114: How can someone be as awesome as Lu Chen!

When it came time for the final evaluation, the Great Master of Alchemy on the judges' panel tremblingly picked up Morning Dew's Medicinal Pill!

—"This... this is the secret medicine used to combat Heavenly Punishment during the Heavenly Tribulation era!"

By the final match, Lu Chen's team was already leading by a wide margin.

At the Deduction Arena, Lu Chen's team faced off against the True Disciples of the Heaven's Secrets Pavilion.

The opponents sacrificed their sect-guarding Magic Treasure, the "river map and book of luo," instantly deducing that Ignis had taken a bath three days ago.

This infuriated Ignis so much that molten patterns immediately covered her tattoos!

She was ready to transform into a Flame Demon and devour those things!

Terrified, the Heaven's Secrets Pavilion Disciples scrambled to hide behind their teacher.

The audience burst into laughter!

Lu Chen bit his fingertip and drew the patterns of the Sanxingdui Bronze Tree in the Void Realm.

"The Heavenly Dao has fifty paths; one escapes into the unknown."

Accompanied by the sound of Lu Chen's chanting.

The projection of the Bronze Tree enveloped the arena.

As the projection dissipated, something surfaced in Lu Chen's mind.

He couldn't help but whisper, "Is this 'one' a pit dug by someone a hundred thousand years ago? Who was it? And for what purpose?"

The river map and book of luo suddenly flipped pages frantically, revealing a tampered heavenly secret!

It turned out to be—this year's sports meet trophy, and its base!

The base was actually engraved with archaic inscriptions that could suppress the Heavenly Dao!

The ground suddenly shook, and the trophy resting on the high platform flew into Lu Chen's hands of its own accord.

The inscriptions resonated with the golden compass on his chest, manifesting the figure of Xu Fu, the State Preceptor of the ancient Great Qin Immortal Dynasty.

Xu Fu looked at Lu Chen and gave a slight bow, "Fellow Daoist, it is time to fill the pit."

Lu Chen was stunned!

Irritation was hard to conceal in his heart.

After the finale, Lu Chen's team won a great victory.

But when it actually came time to celebrate.

Lu Chen couldn't bring himself to be happy.

At the bonfire party, Sun Feifei hung drunkenly on Lu Chen's shoulder, "Do you know? My grandpa said... *hic*... the trophy was salvaged from the East Sea Guixu twenty years ago..."

She was suddenly pulled away by Ning Xiwei.

Ning Xiwei took out her nether moon pendant and showed it to Lu Chen. The scene reflected by the pendant was exactly the eerie patterns inside the trophy:

—It was the bitumen-like substance in the eyes of that Sea-Suppressing Stone Bull.

Lu Chen's skeletal palm brushed over the patterns, and memory fragments from a hundred thousand years ago surged: amidst towering waves, he had sunk something into Guixu, and the sneer of 'Heaven' appeared in the spray.

Heaven? It wasn't a person.

It was a mass of nothingness, but looking at it, one felt the conscious insignificance of looking up at the 'Sky'.

At that moment, the starry sky suddenly twisted into a vortex, and every phone received a push notification simultaneously:

—[East Sea Secret Realm Opening Early]

“It seems—” Lu Chen tossed the trophy to Ignis to use as a wine flask, “someone can't wait to pull in the net? I already know some things! Though not certain, I have my plans.”

...A new day.

The notification for Kunlun Academy's annual summer special training flooded every student's phone, and a holographic projection in the cafeteria scrolled through the [Nine Abyssal Cold Pool Special Training Instructions].

Lu Chen swiped through the Academic Affairs APP, raising an eyebrow at the 'Black Tortoise Scale Armor Swimsuit' in the equipment list.

"Does Cultivation involve fashion design now?"

"Because last year a student used synthetic fiber trunks in the Lava Pool..." Ning Xiwei's ears reddened as she swiped to the comments section. The top comment was a charred ruin of a student's trunks.

It seemed that last year, the forums were filled with this senior's 'overbearing' shots.

