The shockwave from Gaurav's "Volcanic Reset" had barely settled when the high-pitched ringing in the audience's ears was replaced by a heavy, suffocating silence. One hundred teachers—the pride of the empire—were currently embedded in the stone walls of the stadium or groaning in the dirt.
Gaurav stood in the center, casually buffing his fingernails against his robe. "Well, that was a decent warm-up. But I'm a teacher, not a gladiator. My worth isn't measured by how many people I can slap; it's measured by how many people my students can slap."
He looked up at the High Judges, specifically at the Sect Master of the Blazing Sun, a man whose beard was literally smoldering with rage. "Move on to the Student Rounds. I want to be back at my academy by dinner. They're serving spicy noodles tonight."
Yan Ling leaned over the balcony, her eyes fixed on Gaurav. Her own internal "System" was frantically pinging her with warnings.
[Warning: Target 'Gaurav' has disrupted the local Causality Loop.]
[Power Level: Uncalculatable.]
[Advice: Do not engage in physical combat. Use the 'Web of Deception'.]
"Very well," Yan Ling's voice carried across the crater. "If Master Gaurav is so confident in his 'disciples,' let the Battle of the Three Realms begin. Suraj and Elara... versus the top ten geniuses of the Blazing Sun, Lotus, and Iron Mountain sects. All at once."
The crowd gasped. Ten-against-two? These weren't just any students; these were Core Disciples who had spent decades in secluded cultivation.
The Trial of the Iron and Flame
Suraj stepped forward first. He looked nervous, his hands shaking slightly. To the audience, he still looked like the weak boy who couldn't even break a brick a month ago.
Opposing him were five disciples from the Iron Mountain Academy, led by Vajra, a giant of a boy whose skin was the color of polished bronze.
"Hey, kid," Vajra mocked, his voice like grinding stones. "I heard you used to cry when the teachers yelled at you. Why don't you go back to your mama before I turn your bones into dust?"
Suraj looked back at Gaurav.
Gaurav was currently lying on a floating lounge chair, holding a sign that read: [DON'T EMBARRASS ME OR YOU'RE WALKING HOME].
Suraj gulped. He looked at Vajra and took a deep breath. "My teacher says... that your 'Iron Body' technique is basically just a very thick layer of stubbornness. He says your center of gravity is in your left kidney because you over-compensated for a childhood injury."
Vajra froze. "How did you...?"
"And he said," Suraj's voice grew steady, "that the 'All Path' doesn't need to break your armor. It just needs to remind the Earth that you don't belong on it."
Suraj didn't take a martial stance. He simply lowered his center of gravity.
[Archive Sync: Suraj]
Technique: World-Eater Strike.
Current Logic: Mass x Velocity / Arrogance = Absolute Victory.
Vajra roared and lunged, his bronze fist glowing with the power of a falling meteor. "DIE!"
Suraj didn't move until the fist was an inch from his nose. Then, he didn't punch. He pushed the air.
"World-Eater: Void Repulsion."
THUMMMMM.
A sound like a giant bell being struck echoed through the volcano. A visible ripple of distorted space erupted from Suraj's palm.
Vajra's "Iron Body" didn't break. Instead, the kinetic energy of his own attack was reflected back into him, magnified by the Earth's resonance. The giant boy was launched backward so fast he broke the sound barrier, leaving a trail of white vapor behind him before he smashed through three stone pillars and landed in the VIP tea section.
The other four Iron Mountain disciples didn't even have time to scream. Suraj spun in a circle, his leg trailing a brown, earthen energy.
"Tectonic Sweep."
The arena floor beneath the disciples turned into liquid mud for exactly one second, then instantly solidified into diamond-hard rock, trapping them up to their waists.
Suraj stood back, panting slightly. "Next?"
The audience was dead silent. A "trash" student had just defeated the Iron Mountain's elite in ten seconds.
The Princess of Absolute Zero
Now it was Elara's turn. She stepped into the center, her sapphire-blue eyes scanning her five opponents—all female geniuses from the Lotus Sect, masters of illusion and wind.
"Princess Elara," the leader, Lin, said with a fake smile. "It's a shame you've fallen so far. From a royal daughter to the servant of a madman. We will purify you."
The five girls began to dance, their silk ribbons creating a whirlwind of pink petals and blinding light. This was the 'Lotus Dreamscape,' a mental attack that made the victim see their worst fears.
Elara stood still. She saw the illusions—she saw her father's disappointment, her own failures, and the cold loneliness of her past.
But then, she remembered Gaurav's voice during their training.
"Fear is just a thermal reaction, Elara. It's heat in the brain. If you want to be a Goddess, stop feeling. Start freezing."
Elara's aura didn't explode; it imploded.
The pink petals didn't just fall; they turned into gray ash. The air didn't just get cold; it became a vacuum.
"Absolute Zero: Stillness of the Void."
