Chapter 24
Translator:
Lordbluefire
Editor:
Lordbluefire
What?
Even Zhen Zhilan was stunned. How was a copper ball that was two times heavier sent flying from a kick?
“Are you certain?” the other Consecrator asked in great astonishment. “A copper ball that weighs twice as much can only be sent flying by someone at the peak of the seventh radiance-level, right?”
Here’s the real question, had Xia Qingchen really broken through to the peak of the seventh radiance-level?
The Consecrator’s face turned grim. “Why don’t you go and check it out as well?”
He had almost embarra.s.sed himself earlier.
The Vice Headmaster waved his hand and said, “I believe in the checks that Consecrator Jianxin [1] has done. So this means that someone from our martial pavilion had intentionally done something to that copper ball to frame Xia Qingchen?”
The two Consecrators nodded.
It seemed that this was the only possible case for now.
“Don’t let news of this leak out. This is a scandal for our martial pavilion. We’ll investigate this in secret.” The Vice Headmaster gave it a long thought before saying.
The two Consecrators were in agreement.
“The examination result is effective.” Very soon, the vice headmaster’s calm and affirmative tone rang out from the backstage.
Everyone broke into a commotion instantly.
Everyone had thought that Xia Qingchen had cheated, but it turned out that he hadn’t.
They had no idea that not only had Xia Qingchen not cheated, but he was instead, the person who had been framed.
Xia Yuan was overjoyed. “Son, I knew that you could do it!” He could no longer see through Xia Qingchen, but this didn’t stop him from feeling proud at this moment.
Li Weifeng’s gaze was filled with panic.
He expected that Xia Qingchen wouldn’t be able to move the copper ball and that he’d be eliminated immediately. He would then secretly change the copper ball to a normal one.
However, the outcome was one that he’d never dream of.
Not only was Xia Qingchen not eliminated, but this case had even attracted the attention of the upper echelon of the martial pavilion.
Once it was found out that he had sent someone to meddle with the copper ball, he’d be in big trouble.
He forced himself to announce in a composed manner, “The second test is a test of courage.”
Swoosh swoosh swoosh——
Ten people walked out from the martial pavilion. Their age was around 18 to 19 years old, being one to two years older than Xia Qingchen and the other partic.i.p.ants.
“Advanced students!” Someone from the partic.i.p.ants recognized them and exclaimed.
The martial pavilion only had a two-year program.
The advanced students were the students who had already gone through one year of training in the martial pavilion.
Having undergone training by the martial pavilion, they were clearly a lot stronger than Xia Qingchen and the others.
Li Weifeng announced the rules, “One advanced student will lead ten partic.i.p.ants to head for the Lingkong Walkway.”
He took a long and meaningful look in Xia Qingchen’s direction. “Form ten groups in order of your registration sequence.”
Being number 20, Xia Qingchen was a.s.signed to the second group.
The advanced student who led them was Zhao Tianyu.
“Follow me.” Zhao Tianyu led the team and headed for the huge mountain that the martial pavilion was located.
A staircase that was almost vertically inclined led straight to the top.
However, they came to a stop midway.
This place was in the middle of nowhere, and if they weren’t careful, they might fall down and be smashed into paste.
“Look to your left and right.” Zhao Tianyu grabbed onto the chain on one side of the staircase and pointed outside.
There were ten old walkways that slowly meandered around the vertical cliff.
Although the staircase was steep and dangerous, there were at least chains to which they could hold on to.
But there was nothing on the ten walkways at all.
There were only rotten wooden planks as wide as one’s foot. Moreover, each plank was about one zhang away from each other!
If they were to miss a step, they’d definitely fall to their deaths.
“There are stone flowers [2] growing on the cliffs near the ten walkways. Your mission is to go to the walkways and pick them. Understand?” Zhao Tianyu said.
Everyone’s scalp turned numb.
They looked at the towering cliffs and felt even more frightened and anxious when they saw that the spectators on the ground were the size of small speckles.
However, since this was an examination, they could only face it head-on.
“I’ll be a.s.signing the walkways.” Zhao Tianyu said, “Liu Yiyi, you take this one.”
