The Truth of the Ghost Senior

She raised her hand toward the curtain of rain filling the sky and gently clenched it.

“Stop.”

The entire world fell silent.

Every raindrop froze in midair, as if time itself had been paused.

Bai Huanran felt his connection to all water elements forcibly severed by an irresistible will. He had become a helpless prisoner, surrounded by his own power.

“I lost.”

Bai Huanran looked at the figure standing amid the motionless rain and admitted defeat calmly.

The gap between them was even greater than he had imagined.

There was no need to continue with one last futile struggle.

“Winner: Huaqing Academy, Su Yuehe.”

Under the entirely unsurprised gazes of the audience, Su Yuehe won the first match.

After a brief intermission, it was finally time for the last match.

Chen Guan stepped onto the arena.

His opponent, Shizuko Kaga, also slowly rose to her feet. Barefoot, she walked step by step into the center of the arena, making Chen Guan glance at her once more.

“Semifinal, second match. Begin.”

The instant the referee’s voice fell, Shizuko Kaga vanished from where she stood.

It was not high-speed movement. She had truly evaporated from everyone’s senses, as though she had never existed in the first place.

“Oh? Ninja art—Invisibility Technique?”

Baal’s voice rang out mockingly in Chen Guan’s mind. “That primitive trick might fool ordinary people, but that’s about it.”

Carrying his scythe, Chen Guan stood perfectly still. He even looked up at the sky with a bored expression.

The spectator stands erupted in an uproar. Everyone craned their necks, trying to find Shizuko Kaga, but neither the naked eye nor the high-speed cameras could detect a trace of her.

She was like a drop of water that had melted into the ocean, leaving no trace behind.

In the private box on the chairman’s platform, Santai commented, “She’s got some skill. Her aura has vanished completely. She’s reduced her presence to the absolute minimum, blending herself into her surroundings. That’s an elite assassination technique.”

Since it touched upon her old profession, Santai finally began to take an interest.

The next second, killing intent erupted from every direction in the arena.

Sixteen figures of Shizuko Kaga appeared simultaneously around the battlefield. Each radiated an aura that seemed completely genuine. Holding poison-coated kunai, they silently stabbed toward the vital points of Chen Guan’s body from sixteen incredibly vicious angles.

The Shadow Clone Technique.

Truth and illusion were impossible to distinguish, reality and falsehood interwoven.

The true killing blow was hidden among those sixteen figures.

Faced with this inescapable killing formation, Chen Guan remained utterly unconcerned.

After hearing Baal’s earlier comment, he had expected something profound. In the end, it was merely an illusion technique.

Since that was all it was, there was no need to keep watching.

An invisible ripple swept across the arena from Chen Guan’s position as its center. The sixteen sharp-featured assassins did not even have time to let out a cry before they dissolved into wisps of black smoke the instant they touched the ripple.

Only one figure remained—the most real of them all. She staggered backward several steps before barely managing to steady herself.

Shizuko Kaga’s face was pale, and a thin line of blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. The hand gripping her kunai trembled slightly, while her eyes were filled with unprecedented terror.

She knew Chen Guan was powerful. His martial prowess was unrivaled, and his defenses were impenetrable. But even her illusion technique had been broken so effortlessly by him.

Did this man have no weaknesses?

“Too weak.”

Chen Guan’s voice sounded beside her ear.

Shizuko Kaga bit her lip hard, a look of resolve flashing through her eyes.

Her hands moved rapidly through a series of seals, and an ominous, blood-red aura rose from her body.

“Secret Art: Blood Shadow Curse-Kill.”

Her body began to turn illusory, transforming into a twisted blood-red shadow. Ignoring the distance between them, it appeared directly behind Chen Guan. The short blade in her hand became a streak of blood as it stabbed toward his heart.

The blood-colored shadow pierced through the spatial barrier, its blade almost touching the back of Chen Guan’s head.

In the next instant, his body twisted around at an unbelievable angle.

Chen Guan raised his leg. With a sharp crack, the blade snapped cleanly in two, and Shizuko Kaga was sent flying, body and weapon together.

Bang!

Her body slammed heavily onto the ground outside the arena. The two broken halves of the blade fell beside her, but she herself had already passed out.

The spectator stands were utterly silent. No one was surprised that Chen Guan would win. They simply had not expected him to win in such a violent fashion—to kick his opponent out of the arena and knock her unconscious in the process.

“Winner: Huaqing Academy, Chen Guan.”

The referee continued to perform his duty faithfully. Only after his announcement did the silence in the stands finally break.

On the chairman’s platform, An Changsong’s voice rang across the entire venue through the broadcasting system, drowning out the audience’s murmurs.

“The semifinals are now complete.”

“Tomorrow will see the final matches of this year’s Academy Exchange Tournament.”

“At nine in the morning, the third-place match will be held between Bai Huanran of Beishi Academy and Shizuko Kaga of Kamitani Academy.”

“At ten in the morning, the final championship match will take place.”

An Changsong paused before announcing the final names, each word measured and deliberate.

“Huaqing Academy, Su Yuehe.”

“Against.”

“Huaqing Academy, Chen Guan.”

Principal Ren Ping of Huaqing Academy listened to An Changsong’s announcement, his expression filled with emotion.

Another all-Huaqing final. What else could it be but a happy dilemma?

“Ah, they’re both the apple of my eye. What’s a principal supposed to do? What am I supposed to do?”

In front of the other principals, Ren Ping deliberately put on an agonized expression. However, the smile he could barely suppress had already betrayed what he was truly feeling.

I’m definitely getting promoted this time.

The principals of the other three academies glared at him as if they wanted to tear him apart. They had seen shamelessly boastful people before, but never anyone this shameless.

Below the platform, Qin Wu looked at the principal’s irrepressible grin and sighed inwardly.

Following his gaze, Chen Guan also saw the beaming principal and the grim-faced heads of the other academies.

“Senior Qin Wu, I remember our school has a senior named Liu Ruyan. Why have I never seen her?”

Chen Guan asked out of curiosity. He had not paid much attention to the matter before, but now that all the elite fourth-years were gathered here, he still had not seen the legendary Liu Ruyan.

He was quite interested in the legendary Great Emperor Ruyan.

“About that…” An awkward look appeared on Qin Wu’s face. He did not know where to begin.

“There was never any Liu Ruyan to begin with,” An Changqing cut in. “The so-called Liu Ruyan has always been the principal in disguise.”

Chen Guan: “?”

Seeing the confusion on Chen Guan’s face, Qin Wu looked even more embarrassed. He found this matter truly difficult to explain.

Once again, An Changqing stepped in to smooth things over.

“To quote the principal himself, privileges are meant for students to look at, not to use.”

“You know how outrageous our school’s privileges for first place are. Those ridiculous privileges were nothing more than the principal’s way of motivating the students. That’s why he came up with this Ghost Senior who repeats a year every year.”