If everything Lin Xiao had done before—breaking the Gravity Tower record, triggering a resonance with Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy, making a three-month pact with the vice dean—had merely been like casting boulders into a placid lake and stirring up ripples after ripples,
then personally writing that life-and-death challenge to Li Tianyi, Chief Instructor of Heaven Class Three, upon the Merit Monument was no different from completely detonating a dormant volcano that had lain silent for ten thousand years!
"Boom—!"
Cloud Creek Academy's entire outer academy plunged into unprecedented frenzy and madness!
After a brief deathly silence, the several thousand students before the Merit Monument who had witnessed the scene erupted into an uproar that seemed capable of overturning the heavens!
"Madman! This guy is absolutely a madman through and through! A Body Refinement Seventh Level challenger taking on the peak of the Body Refinement Eighth Level? Who does he think he is? Some monster from the inner academy descended to earth?!" "Li Tianyi! He's one of the top eleven ruthless figures in the outer academy! His Blazing Flame Saber is tyrannical beyond compare, and during a mission, he once slaughtered three peak second-rank demonic beasts all by himself! What does Lin Xiao have to fight him with?" "I admit that he is exceptionally gifted, a genius found once in ten thousand. But talent does not equal strength! There is more than an entire major realm between them! This is no longer confidence—it is courting death!" "What a pity. A rising new star is about to fall ahead of time because of his excessive arrogance."
Doubt, mockery, pity, confusion... all kinds of voices gathered into a massive tide of public opinion that spread and fermented wildly through every corner of the academy.
In less than half an hour, the matter had spread throughout the entire outer academy. Even some inner academy students had heard this year's most explosive "news."
Upon hearing it, the students of the Heaven Classes were first stunned, then collectively enraged and disdainful.
"Ha? A mud-legged nobody from a Yellow Class dares challenge the Chief Instructor of our Heaven Class? Is he worthy?" "Senior Brother Li Tianyi is the face of our Heaven Class Three! This Lin Xiao is simply humiliating himself! He is provoking the dignity of our entire Heaven Class!" "Senior Brother Tianyi must accept the challenge! And he cannot let him die too easily! He must stomp him beneath his feet before the entire academy and make him, along with that Yellow Class of his that knows neither heaven nor earth, understand what it means to be as far apart as clouds and mud!"
Meanwhile, in Heaven Class Three's cultivation area, a storm was also brewing around the other central figure in this incident.
"Bang!"
A training dummy forged from an entire block of black iron was split cleanly in two by a violent crimson blade aura. The cut was smooth as a mirror, with scorching burn marks still lingering upon it.
A tall, brawny young man with an arrogant face and short flaming-red hair slowly sheathed his saber. His bare upper body was covered in crisscrossing scars, his bronze skin radiating explosive power. A scorching, domineering aura spread from him, causing the air around him to warp faintly.
He was Li Tianyi!
"Senior Brother! That Yellow Class trash named Lin Xiao has issued you a challenge on the Merit Monument!" A Heaven Class student tumbled in head over heels, his face filled with uncontrollable fury.
"Oh?"
There was not the slightest surprise on Li Tianyi's face. Instead, a cruel and contemptuous sneer curled across his lips.
"Looks like Boss Xiao Lang guessed right. That mad dog who doesn't know whether he is alive or dead really dared to bite me first."
He picked up a towel from beside him and wiped the sweat from his brow, his eyes carrying the playful amusement of a cat toying with a mouse.
"Who does he think he is? Just because of some so-called Innate Dao Body and the vice dean's favor, does he really think he can ascend to the heavens in a single step? How laughably naive!"
"Senior Brother, then we..."
"Accept it!" Li Tianyi's voice was decisive. "Not only will I accept it, I want the spectacle made as big as possible! Spread the word that three days from now, on the Life and Death Stage, I, Li Tianyi, will personally cripple this arrogant fool who knows neither heaven nor earth! Let everyone come and see the consequences of provoking the dignity of the Heaven Class!"
He paused, a vicious glint flashing through his eyes.
"Also, go to the mission hall and open a betting pool for me! Bet on the outcome of this duel! My odds, Li Tianyi, are one to one. That trash Lin Xiao's odds... one to ten!"
"Senior Brother is wise!" The student was immediately overjoyed. "Not only will this make that trash lose all face, it will also let us earn a fortune in merit points!"
