novelraw Chapter 395: Technical Glitches
Chapter 395: Technical Glitches
On the judges' platform, the faces of the several high-ranking officials who were in the know had already darkened.
They quickly exchanged a glance, each seeing determination in the other's eyes.
They absolutely could not let Su Zhan succeed!
They absolutely could not let this battle happen!
Elder Li from the Council suddenly waved his hand, giving a stern order to the assistant beside him, "Immediately! Cut off all external broadcast signals! Use a technical malfunction as the reason! Hurry!"
The assistant's face turned pale, but he did not dare to disobey, immediately conveying the order through encrypted communication.
Almost simultaneously.
That high-ranking Military Department official also stood up, his voice like a great bell:
"Everyone, quiet! A major technical malfunction has occurred on-site, the broadcast is temporarily suspended! Security personnel maintain order, unauthorized personnel are not to approach the arena!"
"What?""Technical malfunction? Right at this moment?"
"You're kidding ghosts! Clearly, they just don't want us to watch!"
"Shameless! Too shameless!"
The live audience erupted into even greater uproar.
This clumsy attempt at deception was rubbing everyone's intelligence against the ground.
Meanwhile, the hundreds of millions of people watching through the live broadcast saw the screen suddenly go black or switch to completely unrelated backup programming.
In the last second before the screen went completely black or was cut away, the barrage exploded:
"Holy shit! They really dared to cut the broadcast?"
"Guilty conscience! There's definitely something shady going on!"
"Expose this quickly! The Grand Competition officials are openly cheating!"
"They're scared! They're scared of Su Zhan! They're scared of the truth!"
"Record this moment! A day of disgrace for Daxia!"
"Brothers, go spam the official media channels! They must give an explanation!"
Inside the Celestial Arena, although the broadcast was cut, the hundreds of thousands of live spectators were still there. The unrest not only did not subside but instead grew even more intense and indignant due to the clumsy methods of the higher-ups.
The waves of noise grew louder and louder!
On the Glory High Platform, the top ten geniuses were also stunned by this sudden turn of events, disbelief written on their faces.
They had even been willing to stake their military honor to request this battle, only to be met with such a crude interruption?
Ye Hongyu abruptly stood up, her phoenix eyes filled with fury.
The atmosphere on the judges' platform also dropped to freezing point.
The faces of the several high-ranking officials who had acted were livid, their chests heaving slightly. Making this decision also subjected them to immense pressure.
They knew the method was clumsy and would have endless repercussions, but in their view, this was the only way to stop Su Zhan from successfully "borrowing momentum"!
Even if they had to bear the infamy, they had to cut off this nationally-watched broadcast!
In stark contrast to them.
Was the deathly silence of the deans of the Five Great Academies.
The four deans, Long Hanhai included, kept their eyelids lowered, their faces devoid of any expression.
They could not support the battle, because that would subject their disciples to a certain defeat and a crushing blow.
They also could not echo the higher-ups, as that would violate their pride as powerful individuals and their sense of fairness.
This dilemma forced them to choose silence to deal with this deadlock, yet in their hearts, they were disappointed by the crude methods of the higher-ups.
The broadcast signal was forcibly cut.
The higher-ups' blatant intervention.
The helpless silence of the deans...
All of this did not make Su Zhan back down in the slightest.
Instead, it made the mocking smile on his face grow even more brilliant.
"Oh... I understand now. So-called rules, so-called fairness... are nothing more than a piece of scrap paper in your hands that you can tear up at will."
Su Zhan looked towards the group of high-ranking officials, "When it's not beneficial to you, when it can't restrain the people you want to suppress... you can just mercilessly throw it into the trash, like you're doing now.
Really... an eye-opener."
These words stabbed fiercely into the hearts of the several high-ranking officials, making their faces alternate between red and white, yet they were unable to refute.
Su Zhan's gaze turned towards the four silent deans, his tone pitying, "It must be hard on you deans as well. Clearly knowing the truth in your hearts, yet you can only sit here, not saying a word, watching your own disciples be humiliated, watching fairness be trampled...
Isn't it suffocating?
Don't you feel that, in the face of this so-called 'position,' your cultivation... seems so... powerless?"
Su Zhan's gaze fell back onto the Glory High Platform, his voice suddenly rising sharply, "And look at you all! Each of you considers yourselves geniuses, your ambitions reaching for the heavens!
And the result?
You don't even have the qualification to fight a fair and square battle without it being a handout from others!
And the ones handing it out are precisely those... who believe you will certainly lose, who would rather slap their own faces than protect you and keep you behind them!
The strength you take such pride in, the honor you hold as dear as life...
In the eyes of the big shots behind you, it turns out... is that cheap?
Hahahaha!..."
Su Zhan let out a burst of unrestrained laughter, filled with endless mockery, "Now I'm actually starting to feel a bit sorry for you.
Not sorry for your lack of strength...
But sorry that you don't even have the courage to recognize your own situation!
Pitiful, lamentable, and even more tragic!"
This series of heart-piercing words was like a violent storm.
It completely tore away the fig leaf of the higher-ups, dissected the silence of the deans until it bled, and ground the dignity and pride of the top ten geniuses against the ground over and over!
"Su! Zhan!"
Bai Pojun's eyes were bloodshot, a violent fist intent soaring into the sky, making the surrounding air vibrate with a buzzing sound.
He stared fixedly at the judges' platform, then looked at Su Zhan in the air, a sense of humiliation threatening to swallow him whole.
The other geniuses were also trembling with anger, their gazes towards their own deans and the higher-ups filled with confusion.
This was exactly the effect Su Zhan wanted.
He wanted these geniuses to hate, to hate the interference of the higher-ups, to hate the silence of their deans.
He wanted to completely ignite this resentment, this suppressed fighting spirit!
Even if the broadcast was cut.
He would still, here, under the witness of these hundreds of thousands of live spectators, smash to pieces the so-called pride of the top ten, along with the hypocritical rules behind them!
Su Zhan stood with his hands behind his back, suspended in the air, coldly spitting out his final sentence, "Now, those rules are gone. Do you... still have the guts... to come up?"
"I'll kill you!!!"
Bai Pojun completely lost control.
Reason was burned away by towering rage.
The Supreme Fist intent around him erupted explosively. Disregarding that he was still on the high platform, he stomped his right foot fiercely, charging straight towards Su Zhan in mid-air.
This punch, fueled by fury, held nothing back.
The entire audience gasped in shock.
Anyone could see that Bai Pojun was fighting with his life on the line.
"Outrageous!"
"Stop him!"
On the judges' platform, those several high-ranking officials had long been ready to act.
At the exact moment Bai Pojun moved.
Two even more vast and mighty Ocean Realm Spiritual Energies, arriving later but striking first, shot out like invisible shackles, coiling around Bai Pojun's body.
It was not an attack, but a higher-level Spiritual Energy restraint.
"Hum!"
Bai Pojun's forward momentum came to an abrupt halt. His entire person was forcibly frozen mid-charge, his fist force mere meters away from Su Zhan, yet unable to advance another inch.
The violent Spiritual Energy around him was forcibly suppressed back into his body, causing his face to flush crimson with suffocation, his eyes wide with rage.
"Bai Pojun! Calm down!"
That Military Department high-ranking official shouted sternly, his icy gaze sweeping towards Su Zhan.
At the same time.
Council Elder Li gave a stern order to the Chief Referee who had long been standing by, "What are you still standing there for? This person is disrupting the competition order, openly challenging the authority of Daxia! Immediately expel him from the venue! If he dares to resist... treat it as treason, kill on sight!"