The Winner Takes All

"Director Li."

Ning Yue started and only then realized that two people had appeared beside him. One of them was Li Changsheng, the director of the senior-year group.

"Ning Yue, you did very well. You had the courage to stand up to a powerful opponent and defend the school's honor." Li Changsheng glanced at him, his expression instantly turning genial.

As director of the senior-year group, he naturally knew Ning Yue, the dark horse of the entire year, even of the entire school.

In particular, seeing Ning Yue standing on the stage, his actions spoke for themselves, and Li Changsheng took a strong liking to him.

"Unlike the students from certain schools, who only know how to bully the weak and shrink back when faced with a powerful opponent. They're a disgrace to martial artists."

Director Li thought of the students who had been gravely injured along the way. Among them, Wen Xi was the son of a friend, a nephew of the younger generation whom he thought highly of.

His tone was mocking as he spoke, his eyes fixed on the visiting teacher beside him, a tall man in his thirties with long hair draped over his shoulders.

He was probably the teacher leading the team from Huaqing Martial Arts Middle School.

"Bullshit, Li Changsheng! Who are you saying shrinks back from a powerful opponent?" The visiting teacher flew into a rage. An indescribable might erupted from his body, and the spiritual energy grew incomparably heavy.

"Who else could I mean? I'm talking about you. You disagree? Want to fight?"

Li Changsheng showed no fear. With a casual wave, he shielded Ning Yue from being injured by the visiting teacher's pressure.

"Fight it is! Who's afraid of you? We're both Fifth Rank, both martial artists of the Aperture Refining Realm who've shed our mortal bodies and remade our bones. Don't think you're stronger than me just because you're more than ten years older!"

The visiting teacher's aura surged, and a vision of starlight appeared around him, bearing down on Li Changsheng.

Li Changsheng paid the visiting teacher's starlight vision no mind. When the vision filled the air, spreading across dozens of zhang as it bore down on him, he looked up. A fierce flash of sword light passed, and the vision vanished.

"That's it? Nothing but clay chickens and pottery dogs."

Disdain filled Li Changsheng's face as he said slowly, "Calling yourself 'old man' at such a young age? Who gave you the nerve to call yourself that in front of me, Li Changsheng?"

"I, Li Changsheng, began practicing the sword at three, reached the Second Rank at seventeen, entered the Northern Wasteland at eighteen and slaughtered over a thousand ferocious beasts. I entered the Fourth Rank at twenty and the Fifth Rank at twenty-one, and was known as the foremost heavenly pride of Northern Wasteland Martial Arts University."

"If I hadn't suffered a Dao injury at the hands of an alien race, leaving my martial arts cultivation unable to advance an inch, would you even be qualified to stand before me?"

As Li Changsheng spoke, ten thousand sword lights appeared around him, bearing down over ten li before converging into a single sword that reached the heavens and pressed down on the visiting teacher.

The pressure made the visiting teacher's legs tremble. His face turned pale, cold sweat poured from him, and he looked ready to fall to his knees at any moment.

"You Changsheng, kill me if you have the guts! Let's see whether the human race's patrol envoy holds you accountable. I, Lin Qinghua, admit defeat today. Kill me or carve me up as you please."

Lin Qinghua's face was full of resentment. He resented his own weakness, that he had no strength to resist Li Changsheng.

"Hmph." Li Changsheng snorted, and the enormous sword reaching to the heavens dissipated. "Seeing that you've got some backbone and you're a guest, I'll leave you some face. Otherwise, I'd suppress you with a martial arts formation diagram and make you kneel here for ten days."

With that, he ignored the visiting teacher's ashen expression and turned to Ning Yue.

"Kid, did you understand what you saw? This is the world of martial arts, a world where the strong are kings. Kindness won't do."

"Get down and get ready. You'll fight those kids from Huaqing City."

"Yes."

Ning Yue nodded, silently jumped down from the stage, and returned to Wang Xueqing's side.

His heart was still pounding rapidly.

Not from fear, but excitement.

I didn't expect Director Li to be so strong. Even the principal might not be as powerful as him.

Ning Yue recalled some of the rumors at school and only then realized that Director Li was the most unusual person there. He hardly ever took part in any activities, and none of the teachers dared to offend him.

Moreover, the principal would follow some of the suggestions he made.

Combined with what Director Li had just said, Ning Yue couldn't help wondering whether a high school could really have such a heavenly pride.

Was it worthy?

The pride that had just begun to rise in him subsided somewhat.

