Pulling Aggro Like Crazy

Xu Xiaoshou was on the road, one foot turned inward, the other outward, braving wind and rain as he hurried along.

He had gotten up an hour early to set off, yet after walking for most of the day, he still had not arrived. "Damn Breathing Method..."

An old man in a straw hat passed by him with a cane. He was clearly not walking quickly, yet he somehow stirred up a gust of wind.

Before long, the old man looked back, seemingly astonished that this young man was moving even slower than a turtle.

"Outer court?"

"Kid, aren't you going to participate in the Wind and Cloud Tournament?"

Xu Xiaoshou's teeth chattered as he stammered, "I-I'm on my way!"

The old man glanced at his braced legs and gave a meaningful smile. "Young people mustn't overdo it!"

Xu Xiaoshou's face darkened, and he nearly stumbled to the ground. He could only curse furiously in his heart. Damn Spirit Refining Pill...

The root of it all lay in the terrifying combination of the "Breathing Method" and the "Spirit Refining Pill."

During these three days of preparation, he had endured the strange sensations in his body and sucked dry twenty Spirit Crystals, sending his cultivation soaring straight to the peak of the Fourth Realm.

After repeatedly confirming that this cultivation method had no side effects, Xu Xiaoshou had also come to understand the power of the Breathing Method. Though it absorbed energy slowly, it absorbed a great deal at once.

The more he cultivated, the more addicted he became. Now, he was only one step away from the Spirit Refining Fifth Realm. How could Xu Xiaoshou possibly stop?

He held down his trembling body. There was still one night before the competition began—how could he waste it?

Time was money; time was life! So he took out a Spirit Refining Pill. After thinking it over, afraid that its medicinal strength would not be enough for a breakthrough, he emptied his lungs completely and fiercely inhaled at the pill through his nose.

That inhale caused a huge problem! Spirit Crystals were the size of fists, so one could not draw out much energy from them. But a Spirit Refining Pill was only the size of a fingernail. With such a violent inhale, the pill shrank by half! What did half mean? Normally, when Spirit Refiners absorbed Spirit Refining Pills, ninety-nine percent of the spiritual energy would dissipate. Even so, it could multiply cultivation speed several times over.

But the Breathing Method absorbed one hundred percent...

So by the time Xu Xiaoshou realized something was wrong, pleasure more than a hundred times stronger had already crashed over him. Who could withstand that?

This was no longer pleasure. This was swallowing explosives.

His feet stiffened, his heart stopped, and Xu Xiaoshou fainted on the spot!

That one breath was equivalent to an ordinary person taking dozens of Spirit Refining Pills at once. The potency was obvious.

While unconscious, Xu Xiaoshou did not merely break through. His cultivation shot directly to the peak of the Fifth Realm, nearly breaking into the Sixth Realm.

When he regained consciousness, he only felt as though his entire body had been drained dry. His steps floated, his eyes rolled white, and his teeth trembled...

As though, while unconscious, he had been...

Clearly, he had only taken a tiny sniff of the pill. Damn it! Even while walking, his left foot had to push his right, while his right foot supported the earth.

If he failed to clamp down for even a moment, he would have to sit like a duck!

Xu Xiaoshou hurriedly swallowed the remaining half-pill and refined it with an ordinary cultivation method. Only then did his condition improve.

Though wasteful, he had no other choice at this moment. Being able to compete was what mattered most.

Dong—

A long, resonant bell shattered his thoughts.

Xu Xiaoshou bade the old man farewell, then quickened his pace toward Cloud-Emerging Platform.

The old man in the straw hat watched him stagger with every step and shook his head with a sigh. "Youth truly is wonderful!"

Cloud-Emerging Platform, No. 12 Arena.

"Last call!"

"No. 1130, Xu Xiaoshou!"

As everyone craned their necks in anticipation, a sword-bearing youth came hobbling over beneath the blazing sun.

"Here... wait!" His voice was incredibly weak.

In the audience, the white-robed girl Su Qianqian excitedly pointed, her large eyes full of delight. "Brother Xiaoshou!"

"That's him?"

Rao Yinyin was somewhat curious, but when she saw the youth's walking posture, she immediately felt dizzy. "Little Sister Su, what did you do to him?"

"Huh?"

