A moment later, his body collided with the sphere with a thunderous crash.
The scene of blood and flesh flying in all directions that everyone had expected never appeared. Chen Guan’s body seemed to be made of some kind of indestructible steel. When he collided with the metal ball, it actually gave off a metallic hum.
For a moment, sparks flew everywhere.
Under the tremendous impact, even Chen Guan was forced back several staggering steps.
He had honored his agreement with Ross. He had used his strongest defense, but he did not retaliate, relying entirely on the strength of his physical body to withstand the attack.
One second, two seconds, three seconds—the power of the iron ball gradually faded.
At last, with a crisp snap, the iron ball, having lost all its momentum, fell to the ground.
Its owner fell with it.
Ross looked at Chen Guan’s perfectly smooth arm and let out a bitter laugh.
His strongest attack had only forced his opponent back a few steps. It had not even managed to break his skin.
The referee stood dazed for several seconds before seeming to come back to his senses. He raised his trembling arm.
“The winner… the winner is Chen Guan of Huaqing Academy.”
Ross, who had collapsed to the ground from exhaustion, was carried away by people from Zero Academy. Chen Guan also returned to his team’s rest area.
The final match had also been an internal battle. With its conclusion, the final four names on the enormous holographic screen were finally set in stone.
Beishi Academy, Bai Huanran.
Huaqing Academy, Su Yuehe and Chen Guan.
Kamitani Academy, Shizuko Kaga.
Zero Academy, completely eliminated.
“Ahem.”
An Changsong’s voice rang out from the chairman’s platform once more.
“The semifinals will continue tomorrow.”
“The matchups will be decided by drawing lots.”
With that, he hurriedly left.
…
The next morning.
On the rooftop of Huaqing Academy’s dormitory area, An Changqing sat alone, repeatedly wiping his long sword with a spotless soft cloth.
The sword’s blade reflected his calm face.
He had lost.
He had thought about it all night. The conclusion was not that his sword was too slow, nor that his star map was not powerful enough.
Rather, from the very beginning, he had been walking down a path whose rules had already boxed him in.
Su Yuehe stood outside the rules. She was the one who created new rules.
“Changqing.” Su Yuehe’s voice came from behind him. “What are you thinking about?”
An Changqing stopped wiping the sword and answered without hiding anything. “I was thinking, if you hadn’t had the power of the mirror yesterday, how would you have broken my Starshard Sword Formation?”
Su Yuehe thought seriously for a moment.
“I couldn’t have broken it,” she replied frankly. “I could only stop you from drawing your sword before you finished forming the sword formation.”
An Changqing fell silent for a moment, then suddenly laughed.
That was right. She would never give him the chance to set up a deadly trap. Most likely, from the moment their names appeared… perhaps even earlier, she had already planned everything.
From the very beginning, he had fallen into her rhythm.
He stood up and brushed the dust from his clothes. “Let’s go see the draw.”
“Congratulations, Yuehe. As expected, you’re stronger than I am.”
Su Yuehe looked at the clear light that had once again ignited in his eyes and smiled as well, but she did not respond to the first half of his sentence.
“Let’s go see the results of the draw.”
At nine in the morning, the arena was packed.
The final four had already taken their seats in their respective rest areas.
Bai Huanran of Beishi Academy sat with his eyes closed, his aura steady and immovable as a mountain.
Su Yuehe and Chen Guan sat side by side in Huaqing Academy’s rest area, speaking in low voices.
Everyone’s eyes, intentionally or otherwise, kept drifting toward the final seat.
Shizuko Kaga of Kamitani Academy.
She knelt quietly in the corner of the rest area, a sheathed katana lying horizontally in front of her. Her entire person seemed completely out of place amid the surrounding noise, like a motionless wax statue.
Chen Guan remembered her. The Kaga family was a prestigious clan of ninjas, and Shizuko Kaga was one of its most outstanding members.
Her conduct in her previous matches had also revealed the characteristic style of a ninja.
Under the watchful eyes of everyone present, the enormous holographic screen lit up. As light swirled across it, the avatars began to flash rapidly, starting the final semifinal draw.
The entire arena was so quiet that even the sound of breathing seemed to vanish.
At last, the light froze, and the avatars for the first match appeared clearly.
Huaqing Academy, Su Yuehe.
Beishi Academy, Bai Huanran.
“Gasp…”
A wave of sharp inhales swept through the audience, followed by discussions that could no longer be suppressed.
“Bai Huanran versus Su Yuehe.”
“One is a genius of water magic, while the other is a Wordsoul Master whose words become law. This is absolutely going to be an earth-shaking clash between two evenly matched opponents.”