"Hmph. He is nothing more than a dead man walking." Li Tianyi snorted disdainfully and looked toward the top of the cultivation tower. "What I truly need to do is help Boss Xiao Lang grind that eyesore of a nail into dust!"
The news flew back to Yellow Class Nine's training grounds as though it had grown wings.
When they heard that Li Tianyi had not only accepted the challenge but also set up the humiliating one-to-ten betting pool, every student in Yellow Class Nine nearly exploded with rage!
"This is going too far! That Li Tianyi simply does not take us seriously!" "One to ten? What does he take the Chief Instructor for, livestock waiting to be butchered?!" "No! We have to do something! We cannot let the Chief Instructor face all this alone!"
The crowd seethed with indignation!
After a month of hellish training, these young men and women had already been reborn. The iron-blooded spirit and unity that had gathered around them left them with no fear whatsoever when facing the Heaven Class's provocation—only the fury of sharing a common enemy!
"Quiet!"
Just as everyone was arguing without end, Lin Xiao's calm yet powerful voice drowned out all the noise.
Looking at the indignant faces before him, not only did he show no anger, but a faint approving smile appeared instead.
"Anger is the mark of the weak. And what are we going to do?"
He swept his gaze across the crowd and said, word by word, "Turn the enemy's contempt into the sharpest blade in our hands! Turn their humiliation into the firmest stepping stone beneath our feet!"
He walked to the front of the group, his eyes passing over every face.
"Zhou Xiaoshu!"
"Here!" The once-timid youth now stood ramrod straight, his voice loud and clear.
"I have a task for you." Lin Xiao looked at him. "Withdraw ten thousand merit points from our team's public fund. Then organize everyone in the class to pool every merit point you have accumulated this month!"
"And then?" Zhou Xiaoshu's breathing became rapid.
A frighteningly sharp light flashed through Lin Xiao's eyes.
"Then stake every last merit point for me!"
"Bet it all on me winning!"
If Lin Xiao's challenge letter had detonated a volcano, then when the news spread that Yellow Class Nine had staked a massive total of more than twenty thousand merit points on Lin Xiao's one-to-ten victory, the entire outer academy could only be described with one word: madness!
"Twenty thousand merit points! Yellow Class Nine has staked their entire fortune!" "Have they gone mad? Do they really think Lin Xiao can create a miracle?" "This is no longer gambling. This is giving money away! Quick! Take out all the merit points I earned from missions last month and bet them all on Senior Brother Li Tianyi! A bargain that falls from the sky would be wasted if we did not take it!"
For a time, a frenzy of betting swept through the entire outer academy!
Nearly ninety-nine percent of people unhesitatingly staked their merit points on Li Tianyi. In their eyes, this was not a suspenseful duel at all, but a feast of merit points carefully arranged by Li Tianyi, guaranteed to yield profit without loss!
In just one day, the total stake in Li Tianyi's betting pool broke through an unprecedented one hundred thousand merit points!
On Lin Xiao's side, aside from the twenty thousand points placed by Yellow Class Nine themselves, there was almost no interest at all.
Lin Xiao gave no further response to the overwhelming public uproar outside.
He devoted all his energy to the final preparations before the decisive battle.
He no longer engaged in ordinary cultivation.
He shut himself inside his dormitory, immersed his mind in the system, and began frantically sorting through and deducing possibilities.
[Target: Li Tianyi] [Realm: Body Refinement Eighth Level Peak] [Cultivation Method: Blazing Fire Art (Earth-Tier Low-Grade)] [Martial Skills: Blazing Flame Saber (Profound Grade High Rank, mastered), Chasing Wind Steps (Profound Grade Middle Rank, minor mastery)] [Overall Combat Power Assessment: 195] [Weakness Analysis: Arrogant temperament, prone to underestimating enemies and charging ahead; saber techniques are broad and forceful, with strength in abundance but insufficient variation; three inches below the left ribs lies an old injury, a weak point in his defense...]
Everything about Li Tianyi was analyzed with crystal clarity upon the system screen.
Lin Xiao's mind, meanwhile, worked like the fastest supercomputer, frantically simulating every possible battle scenario that might occur three days later.
He continuously dismantled, reorganized, and fused the 1,324 basic Martial Skills he had mastered within his mind.
He discovered that when his Unbending True Meaning combined with the Book of Ten Thousand Laws, it produced an extraordinary chemical reaction! From an inconceivable perspective, he could perceive the most fundamental "truths of martial dao" contained within these most basic Martial Skills!
