Zhang Ruochen hid part of his strength and didn’t display the peak sword intent of Sword Follows Heart.
Once it was shown, the crowd was afraid that they would be even more shocked. With the Sword Follows Heart Walking high level realm, it was already enough to defeat Feng Zhilin.
“Sword Follows Heart Walking High Stage realm?”
Feng Zhilin’s face was very ugly, how could he not expect that Zhang Ruochen’s realm in the Dao of the Sword had reached such a powerful point.
“No, I won’t lose, not yet! I am three Martial Dao realms higher than him, I will definitely be able to defeat him!”
Feng Zhilin clenched his teeth and did not give in, swinging his spear and attacking again.
Zhang Ruochen frowned slightly as the tip of his sword pulled up an arcing wave of air.
The form of the air flow was like a wave of water, as countless sword qi travelled through the air flow, emitting the sound of a tidal surge.
“Heavenly Heart Tidal Wave!”
A sword was swung out, and the sword qi transformed into a five-metre-high wave that pounced on Feng Zhilin’s body and swept him backwards.
“Ah ……”
Feng Zhilin screamed miserably, the lance in his hand dislodged and fell to the ground.
“Boom!”
The white martial robe on Feng Zhilin’s body was shredded by the sword qi and turned into pieces of rags, leaving only a silver scale armour vest still on his body.
Apart from the area covered by the silver scale armour vest, the rest of his body was cut out by the sword qi, and his whole body was a bloody mess.
This was still Zhang Ruochen’s mercy, otherwise, that sword just now would have been able to sever Feng Zhilin’s limbs and head.
“Feng Zhilin, you’ve lost!”
Zhang Ruochen walked over with his iron sword in hand, the tip of the sword pointing at Feng Zhilin’s neck as he said, “I told you, I won’t kill you, I will only avenge Fourth Brother by breaking both of your arms and hand bones!”
“Wait …… wait!”
Feng Zhilin trembled, climbed up from the ground, knelt in front of Zhang Ruochen, kowtowed to Zhang Ruochen and said, “Zhang Ruochen, many thanks …… for not killing you.”
Looking at Feng Zhilin who was kneeling in front of him, Zhang Ruochen’s face was showing a trace of doubt when suddenly, he felt a dangerous aura.
Not good!
Right at this moment, Feng Zhilin raised his head violently and spat out three silver needles in a row from his mouth.
“Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!”
Flicking tongues and arrows, the Wind Family’s unique technique.
Feng Zhiyi could only flick a silver needle with his tongue, but Feng Zhilin could spit out three in a row.
No one in the distant stands expected Feng Zhi Lin to suddenly launch an attack.
At such a close distance, not to mention Zhang Ruochen, even a Xuanji Realm Grand Circle martial artist would be hit.
“Ding Ding!”
Zhang Ruochen’s iron sword swung, slapping precisely on top of the three silver needles, sending the three needles flying backward.
One of the silver needles was inserted into Feng Zhilin’s throat.
The other two silver needles pierced through Feng Zhilin’s eyes.
“Well …… Huo Xing …… King …… Prince …… save me! ……”
Feng Zhilin pulled out the silver needles that were stuck in his throat, tightly covered his neck, and rushed towards the bottom of the Life and Death Stage. However, his eyes to blind, can not see the road at all, accidentally stepped on the air, fell down thirty metres high life and death platform.
In a series of shrieks, Feng Zhilin fell into the forest of iron thorns, his body was stabbed out with more than ten bloody holes, struggling twice, completely hanging down his arms, no sound.
Silence.
The entire life and death stage became incomparably silent, only the breathing and heartbeats of the crowd could be heard.
Zhang Ruochen sighed softly, originally, he only wanted to give Feng Zhilin some lessons, he didn’t think of killing him. Even if he broke both of his arm bones, as long as he applied the Sinew Breaking Cream, he would still be able to heal within half a month.
Shaking his head, Zhang Ruochen walked down the Life and Death Stage.
Afterwards, all the trainees from Yunwu County Kingdom cheered and surged towards Zhang Ruochen.
