Making a Big Name for Himself / A Tender Haven

Again and again, the cycle continued without end, and one genius after another was carried away.

They watched the man, his face drenched in sweat and his arms trembling. He was young and strong, and his Recovery Ability was impressive, but muscle soreness and fatigue kept building up. He was now relying entirely on sheer willpower.

The new students couldn't understand. "Lu Ren Tu, what could possibly make you keep going?"

At home, Lu Mei hadn't watched her younger brother the whole time. After glancing at him a few times, she sat on the sofa to cultivate, hoping to break through the Advanced Mage barrier as soon as possible. By the time Yoyo woke from her deep meditation, it was already evening, and time to shower and rest.

When Lu Mei casually opened her phone, she discovered that the livestream was still going. Lu Jun had been fighting for ten hours. She stared in shock at her younger brother in the center of the Beast Fighting cage, standing in a pool of sweat, his thin body showing signs of dehydration.

Lu Mei had to admit that a man could be incredibly charming at a time like this. His steely determination and commanding presence seemed to spill through the screen, captivating everyone.

Meanwhile, in Hangzhou, Tang Yue returned home, visibly tired, after completing a mission. She opened her phone and saw Lu Jun fighting, too. She pressed her lips together, shaken to her core, something deep inside her stirred.

A thousand people—back in the day, that would have made him an indisputable god of slaughter.

That included everyone else still watching the livestream: ordinary people, civilians, Mages, and even those with ill intentions. They were all moved, remembering Lu Jun's slaughter before the start of term at Pearl Academy.

People weren't afraid of a madman. They were afraid of someone with that kind of iron will. Once he set his sights on something, he'd chase you to the ends of the earth just to cut you down.

Huff, huff, huff...

Lu Jun panted heavily. The Metal Element, Psychic, and Curse Nebulas in his mind were nearly drained. More importantly, his consciousness was fading, and he could barely feel his body.

He knew clearly that he probably couldn't continue. If he went on, his body would collapse. Even a body tempered by a Mage's magic energy had its limits.

But Lu Jun wouldn't give up. He had a stubborn, almost obsessive streak and loved the exhilaration of a fierce battle. Fighting others was its own reward. A burning light seemed to glow in his eyes as his spirit and energy rose higher and higher. He treated this as a trial for himself.

His long-dormant Water Element Nebula responded to that fervor. As he swung his sword again and shattered a bolt of lightning, his body broke through some invisible limit. The Azure Star Nebula suddenly released surges of magic energy, which flowed in countless threads throughout his body, nourishing his exhausted frame and tempering it like the tide.

Splash!

Lu Jun froze for a moment. He could vaguely hear the sound of waves within his body. His cells and flesh greedily absorbed the magic energy like a sponge, growing stronger and stronger. A faint azure tint showed through his fair skin.

He was still utterly exhausted, and he couldn't sense the change clearly. He had only caught his breath, and his physical condition had improved somewhat, but he was certain his body's vitality had increased.

The Tidal Spirit Seed had already tempered his body once during refinement, making him stronger than an ordinary person. Now it had revealed another hint of its wonders. Perhaps the magic energy in a Nebula could also be used to temper the body.

Lu Jun had no energy to dwell on it, so he focused on the fight.

Perhaps his unsteady appearance made quite a few opportunists think they had a chance to beat him. Applications to challenge him began pouring in again.

The new students in the stands looked down on those people. Honestly, after watching Lu Jun fight this long, they were all convinced and had nothing left to say. But they couldn't control what others chose to do.

Twelve hundred... fourteen hundred... two thousand!

Several more hours passed after midnight. Half of Pearl Academy's new students had taken the field.

The lights in the Beast Fighting Arena stayed on all night. Many older students who had come to watch couldn't hold out any longer and gradually returned to their dorms to cultivate!

That's right—cultivate! Who knew how outrageous Lu Jun's battle was? They all felt an intense sense of urgency. If first-years were this competitive, the older students had better work harder. Otherwise, once Lu Jun entered the Main Campus, they'd be finished.

Of course, his fight had also set their blood ablaze. Anyone who watched the livestream felt as if they'd been force-fed several bowls of motivational soup. They closed the video and immediately got to work.

