Mo Chuan's gaze sharpened as he realized the speaker was a short figure wearing a hood and a scarf.
Meanwhile, Zhang Hanshan in the center of the arena showed no contempt for his opponent's small stature, continuing to silently recite the "Diamond Sutra" in place.
As golden Sanskrit characters floated around Zhang Hanshan's body, the observing students knew he was bolstering his defenses again.
During a previous skirmish, a student from the physical offense academy had unleashed a full-power ultimate skill directly at Zhang Hanshan's face. However, it hadn't even managed to break his skin.
"Good! Brave student!" the teacher laughed exaggeratedly, handing the microphone on his flying axe to the short man. "Student, please state your academy and name so everyone can get to know you."
"I... My name is Cao Beijie... a student from the Breakthrough Academy..."
Perhaps due to nervousness, Cao Beijie stammered a bit.
"Alright! Student Cao! Please come onto the stage! Let's see your performance."
"To reiterate, no lethal force! Stop when you have the advantage, and seek harmony! Alright, I declare the match to begin!"
As soon as the words were spoken, Cao Beijie transformed into a shadow and blended into the arena's environment.
Zhang Hanshan ignored it. He didn't know the opponent's abilities, and acting rashly now would be useless.
The arena fell silent.
"Invisibility?" Mo Chuan rubbed his eyes, carefully sensing the location of his soul. He frowned, "Why can't I even sense his soul? Did he just vanish from here?"
"No, he's currently walking slowly around the arena, observing Zhang Hanshan's weaknesses."
Hearing this, Mo Chuan turned his head. He saw that He Lanxin's eyes had turned purplish-gold, with two pupils in each eye.
Noticing Mo Chuan looking at her, He Lanxin smiled slightly and explained, "This is a skill I awakened at the third stage, [Double Pupils]. It can see through any disguise or invisibility."
It truly lived up to its S+ rating. If he hadn't had his cheat, he probably wouldn't even have had the chance to meet He Lanxin, let alone be sitting here watching the match together.
"It's likely something on his person, or the ability itself has some special property that can shield him from soul perception," He Lanxin mused, pinching her fair chin.
Mo Chuan nodded and said, "I feel that with just this invisibility, he should have the qualifications to enter the ruins."
He Lanxin also nodded, and their gazes returned to the stage, awaiting the next part of the battle.
After a while, the air behind Zhang Hanshan rippled slightly. Then, in the blink of an eye, Cao Beijie appeared behind Zhang Hanshan, his dagger flashing with purple light as he thrust it towards Zhang Hanshan's ribs.
"Is that it? Can that break Zhang Hanshan's defense?"
This was the question that spontaneously arose in the minds of the spectators.
Mo Chuan watched the cold gleam of the dagger, an intuition telling him it might be hard to say.
As expected, a shocking scene unfolded – Cao Beijie's attack breached Zhang Hanshan's defense, and bright red blood splattered across the ground.
Zhang Hanshan clutched his wound and was about to counterattack when Cao Beijie's form once again darkened, disappearing.
"I see... No wonder you couldn't sense him," He Lanxin seemed to have understood something immediately after seeing the dagger, and said to Mo Chuan, "Do you know what he's holding?"
"Uh..." Mo Chuan looked bewildered.
"The ability of the Assassin King, the Yu Chang Sword," He Lanxin said, narrowing her eyes. "And the reason that sword looks like a dagger is because it's a broken sword."
"Yu Chang Sword..." Mo Chuan carefully recalled some information about the Yu Chang Sword he had seen in books before, shaking his head and saying, "The Yu Chang Sword has extremely strong armor-piercing capabilities. Zhang Hanshan is likely in trouble."
As expected, after being successfully ambushed multiple times by Cao Beijie, Zhang Hanshan knew he would be worn down to death. So, he decided to unleash an AoE to try and get a hit in: "Mingwang's Fury!"
His fist, flashing with red light, struck the ground heavily. A massive shockwave swept across the entire arena, kicking up a huge cloud of dust.
Within the dust, Cao Beijie's figure faintly appeared.
But just as Zhang Hanshan was about to charge forward to inflict damage, a cold glint flashed behind him. A small cut appeared on the muscles at the back of Zhang Hanshan's neck.
Touching the oozing blood on his nape, Zhang Hanshan gave a wry smile and said to the host teacher, "I forfeit."
...
The subsequent matches were not as exciting.
After securing six consecutive victories, Cao Beijie voluntarily stepped down to rest. In the remaining matches, most of the participants were second and third-stage students. These were mostly exchanges of physical combat and martial arts, with few using their ultimate skills (which consumed a lot of energy, and if they didn't instantly defeat the opponent, it would be difficult to continue).
Moreover, after watching matches all afternoon, including Zhang Hanshan and Cao Beijie, there were only about a dozen individuals rated A- or above in total.
Mo Chuan also realized this – the people he usually encountered were mostly exceptionally talented "chosen ones." Yet, even at a top-tier school like Longjing University, there were probably less than a hundred truly talented and powerful individuals.
By extension, the number of people at the top tier of strength in the entire Long Kingdom was less than ten thousand.
It was no wonder that Confucius, even after recruiting talents from Lu, Wei, Cao, Song, Qi, Zheng, Jin, Chen, Cai, Chu, and other states, only managed to gather three thousand disciples.
Indeed, having a cheat makes you so willful... Looking across the entire school, there were probably only about twenty people who had reached the fifth stage like himself.
As Mo Chuan's mind wandered, he was suddenly called out, "Hey! Genius of the Special Class, dare you have a spar with me!?"
Mo Chuan slightly raised his eyes and saw the "student" standing in the center of the arena, who had just achieved his third consecutive victory.
The reason he called him a "student" was because this classmate looked incredibly mature... even overly mature...
With a beard a foot and three inches long and chest hair as wide as a palm, was this big brother truly a student?!
Even more flamboyantly, this fellow was bare-chested, with a red bandana tied around his head. While speaking, he struck various bodybuilding poses, showcasing his muscles.
The atmosphere in the arena instantly became tense.
Even the presiding teacher didn't know how to respond, only offering a dry chuckle.
"Hurry up! My muscles crave battle! Come on! Let's hurt each other!"
"Mo Chuan, you go... I'm afraid I might not be able to help but go for a kill..." He Lanxin said with a headache, "This person is likely from the Guardian Academy. That place is full of muscular bros..."
Mo Chuan also nodded helplessly, activating [Hellwalker] and leaping down from the stands.
...
Zhang Hanshan's Intel (Updated):
Stamina: S
Attack: A-
Defense: S+
Spiritual Power: B-
Crowd Control: A
Skills:
[Karma Fire Burning Body]: Increases own dual resistances and ignites nearby targets with karma, dealing magic damage per second.
[Diamond Dharma Body]: If there is no movement within 2.5 seconds, enters the [Sutra Recitation] state. Every 3 seconds, Zhang Hanshan gains a layer of [Diamond Dharma] (up to 10 layers, each layer lasts for one minute). Each layer of [Diamond Dharma] provides Zhang Hanshan with 2% damage reduction. When his [Diamond Dharma] is full, he recovers 0.5% of his lost HP per minute.