"F-First!"
"H-He surpassed Senior Brother Fang Hong... and became the new number one in the Inner Hall!"
"How long has it been?! It hasn't even been a full year since he entered the Inner Hall. He's... he's simply a monster!"
After the deathly silence, earth-shaking uproar swept through the entire courtyard like a tsunami. Every disciple who witnessed this scene had utter shock and disbelief written across their faces.
Though they had sensed it might happen, the impact was still incomparably intense when it truly did.
The news spread at an astonishing speed.
Inside an independent Martial Dao Room, Fang Xue was practicing her swordsmanship. The moment she heard the servant's report, her sword moves immediately fell into slight disarray.
She stood frozen for a moment. A flicker of complexity passed through her cool eyes, but then she seemed to let out a breath of relief.
"Fang Hong... was surpassed by him too?"
She murmured softly. There was no resentment in her tone; instead, there was an indescribable sense of release.
"If that's the case, then having my second place surpassed... doesn't seem quite so hard to accept."
Even Fang Hong had lost. As someone who had previously been surpassed while holding second place, she no longer seemed so conspicuous.
A strange sense of consolation diluted her original disappointment.
Meanwhile, inside Fang Hong's Martial Dao Room.
"What...?"
Upon hearing the servant's report, Fang Hong bit through his gums from sheer shock. A thread of crimson blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.
He abruptly opened his eyes, which were bloodshot. Disbelief, humiliation, and dejection—countless emotions swallowed him in an instant.
"F-First place... was taken too?!"
He practically ground out those words through clenched teeth.
The shadow of his crushing defeat at Lin Ao's hands had yet to fade. Now,