Chapter 132: Sister Xian! Go! Beat him up!

Su Wenjing finished leading everyone around, and after he disappeared, the group was just about to check out their respective dorms when they realized something was off.

Li Yunxian’s actions were off.

While everyone else was walking towards the dorms, she was the only one heading toward the arena area.

No one quite understood what she was up to at first.

Ying Qian, seeing Li Yunxian already a fair distance ahead, couldn’t help but shout out.

“Xian-jie, where are you going?”

Li Yunxian replied, “The arena area.”

Everyone froze.

They all knew what they came to Jifa for, but wasn’t this a bit too soon?

It had only been three hours since they landed—there hadn’t even been time to rest!

Was their captain planning to drag them into the Jifa tradition, to do everything together?

“Aren’t you going to take a break?” Ying Qian protested.

Li Yunxian flatly refused, “No, I can’t lose to Wenwu.”

“What does this have to do with Wenwu?” Everyone was shocked.

Li Yunxian replied, “The first thing Wenwu did when they came here was provoke someone.”

The Wenwu exchange had just happened a few months ago, and everyone had participated—many of them had fought with Wenwu, and the memories were vivid.

Did Wenwu really provoke someone on the very first day?

Everyone was confused. They just couldn’t figure it out.

“Who did Wenwu provoke?” someone asked, humbly.

Li Yunxian replied, “They came to the workshop to provoke me.”

Silence.

They had to admit, Wenwu won that round.

Not only was Wenwu quick to provoke, but they had also picked the hardest bone in Tiantong to gnaw on.

Oh, and not just the hardest.

Maybe even the most poisonous.

Ginkgo—now, that was a poisonous plant!

If Li Yunxian wanted to outdo Wenwu in this regard, it would be tough.

That’s what everyone thought, but no one said a word. They just exchanged glances and ended up following Li Yunxian, all in tacit agreement.

Seeing this, Li Yunxian paused and looked back, puzzled.

“Why are you all following me?” Li Yunxian asked.

The group was just as confused: “Huh? You’re our captain. If we don’t follow you, are we just going to let you go alone?”

Li Yunxian was left speechless.

She didn’t say anything, but when Wenwu came to their arena area to provoke them, there were less than ten people following Pei Dongyuan to the scene.

It had never been the whole group together.

Looking at the neat crowd behind her, Li Yunxian broke into a smile.

Bringing up Wenwu was just a casual excuse, but she hadn’t expected… it actually felt like she’d won.

Li Yunxian stepped back a few paces to join the group. “Let’s go together!”

“Alright!” everyone responded loudly.

Everyone was at least at the seventh layer of Qi Refining, so their pace was brisk. Before long, the group arrived at the edge of the arena area.

With such a grand group, it was impossible for the Jifa students not to notice.

Without a doubt.

The visitors meant business.

The faces of the Jifa students darkened. Even those fighting on the stage slowed their moves, feeling the tension.

***

Li Yunxian, however, seemed not to notice a thing. She walked in with a lively, especially friendly smile on her face.

“Hello, everyone!” Li Yunxian greeted the Jifa students cheerfully, her gaze sweeping across the arena before landing with delight on a particular person.

“Lin Xiufeng! Long time no see!”

Lin Xiufeng, from Kui City, a mutated ice spiritual root, and the very moving ‘icebox warden’ who had been targeted by the Jindan Ancestor on the road to the capital.

It really had been a long time.

The last time they’d met was during the Qingteng Selection Trial.

Seeing Li Yunxian’s genuinely delighted expression, Lin Xiufeng felt a little embarrassed, almost instinctively.

For both Li Yunxian’s friendliness and his own Jifa classmates’ unfriendly looks.

Lin Xiufeng opened his mouth to say ‘long time no see,’ but before he could get the words out, Li Yunxian followed up with enthusiasm.

“It’s great that you’re here! I’m not familiar enough with the others, so it’s easier to go after you.”

