It felt as if heaven and earth were crashing down, the compressed air letting out a deafening boom.

Even through the screen, the terrifying pressure made the crowd in the viewing area feel like they were suffocating.

"It’s over! The Black and White Impetus have both locked onto him!"

"There’s no way Li Wen can escape!"

"He just made it to first place!"

The hearts of the teachers and students from Third Middle School clenched, as if they were watching the brilliant glow of his first-place rank about to be extinguished in an instant.

......

「Virtual Battlefield. Within the network of pipes.」

The moment the near-tangible "Impetus of Duality" descended upon him, Li Wen felt his blood practically freeze and his thoughts turn sluggish.

This immense pressure far surpassed that of the purple-robed figure. Their power wasn’t even in the same dimension.

Yet, in that desperate instant, just as his consciousness was about to freeze—HUM!

The jade-like Primordial Spirit at the center of his sea of consciousness suddenly erupted with unprecedented brilliance.

A torrent of thought, cool and impossibly clear, instantly swept away the feeling of mental suffocation.

Primordial Spirit, full power!

The three-dimensional space within a fifty-meter radius imprinted itself on his mind with perfect clarity, bypassing the visual obstructions of the virtual environment.

Scanned by this torrent of thought, the movements of the Black and White Impetus were no longer invisibly fast streaks of light, but were instead resolved into clear trajectories, velocities, and even the subtle nodes where their power was being channeled.

’The Black Impetus on the left—its blade art is cold and devouring, locking down my path of retreat to the right. But there’s a slight hitch in its power transition as it retracts its right shoulder.’

’The White Impetus on the right—its blade glints with a bone-chilling cold, sealing off my path to the left. The tip is angled too far forward, its power overly focused, making the micro-adjustments for its downward strike a fraction too slow.’

’At the intersection of the two impetus fields—that core point of suppression, heavy as a mountain—my Primordial Spirit’s perspective reveals an incredibly faint, high-speed gap in the flow of energy.’

’0.01 seconds!’ The thought struck him like lightning.

’If I take it head-on, I’m dead! There’s nowhere to retreat!’

’The only way to survive is to use that infinitesimal gap just before the two impetus fields converge, and the almost nonexistent flaw in the hunters’ power transition, to charge through the pincer attack of their blades!’

"HRAAAGH—!" Li Wen’s eyes were bloodshot as a guttural roar, like that of a cornered beast, tore from his throat. It wasn’t a cry of despair, but a bellow born of pushing both his will and body to their absolute limits.

In that instant, his control over his physical body was pushed to an unprecedented peak.

Fueled by the frenzied power of his Primordial Spirit, his body twisted in a way that defied the laws of physics, a movement beyond imagination.

His speed skyrocketed!

SLICE! SLICE! Blood flew through the air!

The deathly-still black blade aura grazed Li Wen’s spine, its sharp energy tearing through his virtual armor and ripping away a huge chunk of flesh.

The ice-cold white blade scraped past the outside of his left arm. While it didn’t land a clean hit, the soul-freezing intent behind the strike instantly numbed Li Wen’s arm, making his movements stiffen for a fraction of a second.

Too close! It was a hair’s breadth away from death!

The two blade auras scraped past him at nearly the same instant; their immense power had come within a hair’s breadth of completely shredding him.

But Li Wen, by relying on the precognitive ability granted by his Primordial Spirit and his terrifyingly precise, instantaneous control over his body, had managed to squeeze through this deadly pincer.

He didn’t even glance back at the attack that could have annihilated any martial artist at the Peak of Unity Realm.

The moment his body broke free from the core suppression zone of the Impetus of Duality, the immense inertia almost sent him tumbling forward.

But he slammed his right foot against a twisted pipe support beside him—BOOM!

The pipe support snapped on impact, letting out a piercing metallic groan.

Using the recoil, his body shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow, tumbling into a more complex hole in the ruins ahead—a tangle of collapsed walls and massive pipes.

"ROAR—!"

"HISS—!"

From behind him came the program-simulated roars of the Black and White Impetus avatars—deeply suppressed, furious hisses, like predators that had been played for fools.

It seemed the ruthless slaughter program was having a strong logical feedback error, triggered by its target’s escape from a certain-death scenario.

「Reality. The Main Viewing Stand.」

Dead silence. Absolute, dead silence.

In the few seconds it took for Li Wen’s body to perform that impossible twist, for the two blade auras to graze past him by a hair’s breadth, and for him to finally tumble into the ruined passage, the entire main stand, including the clamorous viewing area below, fell into a state of stunned silence.

It wasn’t until the screen showed Li Wen’s vital signs still fluctuating, and the green dot representing his survival shot away from its last coordinates on the minimap... BOOM!!!

Only then did a tremendous uproar explode from the viewing area like a tsunami.

"He... he’s not dead?!"

"My God! He dodged it!"

"How did he do that? Those two slashes clearly had him surrounded!"

"I saw it! I saw it! His body just twisted, and he slipped right through! Was that prediction?!"

"A miracle! It’s a miracle! Someone in the Unity Realm escaped an assassination attempt by Impetus-level masters?!"

"Li Wen! Li Wen! LI WEN!!!"

The Third Middle School viewing area went absolutely insane! Students roared with abandon, and many teachers were so excited their eyes turned red.

On the main stand, the reactions from the various tycoons were even more spectacular.

Minnie, the short-haired woman from the virtual company, froze with the teacup she was elegantly raising poised at her lips. She didn’t even notice the few drops of coffee that splashed out, and behind her gold-rimmed glasses, her pupils had dilated in shock.

