Today, You're Going to Learn Your Lesson

He said no more, apparently accustomed to this sort of thing, and flipped forward another few pages before speaking.

"Among the bottom twenty, only number eighty-five, Shi Lei, is available for a challenge."

Chun Xiaobai was a little surprised. The only two people he could challenge were both men he had already defeated.

Feeling rather annoyed, he simply said,

"Elder, just keep flipping forward. Whoever's available, I'll challenge him!"

He had originally planned to work his way up slowly.

Now it seemed he had been too naive. These big shots on the ranking were either away from the sect or had already been challenged by someone else.

Elder Fu's mouth twitched.

He had intended to offer a few words of advice, but upon hearing that tone...

Today, you're going to learn your lesson.

He raised his hand and sent his fingers flying through the jade register, turning more than a dozen pages before finally stopping and speaking.

"At present, Lu Mang, ranked fiftieth, is in the sect and available to accept a challenge."

"Are you sure you want to challenge him?"

The old man raised his head, giving him a look that said, "You can still back out, brat."

Chun Xiaobai scratched his head and ears, looking utterly distressed.

What a staggering loss!

If he started by challenging number fifty and won, those ranked fifty-one, fifty-two... all the way down to one hundred would never come looking for a beating again.

Under the rules, he could not go back and challenge anyone ranked below him, either.

That meant he could get, at most, fifty Storage Bags!

No, no, that's too much of a loss!

This deal isn't worth it!

"Elder Fu, could you... could you take another good look for me? Is there really no one else? Not a single person among those fifty lower ranks is available?"

A faint, almost imperceptible sneer appeared on Elder Fu's face.

Hmph!

So now you know fear, brat?

Too late!

He did not say any of that aloud, however. He merely shook his head impatiently and replied, "No one."

"I keep watch here every day. I know exactly which disciples are available for challenges."

"Everyone below fiftieth is either away from the sect or has already been challenged."

"Damn it, why is my luck so rotten?"

Chun Xiaobai instinctively looked at Bai Jin'er beside him, grumbling inwardly, It's all this little woman's fault. She wore that killjoy expression first thing in the morning and even ruined this king's luck!

Bai Jin'er froze for a moment, baffled by his glare.

Elder Fu thought Chun Xiaobai would surely go home now and was just about to wave them away.

Instead, Chun Xiaobai suddenly slapped his thigh, as though he had made some momentous decision.

"Fine! I'll challenge him!"

"Hmm???"

Elder Fu raised an eyebrow slightly and sized up the youth before him again.

Although he could not discern the fellow's precise cultivation realm, judging solely by the aura he gave off, he was clearly quite inferior to those battle-hardened disciples on the Heavenly Prodigy Ranking.

Truly, a newborn calf has no fear of the tiger.

Forget it!

It'll do you good to learn a lesson.

Elder Fu shook his head inwardly, then waved his hand and took out a bronze token. His fingers formed a seal, instantly sending a spell into it.

"Wait here."

Chun Xiaobai rubbed his hands together and went to wait off to the side, his face full of excitement.

Half a quarter-hour later, a disciple in blue robes, built as powerfully as a bear, stormed onto the Heavenly Prodigy Arena. He looked around and immediately roared.

"Which blind fool wants to challenge me?"

"Get out here! I'll beat the shit out of you!"

His shout instantly alerted the disciples sparring around the Martial Arts Arena.

"A disciple has issued a Genius Ranking challenge?"

"Hurry, let's go look! You don't see Genius Ranking challenges very often!"

"Come on, come on! Let's watch the fun!"

The disciples stopped their matches one after another and surged toward the Heavenly Prodigy Arena like a tide.

Chun Xiaobai, who had been chatting and shooting the breeze with Fang Yuan some distance away, also heard the commotion and walked over. At a glance, he spotted the fellow standing on the platform, his face purple as pig's liver with rage, still cursing away.

"Get your ass out here! Once I'm done beating you, I can get back to cultivating! If you don't come out now, believe me, I'll leave you bedridden for a year!"

"Damn, that arrogant?"

Chun Xiaobai immediately pushed through the crowd and stepped forward, roaring with a glare, "Your grandpa here challenged you! What of it?"

"You?"

Lu Mang turned his head and looked Chun Xiaobai up and down. Finding the brat completely unfamiliar, someone he had never seen before, he grew even angrier.

Disciples like them on the Heavenly Prodigy Ranking valued their dignity above all else.

Naturally, no one dared challenge the powerful Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters whose reputations thundered far and wide.

Only those like them, ranked in the middle or lower reaches, whose strength was somewhat weaker or inconsistent, were frequently treated as soft persimmons ripe for squeezing.

Thus, the number of challenges they received had become an unwritten matter of face.

Anyone found to be challenged frequently would be mocked by the other Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters on the Heavenly Prodigy Ranking as a "gatekeeper of the Heavenly Prodigy Ranking."

The surrounding disciples also found Chun Xiaobai unfamiliar and began discussing him.

"Who's this guy? Do any of you know him?"

"No. Looking at him, could he be one of the new disciples who just joined?"

"Very likely! Every year there are a few reckless greenhorns who don't know how high the heavens are or how deep the earth runs. They want to challenge the Heavenly Prodigy Ranking the moment they arrive."

Those words immediately sparked a burst of uproarious laughter.

"That's Senior Brother Lu, ranked fiftieth on the Heavenly Prodigy Ranking and known as 'Crazy Blade.' Just wait and see how this arrogant fellow cries!"

Hearing those grating remarks, Chun Xiaobai immediately felt his dignity slipping.

He walked straight up to Lu Mang, looked him up and down, then curled his lips disdainfully.

"You don't look like much. You're big, sure, but who knows if you're all show and no substance?"

"You! You! You!"

Lu Mang was so furious that his words tangled together. He pointed at Chun Xiaobai, his finger shaking as though he had Parkinson's.

More than anything in his life, he hated people making an issue of his size.

It's one thing for those Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters to make fun of me, but you, some milk-breathed brat who crawled out of who knows what forgotten corner, dare look down on me too?

With a furious roar, he waved his hand, and a tiger-headed saber flashing with cold light appeared out of thin air in his palm.

Chun Xiaobai did not back down either, rolling up his sleeves at once.

"What are you doing? What are you doing?"

Elder Fu suddenly walked over. His clouded old eyes widened in a glare, and an invisible pressure instantly spread outward, silencing the entire noisy Martial Arts Arena.

He approached them and said sternly, "Private fights are forbidden off the Genius Arena!"

"If you want to fight, get onto the platform! Anyone who dares break the rules will have their cultivation crippled and be expelled from the sect!"

Lu Mang could only force down his anger and glare viciously at Chun Xiaobai. "Brat, once we're on that platform, I'll teach you how to behave!"

Chun Xiaobai curled his lips and retorted without yielding an inch, "In a moment, I'll let you experience firsthand what it really means to be all show and no substance!"

"Enough, both of you, shut up! You have a quarter-hour to prepare." Elder Fu waved his hand impatiently.

"Elder, I don't need to prepare!" Lu Mang said immediately.

His eyes remained fixed on Chun Xiaobai. He felt that every extra breath this fellow spent standing before him was another affront to his reputation as a genius.

Elder Fu then looked at Chun Xiaobai.

Chun Xiaobai also shook his head and said contemptuously, "For trash like him? What's there to prepare?"

At the sight of his arrogance, Elder Fu's grizzled beard trembled.

Even he, a dignified elder, was beginning to find it unbearable.

In over a hundred years guarding this martial arts platform, he had never seen a disciple so full of himself!