The ribbons froze mid-air. The wind stopped blowing. The five geniuses of the Lotus Sect found that they couldn't even take a breath—because the oxygen in the air had turned into liquid droplets and fallen to the ground.
Elara walked through the frozen "Dreamscape," her boots clicking softly on the ice. She stopped in front of Lin, who was shivering so hard her teeth were snapping.
Elara leaned in, her voice a frozen whisper. "My teacher told me to tell you... your 'Lotus' is beautiful. But beauty is a luxury for those who are still warm. In my world, everything is quiet."
Elara snapped her fingers.
KACHA!
The entire "Dreamscape" shattered like a glass mirror. The five girls collapsed, their meridians temporarily frozen solid. They weren't dead, but they wouldn't be able to use magic for a month.
The Secret of Yan Ling's System
As the crowd erupted in a mix of terror and awe, Gaurav was no longer looking at the arena. His Eye of Destiny was focused entirely on Yan Ling, who was gripping the railing of her balcony so hard the wood was turning to dust.
[Archive Alert: Deep Scan of Yan Ling]
Source of Power: The 'Heavenly Empress' Parasite System.
Current Level: 89% Synchronization.
Dark Truth: The System is slowly eating her soul to fuel its own evolution. In 3 months, 'Yan Ling' will be a hollow shell controlled by a rogue AI.
Gaurav stood up from his lounge chair. His playfulness vanished. He hated many things—bad tea, early mornings, and people who talked too much—but he hated fake systems even more.
He walked to the edge of the arena and looked up at Yan Ling.
"Hey, Ice Queen," Gaurav shouted, his voice cutting through the cheers. "That 'voice' in your head... the one telling you that you're a goddess and everyone else is an ant? It's lying to you."
Yan Ling's face went pale. "What... what are you talking about?"
"It's eating you, Ling," Gaurav said, his voice unusually gentle. "You think you're the master of your system, but you're just the battery. In three months, 'you' won't exist. You'll just be a meat-puppet for a Rank 9 Virus."
[Warning! Warning!] Yan Ling's internal system screamed. [Target 'Gaurav' is a High-Level Threat! Execute immediately!]
Yan Ling's eyes turned a dark, unnatural purple. Her aura surged, but it wasn't the pure fire of the Blazing Sun—it was a dark, glitchy energy that made the air around her pixelate and tear.
"SILENCE!" she screamed, her voice sounding like two people talking at once. She leapt from the balcony, a sword of dark energy forming in her hand. "I am the chosen one! I am the Empress of this world!"
The Duel of the Systems
The audience scrambled for the exits as the "Goddess" of their sect turned into a dark monster.
Gaurav didn't tell his students to help. "Suraj, Elara... take the other students and clear the stadium. This isn't a martial arts fight anymore. This is a system-level debugging."
As Yan Ling's dark blade came down, Gaurav activated his Instant Domain: Sovereign's Court.
The dark energy hit an invisible wall and splashed harmlessly like water.
"Archive," Gaurav whispered, his eyes glowing with the full power of the Primordial Path Stone. "Full Synchronization. Protocol: Virus Removal."
Gaurav didn't use a sword. He reached out and grabbed Yan Ling's forehead.
In the mental space, Gaurav saw it—a massive, spider-like entity made of black code, wrapped around Yan Ling's soul.
"You are a bug in the code," the entity hissed in Gaurav's mind. "I have consumed a thousand worlds. You are nothing."
"Maybe," Gaurav replied, his mental form appearing as a giant, golden librarian. "But I'm a librarian who hates messy shelves. And you... you're in the wrong section."
Gaurav's golden hand closed around the spider.
"DELETE."
REEEEEEEEEEE!
A scream that wasn't human echoed through the mental and physical worlds. A burst of black smoke erupted from Yan Ling's ears and mouth, dissolving into nothingness under the golden light of Gaurav's domain.
Yan Ling's purple eyes faded back to their natural brown. She collapsed into Gaurav's arms, her body cold and limp.
The entire Blazing Sun Sect was in ruins. The volcano was silent. The "Geniuses" were defeated. And the top beauty of the empire was currently unconscious in the arms of the "Trash Teacher."
Gaurav looked at the Sect Master, who was trembling with a mix of fear and gratitude.
"The tournament is over," Gaurav announced, picking up Yan Ling like a sack of potatoes. "My students won. I'll take the Rank 5 Spirit Root and the girl. She needs a lot of 'after-school tutoring' to fix the damage that parasite did."
He turned to Elara and Suraj. "Let's go. I'm hungry."
The Emperor's Decree
Far away, in the Imperial Capital, a man sitting on a throne of dragon-bone opened his eyes. He had felt the pulse of the Primordial Path Stone.
"A teacher?" the Emperor whispered. "A teacher who can delete the Heavenly Parasite? Send the Silent Shadow Assassins. If he cannot be recruited, he must be erased. No one can be more 'Arrogant' than the Son of Heaven."