Blood-Red Prelude

When the ultimate weapon representing the Academy's law-enforcement power—the Golden Armored Warrior—was brutally torn into eight pieces by Class "Defy the Ordinary's" artistic yet terrifying combined attack within a mere nine breaths, before anyone could react, reduced completely to a pile of scrap metal, Cloud Creek Academy's most shocking and worldview-shattering final assessment in history came to an end in such an absurdly dreamlike fashion.

The final result was already self-evident.

Chu Tianxing did not even bother announcing the now-meaningless assessment result.

He merely gave a deep look to the youth who had remained calm from beginning to end, as though he had only done something trivial, and to the group of monsters behind him, equally still as deep pools and firm as towering mountains. Leaving behind a deeply gratified and expectant, "Prepare yourselves well," he hurried away with the Discipline Hall elder, who had been so shocked that he was beginning to doubt his life.

He knew.

His superfluous assessment had not only failed to test anything—it had nearly made him lose every shred of face from his more than hundred years of life!

The energy possessed by these little fellows had long surpassed his imagination!

And with Chu Tianxing's departure,

Tingzhu Pavilion returned to its usual tranquility.

Yet the blazing battlefire already ignited in the hearts of every Class "Defy the Ordinary" member showed not the slightest sign of dying down. Instead, it burned ever fiercer and more brilliantly!

They knew.

The real war had finally arrived!

Three days later.

The central martial arena of Cloud Creek Academy's outer courtyard.

This was the largest and most sacred place in the entire outer courtyard. Normally, it was only opened during Academy tournaments or exceptionally important assemblies.

Yet today, this enormous martial arena, capable of holding a hundred thousand people at once, was packed to the brim!

Every outer-court student, whether newly enrolled freshmen or veterans who had cultivated here for years, whether lone wanderers or core members of major factions, had gathered here without prior arrangement!

Their faces all bore the same expression.

—Excitement, nervousness, anticipation, and a trace of fear for the unknown... hidden deep within their eyes!

Because today was the day Cloud Creek Academy's grandest and cruelest trial festival, held once every three years, began!

—The Bloody Trial was officially opening!

On a colossal platform forged from unknown black divine iron at the northernmost end of the martial arena, Chu Tianxing and dozens of Academy higher-ups with equally formidable auras were already assembled.

Their expressions were incomparably solemn as their majestic gazes slowly swept over the hundred thousand students below, endless as a black tide!

Below the platform stood the clearly divided formations of the major factions!

At the very front were the top-tier factions ranked among the outer courtyard's top ten!

"Danxin Society," "Divine Weapon Pavilion," "Wind and Cloud Alliance"...

Each powerful force, which had achieved brilliant results in past trials, had sent out its most elite core combatants!

Every one of them was composed and sharp-eyed, clearly prepared for this day!

Yet amid all those top factions, one formation with a somewhat oppressive and gloomy atmosphere stood out starkly, drawing every eye.

It was the outer courtyard's former number-one overlord—Heavenly Martial Society!

Though after the battle in the Black Wind Mountain Range, which had dealt them a crippling blow, they no longer possessed their former overbearing majesty of standing alone above all others,

a starving camel was still larger than a horse!

As an old-established faction with the deepest foundations in the outer courtyard, the lineup they had sent this time was still not to be underestimated!

Especially Chen Xuan, the second seat of Class Heaven One, who had temporarily replaced Wu Tianxiong—already reduced to a cripple—as Heavenly Martial Society's new president!

Though this man normally kept a low profile and his reputation was far less resounding than Wu Tianxiong's,

his true strength had likewise reached the unfathomable peak of the Body Refinement Ninth Level!

At this moment, he sat cross-legged at the very front of the formation with his eyes closed. His face, calm as an ancient well, revealed neither joy nor anger.

Yet the cold, lethal, serpent-like aura faintly emanating from him sent chills through every student nearby who tried to probe him!

Just as everyone's gazes drifted back and forth among the dozen or so top faction formations, guessing who the ultimate victor of this Bloody Trial would be,

a faint but perfectly synchronized rhythm of footsteps suddenly came from the martial arena entrance.

The sound was not loud.

Yet it seemed to carry an uncanny magic.

In an instant, it drowned out the roaring clamor created by tens of thousands of people!

The originally deafening martial arena fell silent in a heartbeat!

Everyone instinctively stopped talking and slowly turned toward those eerie footsteps, like Death tolling a funeral bell.

Then they witnessed a sight they would never forget for the rest of their lives.

Thirty young men and women wore identical fitted black uniforms, with an ancient character embroidered on their backs in vivid blood-red thread—a character brimming with boundless defiance and soaring pride.

They marched in neat ranks with noiseless steps, like an undefeated army returning triumphant from the Nine Nether Hells!

Silently, they entered this ultimate battlefield that could make even Gods and Devils change color!

Their faces held no unnecessary expressions.

Their eyes were so calm that not a ripple stirred within them.

It was as if the sea of one hundred thousand people before them, enough to make any ordinary youth's blood boil and heart surge,

was nothing more in their eyes than a flock of chickens and dogs that could be crushed beneath their hands!

This was Defy the Ordinary!

