mouth, but the words “The match begins” that he had repeated countless times somehow refused to come out.
Was this really still the stage that made countless young people’s blood run hot?
Why did he feel only endless sorrow?
“The match… begins.”
Almost the instant the referee’s arm dropped, Nakamura Yu moved.
The muscles throughout his body bulged as he transformed into a blurred figure trailing a vicious gust of wind. Abandoning all defense, he charged straight at Bai Huanran with a desperate, all-or-nothing attack.
He used no ability. He merely swung his fists with the purest, most primitive force.
He wanted to vent the despair in his heart in the most brutal way possible.
Faced with the mad onslaught of a man who had thrown caution to the wind, Bai Huanran reacted half a beat too slowly.
He instinctively condensed the moisture in the air, creating several water mirrors before him in an attempt to confuse his opponent with illusions. But he could never fully concentrate.
Again and again, his mind replayed that blood-red blade light that had torn heaven and earth apart.
That single flash had not only cleaved apart the Hundred Demons Legion—it had also shattered the fighting spirit he had struggled so hard to rebuild.
So what if he had defeated Qin Wu?
Before power capable of rewriting the rules themselves, what did his little splash of water amount to?
Thud.
Nakamura Yu’s fist punched cleanly through layer after layer of water mirrors and slammed into Bai Huanran’s chest.
Bai Huanran was struck as though by lightning and sent flying backward.
“Cough…”
He crashed to the ground. The intense pain instantly cleared his muddled thoughts.
He raised his head and saw Nakamura Yu charging toward him again, still like a maddened bull, his eyes bloodshot.
Why…
As Bai Huanran looked at that twisted face, he suddenly understood.
Nakamura Yu wasn’t fighting him.
He was fighting the man sitting in Huaqing’s rest area.
He was using his own blood to launch a charge at that lofty god—a charge destined to fail.
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
ver to a world of cultivation and returned invincible. Modern medicine is child's play compared to elixirs; technological might crumbles before true cultivation. My name is Qin Ning, Earth's sole cultivator!
