Dead silence.
A silence so profound, one could hear a needle drop.
The thousands of students in the entire Mission Hall stared blankly at Wang Chen, who was rolling beneath the arena clutching his hand in agony, then at the youth on the stage, who slowly withdrew his finger with an expression as placid as water.
Everyone's mind went blank.
What had happened?
It was over?
It was over just like that?!
From Wang Chen launching his attack with murderous momentum to collapsing with broken tendons and shattered bones, wailing in agony, the whole process had taken less than a breath!
And from beginning to end, Lin Xiao had used only one move.
No, that could not even be called a move.
He had merely extended a single finger.
One finger defeated the enemy!
That effortless bearing and that devastating result formed an absurd yet earth-shaking visual impact, branding itself fiercely into the heart of everyone present!
"Gulp."
Someone swallowed hard, and the sound was especially clear amid the dead silence.
Then, like a powder keg being ignited, the crowd instantly erupted in tidal waves of cries and discussion!
"I... I didn't see that wrong, did I? Wang Chen... got taken down with one finger?" "What Martial Skill was that? I didn't even see how he made his move!" "Too terrifying! Is this really strength a student from Yellow Class Nine could possess? Just how much has he been hiding?!" "A monster! This guy is absolutely a monster!"
All the contempt, mockery, and schadenfreude turned into deep shock and fear at that moment. When they looked at Lin Xiao again, there was not the slightest trace of disdain left in their eyes; in its place was reverence for a monstrous genius among their peers.
Below the stage, Li Mo and his lackeys had long since gone pale, their bodies freezing cold.
The cruel grins and smugness on their faces had completely stiffened, replaced by boundless horror. More than anyone, they knew Wang Chen's strength. That move, Tidal Wave Palm, was Wang Chen's proudest technique. Yet such an all-out attack had been as fragile as paper mache before Lin Xiao!
Li Mo stared fixedly at Lin Xiao, his heart pounding wildly. At last, he understood why he had been subdued within two moves in the Myriad Beast Mountain Range. It had not been luck—it had been absolute suppression through strength! This guy had been playing the pig to eat the tiger from the very beginning!
The senior responsible for registration was even more terrified, nearly falling out of his chair. He wiped the cold sweat from his brow, his gaze toward Lin Xiao full of ingratiation and fear.
Under everyone's stunned gazes, Lin Xiao slowly descended from the arena and walked over to the registration desk.
He did not look at Wang Chen, who lay there like a dead dog, nor did he pay attention to Li Mo's deathly pale face. He merely said calmly to the senior, "Can we settle the merit points now?"
"C-Can! Of course we can!" The senior snapped back to his senses and nodded and bowed repeatedly, the hand operating the artifact trembling slightly.
Very soon, an enormous sum of three thousand merit points was forcibly transferred from the jade badges of Li Mo, Wang Chen, and the other four into Lin Xiao's jade badge on the light screen.
Seeing the merit point balance on his badge surge instantly to over three thousand and thirty points, Lin Xiao finally revealed a satisfied smile.
This was his true purpose in coming here.
"Y-You..." Li Mo watched his merit points get wiped out in an instant. He trembled with rage and pointed at Lin Xiao, yet could not force out a single word.
Lin Xiao cast him an indifferent glance, as though looking at an insignificant ant.
"A bet is a bet. Or are people from Earth Class unable to accept defeat?"
Li Mo's face flushed red from being choked speechless. Under the countless gazes around him, he ultimately did not dare utter another word and could only swallow his broken teeth along with the blood.
"Let's go!"
He shot Lin Xiao a venomous look, then called for his equally crestfallen lackeys to carry away Wang Chen, who was still howling on the ground. They squeezed out of the crowd in disgrace.
After this battle, the news of Lin Xiao defeating Wang Chen with one finger and gambling for three thousand merit points spread through the entire outer academy within half a day as though it had grown wings!
The name "Lin Xiao" once again became the center of discussion among all the new students and even the older students in an overwhelmingly forceful fashion.
His image had also risen from the "fallen dark horse" to an "unfathomable fierce dragon crossing the river"!
When Lin Xiao walked out of the Mission Hall, Shi Lei and Su Yue, who had received the news long ago, were waiting excitedly at the entrance.
