35: The end of one act of showing off is the beginning of another.

Soaring Heavens' hand holding the sword began to tremble.

[Ding! Sword Qi scratching taunt, prestige value +700!]

[Current prestige value: 16,670 points!]

"Ahhh... I don't believe it!"

Savage Stone finally moved.

With every step he took, the arena shook!

Pushing his external cultivation to the limit, his skin took on a bronze metallic luster, his entire body appearing as if cast from bronze and iron!

"Savage King Mountain Shaker!"

He let out a low growl, charging at Lin Fan like an out-of-control locomotive!

This was his strongest strike—concentrating all his strength into a single point and charging with his Physical Body, its power comparable to the full-force strike of a Great Martial Master!

In the audience, many people covered their eyes.

If this hit... Bang!!!!

A dull thud echoed like a meteorite hitting the ground!

Savage Stone slammed squarely into Lin Fan.

Then... he just stayed there, pressed against Lin Fan, motionless.

Lin Fan looked down at the bewildered Savage Stone pressed against his chest.

"Cut it out, I'm not interested in men," he patted Savage Stone's shoulder. "If you're into this, go buy a plane ticket to Shuzhong after this is over, I'll reimburse you..."

Savage Stone: "..."

He slowly backed away, looking down at his reddened shoulder and then at Lin Fan.

His eyes... gradually crumbled.

"Monster... monster..."

"He's a monster, ahhh!"

Savage Stone's mental state collapsed, and he crouched down, clutching his head.

[Ding! Savage King Mountain Shaker resulted in sexual orientation suspicion, prestige value +800!]

[Current prestige value: 17,470 points!]

The entire venue was deathly silent.

Three Peak Martial Masters attacked with all their might, while Lin Fan stood still and let them hit him.

The result: one spat blood, one's hand trembled, and one's mind broke.

How could they even fight?!

In the VIP seats, Wang Lie slumped back into his chair, his face as pale as ash.

Colonel Zhao laughed heartily: "President Wang, the people you found aren't up to much!"

On the arena.

The remaining twenty-seven Late Stage Martial Masters all had weak knees now.

"Are... are we still fighting?"

"Fight my ass! Even Brother Frenzied and the others couldn't break his defense!"

"Should we... just surrender?"

Lin Fan heard their whispers.

He smiled.

"Don't do that."

"Since you're already here."

"I can't let you come all this way for nothing."

He slowly raised his right hand.

"I'll give you some of my, Lin Fan's, local specialties."

"No need to thank me..."

As soon as he spoke.

Boom!!!

The blood Qi of the Ancient Desolate Sacred Body erupted completely!

Pale gold patterns spread across his body, and his hair moved without any wind!

He looked at Frenzied Song slumped on the ground, the trembling Soaring Heavens, the broken Savage Stone, and those twenty-seven shivering Martial Masters.

He slowly raised his right hand high.

It wasn't the Six Meridians Divine Sword.

It wasn't the Fire Cloud Art.

But rather!

"Buddhas Palm."

"Second Form!"

"Golden Summit Buddhist Lamp!"

Buzz!!!

In the entire Tianwu Sports Center, heaven and earth changed color!

Above the arena, the clouds were torn apart!

A massive golden Buddhas Palm phantom image, over a hundred meters in diameter, slowly condensed!

In the center of the palm, a golden Buddhist lamp appeared, its wick burning with a brilliant Buddhist fire!

Sanskrit chanting echoed, and Buddhist light shone everywhere!

All one hundred thousand spectators looked up, dumbfounded!

In the VIP seats, Martial King Chen Shanhe suddenly stood up and blurted out: "A Heaven Rank Martial Skill?!"

On the arena.

Frenzied Song and the others turned deathly pale.

They felt a... completely irresistible pressure!

It was a crushing weight on the very level of their existence!

"No... don't... dame... dame yo..."

"I surrender! I surrender!"

"Referee! Save us!"

However, it was already too late.

Lin Fan's palm pressed down gently.

"Go to sleep early, children."

Boom!!!!!!!

The golden Buddhas Palm, carrying that burning Buddhist lamp, descended from the sky!

It wasn't a smash.

It was a "press."

It pressed down on the arena with effortless ease.

There was no explosion.

No shockwave.

Only... light.

A brilliant golden Buddhist light swallowed the entire arena!

The thirty geniuses were engulfed by the light before they could even scream.

Within the light, that Golden Summit Buddhist Lamp slowly rotated, the wick's fire flickering, "purifying" all attacks, all resistance, and all resentment.

Three seconds later.

The Buddhist light dissipated.

The arena... had vanished.

No, it hadn't vanished.

It had turned into a massive palm-shaped crater, ten meters deep and fifty meters in diameter!

The bottom of the crater was as smooth as a mirror, with palm lines faintly visible.

The thirty geniuses lay scattered across the bottom, all unconscious and unharmed, though their auras were extremely weak.

Lin Fan had held back!

His goal was to show off; while the scene looked terrifying, the actual power wasn't that strong.

Most of the power had been used to expand the deep crater.

As for the unconsciousness, he had used some small tricks.

As long as the audience believed it was caused by the Buddhas Palm, that was enough.

The entire venue.

Was silent.

In the hundred-thousand-person stadium, it was so quiet you could hear your own heartbeat.

The referee stood with his mouth agape, the whistle in his hand dropping to the ground with a "clack."

The commentator Li Hao's voice trembled: "One... one palm... took out thirty people in an instant..."

Su Wan followed up: "Including... three Peak Martial Masters..."

VIP seats.

