Gu Ci!

Qin Wuyue's cool voice echoed through the deathly silent hall, every word carrying unquestionable resolve.

"I want to fight you!"

Those words stunned the prodigies once more, just as they had begun to recover from the shock of his 80 cal of Qi and Blood.

They couldn't understand.

After witnessing a number that stood between them like an impassable chasm, why would Qin Wuyue issue a challenge that anyone would consider hopeless?

"Approved!"

A deeply appreciative smile spread across instructor Feng Lie's unruly face.

What he wanted was precisely this kind of martial artist's heart: knowing there was a tiger on the mountain, yet heading straight for it!

With a broad wave of his hand, he approved the duel on the spot.

On the arena, Chen Fan looked at her calmly.

In those eyes, burning with flames as pure as colored glass, he saw the pride and determination of a true martial artist.

He said nothing more, merely giving a slight nod.

That was the greatest respect he could show an opponent.

The next second, he vanished from beside the testing machine. When he reappeared, he had landed soundlessly on the most symbolic stage of all, the Main Arena at the very center of the hall.

Qin Wuyue moved with graceful steps, mounting the arena one step at a time.

With each step she took, her frosty aura climbed higher and higher until it reached its peak.

"Beep!"

The whistle signaling the start of the match rang throughout the hall!

The instant it sounded, Qin Wuyue held nothing back!

Boom!

The vast Qi and Blood within her, reaching 79.1 cal, erupted like a volcano beneath a glacier that had lain dormant for ten thousand years!

Buzz!!

The ancient-looking longsword in her hand let out a clear, ringing cry that seemed capable of piercing the soul!

In an instant, cold sword light filled the sky, like moonlight spilling down from the nine heavens or a silent blizzard. It wove itself into a deathly net, flawless and all-encompassing, sealing off every direction around Chen Fan, above and below!

Faced with a sword net enough to make any martial artist of the same realm's scalp tingle and gallbladder split, Chen Fan's expression didn't waver in the slightest.

He didn't even turn to take a practice sword from the weapon rack.

Under the utterly astonished gazes of everyone present, he simply raised his right hand slowly, pressed his index and middle fingers together to form an utterly ordinary sword finger, and casually slashed forward.

That seemingly casual slash,

however, contained Five Elements Fist Intent at Peak Perfection and Five Elements Sword Principles at the perfected realm.

More importantly, it carried a trace of the tyrannical, all-conquering power tempered a thousand times through the Star-Transferring Blood Art, a power that seemed capable of crushing stars!

There was no earthshaking boom.

No dazzling display of light and shadow.

Chen Fan's fingertip, like a meteor streaking through an eternally silent night, struck with unerring precision at the very center of the brilliant sword net, its weakest point!

Time seemed to pause at that moment.

Crack...

An extraordinarily faint sound, like colored glass shattering, rang clearly through the silent hall.

The next instant, the net of sword light, flawless and impregnable in everyone's eyes, melted away beneath Chen Fan's finger like ice and snow under the sun!

In the end, it turned into countless sparkling points of light that vanished without a trace.

Qin Wuyue froze on the spot as if struck by lightning.

The web between the thumb and forefinger of her sword hand was a bloody mess. Blood dripped slowly down the ancient sword's hilt, blossoming into bleak, beautiful flowers of blood on the arena's polished floor.

Her peak strike, her pride and the culmination of all her essence, energy, and spirit, had actually been...

Broken so effortlessly by a casual move.

A silence more complete and suffocating than any before it fell over the hall.

Every student stared blankly, like a puppet stripped of its soul, at the nine-year-old boy whose breathing hadn't been disturbed in the slightest.

Qin Wuyue stared blankly at the empty space before her, then looked at Chen Fan's still-calm face.

The last traces of a genius's pride and fighting spirit faded from her face, leaving her pale with acceptance.

She slowly lowered her sword and sheathed it.

Then, under the astonished gazes of everyone present, she solemnly bowed to Chen Fan.

A perfectly executed ninety-degree bow.

"I lost."

Her voice was clear and cool, but it carried heartfelt admiration.

"I accept my defeat wholeheartedly."

Her bow was not for victory or defeat, but for the awe she felt toward the higher realm of Martial Dao she had always pursued.

"Haha... hahahahaha!"

Feng Lie's laughter rolled through the hall like thunder, brimming with unrestrained delight!

He strode onto the arena and gave Chen Fan a heavy pat on the shoulder. His gaze swept over the dispirited little brats below as his voice rang out like a bell.

"Don't be discouraged. Some people are true geniuses. You can't compare yourselves to them!"

Feng Lie offered his consolation.

But the moment those words left his mouth, the students of the Prodigy Class couldn't help twitching their lips.

Fuck, is that how you console people?

Is that something a fucking human being can say??

Feng Lie's wild laughter gradually subsided in the empty hall. He waved a hand, his voice carrying a hint of weary disinterest.

