A black-robed man wearing a cloak walked out from behind the wigwam, letting out a hoarse laugh, “The courtyard master is really powerful, did you deliberately use Zhang Ruochen to lure us out?”
The West Courtyard Master said, “It’s just a pity that we didn’t lure everyone out, but by taking down you, the big fish, those other little shrimps won’t be enough to fear.”
Since he had already been recognised, Elder Situ no longer hid his identity and removed the cloak from his head, revealing a thin and old face, with two sharp rays of light in those Avray concave eyes as he stared tightly at the Western Courtyard Master.
“Yard Master, it’s been ten years since I’ve seen you make a move, I wonder what level of cultivation you’ve reached?” Elder Situ took out two crimson coloured spear shafts from his robes, and catalysed the inscriptions to bring the shafts together, forming an eight foot long blood dripping spear.
The gun, red like blood.
The spear was waved as if a waterfall of blood was gushing down.
Flame-like true qi surged out from Elder Situ’s palm, completely wrapping the long spear.
A blazing temperature emanated from the body of the spear, causing the temperature in the surrounding air to climb dramatically.
Just when everyone thought that Elder Situ was going to fight to the death with the Western Courtyard’s Master, suddenly, Elder Situ’s eyes flashed as he stared towards Zhang Ruochen, the palm of his left hand slapping on the end of the long spear.
“Swoosh!”
The eight-foot-long blood-dripping spear was like a flaming arrow that had left the string, emitting an ear-piercing wind-breaking sound as it flew rapidly towards Zhang Ruochen.
In the air, there was a crackling sound.
At the same time, Elder Situ took a step to the right, and with a tiptoe of his feet, his body flew up like a big bird, flying tens of metres away in a flash, leaping over the wall of the Longwu Palace, and escaping into the distance.
He knew that he was definitely not a match for the Western Courtyard Master, so he could only attack Zhang Ruochen. As long as the Western Academy Master went to save Zhang Ruochen, he would have a chance to escape.
Staring at the blood-dripping spear flying over, Zhang Ruochen quickly stepped backward.
Just as the flaming lance flew in front of Zhang Ruochen, the Western Courtyard Master grabbed the shaft of the lance and swung his arm, and the lance flew out at an even faster speed.
“Boom!”
The blood-dripping spear crashed through the walls of the Dragon Martial Hall and flew out like a fiery dragon.
Outside, a miserable scream was heard.
The enclosing wall of the Dragon Martial Hall was seven metres high and one metre thick, made of masonry. At this moment, it was smashed by the flaming lance into a large hole with a diameter of two metres, and the solid thick wall shook.
Looking through the hole, Elder Situ was pierced through his body by the lance and collapsed in a pool of blood.
Zhang Ruochen glanced towards the Western Courtyard’s Master and said in his heart, What a powerful martial arts cultivation, with a single casual move, he had subdued Elder Situ without even using his true power.
The Western Courtyard Master looked at the purple-black poison mark on Zhang Ruochen’s neck and took a medicine bottle out, saying, ”You’ve been hit by the strange poison of the Hellmouth Sect, ‘Yellow Spring Water’, fortunately it’s only a trace amount of venom and not fatal. In the pill bottle is a specially made antidote to the poison, you should take it now.”
Zhang Ruochen took out the Antidote Pill from the pill bottle and took it into his mouth, and the purple-black poison mark on his neck indeed slowly dispersed, and soon disappeared completely.
The Western Academy Master stared at Zhang Ruochen, nodded in satisfaction, and laughed, “I heard Yue Jingchan mention that your spiritual power reached the twenty-ninth rank, making you the number one spiritual power genius in the history of the Martial City Academy. Haha! Good boy, you have given this Academy Master enough face, next time I go to the inner palace of the Martial City Academy Palace, I will definitely show off more in front of those old guys.”
After a pause, the Western Academy Master’s face turned serious and said, “There’s one more thing that I must ask you discreetly, do you want to take the path of a Spiritual Power Saint?”
