Inside the bustling training hall, several hundred people had gathered around the fighting arena.
"This training hall is really not that great. These instructors are all useless—they're nothing but a waste of everyone's time. And they still have the nerve to run a training hall?"
"You guys shouldn't bother training here. With these deadbeats teaching you, no matter how long you train, you'll never achieve anything at the fighting tournament. No wonder this city hasn't produced a single decent fighter in all these years. Of course, that's not your fault—these instructors are just too useless."
"If I had known these training hall instructors were this garbage, I would've left immediately. No way I'd waste my youth here."
More than ten young men in their twenties, clad in dark gray martial robes, glanced at the middle-aged instructor who had just been defeated, their eyes filled with undisguised contempt. They then cast pitying looks at the teenagers in the training hall.
Though the trainees of Beidou Training Hall were furious, not a single one of them dared to speak up. They all stood in silence.
The reason was simple—these dozen or so newcomers were far too powerful.
Six instructors with impressive skills had all been taken down by a single cold-eyed young man among them, someone who looked about the same age as the trainees. From start to finish, none of the instructors had managed to so much as touch him. Even a complete outsider could tell how massive the gap in strength was. If any of the trainees went up instead, they'd probably be defeated in a single move.
Ending a fight in one move—that was incredibly difficult to pull off in real combat. It usually only happened when a master faced off against a complete amateur, where the difference in skill and combat experience was so vast that it became possible.
Everyone stared at this cold-eyed young man, who was thin and not particularly well-built, and felt an overwhelming sense of pressure.
Seeing that the trainees of Beidou Training Hall remained silent, the bald man leading the group—a fierce-looking fellow—looked quite satisfied.
"Well? How about it?"
"You've all seen the gap in strength. No need to hide it from you—our group comes from the White Tiger Martial Hall. Recently, our White Tiger Martial Hall has decided to establish a branch here, and this is your chance. If you perform well at the branch, you could very well be sent to the main hall for training. When that happens, you'll be the rising stars of the fighting tournament. No need to languish in a backwater like this, wasting your lives."
The bald man's words stunned everyone, and they suddenly understood why even the previous hall master, Chen, had been no match.
The White Tiger Martial Hall—everyone had heard of it. In fact, anyone who wanted to enter the fighting world knew the White Tiger Martial Hall by name. Many famous fighters in national-level fighting tournaments had come from the White Tiger Martial Hall, and they had even produced several world-renowned fighters. It was the place countless young people dreamed of joining.
None of them had expected the White Tiger Martial Hall to open a branch here…
Just as the bald man was about to say more, the hall's front doors burst open with a thunderous crash.
Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Shi Feng and Liang Jing walked up to the bald man. Instantly, every trainee in the hall lit up with excitement.
Shi Feng was their head instructor at Beidou Training Hall. So young, yet already holding this position—all on the strength of pure ability. He was their idol.
Many of them had only come to the training hall because they'd heard Shi Feng would be instructing here. But Shi Feng usually lived at the Green Water Villa and only visited occasionally—you'd almost never see him on a normal day.
"So you're the head instructor here?" The bald man's lips curled into a sneer, and he looked at Shi Feng with deep contempt.
He had heard that the newly established Beidou Training Hall was run by some twenty-something martial arts expert.
He'd thought it was a joke. But it seemed it was actually true.
Dressed in a cheap dark blue tracksuit, not particularly muscular, his face a bit pale to boot, and showing absolutely none of the sharp aura that a martial artist should have—Shi Feng looked like some cheerful neighborhood guy. It was hard to imagine how someone like this had become head instructor. In the bald man's eyes, Shi Feng didn't even measure up to the instructors who had just been beaten—at least they had a decent presence.
"Mm, that's right. You all came in such a hurry—what can I help you with?" Shi Feng glanced at the dozen or so members of the White Tiger Martial Hall, and his earlier suspicions were further confirmed.
In his previous life, after Divine Realm launched the Mental Space System, famous training halls across the country had begun expanding, establishing branches everywhere to poach talent and expand their influence—all to attract investment from major corporations. While some large corporations did invest in training halls, the vast majority received no such backing.
The corporations' intentions were obvious: they wanted to develop their own guild forces within Divine Realm. Rather than recruiting ordinary players, it was far more efficient to send people with real combat experience into the game. And Divine Realm didn't interfere with their daily training—players only entered at night.
This way, the fighting world and the virtual gaming world could both thrive and even complement each other, generating revenue on both fronts. Naturally, the major corporations interested in the Mental Space System weren't about to pass this up.
The White Tiger Martial Hall had chosen to establish branches in over a dozen third-tier cities, and Jinhai City was one of them. It had been a huge blow to all the existing training halls in Jinhai. Originally, they'd relocated to third-tier cities because they couldn't compete in the first- and second-tier ones—they'd come to scrape by. Now, even a major hall like this was encroaching on third-tier territory, leaving them with nowhere left to go.
In the end, many martial halls had no choice but to cooperate with the White Tiger Martial Hall.
After Shi Feng swept his gaze over the White Tiger Martial Hall members, his eyes settled on the cold-eyed young man standing behind the bald man.
He recognized this young man. Back in Jinhai City, this guy had been extremely famous. After entering Divine Realm, he'd risen even further, earning the title "Silent Blade." At his peak, he'd ranked fifty-eighth on the Top Experts List—a fifth-stage Berserker. It was a pity he'd entered Divine Realm a bit late; otherwise, his achievements in the game would have been even greater.
"Our White Tiger Martial Hall wants to open a branch in Jinhai City, so we came to pay our respects. We'd also like to have a friendly spar—Coach Shi, would you be interested?" The bald man grinned.
"A friendly spar?" Shi Feng raised an eyebrow and shook his head. "That's not exactly what this looks like, is it? The White Tiger Martial Hall is so famous that even someone outside the fighting world like me knows about it. Do you really need to use this as an excuse to challenge our hall and poach our people?"
"Oh, don't put it so harshly, Coach Shi. We're all running a business here. Naturally, we want to give newcomers who want to enter the fighting world better options," the bald man said with a laugh, completely dismissing Shi Feng. In his eyes, Shi Feng was nothing more than a figurehead that Beidou had hired—hardly worthy of a real conversation. "I've heard that Coach Shi is quite formidable. I've long admired your reputation. I wonder if you'd be willing to spar with me? That way, everyone can see whether Coach Shi is the real deal or just all talk!"
The official subscription is on Qidian under Yuewen, where you can read the latest chapters first. (To be continued.)