More and more people who had already lost everything-stripped down to nothing but their underwear-suddenly chose recklessness over caution.
They sat on the cold stone steps, eyes bloodshot, voices hoarse, and shouted in unison, "I bet my life!"
They knew exactly who Chen Liong was.
The true leader of the Dragon Group.
One of the strongest Outer Disciples.
A man whose name alone was supposed to guarantee victory.
Those who had hesitated before now looked from Alex to Chen Liong, their doubt melting away. In their minds, this fight had only one ending.
They rushed forward, throwing in thest scraps of what they owned rings, tokens, spiritual stones, even the clothes off their backs.
They bet everything.
Chen Liong looked down at Alex as if he were examining dirt on his shoe.
"You, servant," he said coldly, his voice carrying across the tform. "From this moment on, you will serve the Dragon Group."
Alex lifted his chin and met his gaze without flinching.
"No," he replied calmly.
He lifted the iron wok and pointed it straight at Chen Liong''s face. The metal edge hovered inches from his nose.
"You," Alex said evenly, voice steady and cold, "are the one who will serve me."
For a split second, Chen Liong froze.
Then he burst intoughter.
"Very well," he said, eyes narrowing. "If you win."
He drew his sword in one smooth motion and flung it forward.
The de did not fall.
It hung in the air.
"ept my first attack."
With a sharp hum, the sword shot toward Alex like lightning.
But before it reached him, faint glowing lines traced its path through the air-Gaia''s
prediction. The trajectory was clear, precise.
Alex stepped aside.
The de sliced past him, missing by a hair.
Chen Liong''s wrist flicked. The sword twisted midair and lunged again. Faster. Sharper.
Alex moved again.
Millimeter by millimeter, he avoided each strike.
No matter how Chen Liong manipted the de—left, right, upward, downward— Alex evaded it with impossible precision.
And whenever his reactiongged by even a fraction of a second, Gaia adjusted him with micro-corrections, shifting his body just enough to survive.
Steel hissed through the air again and again.
In just a few seconds, Alex''s clothes were shredded to pieces.
Fabric fell away like torn leaves in a storm, leaving his chest bare, sweat glistening under the harsh arena light. His muscles tightened with every movement, breath steady despite the relentless assault.
Below the tform, a group of women stared upward.
"Don''t you think he''s handsome?" one whispered, unable to look away.
"Yes," another replied, eyes wide. "He''s strong enough to defeat Huang Jie, the Tiger Group Leader."
"I think... I''ve found my idol."
Soon, their whispers turned into cheers.
"Number Nine, be strong!"
Their voices rang across the arena.
Among the gamblers who had lost everything, faces turned red with fury when they heard the support for Alex.
"You bastard, Chen Liong!" one man screamed, veins bulging in his neck. "How can you not defeat a servant? Are you even the top Outer Disciple?"
"Yeah!" another shouted. "What kind of Outer Disciple can''t crush a servant?"
"What a damn Dragon!” a third roared, nearly in tears. “You''re nothing but a worm!” He had wagered everything on Chen Liong.
And above them all, the sword continued to sh, slicing the air again and again as Chen Liong''s pride began to crack under the eyes of the crowd.
To the crowd, it almost looked like a performance.
Chen Liong stood at the center of the tform, his sword gliding through the air in controlled arcs. The de darted left and right, slicing the wind with lethal precision. Alex only danced.
He shifted his weight. Tilted his head. Twisted his waist. Raised a leg. Bent an elbow. Every movement was clean, minimal, deliberate.
They were wagering their lives.
And yet it looked like a silly game.
The spectators grew restless. Their fear turned into anger.
"You, Chen Liong!" someone shouted from below. "If you can''t win, destroy your
Dragon Group and wear women''s clothes!"
"Change your Dragon Group into the Worm Group!"
Laughter exploded from the crowd.
Chen Liong''s ears burned red.
His jaw tightened as he stared at Alex, disbelief flickering in his eyes. How could this servant evade every single strike? His sword technique was wless. His control was absolute.
With one powerful motion, he recalled the sword into his hand.
The de snapped back into his grip.
Without another word, he lunged.
This time, there was no distance. No elegant disy of control.
He swung.
Alex reacted instantly-lifting his leg to avoid a sweeping cut, bending backward as
the de passed inches from his throat, twisting his torso to escape a diagonal sh aimed at his ribs.
The attacks came fast.
Too fast.
Chen Liong''s sword became a storm of steel. Each strike carried killing intent. There was no room for counterattack.
