Chapter 115: Sword Rainbow

The next second.

Jiang Jian stepped into the Step Ladder Array.

Between the black-and-gold-threaded sleeves, his palm flipped, and Han Guang came into his hand.

The black cloth shattered inch by inch, dissolving upon hitting the ground.

Hum!

The Step Ladder Array activated.

Several seconds later.

It delivered Jiang Jian to the Cliff by the Water, one of ten thousand combat arenas.

The surrounding array dissolved.

All around, it was utterly silent.

Jiang Jian held Han Guang, raising his gaze.

This was the coastal section of the water cliff.

Mostly land, a small portion seawater.

Farther out lay other combat arenas, blocked off by arrays, inaccessible.

“Remaining preparation time: 30 seconds.”

“Your opponent: First Love Team.”

In the center of the arena, a countdown appeared.

“Why is there only one person?”

“Huh?”

“What’s going on?”

The five members of First Love Team exchanged glances, dumbfounded.

Meanwhile.

On the holo-mega-screen, ten thousand tiny screens appeared simultaneously.

Jiang Jian stood alone.

Sharp-eyed spectators instantly noticed.

“This match is weird!”

“Why is there only one person?”

“Did he sign up for solo combat and wander into the wrong room?”

“No, look at his team profile!”

“The team named Jiang Jian has only himself as a member!”

“This is clearly a one-person team!”

“A one-person combat team!?”

“Huh?”

“Did I misread that!?”

…

Though some spectators had noticed the anomaly.

But the audience was simply too vast.

Just at the Cliff by the Water, there were over a million spectators.

The dual-fu-region live broadcast reached over a billion beings!

Most eyes focused on the Level-5 Talent teams and Level-4 Talent teams.

Even among Level-3 Talent teams, many standout competitors drew strong support.

Even more were glued to their own betted teams, not blinking.

Those who looked toward Jiang Jian’s arena remained a minority.

“Bro, just surrender.”

The leader of First Love Team, a boy with long hair, idly twirled his long blade, smirking.

“You’re alone—we could just throw a few punches and you’d be down.”

He raised his blade, pointing it at Jiang Jian from afar, face cold, “Surrender now, and I won’t hurt you.”

Beside him.

Two girls smirked, chiming in with agreement.

One girl even sized up Jiang Jian, eyes brightening: “You’re so good-looking, and your outfit’s cool—add your identity device. I’ll buy you a drink.”

Laughter erupted through First Love Team.

Jiang Jian stood still, sword in hand, clad in black-and-gold-threaded robes, gazing coldly at the opposite side, silent.

“Just surrender already!”

The girl spoke again, “You’ve got bad luck facing First Love Team—”

Boom!

The countdown ended!

A blazing white sword-light surged forth, hurtling at terrifying speed!

Crack!

The five members of First Love Team still wore smiles on their faces.

They had no time to react.

Like skewered haws, their life-protection barriers shattered instantly, then they were swept together like trash, spitting blood as they flew backward.

The life-protection barrier was an auxiliary feature of the combat arena’s array.

It activated instantly when a student faced lethal harm.

But the moment the life-protection barrier appeared,

it meant only two words:

Eliminated!

The next second, the Step Ladder Array appeared.

It engulfed the five members of First Love Team—still mid-air like kites with severed strings—and hurled them all out at once.

“Advanced!”

Two cold words echoed through the arena.

The same Step Ladder Array appeared before Jiang Jian.

It enveloped him, rising swiftly, returning him to the Circular Stone Steps of Zone 9.

“Please wait for Round Two to begin.”

A notification came through his identity device.

With the combat officially begun, the identity device’s functions were temporarily disabled by the Fu Ya .

At this moment,

the identity device served only as a combat alert.

After Jiang Jian returned to the Circular Stone Steps of Zone 9,

every spectator who had been watching his arena froze in shock.

A few seconds later,

someone snapped out of it, quickly opened their identity device, picked a random live stream, searched for Jiang Jian’s team, and replayed the match.

“What happened?”

“Why did it end so suddenly?”

“Huh?”

“Wasn’t he alone?”

“Why was First Love Team eliminated?”

With stunned disbelief, the spectators studied the replay.

Until they slowed the video to an excruciatingly slow speed.

Only then did the blazing white sword-light become clearly visible on screen!

“That flash of white light just now? It was a sword-light!”

“He slashed out a sword-light in the blink of an eye!?”

“This is a Divine Bestowal Realm combat!?”

“Those five had zero chance to counter—they were obliterated, their life-protection barriers shattered, swept away like trash!?”

“Did I see that right!?”

Spectators rubbed their eyes hard, hearts filled with shock.

Because Jiang Jian’s match ended too quickly,

the screen now showed only stillness—the combat scene had fallen silent.

More people

were focused on the fierce battles unfolding on other screens.

Only a very few, extremely attentive viewers, knew what had truly happened.

On the Hanjiang Fu forum, a post had already appeared.

“Look what I found! A solo combat team—how far can he go?”

The post received very few replies.

It was quickly buried under the flood of other content.

After all,

on ten thousand screens, twenty thousand combat teams were locked in fierce battle!

Many thrilling videos were rapidly edited and spread at lightning speed!

Among them,

the two combat teams with Level 5 talents, along with those elite teams composed entirely of Level 4 talents, had firmly captured countless eyes!

Guangling City, Shadow District.

Guangling No. 1 High School.

Zhou Yu had been lying on his chair, comfortably relaxed, ready to watch the combat.

But when his gaze fell upon one of the screens,

his teacup trembled, nearly spilling all over the floor!

“That’s Jiang Jian!”

“Why is he alone?!”

Zhou Yu choked on water, coughing as he zoomed in the screen, eyes wide open, fixed on it.

As the holder of numerous titles—Guangling City’s Gold Medal Teacher, Model Teacher of the City Government, Recipient of Guangling Special Allowance, Deputy Principal of Guangling No. 1 High School, and more—

Zhou Yu knew clearly

that his current good life came entirely from one student he had taught.

Level 3 Talent, Technique, Jiang Jian!

Jiang Jian scored perfect marks in both subjects of the Divine Gift Entrance Exam and gained admission to Linjiang Academy.

This made Guangling City famous throughout Anhezhou!

As Jiang Jian’s lead teacher, Zhou Yu had received countless direct and indirect benefits.

During this time,

Zhou Yu had intermittently sent Jiang Jian many messages.

But all those messages sank without a trace, never receiving a reply.

The Divine Gift University Joint Forum was accessible only to students and teachers of Divine Gift University.

Zhou Yu had no login permissions at all.

Naturally, he knew nothing of Jiang Jian’s specific situation at the academy.

But

the Two Academies’ Dao Debate was known to all.

It required no permissions.

As long as one carried their identity device, they could watch anytime.

“Thank goodness he won!”

The next moment, he saw only Jiang Jian left in the arena.

Zhou Yu let out a breath of relief.

(End of Chapter)