Su Qianqian did not understand. After sneaking another two glances at Xu Xiaoshou and seeing his gait clearly, her cheeks instantly burned red. She clenched her fist and thumped the red-dressed woman on the chest. "Hmph, I'm ignoring you!"

From afar, Elder Qiao finally relaxed when he saw Xu Xiaoshou. "He's finally here. This brat..."

"Uh, that walking posture—what bad deed did he go and do?"

On the arena.

Xu Xiaoshou weakly cupped his hands toward the referee. "Sorry, something delayed me."

After speaking, he tightened his legs.

Referee: "..."

Those words, coupled with that action, made it far too easy for people to let their imaginations run wild, young man!

At that moment, another bell sounded from the horizon.

Dong—

The referee swept down his arm. "The match begins!"

The instant his words fell, the scene was on the verge of exploding.

Taking advantage of the people nearby being distracted by Xu Xiaoshou, some contestants blasted their opponents off the arena in one strike, instantly eliminating several people.

"Courting death!"

Those who had not fallen prey to the sneak attacks immediately flew into a rage and tangled with their attackers.

Xu Xiaoshou had only just entered the arena and was standing near the edge, far from the battlefield. Seeing the number of people decrease, he immediately panicked.

Those were heads!

His grand plan to get rich depended on heads! Every single one of them was Passive Value—how could they slaughter each other?

Stop!

A shout, forcibly filled with vigor, rang through the entire arena. Weakness could not be hidden beneath the show of strength, yet that single voice actually made everyone on the arena stop fighting.

Everyone was dumbfounded. They turned around to stare at Xu Xiaoshou, not knowing why they had been frightened into stopping.

What was this guy trying to do? Could it be that being far from everyone had gone to his head? Several people rubbed their fists and started toward Xu Xiaoshou, intending to beat him up.

The referee was also dumbfounded. He had not expected this latecomer to have Innate Stage power in his voice. Yet when he checked Xu Xiaoshou's realm—Spirit Refining Fifth Realm? Uh, were his eyes playing tricks on him?

The three people in the audience were similarly stunned. Elder Qiao was anxious as a cat on a hot tin roof, but he had noticed nothing and simply raged to himself. "What exactly does Xu Xiaoshou want to do? Is he not afraid of death?"

Rao Yinyin turned to the girl. "Your Brother Xiaoshou is quite self-sacrificing, isn't he? Abandoning his little self so others can make it into the elimination round?"

Su Qianqian said nothing. She tightly gripped the massive sword resting across her knees, her eyes filled with worry.

After Xu Xiaoshou shouted, his legs immediately began trembling again. He hurriedly concealed them with his robe.

Looking around, he saw that the highest cultivation nearby was only the Eighth Realm. They probably could not break through his Sturdiness.

Lucky. I didn't run into any big shots, or my grand plan to get rich would die before it even got going, Xu Xiaoshou thought.

"Cough, cough!" He lightly coughed twice. Seeing that everyone's attention was on him, he planted the black sword into the arena floor, leaned against the barrier at the edge, and forced himself to remain calm.

"Everyone!"

"I have cultivated an unparalleled divine art, and my physical body is incomparably mighty. As the saying goes, when one emerges from seclusion, one should test what one has learned..."

"So I won't waste words. One against a hundred—come on!"

"You have all been surrounded by me, Xu!"

The people in the arena had initially been startled into stopping. But upon hearing Xu Xiaoshou's words, they all burst into arrogant laughter.

"One against a hundred?"

"You didn't take a piss after waking up this morning, did you? Can't see yourself?"

"Don't think I can't see your feet shaking and your teeth chattering. Aren't you taking on a hundred people? What are you scared of?"

"You, a soft-legged shrimp? Why don't you weigh your own worth first?"

"..."

Xu Xiaoshou lowered his head and looked at his feet. Well, "soft-legged shrimp" was truly a fitting description!

He had pulled aggro to the absolute limit. A string of unbearable taunts rang out, and even the referee was itching to make a move.

But clearly, he was a cool and ruthless referee, so he forcibly suppressed his fighting spirit.

Mocked, Passive Value, +42.

Mocked, Passive Value, +21.

The information panel in his mind refreshed. Xu Xiaoshou raised his brows. Sure enough, crowded places were Xu Xiaoshou's battlefield! What excellent taunting!

