Chapter 68: Arena Battle! The Mysterious Invitation!

Long A spent a long time making promises and assurances before finally hanging up the phone with a satisfied sigh.

He turned to look at Lin Mo, whose expression was one of utter bewilderment, and smiled.

“My goddess and her crush had a fight—I comforted her a bit too long, Brother Lin, please forgive me.”

Lin Mo understood every single word, but together they left him utterly confused.

Long A didn’t notice his odd expression and kept talking to himself.

I still don’t know when the school’s academic scholarship will be disbursed, but once I receive it, I can surprise my goddess and her idol!

What kind of surprise?

A spiral-to-heaven umbrella?

Lin Mo fell silent for a long while, then finally spoke:

“Surprises usually turn into shocks. Instead of going to all this trouble with gifts, just send a red envelope.”

Pay their rent—that way you’ll feel more involved…

He mentally grumbled.

But Long A didn’t sense the sarcasm at all—he seriously analyzed it:

“So that’s how it is… No wonder my goddess didn’t like my ‘Goddess-Will-Cry’ gift set—turns out sending a red envelope shows more sincerity! Fine, I’ll try it then!”

With that, he grinned at Lin Mo.

“Brother Lin, you really know how to handle women—no wonder everyone says you and Chu Wange… hahaha.”

Long A chuckled again and added:

“Brother Lin, you’re truly a good person. I was actually planning to challenge you, but now I see I was the petty one!”

Lin Mo frowned. “Challenge? What do you mean?”

“You don’t know?”

“What should I know?”

“Your Dao Academy’s team leader probably hasn’t mentioned it yet,” Long A explained. “Every month, the Hundred-Day Awakening Cliff holds a fighting arena. The winner takes the loser’s meditation cushion number.”

Lin Mo sucked in a breath. “There’s a rule like this? Who made it?”

Long A continued: “It’s not a rule of the Awakening Cliff itself—the arena is only for students of the Nine Great Dao Academies…”

After hearing his explanation, Lin Mo learned that the arena was an annual, unofficial tradition among the Nine Great Dao Academies, held monthly like a “bonfire gathering.”

It was meant to foster healthy internal competition within the Nine Academies and strengthen ties among all Dao Academies in Qinzhou.

Why weren’t the other twenty-one academies’ new students involved?

They were, but the gap was too vast—there was no real point in comparing.

So most of them just acted as spectators and never stepped onto the stage.

Long A noticed Lin Mo’s furrowed brow and added: “Don’t worry, Brother Lin. This year, only about twenty to thirty people managed a perfect score in the Immortal Exam Realm.”

Was it twenty or thirty?

This year’s Immortal Exam Realm wasn’t particularly hard—it was about getting rare items inside to earn bonus points.

Long A, who had been pushed down by Lin Mo, scored perfect on both rounds, but his luck in the realm was average—he only pulled one lowest-tier purple-glowing treasure, earning just 40 bonus points.

His final score was exactly three points behind Lin Mo’s.

The next dozen or so people were also top-tier among their peers, mostly at Qi Refining 9th Layer.

Some had slightly inferior talent, others didn’t find good treasures in the realm…

For various reasons, none made it into the top ten of the Immortal List.

Their strength might not be enough to challenge the top few, but most had a real shot at securing a top-twenty rank.

But Lin Mo, who’d snatched tenth place by sheer luck, probably had more than just Long A eyeing him.

After all, no matter how you looked at it, among the top ten, he was the only “soft target” worth squeezing.

Lin Mo gritted his teeth, recalling his earlier shenanigans in the Immortal Exam, and felt his odds of getting beaten were very high.

Long A thought for a moment and said:

“According to past tradition, the arena won’t happen for at least thirty days, and not everyone is allowed to challenge the top ten. You’ve got time—keep working hard, Brother Lin!”

He stood on tiptoe, patted Lin Mo’s shoulder, and grinned with a simple, earnest expression on his dark face:

“I’m heading back to shower—I’ve got a video call with my goddess tonight.”

After saying goodbye, he dashed down the path toward the pavilion residence, vanishing in an instant along the mountain trail.

Lin Mo was left alone on the trail, walking slowly as he pondered.

He pulled up his profile:

【Cultivation Base】: Qi Refining 8th Layer (100/5000)

【Merit Points】: 240

【Luck Points】: 62

【Divine Ability】:

Five-Spirit Dao Body: 1626/10000

【Techniques】:

1. Heavenly Thunder Spell (Middle Grade · Perfect)

2. Kui Star Stance (Low Grade · Perfect)

3. Basic Sword Art (Low Grade): 404/1000

4. Rain Summoning Spell (Low Grade): 200/1000

5. Fire Control Spell (Low Grade): 200/1000

…

On his profile, only three techniques could be called offensive tools.

One middle-grade perfect spell, one low-grade perfect stance, and one low-grade perfected Basic Sword Art.

The stance boosted his physical stats, and combined with the perfected sword art, occasional finishing blows wouldn’t be a problem.

And then there was the Perfect-level Heavenly Thunder Spell—the most powerful technique he currently possessed.

“I wonder if I could hide and ambush during the arena…”

He rubbed his chin, then dismissed the idea as too outrageous.

He’d fought on arenas before—at Nanshan, during semester-end practical exams.

But those were nothing but weaklings fighting each other—opponents like Zhang Dahai, utterly insignificant compared to these Immortal Seedlings who’d cleared the Immortal Exam Realm.

In other words, every Immortal Seedling admitted to the Nine Great Dao Academies was as strong as at least twenty-five “tatted thugs.”

With his current profile, Lin Mo had no trouble handling opponents below his level.

But facing someone like Long A—a Qi Refining 9th Layer prodigy—was another matter entirely.

The speed Long A had shown in the stance drill—if they faced off on the same arena, Lin Mo might not even finish forming the incantation before being closed in and taken down in one combo.

Excluding Long A, there were still many ruthless players among the top twenty who’d scored perfect.

“No, I need to find out more.”

After careful thought, Lin Mo decided to take this seriously.

Even a single row’s difference in 【Awakening Radiance】 brought noticeable variation in effect.

If he was accidentally knocked down by a freshman at 8th Layer, the blessing of the radiance would drop by far more than a little.

Realizing this, Lin Mo pulled out his Spirit Device, opened his contacts, found Zhuang Weiwang’s number he’d obtained earlier, and sent a message:

“Sister Zhuang, I have something to ask you—can I come see you now?”

Only after hitting send did he realize the hour was late—visiting now seemed inappropriate.

He was about to retract the message when he heard a soft “ding”—she’d already replied:

“Come over. I’m in Pavilion Residence No. 88. Don’t knock—just unlock the door. Password: 13516.”

Lin Mo stared at the room password, feeling it was some kind of mysterious invitation…