"Stop! Stop! Don’t announce the result yet!"

The frantic, cracking voice of the Gu Clan Elder echoed from Counter Number 10, situated in the far, dusty corner of the Exit Plaza.

The deafening cheers of the Bai Clan died instantly in their throats. Every single head in the massive plaza whipped toward the corner.

The Gu Clan Elder standing behind the heavy wooden table was physically shaking. His eyes were wide, completely bloodshot, and bulging out of his skull.

Sweat poured down his wrinkled face as he stared at the mountain of items piled in front of him.

Beside him, the Bai Clan Elder assigned to co-judge the counter looked like he had just seen a ghost. His face was entirely devoid of colour. His jaw hung slack.

"Impossible..." the Bai Clan Elder muttered, his hands trembling as he backed away from the table, "This is a trick... it has to be an illusion..."

The crowd parted in absolute confusion, shifting away from the centre to see who was standing at the corner desk.

A tall, broad-shouldered figure leaned casually against the wooden counter.

It was Gu Fan.

He didn’t look like a Gu Chen the hero. He was wearing stolen, dirt-stained linen trousers, and a torn, dark green Bai Clan robe was draped over his shoulders.

He looked incredibly bored.

"Took you long enough to count it, old man," Gu Fan yawned, picking his ear with his pinky finger. "Are you going to update the board or just stand there wetting your robes?"

The crowd was completely stunned.

"Is that... the seventh young master?" a Gu Clan disciple whispered.

"The cripple?" another gasped.

"Why is he wearing a Bai Clan uniform?!"

Bai Yun, who had been celebrating his clan’s victory just seconds ago, pointed his sword at Gu Fan. "You piece of trash! Did you strip one of my junior brothers?"

Gu Fan didn’t even bother looking at Bai Yun.

He just smirked at the shaking Gu Clan Elder, "Why don’t you announce it?"

Both the Gu Clan elder and Bai Clan elder swallowed hard as maybe for the first time in three days both of them somehow understood each others’ emotions.

The Gu Clan Elder placed his trembling hand on the transmission array embedded in the table and violently channelled his Spirit Qi into it.

The massive, towering jade screen in the centre of the plaza flickered wildly.

Everyone turned their eyes back to the board.

The numbers at the top began to roll. In no time, Gu Fan’s name appeared at Number 10 before moving to Number 9 and Number 8 within a blink of an eye.

And one by one, Gu Fan began to move up and before anyone could understand what sort of sorcery it was, a new name appeared at the absolute top.

1st Place: Gu Fan. The points next to his name began to tick up at an absurd, blinding speed.

500.

2000.

3500.

5000.

5100.

5200.

The crowd gasped loudly. He had already beaten Bai Bing’s score. But the numbers didn’t stop. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

5300.

The screen finally chimed loudly, locking in the final, mathematically impossible score.

5450.

1st Place: Gu Fan - 5,450 points. The entire Exit Plaza descended into absolute, pin-drop silence. The wind rustling through the nearby toxic ferns was the only sound. No one breathed. No one moved.

Five thousand, four hundred fifty points.

It was a score that defied logic. It defied reason. The crippled, illegitimate seventh son had dumped it all onto a single table.

How?

[System Notification: Point calculation complete.]

[Host has secured the absolute 1st place in the Joint Hunting Competition.]

[Face-Slapping objective achieved. Local World Will suppression temporarily fractured.]

Gu Chen stood perfectly still in the centre of the plaza. The confident, arrogant smile he had worn just a minute ago was completely gone. His handsome face turned a dangerous, ugly shade of purple.

His "glorious" 4,200 points looked like a peasant’s pocket change next to Gu Fan’s score. His heroic return, his 9th Stage breakthrough, his destiny. First it was all overshadowed by bai Bing and now even a cripple managed to slap him across his face? The cripple?

"This is a fraud!" Bai Yun suddenly roared, his voice cracking with pure fury and deep, profound humiliation, "He is a cripple! He doesn’t even have a functioning Dantian! Look at him! He cheated!"

Bai Yun unleashed his Spirit Realm pressure directly at Gu Fan, trying to force the "cripple" to his knees.

The heavy, suffocating wave of Qi slammed into Gu Fan, almost forcing him to his knees, but Gu Fan barely held on.

Gu Fan grunted, his knees bending under the sheer weight of a major realm difference. Being only at the 6th Stage of the Body Tempering Realm, the spiritual pressure was immense. He gripped the wooden counter, his knuckles turning white as he barely held himself up, refusing to kneel.

Over by the central counter, Bai Bing’s eyes narrowed. Seeing her husband struggling, she instinctively stepped forward to intervene.

But Gu Fan caught her movement from the corner of his eye before she could even move. He subtly raised his finger away from everyone’s gaze and gave it a tiny flick.

bai Bing saw it and stopped dead in her tracks, obeying instantly.

Up on the elevated viewing platform, a sharp pair of eyes caught the entire silent exchange. Madam Li saw Gu Fan’s subtle signal to the Bai Clan’s genius. A sudden, sharp spike of jealousy flared in her chest.

Just moments ago, the tight, panicked knot that had been suffocating her chest had instantly vanished the exact second Gu Fan appeared in front of her.

For three days, she had barely slept, haunted by the terrifying thought that the beasts in that damn forest might swallow him whole.

So when she saw that smug face, her worried face had broken into a radiant, genuine smile of pure, overwhelming relief.

She looked at him all battered and wearing stolen rags, yet standing taller than any man in the plaza. The sheer dominance and absolute confidence he radiated, casually defying the entire world, had made her chest swell with a fierce, possessive pride.

He wasn’t just a lover, he was her man, conquering everything in his path.

’You arrogant boy,’ Madam Li had thought, wiping a stray tear from her eye and biting her lower lip to stop her hands from trembling, ’You made me worry to death. I am not letting you sleep for three nights.’

But when she saw the subtle exchange between him and the Bai Clan Ice Fairy, her mood shifted completely.

The profound relief instantly curdled into a sharp, bitter spike of jealousy.

’It seems my precious "little son" hadn’t been fighting for his life in the deadly forest after all.’

’He was just out here fooling around, collecting shiny new toys right under her nose.’