Chapter 23 Not Recommended

The cheers around the second platform sounded distant, as if they belonged to another mountain.

Lin Feng got one foot on the ground and immediately understood that winning and being able to walk away were not the same achievement. Lu Cang almost crashed into him.

"You’re bleeding. Not a lo but enough. Sit. Sit before you fall and turn this into a legend about you dying after victory, which would be very on brand and also very permanent."

Lin Feng exhaled through his teeth. "Help me walk little Lu."

Lu Cang ducked under his left arm and took as much weight as his scrawny frame allowed. Together they made an uneven line toward the medical tents at the side of the plaza. Behind them, the crowd continued arguing in layered voices:

"He beat He Yuan."

"But look at him. He’s finished."

Two outersect medical disciples looked up as Lu Cang dragged Lin Feng through the flap. Recognition crossed both faces at once.

"It’s him," one muttered.

"Put him there." The other said.

Lin Feng was guided onto a narrow cot. The moment his back touched the mat, pain flared hard enough to bleach the edges of his vision. A medical disciple pressed fingers along his ribs, then his right forearm, then the swollen muscle near his shoulder.

"Rib strain. Deep contusion. Arm shock. Meridians irritated from forced circulation." The medical disciple clicked his tongue. "You can stand but you should not fight anymore ."

As if summoned by the diagnosis, the system window pulsed open on its own.

[Combat Status Warning]

[Further fighting is not recommended]

[Risk: foundation agitation / injury expansion / short term combat collapse]

Lu Cang saw his expression and panicked harder. "That face. I know that face. That is not the face of a man accepting medical advice."

"How long," Lin Feng asked the medical disciple, "before I can move properly?"

"For daily walking? Soon. For platform combat ?" The medical disciple gave him a flat look. "If you force it today, you are risking your life."

An Enforcement disciple lifted the tent flap before Lin Feng could answer.

"Lin Feng. Your next match has been called. Platform three. Opponent: Lei Hao. Confirm readiness or declare withdrawal."

Lei Hao.

Lu Cang flinched at the name. Lei Hao was one of the remaining strong names precisely because people disliked facing him. Not only because he was powerful, but because he enjoyed the process of breaking others. In earlier rounds he had dragged matches longer than necessary, striking joints and nerves with unpleasant accuracy, always within the rules by just enough to keep Enforcement from stopping him.A cruel fighter with strength to support the cruelty.

Lin Feng sat up. Pain lashed through his ribs like a wire pulled tight. His face tightened, but he set his feet on the ground anyway.

Lu Cang grabbed his sleeve with both hands. "No. No, no, no. You already made it so far. It’s enough!"

"I can still stand," Lin Feng said.

"Yeah but you won’t be after facing Lei Hao "

Lin Feng forced himself upright. For a moment the tent swayed. He rode the wave of dizziness down until the floor stabilized, then walked past the Enforcement disciple and back into the light of the plaza. The reaction was instan. The sight of him emerging from the medical tent and still heading toward a platform created a new current of anticipation, ugly and eager.

Platform three already held its audience. Lei Hao stood at the center of it with one shoulder relaxed and a cruel smile. When he saw Lin Feng approach with careful steps, that smile widened.

"I was worried you’d be smart," Lei Hao said. "Looks like the rumors were right. You really do chase stages even when your body is already is broken."

Lin Feng stopped at the base of the steps. Up close, Lei Hao’s qi felt dense and abrasive. Lei Hao tilted his head.

"Come up," he said. "I’ll be gentle in the first exchange maybe. It depends how funny you sound when the ribs give out completely ."

Several spectators laughed. Others looked uncomfortable. Lin Feng put one foot on the first step. Pain ripped through his side and into his spine. His knee nearly folded.

Lu Cang, who had followed him all the way out, seized his left arm hard.

"Lin Feng!"

On the platform, Lei Hao watched the stumble with open amusement.

"There it is," Lei Hao said. "The famous platform genius who throws people over boundary lines. Can barely climb boundary steps. Don’t worry. If you withdraw, I’ll understand. Cowards should live long enough to embarrass themselves again later."

The irony in the taunt was deliberate. He was using Lin Feng’s own public image as the blade.

Around the plaza, reactions split and sharpened.

Some faces brightened with satisfaction, already tasting the version of events where Lin Feng finally ran out of room. Some looked disappointed in advance, cheated of the chance to watch him get dismantled. A few simply watched in hard silence, waiting to see whether the troublemaker’s shamelessness extended all the way into self destruction.

In the elders’ pavilion, Elder Mo’s mouth pressed into a severe line. One of the other elders leaned forward slightly, interested less in morality than in whether the injured disciple was stupid enough to continue. Lin Feng’s fingers tightened on the edge of the platform step. He wanted to go up.

That impulse was clean and immediate. The stage was still there and te audience was still there. Lei Hao’s face was extremely punchable too.One more fight, one more eruption of public emotion, one more chance to turn hostility into points.

Then pain lashed again when he tried to lift his right arm into a guard line. His ribs burned hot enough to shorten his breath. The system warning reappeared without permission, stark against the corners of his vision.

[Further fighting is not recommended! ]

[Current combat efficiency estimated below safe!]

Lin Feng stood there long enough for the plaza to believe he might climb anyway. Then he laughed and let go of the step.

"No."

Lei Hao’s eyebrows rose. "No?"

Lin Feng turned his body carefully toward the Enforcement disciple assigned to the platform.

"I withdraw from this match," he said. "Not because I’m afraid of his mouth. Because fighting him in this condition won’t be fair."

For a second, the Enforcement disciple seemed almost disappointed to receive a clean answer. Then training took over.

"Lin Feng withdraws. Lei Hao advances!"

The plaza broke into immediate noise. Lei Hao clicked his tongue on the platform, smile thinning into something more annoyed than triumphant.

"Withdrawal? After all that climbing? Dull."

Ling Feng turned away before Lei Hao could enjoy a longer exchange. That was when the broader reactions fully bloomed.

A cluster of Zhao Feng’s sympathizers openly smiled, relief and spite mixing in their faces. To them, withdrawal was a public admission that Lin Feng’s path had finally narrowed. Zhou Ming’s expression eased into cold approval, as if procedure and injury had cooperated to restore order. A few elders in the pavilion settled back, one of them muttering that at least the boy was not completely brainless. But not everyone was pleased.

"He withdrew?"

"I thought we’d finally see him beaten properly."

"Coward."

"No, that’s worse. He leaves before paying."

There it was, disappointment from the ones who had not wanted him to win, but had still wanted to watch him broken on stage. Their frustration leaked into the air as a second, more complicated flavor of hostility.

Lu Cang did not care about any of that. He looked close to tears of pure joy.

"You took a sensible decision finally. I’m so proud. let’s never do this assessment thing again."

"We’ll see Little Lu, we’ll see."

Medical disciples came out and claimed him before he could damage himself through residual stubbornness. As they turned him back toward the tent, Lin Feng’s gaze crossed the elders’ pavilion once more. Elder Mo still looked displeased, but the displeasure had shifted. A reckless continuation would have confirmed one judgment. Withdrawal under recorded injury forced another, the troublemaker could calculate.That, too, would be remembered.

Inside the tent again, Lin Feng sat down more carefully than before. Outside, the assessment continued. The final stretch moved on without him as its centerpiece. He rested his head back against the cot post and let the noise of other people’s fights become distant weather. For the first time since entering the assessment, he had refused a stage.

Lin Feng closed his eyes to all the outside noice. The Pain pulsed in time with his breathing.He could live with pain.What mattered was that he still had a body left to bring into the next hunting ground.