Alex could not strike back.
Not now.
One wrong step.
One dyed breath.
He would die.
The de was so sharp that even the wind it created sliced into Alex''s skin. Thin red lines appeared across his arms and chest. Blood surfaced in narrow streaks.
The crowd leaned forward, eyes wide.
Some could no longer see the movements clearly. Chen Liong had be a blur. Sword and arm fused into a streak of shing silver.
And yet-
Number Nine still evaded.
With the smallest possible movements.
A half-inch shift. A slight turn of the shoulder. A subtle pivot of the heel.
Nothing wasted.
Chen Liong continued attacking for several minutes. Sweat soaked through his
robes. His breathing grew heavier.
Frustration crept into his face.
He was the top Outer Disciple.
And he could not take down a servant.
The humiliation burned hotter than the exertion.
"You!" Chen Liong finally roared, unable to suppress his fury any longer.
That single burst of anger cost him.
“DONGGGG!”
The sound rang out across the arena.
An iron wok mmed directly into his face.
The moment Chen Liong lost control, even for a fraction of a second, Alex moved. In
those few milliseconds, he swung the iron wok with everything he had.
But Chen Liong reacted in time.
Inner force surged around his head, hardening his defenses. The iron wok struck
with a deafening ng, but the impact did not prate.
It only carried about ten percent of its original power.
Chen Liong staggered back one step, more shocked than injured.
"You servant without inner energy!" he snarled, eyes zing. "All you have is agility
to evade!"
His grip tightened around the sword.
He prepared to strike again.
Alex did not give him time to recover.
The iron wok came down again—this time smashing into Chen Liong''s fingers.
The blow was heavy enough to crack bone, but Chen Liong had already wrapped his hand in inner
energy. The impact sent a violent shock through his arm. His fingers went numb.
The sword slipped from his grasp.
It ttered across the tform.
Alex moved instantly.
He mmed the iron wok into Chen Liong''s face. Then his chest. Then his arms.
The metal rang again and again as it struck.
He didn''t stop.
He swung lower.
Chen Liong reacted fast. Inner
energy surged across his entire
vel
body, protis skin shimmer faintly, like iron beneath flesh.
him in ayer of
It was as if he were wearing invisible armor.
From below, the spectators could see Alex raining blows on him, but the top Outer
Disciple remained standing.
Unmoved.
Unbroken.
It looked useless.
It looked like Alex was hammering a statue.
"Master," Gaia''s voice echoed in Alex''s mind, calm and analytical. "I have scanned
his entire body. I believe I have located his only weakness."
"Show me," Alex said under his breath.
A faint targeting line appeared.
Alex swung the iron wok toward Chen Liong''s side face.
The impactnded cleanly. It caused a split-second jolt—but still did no real
damage.
Because Alex kept striking without pause, Chen Liong had no time to counterattack.
For a moment, all he could do was defend.
Then-
The crowd gasped.
In a blink, Alex vanished from Chen Liong''s front.
He reappeared behind him.
The iron wok flipped in his hands, reversed in a single smooth motion.
Alex gripped the round metal body tightly, the long handle now pointing forward like
a crude spear.
Before anyone could understand what he was about to do, he dropped low behind
Chen Liong.
He aimed at Chen Liong''s butt.
With a sudden, explosive surge of strength, he drove upward from below-using the
protruding handle to strike at Chen Liong''s asshole.
The motion was fast. Brutal. Humiliating.
And the impactnded.
The handle of the iron wok mmed forward. Entering the asshole directly.
The entire arena froze.
Absolute silence fell like a curtain.
And then-
A piercing scream shattered the air.
Chen Liong''s voice cracked high and sharp, nothing like themanding tone he
had carried moments before.
Several women stared in disbelief, unable toprehend what they were seeing.
The handsome Chen Liong.
The idol so many.
Now shrieking in agony.
Faces across the arena drained of color.
Chen Liong copsed onto the stone tform, his body mming down with a heavy, broken thud.
The iron wok remained grotesquely lodged behind him at a humiliating angle. The round metal base stuck
out like a cruel banner, while the
Hong handle had been driven deep beneath his asshole.
The arena went dead silent.
The proud leader of the Dragon Group-once untouchable, once revered-nowy
face-down on cold stone, his dignity shattered beyond repair.
He writhed once-
Theny there trembling.
Below the tform, some of the half-naked gamblers broke down.
"I''m sold..." one man whispered, tears streaming down his face. "I''mpletely
sold out."