The sharp, crisp sound of a dislocation didn't come from the opponent, but from Sun Yan himself!
His shoulder collapsed at a bizarre angle, and his entire right arm hung limply at his side like a wet noodle.
Zhang Meng's bloodshot eyes widened in shock. Before he could even process why this madman would mutilate himself, Sun Yan's body had already slipped out of his grasp.
The dislocated shoulder had suddenly made his frame narrower, causing Zhang Meng's iron-clamp-like arms to catch nothing but air.
Then, Sun Yan's left hand moved.
He swapped the wooden sword to his left hand, and the blade flicked upward in a reverse strike, slicing straight toward Zhang Meng's neck!
The movement was too fast—so fast that Zhang Meng only saw a blur. Before his brain could process what was happening, his neck was completely exposed to the blade.
I'm going to die!
That was the last clear thought in Zhang Meng's mind.
"Stop!!" The referee's voice tore through the air like a blade.
A figure cut between the two like a lightning bolt, using an arm to forcibly block the strike.
Zhang Meng stood frozen on the spot, his calves beginning to tremble uncontrollably.
He stared blankly at Sun Yan, who was currently pressing his dislocated shoulder against the ground. With a sharp crack, he shoved the joint back into place.
Throughout the entire process, Sun Yan winced and hissed in pain, yet he didn't hesitate for a single second.
"Sun Yan of Qingping Academy... wins," the referee announced, his voice sounding somewhat strained.
The training hall fell into a silence so heavy it felt like a funeral.
Then, the shutter clicks of the reporters erupted like madness.
They looked at one another, their expressions uniformly conveying the same "What the hell did I just see?" look of confusion.
"Are those really students? Is that the kind of combat reaction a student should have?!"
"What on earth is Qingping Academy teaching..."
Below the arena, the students of the Qingping Academy Elite Class were cheering. This victory had somehow given them a significant boost in cohesion.
As soon as Sun Yan stepped off the arena, the reporters swarmed him like sharks sensing blood, thrusting four or five microphones in front of his face at once.
"Student Sun Yan! How did you think of that move just now?"
"Doesn't it hurt to dislocate your own joint? What were you thinking at that moment?"
Surrounded in the center, Sun Yan's normally expressionless face showed a rare hint of bashfulness, making him look like a simple, honest young man.
He scratched his head and spoke in a shy tone that was worlds apart from his persona on the arena.
"It definitely hurts... but Teacher Bai said that between life and death, hesitation leads to defeat."
"It’s actually fine. Once you’ve been through worse hell, you just get used to it."
The reporters were stunned. They pressed further, "Worse hell? How does Teacher Bai usually treat you?"
Sun Yan's lip twitched as if he were recalling some unpleasant memories.
The terrifying mental pressure, the despair within the illusions created by the Containment Objects, the feeling of being slaughtered by horrifying aberrations...
And then there was their incredibly powerful teacher.
At that thought, he suddenly realized he might have said too much. He cast a guilty glance toward Bai Feifei and quickly corrected himself.
"It’s nothing. Teacher Bai’s teaching level is very high, and she is very gentle with us!"
Reporters: "...?"
Could that really be true?
On the other side, Bai Feifei was speechless. Xu Mo was laughing hysterically in her mind. "See? I told you training these brats within an inch of their lives would pay off, didn't I?"
"'Been through worse hell,' he says."
Bai Feifei: "..."
Her lip twitched as well. She really wanted to say that the 'hellish training' actually didn't have much to do with her...
Across the arena, the Yaoguang Academy side was deathly silent.
Zhang Meng was helped down from the arena by several classmates. His face was pale, and his lips were still trembling.
The opponent hadn't even used a Word Soul or any fancy techniques. Pure, life-risking ruthlessness had crushed all the strength he was so proud of into dust.
The level, strength, and speed he had built up with potions were as flimsy as paper before that madman.
How did it come to this!
The cheers from the other side drifted over, each laugh stabbing into his ears like a knife.
Zheng Ziyun stood on the stands, his aged face looking as if it had been plastered with a layer of cold cement.
This was too embarrassing. How could this happen?
Even he hadn't expected that a student from Qingping Academy could reach this level; it was the combat experience of a frontline Scavenger.
He glanced inconspicuously at Bai Feifei beside him. Seeing that she wasn't looking at him, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
If she were to mock him right now, he would be so stifled he wouldn't be able to say a word in return.
Fortunately, it was the honest Bai Feifei here, not Xu Mo...
"Hehe, those two students truly delivered an exceptionally exciting match."
"It was just a spar; it doesn't represent everything. Friendship first, competition second."
Assistant Lin's voice rang out at the right time, but looking at her expression, she was practically on the verge of laughing out loud.
After all, it was her own academy that won.
Even Bai Feifei looked much more pleasing to her eyes now. In a situation involving outsiders, they really had to rely on this death-bringer.
The sparring continued, yet the situation remained remarkably consistent.
The Qingping Academy students were each more ruthless than the last, as if they were gaining confidence through battle.
The more they won, the more daring they became. They also knew that if they lost now, it would be a true disgrace.
On the stands, Zheng Ziyun's face shifted from a stony gray to a deep, mottled purple.
Initially, he thought the first match was just an anomaly—that the opponent had sent out their best student.
But as it turned out, Yaoguang had already lost four matches. The students on the other side clearly all had something wrong with them. Where did they get that kind of killing intent?
If they kept losing like this, what was the point of him coming here? Reverse publicity?
He couldn't sit still any longer. He stood up from his chair, forced a smile that looked more painful than crying, and spoke with great strain.
"The students are all very impressive. These have been several evenly matched contests; everyone has learned a lot."
The reporters all looked over, none of them understanding how he had the nerve to use the phrase 'evenly matched.'
From the looks of it, your academy clearly lost by a landslide.
However, given his seniority, and since Bai Feifei didn't speak up, no one crossed him. They let him continue.
"I believe that for a cultural exchange, there's no need to have the students keep fighting one by one," Zheng Ziyun said, changing the subject.
"Let's be more direct. Let our two academies' most outstanding students step up for a final match."
"After all, the true demonstration of a teaching philosophy should be seen through the best students, not these minor skirmishes. Don't you agree?"
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