Liu Ning pinched a golden hilt at her waist and drew out a three-foot long fish scale soft sword.
The sword light flashed, knocking down all the silver needles.
“Ding ding!”
Zixi performed a speed-based martial art, stepping like the wind, constantly changing directions, striking out pieces of silver needles, turning them into wave after wave of needle rain.
Liu Ning’s brows furrowed as she tried to attack Zixi, but was forced back by the rain of needles, and could only keep swinging her sword in defence, causing the true qi in her body to rapidly deplete.
On the challenge stage, a stalemate appeared.
“Is she …… a hedgehog? Why are there so many needles hidden on her body?” Duanmu Xingling looked over towards Zhang Ruochen and asked with a smile.
“How would I know?” Zhang Ruochen said.
“You don’t even know?” Duanmu Xingling was very surprised.
Zhang Ruochen gently shook his head and continued to stare at the challenge stage. He could already see Zixi’s tactics, knowing that she was not Liu Ning’s opponent, she used silver needles to consume Liu Ning’s True Qi.
If Liu Ning could not break Zixi’s flying rain of silver needles, then Liu Ning would definitely lose.
Unsurprisingly to Zhang Ruochen’s expectation, after a quarter of an hour, Liu Ning’s true qi was heavily depleted and he was attacked by Zixi’s sneak attack from behind.
When Liu Ning reacted, Zixi’s sword was already on her neck.
The challenge was won.
“She’s so fast with her sword, without hundreds of thousands of practice, it’s impossible to be this fast with a sword. Why do I get the feeling that she looks like an assassin who has been professionally trained?” Duanmu Xingling’s eyes narrowed, feeling that Zixi’s sword striking style was somewhat similar to that of an assassin from the Hellmouth Sect.
Although Zixi had deliberately hidden it, it still left traces behind, allowing Duanmu Xingling to see some clues.
Zhang Ruochen’s heart fluttered as he laughed, “If she’s really an assassin, wouldn’t I have been killed by her a long time ago?”
“That’s true.” Duanmu Xingling nodded.
Zixi’s last sword was indeed very stunning, it was practically shadowless and invisible, only Xuan Ranked martial artists could see the trajectory of her sword, all the other martial artists, all of them, did not see it clearly.
Zixi defeated Liu Ning, and naturally became the new ninth expert of the Western Academy.
Liu Ning automatically dropped one place and became the tenth.
Mo Qinglong was pushed out of the top ten and became the eleventh.
Next, many more people went to challenge the top ten ranked martial artists, and the most people challenged Zixi, who everyone felt was the weakest.
However, none of the people who went forward to challenge her succeeded.
Many people were actually stronger than Zixi, yet they just lost to her in confusion. When they reacted, Zixi’s sword was already pointed at their necks, making them not dare to move.
A senior sister ranked 17th in the West Courtyard, after losing to Zixi’s sword, walked off the challenge stage in great exasperation: ”How could this happen? My strength is clearly stronger than hers, how could I lose to her?”
Only Xuan Ranked martial artists could see how powerful Zi Xi was:
First of all, her speed was the biggest advantage, and her weird way of making swords was impossible to defend against.
Secondly, her eyesight and earsight were far beyond normal people, she could detect danger in advance, hear the sound of the opponent’s attack in advance, and subsequently, make the most correct response strategy within the shortest time.
Thirdly, she was very experienced in combat, and in this aspect, was much more powerful than the other trainees.
Zhang Ruochen also nodded, originally, Zixi also had a weakness, that is, her physique was one step weaker than those top geniuses.
In the last three months, she had refined five drops of Half-Saint True Liquid, allowing her to make up for this shortcoming. Her strength, too, had followed suit and skyrocketed.
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Zixi walked towards the challenge stage and stood to Zhang Ruochen’s right as Scholar Duanmu Xingling and Zhang Ruochen clasped their hands in front of their chests and said, “Aren’t you going to challenge?”
“It’s about time!”
Zhang Ruochen walked towards the challenge stage and stood on it, saying, “I’m going to challenge the seventh place.”
The seventh ranked student of the Western Academy was named Sikong Art.
He was a veteran student of the Western Academy eight years ago, and his martial cultivation had reached the peak of the Xuanji Realm Grand Circle four years ago, and also because he wanted to enter the Intermediate Ruins, so, he had never broken through the realm.
With Zhang Ruochen’s current cultivation, even if he challenged the fifth-ranked Ju Hailan, he would still have a great chance of winning.
However, Zhang Ruochen didn’t want to be that high-profile, just being able to obtain the qualification to enter the Intermediate Level Ruins was fine, there was no need to push himself into the limelight.
Challenging the seventh place was considered to be rather conservative.
Even though he wanted to keep a low profile, challenging Sikong Technique as a new student still caused quite a stir. Many people rushed over, wanting to watch this battle.
“Do you guys think it’s possible for Zhang Ruochen to succeed in his challenge?” An old first-year student who was ranked in the top fifty said.
Another trainee who had reached the Great Perfection of the Xuanji Realm said, “If it was before Zixi made her move, I probably wouldn’t have believed it. But even Zixi was able to defeat the eighth ranked Liu Ning, Zhang Ruochen’s strength is above Zixi’s, so he might not have no chance of defeating Sikong Technique.”
“Right! The new students have high natural talent, and their strength can’t be measured by pure martial arts cultivation.”
“This year’s new students are too strong, just three months after enrolling in the academy, they defeated the top ten ranked experts of the academy, how can we veterans who have been in the academy for several years be embarrassed?”
