“Wait! I object to this!”
Chen Shu stepped straight in front of Su Mu. His words rang out forcefully, sounding utterly righteous.
Su Mu’s pupils shrank sharply as well. He immediately began brewing his acting, waiting to be challenged.
Sure enough, Chen Shu swung his arm toward Mo Shuangxing’s direction and spoke at once.
“I want to challenge—”
“Hm?”
On the peak—
Mo Shuangxing’s eyes turned cold. The pressure of an Immortal King cultivator instantly crossed the clouds and crashed down on Chen Shu, forcing him to his knees as he spat out a large mouthful of blood.
“Pfft!”
Chen Shu had not even finished his sentence when his mind went completely blank.
No, what are you doing?
This was not the result he had expected at all.
He had investigated in advance. There was a basis for doing this. So why had he suffered a setback before it even started?
“How rude. I wasn’t finished speaking. How dare a junior like you interrupt me?” Mo Shuangxing’s tone was unfriendly.
“Senior, please forgive me!” Chen Shu hurriedly begged for mercy. Damn it, I spoke too hastily.
Mo Shuangxing withdrew her pressure and snorted coldly.
But Chen Shu did not mind at all. Instead, he grinned as he climbed up from the ground, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and looked rather cheerful.
He had risen from obscurity, and along the way everything had gone smoothly, as if heaven and earth favored him. Someone had even been helping him in secret. Naturally, he would not be struck down by such a minor setback.
“Senior! I am Chen Shu!”
Chen Shu cupped his hands in greeting, his attitude clearly much better now.
“I have heard that during this [Benefaction] stage, the various peak masters may select personal disciples in advance. Is that correct?”
“That is correct.”
The elder presiding over the ceremony frowned slightly and nodded.
“Haha…”
Chen Shu suddenly laughed.
“But I’ve also heard that there is another rule. If someone challenges the selected person at this time and defeats them, they may replace them and become the peak master’s personal disciple. Is that right?”
“Well…”
The elder hesitated. That rule did exist, but it had been set for tens of thousands of years and had never once been used.
After all, everyone understood that this Benefaction stage was simply a backdoor reserved for the Ten Great Immortal Clans. No one would be foolish enough to cause trouble at such a time.
For tens of thousands of years, no such fool had appeared.
But—
Now there was one.
“There is such a rule.”
Under countless gazes, the elder nodded helplessly.
“So you mean you want to challenge Su Mu?”
“That’s right!”
Light seemed to flash in Chen Shu’s eyes as he swept his arm outward.
“I believe this person is unworthy of his reputation! He is not fit to become a peak master’s personal disciple, nor even fit to enter our Holy Land!”
“Most importantly, he harasses Miss Qing Jingrou. His morality is corrupt and his character is flawed! How can someone like this become a personal disciple of a peak? Wouldn’t that disgrace the name of Yao Feng Holy Land?”
Chen Shu grew more and more impassioned, his voice swelling with righteous fervor.
He stole a glance at Qing Jingrou and saw that she was also looking at him, which immediately made him even more excited.
“To uphold the reputation of the Holy Land, it is our bounden duty! Su Mu! Do you dare come down and fight me to decide victory and defeat!”
The arena fell silent, and only after a while did murmurs begin to rise.
“Where did this country bumpkin come from? Does he not know the rules of the Holy Land’s [Benefaction]?”
“Looks like he knows them. He even knows about the challenge rule. I didn’t even know that rule existed.”
“Then what is he trying to do? Slap the face of the peak master and the Immortal Clan in public?”
“But since the target is Su Mu…”
“There’s a good show coming.”
Some people grinned, schadenfreude filling their hearts.
“This guy wants to step on Su Mu to rise up, haha…”
Inside the arena—
Su Mu was extremely excited.
He had already been keeping his head down, brewing his emotions. At this moment, he was fully prepared. He immediately took out the golden halberd from his storage ring, just about to respond loudly.
“Hmph!”
A cold snort came from above. Mo Shuangxing’s expression was ugly.
“Oh? You junior are questioning my decision?”
Anger was hidden in her voice.
The wrath of an Immortal King was not something a mortal could bear.
Chen Shu’s momentum was instantly cut off. His body hunched over, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.
“This isn’t right?!”
He was filled with shock and uncertainty. He had already investigated Mo Shuangxing beforehand and knew that her personality was rigid, that she valued rules above all else, and that she rarely displayed such obvious emotion.
Mo Shuangxing actually wanted to directly crush Chen Shu to death, but in the end, she forcibly suppressed her killing intent.
The timing was not right yet…
She felt quite regretful.
“Senior, please forgive me! I am merely acting according to the rules. There is nothing improper about that, right?”
Chen Shu shouted through the pressure, trying to remind her of the “rules.”
Mo Shuangxing regained her calm, not because of the so-called rules, but to protect a certain “little one. Since you want to talk about rules, fine. You will duel right now!”
She flicked her sleeve, and Chen Shu and Su Mu were instantly swept into a small world high in the air, using the entire world as their battlefield.
At the same time, streams of light screens appeared, allowing everyone present to clearly see every detail of the battle.
“There’s a good show coming…”
Some people grew faintly excited.
“Who do you think will win?”
“I hope it’s Chen Shu, that he teaches Su Mu a harsh lesson.”
“No, no…”
Others shook their heads.
“I think that’s unlikely. No matter how useless Su Mu is, he is still the Young Master of the Su Clan. His cultivation is a whole major realm higher than Chen Shu’s.”
“That’s not necessarily true…”
Someone who knew Chen Shu chuckled.
“Haven’t you heard? This Chen Shu isn’t an ordinary Sea Containment Realm cultivator. He has plenty of records of defeating opponents above his level.”
The crowd buzzed with discussion.
Inside the small world—
Su Mu was completely confused.
No, this is wrong.
Extremely wrong.
The original plotline was not like this at all.
Normally, it should have been that after Chen Shu finished speaking, Mo Shuangxing nodded in agreement, then suppressed Su Mu’s cultivation and threw both of them into the small world, forcing a fair duel.
But now…
Su Mu sensed his own vast cultivation at the peak of the Heavenly Origin Realm, then sensed that Chen Shu opposite him only had the energy of the 2nd stage Sea Containment Realm. The corner of his mouth twitched.
Each major realm had nine minor stages. That meant Su Mu was a full sixteen minor stages ahead of Chen Shu.
How the hell is this supposed to be fought???
What Su Mu worried about was not how to win, but how to lose.
And he had to lose reasonably. Otherwise, the plotline would veer completely off course.
After a brief moment of thought, he quickly came up with an idea.
He flipped the golden halberd around, rested it on his shoulder, and put on an arrogant, disdainful expression.
“You brat even dared to mention Jingrou just now? Who gave you the guts to call her by that name? Today, I’ll make sure to teach you a proper lesson!”
He then swung the shaft of the halberd.
“See this? I don’t even need the blade. Just the shaft is enough to beat you until you call me father!”
Su Mu’s face was full of contempt.
He could not help cheering inwardly. As expected of himself. A veteran actor really did think fast. He had found a solution so quickly.
As a sacred artifact, the golden halberd allowed Su Mu to freely adjust its output power. That was the first way of holding back.
And now, by not using the blade and switching to the shaft, that was the second way of holding back.
Later, he would deliberately expose some subtle openings. That would be the third.
“If you still can’t beat me like this, then I really have no choice.”
Su Mu muttered inwardly, praying that the other side would put in some effort.
But who would have thought that Chen Shu’s entire face flushed red. He was clearly already affected by the provocation, furious to the extreme.
“Good, good, good! It seems you are already courting death!”