Without any hesitation, Zhang Ruochen said, “No, I won’t give up the Martial Dao.”
The Western Academy Master stared into Zhang Ruochen’s eyes and said, “Zhang Ruochen, do you know how talented you are above spiritual power? Even in the entire history of the human race in the Kunlun Realm, it is estimated that you can be ranked in the top ten. With your natural talent, coupled with the vigorous cultivation of the Martial City Academy, you have at least a fifty percent chance of being able to become a Spiritual Force Saint.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “There’s no need for the Academy Master to persuade me any further, there’s absolutely no way I’ll give up on martial arts.”
The Western Academy Master said, “Alright! Actually, you are also extremely talented in martial dao, and your future achievements are definitely not low. Vice Academy Master Qing Hua has promised to help you apply for ten drops of Half-Saint True Liquid, and it should be applied for within three days.”
“In martial arts, if you have any doubts, feel free to come and ask Old Man. There are still two months to go before the quarterly examination, so you should cultivate hard and strive to win the top spot in the competition for freshmen from the four courtyards, and win glory for our Western Courtyard.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “The student will definitely do his best.”
The Western Academy Master stared at Elder Situ’s corpse, thought for a moment, and said, “Elder Situ is dead, but there must be other Earth Sect killers lurking in the Western Academy, and none of their cultivations should be too strong. Duanmu girl, for the next two months, you will be the one to protect his safety. Are you okay with that?”
“Of course it’s fine, Master, just don’t worry.” Duanmu Xingling laughed.
The West Courtyard Master nodded, and then he ordered the bodies of the three Earth Sect Slayers to be cleared out and hung above a nine-foot high wall of blood in the West Courtyard.
After any Black Market and Moon Worshipping Demon Sect infiltrators were killed, all of them had to be hung above the wall of blood for three days, to be used as a warning to those other infiltrators.
“That’s Senior Sister Hua Ren, I didn’t realise that she was actually an assassin from the Hellmouth Sect, she even instructed me on my cultivation skills in archery.”
“Elder Situ has been in the Western Academy for decades, and surprisingly, he is also an evil person in the black market, fortunately, he was killed by the Academy Master, or else I don’t know how many talented students would have been assassinated by him.”
……
The three assassins being subdued and killed caused a huge stir in the Western Academy, and many trainees came below the wall of blood to watch the action.
Zixi stood amongst the crowd, staring at the three corpses on the wall of blood, feeling an indescribable sadness in her heart. In the future, perhaps she would also be killed and hung above that wall of blood.
If you choose to be a killer, you should be mentally prepared to be killed.
Not only Zixi, there were two other trainees in the crowd whose eyes also revealed a strange colour and quietly retreated.
Dragon Martial Hall.
Duanmu Xingling clasped his hands in front of his chest and laughed, “The assassins of the Hellmouth Sect lurking in the Western Courtyard have suffered a heavy blow, even Elder Situ was killed, so it is estimated that no one will dare to assassinate you again in a short period of time.”
Zhang Ruochen stared at the rubble on the ground and the collapsed walls and said, “Xuan Zi No. 1 has also turned into ruins, it’s estimated that it will take a month before it can be rebuilt, where will we live in the future?”
Duanmu Xingling stopped, stroked her chin, and smiled, “Let’s go to Sister Dust’s place.”
“You just had a big battle with her, and it got so bad that she would still let you live in Earth Character No. 1?” Zhang Ruochen said.
“Don’t worry! Since Sister Dust and I have already fought a battle, then her anger should have subsided for the most part. Let’s go! Trust me, Sister Dust will definitely accept us.” Duanmu Xingling said.
When they arrived at the first number of the Earth Character, the door was open and Duanmu Xingling and Zhang Ruochen walked straight in.
Suddenly, Zhang Ruochen stopped in his tracks.
With a “swoosh” sound, a precious blue sword flew out of the window and flew past the tip of Zhang Ruochen’s nose.