Meanwhile, the Pearl Academy professors and teachers in the arena were nodding off. The Summoning System director looked listless. This really had turned into a battle of attrition against an old man.

Outside the arena, the sky brightened. The battle had lasted through the night.

Never, never before had a Mage fought for an entire day and night. Now, such a person had appeared.

When dawn came, office workers got up and checked their phones. He was still fighting! They sucked in a sharp breath. The buzz exploded, quickly spreading across all the major websites. Alongside the earlier "You're all trash" meme, screenshots of the fight were now being turned into "Who's next?"

The new students stared blankly at Lu Jun in the arena. His body looked ready to fall, but in truth, he was a wall of despair. He was like an unbeatable War God, standing tall in the center of Pearl Academy's Beast Fighting Arena.

Forget Lu Ren Tu. This was the toughest man in history!

Everyone silently prayed, unsure whether they wanted Lu Jun to keep fighting or someone to knock him down and end this nightmare.

By now, Lu Jun's three Nebulas were dry. Only the Water Element Nebula remained, which he'd barely used.

He was now fighting barehanded, with only an azure Water Shield around himself. Several shimmering streams of water circled him, weaving together into a Water Armor Robe. Then he charged forward, enduring the barrage of Primary Magic as he knocked down the other Mages.

Fight! His blood boiled. He paid no heed to the burns from flames, the frostbite, or the many other wounds, including Thunder Strike, which countered him.

The challengers were dumbfounded. With the body of an Intermediate Mage, tempered twice by a Water Element Spirit Seed, Lu Jun was practically an adult fighting children.

Lu Jun didn't know how long he'd been fighting. He just kept going, squeezing out every last bit of his potential. His eyes were bloodshot, and challengers kept appearing one after another, rotating through the arena and falling in defeat.

Finally, he heard the referee beside him say through a yawn, "Anyone else want to take the field? We'll wait a few more minutes. If nobody comes up, we'll call it."

The new students throughout the Beast Fighting Arena fell silent. They gazed at Lu Jun. There was no throne beneath him, and no corpses around him, yet an entire field of "corpses" had already piled up to form his throne.

Fame Far and Wide

"Three seconds left. Three... two... one. All right! The Beast Fighting Competition is over. Lu Jun wins All Element Resources."

Lu Jun's mind was hazy. When he heard the teacher's announcement, his spirits lifted, and he barely managed to summon some strength. He looked around. He'd gotten to know most of the new students by now.

After all, a full two thousand five hundred had lost to him—two-thirds of the incoming class.

When had Pearl Academy ever seen someone take first place? Right now!

If he said he was invincible among everyone at Pearl Academy, he meant it literally. He'd beaten every new student in his year.

The Pearl Forum had been active all night. Someone even joked that if a dog walked past, Lu Ren Tu would give it a punch or two.

When Dean Xiao stepped onto the stage to make his decision, all the new students fell silent. None of them protested Lu Jun taking all the resources. They weren't indignant, calling for him to be ostracized and attacked as they had with Mo Fan in the original story.

The main reason was that Mo Fan had only beaten two hundred representatives, and some of those fights had involved tricks. Most of the new students hadn't accepted the result, and he'd ended up isolated, with everyone wanting to kick him while he was down.

But Lu Jun had personally eliminated every single one of them, in an extremely unfair battle of attrition. No one had any excuse left.

If anyone still objected, they wouldn't need Lu Jun to do anything. A crowd would rise up and mock them. "Where were you then? Were you even there?" It was one thing to take the field. Anyone who didn't dare show up could forget about fitting in at Pearl Academy. How embarrassing!

Dean Xiao smiled. "You've all endured a long night, and you must be exhausted. The winner must be even more tired after fighting all night, so I won't waste your time."

He paused, then said, "I'm gratified to see the future of humanity!"

His words shocked the entire arena. They could tell Dean Xiao thought very highly of Lu Jun. He hadn't called him outstanding, the future of Pearl Academy, or even the future of China. He'd called him the future of humanity.

But after a moment's thought, the students—and even the livestream audience—agreed wholeheartedly.

