He lost this time, but he wouldn't keep losing forever.
And those defeated by his hands were never again seen as rivals. Even if he gave them time to catch up, they could never overtake him.
He would keep moving forward until all his opponents were left far behind, completely out of sight.
"Are you alright?" Long Ao came up to him, looking away as he asked with feigned indifference, handing over a recovery potion.
"I'm okay." Chen Guan took it, paying no mind to Long Ao's contradictory attitude. He took a gulp; the bitter potion brought a trace of warmth, soothing his physical pain and mental exhaustion.
"That guy's ability is troublesome."
The gray hair on An Changqing's head swayed with his movements: "Atomic manipulation... it counters almost most conventional abilities. However, he isn't invincible. His ability consumes a massive amount of energy, and his defense against mental attacks is a weak point. Your mental shock made him pause just now, which means there's a chance if you rely on mental power."
Chen Guan nodded, taking An Changqing's words to heart. This defeat was a valuable lesson, showing him the gap between himself and the truly top-tier geniuses.
Time was still too short. Just one year—give him one more year, and he was confident he could catch up to these top geniuses.
In the following matches, Long Ao and An Changqing remained dominant, defeating their respective opponents and advancing to the top eight.
Su Yuehe, however, encountered the top student of Shengu Academy, Kamishiro Chizuru, in the quarterfinals and unfortunately lost.
Guan Jinyue's matches continued to be one-sided beatdowns. She advanced easily without even meeting an opponent capable of making her draw her sword.
The top four were finally decided: An Changqing, Long Ao, Kevin Ross, and Guan Jinyue.
Shengu Academy was eliminated early, failing to even reach the top four. After all, their top student, Kamishiro Chizuru, had bad luck and ran into Long Ao in the quarterfinal match, getting directly eliminated, which also served as a sort of revenge for Su Yuehe.
Li Yan's usually cold face showed a rare hint of a smile. Regardless of who took first place, their Huaqing freshmen had already stolen the spotlight this time.
The senior students were not to be outdone; they were the big winners.
The semifinal draw: An Changqing vs. Kevin Ross, Long Ao vs. Guan Jinyue.
Both were highly anticipated matches.
The semifinals were held in the afternoon.
The duel between An Changqing and Ross was practically perfect. Ross's atomic manipulation caused tremendous trouble for An Changqing, but An Changqing used his own ability to reflect the damage Ross inflicted right back at him.
Seeing his spiritual energy hitting rock bottom while his opponent wasn't even flushed or out of breath, Ross had no choice but to helplessly concede.
Meanwhile, the match between Long Ao and Guan Jinyue once again showcased Guan Jinyue's terrifying strength.
Long Ao went all out from the start. His crimson aura burned to the extreme, and the compounding power of his endless combat style made him resemble a humanoid tyrannosaurus, his attacks fiercely unparalleled.
However, Guan Jinyue's sword was no joke either. Her footwork was elusive, and her spatial abilities made her seem like a phantom. The vast majority of Long Ao's attacks hit nothing but empty air, and when Guan Jinyue finally struck, it took merely three sword strikes.
The first strike shattered Long Ao's protective aura.
The second strike crushed Long Ao's gathered fist momentum.
The third strike—the tip of her sword tapped Long Ao's chest, and the hidden sword aura penetrated within, instantly sealing several of his vital acupoints, leaving him frozen in place, unable to move.
Three strikes to defeat Long Ao!
Clean and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.
Long Ao was left speechless by his defeat. His opponent's utilization of space completely exceeded his current ability to cope.
He sighed heavily as he walked off the stage. He couldn't even touch the corner of her clothes, so what was the point of fighting? He had nothing to say about his loss. Fortunately, there was still a decent opponent for the third-place match.
Long Ao's gaze locked onto Ross. Surely he could beat this guy, right?
The finals would unfold between An Changqing and Guan Jinyue.
All discussions temporarily died down as countless eyes focused on the two figures on the stage.
On one side, Huaqing Academy's top student, An Changqing, dressed in white purer than snow, a golden longsword hovering by his side.
On the other side, also a top student, the mysterious sword cultivator, Guan Jinyue.
Wearing a moon-white martial outfit, her silver hair like frost, the ancient sword in her arms remained sheathed. Her dark eyes were calm and unrippled, as if nothing in the world concerned her.
This was the final showdown of the individual battles in this year's Four Academies Tournament, as well as a head-on collision between the new generation of leaders from two top-tier academic institutions.
This match was highly anticipated. Compared to An Changqing, the son of the Association President, Guan Jinyue's grassroots background was much more talked about.
"Finals, begin!"
The moment the referee's voice fell, An Changqing moved.
No probing, no hesitation. He knew full well how powerful Guan Jinyue was, especially her unpredictable spatial abilities. He had to seize the initiative and drag her into his own rhythm.
"Calm the Storm!"
The golden longsword let out a clear, resonant dragon cry. An Changqing took a step forward, his figure seemingly merging with the sword. A single golden sword light, as if capable of pacifying the storms of the four seas, thrust straight out. Wherever the sword light passed, the air stagnated, aiming directly at the center of Guan Jinyue's brow.
This strike was fast, accurate, and steady!
Seemingly simple, it sealed off most of Guan Jinyue's dodging space, forcing her to use her spatial abilities.
Guan Jinyue's eyes flickered slightly. She didn't draw her sword. Her figure left a faint afterimage in place as her true body shifted three feet sideways like a ghost, perfectly evading the sharpest point of the sword's edge.
At the same time, she brought her fingers together like a sword, cold moonlight-like sword aura spitting from her fingertips, and precisely tapped the side of the golden sword light.
Ding!
A crisp ringing sound echoed, like jade striking stone.
An Changqing felt a sudden concussive force transmitted from the blade. He turned his wrist slightly, his spiritual energy flowing to stabilize the sword. Without changing the momentum of his strike, he pursued her like a shadow.
Guan Jinyue's footwork was light, as if strolling through a courtyard. She shifted and maneuvered within a tiny square of space, always dodging the sword's edge at the very last millisecond, constantly neutralizing An Changqing's fierce attacks with the minimal price.
Her footwork implicitly aligned with the power of space. It looked slow but was actually unimaginably fast, leaving behind a series of afterimages that were hard to distinguish from reality.
"Not a bad movement technique." In the stands, a bespectacled man dressed like a refined scholar gave a slight nod.
He had definitely come to the right place; there were quite a few good seedlings among these kids.
The refined scholar-like man was none other than White Tiger from the Origin Return Group, whom Chen Guan had seen not long ago.
It was just a pity... White Tiger looked at Guan Jinyue. It was absolutely impossible for this child to be used by them.
An Changqing remained entirely focused, exerting his full power. The golden sword light split into thousands, pouring down like a torrential rainstorm, covering every inch of the arena. Each ray of sword light contained his formidable will, attempting to lock onto Guan Jinyue's elusive true body.
Guan Jinyue finally drew her sword.
The moonlit longsword left its sheath, producing a single ray of sword light as cold as the moon of the nine heavens and as clear as the autumn waters of a deep pool.
As the blade sliced through the air, wherever its arc passed, the sky full of golden sword rain seemed to encounter an invisible barrier, deflecting away one after another.
"Spatial folding?" someone knowledgeable exclaimed.
Spatial folding. Using her sword as a guide, she had laid down a layer of imperceptible spatial folds around her body. Like a mirror, it folded the incoming attacks away in other directions.
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.
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
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!