This guy might as well leave Earth; he's already suffered social death in this world.

He could totally go to Mars!

The school also gave out many rewards for this competition.

Lu Chen was still quite interested in these rewards.

Among them were abilities he could devour.

They would be very helpful to him.

Like those snacks and Medicinal Pills.

Lu Chen intended to participate in this competition.

And it required teaming up.

He already had a ready-made championship team.

They had the look of champions.

Three days later, the competition day quietly arrived.

The Nine Abyssal Cold Pool was actually a Secret Realm formed by the reflection of the Floating Peaks, with a thousand-year-old frost mist floating on the water's surface.

When Lu Chen pulled back the changing curtain, Ignis was using the hot lava patterns on her body to bake her bikini straps.

She's a built-in dryer?

Lu Chen really wanted to say—good sister, would you mind roasting my socks for me!

Ignis complained, "This stupid string keeps slipping!"

The molten girl's swimsuit was a 'Vermilion Bird Feather' model specially provided by the Chu Clan Chamber of Commerce; the dark gold tassels couldn't hide the demonic patterns on her waist.

As she turned, the flaming bone whip extending from her tailbone steamed up white mist on the pool surface, "Hey skeleton, help me check the clasp in the back... are you having a nosebleed?"

"The undead don't have a blood circulation System!"

Lu Chen looked up to adjust his breathing!

He explained precisely.

At the same time, he walked over, his skeletal fingers accurately snapping the clasp. As his knuckles brushed her spine, they sparked a series of fire sparks. He even lectured Ignis to change the subject, "You're talking about me? Have you been eating too much lately? Look, your weight and even your body temperature are definitely over the limit—you're a Flame Demon descendant, not a little pig!"

ice crystals suddenly exploded by the pool. Lu Chen followed the sound and saw Shelley walking over in frozen ice high heels.

This Ice Princess's swimsuit was a 'Broad Cold Gossamer' specially provided by the Northern Realms; the semi-transparent shark-silk was adorned with crushed diamonds, reflecting auroras on her snowy skin as she moved.

Shelley leaped up, landing lightly on this spot. After coming in, she said to Lu Chen, "Student Lu, can you help me unseal the pool surface?"

The ice pick she handed over was engraved with oracle bone script—it was exactly the Ice-Breaking Curse improved a hundred thousand years ago.

However, it required undead Spells to activate.

"Would that be more efficient? Why don't you do it yourself?" Lu Chen complained but still grabbed her hand and pressed it toward the pool surface. The ice layer instantly cracked into star map patterns.

Shelley's earrings flashed with blue light, and a slight smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.

The little girl was clearly doing it on purpose.

Ignis, standing nearby, saw it.

Her little mouth pouted with a hint of jealousy.

When the special training projects were announced, the eldest Young Master of the Murong family, Murong Bai, led the people of the Cultivation Department with cold sneers.

Their eyes were all on Lu Chen, whom they had been at odds with for the past few days.

"An undead creature participating in a water trial? Better off in a corpse recovery team..."

"Exactly, exactly, Young Master Murong is right."

"Looks like this time we'll definitely make this skeleton suffer."

"That's right, when Young Master Murong makes a move, you know it's the real deal!"

Murong Bai enjoyed the flattery of his lackeys.

His face looked more like an incredibly narcissistic fellow.

His mouth was full of contempt as he said, "This time, I must make him look like a fool!"

As soon as he finished speaking, who would have thought that in the arena, Lu Chen's trunks suddenly manifested Terracotta Warrior armor patterns, causing the pool's detection Magical Artifact to burst with red light.

[Warning! Detected Spiritual Pressure at the level of the Ancient First Emperor's Eastward Inspection Warship!]

Ning Xiwei's nether moon swimsuit glowed with an eerie light as she pulled Lu Chen and leaped into the cold pool.

As the two sank, the phantom of a bronze warship rose from the bottom of the pool, shattering the water-repelling barrier that Murong Bai and the others had set up in advance.