In Beishi Academy’s rest area, Wei Tong and the others instantly tensed up. Bai Huanran, on the other hand, was the most relaxed of them all. He smiled at his teammates, signaling them to stay calm.
His gaze passed over the crowd and met Su Yuehe’s from across the arena. The two nodded politely to each other.
The light on the screen began to swirl again. The result was hardly suspenseful as the final two avatars settled into place.
Huaqing Academy, Chen Guan.
Kamitani Academy, Shizuko Kaga.
When they saw the result, the atmosphere throughout the arena suddenly relaxed.
If the first match was a fierce clash between two powerful opponents, filled with suspense, then in everyone’s eyes, this match was merely a performance whose conclusion had long been predetermined.
“No suspense at all. Let’s observe three seconds of silence for that ninja from Kamitani.”
[Brother Coffin is here to harvest more heads again.]
[This Shizuko Kaga seems pretty strong. She made it into the semifinals without much effort, instantly defeating all her opponents.]
[Even among geniuses, there are still differences.]
The comments were filled with amusement. No one believed that Shizuko Kaga could pose any threat whatsoever.
Inside a private box on the chairman’s platform, Santai swirled his wineglass as he looked at the matchup displayed on the screen. He suddenly took an interest.
“White Tiger, how many moves do you think that little ninja girl can last against your Little Xuanwu?”
White Tiger leaned back against the sofa and lazily yawned. “How many moves? You’re overestimating her—and underestimating that kid.”
He held up one finger and slowly waved it from side to side.
“One move? Well, that’s what I expected.”
“No. I mean, if that kid is willing, she won’t even have the chance to make a move.”
As An Changsong announced the match order, the first battle—Su Yuehe versus Bai Huanran—officially began.
The two stood facing each other in the center of the arena.
“Please.”
“Please.”
After the brief exchange of formalities, killing intent suddenly rose.
Bai Huanran struck first. He knew very well that when facing a Wordsoul Master, falling behind by a single step meant falling behind at every step.
“Water Heaven, One-Line Severance.”
It was the same concentrated water line as before, refined to the extreme. It made no sound, yet carried the resolve to sever even the laws themselves as it shot straight toward Su Yuehe.
As the water line was about to touch her body, Su Yuehe parted her vermilion lips.
“Disperse.”
With that single word, the razor-sharp water line, into which Bai Huanran had poured all his focus, disintegrated in midair. It transformed into a cloud of harmless water vapor and vanished completely.
Bai Huanran was not discouraged. This had only been a test. He rapidly formed hand seals, and the moisture throughout the arena began to converge wildly, transforming into a torrential rain that blotted out the sky. Every raindrop was a sharp blade.
“Su, I’m not going to surrender just like that.”
His voice rang out from within the curtain of rain.
Su Yuehe looked at the battle spirit burning anew in his eyes and said softly, “I know.”
for mindless slaughter, this isn't for you.] My name is Ye Shu, and I'm a transmigrator. It seems I'm supposed to be the protagonist, but that feels pretty unlikely. This world has been invaded by a system. The antagonists on the other side have suddenly become pure, flawless saints. The female leads have been force-fed the so-called "original plot," making them think they've been reborn. Now, everyone thinks I'm scum. Including the old lady in my ring. And here I am, in the Monster Beast Mountain Range, braising pork. To put my situation in perspective— It's as if, the moment Xiao Yan stepped into the Monster Beast Mountain Range, the Soul Emperor already knew he would become the Flame Emperor, and Yao Lao had been turned to the enemy's side. I have nothing right now. Oh wait, that's not true. I do have a white-haired loli child-bride who's the Heavenly Dao, and her only skill is acting cute. So, tell me guys... what are my chances of making it to the end?
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!
u Chenyuan transmigrated into a female-oriented novel about a real and fake heiress, becoming the CEO elder brother of both. Unfortunately, the entire Lu family—including himself, the CEO—were mere cannon fodder in the story. Determined to save himself, Lu Chenyuan took action. The spoiled, attention-seeking fake heiress? Thrown into the harsh realities of the working class to learn humility. The love-struck real heiress? Pushed toward academic excellence, so lofty goals would blind her to trivial romances. As for the betrayed, vengeful arranged marriage wife… the plot hadn’t even begun yet. There was still time—if he couldn’t handle her, he could at least avoid her. "CEO Lu, are you avoiding me?" Mo Qingli fixed her gaze on Lu Chenyuan. For the first time, the shrewd and calculating Lu Chenyuan felt a flicker of unease.
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.