Huang Yichen walked out from the house and stood proudly above, staring at Duanmu Xingling and Zhang Ruochen as he said coldly as if it was ice and frost, “What are you guys doing here in Earth Character No. 1? If you don’t want to die, get out immediately.”
Duanmu Xingling laughed and swooped over, hugging Huang Yichen’s arm, as if she was pampering herself, saying pitifully, “Now that the Yellow Character No. 1 and Xuan Character No. 1 have been destroyed, where do you want us to go? Sister Dust, you see us as so pitiful, just take us in! Please! Please!”
Zhang Ruochen stood below and calmly said, “If Senior Sister Huang is still angry, then I will go to Fourth Brother’s place and reside with him. Farewell!”
“Who said I’m still angry? When have I ever been angry?”
The coldness on Huang Yichen’s face melted away as she smiled with bright eyes and teeth, “Since you’ve come to join me, as a senior sister, how can I not take you in? Come in with me!”
Huang Yichen’s arm stretched forward, and true qi was spat out from her palm, transforming into a twisting wind force.
Driven by that wind force, the blue sword that was originally stuck in the stone wall beside Zhang Ruochen flew back into her hand with a swish.
“Fetching things through space.” Zhang Ruochen’s eyes narrowed slightly, and he looked a few more points higher at Huang Yichen.
With her exquisite control of her true qi, it shouldn’t take long for her to reach the Sword Follows the Heart high-level realm.
“In the future, Starling will live with me on the first floor, you will live downstairs in the lobby, and you can’t step foot on the first floor without my permission. You don’t have an opinion, do you?” Huang Yichen stared with a pair of beautiful eyes, her eyelashes slightly upturned as she leisurely stared at Zhang Ruochen.
The downstairs lobby was very spacious, not only was it just one room, but there was also a study room, a zither room, and a martial arts training hall. Outside of the zither room was the bath, which carried a row of maple trees by the side of the bath, a very elegant environment.
Zhang Ruochen said, “Alright! In the future, I will live in the Martial Arts Training Hall and will definitely not disturb the two elder sisters.”
After saying this, Zhang Ruochen took Little Black and walked into the Martial Arts Training Hall.
The Martial Arts Training Hall was very vast, eight metres long and six metres wide, and except for the entrance door, all four sides were covered with stone walls. Moreover, there were formation inscriptions carved on top of the stone walls to guard them from being pierced by sword Qi.
“Zhang Ruochen, I’m going to the study to read a book!” After saying this, Little Black let out a whoosh and left the Martial Training Hall.
For the next three days, Zhang Ruochen cultivated the Heavenly Heart Sword Technique in the Martial Training Hall during the daytime, and after nightfall, he entered the inner space of the Space-Time Crystal Stone to take pills and cultivate his True Qi.
He had a large amount of pills on his body, all of which were seized from those candidates during the first round of the Academy Palace Examination.
Not only were there pills to enhance true qi, there were also pills to enhance strength, pills to heal wounds, pills to detoxify poison, and pills to increase blood qi. There were more than three hundred bottles in total.
Zhang Ruochen roughly calculated that such a large number of elixirs would be enough to support his cultivation to the Xuanji Realm Grand Circle.
Three days later, the Qing Hua Vice Academy Master sent ten drops of Half-Saint True Liquid to the first number of the Earth Character and handed it over to Zhang Ruochen.
When he obtained the ten drops of Half-Saint True Liquid, Zhang Ruochen couldn’t wait to refine them.
“Little Black, help me protect my magic, if Senior Sister Huang and Senior Sister Duanmu come looking for me, you can tell them that I’m in closed-door cultivation.”
Zhang Ruochen gave Xiao Hei a greeting, then entered the inner space of the Space-Time Crystal Stone, took out the first drop of the Half-Saint True Liquid, took it directly into his mouth, and began to refine it.
After spending eight days in a row in the Space-Time Crystal Stone, Zhang Ruochen refined two drops of Semi-Saint True Liquid, and his cultivation successfully broke through to the Xuan Extremity Realm’s Small Extremity Position.