“Your Highness the Ninth Prince is so powerful, even Feng Zhilin died in your hands, in the future, let’s see who else dares to bully our Yunwu County Kingdom’s cadets.”
A female cadet with a rather sinister appearance stared at Zhang Ruochen with adoring eyes and said, “Ninth Prince, the sword you used to defeat Feng Zhilin was just too stunning! Can I learn sword from you?”
Seeing that Zhang Ruochen seemed to be in a bad mood, Liu Chengfeng guessed the reason and laughed, “Your Highness, the Ninth Prince, Feng Zhilin is to blame for his own death, there is no need for you to take it to heart! Besides, it was he himself who fell to his death by falling off the Life and Death Platform, it has nothing to do with you at all.”
Zhang Ruochen nodded gently and said indifferently, “Since Feng Zhilin is dead, then this matter will come to an end, so everyone disperse!”
The trainees of the Yunwu County Kingdom were all very excited, but Prince Huo Xing’s face was extraordinarily cold as he stared at Zhang Ruochen’s departing back, “Rubbish, Feng Zhilin is just a piece of trash, he actually couldn’t even kill a Zhang Ruochen!”
Next to him, a cadet from the Four Direction County Kingdom said, “What now? Is it possible to just let Zhang Ruochen go?”
“Spare him? How is that possible?”
Prince Huo Xing clenched his hands tightly and coldly said, “I’ll fix a letter to report to my father right now, and ask him to spend a high price to hire an assassin from the Hellmouth Sect to make sure to get rid of Zhang Ruochen. If Zhang Ruochen doesn’t die, he will surely become a great enemy of the Sifang County Kingdom in the future.”
……
After the duel on the Life and Death Stage, Zhang Ruochen returned to the Dragon Martial Hall and began to continue cultivating his sword techniques.
On the third day, he finally received a summons from the West Courtyard’s Master.
The Western Academy Master, wearing a golden robe, was sitting on top of a side of white stone by the poolside, cupping a fishing rod in his hand as he fished.
“Greetings to the courtyard master!”
Zhang Ruochen arrived behind the Western Academy Master and bowed slightly.
“Zhang Ruochen, do you know why the old man summoned you a month after the Academy Palace Examination?” The Western Academy Master was still pinching his fishing rod, staring intently at the surface of the pool, and did not turn to look at Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen said, “Student doesn’t know.”
Zhang Ruochen had seen the Western Academy Master once during the Academy Palace Examination, only that time he was too far away and just casually glanced at him.
It was only at this moment that Zhang Ruochen began to seriously survey this courtyard master, the only supreme powerhouse in the Western Courtyard who could wear a golden robe.
He looked like he was already seventy or eighty years old, with a head full of grey hair, but there was not a single wrinkle on his hands or the side of his face, nor was there a hint of old age.
“I also wonder what level of cultivation this Western Courtyard Master has reached?” Zhang Ruochen could not see through the cultivation level of the Western Courtyard Master at all.
The West Courtyard Master put down his fishing rod and stood up, turning towards Zhang Ruochen and said, “Do you know that the first freshman of every session will be accepted by the Vice Courtyard Master as his personal disciple. Of course, if it’s a freshman with excellent natural talent, the old man will also personally take in a disciple.”
“Your performance in the Martial Tower was, quite outstanding, and at that time, the old man had already moved to accept a disciple. The outstanding that Old Husband refers to is not you breaking through the second level of the third floor of the Martial Tower, but rather, it refers to the fact that you broke through the third level of the third floor of the Martial Tower and the fact that you defeated Luo Xu at the same realm.”
Zhang Ruochen was slightly shocked and said, “The courtyard master knows about what happened in the Martial Tower?”
“Haha!”
The Western Academy Master let out a loud laugh and said, “Do you really think that a place as important as the Martial Tower is only guarded by Girl Huang and Girl Duanmu inside? There are some secrets that even the two of them don’t know.”
