41: Chapter 41 Facing Lu Chuan

After the second round of the semi-finals concluded, the final matchup was officially set—Shen Ye versus Lu Chuan.

Two S-Rankers, the "Dual S Clash" that the media had been hyping up since the opening day of the City-level Competition, had finally arrived.

Once the news broke, every spot around the City Gymnasium that could hold a poster was replaced with new ones—Deep Blue versus Light Gray, Undead Sea versus Cultivator. Lu Chuan's photo showed him standing in the center of a blood-colored battlefield, with layers of Undead behind him; Shen Ye's photo captured the moment Jin Lin drew his sword, with a golden dragon rising from the blade.

Every street and alley in Nanjiang City was buzzing about this final, and even the stall owners in the black market selling spirit plant seeds would ask, in between haggling: "Who are you betting on?"

Shen Ye did not participate in any discussions.

He trained as usual, ate as usual, and slept as usual.

The spirit plant buns Liu Yang brought back from the cafeteria every day still tasted the same, the spirit beast steaks were fried crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and the spirit grain porridge had spirit spring concentrate added, with the rice grains cooked soft and mushy.

The cafeteria auntie kept her word, giving Shen Ye an extra spirit beast egg every morning.

Shen Ye would say thank you every time, and the auntie would always say, "Eat more, win the final and auntie will give you another one."

The day before the final, Su Wanqing sent a file to Shen Ye's communicator.

It wasn't a text list, but a complete intelligence dossier on his opponent.

The cover featured the logo of the Su Family Chamber of Commerce—a sword leaf orchid wrapped around a spirit gathering grass.

Below it was a line of small text: "Lu Chuan · Complete Combat Data · Compiled by Su Wanqing."

Shen Ye opened the file and read from the first page to the last.

Frame-by-frame analysis of all of Lu Chuan's group stage footage, complete data from both rounds of the semi-finals, the charging order of the Undead Sea, reorganization speed, the transfer frequency of core Undead, the expansion and contraction patterns of the Blood War Aura, and his spiritual sense consumption curve—every item was marked with extremely precise numbers.

Su Wanqing had even pulled out the spiritual sense fluctuation data from every one of Lu Chuan's matches, cross-verifying it with the in-depth report generated by the military-grade tactical analysis system from Qin Shu, leading to a key conclusion: Lu Chuan's spiritual sense consumption increased sharply when maintaining the Blood War Aura.

If the aura was pushed to its maximum expansion state, his sustained combat time would be significantly shortened.

Shen Ye read the file many times over, then sent a message back to Su Wanqing: "Thank you for your hard work."

Su Wanqing replied quickly: "It wasn't hard work. The data was from Han Xu; I only handled the compilation."

Shen Ye looked at this reply and was silent for a moment.

Han Xu, the Ice-type A-Ranker from City No. 1 High School, [user of] Frost Tundra.

He had beaten Su Wanqing in the group stage and was eliminated by Lu Chuan in the first round of the semi-finals.

His Frost Giant had only lasted a short while against the Undead Sea before being submerged, but before he was overwhelmed, he used his Frost Domain to force Lu Chuan to reveal the expanded form of the Blood War Aura—the aura expanded from a radius of over a hundred meters to cover the entire arena, and Lu Chuan's spiritual sense fluctuations showed a distinct tremor at the moment of expansion.

That tremor was extremely brief, and ordinary spectators would never have noticed it, but Su Wanqing had captured it from the post-match spiritual sense fluctuation data.

"Why is Han Xu helping us?" Shen Ye asked.

Su Wanqing replied with a paragraph: "He said he beat me in the group stage, and that me losing to him in the semi-finals was because he countered me; my actual strength shouldn't have stopped there. He feels he owes me one. Besides, he watched your match against Fang Yan and said you are someone worth it. It's not just about winning the match; it's about winning in a way that makes him want to see how far you can go."

Shen Ye held the communicator, thought for a long time, and finally replied with only two words: "Thank you on my behalf."

The semi-final was Lu Chuan versus Han Xu, and Shen Ye sat in the stands watching from start to finish.

Han Xu's Frost Giant did indeed cause considerable trouble for the Undead Sea early in the battle—the Frost Domain covered half the arena, the Undead Knight's skeletal warhorses slipped on the ice, the Skeleton Warriors were frozen into ice lumps, and the Stitched Giant's stitches became stiff in the low temperature.

But Lu Chuan quickly adjusted his tactics, switching the Blood War Aura from the conventional suppression mode to the limit expansion mode.

