Saturday. A light rain had cooled the air, leaving a slight chill.

The gymnasium was roaring with noise. As contestants, Yu Fei and his group waited in the locker room.

The venue was split into eastern and western sections. The second-year students’ competition was being held in the western arena.

Before the competition began, the school had collected information on everyone’s martial arts realm.

Martial arts tournaments were different from other sports competitions. In a real fight, one’s martial arts realm had a massive impact on their strength. It was rare for anyone to defeat an opponent from a higher realm. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Thus, the format for this competition was somewhat unique.

Back in the locker room, Yu Fei and the others studied the competition format while Mr. Liu explained the rules.

Mr. Liu pushed up his glasses with his right hand, a kind smile on his face.

"Pay attention, everyone. The rules for this competition have changed. They’ve actually become simpler.

"The officials have selected the three students with the highest realms as seed players. The other twenty-two students will duel in pairs, with one person receiving a bye. This will continue until only five remain, who will then join the three seeds in the finals.

"This format puts a greater emphasis on raw strength and luck. In previous years, there was no such thing as a seed player."

After he finished speaking, he looked over the students. His gaze lingered on Yu Fei, and after studying him for a moment, he said with a cheerful laugh:

"You’re Yu Fei, right? I’ve heard a lot about you!"

A flicker of astonishment crossed Yu Fei’s face. He thought his reputation was only known among the students; he never expected Mr. Liu to have heard of him too.

Mr. Liu had taught martial arts at Nanguan Second Middle School his entire life and had countless students. He was a highly respected teacher who, by all rights, should have retired by now. Yet, he continued to pour his heart and soul into his work.

In fact, the current principal of Nanguan Second Middle School was once a student of Mr. Liu’s.

"Mr. Liu, it’s just idle gossip."

Yu Fei replied humbly, his body bent in a slight bow to show his respect. Mr. Liu had dedicated his entire life to Nanguan Second Middle School and had earned innumerable honors and awards.

Liu Ming waved his hand dismissively. His hands were gaunt and wrinkled, the skin loose with age.

"It’s not just gossip. I’ve seen Jian Dalong’s strength for myself. While he’s no prodigy, his foundation is solid, and he isn’t weak. Yet your realm is lower than his, and you’re still much stronger. That’s no simple feat.

"Young man, no matter how far you go in life, remember to come back and visit us at Nanguan Second Middle. Now, go fight hard in this competition and bring home first place!"

"Mr. Liu, I won’t settle for anything less than first!"

"Good! Hahaha. Full of drive and ambition. You’re a good kid."

’Unless some once-in-a-generation prodigy shows up out of nowhere, first place is mine for the taking,’ Yu Fei thought to himself.

"Oh, right. I almost forgot to tell you..."

Mr. Liu suddenly slapped his forehead. "Look at me, my memory isn’t what it used to be. Yu Fei, your martial arts realm is ranked second among all the second-year high school students in the county. That means you’re one of the seed players."

"Second?"

Yu Fei’s eyes widened.

’Who could possibly be stronger than me with all my hacks?’

Mr. Liu thought Yu Fei was unhappy with his ranking and said, "Second place is already excellent. Your realm is a little lower than the person in first, so it’ll be all the more impressive when you beat him later in the tournament."

Yu Fei shook his head. "Mr. Liu, you’ve misunderstood. The fact that his realm is higher than mine means I’ll have a worthy opponent. That’s something to be happy about!"

He wasn’t lying. He was at the Bone Tempering realm. An opponent with a higher realm had to be at least at the Blood Tempering realm. And what did that mean?

’It means they have a talent that’s at least Purple-grade. Maybe Orange? Or even Red?’

’No, I need to plan this out. I can’t just have a boring match. I need to leave a deep impression on him. That’s the only way I’ll be able to continuously harvest Stardust from him for the next year.’

His mind made up, Yu Fei was raring to go, impatient for the tournament to begin.