The instant this immortal legend, which had taken less than two months to rise from the very bottom of the outer courtyard and forcibly drag the former overlord Heavenly Martial Society down from its altar, appeared in the martial arena,

the entire venue fell into deathly silence.

Every face showed the same complicated, strange expression—a mixture of awe, fear, and a hint of fervor!

Like weak sheep witnessing a true lion enter their territory, they instinctively made way for them, opening a broad, unobstructed path!

And Lin Xiao, the Chief Instructor of Class "Defy the Ordinary," was undeniably the absolute focus of the entire arena!

He simply walked calmly at the front of the formation. His deep, ancient-well-like eyes did not pause for even an instant on the faces around him, filled with awe and fear.

He walked straight into the core area reserved for the major top factions!

Then, beneath the stunned gazes of everyone, filled with horror and shattered perceptions,

he calmly stopped before Chen Xuan, the new president of Heavenly Martial Society, who sat with his eyes closed as though he had long cast life and death aside.

"You are Heavenly Martial Society's current man in charge?"

Lin Xiao spoke calmly, his voice devoid of emotion, as though he were merely stating the most ordinary fact.

Chen Xuan, who had remained motionless like an old monk in meditation, finally slowly opened his closed eyes.

They revealed narrow eyes filled with coldness and venomous hatred, like a serpent's forked tongue!

"So what if I am?" His voice was hoarse, like two rusted sheets of iron grinding against each other, enough to make one's scalp crawl.

"Go back and tell the person behind you."

Lin Xiao ignored the icy killing intent that had nearly solidified into substance.

He merely calmly raised one finger and pointed at the familiar figure seated not far away in the Heavenly Martial Society formation, his face dark and gloomy.

—Zhao Wuji!

"His life is mine."

"If he does not provoke me during this trial, then so be it."

"But if he dares appear before me again..."

Lin Xiao paused. His deep eyes narrowed slightly, and a cold killing intent devoid of all emotion flashed through them!

"I will personally send him down to keep his good brother Li Tianyi company!"

After saying that, he did not give another glance to Chen Xuan, whose body was trembling with rage and whose face had turned livid from that domineering, blood-soaked declaration of death.

He led the twenty-nine equally grim-faced companions behind him directly to an unoccupied patch of ground and sat down cross-legged.

They closed their eyes and rested their minds.

As though that public declaration of war, enough to shake the entire outer courtyard to its core,

had merely been insignificant after-dinner chatter.

"B-Bastard!"

Only after Lin Xiao and the others had completely disappeared from his sight

did Chen Xuan finally recover from the immense humiliation that felt as though the heavens had collapsed and the earth had split!

He clenched his fists tightly. His face, already twisted by excessive fury, was filled with savage malice and hatred!

"Lin! Xiao!"

He forced those two words out through gritted teeth, his voice so cold it could freeze a person's soul solid!

"In this Bloody Trial, I, Chen Xuan, swear here and now!"

"If I do not tear you and your damned Class 'Defy the Ordinary' into ten thousand pieces and grind your bones to ash!"

"I swear I shall not be human!"

On the high platform.

Chu Tianxing, who had taken in the terrifying conflict below that was ready to erupt at any moment, showed no change on his imposing face.

There was even a faint, imperceptible trace of amused laughter deep in his eyes.

This was precisely the effect he wanted!

A stagnant pool needed a catfish to stir the winds and clouds!

Only a breeding ground soaked in blood and competition could truly nurture peerless wolf kings capable of shouldering the Academy's future!

He slowly rose from his seat and gradually released the vast, ocean-like pressure of the Spiritual Movement Realm!

In an instant, it overwhelmed all the noise and killing intent in the arena!

"Silence!"

His thunderous voice, filled with supreme majesty, exploded beside everyone's ears like rolling lightning!

"The time has come!"

"I announce that Cloud Creek Academy's three hundred and seventy-second Bloody Trial shall now officially..."

"Begin!"

With that, he and the dozens of Academy higher-ups beside him acted at the same time!

They madly poured their vast, sea-like Spiritual Energy into the ancient altar that had long stood at the very center of the martial arena, one hundred zhang tall!

"Bzz—!"

An ancient hum that seemed to come from primordial antiquity rang out!

The unremarkable ancient altar suddenly lit up with a blood-red pillar of light capable of piercing the very heavens!

Within that pillar, an illusory gateway brimming with endless mystery and desolation slowly took shape!

Beyond the gateway lay an unknown world filled with bloodshed and death!

—The Bloody Secret Realm!

"You surely already know the trial rules by heart!"

Chu Tianxing's voice rang out again!

"Once you enter, life and death shall rest in the hands of fate!"

"Your only task is to survive! And during these ten days, hunt as many Bloody Demonic Beasts in the secret realm as possible and seize the Blood Crystals within them!"

"Or... seize your fellow disciples' identity tokens!"

"After ten days, the secret realm will close! You shall ultimately be ranked by the total number of Blood Crystals you obtain!"

"The top hundred will all receive generous rewards!"

"The top ten will directly gain the supreme qualification to enter the inner courtyard!"

"Now..."

He paused, his majestic eyes slowly sweeping over the hundred thousand young faces below, their blood boiling and their battle intent soaring into the skies!

"—Enter the secret realm!"