Champion

"Stop! Fang Che wins!"

Only then did the two referee instructors hurriedly leap to their feet. "He's already won! Stop fighting!"

One of them hurriedly flashed out, caught Huo Churan, and stuffed a pill into his mouth.

He carried him back to the arena.

With two whooshes, two blades fell from the sky at the same time. Huo Churan's blade landed flat on the arena, while Fang Che's blade descended and directly severed the tassel of Huo Churan's blade before standing upright on the arena.

Red silk fluttered in the wind.

The medical team had already rushed up and carried Huo Churan away.

After taking his pulse, one of them immediately broke into a smile. "He's fine. There's still breath in him. Fang Che showed considerable restraint. Clearly, he knew exactly what he was doing!"

Huo Churan had long since lost consciousness. Seven or eight of his ribs were broken, only a few teeth remained in his mouth, and his nose had been smashed so badly that it was not merely shattered—it had caved in.

He looked utterly miserable.

The students in the front row, who had been closest to the action, all twitched at the corners of their mouths.

You call injuries like these 'considerable restraint'? May I ask where, exactly, that restraint was? But they did not know that from the moment Huo Churan used that bizarre set of palm techniques, all the Martial Academy instructors had already felt disgusted. Under such circumstances, how could they possibly defend Huo Churan?

In fact, they should have stopped the beating halfway through.

Yet they had not stopped it at all! They had deliberately let the fellow take a few extra blows.

Huo Churan was under serious suspicion. If he was a demon spawn, beating him to death would not be unjust.

If he was not... well, consider it a lesson. He should not assume he could use just any technique in front of the public. This time, he was a new student and had taken advantage of that. If he used it during the inter-academy competition and someone killed him on the spot, he would not even have a place to cry foul!

After winning, Fang Che once again revealed the sunny, amiable, gentle, and bashful smile of a young man. He looked obedient, beautiful, and so lovable that people wanted to pinch him.

Gentle and refined, elegant and composed, he cupped his hands toward the direction in which Huo Churan was carried away. "Student Huo, you were too kind."

Below the arena, everyone had just watched this fellow beat Huo Churan like a punching bag. Now that they saw him acting so gentle and refined, they all felt that the two sides were contradictory yet somehow perfectly unified.

They all felt as though they had gained a fresh understanding of him.

"He's so handsome..."

The girls, on the other hand, had stars in their eyes.

He was capable with both the pen and the sword, able to be a gentleman or a scoundrel, able to fight, endure, and show tenderness. School Belle Fang was really... tsk tsk, so manly.

A cloak flew up from below the arena.

Fang Che calmly put it on and shook out his sleeves.

At once, hazy starlight shimmered.

He bowed. "Thank you for your efforts, teachers."

The two referees nodded with smiles. "Go down and rest."

"Okay!"

Just then.

A shout came from below the arena. "Wait!"

A white figure flew up.

It was none other than Qiu Yunshang.

Everyone froze. What was he doing?

Qiu Yunshang flew onto the arena, cupped his hands in salute, and then said to the referees, "I concede!"

"Concede?"

A bitter smile appeared at the corners of Qiu Yunshang's mouth. "I can't beat him. Martial Brother Fang has already broken through to Martial Master Rank Five, and I, Qiu Yunshang, cannot overestimate my abilities. A heart full of hot blood ultimately cannot overcome absolute strength. If I go back onto the arena, I'll only get beaten again. Rather than that, I might as well concede now and preserve some dignity."

After a pause, he said to Fang Che, "I need to save a little strength so I can beat Huo Churan!"

The crowd below immediately burst into laughter.

It seemed Qiu Yunshang was carrying quite a bit of anger toward Huo Churan.

Several people who knew the truth could not help laughing loudly. At the same time, they recalled Huo Churan's reaction and the words exchanged between the two right before the battle, when Fang Che had extended his goodwill to him.

Huo Churan: "I don't have time to make friends with you."

Fang Che: "Don't blame me if I go hard on you today."

Fang Che: "I'll beat you every time I see you!"

Looking at the result now, everyone felt an immense sense of irony. You wanted to make friends with him, but were you even worthy?

When he gave you face, you failed to cherish it. Now that you've been beaten unconscious, whom can you blame?

If you had shown even a smile back then, how could you have ended up this miserable?

Thinking of Fang Che's oath—I'll beat you every time I see you—they vaguely felt that this School Belle Fang might not have been joking.

Regarding Qiu Yunshang's concession, everyone felt slightly surprised, yet also found it perfectly reasonable.

After all, he was facing an enemy who could not be defeated.

Everyone understood.

Fang Che also smiled warmly. "Thank you for yielding, Brother Qiu. You've saved me from taking another beating. Hahaha, I suddenly feel much less weighed down."

Qiu Yunshang laughed heartily. "No need to be modest. If I could beat him, I certainly would have. The problem is that I can't. Fighting him would only mean getting beaten, so... Fang Che, you are unquestionably the champion of this year."

"Thank you!"

Qiu Yunshang leaped off the arena.

And with that, the third-place finisher had also emerged—Rain Song.

Huo Churan was unconscious and had completely lost his combat ability. With injuries like those, being able to recover in a year or two would already count as lucky, let alone fighting Rain Song again.

The champion naturally belonged to Fang Che.

Huo Churan had already been defeated, and Qiu Yunshang had conceded. There were no competitors left.

Champion: Fang Che.

Runner-up: Qiu Yunshang.

Third place: Rain Song.

No one objected to Fang Che taking the championship or Qiu Yunshang taking second place.

But when it came to Rain Song taking third, everyone simply froze.

If they remembered correctly, Rain Song had managed to draw byes in two crucial matches earlier.