A Fifth-Rank martial artist at twenty-one could be gravely injured by an alien race, leaving his martial arts cultivation unable to advance an inch for decades. What did a mere First-Rank Realm cultivator like him have to be proud of?

"What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

Wang Xueqing asked with concern.

"No. Didn't you hear what Director Li said?" Ning Yue glanced at her.

"Did Director Li say anything? Didn't he exchange a blow with that visiting teacher as soon as he arrived? Honestly, I didn't expect that teacher to be so weak. They're both in the Fifth-Grade Realm, yet Director Li suppressed him with a single strike."

Wang Xueqing was puzzled and looked down somewhat on the visiting teacher's performance.

"Get ready. The real challenge might be coming next."

Ning Yue changed the subject. It wasn't that the visiting teacher was weak, but that Director Li was too strong.

For heavenly prides, fighting across realms was normal.

The visiting teacher was only an ordinary Fifth-Rank martial artist.

He knew this was one way to use qi and blood in the Fifth-Grade Realm.

In the Fifth-Grade Realm, one refined the apertures and transformed them into spirit. The entire body underwent a transformation, gaining spirituality and shedding its mortal shell to remake its bones. Once the Spirit Physique reached completion, it had many wondrous uses.

The Spirit Physiques awakened by people like Wen Xi only gave them a small portion of the Fifth-Grade Realm's power while they were still in the First-Rank Realm.

It was a mark of genius.

The martial arts of the human race were a path of cultivation that constantly strengthened the physical body, using a cultivation method based on the greater world outside and the lesser world of the human body.

The first three ranks of martial arts cultivated the martial artist's physical body, opened up the power of the heavenly meridians, awakened different divine abilities, and connected the three forces of heaven, earth, and humanity to form a great heavenly cycle.

Heaven and earth were drawn into the body, and 108 heavenly meridians spread throughout it, forming the configuration of the stars in the heavens and drawing spiritual energy pouring inward.

At the Fourth Rank, cultivation proceeded from the outside in, refining the five viscera and six bowels until the internal organs grew powerful and gave rise to the shadows of divine spirits. Swallowing metal and digesting stone was no problem.

At the Martial Arts Fifth Rank, one refined the apertures to commune with spirit. Spiritual energy bestowed spirituality, and the Spirit Physique reached completion, forming a martial arts formation diagram and giving rise to martial arts visions that could turn the illusory into reality.

At that moment, Li Changsheng's voice rang out from the stage.

"Today, Blue Star faces dangers on every side. Another spatial rift is forming, and all the alien races that harbor designs against our human race are stirring..."

It was an opening speech with a sweeping perspective.

"After discussing the matter with Director Lin of Huaqing City, we have settled on the challenge rules: the winner takes all."

"Each side will field five people for one-on-one battles in an elimination format. Whichever school has the last person standing on the stage will be the winner."

"In keeping with the principle of competition second, victory first, you may use any means so long as you win."

"Teacher, you're absolutely right!"

A shout came from below the stage, tinged with tears.

Li Changsheng looked closely and saw that it was the student from Huaqing City named Hu Zhe.

He had probably just regained consciousness.

As someone in the Fifth-Grade Realm, hearing everything around him was a basic skill.

He had long since learned exactly what had happened and felt no particular emotion toward Hu Zhe.

In nearly fifty years of life, he had seen all kinds of people.

Meanness and shamelessness were all normal behavior.

As long as they weren't from an alien race or fiends from an evil cult, he would regard them normally.

Now he saw Hu Zhe looking as though he had found a kindred spirit, weeping tears of joy.

Li Changsheng nodded at Hu Zhe.

This kid hasn't had it easy either.

"One more rule: once your opponent has lost the ability to fight, you must not deliberately inflict serious injury or cause death. Otherwise, you will bear the consequences."

Hu Zhe's crying stopped abruptly.

"All right, enough talk. Each side will select five team members, and the competition will begin."

"Zuo Tianchang, you'll select the five students for our Xinyuan Middle School."

After saying that, Li Changsheng and the visiting teacher Lin Qinghua each took a step. With that ordinary step, they crossed more than ten zhang and arrived below the stage.

At the same time, Li Changsheng extended both hands, and a martial arts formation diagram appeared, manipulating the invisible substances in the space around him to form a broad chair.

Li Changsheng sat down.

Seeing this, Lin Qinghua followed suit and made a slightly smaller chair.

Without looking closely, one could hardly tell the difference.

"At least you know your place, kid." Li Changsheng glanced at him and nodded with a smile.