"All right, get lost. Today's lesson ends here."

The students of the Prodigy Class left as if granted a pardon, their steps unsteady. Like walking corpses, they silently departed this place of heartbreak that had brought them endless shock and despair.

Qin Wuyue gave Chen Fan a long look. There was no fighting spirit left in her cool eyes, only pure awe and a yearning for power on a higher level.

She gave a slight nod, then turned and drifted away, leaving only a solitary, aloof figure behind her.

Soon, only Feng Lie and Chen Fan remained in the hall.

Feng Lie said nothing more, merely gazing deeply at Chen Fan with an extremely complicated look.

The next second, Feng Lie abruptly turned and strode out of the Martial Dao Training Hall without looking back.

Jiangnan No. 1 High School, at the highest point on campus, in the Principal's Office.

Wei Tianlong was reporting on recent work to the principal.

Bang!!

Before he had finished speaking, the heavy solid-wood doors of the office were smashed open by a tremendous force.

Feng Lie burst straight in, beside himself with excitement.

"Principal!"

"Eighty cal! That kid's Qi and Blood is at eighty cal now!!"

"He used just one finger! He broke that girl Qin Wuyue's full-powered sword strike! Five Elements Swordplay at the perfected realm—he really did it!"

Boom!

Wei Tianlong's head buzzed, and his eyes widened.

Eighty cal?

Nine years old, with eighty cal of Qi and Blood?

Behind the desk, however, the old principal, his hair and beard both white, merely set down the Zisha Teacup in his hand. Its base met the desktop with a crisp clink.

It sounded especially clear in the deathly quiet office.

His face showed none of Wei Tianlong's astonishment or Feng Lie's frenzy, only a calmness as though he had foreseen it all.

"An ordinary pond cannot sustain a true dragon."

The old principal spoke softly. His voice was quiet, yet it seemed to carry a power that put people at ease.

"The Prodigy Class is no longer suited to him."

"I had originally thought of having the little fellow skip a grade, but now it seems..."

With that, he rose from behind the broad Redwood Desk and walked slowly to a Black Communicator in the corner of the office, an ancient-looking device covered in intricate wiring.

Wei Tianlong and Feng Lie instantly held their breath.

They recognized the machine. It was Jiangnan No. 1 High School's highest-level Encrypted Communication Line, never to be used except for matters fundamental to the school's survival.

The old principal extended a withered finger and entered a series of complex commands on the communicator. With a faint crackle of electricity, the line connected.

Speaking into the communicator, he calmly said only two words.

"Gu Ci."

The instant those words left his mouth, Feng Lie and Wei Tianlong both changed color!

For the first time, apprehension appeared on Feng Lie's unruly face.

Wei Tianlong was even more shocked. "Principal, you..."

Gu Ci!

At Jiangnan No. 1 High School, that name was a legend, but also a taboo!

He had once been the most brilliant and legendary Gold Medal Instructor in the school's hundred-year history. His disciples were now all either rising stars in the Federation military or renowned Garrison Envoys in their own territories.

But ten years ago, after a devastating upheaval that remained shrouded in secrecy to this day, the legendary instructor's heart had completely died. He had sworn a vicious oath never to take another disciple in his lifetime, then vanished without a trace.

Ask him to come out of seclusion?

How could that be possible!

The old principal ignored the two men's loss of composure and simply waited in silence.

On the other end of the communicator, there was only deathly silence, a long silence.

Just as Feng Lie and Wei Tianlong almost thought the call would end there, a similarly hoarse voice, icy and devoid of the slightest emotion, uttered a single word.

"...Who?"

"A... student who needs you to teach him."

The old principal spoke slowly.

The other end of the line fell silent again.

After a long time, a cold laugh came through, seemingly one of self-mockery.

"I can't teach students, and ordinary students aren't suited to my teaching methods either."

"No." The old principal shook his head, his profound gaze seemingly piercing through time and space. "I think you'll like him!"

Those words seemed to flip a switch.

The call was abruptly cut off.

The atmosphere in the office grew tense to the extreme.

Feng Lie and Wei Tianlong didn't dare breathe too loudly.

Less than ten minutes later.

The office door was pushed open soundlessly.

There were no footsteps, no aura, as though he were a ghost.

A middle-aged man walked in, dressed in gray cloth clothes washed pale. He had an ordinary face and an average build, and his presence was so ordinary that he would disappear completely the next moment if tossed into a crowd.

Beneath his messy hair was a pair of lifeless eyes, without a ripple, like an abyss.

He looked at neither Feng Lie nor Wei Tianlong, only gazing quietly at the old principal.

It was as if, in his eyes, this man was all that remained in the entire world.

The old principal looked at the man before him, and a hint of solemnity finally appeared on his face, which had remained as still as an ancient well.

He spoke slowly, his voice echoing clearly in the silent office.

"Gu Ci, I have a student here."

"He needs you to teach him."