Chapter 26: The Verbal Arena

To ensure the smooth running of this combat trial and to demonstrate his seriousness, the principal personally invited two Jin Dan sword cultivators to guard the main gate.

One carried a long sword on his back, the other had sword pellets circling him like spinning beads.

Not bad—these two were precisely the sword cultivators Xu Xing had seen at the entrance of the Errands Hall.

Quite the range of business—professional security guards.

But compared to their casual demeanor last time, they were far more serious now, their piercing gazes sweeping over every person entering the school.

Clearly, the principal had paid them well.

Xu Xing bit into a baozi and followed behind a man in a sharp suit as they entered the school; the two sword cultivators scanned the man ahead but gave Xu Xing not a single glance, as if they hadn't even noticed him.

And indeed, that was exactly the case.

This visit to the school was primarily to observe the method created by Shenghuang Yuan, so discretion was key.

Otherwise, if he'd merely come to watch the combat trial, couldn't he just use the Xu Sandao identity? Would the school's principal dare refuse him face?

Arriving at the playground, he looked up at the massive floating arena.

"Thought there'd be some improvement—turns out it's still the same old thing."

This arena was named 'Zhiguo,' a creation of the Longxiang Qingtianzong; when cultivators duel upon it, the moment one receives a fatal wound, they are teleported away.

But the one now visible was merely the lowest-grade version—if its rank were higher, the arena could even form its own isolated realm.

Besides 'Zhiguo,' the Longxiang Qingtianzong also possessed the 'Xue Zhan' arena, where once stepped upon, it would sever all external contact until only one combatant remained.

And whether 'Zhiguo' or 'Xue Zhan,' both would evaluate the combatants' performance.

Hmm…

But those evaluations were rarely kind words; today's audience was large, and many students here would likely be shattered by them.

Xu Xing did not linger long; he casually tossed the paper bag holding his baozi into a trash bin, then continued upward—the crystal card storing the 'Basic Cultivation Method' was kept in the Dean's office.

No one should be there now, but even if someone was, it wouldn't matter.

…………

At exactly nine o'clock, each class's teacher led their students to the playground to wait.

The judging platform floated midair: the principal, two vice-principals, the dean, the mayor's secretary, and Li Fengping, personally invited by the principal.

"Begin!"

A voice, neither loud nor soft, echoed across the entire venue.

No lengthy speeches, no elaborate ceremonies.

This was a combat trial among cultivators—even if these students' realms were low, the principal would grant them full respect.

Today's stage belonged to them!

Boom—boom—boom! Amidst thunderous roars, the floating 'Zhiguo' arena began to split apart, like dismantled building blocks; streaks of crimson spiritual light flashed, radiating deadly solemnity.

Under all eyes, the once vast and massive 'Zhiguo' arena split into twelve smaller arenas of varying sizes.

Thud! Thud! Thud! … Each arena descended, kicking up clouds of dust, the ground trembling continuously.

The spiritual light blocked the dust from surging toward the spectator and judging stands, but students and teachers weren't so lucky—the dust wave hit them full force, each person swallowing some amount of grit.

Seeing the effect was sufficient, the principal raised his hand and swept it down; the dust kicked up by the falling arenas was instantly 'pressed' into stillness.

Twelve arenas now covered the entire playground—the largest in the center, the smaller ones radiating outward.

"Defenders! Ascend the arena!"

The combat trial lasted only half a morning, so this format was adopted.

Those confident enough could choose an arena to defend; if they held out through nine challenges, they succeeded as defenders.

After the top twelve defenders were determined, each could challenge any other defender—except themselves—to seize their arena; final rankings would be decided by the size of the arena they held.

In other words, this combat trial was not mandatory—anyone who felt unprepared could simply opt out.

Silence…

Five hundred students—none stepped forward; the playground grew even quieter.

After several minutes, a student finally stepped out—a boy with an aged appearance, at Qi Condensation Eighth Layer, among the second tier of students.

He ascended the smallest, outermost arena. "Du Qian, Class Four—please, fellow students, grant me your teachings."

He clearly looked nervous.

With one person leading, another student soon emerged—also Qi Condensation Eighth Layer; she climbed onto the smallest arena, standing opposite Du Qian, announcing her name and class.

Whoo! The lower-grade students in the stands burst into exclamations—right away, they're going to fight?!

The two wasted no words and immediately began combat; Zhang Yunlu watched intently, afraid to miss a single detail—but as she watched…

Huh? Is this even called combat?

A thought surfaced in her mind.

One struck, the other countered; one cast a fireball, the other raised a water shield—they just tossed spells back and forth, utterly rigid.

Are they playing turn-based combat here?

Hmph.

Fang Lin, arms crossed over his black battle knife, snorted at the sight.

Soon, the challenger's spiritual energy was exhausted—Qi Condensation cultivators simply couldn't sustain such waste, but Du Qian wasn't faring much better.

The challenger bowed: "Senior Du's cultivation surpasses mine—I accept defeat wholeheartedly."

"Junior sister, you're too—"

Du Qian was about to modestly respond.

【Called 'combat,' but in truth, merely spell practice—why not go to the marketplace and loudly beg for silver coins? You might earn two or three.】

【Both attacker and defender are mere trash.】

A vast, majestic voice echoed across the entire playground; the two on the arena froze, then their faces instantly flushed crimson.

Holy shit!

That arena's mouth is way too venomous!

The lower-year students in the audience and the Gao San students who hadn't taken the stage yet were all stunned.

The challenger covered her face and leapt off the arena; the moment she thought of how she had just loudly announced her own name, the shame inside her nearly overflowed.

Although Du Qian had successfully defended the arena, he was also broken by this evaluation, so he simply gave up defending and jumped down as well.

For a time, no one dared to step onto the stage again.

Especially that batch who weren't all that confident — originally they had still wanted to do their best to put on a good showing, but given the current situation…

Go up and embarrass herself? "Step onto the stage." Xu Xing's voice suddenly came to her ear.

Zhang Yunlu was startled, hurriedly looked around, but didn't spot anything; instead she saw the older brother in the audience waving at her.

'Has the senior come too?'

Steadying herself, Zhang Yunlu stepped out of the line and walked toward the arena — in fact, even without Xu Xing's call, she had already been preparing to take the stage.

To play it safe, she'd pick a medium-sized arena to defend.

"Go to the arena in the very center." Xu Xing's voice rang out once more.

"…"

Xu Xing stood at the window of the Dean's office, a crystal card pinched between his fingers, gazing from afar at Zhang Yunlu as she walked step by step toward the central arena.

"Those brutes from Longxiang Qingtianzong still have venomous mouths as always."

Even within their own sect, quite a few people had been broken by the evaluations of the 'Zhige' arena.

But thanks to this, conflicts within Longxiang Qingtianzong had decreased a great deal.

Body cultivators are mostly hot-blooded and easily worked up, often getting into fights over the smallest things.

Zhige, Zhige — no matter how big the grudge, as long as you fight a bout on this 'Zhige' arena, you'll feel that little conflict wasn't much after all.

After all these years, who knows whether the guy who created the 'Zhige' arena has been beaten to death yet.

Begging for favorites, begging for follow-up reads!!!

(End of this chapter)