Martial Hall Exchange Tournament

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Crackle, crackle.

Fireworks filled the sky, celebrating the imminent opening of the annual Martial Hall Exchange Tournament.

Jinning Martial Arts Hall.

The streets were packed with pedestrians as Chen Xu blended into the crowd and headed toward the registration desk.

"Hello, are you registering as an individual or in the name of a martial hall?"

"A martial hall. Chen Martial Arts Academy."

"Alright, we are verifying your identity. Please wait a moment."

The registration staff member began operating the computer.

"So you are Hall Master Chen."

The curve of the staff member's smile immediately widened.

After briefly observing her, Chen Xu realized he could distinguish people's standing entirely by the professionalism of her smile.

Ordinary individual participants: expression stiff, maintaining a serious look.

Individual martial artists with some reputation: a fake smile.

Small martial hall masters: a faint smile.

Martial halls close to the top ten: a smile.

Top ten martial halls: smiling broadly, with the professional customer-service voice unlocked.

Judging from the width of her smile, Chen Xu's standing in her eyes was probably somewhere between the second and third categories—a martial hall on the verge of bankruptcy.

"You are registering for the hall master competition, correct?" A trace of contempt flashed through the staff member's eyes. In all her years of working here, this was the first time she had seen a martial hall so pathetic that it did not even have a single student.

Chen Xu nodded slightly and lowered his head to look at the contract she handed him.

"Please read the terms above carefully. Once you sign, we will not be responsible for anything that happens to you in the arena."

Chen Xu picked up the paper, swept his gaze over the densely packed terms, and signed his name with a flourish.

"Hall Master Chen, please proceed to the contestant waiting area and wait for the preliminaries to begin.

"The student preliminaries are currently underway. You may also go watch if you wish."

The staff member handed him a contestant badge. It served both as proof of identity and as a pass exempting him from spectator fees.

Chen Xu slipped the badge into his pocket and squeezed his way out of the crowd.

"Huh, is that Brother Chen?" Lin Qi's sharp eyes immediately spotted Chen Xu, who stood a little taller than most people.

He kept waving his arm at Chen Xu.

"Brother Chen?" The long black-haired girl adjusted her glasses, a thick book tucked under her other arm.

"He is the hall master who took the martial hall assessment with Brother Lin. Since he came here, he must have passed that assessment too." Yan Jiajia swept her gaze over the other five youthful girls beside Lin Qi, her expression turning slightly serious.

If she let down her guard for even a moment, there would be another rival around Brother Lin. Fortunately, Brother Lin was rather slow when it came to matters outside martial arts, but she still needed to feel a sense of urgency.

"So it is Hall Master Lin. Are these all students from your hall participating in the tournament?" Chen Xu asked with a faint smile, cupping his hands in greeting.

"Brother Chen, no need to be so formal. Just call me Lin Qi." Lin Qi scratched his head, his gaze passing over the graceful girls beside him before landing on the brown-haired girl with short hair. "Only Xin is my student."

"Hello, I am Li Xin, the senior disciple of Inquiry Martial Arts Hall." The girl introduced herself openly and gracefully.

"The others heard I was competing in the tournament and came to cheer me on."

As soon as Lin Qi finished speaking, the girl to Lin Xue's left lowered her head and said, "Who said that? I did not come here for you, you know. I just heard the tournament was opening and came to have a look around."

Her small feet rubbed back and forth against the ground, and the braids on either side of her head swayed gently.

"Ah, but when I called you, you clearly looked so happ—mmph..." Before Lin Qi could finish, the girl covered his mouth with her hand.

"I was not!"

After catching his breath, Lin Qi seemed to notice something and looked puzzled. "Brother Chen, did your students go participate in the preliminaries?"

From the moment they had met until now, Brother Chen did not have a single follower behind him. Lin Qi could not help being curious. Even his newly opened martial hall had managed to recruit students, so how could Brother Chen's martial hall possibly have no one at all?

"My martial hall consists of only me." Chen Xu did not seem embarrassed in the slightest as he openly stated what others found unbelievable.

The covert gazes of passing pedestrians immediately shifted away from the line of graceful girls. You opened a martial hall but could not recruit even one apprentice? Were you here to be a joke?

"Pfft." The girl who had just covered Lin Qi's mouth could not help laughing, revealing two small canine teeth.

"Su Muqiu!" Lin Qi's voice immediately grew louder. "Brother Chen is just... just..."

The innocent, hot-blooded youth scratched his head anxiously, struggling to smooth things over.

In his haste, Lin Qi finally thought of a solution: change the subject.

"Brother Chen, you registered for the martial hall master tournament too, right? Haha, hahahaha."

"Yes." The moment Chen Xu spoke, low laughter rose from the surrounding crowd.

"Your martial hall is already in that state, and you are still competing?" Someone, seemingly believing he was well hidden in the crowd, sneered in a mocking tone.

As Chen Xu's attributes improved, his dynamic vision, hearing, and other abilities had likewise increased to varying degrees. The instant the voice sounded, he locked onto a certain man within the crowd.

The crowd's vision blurred, and Chen Xu seized the leering man by the collar and lifted him off the ground.

"What did you say? Chen did not hear it clearly. Could you repeat that?"

The leering man kicked his legs wildly and grabbed the arm Chen Xu had used to lift him, only to find that hand as unmovable as an iron clamp.

"I... What did I say? This is a public place. You cannot just do whatever you want." The man's eyes were filled with panic. He had not expected that a casual bit of trash talk would get him caught.

A flicker of fear crossed his face. He was used to mouthing off online without ever facing consequences, and he had forgotten that this was reality, with neither keyboard nor screen.

Lin Qi seemed to snap out of a dream, and a trace of gravity entered his gaze as he looked at Chen Xu. Brother Chen had moved too fast; he had not reacted at all.

He felt somewhat guilty, believing that his careless words had led to this series of events.

"Brother Chen, although he was in the wrong first, as martial artists, we cannot use martial arts against ordinary people."

He bowed deeply to Chen Xu. "Please put him down. If anyone deserves blame, blame me. I caused all of this."

"What did you do wrong, Brother?" Lin Xue jogged over, trying to make Lin Qi straighten up.

Her brother was just too gentle. This matter had nothing to do with him, yet he insisted on taking it upon himself.

The corner of her eye swept over Chen Xu and the leering man. The problem had been with those two from the start.

"One opened a martial hall but could not recruit even one student, so he deserved to be mocked. The other spoke without thinking and got dragged out for it. That was quite satisfying too."

No matter what world one was in, there would always be people who enjoyed watching a spectacle. Seeing a conflict break out, they asked what had happened before immediately gathering around to watch like bystanders enjoying gossip.

As the crowd gathered, the scene immediately caught the organizers' attention. Conflicts broke out at the martial hall tournament every year, and they were long accustomed to it. They quickly dispatched people to handle the matter.