Pfft.
The spear pierced straight through his chest.
Kamiki Jun’s charging body abruptly froze. He slowly lowered his head and stared at the spearhead protruding from his chest. The flames burning in his eyes finally began to fade.
Thud.
Kamiki Jun’s body toppled forward, rigid as a board.
He had lost.
“Winner: Zero Academy, Ross.”
The referee’s voice rang out.
Ross stood where he was, breathing heavily. He looked at Kamiki Jun lying on the ground and thought, Thank goodness.
He had won. Fortunately, he had held one last trick in reserve.
Ross’s victory did not cause much of a stir in the arena. The medical personnel skillfully carried the unconscious Kamiki Jun off the field, as if such a scene had already become routine today.
“Quarterfinal qualifier, second match.”
The enormous holographic screen rippled with light, forcibly drawing everyone’s attention toward it.
At last, two portraits slowly locked into place.
Huaqing Academy, An Changqing.
Beishi Academy, Wei Tong.
“It’s my turn.”
An Changqing smiled gently at the people beside him and rose to his feet.
“Go, Senior Changqing!”
Shan Heng clenched his fists nervously.
At the Beishi Academy rest area, Bai Huanran patted Wei Tong on the shoulder.
“Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Just give it your all.”
Wei Tong was a burly man over two meters tall. His bulging muscles looked ready to burst through his uniform. He gave Bai Huanran a firm nod, his jaw set with determination.
“I understand, Captain.”
The two took their positions at the center of the arena.
Looking at the spirited An Changqing across from him, Wei Tong said, “Student An, I’ve heard a great deal about you. Please, teach me.”
“Please.”
An Changqing returned the salute, one hand resting on the hilt of his sword, his posture calm and composed.
“Begin!”
The referee’s voice was almost completely swallowed by a thunderous explosion.
The alloy tiles beneath Wei Tong’s feet burst apart. His entire body shot forward like an out-of-control heavy truck, charging straight at An Changqing. Before his fist even arrived, the terrifying force of the wind it created was already making the air shriek.
Wei Tong’s fist, powerful enough to shatter alloy, passed within inches of An Changqing’s clothing. The gust sent An Changqing’s uniform streaming straight backward, snapping loudly in the air. Yet that difference of mere millimeters was as vast as a natural chasm.
His first punch missed. Wei Tong drove off the ground, twisted his waist, and turned his hips. His other iron fist transformed into the shadow of a sweeping whip and smashed toward An Changqing’s side with a roar that tore through the air. The movements connected without the slightest pause, displaying battle instincts honed through countless trials.
An Changqing lightly tapped the ground with one foot. His entire body slid backward several meters like a ghost, once again evading the vicious attack by the narrowest possible margin.
“This…”
With his repeated attacks missing, Wei Tong began to grow anxious. His muscles swelled another notch, and dense, ocher-colored patterns surfaced across his skin.
He abandoned every unnecessary technique. His fists became two siege hammers, unleashing a storm of punches with the most direct and savage force, indiscriminately bombarding the area where An Changqing stood.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The hard alloy tiles cracked like tofu beneath his fists, punched into deep craters. Shattered stone mixed with shock waves and flew in every direction, while the entire arena trembled faintly under the assault.
At this level, there were no weak contenders.
Yet within that devastating storm of fists, An Changqing’s figure remained elusive.
He was like a solitary boat amid raging waves. Though it seemed he might be swallowed at any moment, he always managed to slip through the gaps between the waves at the most dangerous instant, emerging completely unscathed.
“Why… Why can’t I hit him?”
Wei Tong could feel that his opponent was like a distant, unreachable star. No matter how desperately he swung his fists, he could only strike at empty space. He was not even qualified to touch his opponent.
“Your fists are powerful.”
For the first time, An Changqing’s voice rang out clearly through the howling wind of the punches, reaching Wei Tong’s ears.
“Unfortunately, you’re too slow.”
