Volume 2, Chapter 68 – The Hint

The matches progressed very quickly.

This was probably because people in the Condensing the Aspect realm had weak bodies and really weren’t suited for prolonged fighting on stage. As a result, wins and losses were always decided cleanly and crisply, with almost no drawn-out bouts.

Zhou Yingxing had bad luck. In the first round of the advancement matches he drew Leng Qiu, in the second he drew Zhao Jinyan, and in the third he simply drew his own senior brother, Xia Ran. Three losses in a row wiped out his chances of continuing, and he could step down to rest.

Wiping away his sweat, he checked his sword to make sure there was no serious damage, then sheathed it, holding the scabbard in hand as he walked step by step toward the edge of the field.

Spectators nearby noticed him and gradually offered a smattering of applause that, just barely, could still be called enthusiastic.

Because Zhou Yingxing had already made it pretty far.

He was the eighth-to-last person eliminated. A guaranteed eighth place was already beyond some classmates’ expectations—before the matches, they hadn’t thought his ranking would beat Han Tong’s.

Han Tong had been the ninth-to-last to be eliminated.

When Zhou Yingxing sat down at the sideline to drink some water, he happened to see Han Tong being carried off on a stretcher.

“He had bad luck,” the girl looking after Han Tong said quietly. “He ran into that bald lunatic.”

He ran into Bolu?

Zhou Yingxing’s expression twisted a bit. He’d watched Bolu fight as well. The man’s strikes only got heavier as the rounds went on—someone had even had half their face smashed in with a single punch, and might be disfigured even after surgery.

Looking at Han Tong’s chalk-white face and the blood-stained white cloth covering his leg, Zhou Yingxing suddenly felt his own luck was pretty good.

There were only a few people left now, and he’d actually managed to avoid all three Luohou brutes. The opponents he’d drawn were the three who hit the cleanest and left the lightest injuries. If that wasn’t good luck, what was?

He looked up at the big screen, where only six names and faces remained.

Zhao Jinyan and Leng Qiu.

Xia Ran and Bolu.

And two other Luohou people, Zongli and Yetasha.

There had originally been a Meng Zhiyu as well, but he’d been beaten in succession by Zongli and Yetasha during this stretch, and could only leave the stage with a seventh-place finish.

Xia Ran’s next opponent was supposed to be Bolu. He was already on his way to Platform No. 3 when a teacher stopped him halfway and told him, “There are only four people left. According to the rules, we can start the semifinals now.”

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Xia Ran froze. “Aren’t there still six?”

Because there were so many participants, the matches were being run in a round-robin format.

That meant everyone had to fight everyone else in their group once, and rankings were decided based on overall win–loss records, with the higher-ranked advancing to the next round.

This round-robin format would continue until the final four were decided. At that point, the competition format would change to drawing lots to pair the four into two matches, with the winners of those advancing to the finals.

The teacher told him, “Right! But the other two Luohou contestants just forfeited! So now there are only four left!”

He didn’t say which two, but Xia Ran knew Bolu wouldn’t be one of them.

Because he was too special.

He hadn’t even drawn his sword yet.

“Maybe they knew those two were outclassed by you lot,” the teacher said. “On strength alone, it really would come down to you four anyway. But if you played the whole round-robin out, it’d be like Bolu fighting the three of you in turn. That’d be bad for him, so th—those Luohou people probably thought of that and chose to concede.”

Trying to keep Bolu from getting worn out by too many consecutive fights?

Xia Ran glanced at the Luohou delegation by the sidelines and snorted inwardly at this little scheme.

They probably thought he’d team up with Zhao Jinyan and Little Qiu’er to take Bolu out, which was really looking down on them too much.

Some teachers in caps and student volunteers began entering the field. First they cleared everyone still on or around the platforms, then checked that there were no foreign objects on the platforms or the grass. After that they left quickly, leaving only four empty platforms behind.

Rumble…

The field trembled faintly. Amid the shrieks and exclamations of many freshmen, the grass started sliding outward, while the four platforms moved inward under mechanical control, locking together into one much larger platform four times the size.

This was that modernization renovation they’d talked about earlier.

Bai Xiang immediately linked what she was seeing with the previous introduction. When she looked at Xiang Xian, sure enough, her master’s eyes were shining.

The final four’s faces and names appeared on the screen. Under the computer’s arrangement they flickered rapidly, then finally split into two pairs, lined up top and bottom.

Leng Qiu versus Bolu.

Zhao Jinyan versus Xia Ran.

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Seeing the bracket, Xia Ran frowned at once, then jogged halfway around the field and headed straight for the VIP seats where Bai Xiang was.

He was going for Leng Qiu.

The Qingze teachers’ and students’ seats were connected to this area, just off to the right. To get there, he had to pass right in front of Bai Xiang.

