Chapter 197: First Stage

Chapter 197: The First Phase

"Why is it Yuanshi Tianzun who got voted as the suspect? Are they fucking idiots? At a time like this, you obviously target Zhao Chenghuang—whoever's strongest gets targeted. Any rhetoric is just a smokescreen. This bunch of morons!"

"Tianxia Guihuo is a disgrace to the Chihuo Gang, a disgrace to Fire Masters. He doesn't resemble a Fire Master at all."

In the audience stands, the Fire Masters spoke up in fury.

The developments unfolding in the conference room caught the outside spectators completely off guard. Not to mention the single-minded Fire Masters—even other professions found it inconceivable.

Yuanshi Tianzun was indeed a master at clearing Spirit Realms, but clearing instances depended on condition—it hinged on the type of stage within the instance. No matter how formidable Yuanshi Tianzun was, he wasn't a jack-of-all-trades. Once he encountered a domain he wasn't skilled in, the likelihood of a wipe was enormous.

By contrast, Zhao Chenghuang's combat power was a constant figure. However strong he should be, that's how strong he was—it wouldn't fluctuate because of the instance's difficulty.

Therefore, eliminating Zhao Chenghuang first was the safest choice.

"Actually, Tianxia Guihuo's choice wasn't wrong. He wants a shot at the championship, and the S-rank instance is an opportunity. But with Yuanshi Tianzun present, he lacks confidence in beating Yuanshi Tianzun in instance clearance. Voting out Yuanshi Tianzun first is a wise move—unless Tianxia Guihuo doesn't want to win."

"Tianxia Guihuo has a good head on his shoulders. He's truly different from other Fire Masters. But that tone-deaf one—I reckon he's the real Fire Master. If the Five Elements Alliance's five contestants ally, that's five versus three. This tie vote means everyone loses points together. Then once inside the instance, the five join forces to eliminate the Taiyi Sect's contestants, and the top three will be decided within our Five Elements Alliance. The Houtu Boots won't fall into Taiyi hands either."

The speaker was a middle-aged man, grief-stricken and indignant, cursing the tone-deaf one as a fucking idiot.

His Spirit Realm ID was "Cephalosporin with Alcohol, the More You Drink the More You Have."

Meanwhile, the group with weak collective honor—the Spirit Realm aristocratic families—grew excited, chattering loudly, faces flushed with excitement, as if a grand drama were entering its climax.

"Interesting. Isn't Yuanshi Tianzun an expert at clearing S-ranks? This is exactly the kind of opening needed to showcase his skill. Swap in any other contestant and it'd be boring."

"Thrilling. This spectacular right from the start—how will Yuanshi Tianzun prove his innocence next? Can he win one against seven? Feels like this stage will become the most dazzling, most unsurpassable segment of the Arena Tournament in recent years. Provided, of course, Yuanshi Tianzun isn't just famous in name only."

"Isn't this far more interesting than mindless arena brawling?"

In a corner, the melon-seed-faced woman turned her head, looking at the daughter beside her. Her delicate willow brows knitted together as she said worriedly:

"Baby, the situation doesn't look good for your Brother Yuanshi."

Xie Lingxi didn't panic in the slightest:

"Relax. Brother Yuanshi won't lose that easily. You don't know—in the Jinshui Amusement Park, his predicament was far more dangerous than this."

Xie Mom's eyes lit up. She wrapped an arm around her daughter's shoulder: "Quick, tell Mom all about it. Once I've heard it, I can brag to the other ladies."

Prove his innocence... Annie's beautiful eyes, blue as the sea, gazed at the blurred images suspended in midair as she spoke:

"The Night Patrol God isn't a scout. Investigation should be Yuanshi Tianzun's weak point, right?"

She lightly furrowed her brows.

Beside her, Mr. Bill corrected: "Not a weak point. The correct Chinese term is: shortcoming!"

The implication being he agreed with Annie.

"Rongrong, then Yuanshi Tianzun will be eliminated in the first round!" The greasy-haired, powder-faced young man looked exhilarated as he turned to the bewitching beauty beside him.

The schadenfreude on his face suddenly froze. He saw Zhu Rong's elegant brows tightly locked, her complexion overcast—she actually looked unhappy.

The young gigolo silently swallowed his follow-up mockery. His handsome, effeminate face revealed thick jealousy.

As someone close to her, he could distinctly sense Zhu Rong's interest in Yuanshi Tianzun growing increasingly intense. She gradually paid no heed to the handsome gigolos around her, her attitude cold and indifferent.

On the elders' dais, Elder Hongying turned her head, glancing at Elder Gou, who sat one seat away, and said with a smile:

"Old Dog, what type were the kid's previous two S-ranks? Give him an assessment—think he can pass this gate?"