Subsequently, the West Courtyard Master’s face was solemn as he said, “However, what the two of them did, Old Man did not oppose. Even if they didn’t stop you at that time, old me would have personally prevented you from ascending to the fourth floor of the Martial Tower.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “Is the Courtyard Master worried that I have shown too much natural talent and have been assassinated by certain people?”
The Western Academy Master nodded and said, “The Martial City Academy Palace is not absolutely safe, over the years, the Black Market and the Moon Worshipping Demon Cult have continuously infiltrated the Academy Palace, and it’s not just that there are their people amongst the trainees, but even amongst some of the higher echelons of the Academy Palace there are also their people.”
“If you had broken through to the fourth floor of the Martial Tower at that time, the forces of the Black Market would have definitely spared no effort to exterminate you in the cradle, and even I would have found it difficult to shelter you.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “Is the Academy Master referring to the ‘Operation Chopping Seedlings’? ”
The Western Academy Master gave a light eep and said, “You know about the ‘Operation Seedling Chopper’?”
It should be known that the black market and the martial market money mills had been in an antagonistic relationship since ancient times, fighting and killing each other, expanding their territories and competing for market resources.
The Martial City Academy was the main camp for the Martial City Bank to cultivate talents, in order to crush the Martial City Bank from the source, so the Black Market launched the ‘Operation Chopping Seedlings’, specialising in assassinating the elite geniuses of the Martial City Academy.
Eight hundred years ago, the Black Market had launched Operation Seedling Chopper, and of course, Zhang Ruochen knew about it.
Zhang Ruochen had no way to explain it to the Western Academy Master, so he could only blame it on County King Yunwu and said, “Before I came to take the Academy Palace Examination, I heard my father mention it once. Actually, I’m not very clear about Operation Seedling Chopper.”
“So County King Yunwu has already reminded you, then there’s no need for me to say more!”
In the Western Academy Master’s opinion, it wasn’t difficult that County King Yunwu would learn about Operation Seedling Beheading, after all, Operation Seedling Beheading had been going on for thousands of years, and it wasn’t a secret.
Zhang Ruochen’s expression moved as he said, “The reason why the Academy Master delayed summoning the student for a month, could it be that he wanted to use the student as bait to bring out the evil people from the Black Market and Moon Worshipping Demon Cult who had infiltrated the Western Academy?”
“That’s right!” The Western Academy Master laughed, “You won’t hold a grudge against the old man, right?”
Zhang Ruochen laughed, “Since the courtyard master has already told the student about this matter to his face, how could the student hold a grudge against the courtyard master? I’m curious to know whether or not the courtyard master has found out the evil person lurking in the Western Courtyard?”
“I’ve already found out some clues, I’m just still waiting for the big fish to enter the net, I believe that I’ll be able to close the net soon.” The Western Courtyard’s courtyard master said.
Afterwards, the Western Courtyard Master added, “Zhang Ruochen, would you be willing to worship Old Husband to cultivate your master and become Old Husband’s personal disciple?”
There was a big difference between a student and a personal disciple.
A teacher could teach many students, but there were very few personal disciples.
Once he became a personal disciple of the Western Academy Master, it was equivalent to having an additional backer, then Zhang Ruochen’s status in the Western Academy would immediately climb, and in the future, no one would dare to find trouble with him. Even when he reached the inner palace of the Martial City Academy Palace, Zhang Ruochen’s status was still higher than other inner palace students.
However, Zhang Ruochen didn’t want to worship the West Courtyard Academy Master as his master, because he had too many secrets that he didn’t want outsiders to know. If he worshipped the Western Academy Master as his teacher, some of those secrets would definitely be exposed.
Zhang Ruochen respectfully bowed to the Western Courtyard’s Courtyard Master and said, “Thank you for the Courtyard Master’s love, however, the student wants to cultivate his own martial dao, and has no intention of worshipping a master for the time being.”
Surprisingly, the West Courtyard Master did not get angry, but instead revealed a smile and said, “Hehehe! The old man has been the West Courtyard Master for thirty-four years, and has taken the initiative to accept disciples a total of eleven times, and you are the second person to reject the old man.”
……