It turned out that Liu Yiyi was also in the same group as Xia Qingchen.
“Huang Shan, you take this.”
“Qin Hao…”
“Xia Qingchen, you take the last one.” Zhao Tianyu arranged for Xia Qingchen to take a slightly curved walkway.
Xia Qingchen wore a composed expression and jumped up onto the walkway lightly.
As compared to how hesitant and scared the other partic.i.p.ants were, Xia Qingchen seemed as if he was walking on flat land, advancing quickly yet steadily.
The other nine partic.i.p.ants had only taken one step when Xia Qingchen had already taken nine.
Zhao Tianyu was slightly surprised, but his lips twitched. “See how capable you look. I hope you don’t cry later on.”
Xia Qingchen walked along the curved walkway and advanced steadily.
At a sharp turning point, Xia Qingchen suddenly drew back his leg that he had put out.
It was because the plank there had rotten and fallen off.
He probed his head out to check. It wasn’t just one plank; a total of nine planks were gone.
There was a distance of nine zhangs, but no place where he could land on.
“Why don’t I find this strange at all?” Xia Qingchen seemed to find this funny and shook his head.
When Li Weifeng a.s.signed him to Zhao Tianyu, he knew that Zhao Tianyu would definitely find trouble for him during the examination.
The road was already cut off. If it was someone else, they’d only be able to return to the route they came in. This would mean that they had given up on the compet.i.tion.
However, Xia Qingchen didn’t need to do that.
He looked up at the cliff. Although it was steep, the rocks weren’t smooth.
“Cloudlight Nature Sound!” Xia Qingchen breathed in and jumped up to a height of half a zhang.
He then stamped his left foot onto the cliff wall, rapidly advancing forward as he moved his legs.
He walked dangerously on the super steep cliff.
It was as quick as the blink of an eye for him to cross a distance of nine zhang given that he was moving at a rapid speed of 20 feet per step.
Dong——
His feet tapped down lightly on the other end, with him successfully crossing over the area with the missing planks.
There were several colorful stone flowers near the cliffs in front of him.
Xia Qingchen picked one of them, but after some thought, he picked more of them and put them into his sleeves.
He then went back easily using the same method he had used earlier.
Zhao Tianyu stood at the stairs, observing the others with a cold glance. If any of them was to encounter danger, he would have to go and save them immediately.
Right now, the other nine partic.i.p.ants had only walked out for less than ten steps.
Suddenly, Zhao Tianyu found Xia Qingchen heading back. His lips curled up into a teasing smile. “I told you not to be too happy.”
He felt that Xia Qingchen must have returned after discovering that there wasn’t a route in front.
“Why, have you given up?” Zhao Tianyu watched casually as Xia Qingchen returned to the stairs.
Xia Qingchen threw him a glance and stood quietly next to the stairs, waiting for the examination to be over.
“Alright, you can just wait there at the side.” Zhao Tianyu smiled. He couldn’t be bothered to continue to agitate Xia Qingchen.
Xia Qingchen was already in a bad mood over his elimination. What would happen if he continued to speak so much and incur Zhao Tianyu’s wrath, causing him to put up a desperate fight?
They were at a cliff of 100 zhangs high. It wasn’t a smart decision to be fighting here.
After the time taken for one to finish a cup of tea, all the partic.i.p.ants returned in succession.
All of them wore pale countenances, feeling extremely frightened.
Even Liu Yiyi couldn’t help but pat her chest, appearing to be very scared.
“Go down!”
The second group completed the examination successfully and returned to the training ground.
Li Weifeng stood there with his hands behind his back, saying, “Those who didn’t manage to pick a stone flower in this round, please take one step back.”
Out of the ten of them, two girls took a step back, feeling aggrieved.
Both of them had returned midway, feeling scared.
Li Weifeng took a glance at them and then asked, “Are there any more?” None of the remaining seven partic.i.p.ants moved.
He was slightly stunned as he threw a glance toward Xia Qingchen. Zhao Tianyu had secretly told him earlier that Xia Qingchen had come back in the midst of the examination.
So why was he still standing there?