When the recording blared from the loudspeaker, every single person in the Spirit Fighting Arena froze.
So we're treating this place like a farmers' market now, is that it?
"A newborn calf that doesn't fear death."
Xu Yang shook his head, feeling nothing but sheer absurdity.
A student acting this unhinged — was there no justice left in the world?
"I'll show you that real Beast Tamers aren't hothouse flowers like you students!"
Chen Shu pointed at the arena below and offered a friendly reminder:
"Dude, I think you should check on your contract spirit first..."
Xu Yang blinked, then looked down. His eyes went wide in an instant.
What the fuck — where did that massive yellow sphere come from?!
Also — where the hell was his contract spirit?!
The entire Spirit Fighting Arena fell deathly silent. One by one, the audience caught on to what had happened. Shock flooded every pair of eyes, and more than a few people shot to their feet.
A horrifying twenty-meter Slime was snoring away in the arena, its body shifting lazily as it ground itself against the floor.
The Fire Wolf that had been roaring at the sky moments ago? Gone without a trace.
Cold sweat beaded on Xu Yang's forehead. He could faintly hear the whimpering of his contract spirit — it sounded like it was on the verge of death.
It couldn't be... under that thing's ass... right?
"I... I surrender!"
Resentment burned in Xu Yang's eyes, but he had no choice but to accept his fate.
One second ago he'd been talking big. The next, the face-slap had arrived without the slightest warning.
"I told you — nobody's reimbursing your medical bills."
Chen Shu shook his head and recalled his Slime.
The instant the Slime vanished, a pool of blood appeared on the arena floor. The Fire Wolf lay in the middle of it.
It struggled to lift its head and stared up at its master, eyes brimming with an indescribable look — as if to say:
I'm literally fucking dying here and you're still busy posturing...
"It's hard to believe, but Chen Shu from Nanjiang Second High has actually won!"
The announcer strode into the arena, disbelief plastered across his face.
Every year, senior special training classes came here to sharpen their combat skills, and the start of that journey was always getting steamrolled by Beast Tamers of the same level.
The gap in combat experience between the two sides simply wasn't on the same plane.
Nobody could've predicted that today's very first match would end with a student outplaying a veteran Beast Tamer.
Had the times really changed...?
Chen Shu, unhurried as ever, surveyed the audience around him and hit play on a second recording from his loudspeaker.
"Let me say this one more time — when you see the Nanjiang Bandit, surrender immediately!"
"Don't even dream of getting lucky! The poor bastard across from me is Exhibit A!"
For a moment, black lines ran down every forehead in the building. Nobody had expected to encounter a student this ferocious right out of the gate.
Across the way, Xu Yang's face had turned green. You motherf — this is beyond bullying!
"I'll definitely be back..."[1]
He silently recalled his Fire Wolf and left the Spirit Fighting Arena.
Chen Shu tucked the loudspeaker back into his backpack and returned to the private viewing box.
"Teacher, that was fierce! Insanely fierce!"
Ouyang Bao's eyes overflowed with worship. Now THIS was what a real sneaky bastard looked like!
He realized the ambush techniques he'd personally "mastered" were barely scratching the surface.
From the very start, Chen Shu's loudspeaker had drawn every eye in the house.
Meanwhile, down below, the Slime had seized the opening and executed a flawless combo — taking out the Fire Wolf without a sound.
The whole thing flowed like water. An absolute textbook example from the art of the ambush.
The Special Training Class students all rose to their feet, expressions complicated, not sure what to even say.
"Basic move! Sit down!"[2]
Chen Shu waved them off with a look of supreme modesty.
Shen Wushuang let out a sigh. The whole point of bringing students to the Spirit Fighting Arena was to use working Beast Tamers to build real combat experience.
Chen Shu, on the other hand, had waltzed in and immediately schooled a veteran Beast Tamer.
"Tone it down..."
In the end, that was Shen Wushuang's only comment before falling silent.
Next up was Xu Xiaoyu's match.
After Chen Shu's jaw-dropping performance, the working Beast Tamers had developed an instinctive wariness toward Nanjiang Second High's students.
Xu Xiaoyu's opponent was a Level 8 Beast Tamer with a C-rank contract spirit.
One was a genius student, the other a professional Beast Tamer. In terms of raw combat ability, the gap between them was enormous.
And yet the fight didn't go as smoothly as expected.
In the end, they battled for a full ten minutes, and Xu Xiaoyu scraped out a narrow win on the back of her raw power.
The spectators all shook their heads. Looked like there was only one sneaky bastard per class — everyone else was normal.
After that, Tang Lie and the others took their turns. Each was matched against a seasoned Beast Tamer.
The Special Training Class had exceptional talent across the board, but the overall record was more losses than wins. This surprised exactly nobody in the audience.
It was like this every year. But give it a month, and the training class students would improve dramatically.
"Teacher, how come I'm not on the roster?"
Xu Xingxing spoke up. He was a Level 8 Beast Tamer with an A-rank Mutant Thunderbird — one of the top-ranked students in the class.
"Xiao Xing, let's just sit back and watch, alright?"
Shen Wushuang patted Xu Xingxing's shoulder.
"..."
Xu Xingxing asked, deflated: "Teacher, do you think I'd embarrass the school if I fought?"
After a beat, Shen Wushuang simply... nodded.
With his Thunderbird's speed and zero offensive capability, if another match dragged on for two hours, the audience would clear out entirely.
He was worried the Spirit Fighting Arena would straight-up blacklist Nanjiang Second High...
"Teacher Shen, I think I can hold my own in a fight!"
Xie Sunan walked over, determination burning in his eyes.
Shen Wushuang shut that down immediately. "Give it a rest. Honestly, you two already have plenty of combat experience."
Hanging around Chen Shu every day — even the most hopeless cases would develop some instincts eventually.
The two of them sighed, sat off to the side, and started listlessly scrolling their phones.
"Xiao Xing, are we really going to keep being salted fish like this?"
Xie Sunan said: "I'm a Level 7 Beast Tamer, you're a Level 8 Beast Tamer. Our combat strength is actually pretty solid."
"Tell me! What are we missing?"
Xu Xingxing thought about it for a moment, then said: "Self-awareness."
"..."
The day's matches wrapped up quickly after that.
That afternoon, Daxing Third High's special training class arrived at the Spirit Fighting Arena.
The Nanjiang students — who'd been moping around all day — took one look at the other school's fights and felt instantly comforted.
"Turns out we're not the worst..."
Shen Wushuang's gaze, however, drifted toward Chen Shu.
Despite all the havoc Chen Shu had wreaked — all the tormenting of his classmates — there was no denying he'd also sharpened everyone's combat skills in the process.
The working Beast Tamers might've had more battle experience than Chen Shu.
But when it came to sheer cunning, they couldn't hold a candle to him. That was a gift from birth...