And now, without fighting at all, he had directly become the third-place finisher! What kind of luck was this? But the key point was that, no matter what, the current Huo Churan could no longer compete with Rain Song.

As for other capable fighters, such as Ding Ziran and Mo Ganyun... in terms of strength, they were probably all somewhat stronger than Rain Song, yet they had already been eliminated long ago!

Rain Song did not even have a competitor for third place.

"What the hell kind of divine luck is this?!"

Tens of thousands of people were dumbfounded.

Even Fang Che, Qiu Yunshang, Mo Ganyun, Ding Ziran, and the others looked Rain Song up and down again and again, all feeling that this fellow was rather uncanny.

Mo Ganyun's huge mouth clicked loudly with astonishment. "This damn kid definitely has something strange about him. With luck this good, he barely got beaten at all. It was like he just strolled around the competition a few times before becoming the third-place finisher!"

"I was almost beaten to death, and I didn't even make the top four..."

Fang Che's expression also twisted slightly. Compared to his own arduous battles, Rain Song had barely a speck of dust on his clothes and had already taken third place.

Damn it, why does this feel so unfair?

Facing everyone's gazes, Rain Song also wore a helpless expression. His dry smile had nearly stiffened. "Luck. It really was just luck."

Every student who heard him say that wore the same expression.

Even their feelings were identical: It would be one thing if someone else said that, but coming from you, I really have no way to argue back.

The Martial Academy then began handing out the prizes.

The rewards for everyone from the top ten to the top hundred were distributed at the same time.

Fang Che received two Top Grade Soul Pills, twenty Qi Gathering Pills, two Meridian Expansion Pills, two True Essence Pills, one hundred credits, and one Champion Gold Medal.

He received them directly into his hands.

With a single transformation, he became a tycoon of White Cloud Martial Academy.

Including the ten credits issued when he entered the Martial Academy, Fang Che now had a full one hundred and ten credits.

By the standard that fewer than two credits could buy a sumptuous table of Demon Beast meat for more than ten people, those one hundred and ten credits were enough for Fang Che to use for a year by himself. He could even purchase pills and other materials to assist his cultivation!

In an instant, he had become rich.

A large wave of envious, jealous, and resentful gazes immediately descended upon him.

There were also some starving, longing gazes.

Fang Che ignored them all.

He had only one feeling: I've completed the mission! The Blood Burning Art, the life-saving secret technique of vital importance to me, is about to be mine!

The Martial Academy then announced a piece of news: tomorrow, the new students would officially be divided into classes and begin lessons.

A wave of cheers erupted.

Then the Martial Academy announced another piece of news: tomorrow, the second-, third-, fourth-, and fifth-year students would begin their assessments!

It also announced the punishment system.

At once, wails rang out through the entire Great Training Field, practically echoing to the heavens! They had just gambled themselves into poverty, and now they had to face examinations! And this time, they were almost guaranteed to be punished!

This was truly a leaky roof in a night of relentless rain, a broken boat meeting headwinds!

The veteran students who had lost their bets wore expressions as though they had lost their parents! Countless veteran students began coming over to ingratiate themselves with Fang Che. "Junior Brother, from now on, your brother will follow you. See you in the cafeteria tomorrow!"

Fang Che chuckled. "You lost?"

The veteran student looked ashamed. "I did. Cleanly."

"Since you lost, you didn't bet on me, did you?"

"Uh..."

"You weren't even willing to bet on me, yet you want to follow me and eat my food?"

Fang Che looked utterly astonished. "Senior Brother, what are you thinking? Go eat with whoever you bet on. Why are you coming to me?"

"Ahem... Junior Brother, you're so wealthy now. Besides, is it really so difficult to treat a financially struggling senior student to a meal? Junior Brother, you need to have some vision."

This line was a sharp weapon used against every generation of new students.

It was even effective against certain veteran students.

Very few people could withstand it. Most would think, It's just one meal. It won't hurt. I'll get through the immediate crisis first. Surely a new student can't arrive at the Martial Academy and immediately earn a bad reputation, before giving in.

But Fang Che was clearly not one of them.

"Senior Brother, you're joking. Was it me who caused your financial difficulties?"

Fang Che looked utterly innocent.

"..."

The veteran student's face darkened with anger. "Junior Brother Fang Che, why must you be so petty?"

"If you aren't petty, Senior Brother, then why come here and haggle over one meal with your junior brother?"

Fang Che said, "Senior Brother, don't be so petty as a person! You even have to save one meal? No way. Aren't you begging for food? A beggar?"

"Fang Che, if you don't want to treat us, then forget it. Why resort to vicious words?" Another enormous hat had been pressed down on him.

"What do you mean, 'treat you'? Do I owe you a favor, Senior Brother?"

Fang Che asked in genuine surprise. "Even those who bet on me can't count as people I owe favors to, because they won alongside me. So I don't owe anyone anything. Yet you bunch who didn't bet on me actually want me to treat you?"

"You lost your credits by betting on someone else, so you came to ask the winner who didn't bet on anyone to treat you? Where's your face?!"

"I just want to ask, where in this world is there such logic?"

Fang Che looked astonished. "Who can explain it to me?"

Last night, an old reader came looking for me and asked, "Why do you delete posts when people read your books?"

I was stunned. Recently, I had barely done that at all.

So I asked, "The new book?"

The fellow said, "I was reading Evil Lord. I made two posts, and both were deleted immediately."

I fainted on the spot. "Brother, you're reading a book from more than ten years ago. Why would I be interested in digging it out just to ban you? But this is strange too. Which book doesn't even have any administrators left? There's only me managing it."

"How did you delete them?" Then I told him, "You probably cursed me and suffered Divine Retribution..."