Chapter 50

Several rings of spectators had gathered around the area. Some whispered among themselves, some covered their mouths and laughed, while a few senior brothers and sisters shook their heads, looking at Lu Ren with a hint of sympathy. "This kid probably doesn't even know how to spell death."

"I heard he just joined the sect. He hasn't even cultivated once, yet he came straight to the arena to challenge Two Pillars. Isn't he asking for a beating?"

"Two Pillars may not be much of a genius either, but he's at the third level of body tempering. Taking care of a mortal is more than easy enough."

The referee glanced at Lu Ren. After confirming that both sides were ready, he raised a hand and swung it down. "The match begins!"

The moment he spoke, Two Pillars moved.

He stomped his foot, making the ground tremble faintly. He charged forward like a wild bull, his right hand clenched into a fist as he smashed it straight at Lu Ren's face. He was incredibly fast, his punch whipping up a gust of wind.

Lu Ren stood where he was, as though he had failed to react.

Cries of alarm rang out below the stage. "It's over. That punch is going to smash his face to pieces."

"Two Pillars is really going too far. Does he need to hit that hard against a piece of trash?"

But just as the fist was about to strike Lu Ren, Lu Ren moved.

He neither retreated nor dodged. Instead, he stepped forward by half a pace.

With just that half-step, Two Pillars' fist grazed past his ear and missed completely. Carried forward by his momentum, he staggered two steps ahead.

Lu Ren turned sideways and casually extended his right hand. Pressing his index and middle fingers together, he lightly tapped Two Pillars on the back.

The motion was gentle, as though he had merely brushed him aside.

Yet Two Pillars' entire body stiffened. Then, as if an invisible force had shoved him, he flew forward, rolling several times across the ground before finally stopping when he crashed into the guardrail at the edge of the arena.

The arena fell silent.

So did the crowd below.

Everyone stood frozen, eyes wide and mouths slightly open as if they had seen a ghost. "Wh... what happened?"

"What was that just now? How did Two Pillars go flying?"

"I only blinked once. How did he end up on the ground?"

Two Pillars climbed to his feet, dusty and disheveled. His face was filled with shock and fury as he glared at Lu Ren and shouted through gritted teeth, "You ** ambushed me!"

Lu Ren brushed nonexistent dust from his hands, his tone calm. "A loss is a loss. Why make excuses?"

"Bullshit!" Two Pillars' face flushed red as he charged at Lu Ren again. This time, his fists flew even more fiercely. "I'll show you what ambushing is!"

Lu Ren remained where he was, both hands in his pockets. He did not even change his stance.

When Two Pillars rushed in front of him and threw his punch, Lu Ren shifted slightly and easily dodged it. Then he raised his right foot and lightly kicked Two Pillars in the ankle.

Two Pillars let out a miserable cry of "Ow!" and lost his balance. He fell face-first onto the ground, his mouth full of dust. "This..." Someone in the crowd swallowed. "Is he just playing with him?"

"Why do I feel like Lu Ren hasn't gotten serious at all?"

"Two Pillars is getting beaten like a grandson. He hasn't even touched the other guy's clothes."

Two Pillars lay sprawled on the ground, struggling to rise, only to find that his knees had gone weak and he could not exert any strength.

That kick had struck at an incredibly tricky angle, right on a nerve. His entire leg had gone numb.

Lu Ren walked over, crouched down, and looked at him with a teasing tone. "You're Two Pillars, right? Do you know what shredded chicken is?"

Two Pillars froze. "What?"

"Shredded chicken. You pull out the bones one by one, while the meat stays attached to the skin." Lu Ren smiled. "Your bones seem pretty brittle right now. Want me to help take them apart?"

Two Pillars' face instantly turned pale.

The crowd erupted. "Damn, Lu Ren's got some nerve. He's directly threatening Two Pillars?"

"That's not a threat. He really has the strength to do it!"

"I suddenly feel like... this kid might not be trash after all."

Two Pillars gritted his teeth and slammed a hand against the ground, trying to spring back up and fight again. But the moment he pushed up halfway, Lu Ren reached out, pressed down on his head, and forced him back to the ground. "Don't rush." Lu Ren's voice came from above him. "You haven't admitted defeat yet."

Two Pillars' face turned red, his teeth grinding audibly. In the end, he forced out three words through clenched teeth. "I... concede."

Lu Ren released him, stood up, and turned to leave the arena.

The people below quickly made way for him, their gazes now considerably more complicated.

Someone muttered softly, "Does this kid really not have spiritual roots?"

"I don't think so... Those two moves just now were nothing like an ordinary person's skills."

"Could he have been hiding his ability all along?"

Lu Ren ignored the discussion behind him. He walked straight through the crowd, crossed the plaza, and headed toward the library pavilion.

Two Pillars got to his feet and dusted himself off. Staring at Lu Ren's retreating back, his expression shifted unpredictably.

A fellow disciple beside him leaned over and asked in a low voice, "Brother Pillars, are we just letting this go?"

Two Pillars spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, his gaze dark. "Tell the boss. There's something wrong with this kid."

Black Zetsu squatted beneath the shade of a tree, on the verge of exploding.

He stared at the distant battlefield, his knuckles clenched white. "This isn't right..."

The plan had clearly been flawless. Every step had been calculated perfectly. How had things turned out like this?