The aura suddenly expanded from a radius of over a hundred meters to cover the entire arena, and all the Undead were simultaneously covered in a layer of dark red blood light.

The Frost Domain began to melt from the edges under the erosion of the Blood War Aura, and Han Xu's Frost Giants were submerged by the Undead Sea one after another.

Shen Ye saw many details in that match—when the Blood War Aura was at its limit expansion, Lu Chuan's right hand was tightly clenched, his knuckles turning white; the transfer frequency of the core Undead dropped sharply from once every few seconds to less than once every two seconds, and the transfer path changed from regular to chaotic; blood-red mist began to seep from the stitches of the Stitched Giant.

These details would become key references in the final.

After the semi-final ended, Shen Ye saw Han Xu in the contestant tunnel.

The Ice-type A-Ranker's face looked somewhat pale due to spiritual sense overdraw; he was leaning against the wall, holding a bottle of spiritual energy supplement, taking small sips.

Seeing Shen Ye walk over, Han Xu put down the bottle and stood up straight.

"You watched?" Han Xu asked.

"I watched."

"I couldn't break the expansion of the Blood War Aura," Han Xu said, "but when he expanded it, his right hand was clenched very tightly. It wasn't a fist; it was a grip—like he was exerting force to hold something so it wouldn't shatter."

He screwed the cap back on the spiritual energy supplement bottle, "I don't know if this is useful to you."

"It is useful," Shen Ye said.

Han Xu nodded, said nothing more, turned, and left.

Returning to the dormitory, Liu Yang was hunched over the data board, the screen showing the final voting page on the official forum of the City Awakened Association.

Lu Chuan's support rate was slightly higher, with Shen Ye following closely behind. Curious onlookers had made comparison tables for the two—average match time, number of dependents, estimated Kingdom area, core dependent combat power rating, with every item marked with an asterisk.

The comments below had been arguing for many pages; some said Lu Chuan's Undead Sea was unbreakable, others said Shen Ye's Gold Spirit Root Sword Cultivator explosive power could shatter the Undead along with their cores.

Liu Yang read a few hot posts to Shen Ye, but Shen Ye had no reaction, just sitting on the edge of the bed, drinking water in small sips.

"Can't you be a little nervous?" Liu Yang was anxious, "The final! The entire city's media is watching! The admissions officers from the four top universities are all here!"

"Is being nervous useful?"

Liu Yang was choked speechless.

Shen Ye put down his water cup, leaned against the headboard, and stared at the upper bunk's bed board.

He was thinking about something else.

In the intelligence Su Wanqing had just sent, there was a piece of background information about Lu Chuan.

Lu Chuan's father was named Lu Zheng, S-Rank, Iron Wall, hailing from the core of Shenyu University, who became a guest professor of Kingdom Theory at City No. 1 High School after retiring.

And Lu Zheng was Fang Zhen's teammate.

Fang Zhen, the first S-Ranker of Nanjiang No. 7 High School, Magma Hell, War Frenzy.

He guarded the border for twelve years, and his enemy kill count ranked in the top ten among pioneers of his period.

When he was thirty-one, a large-scale rift outbreak occurred in the Gray Zone, and the defense line he guarded bore the brunt of it.

He held off a Void Race Lord all by himself for a full hour, waiting for reinforcements.

The commander of the reinforcements was Lu Zheng.

Fang Zhen's Kingdom was shattered, fewer than one in ten of his dependents survived, and three years after retiring, his Kingdom withered, and he died.

Shen Ye closed his eyes.

Fang Zhen was the S-Ranker of Nanjiang No. 7 High School, and Lu Chuan was the S-Ranker of City No. 1 High School.

Fang Zhen and Lu Zheng were comrades-in-arms; one died on the defense line, and the other retired alive.

Now, Fang Zhen's junior and Lu Zheng's son were standing on the same battlefield, competing for the same ticket to the Provincial Tournament.

He suddenly really wanted to ask Lu Chuan a question, but he would wait until after the final was over.

The day of the final arrived in the blink of an eye.

Shen Ye got up early and went to the cafeteria for breakfast.

The auntie gave him an extra spirit beast egg and specifically picked the biggest one.

Liu Yang sat opposite him, his own spirit plant buns barely touched, rambling on about the weaknesses of Lu Chuan's Undead Sea.

Su Wanqing sent a message: "Lu Chuan stayed in the preparation room very late last night. Someone saw him sitting on the battle stage, no projection open, meditating alone in the dim light."

Shen Ye replied with two words: "Received."

He finished the last bite of the spirit beast egg, put down his chopsticks, and stood up.

