“Sixth challenger—SKELETON!”

  This time, the crowd didn’t roar, they hissed.

  Then came the laughter. Uneasy. Frenzied. The arena felt colder.

  "Ghaghakaghakekekekeke"

  From the tunnel stepped a lean man, almost skeletal, dressed in gray robes lined with tiny metallic pins.

  He moved with the grace of a spider, each step light and calculating. His skin was pale and veined like aged marble, and his lips curved into an unsettling smile that didn’t touch his eyes.

  Jin Yu’s expression didn’t change, but his stance shifted.

  Ding!

  Breakthrough Progress: 74.1%

  Challenge Progress: 30%

  The gong rang.

  Skeleton didn’t charge. He circled. Light on his feet, eyes narrowed, hands flexing.

  And then— A snap of his fingers.

  Dozens of invisible Qi blades shot toward Jin Yu from every angle. They slashed through the air, silent and swift.

  Jin Yu turned his body, letting several blades slice into his flesh, his body tore, blood spraying.

  Ding!

  Breakthrough Progress: 74.1% → 77.6%

  His body absorbed the foreign Qi, veins glowing faintly as it was devoured.

  He grinned. “Not bad.”

  Skeleton clicked his tongue. “You took that on purpose.”

  He sent a second wave, faster this time, sharper, crisscrossing like a spiderweb mid-air.

  Jin Yu ran forward into it, taking more hits, letting his system feast on the laced Qi.

  Ding!

  Breakthrough Progress: 77.6% → 81.3%

  A blade carved across his cheek.

  Another grazed his ribs.

  But then Jin Yu was in front of him.

  Skeleton hissed, forming a twisting Qi needle in his palm and thrusting it toward Jin Yu’s gut.

  Jin Yu grabbed his wrist.

  Then—crack—broke it.

  "ARRRRRGHHH!"

  Skeleton screamed, trying to leap away, but Jin Yu didn’t let him go.

  He held on and drove his elbow into the man’s jaw, hard. Skeleton dropped.

  But he still fought back. From the ground, he summoned a wave of erratic Qi spikes that burst from the platform like teeth.

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  Jin Yu grunted as several pierced into his legs and side.

  Ding!

  Breakthrough Progress: 81.3% → 88.4%

  He bled, but the Qi kept pouring in.

  “More." he whispered, voice dry.

  Skeleton scrambled backward, hand trembling as he summoned one final attack, a spinning vortex of needles made from his own blood and Qi.

  It launched at Jin Yu—

  And Jin Yu caught it.

  It shredded his arms, flaying skin and muscle. But he laughed.

  "Hahahahahahaha"

  Ding!

  Breakthrough Progress: 88.4%....94.7%

  He let the storm crash into him. Then walked through it, bloodied but upright.

  Skeleton backed away, horror rising.

  Ding!

  Influence +10,000 (Horror)

  “Monster…”

  A moment later, Jin Yu blurred, and appeared behind him.

  He struck once.

  Skeleton dropped.

  The arena roared to life again, but not in one voice.

  “KILL HIM NEXT TIME!!”

  “WHO IS THIS FREAK?!”

  “SHOW ME BLOOD!!”

  “NAMELESS! NAMELESS!! NAMELESS!!!”

  Ding!

  Challenge Progress: 40%

  Jin Yu took a deep breath.

  Despite his body being marked with dozens of cuts, his back was still straight. The blindfold was still on.

  His lips curved into a slow smile.

  “Next.”

  Above the Arena — The Private Booths

  The blood hadn’t even dried when the atmosphere above shifted. Rich incense coiled lazily in the velvet air, muffling the rising roars from below.

  Inside one of the shadowed boxes, the snakeskin-bodied man leaned forward, scales shimmering faintly under the dim light.

  “He's letting them hit him,” he hissed, voice dragging like silk on steel. “That boy’s body is starving for pain. Delightful. I’ll wager a Deathroot Pearl he wins the next two rounds.”

  From across the dark, the woman with black, eerie eyes let out a slow chuckle. Her lips were stained with something darker than blood.

  “You always bet early, Vey.”

  “It’s more fun that way.”

  “It’s more foolish that way.” She turned to another, her eyes never blinking. “Ten Soul Orbs that the seventh challenger breaks his spine.”

  In the booth beside them, the man with bird-like eyes plucked idly at a feathered charm hanging from his belt, talons tapping the railing.