The bald giant from the Mercenary Alliance stood with his mouth agape, a choked "Ugh..." escaping his throat as if someone had him in a stranglehold. His knuckles were white from gripping the railing.

The female representative from Galaxy Bank instantly clapped a hand over her mouth, as if to keep from crying out, but the shock in her eyes was practically tangible.

Director Sun from the Fire Hall leaned forward, a crack appearing for the first time in his perpetually mountain-steady expression. His brow furrowed as his gaze locked onto the entrance of the ruins where Li Wen had disappeared on the screen, then shot back to the name still hanging at the top of the leaderboard—Li Wen (4540 points)!

Meanwhile, Jiang Lingyun’s name had already dimmed.

Their earlier debate now seemed like a colossal irony.

It was none other than the female representative from Galaxy Bank who reacted first.

She practically leaped to her feet, her voice rising with excitement. Her previous elegance and reserve were gone, replaced by a fiery, desperate urgency.

"A-rank! That’s definitely A-rank potential! Director Sun, who was it just now who said he wasn’t worth an A-rank? To successfully escape a pincer attack by two Impetus-level masters! What terrifying reflexes, insight, and control that must take! My Galaxy Bank can offer A-rank terms! Right now—"

Her words were like a lit match to a powder keg.

"Bullshit! It’s the Mercenary Alliance’s turn!"

The bald giant slammed his hand on the table, his coarse voice drowning out the entire crowd’s clamor. His eyes were wide as saucers as he pointed at the screen and bellowed:

"See that? This kid’s a natural-born warrior! Law of the jungle, survival is king!"

"He survived a kill-or-be-killed situation. That kind of mentality was made for the Mercenary Alliance! Our A-rank Mercenary contract is ready whenever he is!"

Minnie from the virtual company instantly set down her teacup. She began speaking at an astonishing speed as charts on her datapad refreshed frantically.

"Calm down! Let’s analyze this calmly! The core value of this superhuman predictive and evasive ability lies in his information processing speed and computational power!"

"This is precisely the direction of perfection that virtual technology strives for! Student Li Wen’s value is far greater than that of a mere Martial Artist! He’s a treasure in the field of data analytics!"

"The virtual company’s A-rank resource pool can give him a platform to become a strategic-level master analyst! Wouldn’t you agree, Director Sun?" She cleverly passed the ball into the Fire Hall’s court.

The expression on Director Sun of the Fire Hall’s face shifted dramatically. His earlier, perfectly logical analysis now seemed pale and powerless.

In the face of the absolute truth—that a youth in the mid-to-late Unity Realm had successfully escaped a joint pincer attack by two standard "Impetus Realm" experts—any excuse seemed feeble.

He took a sharp breath, forcefully suppressing the tempest in his heart. His voice carried an unprecedented gravity and an indisputable finality:

"Enough!" His sharp bark instantly silenced the bickering of the other three factions.

Director Sun’s gaze swept slowly over the three of them before finally landing on Fang Chengwu, who still wore a composed smile, but whose eyes now shone with immense gratification. His tone was as firm as forged steel:

"Student Li Wen’s performance... was beyond expectations! Beyond imagination! Based solely on the survival insight and extreme control he displayed in this battle, he is qualified to knock on the A-rank threshold!"

He directly bypassed his earlier statement about "needing more concrete achievements."

"On behalf of the Fire Hall, I am formally extending an A-rank contract invitation to Student Li Wen! The contract terms and resource guarantees will follow our Hall’s standards for this year’s specially recruited seeds! This promise is effective immediately!"

His words landed with the weight of stone. He turned to Fang Chengwu and gave a slight nod, a hint of respect in his gesture.

"Teacher Fang, we were shortsighted earlier. Please convey our Hall’s sincerity on our behalf. For Bluestone County to have such a talent is truly a blessing for our nation!"

The gentle smile on Fang Chengwu’s face finally blossomed, as vibrant as the arrival of spring after a thaw.

He wasn’t surprised. He simply watched calmly as the representatives’ attitudes transformed from cautious dismissal to a desperate scramble to win favor. His eyes were filled with unwavering trust and understanding for his student.

He returned the gesture with a slight bow. "Director Sun, you are too kind. Li Wen’s journey is still long. To be held in such high regard by all of you is his good fortune. His choice, in the end, is his own."

Below the main stand, the mayor of Bluestone County and the head of the Education Bureau were left reeling by the sudden, rocket-like reversal of the situation.

Seeing the representatives of the four major powers now vying to show goodwill to Fang Chengwu as if fighting over a priceless treasure, where was there any trace of their previous reserve and measured consideration?

After this jaw-dropping escape, Li Wen’s position at the top of the leaderboard seemed all the more brilliant and unshakable.

Inside the virtual battlefield, Li Wen crouched behind a massive condensation pipe, breathing in ragged gasps.

The numbness in his left arm hadn’t completely subsided, and a simulated, intense pain radiated from his back.

The light of the jade-like Primordial Spirit in his sea of consciousness had dimmed somewhat; clearly, the full-power burst had been extremely draining.

But his gaze remained as sharp as an eagle’s as he looked up toward the distant New Era Energy Tower, a structure that soared into the clouds and emitted a faint blue halo.

Deep within the shadows at its peak, an aura that made even his Primordial Spirit feel suppressed emanated—something far deeper and more terrifying than the Black and White Impetus.

’Is that the final secret of this battlefield?’