Damn it, they hadn't really thought about it while the Beast Fighting Competition was going on. Only after it ended did they come to their senses. Was this even human? A battle lasting a full day and night had happened in real life.

As they'd said, no amount of praise could be too much.

Memes from the battle had already spread far and wide. Many people had never heard of Lu Jun and had no interest in learning about him, yet they were all using the memes. It was astonishing. Honestly, the Beast Fighting Competition in Magic City was just an obscure livestreaming event. No one had expected it to cause such a huge sensation.

Fortunately, no one connected Lu Ren Tu with the Bo City Sword Immortal. They treated them as two separate figures.

Here, Lu Jun was simply a promising new student, which saved him a great deal of trouble.

Even so, he'd become famous. If anyone ever discovered that the two were the same person, the public outcry would be explosive.

After Dean Xiao finished speaking, he promptly dismissed all the students.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, as if a heavy burden had been lifted. They filed out, and the discussion continued to spread, its impact growing.

In the Beast Fighting Arena, Lu Jun's tense body and mind finally relaxed. Exhaustion crashed over him like a surging tide, wave after wave. He could barely move his legs. His mind spun, his entire body ached, and he was about to collapse.

No one noticed anything wrong with him. In the eyes of the new students and teachers, he had already become a "god"—all-powerful, impossible to defeat, an iron man who never tired.

People looked at him with awe. He'd fought Black Vatican openly and bloodily in Magic City, then endured a battle of attrition in the Beast Fighting Competition, fighting for a whole day and night as Lu Ren Tu.

Even the viewers who were still watching the livestream hadn't noticed. Only Lu Mei and Tang Yue, who had been keeping their eyes on Lu Jun, sensed something was wrong and furrowed their brows.

At that moment, Lu Jun could hardly hold on. The world spun before his eyes, and he seemed about to fall. I can't keep up my heroic, imposing image much longer.

Fortunately, Ding Yumian was in the backstage area preparing to leave. By chance, she looked back at the arena and immediately sensed Lu Jun's exhaustion with her Psychic power.

She hesitated, then shook her head at her impatient friend. Turning around, she walked toward the Beast Fighting cage, her skirt swaying and her steps light.

Just as Lu Jun was about to fall, he suddenly felt his arm and shoulder sink into something soft. A woman had come up beside him and caught him. The pleasant scent of her perfume drifted over.

Ding Yumian's gentle, soft voice rang out. "Are you all right?"

Lu Jun froze and looked at her in surprise. He hadn't expected Ding Yumian to be the one to help him in the end.

Her friend, watching from a distance, was dumbfounded. A gossipy smile spread across her face. Come on, who didn't know Lu Jun as a real man? He was strong and vigorous, and his reputation was a hundred times better than Mo Fan's would be in the future.

Plenty of university girls had already fallen for him. Seniors and juniors alike—who could resist that stamina and that unyielding will?

Seeing that Ding Yumian had already stepped forward, the pretty girls who'd been hesitating regretted it bitterly.

The livestream viewers and new students let out shrill cries. "Aah! Just kill me! How can someone be so powerful, so handsome, and have a beautiful woman in his arms?"

"Damn it! Damn it all!"

"Heh heh heh, red and blue have always made the perfect couple. Hmph! Wasn't I right? They're already flirting! A battlefield romance—people with ability are always drawn to each other."

Ding Yumian's face flushed slightly. She wasn't used to being the center of attention. She didn't know why she'd reached out to support Lu Jun. Perhaps she still felt guilty about the accident earlier.

Or perhaps she admired this man from the bottom of her heart.

At Jinyuan Apartment, Lu Mei watched the scene without expression. She turned and headed downstairs, then immediately drove to Pearl Academy in the expensive car she'd bought for several hundred thousand yuan.

At that moment, Ding Yumian asked quietly, "Where do you want to go?"

"I..." Lu Jun struggled to speak. He thought for a moment, vaguely confused. He didn't live at Pearl Academy. Jinyuan Apartment wasn't far away, but in his current condition, he couldn't make it there on foot.

His head was spinning. He'd truly reached his limit.