  “You’re both short-sighted. The boy hasn’t even drawn on half his strength. I’ll put up my Skyfire Token that he’ll reach the ninth.”

  “Cocky as ever, are we?” the snakeskin man muttered.

  A laugh bubbled from the shadows behind them—a child’s laugh, but it came from a being with the eyes of an old, old man. The child-looking elder licked a sugar crystal off his fingers, then grinned.

  “You're all wrong. He’ll collapse before the eighth. I’ll wager my entire puppeteer set on it.”

  A sudden silence followed.

  That was no small bet.

  Even the snake-man blinked.

  “...You serious?”

  “Deadly,” said the child. “He has that... flash of madness, yes, but there’s a storm coming. And he’s still just a cub.”

  “Cubs bite hardest when dying” said the bird-eyed man.

  They all turned toward the arena again.

  Below, Jin Yu stood in the center, back straight, chest heaving with slow breath.

  His blood painted the floor.

  Yet... he didn’t look tired.

  If anything, he looked like he was waiting for something.

  "Seventh Challenger – Iron Mercy "

  The arena quieted as the gate creaked open.

  From the shadows emerged a tall man, slender but ominous, draped in dull crimson robes. The fabric hung loose around his frame, like it once belonged to someone larger. His mask was dark-grey, cracked straight down the middle, with no visible eyeholes.

  But he didn’t need them.

  Golden scripture slithered along his bare forearms, alive with Qi that shimmered faintly in the dim light. He walked barefoot across the bloodstained stone, never making a sound.

  The announcer’s voice caught before booming with reverence:

  “Iron Mercy! Seventh of the Ten!”

  The crowd responded like wolves, howling, stomping, pounding fists to stone.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  ???: “He’s gonna break the kid like a twig!”

  ???: “This is where it ends!”

  ??? :“No more pretty boy strutting, give us BLOOD!”

  In the upper booths, the elites leaned forward, silent but watchful.

  Jin Yu wiped a smear of blood from his lip from the previous bout, eyes calm.

  Iron Mercy raised a single hand.

  Boom!

  Before Jin Yu could brace, he was hit in the sternum by a palm that felt like a battering ram. His feet lifted clean off the ground.

  CRASH!

  He slammed into the wall of the arena, bones cracking from the sheer force. He crumpled, gasping for air, ribs visibly dented beneath his robes.

  CRACK!

  A kick followed, sharp and surgical, right into his spine as he tried to rise. Jin Yu was hurled forward, landing on his face with a wet smack.

  Blood trickled from his nose and ears.

  “Come on!” a woman screamed from the stands. “Kill him slow!”

  Iron Mercy gave no speech. He didn’t gloat. He simply moved like death made flesh.

  Crack!

  A sweeping low kick shattered Jin Yu’s knee.

  Crack!

  A palm-strike shattered his clavicle.

  His ribs were ground to pulp under a barrage of precise fists, every hit was a hammer, every blow carried with it threads of invisible Qi. The scripture on Iron Mercy’s arms glowed brighter with each successful strike.

  Jin Yu’s vision blurred. His ears rang. The air tasted like copper and ash.

  BAM!

  A final blow to his chest sent him skidding across the arena floor. His body rolled three times before stopping in a broken heap.

  ???: “Is he… breathing?”

  ???: “He’s not getting up.”

  ???: “Tch. All bark after all.”

  Blood pooled under Jin Yu. His hands twitched, feebly trying to press against the floor. But his elbows collapsed. His nose was broken. One eye was already swollen shut.

  Every part of his body screamed at him to stay down.

  But Then...

  DING!

  Progress Bar Full. Next Breakthrough Available.

  Jin Yu’s fingers curled.

  The pain was still there, but it was… distant now. Like it had served its purpose.

  A current surged through him, no longer hostile Qi, but refined, devoured, converted energy. The system hummed deep within his core.

  Bones began knitting.

  Flesh reformed.

  Qi swirled violently beneath his skin, feeding into every cell with reckless abandon.

  A cough escaped his lips. Then a breath.

  Then a low, broken chuckle.

  “Hahaha…”

  "HAHAHAHAHA"

  It built into a guttural, blood-drenched laugh as he rose, swaying, still broken, but burning with something else now.

  He raised his head.

  His blindfold was gone and his single working eye gleamed crimson.

  “You're dead.” he rasped.

  And the whole arena fell silent.