Chapter 56: Various Changes

Not long after the group from Longhu Men left, Kai Xin continued to train in the valley. Although he had reached the ninth level of the “Cloud-Ascending Steps,” he was still a bit short of being able to move freely up and down with ease (the lightness skills at the master level consume very little internal energy and offer much greater speed and height than what he currently had). Additionally, his “Wholehearted Mind Technique” was only at level 86, still 13 levels away from the master level’s self-sustaining operation, meaning a long way to go.

Kai Xin believed that after this battle, Longhu Men would become more cautious and dare not oppose him for a while, and Ximen Qing, Xiao Li the Wind, and the others would be safer as well. Taking this opportunity to refine his lightness skills and mind technique to their limits would ensure he could escape without trouble even in difficult situations should he enter the martial world in the future.

Half a day passed in this way…

Night fell!

In the cool night breeze, Kai Xin’s running speed increased steadily. Each time he used his mind technique to restore his internal energy, the duration grew longer—from over five minutes at the ninth level, gradually increasing to eight minutes, and now ten minutes.

Unfortunately, the speed of his “Wholehearted Mind Technique” kept increasing, but his progress slowed down. Each cycle only allowed him to advance by 0.03 levels, so he remained at the ninth level, still far from reaching the tenth.

Just as his lightness skills were about to break through to the master level, a homing pigeon flew in from outside the valley, chasing after Kai Xin’s figure before landing firmly on his shoulder with flapping wings.

With a slight exclamation, Kai Xin quickly stopped and took down the note tied to the pigeon’s leg:

“Senior brother, you’re amazing! How did you do it? The head of Longhu Men actually admitted he can’t defeat you and ordered his disciples to stay away from you! Haha! You’re incredible! Now entire Gusu City is abuzz, with everyone talking about your battle with Longhu Men. Several newly founded sect leaders have come to us, asking us to help contact you—probably wanting to invite you to join their sect!”

“Haha! Senior brother, don’t come back for a while. Let us enjoy being sought after for once. Haha, it’s so great…”

It was clearly a note from Xiao Li the Wind.

Upon reading the news from Xiao Li the Wind, Kai Xin didn’t become happier; instead, he fell into deep thought.

He had thought that as long as he kept today’s incident hidden, Longhu Men would understand his intentions and, out of gratitude, stop troubling or confronting him, and no one would spread the news.

But why did Longhu Men reveal their defeat after returning to the city?

The leader of Longhu Men did this purely to boost his own prestige and fame. Especially that order to back down completely undermined Longhu Men’s dignity and authority as the top sect…
“Trying to mend relations?”
Other than that, Kaixin couldn’t think of any other reason for them to make such sacrifices.
However, he wouldn’t be grateful for their kindness just because of this. In his eyes, Longhu Men was nothing but a bunch of disorganized people who posed no threat to him. As long as they didn’t provoke him, he didn’t bother to seek trouble with them. As for mending relations, better not—just to avoid unnecessary troubles caused by Longhu Men in the future.
Realizing this, Kaixin quickly replied to Cyclone Li and continued to run freely across the grassy plains in the valley.
At noon, Kaixin logged off as usual to eat. As soon as he took off his helmet, he sensed something was off in the dorm room. Turning around, he saw all three of the Lonely Wolves present, gathered around the table with serious expressions.
Kaixin immediately understood that something serious must have happened; otherwise, they wouldn’t have such faces…
But!
That didn’t make sense…
In the early stages of the game, the Lonely Wolves didn’t seem to have faced many setbacks or difficulties—he knew about a few incidents himself. What was going on?
Could it be…?
With a sudden thought, Kaixin gasped.
Perhaps because of the advice he gave, some changes had occurred in the local trends of this world. The “Nanhu Jianghu Ranking” had appeared on the official website earlier than expected, bringing about some unforeseen changes?
“It seems I’d better stay out of the ‘Jianghu Nanhu Ranking’ as much as possible. Too many changes might cause unknown issues and dangers to a website with promising future prospects.”
While blaming himself silently, Kaixin quietly jumped down from the bed:
“What’s going on here?”
“Did you run into problems with the website’s entry?”
“Oh, no. The application was approved just now.”
Bai Lang adjusted his glasses, looking somewhat uninterested: “But the ‘Jianghu’ official website has just launched a small competitive event—a fighting arena! Each region is required to recommend a skilled contestant to enter the competition system… to determine the ranking of each region.”
“A fighting arena?”
Kaixin was stunned.
He wasn’t unaware of this. It was through such fighting arenas that he had continuously challenged strong fighters from all over the country and even the world, honing his martial skills and combat experience. But back then, it seemed to be part of the game…

Could it be that the predecessor of this competition platform was officially introduced into “Jianghu” only after going through some external tests and data? Since the problem troubling the Three Lonely Wolves had nothing to do with the website’s direct interests, Kai Xin breathed a sigh of relief and asked for more details.
“That’s exactly it,” Chen Fan explained in detail.
It turned out that what really troubled the three of them wasn’t the ranking system of the competition platform, but rather the requirement that the website in charge of a region had to organize its own large-scale tournament to participate in such a competition. Only if there were over a hundred participants would it count! Only under this condition could the winner be recommended by the website to compete against candidates from other websites and secure a ranking.
Originally, after receiving this notice, the Three Lonely Wolves were very excited and rushed around to encourage students in their academy to participate. Unfortunately, upon learning that the tournament involved fighting against top experts from across the country, those who couldn’t reach that level gave up, and even some students who had just started competing felt the odds were slim and didn’t want to waste time on such meaningless contests. In the end, only about fifty or sixty people actually organized themselves into a team, most of whom were their friends; few were truly skilled, especially those top experts on the Nanhua Ranking List, most of whom didn’t participate.
“Count me in,” Kai Xin said without hesitation after understanding the situation.
“One more doesn’t help. We need a full hundred participants before the authorities will recognize Nanhua University as a region,” Qi Ci said with a look of helplessness. “But the competition does take a lot of time, and the authorities say only winners get rewards, so enthusiasm among participants is very low. If we can’t get enough people involved, Nanhua’s ranking on the official site will be last—just a placeholder with no real ranking, essentially non-existent.”
After hearing Qi Ci’s words, Kai Xin was stunned for a moment before showing a confident smile. “If it’s just about boosting everyone’s enthusiasm, I have a way.”
The three were shocked!