Elder Sun folded his arms, tilted his chin up, and snorted:

"I say he cannot!"

Elder Gou ignored him, mused for a moment, then said:

"Should be no problem."

Elder Hongying raised a brow, instantly intrigued: "Then I shall look forward to it."

At that moment, the blurred image on the field gradually sharpened.

...

The surroundings clarified; he found himself in a cramped, windowless cell. The room held no furnishings, only three objects piled on the floor: a briefcase, a pitch-black small box, and a ceramic bowl.

Inside the bowl sat a large lump of wet, soggy mud.

Beyond that, the room contained nothing else.

But he noticed a fist-sized hole in the wall ahead, through which the neighboring room was visible.

This had to be the cell where "I" was imprisoned. How would the plot proceed next? Wait for the other contestants to come fetch me for interrogation? Zhang Yuanqing scanned himself, then suddenly realized his pajamas were gone.

He now wore a light blue casual suit, trousers, and leather shoes; the hems and cuffs were stained with faint traces of blood.

"This isn't my body?" A shock went through him; he hurriedly raised a hand to feel his face, then touched his earlobes.

Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief. The body was still his own, but the clothes had changed.

Bloodstains... Zhang Yuanqing stripped off the jacket to inspect it. The back of the casual suit bore large, mottled patches of blood; the trouser legs were likewise stained with a fair amount.

"These should be the victim's?"

Zhang Yuanqing put the suit back on, gaze falling on the three items on the ground. He stepped over, picked up the black lacquered wooden box, and a dialogue box immediately popped into view:

[Item: Ashes of a Resentful Spirit]

[Note: Touch the ashes to shift into a spirit form. Note: The ashes cannot be moved into the adjacent room while unused.]

[Item: Holy Porcelain]

[Note: The porcelain continuously produces mud; the mud possesses the function of dispelling the spirit state.]

Two mutually counteracting mission items? What use is this... He withdrew his hand and picked up the briefcase. Inside lay: a pair of shattered glasses, a cell phone, and a novel manuscript.

[Item: Glasses]

[Note: These are your glasses. You have five hundred degrees of myopia. Last night, while visiting Professor Li, you accidentally fell and broke them.]

[Item: Cell Phone]

[Note: You secretly recorded a video of last night's conversation, to use as leverage to blackmail Professor Li.]

[Item: Novel Manuscript]

【Note: You are Professor Li's ghostwriter, and due to a decline in the quality of your work, you face the crisis of being fired. Thus, you deliberately brought your manuscript to the capital, attempting to persuade Professor Li to continue the collaboration.】

"These should be the crucial clues to prove my innocence. The notes on the novel manuscript gave me a motive for murder, while the video in my phone can weaken that motive..." Zhang Yuanqing finished examining the items, pondering his next move.

A prompt tone from the Spirit Realm rang in his ears:

【Ding, the Detective Squad is rushing to execute you. Please escape the locked room and arrive at the crime scene within eight minutes. The crime scene is Room 404, Building 3 of the Faculty Dormitories.】

【Hint 1: The key is in the next room.】

【Hint 2: Your abilities have been sealed; nothing in the room can be destroyed.】

【Hint 3: In this stage, you have one chance to use an item.】

Fuck... Listening to the Spirit Realm's prompt, Zhang Yuanqing's pupils shrank slightly, his gaze turning dull for a few seconds.

Proving his innocence wasn't enough; he had to escape the locked room first?

Escape the locked room, escape the locked room... He looked around, walked to the window, and threw a punch at the glass. An invisible force knocked him back.

"The hints didn't lie. Nothing in the room can be destroyed. So the idea of using the Bloodthirsty Blade or the Thug's Gloves to smash the door open can be abandoned immediately. I have to follow the rules and get the key. The key is in the next room."

Zhang Yuanqing walked to the wall on the west side and peered through the hole to observe the situation next door.

The next room was also a locked room, four walls enclosed it, no doors, no windows, no furnishings whatsoever.

A dim chandelier dispelled the darkness. A brass key lay on the floor in the center of the room.

Zhang Yuanqing's heart stirred. He turned his gaze to the pitch-black box; he knew how to use this thing now.

He opened the box. Inside was a pale white powder. Zhang Yuanqing touched the ashes with his fingertips, and instantly, his body turned into a semi-transparent spirit form.

Zhang Yuanqing immediately floated toward the door, but an invisible barrier blocked him. A dialogue box popped into his vision:

【This door must be opened with a key!】

As expected, no clipping through bugs. He had to go next door for the key... Time was limited. He hesitated no longer, turned, floated toward the wall, and plunged straight through.

He arrived in the next room, heading straight for the key with clear purpose.

But when he reached out, trying to pick up the key, his hand passed right through the brass key. In spirit form, he could not touch physical objects.

