35: Chapter 35 A Severance Enough to Cut Through Space

At night, Chen Mo's old-fashioned mobile phone, which had been silent all this time, suddenly let out a shrill roar.

Startled, Chen Mo quickly answered the call, and a flurry of chattering immediately came from the phone.

"Xiao Mo, are you okay?"

"Director Zhou just came by and said the matter has been resolved, and your injuries have been treated?"

Director Gu Sanding's anxious voice rang out, with the faint sounds of the children's concern audible in the background.

"Yes, I'm fine."

Chen Mo sat cross-legged on the floor. Since the bed collapsed under him on the second day, he had been sleeping on a floor mat for the past few days.

"Those were just superficial wounds; they look scary, but they don't actually hurt at all."

"It wasn't even as bad as when I fell off the roof as a kid."

Chen Mo chuckled, racking his brain to comfort Director Gu Sanding.

The old man was getting on in years, so it was best not to let him worry if possible.

"Really?"

"I saw you were a bloody mess back then..."

Seeming to realize what he had said, Director Gu Sanding quickly told Xueni to take the children to bed.

Once the children had left, he continued.

"Child, how about... giving it up?"

"As your director, I want you to get ahead in life, but I don't want you to lose your head."

Director Gu Sanding sighed. In his heart, he felt that if it weren't for him and the children, Chen Mo would have absolutely no need to risk his life like this.

Perhaps it was his own words from back then that had spurred the boy on, causing him not to give up on the match even after becoming a bloody mess.

Now, Director Gu Sanding felt nothing but heartache and guilt; he was in immense pain.

Chen Mo could tell that Director Gu Sanding's tone was off, so he took a deep breath and said.

"Old man, let me tell you this."

"I'm pushing myself this hard not only to provide a good life for my younger siblings, but even more so for myself."

"Do you know about the National Martial Arts University?"

"That is my goal."

"I am a man with ambitions, too, so you don't need to blame yourself, old man."

"Besides, I'm a man—the man with the most guts in the entire Chenguang Orphanage."

"But..."

Director Gu Sanding wanted to say something more, but Chen Mo cut him off directly.

"I know what I'm doing; I definitely won't lose my life."

"Don't worry, there will be days for you to enjoy life in the future."

Chen Mo chuckled, and Director Gu Sanding, on the other end of the line, had nothing left to say.

After expressing his concern a bit more, Director Gu Sanding hung up the phone.

"Chen Mo, is it really okay to lie to Director Gu Sanding like that?"

Wang Jun sat up from his bed, looked up, and asked, eyeing the old-fashioned mobile phone in Chen Mo's hand.

"Director Gu Sanding might not know because he's older, and those children are too young to understand."

"But I just looked it up, and the talent Tang Qingran used is called 'Slicing'."

"It is the unique talent of the legendary Slicing Monarch; that is a terrifying existence capable of cutting through space!"

"Even if it's a weakened version, an ordinary First-Grade Martial Artist would be sliced in two directly..."

Chen Mo raised his hand to stop Wang Jun, then lifted his shirt to reveal his clean-cut abdominal muscles.

"I have no need to lie to the old man."

"Tang Qingran did indeed cause me some minor injuries, but it was only at the level of just breaking the skin."

"My body is tough as nails, not to mention that I was in a compressed state at the time."

After saying this, Chen Mo compressed his forearm and held it out in front of Wang Jun.

Wang Jun reached out and squeezed Chen Mo's forearm; it felt almost like steel...

"Fine, I was overthinking it."

Waving his hand, Wang Jun lay back down.

"Tomorrow is the semi-finals. If we meet in the semi-finals, you have to go easy on me."

"Don't kill me with one punch."

"Easy, we're close; I'll definitely kick you off the arena floor very carefully."

Chen Mo didn't intend to mess around tonight either; he would rest well and prepare to welcome the semi-finals tomorrow.

...

Meanwhile, in the dormitory not far away.

Su Qingyue clutched her phone tightly; she felt immense pressure right now.

She had witnessed the entire battle between Chen Mo and Tang Qingran that afternoon.

At the beginning, she could still avoid the Slicing attacks using her True Sight Eye and was able to easily get close to Tang Qingran.

But that last move...

Azure light flashed across Su Qingyue's eyes again as she once again began to simulate what she should do if she encountered that situation.

But no matter how she tried, when facing the tens of thousands of Slicing attacks that Tang Qingran unleashed at the end, the result was always being cut into pieces.

That's right, what Tang Qingran unleashed at full power in the end was not thousands of Slicing attacks, but over ten thousand.

Her True Sight Eye saw it clearly; Chen Mo had almost taken all those ten thousand-plus Slicing attacks head-on with his own body.

And he took them head-on with his body...

"Unless I meet Wang Jun, I have absolutely no chance of advancing."

Su Qingyue rubbed her hair and lay down on her small bed with a distressed look on her face.

Based on her own simulations, her probability of advancing was less than 25%.

"But it's okay, I guess."

"At least I successfully qualified for the Provincial Joint Examination, and at worst, I can still get into a top-100 martial arts academy."

Su Qingyue was very good at regulating her emotions, so after worrying for a few minutes, she put the matter behind her.

"I wonder what the difficulty of the Simulated Defense Battle in the Provincial Joint Examination will be like; I hope I get matched with suitable teammates~"

The next day, accompanied by fireworks exploding in the sky and the thunderous cheers from the audience, the semi-finals of this Luo City City-level Joint Exam officially began.

Chen Mo yawned; after expending some energy yesterday, he had slept quite comfortably.

Ignoring the commentator who was igniting the enthusiasm of the scene, Chen Mo cast his gaze toward Cheng Men opposite him.

He had a feeling that the final showdown would most likely be a battle between himself and Cheng Men.

Thinking of that insufferably arrogant Cheng Men, Chen Mo's fists itched uncontrollably.

"I know, I know!"

"I know you audience members don't want to keep listening to my nonsense!"

Listening to the urging sounds from the audience below, the official commentator knew that the goal of igniting the scene's enthusiasm had been achieved, so he didn't intend to continue with the buildup.

"Let us begin... today's battles!"

As his voice faded, the four remaining numbers on the big screen began to flash rapidly, finally settling on number 2 and number 4.

"Good thing it's not an internal battle..."

Principal Liu Zhifeng breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this; as long as it wasn't an internal battle, it was fine. He was genuinely afraid that Chen Mo would kill Wang Jun with one punch.

He had witnessed that battle yesterday.

Even with the enhancement of forbidden drugs, Tang Qingran, who had obtained a powerful 'Slicing' talent and super self-healing ability, was almost beaten to death by Chen Mo.

In fact, Tang Qingran was practically dead after the first punch; being able to hold on until the second punch was all thanks to the forbidden drugs propping her up.

"It seems Xiao Wang's journey ends here."

Relaxing, Principal Liu Zhifeng leaned back in his chair and stretched his old arms and legs.

"Why, do you have so little confidence in Wang Jun?"

Chen Mo raised an eyebrow; why was he conceding defeat before even getting on the stage?

"That's not it. Wang Jun's combat talent is extremely high, and combined with his highly destructive fire element control, it's even better."

"It's just that before reaching the mid-Fourth Grade, the gap between talents is still completely unbridgeable."

"Rule-based Talent is simply the strongest; no matter how hard you try, you can't..."

As he spoke, Principal Liu Zhifeng stopped talking.

Beside him... seemed to... apparently... should be sitting a living example.

"Why did you stop talking?"

Chen Mo smiled; it seemed Principal Liu also realized that pure stats were, in a sense, stronger than Rule-based Talent.

Or rather, purely overwhelming stats were the purest form of rules.