“Let’s have a match!”

Li Yunxian’s voice was still cheerful and friendly, as if she was just greeting him, making Lin Xiufeng think he’d misheard.

“What?” Lin Xiufeng asked, confused.

With a hiss, the Xiayun Sword appeared in Li Yunxian’s hand like a dragon’s roar, as if confirming her words.

“I said, let’s have a match.”

Lin Xiufeng: ….

He stared blankly at Li Yunxian. Even with both schools watching, he still answered with unwavering determination.

“I won’t!!!”

He’d seen with his own eyes Li Yunxian stab a Foundation Establishment Perfection cultivator to death with one sword!

He’d also seen her, during the selection trial, scheme to cut off his own arm and stab Shen Bofeng to death without batting an eye.

When it came to strength and ruthlessness, Lin Xiufeng couldn’t compare.

Back then, Li Yunxian was only at the second layer of Qi Refining.

Now Lin Xiufeng could sense that she was at the seventh layer, just like him.

He wasn’t going to fight!!

Lin Xiufeng didn’t feel that was cowardly at all.

In his mind, Li Yunxian was no different from the teaching assistants at the academy.

Fighting someone at his own cultivation level was a duel; fighting someone a bit stronger was striving hard; but fighting someone twice as strong was a heroic blow.

But facing someone a hundred times stronger in the arena? Lin Xiufeng thought, that was just foolish.

No one expected Lin Xiufeng to refuse so bluntly.

Even Li Yunxian was stunned.

But soon enough, she got what she wanted anyway.

Jifa’s students couldn’t stand Lin Xiufeng’s spiritless answer—one of them stepped forward on the spot.

“If you want a match, I’ll fight you!” he said coldly.

Li Yunxian had no objection to that.

She looked him up and down, then asked, “What’s your ranking in the arena?”

The man stood tall, gazing at Li Yunxian. “Seventy-first place, Blue Weiyu.”

He didn’t wait for Li Yunxian to speak, and added in a seemingly considerate tone, “You can also say no.”

Because the exchange students from the academy were limited in their cultivation level, most didn’t rank very high in the arena.

You’re a genius, I’m a genius—under these circumstances, the cultivation level gap is crucial.

For example, in Tiantong’s arena, only those after ninetieth place had anyone below Perfected Qi Refining.

Li Yunxian’s rank had dropped and dropped, now settling at ninety-first.

Jifa students were mostly spell cultivators, and spell cultivators had much higher spiritual energy demands than martial cultivators.

The gap in cultivation level was even more obvious in Jifa.

The top two hundred in Jifa were all at the Perfected Qi Refining stage.

Blue Weiyu was naturally at Perfected Qi Refining, and a very strong one at that.

After he spoke, no one from Jifa objected.

They watched Li Yunxian, ready for someone on her side to say it was bullying for a higher rank to fight a lower.

But no such thing happened.

What they saw was Ying Qian, standing behind Li Yunxian, looking smug and swaggering, chin raised at the Jifa crowd. “What are you looking at? Who’s afraid of you!”

Then, Ying Qian patted Li Yunxian’s shoulder. “Xian-jie! Go! Beat him up!”

Li Yunxian:

She responded with a quick knock to Ying Qian’s forehead for the unhelpful encouragement.

Immediately, stifled laughter broke out among the Tiantong group.

Blue Weiyu watched these reactions, a sense of heaviness growing in his heart.

Something felt off.

The Tiantong group seemed way too relaxed.

It was as if they weren’t worried about losing at all.

The first arena match of the exchange was critical, directly affecting the morale of both sides.

Blue Weiyu watched Li Yunxian walking toward him and asked, “Are you the leader of Tiantong this time?”

“Yes.” Li Yunxian stopped in front of him and introduced herself.

“Hello, I’m Tiantong’s ninety-first in the arena.”

“Li Yunxian.”