The instant those words left his mouth, the figure that had been strolling leisurely took a step forward, advancing into the storm of fists.
With that single step, the seemingly distant space between him and Wei Tong vanished in an instant.
The alarm bells in Wei Tong’s mind blared. Without thinking, he gathered every ounce of his strength into his right fist and threw his strongest punch at An Changqing, now only inches away.
At that very moment, An Changqing finally moved.
Clang!
A clear sword note rang throughout the arena.
A dazzling silver streak flashed before everyone’s eyes, like the first ray of starlight appearing in the night. It was so fast that it surpassed the limits of visual perception.
Wei Tong felt his vision blur. His fist, powerful enough to split mountains and shatter stone, struck an invisible yet unbreakable wall. The instant they made contact, all of his force was redirected into empty space.
He lowered his head and saw the tip of a longsword resting quietly against his throat.
The cold touch instantly froze every muscle in his body.
An Changqing gave his wrist a slight flick and sheathed the sword. The entire motion was smooth and fluid, so fast that the fleeting sword light seemed almost like an illusion shared by everyone present.
He looked at Wei Tong, who remained frozen in his punching stance, and smiled gently as before.
“Thank you for letting me win.”
Wei Tong slowly withdrew his fist, bitterness showing on his face.
He had lost.
And he was thoroughly convinced.
“Winner: Huaqing Academy, An Changqing.”
The referee’s voice rang out once more.
Whoosh!
After a brief silence, the entire audience erupted in thunderous applause and cheers.
At the Beishi Academy rest area, Bai Huanran silently walked forward.
Wei Tong looked somewhat ashamed. “Captain, I…”
“You fought well.”
Bai Huanran patted him on the shoulder. “We simply happened to run into a true prodigy.”
As he spoke, his gaze once again turned toward the Huaqing Academy rest area.
Huaqing Academy’s rest area.
“Kid, did you see that? That’s the proper way to fight. That Changqing's kid has an understanding of how to apply force that’s ten thousand times more refined than yours.”
Baal’s voice was filled with admiration for An Changqing—and disdain for Chen Guan.
Chen Guan’s fighting style was the typical brute-force approach: when in doubt, hit harder, with plenty of dirty tricks thrown in.
“His sword already shows the rudimentary form of a law. He uses a single point to break through a surface, guiding astral power. Not bad, very impressive.”
“Unlike you. You have absolutely no technical skill whatsoever. How crude.”
“I learned it from you,” Chen Guan retorted without mercy. Baal had been a major reason he had embarked on this path in the first place.
There was no helping it. Baal’s skills were simply too useful.
…
While Chen Guan and Baal bickered, a private booth stood in a dim corner of the audience stands.
The rich fragrance of fine black tea filled the air, sealing the booth off from the uproar in the distance.
“What a beautiful sword.”
A slightly languid voice broke the silence. Santai propped up his chin with one hand while gently swirling the red liquid in a wineglass with the other. His eyes were fixed with interest on An Changqing below.
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.
orn and Humiliation】【Forced Love】 In his past life, Lin Ran was betrayed and murdered by his girlfriend and family, while the yandere female aristocrat, who had treated him as a mere plaything, avenged him by doing in his enemies. Upon seeing the yandere female aristocrat lying in the same coffin, ready to die with him, Lin Ran realized how profoundly mistaken he had been. Reborn, he abandoned the fickle campus beauty and wholeheartedly embraced the yandere female aristocrat's arms. "Ran! If I dig out your eyes and turn them into a specimen, you'll only be able to look at me!" Lin Ran: "Darling, kiss me!" "Ran! If I break your legs, you won't run away anymore, right?" Lin Ran: "Love, hold me tight!" "Ran! If..." Lin Ran: "Hush now! Love me more!" Luo Yao: ... Seeing his scumbag dad: "Take him out!" Seeing his stepmother: "Get rid of her!" Seeing his brother: "Eliminate him!" Seeing his white moonlight: "Send that to Southeast Asia!"
