"Who’s this fat guy? He looks so badass!"

"I think his name is Qiu Hu or something."

"Never heard of him."

The crowd exchanged uneasy glances.

Although they had never heard his name, the power of that one punch was deeply seared into everyone’s minds.

A Body Cultivator!

Their body is their weapon. Brute force shatters all techniques!

"In the face of absolute power, there’s no room for argument."

Chen Che slowly shook his head.

It was clear the Immortal Sect’s philosophy behind this practical combat competition was to familiarize the students with a real battlefield.

"I’m sorry, I’ll head down the mountain right now."

The girl who had just been shouting that she’d rather die than leave the mountain quickly packed her things. After muttering her apology, she hugged the railing, keeping a wide berth from the group as she scrambled down the mountain.

"Fuck, we’re about to be driven off the mountain. What do we do?"

"What else can we do? There are so many of them, and we can’t beat them. Maybe we can find another chance after we go down the mountain!"

The remaining students also grew restless.

Where one goes, another follows. A second student quickly followed the first one down.

Under the group’s cold gaze, the rest of the students sighed and began to prepare to leave the mountain.

Only Chen Che and Lin Yi remained, unmoving.

For a moment, all eyes converged on them.

Seeing this, Lin Yi scrambled to his feet. But when he saw Chen Che was still sitting, he secretly tugged on the corner of his shirt.

"Old Chen, what should we do?"

"What should we do?"

Chen Che’s eyes narrowed slightly.

’This is the last safe zone. Once the nine students from Fifth Middle School occupy it, there will only be one spot left to advance. And after going down the mountain, we might face counterattacks from other students. If we stay up here, we only have to deal with these few from Fifth Middle School. We might even be able to use them to block other students coming up the mountain.’

With this in mind, a plan formed. He slowly rose to his feet.

Seeing Chen Che get up, Lin Yi breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"Right, a wise man doesn’t fight a losing battle. Let’s find another place to hide..."

He was surprisingly considerate, even pulling a plastic bag from his pocket to pack up the empty cans they had just finished. He was getting ready to carry them out of the park with a CLANG and a CLATTER.

Seeing the last person rise, the students from Fifth Middle School couldn’t help but smile.

After inspecting the exam site that day, their Dean of Students had called the top ten students of their grade together. They decided on a strategy to team up, ensuring they could secure spots to advance. They might even make a name for themselves in the provincial competition.

It seemed their plan was working perfectly.

"As long as we guard this place until time’s up, we’ll all advance."

"Too bad Old Zhao from Class 18 isn’t here! He was probably eliminated on the way."

Feeling victory was in their grasp, they started chatting amongst themselves.

...

Meanwhile, Li Tingyu, who had been sitting suspended in mid-air, also slowly rose.

"Senior, are you not watching anymore?" the middle-aged examiner asked, stunned.

"I’m done watching!"

Li Tingyu shook her head.

Although she was the chief examiner, her main responsibility was to patrol the various exam sites and ensure no accidents occurred. Proctoring was not part of her duties.

The reason she had stayed was that Chen Che was one of her younger brother’s students. They had also met once before outside the exam site, so she wanted to see how he would fare. Unfortunately, the scene before her was somewhat disappointing.

’He’s leaving the mountain just like that? And here my brother praised him so highly, calling him a rare cultivation prodigy... It seems my brother misjudged him!’ she thought to herself.

...

The students being driven down the mountain were filled with frustration.

Some of them only realized after they were halfway down that they should have suggested everyone team up against the students from Fifth Middle School.

But seeing that no one spoke up and no one dared to be the one to stick their neck out—especially when they saw even Chen Che get up—they immediately extinguished the thought.

’Forget it. We’ll just have to find another chance after we get down the mountain.’

Just as this thought crossed everyone’s minds, they saw that Chen Che wasn’t hugging the railing to leave like the others. Instead, he was walking straight toward the group from Fifth Middle School.

"What’s he trying to do?"

"No idea!"

