The Competition Begins

"By the way, what did Liu Qing from Class Two mean just now by class battles and breaking through the arena? Are those the rules for this Freshman Monthly Competition?" Lin Ming asked Lin Xiuyai.

"Yes. Since the monthly competition concerns each class's resources for next month, its rules differ somewhat from the others. Class Leader, look at the area in front of the square. Do you see those circular sections?"

Lin Ming looked ahead and saw numerous circular areas, each roughly ten zhang in diameter. "There are quite a few. Are those where we'll be competing?"

"When it begins, those circular areas will rise up and form arenas. Our class battles will take place on them."

"As I said earlier, because this competition involves every class's resources for next month, the Academy wants to see each class's overall strength. Everyone needs to fight for their own resources next month, so they set this monthly competition up as an Arena Tournament."

"Every class has an arena. Each class must send out five students to defend its own arena. The remaining students in the class will form teams of five to challenge other classes' arenas."

In each Arena Tournament, both sides sent out one person at a time. The winner remained, while the loser's side sent up the next person, until all five people on one side had been defeated and that arena battle ended. If the defending class won, it gained one point. If the challenging class failed, it neither gained nor lost points. But if the challenging class won, it gained one point, while the defending class lost three points. When the Freshman Monthly Competition ended that afternoon, the classes would be ranked according to their points. Those rankings would determine each class's resources for the following month.

After hearing Lin Xiuyai explain the rules, Lin Ming finally understood what Liu Qing had meant earlier. He also admired the Academy for coming up with such a method of attacking and defending arenas, allowing every student in the Academy to participate in the monthly competition and fight hard for their class and their own resources.

After all, if you did not work hard and ended up being the one who let your arena get taken, your classmates would curse you to death.

"But can't the other challengers wait until the defenders have just finished fighting and immediately challenge them? That would mean the defenders haven't had time to recover their Dou Qi or treat their injuries, increasing the challengers' chances of winning, wouldn't it?" a student behind them asked.

"The Academy naturally considered that drawback. So after the defending side finishes a battle, whether they win or lose, they have the time it takes to burn a stick of incense to recover or switch people. This is a class arena, after all. Once a battle is over, they can replace their fighters, as long as there are five people. The lineup isn't fixed before they accept a challenge."

Someone else who knew the rules answered the student's question.

"Then after a defeated defending side replaces its members, can the challengers who just won come back and challenge them again?" someone else asked.

"Of course not. No matter how many teams a class has out attacking arenas, it can only challenge any one class once. Win or lose, even if they switch to completely different people, they still can't do it. One class can only challenge another class once." Someone else explained.

When Lin Ming saw that no one else in the class had any questions, he said, "Since everyone understands the rules, let's discuss our strategy! What do you all think? Do you want to have some fun challenging other classes' arenas, or do you want to defend our own?"

As the Class Leader, Lin Ming took the lead in asking for everyone's opinions. To him, defending or attacking made no difference. He was invincible either way.

Seeing the entire class looking at him, Lin Xiuyai only spoke after a while. "Class Leader, you're the only one who can take on the responsibility of defending the arena. After all, we'll lose three points if we fail to defend it. With you on the arena, we won't have to worry about losing."

"Yeah, Class Leader. You have to handle the defense. Even if we lose while challenging other arenas, we won't lose any points."

Several others also stated that Lin Ming needed to defend the arena while they organized teams to attack the other arenas.

"Fine, then. I'll leave the task of challenging arenas to you all." Since everyone wanted him to defend, Lin Ming went along with it. It was all the same to him anyway.

"Haha, then thank you, Class Leader," the group said to Lin Ming with smiles.

"Everyone, our class's arena will definitely not be taken with the Class Leader defending it. But the task of earning points falls on the rest of us. We can't let the Class Leader worry about our class's points while he's defending the arena, so the rest of us should form teams according to our cultivation levels and challenge classes of different strengths." Lin Xiuyai, the strongest person in the class aside from Lin Ming, addressed everyone at that moment.

"Right. The rest of us will form different teams. The weaker teams can challenge Yellow Tier classes, while the others can challenge Xuan Tier classes. Let them know that Black Tier Class One isn't merely the first class in name."

Thus, Lin Ming watched as everyone in the class aside from the five weakest students, who stayed behind to defend the arena with him, formed teams of five and prepared themselves. They were simply waiting for the Freshman Monthly Competition to begin so they could challenge their respective targets.

After going through this grouping, those five remaining people would surely understand the humiliation of being the bottom five in Black Tier Class One and being left behind only to defend the arena. They would definitely cultivate with renewed determination afterward and break free from the bottom ranks. The cultivation atmosphere in their class would surely improve greatly.

"Han Yue, we'll challenge Black Tier Class Two first. Liu Qing thought I would be left behind to defend the arena, which is why he provoked our Class One just now. What a pig brain. Doesn't he know we have the Class Leader? Hehe!" Lin Xiuyai said to Han Yue beside him.

Lin Ming watched as Lin Xiuyai, Han Yue, and the other three students among the top ranks in cultivation formed a five-person team and discussed attacking Class Two's arena as soon as the competition began. He could only mourn for Black Tier Class Two for one second. Any one of those five would have been among the best in another class. Yet other classes still had to send people out to attack other arenas. They could not possibly leave their five strongest members behind to defend.