He began trying to merge the "inch force" of Basic Fist Technique into Basic Swordplay, and combine the "turning" of Basic Movement Technique with the "force-dissipating" techniques of Basic Palm Technique...
One new killing move after another, far more powerful than the original Martial Skills yet as natural as an antelope hanging its horns, without the slightest trace of artifice, continuously took shape and improved within his mind.
This was a true power capable of turning decay into miracle!
Aside from his own deductions, he had not forgotten his team.
He shut himself in his room for an entire day and night, using a rune pen to write dense words and diagrams across dozens of specially made beast-hide sheets.
They were personalized "Martial Skill Optimization Plans" and "Cooperative Battle Formation Diagrams" tailored to the characteristics of every single student in Yellow Class Nine!
The next day, when Lin Xiao handed those beast-hide sheets to Shi Lei, Su Yue, and the rest of Yellow Class Nine with dark circles beneath both eyes, everyone was utterly shaken by the exquisitely profound contents, which seemed to point directly to the source of martial dao itself!
"My heavens... So my Mountain Splitting Fist can exert force like this! Its power can increase by at least thirty percent!" Shi Lei trembled all over with excitement as he stared at the diagram meant for him.
"This... this Three Talents Sword Formation was practically tailored for the three of us! If we master it, perhaps the three of us together can even fight a Body Refinement Sixth Level cultivator!" Su Yue stared at the exquisite formation diagram, brilliant light flickering in her beautiful eyes.
The way they looked at Lin Xiao was no longer mere worship, but... reverence!
This had already surpassed the scope of "genius"! He was practically a reclusive grandmaster of martial dao!
"This is all I can teach you." Lin Xiao's voice carried a trace of exhaustion, yet it was filled with unquestionable authority. "For the remaining two days, your task is to carve these things into your bones! Two days from now, on the Life and Death Stage, I want the entire academy to see what kind of team Yellow Class Nine truly is!"
"Yes, Chief Instructor!"
Twenty-nine unified roars soared into the heavens!
Time passed rapidly amid the feverish and anxious atmosphere engulfing the entire outer academy.
The morning of the third day.
When the first ray of sunlight pierced through the clouds and shone upon Cloud Creek Academy's Life and Death Stage, which brimmed with a chilling aura of slaughter,
the place was already packed solid with people!
Tens of thousands of outer academy students, along with quite a few inner academy students who had rushed over upon hearing the news, surrounded the entire Life and Death Stage three layers deep inside and three layers deep outside. They were all waiting—waiting for the beginning of that world-shaking clash, the most insane duel in the academy's history!
"Here he comes! Senior Brother Li Tianyi is here!"
No one knew who shouted it, but the crowd automatically parted to form a path.
Li Tianyi strode over like a dragon and a tiger, dressed in fiery-red combat attire and carrying an exaggerated crimson war saber over his shoulder, surrounded by a group of Heaven Class students.
His expression was arrogant and his gaze disdainful. He enjoyed the mountain-shaking, tsunami-like cheers and shouts around him as though victory had already been secured in advance.
He stepped onto the Life and Death Stage forged from obsidian and heavily drove the war saber in his hand into the platform!
"Clang!"
A deafening clash of metal rang through the entire plaza, accompanied by scattering sparks.
"Where is that trash called Lin Xiao? Why has he not come yet?" Li Tianyi's voice boomed like a great bell through the entire venue. "Could it be that he is too scared to come and has fled before the battle?"
His words drew a burst of uproarious laughter from the Heaven Class students below the stage.
Just then, the crowd in another direction also began to stir slowly.
"They are here too! Yellow Class Nine!"
It was completely different from Li Tianyi's arrogant and domineering entrance.
A team walked slowly forward beneath countless complicated gazes, their steps perfectly synchronized and steady as mountains.
They did not shout, nor did they make any noise.
Yet the iron-blooded, solemn aura formed by those twenty-nine people standing together, like battle-hardened elite soldiers, made everyone who had mocked them unconsciously shut their mouths.
Walking at the very front of this team was Lin Xiao.
He still wore a simple green student robe, carried no weapon in his hands, and showed no expression upon his face.
He merely climbed onto the platform where life and death would be decided, step by calm step, until he stood before Li Tianyi.
Their eyes met.
One was tyrannical as fire, determined to burn the eight desolations to ash.
The other was tranquil as an abyss, concealing raging waves ten thousand fathoms high.
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