"Lin Xiao! Y-You were way too fierce!" Shi Lei rushed up and gave Lin Xiao a bear hug, his face flushed red with excitement. "One finger! Just one finger! When I heard people talking about it earlier, I thought they were boasting! That bastard Wang Chen probably doesn't even have a place to cry now!"
Su Yue's beautiful eyes also shone with strange brilliance. She looked Lin Xiao up and down as though meeting him for the first time. "Just how many secrets are you hiding? What Martial Skill did you use with that finger? I feel like... it seemed to contain the shadows of several different Martial Skills."
As expected of a genius from Heaven Class. Her eye was indeed viciously sharp.
Lin Xiao had "scanned" over a thousand Human-Tier Low-Grade Martial Skills in the Library Pavilion and had long since mastered their principles and flaws by heart. That finger strike had looked simple, but it had actually seen through the force structure of Tidal Wave Palm in an instant, then fused together the essence of dozens of finger techniques. Only by breaking the surface with a point could it achieve such a shocking effect.
"Just a little trick born from putting things together," Lin Xiao replied with a smile, brushing it off.
"And you call that a little trick?" Shi Lei cried exaggeratedly. "If that's a little trick, then aren't the things we practice nothing but three-legged cat kung fu?"
The three of them chatted and laughed as they headed toward the Library Pavilion.
"By the way, Lin Xiao, you won so many merit points all at once. How do you plan to use them?" Su Yue asked curiously.
"Of course I'm going to the Library Pavilion." Lin Xiao's eyes gleamed with thirst for knowledge. "I've already read just about everything on the first floor. It's time to take a look at the second floor."
The second floor!
Shi Lei and Su Yue both revealed envious expressions upon hearing that.
They knew that the second floor of the Library Pavilion was the true treasure ground! It held Human-Tier Mid-Grade and even high-grade cultivation methods and Martial Skills! To cultivators in the Body Refinement Realm, those were treasures worth fighting over like mad.
But entering the second floor required not only a "ticket" of one hundred merit points per visit, but also a student rank of Earth Class or above.
Before long, the three arrived once more before that ancient pagoda.
The same two seniors stood guard at the entrance. When they saw Lin Xiao, their expressions had clearly changed. There was no longer the contempt from before, only a trace of curiosity and wariness.
"Senior, I want to enter the second floor." Lin Xiao directly handed over his jade badge.
The senior took the jade badge and habitually started to say, "Yellow Class isn't qualified," but swallowed the words before they could leave his mouth. He remembered the rumor that had been spreading like wildfire today.
Half-believing and half-doubting, he swiped the badge over the artifact.
"Beep! Lin Xiao of Yellow Class Nine. Granted special permission by an instructor to enter the second floor of the Library Pavilion. One hundred merit points deducted."
A crisp notification actually rang out from the artifact!
The two seniors both froze.
Special permission from an instructor? A Yellow Class student had actually received special permission from an instructor to enter the second floor? What an honor was that?!
How could they know that Lin Xiao's performance during enrollment, when his punch had nearly reached nine bars of force, had prompted Vice Dean Chu Tianxing to specially open a "back door" for him?
Under their astonished gazes, Lin Xiao calmly took back his jade badge, nodded to Shi Lei and Su Yue, and stepped onto the staircase leading to the second floor.
The instant he stepped onto the second floor, an aura completely different from that of the first floor rushed at him.
The space here was much smaller than on the first floor, yet it was more elegant and tranquil. The bookshelves were made from precious red sandalwood, and the books placed upon them were crafted from demon beast hide or special jade slips, emitting faint ripples of Spiritual Energy.
There were far fewer students here as well. Everyone wore focused expressions, immersed in their own worlds, while a rich scholarly atmosphere permeated the entire space.
Lin Xiao took a deep breath, feeling the scent of books and spiritual aura suffusing the air. His eyes shone with unprecedented light.
He knew that from this moment onward, a door to a broader world had slowly opened before him.
Without pausing in the slightest, he strode forward and began another frenzied journey of "scanning."
[System Notification: Human-Tier Mid-Grade cultivation method *Thunderous Strength* detected. Learn?] [System Notification: Human-Tier Mid-Grade Martial Skill *Seven Star Steps* detected. Learn?] [System Notification: Alchemy notes *Pill Dao Introduction* detected. Record?]
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