Only Black Tier Class One could assemble such a lineup to attack another arena. After all, among the freshmen, everyone else had only reached at most Six Stars Dou Zhe, while Lin Ming was already a Dou Master. His Cultivation Method and Dou Techniques were also better than everyone else's. Whoever came to challenge them would just be giving away points.

Before long, Lin Ming watched as arena after arena gradually rose from the square and knew that the Freshman Monthly Competition was about to begin.

Since this was the freshmen's first monthly competition, Hu Gan, the Vice Dean of Jia Nan Academy's Outer Academy, also made an appearance. After he announced that this Freshman Monthly Competition had officially begun, every class sprang into action. Those defending arenas defended, while those challenging arenas went on the attack.

As one of Black Tier Class One's defenders, Lin Ming also arrived at his class's arena. Looking at the five people left behind to defend with him, he felt that they should participate as well. He could simply take the fifth defending position and ensure that their arena would not be taken, while letting the others gain some experience.

After Lin Ming told them his thoughts, they were all wildly excited. One girl declared that, to thank Lin Ming for his decision, she wanted to bear him monkeys. The others collectively looked down on her. Lin Ming was already a Dou Master at such a young age, the undisputed king among the freshmen. If anything really happened between them, she would be the one profiting, so what was she thanking him for?

"Enough messing around. Someone's here to challenge us. Discuss which four of you will go up and the order you'll fight in." Lin Ming saw challengers approaching and spoke to stop their playfulness.

Hearing that someone had come to challenge them, they stopped fooling around. After discussing it, four people stepped forward.

Lin Ming looked at the four who had stepped out. The girl who had said she wanted to bear him monkeys was among them. "Come on. Follow me onto the arena." With that, Lin Ming leaped onto the arena, and the other four followed.

The challengers also arrived at the edge of the arena. The five of them then leaped up onto it. The leader at the front spoke. "We represent Black Tier Class Five and have come to challenge Black Tier Class One. Please enlighten us!"

"Black Tier Class One accepts your challenge," Lin Ming said.

Seeing that both sides were ready, the referee said, "Each side will leave one person on the arena to fight, while the others step down. Only after the two sides have determined a winner may the defeated side send another person onto the arena. This match will end once all five people on one side have been defeated."

After hearing the referee, Lin Ming led three people off the arena, leaving one person behind to fight a member of Black Tier Class Five.

The battle began. After they exchanged more than twenty moves, Black Tier Class One's student was defeated. Lin Ming was not surprised by the loss.

After all, the people in his team had only just reached One Star Dou Zhe, while the person from Black Tier Class Five who had fought them had already reached Four Stars Dou Zhe. From the Cultivation Method and Dou Techniques he used, Lin Ming could clearly tell that they were stronger than his classmate's.

With weaker cultivation, a weaker Cultivation Method, and weaker Dou Techniques, it was already quite good that his classmate had lasted more than twenty moves before losing. Lin Ming did not blame him in the slightest and instead comforted him, telling him that he had done very well.

Next, Lin Ming sent another person from his class up. This one lasted a little longer, only losing after more than thirty moves. Then they switched to the next person. This time, the Black Tier Class Five student exhausted his Dou Qi and ended in mutual defeat with Lin Ming's classmate, both leaving the arena.

Seeing that one of their members had taken out three people from Black Tier Class One, Black Tier Class Five wanted to press their advantage. The person who had led the group and spoken earlier stepped up directly. Once on the arena, he saw that Lin Ming's side had not sent anyone up yet and mocked, "Why hasn't Black Tier Class One sent anyone up? Don't tell me you're scared and don't dare fight? If that's the case, just admit defeat! We from Black Tier Class Five don't want to bully you. After all, Black Tier Class One merely got lucky with the rankings and was only nominally first in the first month. Who knows what rank you'll be at next month? Look, one of our members can take down three of yours. It's not shameful to admit defeat early."

Seeing how arrogant the other side was, Lin Ming smiled. He reached out and patted the classmate beside him who was preparing to fight. "I'll take this one."

The classmate who had been about to go up saw that Lin Ming intended to toy with the arrogant person on the arena and said happily, "Alright, Class Leader. Teach him a harsh lesson and see if he still dares act arrogant in front of Black Tier Class One afterward."

Lin Ming nodded and walked onto the arena. Looking at the other person's arrogant face, he raised one finger.

Seeing Lin Ming raise one finger, the Black Tier Class Five student mocked, "Kid, are you raising one finger to surrender?"

Lin Ming looked at him as if he were an idiot, then asked the referee, "Can we begin?"

Seeing that both sides were ready, the referee nodded. "Begin!"

When the Black Tier Class Five student saw that Lin Ming had not immediately surrendered after the referee called for the match to begin, he mocked again, "Kid, since you won't surrender on your own, I'll help you." With that, he charged at Lin Ming.

Seeing the other side's attack, which was full of openings, Lin Ming did not even use a Dou Technique. He directly circulated Dou Qi into his hand and punched the other man in the stomach.

Then someone fell down. Naturally, it was not Lin Ming.

Lin Ming walked over to him and said calmly, "One move." It was his response to the other man's arrogant question before the battle about why Lin Ming had raised one finger.

Hearing Lin Ming say "one move," the Black Tier Class Five fighter, who had already been on the verge of passing out from the pain, tilted his head and fainted outright.