One Man Defends the Arena, Standing Until the End

"The rules for this school's selection are very simple."

"The ten Contract Spirit battle arenas have already been set up."

"Over the course of one day, you may step onto any of them at any time to defend the arena. Defeat as many challengers as possible and accumulate your defense time!"

"At six o'clock this afternoon, we will rank all contestants based on their total arena defense time."

"The ten Contract Spirit Masters with the longest defense times will represent our school in the provincial competition!"

The Chuanbei principal personally explained the competition rules, his voice thunderous and resonant.

This method was fair enough.

As long as a Contract Spirit Master had sufficient spiritual power reserves and strong enough Contract Spirits, their arena defense time would naturally be longer!

It also avoided the unfairness caused by successive battles.

After hearing the rules,

the entire venue erupted, buzzing with discussion:

"Just like before, rankings will be based on the length of arena defense time!"

"After all, it's far too difficult for one person to defend an arena until the end. In a succession of battles, even if the Contract Spirits are strong enough, the Contract Spirit Master's spiritual power would be completely insufficient."

"The seeded contestants this year are undoubtedly School Belle Mo and God Yuan's duo, right? They're also the only first-year participants!"

"You've all seen that video, right? God Yuan is indeed handsome and powerful, but if we're talking about the current strongest overall Contract Spirit Master in Chuanbei, it should be Senior Han Guang!"

"Senior Han Guang's Contract Spirit lineup is insanely strong: a level 70 SR, plus two level 80 A Rank Contract Spirits!"

"..."

The Contract Spirit Arena plaza's tens of thousands of seats were already full!

Besides the school's teachers, students, and Contract Spirits, people from outside the school had also entered to watch.

For example, elders and younger members from Contract Spirit Master families.

They would not miss the performance of their family's young Contract Spirit Masters in such a competition.

People from House Mo and House Jiang had all arrived!

Cameras from major television stations had also crammed every corner of the venue, ensuring that the live broadcast footage would be crystal clear!

North Sichuan Spirit Contract Master Academy had never received such attention before. At most, only one news outlet would attend a selection competition like this.

But now that someone like Xia Yuan, an SSR with incredibly high activity, had appeared, things were instantly different!

Not long after being drawn, while still below level 50, he had participated in raiding the Abyss dungeon BOSS. Then, at the train station, he had crushed three A Rank Contract Spirit assassins by himself.

Those achievements were all extraordinarily outrageous, making it impossible for people not to take him seriously!

After hearing the rules, Xia Yuan let out a bored yawn and pointed at the Contract Spirit Arena. "So as long as we stay up there longer, our chances of taking first get higher, right?"

Mo Shiyu nodded. "That's right."

Xia Yuan asked again, "My strength is pretty hard to control. What if I accidentally kill them?"

Mo Shiyu held a hair tie between her rosy lips and tied her waterfall-like black hair into a neat high ponytail, revealing her smooth, fair swanlike neck. "They won't die. The Contract Spirit Arena is specially made. Contract Spirits that die in battle there will return to their Contract Spirit Master's Contract Spirit Space, though it consumes a great deal of spiritual power."

Xia Yuan smiled. "Then that means I can attack however I want!"

Thinking of the absurdly destructive power of his skills, Mo Shiyu felt that even the arena barrier probably would not hold up. She could not help saying, "Know when to stop. Don't use your full strength. You probably won't need to anyway..."

Xia Yuan waved a hand. "Got it."

Cheers rose from the audience seats:

"Ooh, ooh, ooh! God Yuan is so handsome!"

"God Yuan, look over here! We're here!"

"With God Yuan competing in a school tournament, isn't that just stomping noobs? First place is practically guaranteed!"

"I bet no one can break God Yuan's defense!"

"..."

Xia Yuan turned and saw people from House Mo waving at him.

Mo Cheng and the Holy Light Knight had both come.

The Holy Light Knight was not wearing the Holy Light Armor this time.

