313: Chapter 313 Where's my air conditioner remote?

As the high-definition close-up on the big screen froze in place.

The entire National Martial Arts Competition Center, with its hundred-thousand-seat stands, plus the thousands of contestants who had just escaped death on the plaza, fell into a state of near-manic, extreme trembling at this very moment!

Above the endless sea of molten lava, capable of vaporizing even a Tier 5 Grandmaster in an instant.

Jiang You's incredibly abstract spongebob pajamas were no longer seen as a comical outfit by the crowd, but had transformed into a symbol of a peerless expert who had "returned to simplicity and treated worldly rules as nothing"!

Especially those half-open, half-closed dead fish eyes that exuded "three parts coldness, three parts mockery, and four parts indifference"!

Framed by the rolling heat waves below, that gaze, calm to the point of being deathly still, pierced straight through the psychological defenses of every top prodigy present!

On the edge of the plaza, Zhao Zhenlei, the war machine of the Northern Border Military Academy, was currently sitting slumped on the ground in a completely disheveled state.

He looked down at the remnants of the death-immunity jade tablet in his hand, which he had crushed into powder due to excessive force, and then looked up at the big screen at the man who was too lazy to even take his hands out of his pajama pockets.

"Gulp..."

Zhao Zhenlei swallowed with extreme difficulty. In his large, rebellious eyes, which had once been like copper bells, only deep shock and submission remained!

"He actually... doesn't even bother to crush the death-immunity jade tablet!"

Zhao Zhenlei roared in his heart with extreme shock:

"In the face of that law-based disaster capable of burning through the void itself, I, Old Zhao, scrambled away in fear, terrified that if I were half a second late in crushing the jade tablet, I would perish!"

"But him? He just stood quietly on the edge of the cliff, facing that world-ending heat! What does this mean? It means he had absolute certainty that the sea of fire couldn't harm him in the slightest!"

"What kind of confidence and arrogance is this! Compared to him, I, Old Zhao, am just like a gopher scurrying for cover the moment a thunderstorm hits!"

Not far from Zhao Zhenlei.

Helan Que was also staring fixedly at the big screen. His lone-wolf eyes were bloodshot, and his Brain was undergoing an unprecedented, epic-level "ultimate tactical review"!

"Too terrifying... We've all been played by him like monkeys!"

Helan Que felt cold all over, and an extremely terrifying chill raced up his spine to the top of his head!

From his perspective, this entire chaotic battle in Forbidden Zone No. 009 was, from beginning to end, a massive net woven by Jiang You's own hands!

"Everything must have been within his calculations!"

Helan Que gritted his teeth, yet roared frantically in his heart with a deep sense of powerlessness:

"The depth of this kid's schemes and the ruthlessness of his methods are enough to make one's spine crawl!!!"

On the other side.

Qin Zhuo was currently being supported by several medical staff from Imperial Capital Martial Arts University.

Her beautiful and arrogant face was pale as paper.

Looking at Jiang You's incredibly casual back on the screen, especially the black-gold team uniform draped over his shoulder, Qin Zhuo's delicate body trembled uncontrollably.

"So... the words he said at the opening ceremony weren't just empty bluster..."

Qin Zhuo bit her pale lower lip tightly, and an unprecedented sense of defeat shattered her arrogance.

She recalled the line Jiang You said before entering: "Treat the mountain peak you pursue as your own backyard."

At the time, she thought the kid was just being arrogantly boastful, but look at the image on the screen now!

"He looked at that world-ending sea of fire, capable of devouring even my Divine Phoenix origin, without a single ripple in his eyes..."

"That look, it was as if he had just woken up in the morning, wearing pajamas, holding a teacup, and very lazily admiring a pile of bonfire he had just lit in his own backyard!"

"He never... ever took us so-called top prodigies seriously! In his eyes, we are nothing more than ants biting each other in the mud..."

Qin Zhuo lowered her head. Proud as she was, at this moment, she had to admit it.

In terms of state of mind and aura, the man wearing spongebob pajamas was already standing at a height so great that even looking up made her feel dazzled.

And among this group of prodigies whose pride had been shattered.

There was one figure who appeared particularly weak, yet was exceptionally striking.

The chief of Yaodu University's First Team, an SSS-rank Time-type Supernatural Ability awakener, Ji Daixu!

At this moment, because he had forcibly manipulated the timeline of the entire map in the secret realm, overdrawing all his spiritual power and origin, he was weakly leaning against two of his teammates.

His long silver-gray hair had lost its luster, and his face was pale, devoid of any color.

But even so, Ji Daixu's profound, rational silver eyes remained locked onto Jiang You on the big screen.

As the master of time, Ji Daixu knew better than anyone present what kind of terrifying destructive power that law-defying disaster contained.

"Unbelievable..."

Ji Daixu gasped with extreme difficulty, and for the first time, an emotion called "incomprehension" appeared in his silver pupils, which seemed capable of seeing through the past and future.

He looked at Jiang You's incredibly calm dead fish eyes and murmured in a hoarse voice:

"I once risked my life to peek into the river of time, seeing all the fear, madness, and ugliness of the world in the face of life and death."

"But... even time cannot wash away that trace of calmness in his eyes."

"Facing the karmic fire capable of melting even the world, he stood apart, transcending all laws and emotions."

Ji Daixu gently closed his weary eyes, a trace of an extremely bitter smile appearing at the corner of his mouth:

"Jiang You... this is an ultimate anomaly that cannot be measured or speculated by common sense. To live in the same era as him is the luck of us so-called 'geniuses,' and also our greatest tragedy."

Silence.

The prodigies on the plaza, having completed their own terrifying "self-PUA," all fell into an extremely oppressive silence.

However.

Just when the audience across the Great Xia and this group of top prodigies were frantically filling in the blanks, and even wishing to kowtow to the unfathomable back on the big screen.

The true perspective of Jiang You after waking up, or rather, the true story, was actually like this...

Rewinding time by a few minutes.

Forbidden Zone No. 009, inside that incredibly hidden cave on the mountainside.

"Snore... snort..."

Jiang You was lying sprawled out on the soft bluestone slab, sleeping soundly.

But as he slept, he suddenly felt the surrounding air becoming increasingly stifling, as if someone had set up a stove beside him.

"Hot... so hot..."

Jiang You frowned, tossing and turning on the stone slab in a daze, his hand groping around in the air in extreme agitation:

"Where is my air conditioner remote... Who turned on the heat..."

After groping for a long time without finding the remote, the heat wave that was almost cooking him alive became more and more intense.

"Damn it! I'm roasting to death!"

Jiang You was shocked, springing up from the stone like a corpse coming back to life!

He suddenly opened his sleepy dead fish eyes, just about to curse, but when he looked closely.

The surroundings were all pitch-black rocks, and withered, mutated vines were hanging from the cave entrance.

Where was any air conditioner?

Where was any Simmons mattress?

Jiang You froze for a full three seconds, his Brain, which had been in standby mode for years, finally managed to complete its startup reboot.

"Damn it! I remember now!"

"I'm still in Forbidden Zone No. 009! I'm still participating in the Hundred Schools League chaotic battle!"