Chapter 162: The Battle of Renown

Li Changfeng unleashed his entire aura, sending a shockwave that heavily injured Nan Lin and blew him backward, instantly stunning everyone present.

It was not just the students at the scene, but also countless watching instructors and the leaders of the eight major factions.

At this moment, Lin Fan, accompanied by Xiao Beihan and the others, leaped down from the spectator stands and glided through the air onto the arena stage. Looking down at the tens of thousands of people in the audience, his voice rang out calmly.

"Whether you are members of the擎天宗 (Qingtian Sect), 天地阁 (Heaven and Earth Pavilion), 冷霜谷 (Cold Frost Valley), 青剑派 (Azure Sword Sect), 天峰学院 (Tianfeng Academy), 天河学院 (Tianhe Academy), 天都学院 (Tiandu Academy), 天武学院 (Tianwu Academy), or even the 天书学院 (Tianshu Academy), if you are dissatisfied, you are all welcome to challenge us!"

"However, from this moment on, anyone who steps onto the stage fights at their own risk of life and death. Li Changfeng will no longer hold back. At the same time, you may also challenge the six people behind me, and the same rule of life and death applies."

"It was indeed us who said that anyone who is dissatisfied should send people to fight, and we do not deny it. But we never intended to challenge the eight major factions; yet some people chose to fan the flames from the shadows, forcing us to bear the concerted attacks of all factions. We disdain to explain ourselves and accept the challenge one and all. There is only one sentence, and I hope you understand it well!"

"Those who step onto the stage shall die!"

Lin Fan’s voice was serene yet brimming with supreme dominance as he looked down at everyone, including several instructors from the eight major factions.

As he finished speaking, he stepped back a single pace, while the six figures behind him stepped forward in unison to stand alongside Li Changfeng!

They differed in height, build, and appearance, yet each radiated an extraordinary presence that emanated faintly from within their bodies.

Clad in a long black robe with a poker face, Xiao Beihan!

Clad in white robes resembling perpetual ice, Shangguan Feihong!

Clad in white robes with an enchanting smile and boundless self-confidence, Li Changfeng!

Resembling a ferocious beast and overflowing with a brutal aura, Ou Hu!

Draped in golden, luxurious attire with a chubby physique and the unmistakable air of a cunning merchant, Qian Jin!

Clad in blood-red garments with an utterly placid expression, Hong Yi!

"Those who step onto the stage shall die—!"

The seven of them spoke in unison. Their voices varied in pitch, yet their intent was identical. Since Big Brother Fan wanted them to carve out a legendary reputation through battle, they would naturally obey.

Ever since they knew not when, Big Brother Fan had seemingly become their faith. They wished to forever follow in his footsteps, and at the same time, they knew how much Big Brother Fan had sacrificed for them. Those miraculous fruits worth millions of silver taels had been given to them by the hundreds and thousands to consume, alongside the transmission of formidable cultivation techniques—without which they would never have become who they were today.

Now, their strength was such that even if they returned to their respective clans, they would command absolute authority—yet they had arrived at the academy for barely over four months!

They understood that at this very moment, Big Brother Fan was acting for their own good. No matter how astonishing the slaughter they unleashed might be, it was all forging their renown. The stronger they grew, the more importance Tianshu Academy would attach to them, and the safer they would become.

Whether it was the deep, irreconcilable grudge between Xiao Beihan and Li Changfeng,

Qian Jin's family background,

Shangguan Feihong's pursuit of swordsmanship,

Sun Hao's grand ambitions,

Ou Hu's belligerent nature,

Or Hong Yi's sea of blood and deep vengeance—all of these destined them to keep pressing forward. Along that path of advancement lay endless slaughter, and they desperately needed a protective umbrella.

At present, there was no better umbrella than Tianshu Academy.

Since someone was fanning the flames to bring about their demise, Big Brother Fan was using the momentum to make their names resound throughout the world, turning them into the peerless prodigies of Tianshu Academy, treasured by the academy and cultivated with all the resources of the kingdom's royal family!

"Arrogant!"

"Utterly conceited!"

"Indeed! Do they think defeating Nan Lin in a split second makes them invincible?"

"One is at the mid-stage of the Pulse-Connecting Realm, and the other six are at the early stage. Even if they can fight across realms, they cannot possibly be invincible—let alone when they are challenging a full nine factions, including their own Tianshu Academy."

"We will challenge them all together! Not to mention those of us with higher cultivation, even a continuous war of attrition will exhaust them to death!"

All the students and instructors were shocked by Lin Fan’s declaration. It took a full moment for them to recover their senses, and then rage contorted their faces as they roared in fury.

"Duanmu Hou comes to bestow instruction!"

"Nalan Bingxue is here to challenge!"

"Li Tian comes to seek guidance!"

"..."

Countless students leaped from the surrounding crowd, charging toward the seven figures led by Xiao Beihan. There were well over a hundred of them—some genuinely confident in their skills and seeking a challenge, others eager to use this opportunity to make a name for themselves, and still others fueled by rage at Lin Fan's arrogant words, determined to slap them across the face.