……
…………
There were more and more trainees under the challenge stage, and even the vice masters of the three great academies and the master of the West Academy rushed over, standing not far away and looking out in the direction of the challenge stage. Obviously, they were also looking forward to this battle.
The better Zhang Ruochen performed, the better it would be for the Martial City Academy.
A genius, to any power, was the most important resource.
Sikong Technique had a tiger’s back and waist, his body was like an iron tower, his entire body was covered in solid muscles, and although he was only twenty-five years old, his face was covered in a beard, like a green-bearded man.
Holding a black iron rod, he ascended the steps and stood ten steps away from Zhang Ruochen.
“Boom!”
He placed the iron rod towards the ground, and the ground immediately let out a loud bang and trembled violently.
Sikong Technique laughed, “Zhang Ruochen, I know that your cultivation is very strong, your natural talent is very high, and that you helped the Western Academy win first place among the freshmen of the four academies, so I admire you, Senior Brother. However, you brat is also arrogant and actually dares to challenge senior brother me. What percentage of certainty do you think you have that you can win?”
“Ten percent.” Zhang Ruochen said.
“Ten percent? You’re looking down on senior brother too much?” Sikong Technique was a bit unhappy.
Zhang Ruochen said without arrogance, “For a martial artist, since he has chosen to challenge his opponent, he must have the confidence of certain victory. If one doesn’t even have the confidence to win for sure, then one has lost half of the battle before even engaging in a fight.”
“Well said. If you don’t challenge, then you must have the confidence of certain victory once you do.”
Sikong Technique smiled mysteriously and said, “However, you chose the wrong person today, and you are destined to lose at the hands of Senior Brother. Come! Let senior brother see just how strong our Western Academy’s first freshman genius is?”
Zhang Ruochen sensed a powerful power fluctuation in Sikong Technique’s body, so he didn’t dare to take the enemy lightly and became more cautious.
To be able to enter the top ten of the Western Academy, every one of them had real skills, and if one was not careful, one might lose on the challenge stage.
Squeezing the Flash Soul Sword, he injected Jade Pure True Qi into the sword, and all fourteen inscriptions in the sword activated.
Four “Force” inscriptions, four “Ice” inscriptions, four “Electricity” inscriptions, and two “Light” inscriptions. four “Electricity” mottoes, and two “Light” mottoes.
This was the first time that Zhang Ruochen had activated all of the inscriptions of the Flashing Soul Sword, reaching its strongest state.
The original 53kg of Soul Flash Sword reached a weight of 453kg under the support of the four force line inscriptions.
At the same time, cold air, sword light, and electric current, travelled through the body of the sword, and a sword aura flowed around Zhang Ruochen’s body, as if it was completely integrated with him.
“This is the realm of the Sword Follows the Heart High Stage?”
Knowing that Zhang Ruochen had reached the Sword Follows Heart High Stage Realm, Sikong Technique’s face became serious as he infused his True Qi into the Tungsten Star Cold Iron Stick in his hand.
The Tungsten Star Cold Iron Rod, a fifth rank True Martial Treasure Weapon, was of a higher rank than the Flashing Soul Sword in Zhang Ruochen’s hand.
There were twenty-one inscriptions engraved on the rod, of which fifteen were of the “Force” system and six were of the “Ice” system.
The purer the inscriptions on a True Martial Treasure, the more powerful it would be.
The Tungsten Star Cold Iron Stick only had two types of inscriptions in total, which was considered very pure, and therefore, it belonged to the top tier amongst the fifth rank True Martial Artifacts.
Activating the twenty-one inscriptions, the weight of the Tungsten Star Cold Iron Stick reached 1,608kg, incomparably heavy, and when placed on the ground, it looked like it was capable of cracking the ground.
Sikong Art waved the Tungsten Star Cold Iron Rod with one hand, and a piercingly cold aura emanated from the rod. On the challenge stage, flakes of snow appeared, and a layer of white frost condensed on the ground, and the temperature in the entire air dropped rapidly.
A seemingly random stick contained subtle martial arts techniques.
“Not good, Sikong Technique has unexpectedly hidden his strength as well.” Duanmu Xingling began to worry for Zhang Ruochen, saying, “With the strength that Sikong Technique is displaying right now, he is no longer weaker than the fifth ranked Ju Hailan, and may even be a bit more powerful than Ju Hailan.”
The eyes of the West Courtyard’s Head of the Courtyard also narrowed slightly, revealing a hint of a smile as he said, “I didn’t expect that Sikong Technique would actually have cultivated the Tai’ah Cold Ice Technique to the eighth layer, with his strength, he can already fight against those martial artists ranked lower on the Xuan Ranking.”
The Southern Courtyard’s Vice Courtyard Master laughed, “Congratulations Courtyard Master, the Western Courtyard has another Xuan List martial artist level student.”
“Hehe! It’s only a pity for Zhang Ruochen, if Sikong Technique hadn’t broken through to the eighth layer of the Tai Ah Cold Ice Technique, he would still have a chance to win. As for now, he has no chance at all.” The East Courtyard’s Vice-Master said regretfully.
It looked like he was lamenting, but in reality, his heart was laughing coldly.
It was because of Zhang Ruochen that the East Courtyard was ranked third this year, and the East Courtyard Vice Lord naturally hated Zhang Ruochen. Seeing that Zhang Ruochen was about to lose the challenge, he couldn’t help but make a snide remark.
The West Courtyard Master smiled faintly, “It doesn’t matter even if he fails the challenge, he still has another chance to challenge him anyway.”
