Ten-ton star-iron doors slammed down behind Gu Changsheng’s heels, shaking dust from the bronze ceiling of the amphitheater.
Around the sunken fighting pit, three thousand nervous examinees backed against the stone bleachers. The carved sign above the main stage read: STAGE ONE ENTRANCE TRIAL — THE COUGH-BLOOD & SLAP-THE-EXAMINER ARENA.
“Catchy name,” Gu Changsheng said, brushing a speck of iron dust off his dark-blue shoulder. “Nothing says higher education like beating up the faculty during homeroom.”
Beside him, twelve-year-old Gu Nian adjusted his yellow school hat and looked up at the high judging platform. “Dad, why did that grumpy teacher lock the doors? Are we not allowed to go to the bathroom?”
“He wants to make sure nobody runs away before he rigs the test, Nian’er,” Gu Changsheng said.
He glanced down at [Dad’s Plot-Spoiler Notebook] in his palm. Even with Foreknowledge Decay holding accuracy at sixty-five percent, the memory of this arena was burned clearly into his mind.
In the original novel, this bronze pit was where Gu Nian’s reputation as a slaughter maniac truly began, Gu Changsheng thought. *Back then, a starving, half-blind Gu Nian stumbled in here alone.
The proctors mocked his dead parents, reflected his punch with a cursed mirror talisman, and broke four of his ribs. Gu Nian went berserk, burned half his lifespan, and tore three hundred proctors limb from limb.*
