Watch out! Something's wrong with this guard.

After hearing Lao Liu's whisper in his ear, Lu Yunshi immediately frowned.

"What did you say? Smash the party?"

"Hmm." The sixth brother nodded, his expression serious. "I don't know where he came from, but he's very strong. He quickly defeated the eighth and ninth brothers, as well as the late-stage Body Tempering expert we found to fill in. I lost to him before, and now I'm fighting the seventh brother. Judging from how easily he's handling it, I'm afraid the seventh brother won't be a match for him either. Fifth Sister said she's probably..."

The sixth brother didn't finish his sentence, but shook his head slightly at Lu Yunshi, indicating that the situation was not good.

At this moment, the sixth brother was very nervous. The fifth sister herself had said that it meant that the fifth sister was really unlikely to win. If that person really won against everyone, then they would lose big.

To motivate the challengers, Lu Yunshi had recently issued a new rule: if the challenged person wins, the crystals they receive from the loser will be stored, and whoever defeats the last gatekeeper will own all the crystals.

To date, very few challengers have managed to reach Li Hongying, and these individuals were actually deliberately placed there by Lu Yunshi and his group.

In other words, all those who were able to win over Li Hongying were her own people.

But if they really fight to the very end, then everything will be over.

"Do you know who it is?" Lu Yunshi asked.

“Logically, we should all know the elementary students with names and surnames at the foot of this mountain, but I have absolutely no recollection of him.” Old Liu shook his head, then seemed to think of something and added.

"Even the seventh brother doesn't have any."

The seventh brother was the one among them who specialized in gathering intelligence on others; it would be strange if even the seventh brother didn't know.

"Let's go and see." Without much thought, Lu Yunshi decided to go and see who this person was.

Moreover, the guardian of the final checkpoint is Lu Yunshi, so he has no choice but to go.

Soon, Lu Yunshi arrived at a corner behind the arena, but the person standing on the stage was no longer Lao Qi, but Li Hongying.

Lu Yunshi looked in front of Li Hongying and saw a dashing young man with a faint smile on his lips. He was wearing a thin blue robe, holding a sword, and looked incredibly handsome.

A cold glint flashed in Li Hongying's eyes. She took two steps forward and swung her sword.

The sixth brother naturally noticed what was happening on the stage. He looked at the seventh brother, who had just walked up to him, and asked in astonishment, "They lost already?"

The seventh brother smiled awkwardly upon hearing this, and then explained, "It was the fifth sister who told me to go down, otherwise I could have held on for at least another minute."

After speaking, the seventh brother looked at Lu Yunshi. "Boss, what do you think of this situation?"

"What do you think?" Lu Yunshi frowned. "Wearing this in the dead of winter, someone must be sick."

“He is indeed sick.” The seventh brother looked at his three brothers’ thick cotton-padded coats, then at the man, and completely agreed with Lu Yunshi’s statement.

"But who exactly is this person? Where did he come from?" Seeing that the topic had veered off course between the two, Lao Liu quickly stepped in to pull him back.

"He came from the mountain." Dog, whom Lu Yunshi hadn't seen for a long time, suddenly came slowly, holding a feather fan and gently fanning himself. He looked quite like a human.

Seeing the dog approach him, Lu Yunshi stared at it for a long time before speaking. "Are you crazy, even in the dead of winter?"

"Um... I bought it a while ago, but I haven't used it yet. Today I suddenly found that one of the feathers has fallen out. If I don't use it now, it will be a waste when all the feathers fall out by next summer. I spent a lot of money on it." The dog paused for a moment, then helplessly put the feather fan away.

“That makes sense.” When it came to money, Gouzi’s frugal attitude quickly won over Lao Liu.

"No, why are you all talking about this and that? Fifth Brother is still fighting up there." Lu Yunshi looked at the three of them with a reproachful expression, leaving them speechless.

Then, Lu Yunshi looked at Gouzi, his eyes filled with confusion. "You said he's from the mountains? Who is he? What a joke!"

“Lin Qingxuan,” Gouzi said.

"Lin Qingxuan? Who is that?" Lu Yunshi frowned. The name sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place it.

"You didn't even know that?" Dog was slightly surprised.

"I haven't found out about that yet." Lu Yunshi sighed. His attention was mostly focused on the foot of the mountain, and his attention on the mountain was almost entirely on Lu Yunxi. Naturally, there were many things he didn't know, and he didn't have time to find out.

"The vice-director of the academy's own son, ranked eighth in strength and ninth in popularity among the average students, a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, and a favorite to win the next average student assessment." Gouzi pursed his lips and revealed the person's identity.

Ranking of average students?

Lu Yunshi was stunned for a moment. He had heard of this before, since it was something he was going to learn about later. However, before he had a chance to learn about it, one of the people on the rankings had actually delivered himself to his doorstep.

"Why is he from the mountain getting involved in this mess? Why is he arguing with a bunch of weaklings in the Body Tempering Realm? There must be a reason, right?"

"What's the reason? Just joining in the fun. What other reason could there be? I thought it was interesting, so I came up to fry fish. You guys are making such a big deal out of this. If I heard about it, I would have come and join in too," Gouzi said with a shrug.

"Besides, didn't he also lower his cultivation level to the late stage of Body Tempering?"

"How can that be the same? Even if someone in the Spirit Gathering Realm lowers their cultivation level and only uses their Qi and Blood to fight, they are still far inferior to a true Body Tempering Realm cultivator." The seventh brother looked at the stage indignantly.

"This is cheating, we need to call him down."

However, upon hearing this, Lao Liu hesitated. "But... according to the rules, he can't be said to have cheated."

"What do you mean? A Nascent Soul Realm cultivator from the mountain participating in our chicken-eat-chicken competition isn't considered cheating? And he doesn't even have any crystals on him." Old Seven's eyes widened, unable to believe what he had just heard.

“Our rules don’t exclude people without crystals from participating, nor do they exclude people from the mountain. Logically, anyone can participate. Given our situation, these rules don’t even need to be written down. Aren’t they all implicit rules? Who would have thought that an average student without a single crystal would come to participate?”

The sixth brother's eyes darted nervously left and right, his expression quite unpleasant. He didn't dare to meet the seventh brother's glare, which seemed to want to hit him, but he muttered something under his breath at the end.

"Besides, doesn't he have crystals now?"

"Hey, you old sixth brother, it's obvious you've lost your mind and haven't figured things out. What are we going to do now? That guy is practically invincible around here." The seventh brother rolled up his sleeves and seized the opportunity to be arrogant in front of the sixth brother once again.

"Enough! Things haven't gotten to that point yet, there's still a way to resolve it. Let's see what happens next." Lu Yunshi interrupted the two's argument, took a deep breath, and focused his gaze on the stage.