Wang Lie slumped in his chair, his eyes hollow.

Colonel Zhao took a deep breath and slowly uttered two words: "Awesome."

The live stream chat exploded!

[One palm! Just one palm!]

[Thirty top geniuses, slapped into a pit with one palm!]

[What kind of Martial Skill is this?! Heaven Rank?! It must be Heaven Rank!]

[The greatest in the history of the Provincial Examination! No, the greatest in the history of the National Martial Arts Examination!]

[From today on, Lin Fan is my father!]

[To the person above, does your dad know you're claiming new fathers?]

[I don't care! God Fan is awesome!!!]

[I want to have little Lin Fans with Lin Fan!!!]

[A hundred years ago, High Martial Start: Buddhas Palm Black-Grade Pagoda paid tribute to this scene.]

[That's freaking plagiarism!]

... [Ding! The second form of Buddhas Palm shocked the audience, prestige value +2,000!]

[Ding! One-palm insta-kill of thirty top geniuses, achievement unlocked: Provincial Examination Peerless!]

[Reward: Advanced Gacha draws x5! prestige value +5,000!]

[Current prestige value: 24,470 points! Advanced Gacha draws: 5 times!]

Above the arena.

Lin Fan slowly landed, standing at the edge of the palm print.

He brushed off non-existent dust from his hands and looked at the referee:

"There's one more group, right?"

"Hurry up, I'm really in a rush to eat hotpot, I just bought a limited-time group deal."

The referee snapped out of it and looked at the tenth group—the last thirty people, who were all huddled at the entrance of the tunnel, shaking their heads frantically.

"We... we forfeit!"

"We're not fighting! Not even if you kill us!"

"Let him be first! Let him be first!"

The referee's mouth twitched, and he looked at the podium.

Martial King Chen Shanhe remained silent for a long time before slowly standing up.

His voice spread throughout the venue:

"The final round of the Provincial Examination, the arena defense..."

"Lin Fan, defense successful."

"The champion of this year's Jiangnan Province Martial Arts Examination..."

"Yuncheng Third High School, Lin Fan!"

Whoosh!!!

Applause, cheers, and screams erupted like a landslide or a tsunami!

"Lin Fan! Lin Fan! Lin Fan!"

One hundred thousand people shouted in unison, the sound waves shaking the heavens!

Lin Fan stood at the edge of the palm print, bathed in the thunderous cheers.

Sigh... showing off in front of people is so damn satisfying!

At this moment, he suddenly understood why his ex-girlfriend always asked him for emotional value.

It's so good... he finally got a taste of this duck soup.

He waited for a while until the noise gradually subsided.

Then, he walked to the side of the stage and picked up the microphone.

As the saying goes, the end of one show-off session is the beginning of another.

Therefore.

Lin Fan had to set the stage for the next one.

"Thank you for the applause."

"However..."

He paused and looked at the camera.

"To be honest, the intensity of the Provincial Examination was a bit disappointing."

"So, I have a proposal."

Lin Fan's lips curled into that familiar, extremely arrogant smile.

"During the National Examination."

"Make the arena a bit bigger."

"And don't bother sending them up in groups of thirty."

"Everyone—come at me together!"

He raised his hand and pointed a finger at the national live stream camera.

It was the third one from the left!

"I'm in a hurry."

Having said that, he dropped the microphone and turned toward the tunnel.

Behind him was a completely frenzied stadium and a blank national live stream chat.

[National Examination... everyone together?!]

[He's crazy! He's absolutely insane!]

[But why... do I feel like he can actually do it?!]

[I'm already starting to look forward to the National Examination, ahhh!]

[This kind of person is the craftiest; if he loses, he'll say it's unfair because others ganged up on him...]

[The geniuses from Dragon Capital and Magic Capital won't be able to sleep tonight...]

[He's so arrogant, I love it, hehe...]

[The geniuses from other provinces in Lin Fan's eyes (papa)]

[The one above, they're not that smart.]

...VIP seats.

Colonel Zhao shook his head with a smile: "This kid..."

Wang Lie slumped in his chair, muttering to himself: "The Wang Family... provoked the wrong person..."

Inside the tunnel.

As soon as Lin Fan walked in, Su Muyu was standing there.

She looked at Lin Fan with a complex expression.

"You're really going to do that in the National Examination?"

"Yeah."

"You'll die."

"I won't." Lin Fan smiled, "My life is more... why am I telling you this?"

Su Muyu was silent for a moment, then suddenly said: "If I make it into the top ten of the province, I can also participate in the National Examination."

"And?"

"So during the National Examination..." She looked up, her clear eyes burning with Battle Intent, "I will go all out!"

Lin Fan laughed.

With those meager skills of yours, does it even matter if you go all out?

The words were on the tip of his tongue, but perhaps remembering that night's soup...

"Then I'll look forward to it."

After saying that, he hummed an out-of-tune song and sauntered out of the tunnel.

The setting sun stretched his shadow very long.

Behind him were thunderous cheers.

Ahead was a broader battlefield.

National Examination.

Geniuses from all over the country.

Everyone together?

"Tsk," Lin Fan grinned, "just thinking about it is exciting."

He pulled out his phone and checked the time.

"Still in time!"

"I eat hotpot, you eat hotpot base, smiling at you..."

Suddenly.

The phone vibrated.

It was a text from an unknown number:

"Lin Fan, see you at the National Examination. Then, I'll show you what a true Genius is. — Dragon Capital, Xuanyuan Potian."

After reading it, Lin Fan shook his head.

Two words escaped his lips—"Those who know, know."