Can't pick it up... Zhang Yuanqing pondered for a few seconds, his eyes lighting up. He quickly passed back through the wall, returning to the original room.

Then, he reached out and touched the wet mud in the ceramic bowl.

The next second, his body shed the spirit state, returning to normal.

Zhang Yuanqing scooped up the mud from the bowl, went to the wall with the hole, and threw the mud through the hole.

This way, he could cancel the spirit state in the next room and grab the key.

Smearing the vengeful spirit's ashes on himself, he turned into a spirit again. Zhang Yuanqing passed through the wall, bent down to pick up the mud on the floor—and at that moment, his body abruptly froze.

Wait. If I touch it, my body will return to normal, and I won't be able to go back... Zhang Yuanqing jerked his hand back as if electrocuted.

"Escaping this locked room isn't as simple as I imagined."

He rapidly reviewed every detail. "To enter the next room, I must use the vengeful spirit's ashes. To get the key, I must touch the mud. But once I touch the mud, I return to normal and can no longer phase through walls. And the vengeful spirit's ashes can't be brought over here. Once I revert to human form here, there's no going back. It's a deadlock..."

The thought struck him, and Zhang Yuanqing was instantly seized by anxiety.

"From the Spirit Realm's prompt until now, roughly two minutes have passed. Six minutes left. How do I break this deadlock?"

"Nothing in the room can be destroyed—walls, windows, the door included. But I can use an item once: deploy the Yin-Yang Robe to cast a formation thirty meters in diameter. Within the array, I can manifest at any location. However, only one item is allowed for this stage. If I use the Robe now, I won't have the Inspectors' Spectacles to examine the crime scene later. Defeat would be certain..."

The Inspectors' Spectacles enhanced observation and deduction. That was why, when he was voted the suspect, Zhang Yuanqing had clung to a desperate hope, a thought of a cornered beast fighting back.

But only now did he realize—turning the tables would be extraordinarily difficult.

"Worthy of an S-rank instance. Becoming the suspect is practically elimination. So damn hard..."

He thought for several minutes, finding no solution, his anxiety mounting.

Were he not in a spirit state, his forehead would already be beaded with sweat.

"About five minutes left. What to do, what to do... The venerable Yuanshi Tianzun, eliminated right at the start? That would be too humiliating. However they praised me before, they'll mock me just as fiercely now."

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. The more panicked, the fewer ideas came.

Thinking had its techniques. Sometimes, when a problem cannot be solved, one can solve the person who posed it.

When the problem itself eludes you, consider the one who set it—for instance, the purpose behind this stage's design.

"From the instance's design perspective, the core of this stage is the suspect proving their innocence. Every obstacle and barrier serves that end. Meaning, before the final trial arrives, every difficulty must have a sliver of hope. Otherwise, the conference room wouldn't have voted for a suspect—they would have voted for an elimination."

"From the competition's logic, setting a dead end here to simply eliminate a contestant would be far too trifling. The contestant wouldn't accept it; the audience would be dissatisfied, crying foul. It would be a scripted kill."

"Though there is the ability to use one item, how could the instance creator judge that the chosen suspect would *necessarily* possess an item to escape the locked room?"

"So, there is definitely a way to break this. And it lies within the given information, the provided items..."

Zhang Yuanqing's brain spun at high speed, like an engine running far past its redline.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck his mind. He had found a way!

...

Outside, in the spectator stands, the Spirit Realm Walkers who had witnessed the locked-room scene scratched their heads, sank into deep thought, or turned to companions for opinions.

"Yuanshi Tianzun stopped. He didn't pick up the soil. Close call—if he had, he would have lost."

"But how to get the key? Has anyone thought of a way?"

"Turning into a spirit body with the powder lets you pass through walls, sure. But a spirit body can't touch the key. Return to a physical body, you grab the key, but you can't get back out. Unsolvable."

"This is exaggerated, right? S-rank this hard? It's only the first stage. You've got me looking stupid."

"Time's running out. Yuanshi Tianzun is done for."

The atmosphere was heated, but the noisy clamor came mostly from Fire Masters. The vast majority were racking their brains, silently putting themselves in his shoes: if I were Yuanshi Tianzun, what would I do right now?

They even harbored the notion of competing with Yuanshi Tianzun—seeing who would crack the puzzle first.

It was an excellent opportunity to test their own level.

Mother Xie fretted beside her, "Oh dear, oh dear. Baby, Mommy doesn't understand a thing. If someone like Mommy entered an S-rank instance, would I die in three seconds? Do you think this Yuanshi Tianzun can pass?"

Xie Lingxi frowned in silence, straining for a countermeasure, too lazy to humor her foolish mother.

Annie and Mr. Bill fell silent together, each lost in their own thoughts.