Jiang Yifan saw the excitement on Yu Fei’s face and cursed under his breath, ’Pervert.’ Yu Fei had left a deep impression on him last semester—not to mention a fair bit of psychological trauma.

He felt that Yu Fei had some kind of twisted obsession with people who were more famous than him. Yu Fei loved to humiliate anyone with a bigger reputation, then use them as a stepping stone to climb higher—just like he’d done to him.

’I wonder which poor bastard is next,’ he thought.

Shaking his head, Jiang Yifan pushed the useless thoughts aside. He needed to focus on fighting his best and see if he had a chance to make it into the top three.

Yu Fei was oblivious to Jiang Yifan’s thoughts. In truth, of the three talents he currently had equipped, the Purple-grade [Profound Perception] was strong in awareness and premonition, but useless for actual martial arts cultivation.

As for [Transcendent Comprehension], one only had to look at Jiang Yifan to see that this Blue-grade talent had its limits and wasn’t particularly powerful. Otherwise, Jiang wouldn’t still be stuck, unable to break through to the Meat Tempering realm.

Yu Fei’s current success was the result of combining [Super Speed Reaction] and [Transcendent Comprehension]. Together, the two Blue-grade talents produced an effect on par with a Purple-grade comprehension talent.

His personally awakened Red-grade superior talent, [Spiritual Acumen], was geared toward the mind and soul. Such talents became more effective in the later stages of martial arts but were lackluster early on.

As for physique-type talents, he had a Purple-grade [Steel Tendons Iron Bones], a Blue-grade [Thick Hide], and a [Enhanced Absorption] stored within his Fate-Defying Pearl.

But he didn’t have enough talent slots to equip them.

He also only had a meager eight motes of Stardust, which was nowhere near enough.

Compared to opponents of the same level, the current Yu Fei had no physical advantages. He always had to rely on his seven-times-faster nerve reaction speed to clutch a victory at the last second. Raw physical power had always been his weak point.

Take Jian Dalong, for example. If they were at the same martial arts realm, Yu Fei’s defense and strength would be inferior to his.

But if he could encounter a suitable opponent in this tournament and acquire a powerful talent, none of that would be a problem anymore.

That was why Yu Fei was so desperate to find a genius with outstanding talent who had yet to fully mature.

So when Yu Fei learned there was a second-year student with a realm higher than his own, how could he not be ecstatic?

Reaching the Blood Tempering realm in less than a year meant the person had to have a high-quality cultivation-type talent—exactly what Yu Fei was missing.

His progress had been especially slow with his Cultivation Techniques. His [Ox Subduing Pile Skill] had almost completely stalled. Even though he felt he’d made significant headway toward the Greater Accomplishment stage, the Perfection stage still felt impossibly far away.

His [Cyan Lotus Sword Seal] was at the Minor Accomplishment stage, and while he made some progress each time he trained, the gains were minuscule. His [Green Lotus Sword Nourishing Skill] was on the verge of reaching Minor Accomplishment itself, but his progress with the Sword Seal had stagnated. Yan Sea had specifically warned him that he could only continue training the Sword Nurturing Skill after his proficiency with the Sword Seal surpassed it.

Finally, his [Six Harmonies Killing Fist] was thoroughly stuck at the Greater Accomplishment stage, just one step away from mastering its ultimate skill, [Ruyi Shen Jin]. But he simply couldn’t make that final leap.

All of these issues were causing Yu Fei no end of frustration.

If Mr. Yan hadn’t told him about the martial arts tournament, he would have been trying to figure out how to get his hands on a few Purple-grade talents to break down and upgrade his [Transcendent Comprehension].

Putting in effort without seeing any reward was an incredibly frustrating and demoralizing experience.

’Right now, I just need to find my destined benefactor.’

The corners of Yu Fei’s mouth curved upward. As soon as Mr. Liu finished speaking, he rushed out of the room.