When system cheat becomes rampant!

Li Zimu was besieged by countless pillars of flame sealing his retreat; as he turned to face the blazing columns, Di Sheng had already flashed out from the ice pillars, extending his leg and kicking towards Li Zimu.

Unable to dodge in time, Li Zimu was struck by Di Sheng, retreating continuously as the lava swept up, binding him tightly. The heat wave ignited his clothes in an instant. Li Zimu's complexion changed slightly as he desperately used his Spiritual Power to resist.

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The ice pillars from all directions were now forcibly controlled by Di Sheng; the sharp icicles instantly surrounded Li Zimu, pressing against his neck.

"You've lost,"

Di Sheng, standing above the ice pillars that trapped Li Zimu, smiled slightly, looking down at Li Zimu with the poise of a victor.

The audience in the arena also exclaimed in surprise, marveling at Di Sheng's formidable strength.

They hadn't anticipated Di Sheng to be so powerful; from the onset, he took control of the entire arena with his potent and explosive attacks, altering the terrain, then in the skirmish rapidly seized control of Li Zimu's ice pillars, turning them against Li Zimu.

Such tricky tactics earned praise from many students.

"So strong! An Awakener from SR is indeed impressive. Li Zimu from Liangzhou University probably didn't expect Di Sheng from Yongzhou University to have such bizarre abilities, right?"

"Indeed, Li Zimu is still one step behind Di Sheng,"

Many students felt a sigh of regret for Liangzhou University's Li Zimu, but the thought that an SR from Liangzhou University had been defeated was at least a silver lining, suggesting that this year's students from Liangzhou University weren't all that formidable.

This brought some balance to the minds of the students from Qingzhou University.

Di Sheng, looking at Li Zimu trapped by his own hand, turned his head proudly toward the referee, awaiting the announcement.

The referee glanced at Di Sheng, then shouted: "Liangzhou University, Li Zimu wins!"

What?

The moment, the entire arena stood still in shock!

Many found it strange, had the referee misspoken?

But that shouldn't be the case; the referee was an SSR-level Awakener from the Jiuzhou Alliance, and with so many elite school leaders and teachers present, could the referee really make such a minor blunder?

Di Sheng's facial expression darkened, and he questioned, "What does this mean? Li Zimu from Liangzhou University wins? He is restrained by me!"

Out of caution, he took another look at Li Zimu, who was pinned by the icicles against his throat, immobilized on the spot.

Li Zimu was still trapped by him, and he himself was still standing atop the ice sculpture above him.

"Thanks for the match,"

A clear and leisurely voice came from afar.

Although this voice came from the mouth of Li Zimu right in front of him, it also seemed to emanate from a distant place, making Di Sheng unable to ascertain for a moment!

Then, the lava on the ground appeared to be frozen by something, the bubbling lava also ceased its dance, and the temperature quickly plummeted, turning dry and cracked, as if bereft of the enhancement of Spiritual Energy, lifeless and still.

The icicles that trapped Li Zimu suddenly began to move, receding from his body one by one, disappearing back to where they appeared from, as if being rewound. Li Zimu himself, like an unfathomable shadow, blended rapidly into the air and vanished.

The lava on the ground dissolved, returning to its original form as the arena.

Li Zimu was still in the arena, standing where he had first stepped onto the stage, as if he had never moved.

However, Di Sheng was standing below the stage!

"How could this be?"

Di Sheng's pupils shrank slightly!

What exactly happened?

Hadn't he just restrained Li Zimu? How could Li Zimu stand on the stage as if nothing had happened?

And still in the same spot?

Doubts filled Di Sheng's mind.

Suddenly, he began to ponder, had Li Zimu actually moved just now?

He had moved! He had been pressured into retreating step by step by him!

But it also seemed as though he hadn't moved, as if he had been standing there all along.

Then who was the person he had been fighting?

...

The students from Qingzhou University also looked on in bewildered confusion.

They thought the battle had been won by Di Sheng, yet nobody had anticipated that after the lava had cleared, the person who fell off the arena was Di Sheng!

Li Zimu from Liangzhou University had won?

How did he win?

Most of the audience, consisting of S and R-level students, couldn't understand how SR-level Li Zimu managed to do it.

It seemed only the SSR-level referee knew how Li Zimu achieved his victory!

Li Zimu didn't explain and left the arena to go back to his rest area.

While Di Sheng still stood there, unable to comprehend what had happened.

——

"You've got some skill, Li Zimu, I had no idea you could do Illusion Techniques? Good lad, why haven't we ever seen you use them when we hunted desolate beasts together?" said Ma Ziqian in surprise.

"That wasn't exactly an Illusion Technique," Li Zimu replied.

"Then what was it?" Ma Ziqian asked, puzzled.

Li Zimu pondered for a moment, then shook his head, "I can't explain in detail, it's a power I've just recently grasped."

After a pause, he said to Xiang Beifei, "Thank you."

"No need," Xiang Beifei replied.

——For when dreams are taken as life's concerns, then the concern of life is but a dream.

This was a new ability that Li Zimu realized from poetry. At the start of the school year, he had grasped only two lines of poetry, one being "Chaotic stones pierce the sky, with waves crashing ashore, amassing a thousand heaps of snow", and the other "The vast sea's railing is hundred-zhang ice", but his abilities were far more than just those two lines.

Over the past few months, he had been understanding other verses, and he grasped many powerful lines, which he then adopted as his abilities.