Watch out! Something's wrong with this guard.

On the arena, Li Hongying moved swiftly, her swords striking vital points with a perfect blend of strength and gentleness. However, her fierce and powerful attacks were like a child wielding a sword in front of Lin Qingxuan, easily dodged as he strolled around.

"You could never be a Body Tempering Realm cultivator." Seeing the other party's relaxed demeanor, Li Hongying stopped what she was doing and said with certainty. No matter how the other party tried to hide it, Li Hongying absolutely did not believe that a Body Tempering Realm cultivator could have such strength.

Lin Qingxuan smiled slightly and said, "Your strength is already among the strongest of these beginners, but that shouldn't be enough to give you the confidence to hold this Heroes' Gathering. Why don't you call out your last gatekeeper to fight me?"

Originally, he came here just to watch the excitement. However, unlike those novices who were already caught in the trap without realizing it, Lin Qingxuan, as an outsider, quickly figured out the purpose of this heroes' gathering and realized that everyone who came here had unknowingly fallen into a trap.

This made him even more interested in the organizers behind the Heroes' Gathering. In his opinion, someone who was so confident in organizing the Heroes' Gathering must believe that their strength was superior to that of all the beginners.

Lin Qingxuan was well aware of this confidence and arrogance, because he himself was like that.

Lin Qingxuan was exceptionally talented from a young age. He dared not be confident that he was one in a million or invincible among his peers, but he was still one of the best among his peers. Even when he was in the Body Tempering Realm, he rarely had any rivals.

Now that he has reached the Nascent Soul Realm, there are very few people in the academy who can rival him. So even though he appears approachable on the surface, his inner arrogance is beyond imagination.

He just hadn't expected that among these beginners there would be such an arrogant person, and he really wanted to see what this person was capable of.

Let's give it a try and find out beforehand. Maybe once we get up the mountain, we'll have one more enemy, and he'll be very happy.

The strong mindset instilled in Lin Qingxuan from a young age made him unafraid of most enemies; on the contrary, he didn't want too few enemies in front of him.

With this in mind, Lin Qingxuan participated in the Heroes' Gathering under an assumed name.

Unfortunately, in the end, although these gatekeepers were quite strong in the Body Tempering Realm, they were not impressive enough to be truly remarkable.

He was only somewhat interested in the girl in front of him; if the last one was also like that, he would be disappointed.

Seeing that the man in front of her was distracted, Li Hongying took a deep breath, her hostility deepening.

"No matter where you're from, I'm asking you, are you afraid of the cold?"

"Huh?" Caught off guard by the abrupt question, before he could respond, Li Hongying continued speaking to herself.

"Wearing this in the dead of winter? Are you out of your mind?"

As soon as she finished speaking, Li Hongying swung her sword, and gusts of cold wind swept over. Unlike before, Li Hongying quickly intercepted all the wind's power and focused it onto the sword's edge. The next second, her figure flashed, and she unleashed her strongest sword strike.

The aura of this sword strike was clearly beyond Lin Qingxuan's expectations. He concentrated his mind and held his breath, gathering his qi and blood in his palm before suddenly striking out. The powerful qi and blood force obviously exceeded what the Body Tempering Realm could contain. Yet, even with such formidable power, it was still cleaved through by Li Hongying's sword.

Upon seeing this, Lin Qingxuan took several steps back, then quickly clasped his hands together, trapping Li Hongying's sword in his palms and rendering it immobile.

“Young lady, you are truly remarkable. I underestimated you. I knew there were still geniuses down the mountain. With your abilities, you should have gone up the mountain long ago. If you had gone up earlier, your name would surely be among the ranks of the average students.”

As he spoke, a hint of fighting spirit appeared in Lin Qingxuan's eyes. Li Hongying's sword strike just now was already seventy percent of his current strength, and he believed that this was not Li Hongying's full strength.

Lin Qingxuan smiled and released his hand, raising it to touch his cheek. A faint bloodstain brought him a slight pain. Even though he had blocked the sword, the sword wind had still injured him. He looked at Li Hongying.