Liu Yang stood up with him, and the two walked through the corridor, through the contestant tunnel, and pushed open the door to the preparation room.

Shen Ye sat down on the bench and closed his eyes.

His consciousness sank into his Kingdom.

In the Cultivation Divine Kingdom, four foundation establishment pill rooms fired up their furnaces simultaneously.

The Fire Spirit Root Artificer century-unit had fought for countless days and nights, and the first batch of foundation establishment pills came out of the furnace before dawn.

The success rate was high, and the quality of the pills was excellent.

The raw materials for the second batch of foundation establishment pills were already prepared; the spirit plant essence, moonlight vine petal extract, and high-concentration spirit spring concentrate sent by Su Wanqing were neatly stacked in the corner of the pill room.

The number of Foundation Establishment Stage dependents was still climbing up from five hundred and nineteen.

Jin Lin was leading the Gold Spirit Root Sword Cultivator century-unit in drilling the cone formation for the last time before the sword stele.

The sound of flying swords breaking through the air was uniform.

Mu Sheng was checking the vine net nodes of the Wood Spirit Root Array Master century-unit by the spirit field for the last time.

Elder Quan was deducing the three-dimensional water net of the Spiral Water Curtain by the spirit spring for the last time.

Shen Ye did not give them any extra instructions.

They knew who today's opponent was.

In the Land of Gods and Demons, Chen and Ye stood on either side of the Twilight Spirit Spring.

The Angel Legion had finished forming their ranks, and the Succubus Legion was waiting silently as well.

The sword practitioners in front of the dozens of small sword steles around the sword stele simultaneously sheathed their swords.

Twilight sword light flashed and vanished on the steles.

Shen Ye did not summon them.

He just paused for a moment as his consciousness flowed over them.

Chen raised her head, her six wings slightly spread.

"Master, do you need me?"

Shen Ye was silent for a while.

"It's not time for you to appear yet. Wait for me."

Chen lowered her head, her wings folding like a cloak.

Ye opened her eyes, abyss patterns flowing on her fingertips for a moment before extinguishing.

"We will wait."

Shen Ye opened his eyes.

A staff member stood at the door.

"Shen Ye, main battle stage, prepare to enter."

Shen Ye stood up and pushed the door open.

The light at the end of the corridor grew closer.

Liu Yang shouted something behind him, drowned out by the roar of the audience.

Shen Ye walked onto the main battle stage, the gray-white Law stone slabs shining under the dome lights, the buffer patterns fully activated.

Opposite him, Lu Chuan had already ascended the stage from the other side.

Deep blue school uniform, hands hanging naturally at his sides.

The two looked at each other for a moment.

Lu Chuan said: "I didn't fight my way to the final just to beat you."

Shen Ye said: "I know. I also have a question I want to ask—Fang Zhen, he was your father's comrade-in-arms."

Lu Chuan was silent for a moment.

"Yes. Every year on Fang Zhen's death anniversary, my dad sits in his study alone with two glasses of wine in front of him. One for himself, one left there. I asked him who that glass was for, and he said it was for the man who held the line for him for an hour."

He paused, "You are fighting for Fang Zhen; I am fighting for my father. He has been waiting for you in the final for a long time."

Shen Ye looked at him.

"Have a drink for Fang Zhen."

Lu Chuan nodded.

"You also have one for him."

The referee raised a hand.

Both sides deployed their Kingdom Projection.

The blood-colored battlefield spread out beneath Lu Chuan's feet, rust-colored dark red patterns spreading from the center of the battle stage in all directions.

Undead surged out from the ground—the Skeleton Warriors' bone blades shining with cold white light under the lights, the Undead Knight's skeletal warhorses snorting, ghostly green flames burning in their eye sockets; the Stitched Giant crawled out from the ground, its body covered in dark red stitches.

Compared to the semi-finals, the scale of the Undead Sea had expanded again, densely filling almost the entire battle stage.

Shen Ye deployed his Land of Cultivation.

All dependents formed ranks within the Kingdom Projection.

Over four thousand dependents, hundreds at the Foundation Establishment Stage.

The Gold Spirit Root Sword Cultivator century-unit was at the front, the Wood Spirit Root Array Master century-unit on both sides, the Water Spirit Root Mage century-unit in the middle, and the Fire Spirit Root Artificer and Earth Spirit Root Miner at the back.

Jin Lin stood at the very front of the Sword Cultivator unit.

Mu Sheng stood at the very front of the Array Master unit.

Elder Quan stood at the very front of the Mage unit.

Three people, three postures, with over four thousand silent eyes behind them.

The referee's hand fell.

The final began.