The referees hadn't even signaled the start of the match, but the elite class immediately sprang into action the moment my classmates and I set foot on the arena.
"What are you doing!?" Teacher Jiao Shi yelled from his side of the coliseum. "We didn't say start yet!"
"It's fine, isn't it?" Teacher Wang Fei stifled a yawn and waved dismissively. "Young people are full of energy. Since they already began, let them. No point stopping them."
She then smirked. "All of this is just a formality anyway. We all know the elite class will inevitably win."
"Why even bother with having a match then!?" Teacher Jiao fumed. Teacher Wang burst out laughing.
"Are you that naïve? Of course it's to show off the elite class's abilities, and to trample upon the weak! So that all the other students will learn from this and do their best to become stronger, so as not to be humiliated like the failures of our school!"
…and this was supposed to be one of the elite educators of our school. Truly, the world had gone mad.
Fortunately, my former classmates aimed for me first. Kuang Shi led the charge, thrusting his spear forward, while Kai Xuan and Jian Shi flanked him, brandishing their swords. The three of them converged on my position, striking me in perfect coordination.
For a second, it appeared that Kuang Shi's spear had impaled me, and Kai Xuan and Jian Shi's swords cleaved through me. Technically, this was supposed to be illegal. We weren't allowed to kill each other in the school arena.
But given how corrupted the school was, the elite class would be allowed to get away with murder just like in trashy manhuas and cultivation web novels. Actually, they wouldn't. There would be a public outcry, and just like Li Qi Ming, the three of them would be thrown in jail. I guess they were so eager on killing and humiliating me in front of everyone that they didn't think so far ahead.
Just like typical cultivation web novel and manhua antagonists.
"What the?!"
"Where did he go?!"
My figure shimmered and vanished, and the three of them looked around in astonishment. Then Kuang Zhe choked when my foot slammed into his face, my kick sending him flying across the arena. Kai Xuan and Jian Shi spun around, but I kicked the former in the solar plexus, knocking him down, then ducked under the latter's blade before kicking him in the jaw and sending him flying upward.
Before I could finish them off with my sword, vines whipped out and seized the both of them, dragging them to safety. Lian Hua glared at me from afar, her eyes full of hatred. I didn't understand. The trio were visibly trying to kill me, and yet the referees weren't stopping the match and disqualifying them. Yet I was the one who was being resented because…I fought back and defended myself?
"Hey!" Teacher Jiao shouted, raising a hand. "Stop the match! Those three have just broken the rules!"
"No one died. No rules have been broken." Teacher Wang snorted. With the two referees having differing opinions, the decision was left to the principal, and when both of them turned to him, the old man simply waved for the match to play on.
Bastard…
Before I could complain, a barrage of icicles erupted from the ground and toward me, seeking to pierce me. Aware that they would hit my classmates if I evaded it, I drew my sword and swung it. Azure qi exploded out of my blade and smashed the ice to bits, sending a shower of frost high into the air. For a second, it looked as if it was snowing.
"Impressive." Long Fan Xue lowered her elegant sword and stared at me coldly. "I didn't expect you to stop my Celestial Ice Chain Strike."
I didn't reply, instead setting my gaze on her ice-blue sword. Sapphires glittered in the hilt, and frost decorated the exquisitely crafted blade. It almost looked as if her weapon had been forged from the purest ice, more so than my spirit sword, Azure Frost. I couldn't help but feel a stab of jealousy, wishing I had a treasure weapon of my own.
Honestly, it wasn't as if I couldn't. After I had obtained the sea steel as a reward for protecting Atlantis, I wanted to forge it into a weapon immediately. The problem was that not just any blacksmith was capable of crafting the sea steel into a weapon. It required very specific skills from a top blacksmith, and the only one dad knew of lived in some volcanic area known as the Huo Yan Valley. A desolate region of volcanoes surrounded by seas of lava, it was the perfect place for blacksmiths to temper blades and forge equipment, making use of the intense heat and pressure afforded by the lakes of boiling lava around them.
The problem was that we would have to book an appointment well in advance, and then wait several months for the blacksmith to forge a weapon. After all, the blacksmiths of Huo Yan Valley were reputable and known to be the best in all of Hua Xia…or even the world, and naturally their skills were constantly in demand. It would be near impossible for me to get a sword forged immediately, and so I decided to wait until after the tournament before I made the treacherous journey to the notoriously deadly Huo Yan Valley.
It was then that the system assigned me a new quest.
-New Quest issued: Travel to the Huo Yan Valley after the school tournament. The lava-rich regions are optimal to incubate the Salamander Egg, and through the process, the spirit beast hatched from the egg will be more powerful than usual. Objective: Incubate the Salamander Egg in the lava of any of the volcanoes found in Huo Yan Valley. Completion of this mission will grant the appropriate rewards. –
Yeah, I had almost forgotten about the Salamander egg. Initially, I thought it would hatch when given time, but the system had deliberately placed the Salamander egg in stasis just for this quest. Given the benefits of a more powerful Salamander hatching from the egg if I accomplished the mission, I couldn't complain.
And of course, I had to get through the tournament first. In any event, without a treasure sword of my own, I had resorted to using a practice sword from my dad's dojo. Tong Xue and Hao Ren were similarly armed, and to be honest, we looked like a team with a tight budget. Even so, I fended off Long Fan Xue's techniques, which were augmented by her treasure sword, with my regular one. Even so, the icicles came close to stabbing me, but I jumped back just in time to evade it, then broke it apart with a counter slash.
"Song Jun Wen!"