Guan Ya turned her mind over even as she spoke:

"Fu Qingyang, have you thought of a way?"

"I have." Fu Qingyang, sitting beside her, replied.

"What way?" Guan Ya’s eyes lit up, desperate to know the answer.

Fu Qingyang said coolly, "He has already given the answer."

Guan Ya immediately whipped her head around, forcing her gaze back to the aerial projection.

"What is he doing? Did he think of something?"

Someone shouted aloud.

The clamor ceased instantly; a forest of gazes turned toward the projection. On the screen, Yuanshi Tianzun had returned to the original secret chamber.

He first touched the soil, dispelling his spirit form, then picked up the ceramic bowl and strode to the edge of the hole, dumping the soil from the bowl, clump by clump, vertically downward.

The soil piled higher and higher, higher still; before long, its height reached level with the hole.

A pillar of mud had been built.

Next, they saw Yuanshi Tianzun fling aside the ceramic bowl in a flash, grab the black lacquered box, lift the lid, and place it carefully atop the mud pillar.

Yuanshi Tianzun’s fingertips brushed the powder, shifting into spirit form; he phased through the wall into the adjacent secret chamber.

He bent to touch the clump of mud first thrown inside, dispelling his spirit form, and made straight for the area beneath the chandelier, seized the key, and returned to the hole’s edge, tossing the key through the opening.

Then, Yuanshi Tianzun passed his fingers through the hole, touching the black lacquered box sitting on the mud pillar, touching the ashes within.

In the next second, his body turned ethereal, becoming a semi-transparent spirit; he phased back through the wall to the very first room.

Once more he used the soil to dispel his spirit form, picked up the key, rushed to the door, inserted the key, and threw open the tightly shut door.

At this moment, the spectator stands surrounding the arena fell into a dead silence.

After perhaps a few seconds, an uproar rose, the scene exploding instantly into a cacophony of voices.

"This works? Is this a bug exploit?"

"Not a bug, it’s a clever exploitation of the mission items' properties. Yuanshi Tianzun’s biggest hurdle was the inability to return in spirit form; the powder couldn't enter the next room, so he had to solve that difficulty. But there were no tables or stools in the room—once he resumed physical form in the next room, he could no longer touch the powder. So he utilized the soil’s property of infinite generation, built a pillar to hold the box. The vengeful spirit’s ashes couldn't enter the next room, but he could reach his hand through to touch them... Brilliant, simply brilliant. Why didn't I think of it."

"Give me time, I could figure it out too, but I couldn't do it this fast. In a dangerous instance like this, a thought faster is the distance between life and death. Worthy of the name Yuanshi Tianzun."

"He cleared two S-ranks not by luck, but by solid skill. Convinced. If he really proves his innocence, aren't the other seven contestants getting slapped in the face?"

"Ah, put that way, my blood is boiling. This match is a real thriller."

Amidst the noisy chatter, Mr. Bill shook his head and sighed:

"Impressive, impressive. I vaguely thought of this method, but my reaction wasn't nearly as fast as his."

Annie let out a breath, her heart burning hot, a radiant smile on her lips: "I suddenly find myself greatly anticipating his next performance."

Big Brother Yuanshi is amazing... Xie Lingxi revealed a joyful smile, only to immediately hear her mother beside her exclaim in astonishment:

"That simple? Then I could have thought of it too; it's no big deal."

Fools forever judge difficulty only by the answer... Xie Lingxi curled her lip. "Building a nuke is simple enough; the hard part was its very first genesis."

"Not bad!" Fu Qingyang smiled faintly.

Guanya, about to laugh, froze. She hadn't seen Fu Qingyang smile with such ease in years; usually, he was either arrogantly aloof, sneering coldly, or wearing a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

On the other side, Zhu Rong stared unblinkingly at the youth in the projection, and the pretty boy beside her heard her ragged breathing.

Elder Hongying nodded in satisfaction, smiling:

"This child is clever, possessed of quick wit. Old Sun, you're muddle-headed."

Elder Sun: "……"

Elder Gou spoke slowly:

"Yuan Shi possesses exceptional talent for clearing instances. Just watch—the other seven contestants are in trouble."

Elder Hongying hummed in agreement: "Haven't seen a junior this outstanding in years. The last one was the Mo—"

She seemed to recall something unpleasant, and the smile on her face faded.

...

Zhang Yuanqing grabbed his briefcase and burst out of the secret chamber.

He had to reach the crime scene before the detective squad arrived to arrest him, to find evidence proving his innocence.

By his reckoning, once at the scene, he would have time to defend himself; anywhere else, discovery by the detectives meant certain siege.

Elimination.

"Just wait. Watch how I turn the tables and slaughter you five traitorous bastards."

...