Please, whip me to your heart's content! Xu Xiaoshou's fighting spirit surged. He seemed to see everyone rushing forward to gang up on him, and he pointed at the black sword to one side. "This is a Ninth-Grade Spirit Sword. Whoever defeats me..."

"Hey, why are you fighting over there? Listen to me!"

"Hey, hey!"

"Over here, look at me!"

Before he could finish, everyone simply took him for a lunatic and ignored him, resuming their brawl.

Xu Xiaoshou got angry and slapped several approaching fellows to the ground.

Stop!

With an angry roar, faint Innate Stage pressure descended once again. Everyone felt a chill in their hearts. What was going on? Why had they stopped again for no reason?

When they turned back, they saw several people clutching their faces and kneeling before Xu Xiaoshou.

Fifth Realm, Sixth Realm, Seventh Realm...

What the hell was going on? How had they ended up kneeling? Everything had happened too quickly. Even those who had been slapped were dumbfounded. Hadn't they come over to beat him up? How had a sudden pain in their faces made them kneel? This time, the three people in the audience saw it most clearly.

Surprise filled Rao Yinyin's beautiful eyes as she exclaimed, "Xu Xiaoshou's physical body is very strong. He's only at the Fifth Realm, yet he possesses such speed and strength."

Su Qianqian nodded repeatedly. "Of course!"

The referee was dumbfounded too. He had only turned his head for a moment—why had Innate Stage aura appeared again? Who on earth had released it?! As far as his eyes could see, there were no Innate Stage experts! As a referee, he felt it necessary to curb Xu Xiaoshou's habit of interrupting the match, so he spoke coldly.

"Contestant, please do not interfere with the match. Otherwise, I will personally remove you!"

Xu Xiaoshou retorted, "How am I interfering with the match? I'm on the arena too, all right? I'm a contestant!"

The referee was momentarily speechless. That made far too much sense! "But the match needs to continue!" he argued.

Xu Xiaoshou went blank. "Isn't the match continuing?"

He turned to the crowd, his gaze incomparably sincere. "I only wanted to say..."

"Whoever can break my defense with their bare hands, I'll give them this Ninth-Grade Spirit Sword!"

He pulled up the Black Sword and circulated spiritual power. Spiritual light flowed across the black blade, Sword Qi running rampant.

I refuse to believe you bastards won't be tempted.

Doubted, Passive Value, +86.

Xu Xiaoshou: "..."

Why did no one believe him?

He looked toward the referee and directly tossed him the sword. "You be the witness!"

Referee: ??? Had he agreed to that? Why was Xu Xiaoshou throwing the sword at him?

Before the referee could speak, Xu Xiaoshou said, "A referee's duty is to prevent casualties among the contestants whenever possible. There's no rule saying I'm not allowed to do this on the arena, is there?"

The referee was left speechless.

"Correct!"

"I agree with Xu Xiaoshou!"

Someone suddenly spoke from within the crowd. He was a tall man at the Seventh Realm, his aura imposing, though his eyes were locked firmly onto the Black Sword.

"I agree too!"

"Approved!"

The atmosphere changed in an instant. Dozens of people stared at the Ninth-Grade Spirit Sword, each of them practically drooling.

The tall man who had spoken first looked at Xu Xiaoshou. "Are you serious?"

"Serious—truer than real gold!" Seeing someone agree with him, Xu Xiaoshou immediately shouted.

These people truly would not turn their heads without seeing profit. Every last one of them was cut from the same cloth! The three in the audience were also bewildered by Xu Xiaoshou's outrageous maneuver. They each glanced at the other arenas, where contestants were fighting fiercely, locked in battles to the death.

But No. 12 Arena... was practically an auction house.

Host Xu Xiaoshou was beguiling the masses with honeyed words, while the referee, acting as the ceremonial attendant, held the spirit sword. A pack of hungry wolves stared with green light shining in their eyes.

Rao Yinyin covered her forehead with a jade-like hand and sighed helplessly. "What kind of freak is this?"

"Brother Xiaoshou is amazing!" Su Qianqian clenched her fist.

Elder Qiao was dumb as a wooden chicken. He picked up his jaw from the ground.

"What exactly is this brat trying to pull?"

Please bookmark and recommend!

Many thanks!