Chapter 23
It’s The Weapon
Chu Shen didn’t want to stand around awkwardly so he decide to strike up a conversation. “So how did you get so strong exactly?” Chu Shen was curious, was it because of Bei Fong’s talent.
“Well, as the only child of the city lord of major city, I got pampered a lot. Resources combined with my talent carried me through a lot of the way. How about you?”
“Mostly just hard work. Because of how out of the way my village is I didn’t have access to any medicines. The only thing I had was a fairly good technique but a traveling senior gave me a different technique that’s extremely suitable with me. I have already advanced two levels in under a week with it.”
“Seems like you have good luck. Hopefully it sticks with you. Maybe being around you will be good karma.” Bei Fong joked around while looking at the line. The last person was there.
“Maybe I will have a Buddha’s luck. You should definitely stick around.”
CLAP
A loud sound like thunder suddenly sounded. The low murmurs from the crowd suddenly stopped. Looking they saw the middle aged man had clapped his hands, resulting in the loud sound.
“Alright listen up. You just pa.s.sed the screening test. Right here is some strength testing stone.” The man gestured towards a collection of stone pillars as tall as a person and as thick as a tree trunk. “Each one of you will come up here and separate according to different stages. You will each punch the stone twice, then you will use your strongest armed hit on the strength testing stone.”
With that said the man immediately started calling out different stages, separating them into three different ones. A vast majority were in the Man Stage, about sixty in total. There was another twenty to thirty in the Tiger Stage and five people in the Dragon Stage. After that he separated the Tiger Stage cultivators into levels 1-5 and levels 6-10. Then he separated the Man Stage cultivators by every two levels.
Looking around Chu Shen saw that most of the people of the man stage was in his line. The middle aged man saw the problem and scowled. Finally he separated them into the ninth and the tenth level.
With that the trials began. Chu Shen was the very last person. Most people were anxious and tried to get to the front of the line but Chu Shen wasn’t worried. Why would he be? Most of the people here were 16-20 years old.
When compared to a twelve year old it was obvious that the younger one would have a brighter future.
Each time someone punched the pillar it would light up. The more force used the brighter it lit up. The pillars in the Man Stage were similar to a flickering candle. The ones in the Tiger Stage were brighter, like a burning fire, the Dragon Stage however was comparable to a large bonfire.
Smack Clang
The sounds of flesh hitting rock rang out followed by the sound of steel hitting it as well. Many loud sounds rang out as people used their own techniques. Those at the Dragon Stage and below couldn’t use Qi externally so only the sound of steel could be heard.While it was true that Qi could not be used externally, it could be used to provide a temporary boost in power when focused on parts of the body.
After a long time Chu Shen reached the end of the line. Striding up to the strength testing rock he took a stance. Infusing his fist with as much Qi as he could, he punched out and hit the pillar with all his strength. The pillar lit up, barely comparable with those at the Tiger Stage.
“This kids got some strength.” “Yeah I know, he’s at the ninth level of the Man Stage but can hit like those at the beginning of the Tiger Stage.”
When Chu Shen heard their praise he turned around and smiled at them. After all he was still a kid and liked being complimented. Preparing himself he let loose with another strike.
A force of 370 pounds struck the rock with a loud Smack. Once again the pillar light up with a light similar to the first level of the Tiger Stage. Holding out his hand a hammer appeared in his grasp.
“Hyaah!” Letting out a loud roar Chu Shen swung at the pillar with all his might. With the help of the inscription Chu Shen decreased the weight of the hammer until it was as light as a feather. Swinging it with almost inhuman speed he increased the weight by over ten times right before impact.
Bang
Unlike those metallic ringing of swords. .h.i.tting rock this was a loud and disharmonious sound. The middle aged man looked over at the source of the sound. As an esteemed elder he wouldn’t be interested in those with no talent so it was only natural that he had been watching those Dragon and Tiger Stage pract.i.tioner’s.
Right as he glanced over he saw a bright light emit from the pillar. He was stunned. If he remembered right, wasn’t that the Man Stage cultivators? So why did they have someone in the mid Tiger Stage in their line?
Curious he walked over to the line.
With the power of 370 pounds of force combined with the weight of his hammer hit the stone pillar. The hammer became over 500 pounds right before it impacted the pillar. The vibrations from the impact itself hurt Chu Shen’s hand and the ricochet was hard to deal with. Immediately neutralizing the weight increase he barely managed to stop the hammer.
A tremendous force hit the pillar, making it shine brightly.
The middle aged man was stunned when he saw that it was a person in ninth level of the Man Stage. Walking over to the recovering Chu Shen he grabbed his hand. Shocked he dropped his hand. This boy truly was at the ninth level.
“Boy, how did you hit the pillar so hard, what is the martial art you used.”
Chu Shen was shocked that an esteemed elder like him would ask him anything. Upon hearing his question he unthinkingly replied back. “I didn’t use any technique, it was my own strength.”
“It can’t be. Is there something odd with your weapon then?” This was along the lines of the elders thinking. Unless he was gifted with an unbelievably strong body it wasn’t possible for him to unleash a strike like that. It never occurred to him that someone would lie, after all he was an elder of the school they were trying to join, lying to an elder was something they couldn’t risk.
“Well, I do have an inscription set up on it that changes the weight of the object. It can make it light or heavy.”
“Hmm, truly wondrous. Who exactly made this inscription?”
“It was a parting gift from my teacher.”
“I see do well in the duels.” The elder immediately dismissed Chu Shen as unimportant. Borrowing outside strength from weapons and formations was looked down upon in the martial world. In the elders eyes it wasn’t possible for the boy to have that much strength so the vast majority of it must have come from the inscription.