Chapter 21 Respect The Winner

Lin Feng noticed something before he even left th platform. Disciples who had looked through him an hour ago now looked at him as if trying to decide whether he was a fire worth warming their hands over, or a fire that would take the whole sleeve.

Zhao Feng’s defeat had not simply ended a match. It had altered the temperature of the outer sect. He only made it twenty steps before the first congratulation arrived.

It came from a young man with a fake smile could detect from miles away. Lin Feng vaguely recognized him as one of the disciples who had stood safely in the middle of every crowd, never opposing bullies and never helping their targets.

"Lin Feng," the young man said warmly, "what a match. Truly unexpected. Truly inspiring. A victory like that shows remarkable presence of mind."

Lin Feng stopped and studied him with open curiosity.

"I only wanted to express admiration. In fact, a few of us from the east path dorms were saying a disciple with your nerve shouldn’t walk alone through the final stretch. If you ever need people to handle minor matters—"

"You mean," Lin Feng cut in, "you guys ignored me when I was convenient to ignore, and now you want an association with the person who was climbing through the ranks."

Several nearby disciples made the mistake of slowing down to listen. The polished young man’s ears reddened.

"Well that’s a crude way to put it."

"But an accurate one," Lin Feng said. "Come back when your admiration can survive a day when I lose."

He walked on. Behind him, the unfinished recruitment speech collapsed into embarrassed silence.

[ Opportunistic goodwill curdled into resentment ]

[Rage Value +38]

[Current Rage Points: 2,060]

[Host Surpassed the Rage Target for the day! Congratulations!]

Lu Cang stared at him in horror.

"why??! He was being nice!"

"Little Lu, you’ve a lot to learn"

The second person to approach him was less polite. Three disciples from Zhao Feng’s wider circle stood near a water jar under the canopy, speaking just loud enough for the words to travel.

"He didn’t beat Zhao Feng. He tripped him with a rat’s methods."

"Exactly. In a real fight with no boundary line, he would have been paste."

"The outer sect looks ridiculous if someone like that keeps advancing."

One of them glanced sideways, confirmed Lin Feng was close enough, and continued with more deliberate venom.

"Some victories dirty the stage more than losses."

Lin Feng paused, turned his head, and gave the speaker a look.

" If you think Zhao Feng is dumb enough to get tricked like someone like me, what does that say about him?"

The disciple’s face hardened. One companion seized his wrist before the argument could grow teeth. Enforcement tokens still glittered around the plaza, and after the elder pavilion’s earlier attention, open violence would be stupid. That did not stop hatred from settling more thickly into the air.

[Collective malice detected]

[Rage Value +67]

[Current Rage Points: 2,127]

They passed the medical tents next, where defeated disciples sat with bruised ribs and wounded pride. Huang Fei was not there nor Pan Qing but Wu Shan was there sitting on a bench with a cloth pressed to his forearm, expression unreadable. When Lin Feng walked by, Wu Shan did not curse him like he expected him to be.

Strangely that silence was cleaner than insults ge got, Ling Feng thought.

Near the central board, his name had moved up ranks. Zhou Ming suddenly appeared on the far lane with two other monitors. He did not storm over but he did something more annoying. He stopped an Enforcement disciple, spoke in a low formal tone, and gestured once in Lin Feng’s direction without looking directly at him for long.

Besides him Lu Cang went stiff.

"That can’t be good. He’s reporting you. He is definitely reporting you."

" Well even class monitors feels the need to have some relevancy won’t they?"

A moment later, the Enforcement disciple approached them.

"Lin Feng. Your conduct during victories has been noted again. Excessive public humiliation of defeated opponents may be treated as provocative behavior under elevated observation. Consider this a formal caution."

Lin Feng nodded once.

"I accept the caution."

The Enforcement disciple waited, as if expecting argument, protest, or at least a request for clarification. When none arrived, he clicked his tongue and left.

Lu Cang nearly folded in half.

"Why did you accept it so quickly? Now it’s on your record!"

"It was already on the record little Lu, they’re trying intimidate me that’s all. " Lin Feng said.

They found a relatively open stretch near the outer railing, where the mountain wind still reached through the press of bodies. Lin Feng rested both hands on the warm stone and let his qi circulate in controlled loops. The breakthrough during Zhao Feng’s match had left his meridians faintly sore, like cloth stretched wider than it was used to. He was in the middle of it when a familiar voice came from behind.

"You’re not bad at all, Ling Feng."

Gao Ren stood one step away from the railing. There was a faint bruise near his wrist from his own matches, but it did not disturb his balance.

Lin Feng turned his head. "If this is another congratulation, I’ll start charging."

"I’m just stating the obvious, but now Zhao Feng’s people will stop underestimating you and the elders will watch for an excuse. You messed with too many fragile ego’s and now they need you to fail in order to feel correct. Lin Feng’s eyes brightened slightly."

"Now that seems a worthy praise for me."

Gao Ren ignored that. "Final stretch matches won’t be as loose. You can’t always win by unsettling opponents always, as good as you are there are people here who are simply more powerful."

"And you’re telling me this because?"

"Because, i believe you have so much potential to be an inner sect disciple. And in there i will be waiting for you."

With that said, Gao Ren walked away after waving bye.

"I really can’t tell if that was help or a threat." Lu Cang said.

"Both i guess. "

A sudden swell of noise rose near the main board. Disciples compressed around it as Enforcement updated the final stage arrangement. The outer sect assessment had shed enough names that every remaining names looked dangerous. Lin Feng walked over without hurry and he crowd parted for him out of fear or respect, he can’t tell. The board finally finished settling.

His next opponent’s name locked into place. He Yuan.

A high ranked discipline, much better at handling qi than Lin Feng and much more powerful than him. Someone from the top circle where even the likes of Zhao Feng can’t hang around. A perfect later stage inconvenience.

Murmurs started immediately.

"After Zhao Feng, can Lin Feng still force another ugly win?"

"Please shut him down He yuhan"

He Yuan would not be easy to bait into early collapse. He would come with discipline, not just pride. That meant any harvest would have to be extracted under tighter conditions.

He turned from the board toward the platforms, where the final stretch waited with cleaner formations and fewer places to hide.

"Come on," he told Lu Cang. "If they want order so badly, I’ll let them try to impose it on me in public."

Lu Cang trudged after him, mourning every life choice that had led to shared living quarters.