Rules were rules

Elder Fu's face was black as ink, but he still squeezed a few words through his teeth and nodded. "Chun. Xiao. Bai. Wins!"

"Elder Fu, just now..." Lu Mang still wanted to argue.

"Silence!" Elder Fu cut him off with an angry shout. "Rules are rules!"

He had guarded this Martial Arts Arena for over a hundred years and earned all sorts of honors and rewards from the sect. Aside from his generally easygoing manner...

The biggest reason was that he had always handled matters impartially. Whatever the contest, he never favored either side.

A loss was a loss!

"Hahahaha! Doesn't that mean I've struck it rich?"

Chun Xiaobai's cheerful voice rang out again, drawing everyone's attention.

Then he jumped straight down from the platform, grinned broadly, and scampered over to Elder Fu. Rubbing his hands together, he asked,

"Elder Fu, where are our stakes?"

With a dark expression and his graying beard trembling in anger, Elder Fu reluctantly waved his hand and passed over the four Storage Bags.

Chun Xiaobai clutched all four Storage Bags tightly to his chest, planted a kiss on them, and burst out laughing.

"Haha, I'm rich! Thank you for your generosity, Senior Brother Lu! Thank you for doing me this honor, senior brothers and Senior Sisters!"

"Huh???"

Seeing that petty, triumphant look on his face, as though he wanted to carve the words "struck it rich" into his forehead, everyone felt a suffocating tightness in their chests. It was like swallowing a fly, and they ground their teeth in fury.

Remembering how they had mocked him like an idiot just moments ago made it hurt even worse. Yet there was nothing they could do to him.

As for Lu Mang, he stood rooted to the spot with bloodshot eyes, on the verge of tears.

That was everything he had painstakingly saved over all these years!

And just like that... it was gone?

"Congratulations, Senior Brother Chun! Congratulations!"

Fang Yuan, the bootlicker, was the first to squeeze out of the crowd, his eyes narrowed into smiling slits and his back bent so low he nearly touched the ground.

"Mm-hmm!"

Chun Xiaobai waved a hand casually, holding his Storage Bags as though all this were only natural.

Bai Jin'er rolled her eyes at him in exasperation and muttered inwardly,

It was just good luck.

Still, she finally breathed a sigh of relief. They had made it through this heart-stopping ordeal at last.

Chun Xiaobai glanced at Lu Mang, who stood with clenched fists and a look that said he wanted to strip off Chun Xiaobai's skin and devour his flesh. There was not a trace of sympathy in his eyes.

In his view, not one of these disciples on the genius ranking was a good egg.

Which of their considerable riches had not been squeezed out of low-level cultivators by exploiting their standing in the sect?

"The earth eats a man once; a man eats the earth his whole life."

In this Cultivation World, where the weak were meat for the strong, big fish ate little fish, and little fish ate shrimp.

Those who played the game always had to pay their debts eventually.

What he had done today counted as carrying out heaven's justice, winning some fairness for those bullied disciples at the bottom!

"That was way too pathetic."

"Winning didn't give me any sense of achievement!"

Chun Xiaobai withdrew his gaze, hefted the Storage Bags in his hands, and smacked his lips as though he still had not had his fill.

Those words instantly lit the powder keg. Lu Mang jerked forward in fury, nearly throwing the rules aside to leap at him and fight to the death.

The surrounding disciples were also enraged by his arrogance. At last, someone could not hold back and challenged him loudly.

"You only won one match through good luck! If you've got the guts, keep challenging! Senior Brother Wang, ranked forty-ninth, happens to be here in the sect!"

Chun Xiaobai pretended he had misspoken and hurriedly covered his mouth, his gaze shifting evasively as though he had a guilty conscience.

The spectators who had long found him irritating immediately seized on this opening, and someone chimed in.

"That's right! Keep challenging if you've got the guts! Don't think beating Senior Brother Lu makes you anything special! Just wait and see how Senior Brother Wang deals with you!"

"Exactly! Do you dare or not? If you're scared, just say so!"

The taunts rose in wave after wave.

Backed into a corner by the crowd, Chun Xiaobai finally "couldn't take it anymore." He steeled himself, thrust his chin up, and roared.

"Who cares about some bullshit Senior Brother Wang? Bring him here if you've got the guts! See if this Great King doesn't beat him until he's crawling around looking for his teeth!"

"Arrogant! Too fucking arrogant!"

"Don't you dare run!" one disciple threatened.

"Run?"

As though he had heard the greatest joke in the world, Chun Xiaobai slammed the four heavy Storage Bags onto a nearby stone table with a smack and roared with all the swagger of a bandit.

"Bring whoever you want! Every last one of them! If anyone beats this Great King today, everything I own is fucking theirs!"

"Ah!!!"

His boundless arrogance and confidence, as though he were already invincible beneath heaven, nearly made everyone's cultivation regress on the spot and inner demons take root.

A female disciple whose face had flushed red with anger immediately turned to Elder Fu and called out.

"Elder Fu! Senior Brother Chun wants to keep challenging! Please contact Senior Brother Wang at once and have him come accept the challenge!"

Elder Fu stepped forward, frowning at Chun Xiaobai. "You... really want to keep challenging?"

"I..." Chun Xiaobai scratched his head again, looking hesitant.

Seeing this, everyone thought he was about to chicken out again, and immediately poured more fuel on the fire.

"What? Lost your nerve? Did you feed all those bold words to the dogs?"

"I knew he was a coward who could only run his mouth!"

"Hurry up and agree! Let us see Senior Brother Wang beat your face into a pig's head!"

Hearing this, Chun Xiaobai slapped his thigh in a fit of "rage" and threw caution to the wind.

"I'll challenge him! I have to challenge him today!"

"This Great King will show you bastards who look down on people through dogs' eyes exactly how I'll pin that bullshit Senior Brother Wang to the ground and grind him into the dirt!"

Hearing his outrageously arrogant words, Elder Fu clenched his old teeth, took out the Bronze Token, and began contacting Senior Brother Wang, who ranked forty-ninth.

This brat had to be taught a lesson today.

Otherwise, he would be left with a knot in his heart just before retirement.

Before long, a young man in blue robes, his face as fair as polished jade, arrived at the edge of the Martial Arts Arena, surrounded by a crowd of indignant disciples.

He had an otherworldly bearing and an unhurried stride. An austere longsword hung at his waist, and he radiated a sharp aura that warned strangers to keep their distance.

This was Wang Shan, forty-ninth on the heavenly prodigy ranking.

He entered the arena and swept a cold gaze around before finally settling on the noisy disciples. He spoke calmly.

"I hear some arrogant fellow wants to stake his entire fortune on a challenge against me?"

Every gaze swung toward the figure sitting on a bench below the Martial Practice Platform, hugging his Storage Bags and grinning foolishly.

Yet the moment Chun Xiaobai met their gazes, his eyes darted aside, and he turned his head, pretending not to have seen them.

Seeing that he had lost his nerve again, everyone immediately launched into another round of mockery.

"He's scared! Look, he's scared!"

"Weren't you just shouting about beating Senior Brother Wang until he crawled around looking for his teeth? Why have you turned into a turtle hiding its head now?"

"I told you! It was all luck. He doesn't have a shred of real ability!"