However, perhaps to keep the light emanating from her body from being too dazzling, the little Holy Light girl had wrapped herself in a large coat, with only her two eyes exposed.

She was also holding a handheld console and playing on it. When she saw Xia Yuan looking over, she waved at him and shouted, "Xia Yuan, you better take first place! Otherwise, I came out under this blazing sun for nothing just to watch you!"

Xia Yuan grinned and gave her an "OK" gesture.

When Mo Shiyu saw the Holy Light Knight, her face filled with resentment.

She always felt that the other party had led her SSR astray. He was actually playing those little adult games!

The moment she remembered that day's scene, her face flushed red. She immediately puffed up her cheeks and said, "Xia Yuan, stay away from the Holy Light Knight in the future. She looks holy, but she isn't holy at all!"

Xia Yuan let out an "Huh?" and pretended not to hear.

The competition was about to begin!

All the contestants gathered around the ten arenas and waited silently.

However, when the nearby contestants saw Mo Shiyu and Xia Yuan, they immediately moved away and switched to other arenas.

They did not want to run into the great demon king right from the start!

Likewise, on the other side, no one dared stand near Han Guang, who was considered the strongest in overall combat power.

Separated by a sea of people, Mo Shiyu and Han Guang looked at each other from afar. Without needing to say anything, neither stood beneath the same arena.

Both sides had their own considerations.

As fellow students, neither wanted to engage in an all-out battle immediately, drain all their spiritual power, and then be surpassed by others.

Besides, it would expose their trump cards and give people from other academies an opening to exploit.

But Xia Yuan did not think that much about it. Bored out of his mind, he said, "That Han Guang guy has a lot of Contract Spirits. It seems he even has an SR, just like Little Light. Later, I'll go fight him and see what his Contract Spirits are really like..."

Mo Shiyu immediately stopped him. "No need. If you pick a strong opponent right from the beginning, wouldn't you just be wasting your spiritual power for nothing?"

Xia Yuan thought about it and agreed. "That makes sense. But when time is almost up, if I have spiritual power left over, I can test him out, right?"

Knowing she could not dissuade him, Mo Shiyu could only sigh. "We'll talk about it then."

Standing behind Mo Shiyu, Xia Yuan fiddled with her ponytail, having a grand old time. "So when are we going up?"

Mo Shiyu felt as though the ponytail at the back of her head was about to twist into a spiral and take flight. Furious, she turned around and slapped away his hand.

"We'll go up from the start and hold out until the end!"

Xia Yuan rubbed his chin. "I naturally have no problem with that, but can you handle it, Chubby Yu?"

Mo Shiyu took a deep breath. "I'll do my best!"

The plaza speakers sounded:

"Time's up!"

"I hereby announce that the selection competition has officially begun!"

As soon as the Chuanbei principal finished speaking,

defenders began flooding onto the ten arenas one after another.

Xia Yuan strolled forward leisurely, then leaped onto an arena in a single jump, waiting for some brave warrior to challenge him.

Everyone stared at him. The moment they saw Xia Yuan take the stage right from the start, several people forcefully pulled themselves back down from midair, not daring to step onto the arena with him.

What a joke!

Wouldn't going up now be asking to die?

Although they would not truly die on the arena, reviving still consumed a huge amount of spiritual power.

Mo Shiyu summoned Xiao Hei, and her arena defense time began counting!

The other arenas were locked in fierce, heated battles.

But the arena Xia Yuan occupied was utterly calm.

He was the only one standing there alone, both hands in his pockets, bored out of his mind...

The audience began discussing it:

"No way? Not a single person dares challenge him? Then what are we supposed to watch?"

"Who would dare go up? Didn't you see the video? Three high-level A Rank Contract Spirit assassins got utterly crushed!"

"An SSR is just too overpowered. But if they use successive battles to drain the Contract Spirit Master's spiritual power, they should be able to take him down, right?"

"That depends on whether they have the guts to do it!"

"I want to see an SSR's combat power with my own eyes! Could a few brave warriors please challenge the dragon?"

"..."