Changing the Rules

The next day, Bai Mo and the other three appeared in the Arena wearing Zhilan High School's uniforms.

Looking at the woman leading the opposing side, he was slightly surprised. He hadn't expected the captain of Jade Tree Team to be a girl.

Both sides gave their names.

"Hello, my name is Yu Meiren."

The woman opposite greeted them first.

Bai Mo paused when he heard that. It was a pretty good name—hadn't Zhou Tianyuan's eyes lit up right beside him? But he still couldn't hold back from quipping, "Do you know Li Junnan?"

"Bizarre."

Bai Mo shrugged indifferently. "Bai Mo."

After that, the team members on both sides introduced themselves in turn.

They returned to their designated positions and stood ready. After the referee's whistle sounded, Bai Mo's eyes shifted, and a silver Star Trace dissipated into the air.

"Mind Control!"

A mysterious brilliance gathered in his eyes. Bai Mo raised a hand, and the four people opposite were all seized by an invisible force, suspended in midair, unable to move.

Ripples from collapsing Star Orbits spread out one after another.

In an instant, the already quiet Arena Hall became even more deathly still!

Bai Mo didn't care about any of that. With a light wave of his raised hand, three of them were gently flung onto the ground outside the Arena. To show that he had the ability to seriously injure them, he hurled the remaining one viciously toward the wall.

Fortunately, the person was saved by the referee at the last moment.

What a joke. They couldn't use magic tools, and they were all rookies who had yet to step out into the world. Even drawing a Star Orbit took them one or two seconds.

How were these people supposed to play against him?

"Zhilan High School wins!"

The referee's declaration shattered the dead silence inside the venue, and faint murmurs of discussion rose.

"That was One Thought Star Orbit, right?" someone said in surprise.

"I heard long ago that there was a Space Element contestant this year. This is way too strong. How are they supposed to fight him?!" someone said worriedly.

The five people on the judges' panel also looked at one another. They were well aware of how powerful Space Element mages were. As long as their Mental Realm was sufficient, with an equal output of magic energy, Beginner Magic would not lose to Advanced Level or even Super Tier Magic.

Although the student below had not yet reached that point, judging from his One Thought Star Orbit and his already consummate control over magic, his Mental Realm was clearly not weak.

All of this showed that among the contestants this year, there truly was no one who could last even one exchange against him.

"Old Zhong, this won't do. With this classmate's strength, isn't the championship basically set in stone?" a representative of the University Alliance said to their team leader.

"Tsk, it's not that we won't allow this classmate to lead his team to victory. I'm just worried that this will make the other students lose confidence in pursuing magic. Think about it—they're all the same age, but they can't even last one round. I'm afraid it'll damage their spirit."

"Having this kind of strength is that classmate's own ability. Are we supposed to forbid him from participating?" the Magic Association representative also spoke up at this moment. "Wouldn't that go against the concept behind holding this competition?"

At this moment, the representative from Pearl Institute smiled as he looked at the others, then said in a tone neither light nor heavy, "Everyone, what is the purpose of holding this competition? It is to cultivate a group of more outstanding mages, and to give these excellent talents more practical combat experience—not the experience of resolving an opponent the moment they step onto the field, or being resolved by an opponent.

"This classmate's strength far surpasses his peers, so of course we should give him special attention. But we cannot neglect the other outstanding students either!"

He raised his hand and pointed at the other teams watching the match. Among them were quite a few with ugly expressions, disappointed and dejected.

"The reward of our competition is cultivation, and the process of battle is also cultivation. From what I can sense of the magic aura of this classmate from Zhilan High School, he is not a Beginner Mage. Taking this classmate's strength into account, I suggest that we can appropriately alter the combat Rules of the competition."

"Give the contestants fighting Zhilan High School a bit of hope, and at the same time, add a little pressure to this contestant from Zhilan High School so that he does not develop arrogance. What do you all think?"

Hearing this, the other four judges all looked thoughtful. The representative from the University Alliance asked, "Professor Zhou is right. Do you have any countermeasures in mind?"

"The reason that classmate was able to end the battle within a few seconds just now was mainly because he can use One Thought Star Orbit, while the others cannot. The difference in magic-drawing speed allowed him to seize the initiative, which was why he could use Mind Control to restrain all of his opponents."

