"Strength could make people fear you. Talent could make them respect you. But sometimes… the strangest Martial Spirit could make an entire arena laugh."The arena was different today. No clever boundary tricks. No easy disqualifications. No alchemy furnaces. Only combat.The enormous battle platform had been reinforced with layers of formation stones thick enough that even a clash between high-level Beast Masters wouldn't crack it. Ken stood among the spectators, arms folded, aura deliberately suppressed. To everyone watching, he was still the injured genius who'd somehow crawled out of the expedition alive.Mu Qing stood a few steps away. Suzuki was farther off, surrounded by her clan's disciples.Ken surveyed the arena. "So this is where everyone finally stops pretending to be nice.""You've never pretended to be nice," Mu Qing said without looking at him.Ken clutched his chest. "That's hurtful.""You spent yesterday making people disqualify themselves out of sheer confusion.""Th

The arena floor looked like it had lost several arguments with several fists. Cracks spiderwebbed across the stone in every direction, and Ken privately wondered if the maintenance budget for this tournament had been blown entirely on healing potions and none on repair crews.He sat among the remaining contestants, doing his very best impression of a tired, unremarkable young man with nothing going on beneath the surface. Which, considering his real cultivation was currently locked in a box and sitting on top of that box was another, smaller box labeled Beast Geek Level 20, took some real acting talent.Only the strongest had survived the qualifiers. Every fighter left in this arena sat somewhere between Level 21 and Level 30 of the Beast Master realm.Ken glanced at the glowing formation above the arena. One more match before the next phase began. He allowed himself a small, private thought: “please, whoever's up next, don't be someone with a name I have to remember.”"THE NEXT MATCH

The arena was quieter than before.The random qualification rounds were over. The weak had been eliminated. Everyone left standing had already proven something, that they belonged here, that they had teeth.Ken felt it in the air the moment he sat down among the Grand Le Clan disciples: a stillness sharper than silence, the kind that came right before something broke.Above the arena, the elders watched with unreadable faces. At the highest platform, representatives of the five major sects sat like statues carved from patience. A Li rested her chin against her hand, and more than once her eyes drifted toward Ken.He pretended not to notice. It was hard to pretend when her stare lingered like a hand on his shoulder.He kept his expression loose, bored even, the picture of a sickly Beast Geek who had wandered into a tournament by accident. Beast Master Level 22 folded itself down small and hid behind Level 17 like a blade under silk.Beside him, Mu Qing leaned over, voice pitched just f

The arena had barely recovered from the previous battle when the next names appeared above the fighting platform.KEN VS. WEI LINThe crowd erupted.Ken stepped onto the platform with his hands in his pockets, unhurried, almost bored. Across from him, Wei Lin rolled his shoulders, confidence radiating off him like heat."I've heard about you," Wei Lin said.Ken glanced at him. "And?""You're the outsider everyone is talking about."Ken sighed. "Then you've heard enough."Near the clan railing, Mirinda leaned toward one of the attendants, arms crossed, eyes narrowed on Ken like she was daring him to disappoint her. "He's doing the thing again," she muttered."What thing?""Pretending he doesn't care how this looks."The elder raised his hand. "Begin!"Wei Lin rushed forward, spirit energy exploding around him. "Wind Breaker!" His fist came in fast, and Ken didn't move.A beam of energy shot from the weapon mounted on his arm.BOOM!Wei Lin was blasted backward, skidding across the plat

The arena had never been this quiet.Four had entered the semi-finals. Two remained. Ken watched Suzuki cross the platform toward him, her braid swinging once and settling still, her face composed into that maddening calm she always wore like armor. He rolled his shoulders and let a lazy grin spread across his face, though something tighter than amusement sat behind his ribs."So we're fighting again," he said."This time there won't be anyone to interrupt us." Suzuki's voice carried no warmth, no venom either, just fact, laid down like a blade on a table."Don't worry." Ken spread his hands. "I'll be gentle."Her eyebrow twitched, the first crack in the mask. "Don't you dare underestimate me.""I'm not," he said, and meant it, mostly. He'd watched her dismantle Lera without so much as bruising her pride, precise as a surgeon, patient as winter. He believed he understood the shape of her. What he didn't yet understand was the size of what she was hiding underneath.The referee stepped