"Come on, hit me again."

Li Hongying withdrew her sword, staring coldly at Lin Qingxuan. Then, the coldness on her face vanished, replaced by a bright smile.

"No fight, I admit defeat."

"Huh?" Lin Qingxuan was stunned again upon hearing this, only to see that Li Hongying had already put the sword into her storage ring, then threw the storage ring containing the crystal towards Lin Qingxuan, and then turned and left.

"I lost, but we haven't lost yet."

Li Hongying's voice came again. Lin Qingxuan looked in the direction of the voice and saw that she was standing in front of a man wearing a Malou mask.

"Boss, it's up to you now. That jerk bullied me and hit me so hard. If you win, you can do whatever you want with him tonight. Ouch! I'm going to fall down."

After saying these words to Lu Yunshi, Li Hongying, who was pretending to be a delicate young woman, then pretended to fall into Lu Yunshi's arms. Unexpectedly, Lu Yunshi took a step and Li Hongying missed her target.

"Hmph, the boss is so stingy." Li Hongying pouted, looking at Lu Yunshi on stage with a face full of resentment. She had lost, but he didn't even come to comfort her.

Suddenly, Li Hongying seemed to have discovered something wrong, and her eyes widened abruptly.

"Wait a minute, wasn't the boss wearing a cotton coat just now? How did he suddenly turn into a summer uniform from the academy?"

"Oh, the boss just said that although dressing like that might make you a little crazy, it does look cool in a fight," the sixth brother casually replied.

"Huh?" Li Hongying blinked her almond-shaped eyes slightly upon hearing this, then her eyes lit up. "Wow~ Boss is so smart, this must be to lighten his own burden in battle, so cool, so imposing."

"The night was as dark as ink, and the wind was like a bone-shaving knife. Two great heroes stood facing each other, gazing at each other coldly. Their figures stretched longer under the moonlight, and their auras soared into the sky."

The final guardian gazed at the enemy, his eyes beneath the mask revealing a chilling coldness. Clad in white robes and wielding a blue sword, he hadn't even made a move yet, but his powerful fighting spirit surged forth in an instant, as if he were fighting the opponent's will from afar.

Lin Qingxuan's hands were empty, and his body trembled slightly, not from fear, but from joy...

"No, what are you writing here?" Old Seven frowned and walked over to Gouzi, who had been babbling since earlier. Gouzi was writing furiously with a pen in one hand and a notebook in the other. Old Seven looked puzzled.

"Oh, I'm planning to write a novel to make money, but I'm completely out of ideas for the beginning. I just happened to see that your boss and Lin Qingxuan's imagery is pretty vivid, so I'm going to jot it down and put it in the book later. Speaking of which... I have an idea to write a protagonist based on your boss." Gouzi held up his notebook and flipped through a few pages, all of which were his previously jotted-down inspirations.

"Hmm..." Hearing Gouzi's words, Lao Qi's eyes darted around, and he revealed a mischievous smile. "Hey, Brother Gou, look at our friendship, why don't you write me into your book, give me a master character? I've already thought of a name, just make me an assassin, codenamed 'Carrying a Knife on a Rainy Night, No Umbrella,' and I'll be best friends with the boss in the book..."

"Writing novels?" Old Liu leaned over at this moment, seemingly interested in Gouzi's words. He stroked his chin and pondered for a moment before saying, "It is indeed a way to make money. Why don't you take a look at it for me later, and we can cooperate and think of a way to promote the book in the academy. We can make some money and try to make you a famous writer."

"Hey, the boss's about to get into a fight, can you guys focus?" Li Hongying called out when she saw the three of them acting so irresponsibly.

As soon as she finished speaking, the three men turned to look at her. Finally, the seventh brother waved his hand dismissively and said...

"It's okay, the boss said he can win."

"Huh?" Li Hongying was taken aback when she heard this. She turned around and glanced at Lu Yunshi before coming to the dog. "Um, if the protagonist is the boss, give me a role too. It would be fine if I were the boss's childhood sweetheart, innocent and mutually in love. But you can also add some touching romantic scenes."