The First Spark Across Eight Stations

When all eight computers lit up, the atmosphere in the shop grew even tenser than it had been yesterday.

On Spirit Hall's side, Hu Liena, Xie Yue, and Yan were all ready to buy out the game.

On Shrek's side, Tang San already had a personal save file, while Xiao Wu, Ma Hongjun, and Ning Rongrong were clearly tempted as well.

The real question was not whether anyone would play.

It was who would play first.

Yan's gaze fell on Tang San.

After returning last night, he had replayed several of the White-Clothed Scholar's moves over and over in his mind. Before the serpent body turned, the moisture in the air would sink first; before the spear swept out, the shoulders and back would draw in for an instant; when the second phase had just begun, the serpent tail and spear tip did not move to the same rhythm.

He remembered all of it.

Yet the more he remembered, the less willing he was to accept it.

Tang San could learn. So could he.

"Do you dare to have a match?" Yan asked.

Xiao Wu immediately frowned.

Before Tang San could speak, Lin Chuan looked up. "Private fighting is forbidden inside the shop."

Yan gritted his teeth. "I didn't say we'd fight in the shop."

Lin Chuan paused as he looked at the system notification that had appeared before him.

[Multiple buyout customers have been detected with competitive demand for the same stage.]

[Temporarily unlocked: Synchronized Challenge.]

[Synchronized Challenge Description: Two customers with personal save files may enter the same tutorial projection stage. Progress, items, and rewards are calculated independently. Only clear time and death count are compared. No additional combat rewards.]

Lin Chuan repeated the rules.

Yan's eyes lit up. "That one."

Tang San looked at Grandmaster.

Grandmaster said, "This is an opportunity to observe your opponent's rhythm."

Tang San nodded. "All right."

Xiao Wu tugged at his sleeve.

She did not tell him not to compete.

Tang San turned back to look at her, and only then did Xiao Wu lower her voice. "Don't do anything reckless just to beat him."

Tang San smiled. "I know."

Of course he knew what Xiao Wu was worried about. A Synchronized Challenge was still just a game, but Xiao Wu had watched him die on the screen. That image could not be completely erased with a simple "no harm in reality."

Yan heard their quiet exchange, and his expression darkened further.

He did not want to admit that he was competing with Tang San, but Hu Liena was beside him, and so was Xie Yue. Yesterday's White-Clothed Scholar, the replay just now, Hu Liena's fox shadow—they were all like layers of oil being poured onto the fire in his chest.

He had to win at least once.

The two sat down at the machines.

The Battle Replay screen split in two.

Tang San was on the left. Yan was on the right.

The misty bamboo forest on the screen split in two as well.

One path on the left, one on the right.

The White-Clothed Scholar stood with his spear amid two nearly identical patches of mist, as if he were deliberately waiting for these two unyielding people to throw themselves at him.

Lin Chuan reminded them, "Same difficulty, same starting conditions. Fewer deaths take priority. If the death count is the same, then clear time decides."

The challenge began.

The White-Clothed Scholar stood between the bamboo forest's damp mist, spear in hand.

Yan came out fighting fiercely.

But this time, he was not charging blindly.

When the first spear thrust came, he did not force his way through as he had yesterday. Instead, he sidestepped the spear tip and followed with a staff strike. Before the second sweep, he saw the White-Clothed Scholar's shoulders draw back and retreated half a step in advance. The end of the staff barely brushed through the mist.

Someone in the viewing area let out a soft sound of surprise.

Yan's rhythm had truly changed.

Yesterday, he had been like a ball of fire, burning wherever he lunged. Today, that fire still surged forward, but it knew to avoid the most obvious patches of mist and to pull back before the spear shadow fell.

Hu Liena's fingers slowly relaxed.

She was not afraid that Yan would lose.

She was afraid that he would lose without gaining anything.

Xie Yue saw it too.

He did not wear his emotions on his face like Yan did, but his gaze had become far more serious. If Yan could truly turn the replay's content into actual execution this round, Spirit Hall's future training would have a direction.

Not everyone could dissect failure as meticulously as Tang San.

But if tutorial mode could help an aggressive attacker like Yan die two fewer times, then it was not an advantage belonging to Tang San alone.

Ma Hongjun frowned outside the machines.

"That guy really learned something from it."

Oscar said, "You thought we were the only ones who could watch replays?"

Yan fought quickly.