"This can be considered a small loophole in the competition. Students like this have appeared before, only they were not Space Element mages. This time, the Space Element has made this loophole far too large."

Professor Zhou smiled and continued, "Perhaps we can stipulate that mages who can use One Thought Star Orbit may only begin drawing magic after the referee blows the whistle, while mages who cannot use One Thought Star Orbit may begin drawing magic in advance during the three seconds before the start, after both sides have given their names. What do you all think?"

After listening to Professor Zhou's words, Representative Zhong of the University Alliance nodded. "That works. It's not a bad solution. I'll go explain it to Zhilan High School's team leader, and I'll also need to communicate with this classmate and obtain his consent."

After saying that, Judge Zhong paused, then added, "In the end, this rule is unfair to contestants who can use One Thought Star Orbit. After all, that is their own strength. Everyone should also discuss how to compensate him."

Only then did he walk down from the judges' panel and head toward Zhilan High School's position.

Half an hour later, the competition judges' broadcast sounded throughout the Arena Hall, announcing the change to the competition Rules.

At the same time, the team leaders of every squad also received an official text notification from the competition on their phones.

After hearing this news, the gloomy atmosphere in the Arena Hall caused by witnessing Bai Mo's strength actually gained a faint sense of the clouds parting to reveal the sun.

As for Zhilan High School's team—

Zhou Tianyuan and the other two were still a little dazed. Zhao Qingying glanced at Bai Mo. "So this is what you meant yesterday by ending it quickly."

"What else?"

"."

"I told you all, just stand there." Bai Mo paid no attention to their silence and toyed with a token in his hand. It was the token for entering Empty Thought Bridge.

It was compensation from the tournament officials, and this compensation was rather inspired.

As for the other part—the chance to challenge the champion team again if they were eliminated midway—he ignored it.

There would be no "if."

And the reason he called the Empty Thought Bridge token an inspired compensation was because what one could obtain after entering the Empty Thought Bridge was itself a rather inspired matter.

As for the temporary change to the tournament rules, he did not really care. It was not as if they were stopping him from going onstage.

By agreeing to one tiny request that was of no damn use to him, he could go check in at a resource site. Why would he not agree? Either way, he was not losing out.

Su Ning listened carefully to the judges' broadcast announcement. Only after confirming it was no different from what Judge Zhong had told him did he glance at Bai Mo.

"Do you think it's unfair?"

"Teacher, I don't care about that. It's not the World College Tournament. If that judge wants to give someone else a little hope, let him. I'll smash that hope to pieces."

"Don't get too careless. If you capsize in the gutter, you'll have nowhere to cry."

"Teacher Su, we only have two matches left, and I haven't even used Mid-Level Magic yet. You'd better worry about whether your salary card has transfer limits. Don't let them send the bonus halfway and then—oops!"

Bai Mo clapped his hands together and looked at Su Ning just like that.

"No need. Your teacher made preparations long ago," Su Ning said casually, then headed outside. "Do whatever you want next. I still have some things to handle."

"I'm going back to school," Zhou Tianyuan said as he rose as well. He felt he needed to practice casting magic properly and strive to master One Thought Star Orbit as soon as possible too.

"Let's go together!" Zhao Qingying and Mei Qian exchanged a look, then also got up and followed. Their thoughts were more or less the same.

Bai Mo quietly followed them, parted ways with them at the entrance of the Arena Hall, then took a taxi to an ancient-looking stone bridge.

The Empty Thought Bridge was a bridge. Most of the time, it carried pedestrians back and forth, but when someone held a special token, infused it with magic energy, and then stepped onto its body that had endured a thousand years of light and shadow—

The Space Magic Array on it, which had likewise witnessed the vicissitudes of time, would guide the person holding the token to a long bridge in another space.

The long bridge had no railings. It seemed painted into existence by countless strokes of grayish white. When Bai Mo stepped onto it, he did not feel anything unusual.

Around him seemed to be an endless void, with silver starlight flickering from time to time. At the end of the bridge stood a stone platform half the height of a person.

That was where the Array Spirit granted suitable resources to those who entered the array.

Bai Mo moved his feet and headed toward the stone platform ahead.