An uproar instantly erupted below the stage!
"These animals! They actually used something like that!"
"I always thought there was something strange about Jiang Youwei. I never expected..."
"Damn it! They're treating human lives with such contempt!"
Cries of alarm and furious curses swept through the entire arena like a tidal wave.
Many students from commoner backgrounds had fire in their eyes, humiliation and fury they felt as if it were their own churning within their chests.
Jiang Youwei's fate seemed like a cruel miniature of all their destinies.
In the eyes of the Power Elites, their bodies, their will, and even their lives were nothing more than things to be toyed with at will!
Yet the matter was far from over.
Jiang Youwei, collapsed on the ground, trembled violently. He stared fixedly at the floor with unfocused eyes, broken mutters spilling from his lips:
"It's all your fault, all your fault! If only... if only you'd let me slash you once!"
As he spoke, he suddenly rolled over. His entire face twisted beyond recognition from the extreme pain and humiliation, tears, snot, and blood mixing together.
"Mom! I'm sorry... your son has disgraced you!"
With everyone watching in horror, he used the last of his strength to grip the hilt tightly with both hands, pressed the sword tip to his throat, and suddenly drove his head forward!
"Pfft—"
Though the Synthetic Training Sword had no edge, under the force of his utter resolve, it still plunged viciously into his neck!
Time seemed to freeze at that instant.
Cries of shock lodged in everyone's throats.
The referee nearby turned pale in alarm, shooting forward like lightning and arriving beside Jiang Youwei in an instant. He kicked Jiang Youwei's hands away.
"Medical team, now!"
But everything was already too late.
Jiang Youwei's body convulsed violently twice. His hollow eyes stared up at the sky, carrying endless regret and relief, before finally losing all light.
The boiling arena fell into deathly silence.
Only the object that had fallen to the ground continued to crackle and flash with electricity.
The next second, that silence was completely ignited.
"He's dead! He's dead!"
"He was driven to death! They drove him to death!"
"Look at your so-called Quota Competition—the last opportunity prepared for commoner students?"
Su Xiaowan's shrill voice tore through the air, tears streaming down her face. "You all saw it! This is what certain people have done!"
The rage of the commoner students erupted like a volcano that had been suppressed for far too long!
The crowd surged forward madly. The human wall formed by the Discipline Team swayed under the impact, and the scene once again spiraled out of control!
Just then, a slightly plump man with a crew cut, round face, and full beard, seated beside Zhao He, stood up.
"Everyone, have you misunderstood something!?"
"Jiang Youwei did indeed sign an agreement with my Li Family, but no one forced him to do anything. It was all his own choice!"
With that, he suddenly produced a stack of IOUs bearing fingerprints and displayed them to everyone.
"Jiang Youwei's father was a gambler. Most of the resources supplied to him by the Li Family went into filling the bottomless pit of gambling debts! Not only that, they also owed enormous debts!"
"My Li Family saw that he had potential and couldn't bear to abandon him, so we kept lending a hand." He swept his gaze over the crowd, his tone growing ever more grief-stricken.
"But help is a favor, not an obligation. In truth, a month ago, my Li Family had already severed ties with him. These debt notes were the final help we gave him when we cut things clean!"
"His family was drowning in debt. If he failed to secure a quota, he would surely lose his chance to practice martial arts! That was why he was so fearless of death today!"
"As for that thing, I have no idea what it was either. Perhaps it was the method of some creditor? In any case, it had absolutely nothing to do with my Li Family!"
Those black-is-white, white-is-black remarks brought a momentary silence to the boiling arena.
Still, those present were not fools. Their eyes remained filled with doubt and scrutiny.
At that moment, more than a dozen commoner students in the stands unexpectedly rose to their feet in unison.
"I can testify! Jiang Youwei really had already cut ties with the Li Family!"
"His dad really is a gambler! He even owes my family three thousand!"
"He really did have many creditors. There are no fewer than twenty just in our school alone. Simply having signed an agreement with the Li Family truly proves nothing!"
"I'm Jiang Youwei's roommate. He really was forced into a corner. If he couldn't get a quota, he'd have no choice but to leave the martial arts school!"
Hearing those overlapping cries of "testimony," the crowd below clearly fell into confusion. Their once one-sided outrage began to waver. Many looked at each other, and the discussions became chaotic and hesitant.
A trace of imperceptible smugness flashed through the eyes of the man surnamed Li. Taking the chance, he stepped forward, his tone becoming even more heartbroken.
"Why don't you question that Lu Jue? Jiang Youwei had already begged him to that extent, so why was he still so cold-hearted!?"
"Jiang Youwei had clearly lost his ability to fight just now, so why did he still strike so heavily? Why humiliate him so thoroughly?"
The silence in the arena was broken. Waves of suppressed whispers spread like a tide, and every gaze focused on Lu Jue.
Most of the spectators frowned, their eyes shifting back and forth between Lu Jue and the man surnamed Li.
The matter was indeed strange, and truth and lies were hard to distinguish. Unable to judge for the moment, they could only remain silent and watch carefully, unwilling to be easily stirred up.
Yet not everyone could retain such composure.
"He... he clearly could have stopped!" A woman's tearful voice rang out from the stands.
"If not for that punch, Jiang Youwei wouldn't have killed himself!"
"Senior Student Jiang had already begged him like that!"
One short-haired girl was so agitated that she tried to grab Lu Jue by the collar. "Why couldn't you just give way to him?"
Lu Jue stood where he was and slowly raised his eyes.
"Give way to him?"
"Why should I!?"
Those three words instantly silenced the entire arena.
"If I give way to him, who gives way to me!?"
"Put away your cheap sympathy! You don't understand anything at all!"
"But you had clearly already won!"
A girl fought back through trembling tears, her voice shaking. "Why did you have to throw that punch?"
Faced with the barrage of questions, Lu Jue said nothing. He abruptly turned around and, before everyone's eyes, strode toward a waist-high stone statue at the edge of the arena.
His right fist suddenly clenched, the muscles in his arm tightening like iron. Under everyone's astonished gaze, he drove a vicious punch into the stone statue—
Boom!
Stone chips flew everywhere as the entire statue shattered at the impact. Broken rocks poured down like a rainstorm, dust shot into the sky, and even the arena floor trembled.
The entire venue fell silent.
The girls who had been crying moments ago staggered back several steps in fright, their hands over their mouths trembling uncontrollably.
"Come on! Keep shouting!"
"Bullies who fear the strong, huh!?"
"Just because that man named Li is one of the Power Elites, you don't even have the guts to question him!?"
Lu Jue slowly withdrew his fist. His icy gaze swept across the entire arena, and no one he looked at dared meet his eyes.
"I'll make this clear."
"No matter how hard your family circumstances are, no matter how much your father has gambled away outside, no matter whether you'll kill yourself after losing!"
"Once you step onto this arena and stand opposite me—"
His toes crushed the scattered gravel across the ground, his voice shaking the four directions.
"Either surrender! Or—"
"Leave lying down!"
"On the arena, only victory and defeat matter—no reasons asked!!!"
Before you continue