“Huh? Wait, wait, wait!” Seeing Mu Yanxi lying on the ground after being struck by electricity, Ruo Xuan let out a startled cry. She had already been shocked when she saw Mu Yanxi slice the plasma into two pieces with a single strike.
She had thought Mu Yanxi had blocked the attack and was about to come and defeat her in the next step, but she was knocked down by the afterglow of the plasma instead. This left her bewildered and at a loss.
“Ruo Xuan wins. Hmm, your three challenge opportunities have been exhausted. Congratulations on entering the elite class,” Zhao Shuanghua said, stifling a laugh.
With a flick of her finger, Mu Yanxi’s image on the water screen was replaced by Ruo Xuan’s.
“No, that’s not right! It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I was supposed to… I was going to let Mu Yanxi win. This! How did it turn out like this?” Ruo Xuan asked incoherently.
“Silly girl, can’t you tell? She intended to lose on purpose to let you win. Little Mu, I know you’re fine, so stop playing dead,” Zhao Shuanghua said with a smile.
“What?!” Ruo Xuan watched in disbelief as Mu Yanxi managed to crawl up from the ground, her body still trembling slightly.
“I wasn’t trying to play dead. It’s just that the afterglow of the plasma is indeed powerful. It numbed me, and I could only just now crawl up,” Mu Yanxi said as she rose.
“You really took a risk. You didn’t have much confidence that the Undying Blade could split the plasma, did you? Did you really plan to face that strike head-on?” Zhao Shuanghua asked with interest.
“My original plan was to use the Undying Blade to wear down the plasma’s power first. I should have been able to land three swings before it hit me, canceling out about half of its power.”
“Then, a shield plus a divine artifact’s defense would cancel out another portion. Finally, I would have been able to dodge,” Mu Yanxi explained her intended sequence.
If things had taken a turn for the worse and she couldn’t dodge, she would have only been heavily injured at most.
Ruo Xuan didn’t truly want to kill her, and Zhao Shuanghua likely wouldn’t sit by and watch a disciple be killed on the Arena. There was essentially no danger to her life.
Unexpectedly, the situation went even more smoothly than Mu Yanxi had anticipated.
The Undying Blade was a very unique divine artifact for a Medical Cultivator; it actually sliced the plasma open in one strike. This forced her to drop all her defenses just to be knocked down by the afterglow.
Of course, in reality, she didn’t need to act so convincingly.
Many people in fixed matches on the Arena didn’t even bother acting; as soon as they went up and the opponent made any move, they would just fall to the ground and admit defeat.
Mu Yanxi was a bit thin-skinned, so she had rehearsed a bit of a script.
Only then did Ruo Xuan snap out of it. She looked at Mu Yanxi and asked in disbelief, “Did you plan to lose to me from the very beginning?”
“Yes, I’m sorry for telling a small lie to deceive you.” Mu Yanxi frankly admitted her original plan.
“No, why are you apologizing to me? I should be the one apologizing to you. I took your spot. No, why would you let me win? I didn’t give you any benefits!” Ruo Xuan asked in confusion.
“I can’t say there were no benefits. You helped me in the locker room yesterday, so consider this returning the favor. Besides, you didn’t really steal my spot; the goal was still achieved.”
“Now I have one last challenge opportunity left. As long as I win that, I can take a spot in the elite class. The outcome of the second match is actually irrelevant,” Mu Yanxi said lightly.
“Is… is that so?” Ruo Xuan felt like something was wrong, but Mu Yanxi’s words made her feel much better. At least that sense of indebtedness was gone.
However, it wasn’t until Mu Yanxi walked off the Arena that Ruo Xuan realized the outcome was definitely not the same.
If Mu Yanxi had won, her name would still be on the list, and she wouldn’t need to challenge anyone else.
Others might not have dared to risk offending Shangguan Yun to challenge her, especially after Mu Yanxi had won two matches in a row.
But now it was different. Mu Yanxi had to win against another opponent to return to the elite class list.
Most of the spots were already locked in now, and the remaining people were all difficult to deal with. Winning against them would be extremely hard.
Therefore, Mu Yanxi had indeed given her something—she had given her the precious spot in the elite class.
Ruo Xuan really wanted to chase after her to say thank you, but she felt too guilty and embarrassed to do so.
As Mu Yanxi stepped off the Arena, Zhao Shuanghua’s voice transmission echoed in her ear: ‘Heh, I haven’t seen such an interesting freshman in a long time.
You actually took the initiative to do something with no benefit or reward. Should I call you stupid or naive? If you keep acting like this, you won’t last long in the cultivation realm.’
“Just a momentary impulse,” Mu Yanxi muttered to herself, knowing Zhao Shuanghua could hear her.
At that moment, Shangguan Yun walked over to her side and said, “Had your fun? You actually gave away the elite class spot I gave you to another girl.”
“I’m sorry. I just wanted to give her a hand. I can get the spot myself, but Ruo Xuan would have lost her chance if I didn’t help her,” Mu Yanxi apologized sincerely.
She really did owe an apology for this.
Her spot in the elite class was a bonus given because Shangguan Yun had chosen her as a study partner, but now Mu Yanxi had simply handed it over to someone else without even asking for Shangguan Yun’s opinion.
However, Mu Yanxi had assumed Shangguan Yun would agree because, before entering the Arena, Shangguan Yun had already seen what Mu Yanxi intended to do, yet she hadn’t stopped the match-fixing.
“You’re a bit too kind. You’re far too gentle, whether it’s toward Wei Ling or Ruo Xuan. That isn’t exactly a good thing,” Shangguan Yun said.
“Teacher Zhao Shuanghua just said something similar to me. However, this is probably just my Dao,” Mu Yanxi said indifferently.
As a former Nascent Soul Cultivator, she had survived a Heart Demon Tribulation. Although she had relied on external help to some extent, she wasn’t so ignorant that she didn’t understand her own Dao.
Since the perspective on immortality cultivation in this world was Taoism Naturalism—following one’s heart—then it was only natural for her to choose the righteous path, just as she had in her previous life.
“That’s not what I meant. I was thinking… cough, it’s a bit impolite. If your Grandfather hadn’t died unexpectedly back then and I had actually married you, wouldn’t you have been a total lady-killer with a Spirit Transformation Grandfather as your background, and such a good-natured personality?”
“I wonder how many low-level female cultivators would have wanted to be your concubines. I would have had to manage an entire harem. Just thinking about it makes me feel like I’d lose years off my life!” Shangguan Yun said.
“What are you even thinking? Such a thing wouldn’t happen! Uh…” Mu Yanxi trailed off.
‘Would it really not happen?’ It seemed hard to say. She had been quite popular with female disciples in her past life and had been on good terms with many senior sisters and junior sisters.
Furthermore, betrothals were not uncommon in the cultivation realm. Shangguan Yun and the original host had been betrothed, after all.
If the parents of other female cultivators had come to the door with dowries to propose taking her as a concubine and her parents had agreed, she wouldn’t have been able to refuse.
“Hmm?” Shangguan Yun leaned over slightly, looking at Mu Yanxi playfully as if questioning her.
“Ahem! I need to go fight my third match, or else all the spots will be taken. Teacher Zhao, I want to challenge Liu Jing!” Mu Yanxi shouted.