At this moment, practitioners at the early, mid, and late stages of the Pulse-Connecting Realm—a full hundred of them—charged toward the seven. Their chosen targets varied, but not a single one of them selected Hong Yi.

In their eyes, even if a little girl had reached the early stage of the Pulse-Connecting Realm, which was already astonishing, they still disdained to bully a child. Killing such a little girl would prove nothing at all.

Therefore, they all swarmed toward the other six.

Facing their charge, Xiao Beihan and his companions did not move at all, because these hundred people had not yet set foot upon the arena stage!

Time seemed infinitely stretched, as if a slow-motion effect had been applied.

These people leaped out from the crowd, twenty feet away from the stage.

Fifteen feet away!

Nine feet away!

Three feet away!

Xiao Beihan and the others still remained motionless.

Thud!

All hundred people landed upon the arena platform.

In a sudden flash, the entire scene snapped back from slow motion to normal speed. The very second their feet touched the arena floor, Xiao Beihan and the others moved.

Boom!

A thunderous explosion echoed. A violent, towering killing intent surged to the skies, crossing the realm of slaughter and blotting out the heavens. In an instant, dark clouds gathered, and the entire world seemed to plunge into pitch blackness, save for a pair of concentrated, glowing eyes manifesting in the firmament.

A flash of brilliant light cleaved the heavens like a bolt of lightning, yet faster than any lightning. The sword struck straight and true, its brilliance blooming like a blossom of fresh blood within the world rendered pitch-black and simultaneously illuminated by sword qi.

Swoosh!

With a soft chime, a streak of pristine white light flashed and vanished, a fraction of a millionth of a second slower than that sword, causing another snowflake to bloom.

At that moment, a colossal golden dragon soared into the firmament between heaven and earth. The giant dragon roared, and dragon might suffused the air. Measuring dozens of meters in length, the great dragon continuously swept through the pitch-black sky, while deafening clashes resounded without end.

Accompanied by the roars of the giant dragon, an extremely brutal aura, seemingly influenced by the dragon, erupted violently from the other side of the dark heavens. It was utterly tyrannical—a dominance that felt as though it could suppress and override everything in existence.

The very instant this dominance manifested, countless muffled impacts and explosions of blood burst forth. In the distant darkness, that tyrannical figure seemed like a savage, ferocious beast indulging in a frenzy of slaughter.

Clang!

The resonance of a zither echoed through the surroundings. It was the Tune of Golden Armor and Iron Horses, sounding like thousands of galloping troops charging into battle, or the eruption of an ancient war where countless men and horses slaughtered one another in droves. Within this melody, human life was worthless, and tens of thousands could be wiped into ashes in the blink of an eye.

Before long, the black sky brimming with the aura of slaughter was stained with an ash-gray hue, instantly transforming into a dusky twilight. The black world shattered into pieces, and an apocalyptic aura of absolute annihilation radiated forth, turning everything within the gray realm into dust!

Boom!

The black-and-gray world disintegrated entirely, and the realm of heaven and earth restored its light.

"Hiss—!"

Countless sounds of sharp intake of breath echoed. All the watching students turned pale as they gazed upon the bloody scene on the arena stage, struck utterly speechless by shock.

Dressed in pristine white, Lin Fan stood behind the seven figures, watching everything with a placid expression.

Meanwhile, Xiao Beihan and the others stood with blood-stained blades. Crimson fluid dripped down their edges. Some closed their eyes, some wore icy expressions, some carried cruel smiles, some exuded wild brutality, some sat cross-legged in meditation, some maintained a friendly, cunning smirk, and others remained utterly expressionless.

Yet laid out before the seven figures were a hundred corpses—some decapitated, some with pierced throats, some stabbed through the heart, some beheaded, some blasted to pieces, some torn apart, and some seemingly untouched yet utterly devoid of life—piled haphazardly across the ground.

Blood had soaked the earth, and a thick, nauseating stench of iron hung heavy in the air. Yet the seven remained entirely unfazed.

In a mere instant—it was merely a single instant!

More than a hundred powerful experts of the Pulse-Connecting Realm, regardless of their cultivation level and before they could even unleash a single attack, had been slaughtered in a flash. Just how terrifying was the combat prowess of these seven individuals?

Terror!

Boundless terror gripped the hearts of every single student watching!

Peerless combat power, bloodthirsty by nature!

This was the collective sensation the seven figures instilled in the students. Not only was their combat strength terrifyingly high—killing everyone before they even had a chance to strike—but the psychological makeup of the seven was brutally ruthless. They had truly killed without hesitation when they said they would!

Not a single person was spared. Regardless of which faction they belonged to or whether they were male or female, as long as they stepped onto the arena stage, they were all executed!

This felt like a silent, chilling declaration!

Overbearing, cruel, merciless, ferocious, and bloodthirsty!

These were all the adjectives the onlookers could muster to describe the seven.

In truth, many of the students had not even seen how the attacks were initiated, let alone witnessed them strike. The moment those hundred challengers set foot on the arena, it seemed as though one of the seven had suddenly made a move.

Then, the world had plunged into sudden darkness, lasting less than the time it took to blink before returning to normal, feeling almost like a hallucination.

Yet the hundred corpses piled high before them proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was no illusion...!