The arena held its breath.
Dust hung in the air like a veil over a battlefield that had already seen too much blood.
Dozens of Dao Integration students lay scattered across the stone like fallen banners, their groans faint and distant.
And at the center of it all, Jin Huang stood alone.
Each step Lu Chen took sounded soft, but to Jin Huang, they landed like thunder.
Step.
Step.
Step.
His instincts screamed at him, "Run! Run now! Run or die!"
Jin Huang's legs trembled, muscles twitching with the primal urge to flee. His heart hammered so violently it felt like it would burst through his ribs.
This… this is wrong. This man isn't someone I should fight.
The golden energy within him surged restlessly, the quasi-condensed pool in his dantian churning, recognizing the predator approaching.
Lu Chen stopped ten paces away. Up close, he was even worse to behold.
His stillness was most unnerving, but it was his aura that suffocated the arena. It felt like standing at the edge of a bottomless abyss, but not one devoid of life.
One filled with malice and malevolence- an abyss that would kill first and ask questions never.
Black robes draped around Lu Chen, like funeral curtains. The chains across his body clinked softly as he moved, the grinning skull ever-taunting.
Lu Chen tilted his head slightly, his eyes lazily sweeping over Jin Huang. "Hmm. You're shaking now."
Jin Huang clenched his fists. His legs still wanted to move- still wanted to run.
Run.
Run.
RUN.
But then, he heard a voice he instantly recognized.
"Come on, Jin Huang! You're the most powerful student, aren't you!? Show him what us at the Academy are made of!"
His head snapped to the left, eyes locating her in the crowd as she stood and shouted.
Qin Shuyue. His first real friend.
After her, even more of his friends scattered among the crowd started to cheer for him.
"Don't be afraid, Jin Huang!" Shen Wuyou shouted. "You weren't scared when you leapt into the Abyss at Obsidian City! This is nothing!"
Jin Huang smiled wryly. Who said he wasn't scared.
Dao Yuan stood up and raised a fist, "Don't despair, Jin Huang!"
Even Li Qingyu, who had woken up a short while ago, huffed and roared, "Are you trying to belittle me, Jin Huang!? If you back down now... if you admit defeat without even fighting..."
Jin Huang was taken aback, watching as Li Qingyu struggled with his own thoughts.
"If you back down now- take the coward's way out... Then I will never acknowledge you as one of the strong! Stand and fight!"
Jin Huang exhaled slowly. As Li Qingyu finished speaking, more students echoed their sentiment.
Hei Shisan's words were a shock, to be sure, but they did not know Lu Chen. They did not recognize him.
However, after the events of the day, one thing could be said for certain:
They had recognized Jin Huang!
"Show him what you're made of, Jin Huang!"
"Give him the ol' one, two!"
"Imagine him as a dumpling! Eat him whole!"
Jin Huang felt the warmth of their support at his back, but the trembling didn't stop.
Even so? something else began to rise beneath the fear. Stubbornness. Pride.
"..Yeah," Jin Huang admitted hoarsely, "I'm shaking."
Lu Chen's smile widened slightly. "Are you going to let them down, then? Fail to live up to their expectations of you?"
Jin Huang lifted his head. "Not a chance. I already said something earlier."
Golden light began to seep from his pores. The energy inside him surged, flowing into every limb like molten sunlight. His muscles tightened. Bones creaked.
Golden veins spread across his skin as his body hardened.
"They're right. If I back down now…"
His aura flared.
"I'd look like an idiot."
BOOM!
Jin Huang exploded forward, the stone beneath his feet shattering completely.
The crowd gasped.
He was moving faster than he had in any of his earlier battles. On top of that, golden energy was now roaring through his body, visible to them as a profound aura.
Jin Huang roared as he drove a fist straight toward Lu Chen's chest. A punch capable of flattening a Dao Integration cultivator.
In response to this...
Lu Chen raised a single finger, and Jin Huang's fist was stopped. Completely.
Like it had slammed into an immovable mountain.
Lu Chen blinked, "Not bad. With strength like this, no one in the Dao Integration stage would be your match."
Then he flicked his finger, sending Jin Huang flying backward like a cannonball.
He skipped across the arena floor, tumbling through dust before slamming into the wall hard enough to crater the stone.
The spectators gasped.
Jin Huang slid down the wall slowly, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
But before anyone could react to what had just happened, he shot forward again.
His golden energy burned brighter now, swirling violently around his body.
Lu Chen watched him approach with mild curiosity, an expectant look intermixed with excitement.
Jin Huang made no sound, only attacking like a storm.
Punch.
Kick.
Palm strike.
Each blow carried terrifying force, golden energy detonating with every movement. The air cracked around him as his body moved faster and faster, each attack aimed to break bones and shatter organs.
Barely moving, Lu Chen was easily evading.
Every step, tilt or lean caused Jin Huang's strikes to miss by inches.
Sometimes he stopped them with a finger, other times with the back of his hand.