Qin Ying rushed to my side to support me. Swinging her sword, she unleashed a shower of Sakura petals that shredded the remaining ice to pieces and even cut through Lian Hua's vines.
"You…!" Lian Hua was furious, throwing both hands out and trying to conjure more plants. By then, Kuang Zhe, Jian Shi and Kai Xuan had regrouped and moved in to attack me once more. However, Tong Xue and Hao Ren moved to intercept them.
"Your opponent is us!" Hao Ren parried Kuang Zhe's spear with his sword and twisted his blade to throw him off. Not to be denied his prey, Kuang Zhe twirled his spear about and hammered away at Hao Ren, forcing him to retreat. Meanwhile, Tong Xue engaged Jian Shi and Kai Xuan, darting past their strikes and lashing out, his sword moving like a snake.
"You have always been an eyesore," Long Fan Xue said to Qin Ying, swinging her sword and launching a barrage of ice blades at her. Qin Ying braced herself, conjuring a wall of Sakura petals, but they were instantly frozen the moment the blades cut through them.
Fortunately, I was on hand to destroy the ice blades before they could reach my teammate. Stepping in front of a horrified Qin Ying, I switched my sword out for a bow. Azure arrows streaked across the air and shattered the blades in midair before any of them could reach us.
"I'll be Long Fan Xue's opponent. You're no match for her."
"But…" I could see the frustration on Qin Ying's face as she protested, but I shook my head.
"I believe in you. I don't think you're a burden. Can you help me with the other elite students so that I can focus on Long Fan Xue?"
Qin Ying's expression brightened and she nodded. Stepping out from behind me, she lunged at the other elite students. Lian Hua scowled and lashed out with her vines.
"Don't think that a regular student like yourself is our match!"
"That's right!" Zi Yan added, joining in the fight with her twin swords. Purple qi swirled around her, taking the form of a tiger. "Know your place, bitch!"
The three girls collided in the coliseum in an explosion of qi. While they fought, Qin Ying taking on at least two opponents on her own, I turned my attention to Long Fan Xue.
"It's you and me."
"Don't flatter yourself!" An Ling shouted, leaping forward. He and the rest of the elite class were surging forth to form a wall between me and Long Fan Xue. With a sneer, An Ling pointed his sword at me, behaving like some war god. "You aren't worthy to fight the goddess! We are more than enough to defeat trash like you!"
"I don't know how you recovered your cultivation after being crippled, but once a trash, always a trash! You're deluded if you think you can fight our goddess!"
"Losers like you should just accept their fate and DIE!"
Wow. I couldn't believe my former classmates were so vicious. They were behaving like villainous caricatures from a trashy web novel or manhua. Even their dialogues were so…childish. It was as if they had trouble imagining anything realistic to say. Like, who the hell spouts such immature insults? It was as if an edgy twelve-year-old wrote their lines or something.
"Even if you somehow recovered your cultivation," An Ling sneered. "We outnumber you at least twenty-five to one. You have no chance of winning."
"Normally, you might be right," I agreed, deflecting his blade and ducking under the spear of another classmate. "But what if I even the playing field?"
"Huh? What nonsense are you talking about?"
The reply came in the form of a lightning attack. My Little Anglers and Lantern Fishes had appeared out of nowhere, their combined thunderbolt attacks striking the majority of my classmates and electrocuting them. while their bodies danced about from the shock, the remaining tried to pull back, only to find themselves helmed in by fire and ice.
"Ugh!"
"Argh!"
"NOO!"
Fireballs from Xiao Huo incinerated a couple of them who were trying to retreat, sending their scorched bodies tumbling. On the opposite side, a few classmates found themselves frozen solid after they ran into the path of Xiao Ke's freezing beam.
"You!" An Ling turned on me, furious. He realized what was going on. "Those spirit beasts! You did something to them, didn't you?! How did you gain the ability to command spirit beasts?!"
"By activating my cheat (I think someone would translate this as plugin, but that makes no sense)."
"So what?" An Ling slashed at me with a sword, while his friend stabbed me from behind with a spear. "As long as we defeat you, the spirit beasts will naturally stop attacking us as well!"
"You might be right. The problem, though…" I jumped away with a smirk. An infuriated An Ling pursued me, only to find himself facing Da Hai. The War Turtle slashed him with his claws while his guard was completely open, and An Ling fell to the ground. His friend's spear bounced off Da Hai's thick shell, but before the spirit beast could turn around to retaliate, I dropped my heel onto my ex-classmate's head and knocked him out cold.
Da Hai promptly went to take care of the others. With a peak Yellow Rank spirit beast suddenly in their midst, the rest of my ex-classmates were routed.
Or at least the flow of the battle went that way until Long Fan Xue's intervention. A sudden blizzard howled across the stage, entombing my Little Anglers and Lantern Fishes in ice, forcing me to dismiss them. Xiao Ke, Xiao Huo and Da Hai fared little better, but a barrage of ice slammed down into their positions. Xiao Ke melted them with her fireballs while Da Hai withdrew into his shell, the frost blades shattering harmlessly against his thick defense. Xiao Ke, on the other hand, had to create a mist to shroud himself from the incoming bombardment, so I promptly recalled him as well.
"You really are full of interesting tricks."
Long Fan Xue glared at me before she raised her sword once more. This time, icy runes appeared all around her, and I recognized the signs of a formation. The temperature plummeted and the weather within the arena transformed. In a flash, the stage had turned into a tundra. At the center of it all, Long Fan Xue watched me grimly.
"But it's over. No matter what cards you have up your sleeve, you're still no match for me."