"Maybe he’s just trying to walk through them... to show he’s not scared!"

Everyone exchanged confused glances.

"Hey, hey, this way..." a student from Yan Jun’s class pointed to the railing, trying to warn him.

Just then, the students from Fifth Middle School also noticed something was off. They watched as Chen Che approached step by step, finally stopping right in front of them. Qiu Hu tilted his head to look at Chen Che, frowning as he barked:

"What do you want? Still not convinced?"

"That’s not it."

Chen Che slowly shook his head.

Qiu Hu’s brows furrowed.

"Then why?"

The other students from Fifth Middle School also looked on with great interest.

They didn’t think he would dare to challenge so many of them. No matter how strong he was, he was still just one person. With their numbers, they had nothing to fear from him.

Facing Qiu Hu—the Body Cultivator from Fifth Middle School who had defeated a Same-Tier Cultivator with a single punch—Chen Che said calmly:

"I’m here to ask you all to leave the mountain."

His words stunned the entire crowd!

Qiu Hu froze for a second, and the other students from Fifth Middle School stared with wide, incredulous eyes.

"What? Did I hear that right?"

The students who had been about to leave all looked over in astonishment, as if they couldn’t believe their ears.

Even Li Tingyu, who had stood up to leave, turned back around in shock.

"Ask *us* to leave? On your own?!"

Enraged, Qiu Hu’s fan-like hand shot out to grab Chen Che as he yelled:

"Let’s see if you’re still talking so tough after I throw you off this mountain..."

Just as everyone expected Chen Che to be grabbed and thrown straight off the mountain...

...Chen Che also made his move, slowly pushing a palm forward.

"What?"

Though he moved second, his palm strike arrived first. It looked casual, but in Qiu Hu’s eyes, it was like a crashing tsunami, its Qi and Blood so immense it was unstoppable.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he retracted his right hand, throwing up a block mid-air and crossing his arms in front of him.

Just as the crowd was wondering why Qiu Hu had switched from offense to defense...

BAM!

Chen Che’s palm had already slammed into him, pressing Qiu Hu’s arms against his own chest. Then, a surging, immense force brutally broke through his defense and the palm continued on to strike his torso.

This palm strike contained not only Qi and Blood, but also True Essence.

"Holy shit!"

Before the disbelieving eyes of the crowd, Qiu Hu screamed as he was sent flying backward through the air. He crashed through the railing at the edge of the mountain and tumbled down the slope, sliding for a good twenty meters before his body dissolved into a flash of light.

"Huh?"

This scene left everyone utterly flabbergasted.

The students who had been heading down the mountain suddenly stopped, looking at each other in sheer astonishment.

"Yeah!"

Only Lin Yi, after a moment of shock, let out a cheer, his face flushed red.

"It’s Chen Che from First Middle School!"

At that moment, someone finally recognized him.

That’s right. To take out a Late-stage Fifth Layer student with a single palm strike... not even Xiao Yang could do that. It could only be the one who had thrashed Xiao Yang.

"That’s right, that’s our Old Chen." Seeing how badass Chen Che was, Lin Yi, who had been about to haul the trash down the mountain, started posturing like a fox borrowing the tiger’s might. He shouted, "This mountaintop has been claimed by us from First Middle School! All of you, scram!"

"That punk!"

The Fifth Middle School students’ faces flushed with anger.

"Fuck!"

"Yeah! Even Xiao Yang would have to run if he ran into us! You think we can’t beat him?"

"So what if he’s Chen Che? If we all attack together, there’s no way he can beat all of us."

They never in a million years expected to run into Chen Che under these circumstances.

But so what?

When their Dean of Students had laid out this strategy, he had stated with great confidence that if they worked together, they could, barring any accidents, sweep the entire exam site.

At the same time, the presence of their classmates bolstered their courage.

However, Chen Che just grinned. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"Shall we... give it a try?"

Before the stunned eyes of the crowd, he took a step forward, his Qi and Blood and True Essence erupting to their absolute peak in an instant.