Besides, Lu Jun could tell Ding Yumian was nervous. Her quiet personality made her seem almost socially anxious. Asking her to take him back to the apartment? Heh... probably impossible.

Hadn't he just seen her soaked clothes during the fight and had a brief burst of energy? If he kept provoking himself along the way, Magic City might be thrown into chaos.

Lu Jun said with a headache, "Tsk... Could you take me to the school entrance and then call someone for me?"

He couldn't even lift his arms; they ached too much.

Ding Yumian pressed her lips together beside him. If a girl called a male friend on his behalf, wouldn't that lead to a misunderstanding?

"Is that too much trouble?" He sighed. "Then just help me to the Beast Fighting Arena, and I'll figure something out."

Ding Yumian was kindhearted, and reluctantly nodded. "It's all right. Your magic energy is depleted, so you should rest as soon as possible. I... I'll take you there."

Hearing that, Lu Jun fell silent. If she didn't mind, he didn't need to be so fussy.

The two of them supported each other as they slowly made their way to the Beast Fighting Arena. They moved at a slow pace, with half of Lu Jun leaning against Ding Yumian. His body pressed against her soft skin, making her cheeks turn red. The warm, soft feeling really was intoxicating.

Especially after a great battle, when he was completely exhausted. No wonder beauties had been called a hero's tender refuge since ancient times.

But Ding Yumian said nothing. She could tell Lu Jun was trying hard to control himself. He was simply so utterly spent that he couldn't help leaning on her.

The Gentle Refuge

Before long, the two of them slowly reached the entrance to the Beast Fighting Arena.

The new students were all leaving, yawning as they headed back to their dorms to cultivate. The road was a little congested, but Lu Jun's reputation was so fearsome that no one dared come near him. The crowd streamed aside, leaving a huge open space.

By the time they left the Beast Fighting Arena, few spectators were still around.

But before Lu Jun could ask Ding Yumian to make a call, a sleek black SUV drove down the campus road. Its engine rumbled through the quiet morning.

The dense stream of students along the road parted to either side, clicking their tongues in amazement. Pearl Academy had plenty of luxury cars, and its students were used to seeing them, but most weren't allowed onto campus. This one looked fairly ordinary, yet it could drive in. Its owner must have powerful connections.

Lu Jun had a sharp eye. When he spotted the car, his brow twitched. It was the one his family had bought because of his work with the City Demon Hunting Squad. Had his sister already arrived?

In an instant, under the curious gazes of the new students, the SUV stopped in front of Lu Jun and Ding Yumian. Then the driver's door opened, and a pair of long, shapely legs in black stockings emerged first. Her feet were wrapped in knee-high black boots.

A mature beauty stepped out. She wore a black-stockinged suit skirt, a white shirt, and a black trench coat. Her face was alluring, her red lips seductive, and her tall, curvaceous figure radiated authority.

Beside her, even Ding Yumian looked like a little girl.

Lu Jun's eyes widened. He'd never seen his sister dressed like this. Lu Mei usually dressed simply. At home, he often saw her smooth, fair thighs on full display, and he'd gotten used to it.

Now the thin, sexy black stockings veiled them, revealing just enough to make them even more alluring.

Little did he know that the students on the road were already stunned and consumed with envy. They'd already been jealous when a beauty like Ding Yumian came to help him.

Now a mysterious, domineering older sister had suddenly driven onto campus and stopped right in front of Lu Jun. It was straight out of a dream, a movie, or a novel.

At the same time, they felt a little gleeful anticipation. With Ding Yumian on one side and the SUV-riding beauty on the other, weren't the two of them going to fight?

The bystanders loved a show. How boring. They wanted a showdown, a river of blood!

When Lu Mei swept him with her beautiful eyes, Lu Jun felt inexplicably guilty. He hadn't been guilty before. Nothing had happened, and he'd been planning to ask Ding Yumian to call Lu Mei, completely calm.

Who would've thought she'd come in person? Catching the two of them supporting each other like that would make it seem as if they were intimate. A man and a woman wouldn't act that way unless they were close.

But his brief flash of guilt soon faded, replaced by warmth and relief. It meant Lu Mei had been keeping an eye on him. He was at his weakest right now, and with his sister there, he was basically safe.