He’d been in a hurry to warn Little Qiu’er to be careful and hadn’t been thinking about Bai Xiang at all. But as he passed, she suddenly focused her gaze and looked straight at his face.

Xia Ran’s scalp prickled and he stopped, turning his head toward her.

“Tell her to watch out for mental contamination,” Bai Xiang said.

She hadn’t planned on getting involved.

But that girl had at least been polite enough to bow and apologize to her before, so she’d give her a heads-up.

What the hell?

Xia Ran didn’t know Bai Xiang, but she was too distinctive. He’d heard a little about her one way or another, and with Xiang Xian and his own master sitting beside her, he could only assume she was that so-called “Shenming Fairy”.

He’d originally thought the title was hot air, but that feeling she’d just given him…

Frowning, Xia Ran bent at the waist to bow to Wang Ran and Xiang Xian, then quickly headed over to the Qingze side.

“What are you doing here?”

Master Li Sheng shot him a wary look, one arm out in front of Leng Qiu, as if she were either protecting her or blocking her from stepping forward.

“I’m here to warn her.” Xia Ran’s brow furrowed even deeper, but he still finished in a low voice. “Bolu has trained the Earth-Heart Stance.”

At that, some Qingze students still looked blank, but Zhao Jinyan, Master Li Sheng, Leng Qiu, and the others all stared wide-eyed, and quite a few of the teachers clustering around them cried out in surprise.

“Earth-Heart Stance?”

“Is it really the Earth-Heart Stance?”

No wonder they were so shocked. The Earth-Heart Stance was arguably the hardest of the Thirty-Six Stance Arts of Benling to train. It had another name: the Golden-Iron Arhat Stance.

It was said that this stance was Fuhu Temple’s earliest source method.

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Back before they’d killed their first Benling Tiger, before they’d created any new Dao methods around the Benling Tiger, this was their greatest reliance in life-and-death struggles.

It was especially hard to train. You had to collect nine types of ore and grind them into ore-sand, then fill nine large cauldrons with it. While the ore-sand was being baked, the practitioner had to climb up.

At first, the practitioner had to temper their stance on the ore-sand, shifting back and forth to make sure they didn’t sink in.

Once the stance was familiar and the soles had absorbed some “earth-heat”, all the ore-sand had to be poured together and loaded into an even bigger cauldron. The practitioner then had to stand atop it to temper the stance, letting their body sink down bit by bit.

In the end, even their head would be completely buried in the ore-sand, every joint in their body wedged stuck and almost unable to move, and they wouldn’t even be able to breathe.

They had to continue tempering the Earth-Heart Stance in that state. Only when they could move freely in the ore-sand, their entire body unhindered, did the stance count as having reached minor completion.

Once mastered, the body became tough and compact, not only immensely strong but also as flexible as flowing sand. And from then on, the body could absorb “earth-heat” and send that earth-heat surging out through the limbs in strikes.

Leng Qiu blinked hard as she listened.

This was way different from what she’d imagined.

It was the Earth-Heart Stance, after all.

Every Benling disciple through history who’d mastered the Earth-Heart Stance had been an all-rounder in every stat—body, strength, speed, reflexes, flexibility… plus that strange “earth-heat” energy mixed into their demonic aura, impossible to guard against!

Benling Sword Dao only produced one such monster every few decades. How could they possibly let an outsider learn it?

And now she was supposed to deal with him?

“Don’t be afraid!”

Master Li Sheng barked sharply.

“It’s just the Earth-Heart Stance… and not even the orthodox version. What’s there to be scared of!”

“Qiu’er!” She looked at Leng Qiu.

“P-present!”

“Remember, the Earth-Heart Stance is weak to lightning. Your dragon-form trend restrains him directly!”

“Yes!” Leng Qiu’s spirits finally lifted, all her worries gone.

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After all, her master’s judgment had never been wrong.

If Master said she could win, then she could win!

“And also…”

Xia Ran hesitated here.

“What else?” Li Sheng narrowed her eyes. “If you’ve got something to say, spit it out!”

“You also need to watch out for ‘mental contamination’.”

Xia Ran simply went all in and relayed Bai Xiang’s warning as well.

Even if he didn’t know what exactly “mental contamination” meant, considering Bai Xiang had been sitting between two Dao Lords at the time… maybe they were using her mouth to remind them?

On the other side.

The old monk in the python-embroidered robe was also instructing his favored disciple.

“How’s your condition?”

Bolu nodded. “No problem.”

“And ‘Soul-Shatter’, how’s its condition?”

Bolu started, his eyes going briefly vacant, then nodded again. “Also no problem!”

“Good.”

The old monk nodded, glanced around, then leaned close to whisper in Bolu’s ear.

“Find a chance later and pour Soul-Shatter into her body.”

“Shangqing is the last obstacle on that side.”

“They need a wedge, and this is the best opportunity.”