Jin Huang roared and drove both fists downward like falling meteors, his fighting spirit entirely ablaze.
Still, Lu Chen casually caught them, squeezing. A worrying crunch could be heard as Jin Huang's wrists bent unnaturally.
Pain exploded up his arms. Before he could even cry out, Lu Chen headbutted him.
BOOM.
Jin Huang's world turned white.
The next moment he was airborne again, blood spraying from his nose as he crashed across the arena floor.
Gasps erupted from the stands.
"Jin Huang!!" Qin Shuyue screamed.
Jin Huang rolled weakly before forcing himself back onto his feet.
His legs shook harder now, his arms hung strangely. Blood dripped steadily from his chin.
Shen Wuyou was silent as he observed, a desire to rush out and fight, but a resignation that ensured him he would be of no help.
Cho Yanshi grit her teeth, her fists balled up tight. She knew why Lu Chen was doing it- she even understood and agreed with the reasoning.
Even so, that did not mean she had to agree with his methods.
Lu Chen waited patiently, "You're very durable for someone in the Inner Core realm. That body of yours must be something else."
He tilted his head. "Sadly, you're not improving. Your attacks are... simple. You fight without thinking- without planning. What's even your strategy here?"
Jin Huang spat blood, his smile coming after in the shape of a messy, crooked grin. "You talk… a lot…"
Golden energy erupted again, this tim pouring out of him in a raging torrent.
The air vibrated, the ground was decimated even further.
His entire body glowed like a miniature sun as he straightened, cracking his knuckles. "How's about we cut the chat. No words- just fists!"
Lu Chen was taken aback instantly, his eyes shining as he gazed at Jin Huang. In his eyes, behind that shine, a memory resurfaced.
Jin Huang did not notice nor would he have cared. Every last drop of strength he had left surged forward.
His muscles screamed and his bones groaned, but Jin Huang ignored it all.
One more. Just one.
He vanished, causing even the spectators to lose track of him for a moment.
Then, a thunderous sound boomed to life as his fist slammed toward Lu Chen's jaw with everything he had left.
Golden light erupted like an exploding star.
Lu Chen's reverie came to an abrupt end as he, for the first time, moved seriously.
His hand rose as he caught Jin Huang's punch firmly in his grip, the explosion of golden energy flattening the surrounding dust.
The arena walls trembled, a moment of silence following.
Jin Huang stared at him, breathing raggedly.
Lu Chen looked down at the captured fist, then back up at Jin Huang.
He was about to open his mouth, but he recalled Jin Huang's words.
Closing his mouth, he squeezed and, amidst the crack, Jin Huang screamed.
Lu Chen pulled him forward and drove a knee into his stomach, the sound of breaking ribs echoing through the arena.
Jin Huang folded like paper, but before he could collapse, Lu Chen grabbed his hair and began to beat him even further.
Each fist strike sounded like a hammer smashing raw meat, sending blood spraying across the arena floor.
Jin Huang tried to raise his arms, but they were knocked aside.
He tried to kick, and his leg was shattered with a casual stomp.
The crowd could only watch in horror.
Nagira sighed, "Better for him to learn this way than any other way."
Cho Yanshi snorted coldly; Shen Wuyou's ears perked up.
Above, Qin Shuyue's hands covered her face, her eyes welling up.
Hei Shisan was mortified, his body teetering between the interior of the arena and the area he was standing. He wanted nothing more than to rush in.
To help.
Yet, no matter how badly he wanted it, he knew better. It had been drilled into him by his predecessor, and drilled into them by their's.
With that knowledge could only come insurmountable fear.
Xu Ye's confusion was apparent. As he looked on, the vision he had seen in Obsidian City replayed in his mind.
For every similarity, there were also differences.
Jin Huang had stood against adversity- had fought and won in the arena. Yet, this was not the outcome he had foreseen.
There was a difference, thematically, to this scenario.
The crowd was with Jin Huang as he fought... and lost. For some reason Xu Ye could not understand, that felt wrong.
Back in the arena, Lu Chen's expression had never changed.
Punch.
Punch.
Punch.
Eventually, Jin Huang stopped moving. His body hung limp in Lu Chen's grip, which was when Lu Chen released him.
The battered young man collapsed to the ground like a broken doll and, for a moment, nothing moved.
Lu Chen placed one foot on Jin Huang's back, the chains on his robes clinking softly as he looked up at the silent arena.
The "Most Powerful Student" lay unconscious beneath him, bloody, broken, and defeated.
Lu Chen sighed softly, stealing a glance at Jin Huang's unconscious expression.
"Idiot. You can't go on like this."
He turned, his eyes finding Cho Yanshi's in the crowd. As he gazed into her angry eyes, he transmitted a message to her directly.
"I understand why, now. As he fought, I saw it."
In Cho Yanshi's mind, she heard something she had never expected to hear from Lu Chen.
A melancholic kind of sound, and words that did not fit the character of him that she knew.
"You're too kind for your own good, Yanshi. You can't protect him."