He had spent over a thousand years arranging the situation in the ninja world, only for everything to fall apart in this war.

He had thought Kaguya would revive smoothly. He had thought Madara Uchiha was the perfect pawn. He had thought he could keep that idiot Obito firmly in the palm of his hand.

And what happened?

Madara had been completely crushed. Obito had switched sides at the last moment. Lady Kaguya had barely emerged before being pinned to the ground and beaten senseless.

The more Black Zetsu thought about it, the more stifled he felt. Veins throbbed on his forehead. "Who wrote this script? Get the hell out here!"

Furious, he punched the tree trunk, sending splinters flying.

White Zetsu poked his head out nearby and asked cautiously, "Brother Black Zetsu, what do we do next?"

"Get lost!"

With Black Zetsu's furious roar, White Zetsu immediately shrank back into the ground.

He took several deep breaths and forced himself to calm down.

He could not panic. He had waited a thousand years. A little more time would not matter.

But the problem was that the guy named Su Bai was far too bizarre.

No matter how he looked at him, Su Bai was not an ordinary person. His chakra reserves were terrifyingly immense, and he seemed to know everything.

Black Zetsu narrowed his eyes, his thoughts racing. I need a different approach... A direct confrontation definitely won't work. That kid is too strong.

He gritted his teeth and decided to play dirty.

Su Bai stood in the middle of the battlefield, surrounded by devastation.

He shook the blood from his hands and frowned. "System, what was that move just now called?"

[Ding—The system is busy. Please ask again later.]

"..."

The corner of Su Bai's mouth twitched.

This lousy system bragged endlessly in normal times, yet it dropped the ball at the critical moment.

He asked again, "Then how should I fight next?"

[Given the host's current dangerous situation, please explore on your own.]

"Explore on my own?"

Su Bai's face darkened. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

[System reminder: Solving problems independently is beneficial to improving the host's actual combat ability.]

"Improve my ass!"

Su Bai nearly could not hold back his curses.

Naruto hurried over, his face full of worry. "Brother Su Bai, are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

Su Bai took a deep breath and suppressed his anger.

He understood now. This system was nothing but a trap.

It could not be relied on when it mattered. He could only depend on himself. "Fine. I'll do it myself."

He rolled his neck, and his eyes sharpened.

Anyway... it was not the first time.

When Lin Yue opened his eyes, he found himself lying in the void.

There was nothing around him. No sky, no ground, no sound. Even the wind was dead.

He tried moving his fingers. His fingertips felt like stones soaked in icy water, heavy and dull. "This... isn't the Path of Reincarnation."

He rolled over and sat up. His body was as light as a sheet of paper, yet his mind was unnaturally clear.

Something was suspended in the distance.

No, it was not suspended.

It simply "existed" there.

The thing slowly turned toward him. It was like a warped mirror, its surface covered in cracks.

The mirror reflected not Lin Yue's face, but the more than one hundred times he had died.

Every face bore a different expression—fear, rage, despair, numbness, unwillingness.

The last face was his current one. "Return Ruins." The words came from Lin Yue's mouth as if his body had spoken them on its own.

A crack split open on the mirror's surface, and black mud flowed from the gap.

The mud did not fall. Instead, it crawled upward, climbing through the air, along the light, and up with Lin Yue's breathing. "You should not have come here."

A voice pressed in from every direction. No mouth moved, but every word drove into his ears like a nail.

Lin Yue stood up. There was no ground beneath his feet, yet he could stand. "I shouldn't have come? You were the ones who dragged me into this hellhole."

The black mud paused.

Then it laughed.

The entire void laughed. It laughed until more cracks appeared, until the light itself shattered into dust. "No one can drag you here. You came on your own."

Lin Yue frowned.

He remembered clearly. Just moments ago, he had been confronting that gatekeeper in the Path of Reincarnation. After taking a palm strike, his body had suddenly fallen downward, plunging through countless layers of barriers before crashing down here. "Cut the fucking nonsense. I don't care who you are. Send me back."

The black mud did not move.

But the mirror began drifting toward Lin Yue. It was not fast, yet with every inch it approached, the air became another layer heavier.

By the time the mirror was three inches from him, Lin Yue realized that he could not move.

It was not that he had been caught. He had been "seen."

Every one of his faces in the mirror was watching him. "Do you think you're fighting against the Heavenly Dao?"

One of the faces in the mirror spoke. It was the face from Lin Yue's first death, blood still at the corner of its mouth and unwillingness filling its eyes. "Do you think you can win?"

This time, it was the face from his second death. Its throat had been slit, and its words leaked out with a rasp. "Do you think you can still go back?"

This time, every face spoke together.

The voices overlapped, like tens of thousands of ants drilling through his bones at once.

Lin Yue gritted his teeth. Veins bulged on his forehead as he stubbornly refused to lower his head. "Whether I can go back or not is not for you to decide."

The mirror suddenly shattered.

It did not merely crack. It exploded from the center, fragments flying in every direction before vanishing into the depths of the void.

The black mud did not disperse. Instead, it condensed into a shape.

A human figure.

It had no face, no clothes, only an outline.

Yet as that outline stood there, all of Return Ruins trembled. "Do you know what Return Ruins is?"

Lin Yue stared at the outline, feeling as though his memories were being rifled through, as if something were rummaging through every corner of his mind. "It's the end of reincarnation."

The outline nodded. "It is also the beginning of reincarnation."