Several of his attacks landed precisely in the gaps of the White-Clothed Scholar's first phase, and he even pushed his opponent's health lower than Tang San did.

Hu Liena watched the screen, satisfaction appearing in her eyes.

Yan was not without talent.

He was simply too easily carried away by his own flames.

On the other side, Tang San advanced more slowly.

He did not rush for damage. Whenever the White-Clothed Scholar changed moves, he watched for a moment before deciding whether to dodge, immobilize, or charge an attack.

His slowness was not hesitation.

It was leaving room for himself.

Yan entered the second phase first.

When the serpent body burst from the water, he let out a low roar. Rather than retreating, he charged toward the serpent tail and began charging his attack.

The staff came crashing down.

The White-Clothed Scholar's serpent body jolted from the blow.

Several cries of surprise rose from the viewing area.

A flicker of excitement had just appeared in Yan's eyes when the spear suddenly thrust diagonally out of the mist.

He saw it.

He really saw it.

But he had committed too fully to that last strike. His body was still weighed down by the inertia after the heavy blow, and by the time he tried to pull back, he was already half a beat too slow.

The spear tip pierced him, and his health bar plummeted.

Yan gritted his teeth and tried to drink from the gourd, but the White-Clothed Scholar's second strike was already sweeping toward him.

The screen went dark.

First death.

Yan clenched the controller tightly.

This time, it was not that he had failed to understand.

He understood, but he still could not pull back in time.

That was even more suffocating than not being able to read the move.

He could even clearly recall that instant.

When his heavy staff struck the serpent body, he had already shouted Got it in his heart. That shout had come too quickly—faster than reason, faster than the movement of his hands.

By the time he realized the spear was still hidden in the mist, his body had already been pushed forward by his own pride.

The screen had gone black, but Yan's ears burned fiercely.

Tang San entered the second phase as well.

He saw Yan's death notification, but did not let it distract him.

When the serpent body pressed down on him, he first retreated half a step. Only when the spear tip truly revealed its killing intent did the Edge-Breaking Intent within him flash.

He did not block it head-on.

He used danger to expose the flaw.

His wooden staff smashed back, striking the opening revealed as the White-Clothed Scholar turned.

Hu Liena's gaze darkened slightly.

This was what made Tang San frightening.

It was not that he never took risks. It was that before every risk, he tried his best to reduce the danger to its smallest possible level.

When Xiao Wu saw that only a small portion of Tang San's health remained, her fingers still tightened.

She knew Tang San was steady, but being steady did not mean he would not feel pain. The blades in the game could not hurt his real body, but that impact in his heart was real.

Tang San did not look back.

It was as if he had completely forgotten that anyone was watching outside, his eyes fixed only on the White-Clothed Scholar's next movement. That focus reassured Xiao Wu, yet also left an indescribable heaviness in her chest.

In the end, Tang San cleared the stage with zero deaths.

Yan only cleared it on his second attempt, and the death count in the corner of his screen stopped at "two."

No one needed to announce it.

The result hung right there.

The viewing area grew quieter than before.

Everyone had originally come to watch a spectacle, but after truly seeing it through, they understood the same thing: the same White-Clothed Scholar, the same path, the same starting point—and the gap could be displayed with brutal clarity.

So clearly that even stubborn denials seemed difficult.

Yan took off his helmet, his expression as grim as a furnace fire buried beneath ash.

Tang San stood up. "You were much steadier than yesterday."

There was no mockery in those words.

Yet Yan felt even worse.

He would rather Tang San laughed at him than hear such a calm assessment.

Because that calmness meant Tang San had truly noticed his improvement.

But even after seeing that improvement, Tang San had still won.

The breath lodged in Yan's chest became even more stifling. He wanted to throw the helmet back on and play another round, but he knew that even if he played ten more times, the outcome would not improve much unless he first fixed that flaw of being unable to pull back.

Hu Liena spoke. "Yan, buy it out."

She said it decisively.

She was not giving Yan a way out. She was turning this defeat into Spirit Hall's next step. Losing was fine. Losing and remaining where they stood—that would be truly humiliating.

Yan took a deep breath and heavily placed Gold Soul Coins onto the counter.

"Boss, I'm buying it."

Lin Chuan accepted the money.

The Great Dao Wheel appeared once more.

This time, everyone wanted to know what a Flame Lord who had clearly learned something, yet still lost by half a beat, would draw.