Chapter 195 – Gold Dan Layer and Primordial Spirit Layer
(Mustang: Heads up…..Lots and lots of new layers/ realms have been introduced in this chapter. Some information about these new realms is left vague, but gets clarified later as the story progresses and more information is given.)
Bi Fan got up early in the morning.
The Jiu Yu Imperial List contest was about to start from today, so Bi Fan was naturally inclined on going and watching the contest.
He was sure that the core disciples must be knowing some unique and cleaver moves; in fact, even the most ordinary skills were definitely going to seem very different in the hands of these experienced fighters, which is why Bi Fan was expecting this to be a great learning opportunity.
The Quinyang Sect had selected Yan Yu Si, Luo Xiong and several others, and was hoping that they would get good rankings.
Although, Bi Fan was a bit worried about Yan Yu Si’s safety since Xuan Yuan Po Jun was considered extremely strong and dangerous.
The Jiu Yu Imperial List contest’s rules were the same as Jiu Yu Hidden Dragon List’s, and all the contestants were to be divided into groups of four in the first round, with only one person being allowed to progress to the next round.
The draws were pulled out quite quickly, and the contest was started soon after.
Since the Jiu Yu Imperial List contest was expected to be even more exciting that the Jiu Yu Hidden Dragon List, an even higher number of people had showed up to witness the event, which is why the crowd control personnel were also present in higher numbers.
The Jiu Yu Imperial List started out marvelously with Lin Qing Yao facing a Rising Sun sect disciple in the first fight of the contest. Lin Qing Yao started with the ‘Floating Sword’ law, while her opponent cast out ‘The Raging Flames’ law.
Even though Bi Fan’s understanding of ‘The Floating Sword’ skill was quite profound, it was evident that Lin Qing Yao’s understanding of the skill was in a different league altogether.
Bi Fan hadn’t yet been able to learn the entire range of strokes of the law yet; in fact, this was the first time that he got to see the skill’s entire collection of strokes.
The style behind ‘The Raging Flames’ technique was still a complete mystery to Bi Fan, which is why he couldn’t understand the skill properly.
Either way, Bi Fan knew that he only needed to memorize the skill for now.
Since several contests were taking place simultaneously, Bi Fan needed to be selective once again, and he chose to memorize only the most exquisite laws from amongst the ones on display.
He knew that once he was able to memorize a law, he could eventually unlock its secrets in time.
Yan Yu Si and Xuan Yuan Po Jun also finished their respective matches early on, and were able to win their matches with ease; in fact, their opponents didn’t even try very hard.
Luo Xiong was also quite impressive, and seemed to have already crossed into the ‘Bone’ Layer.
Once a martial artist reaches the ‘Bone’ layer, the body goes under a ma.s.sive transformation and the physical strength of the pract.i.tioner increases by a lot, along with an increase in the internal energy.
Since Luo Xiong had already reached the ‘Bone’ realm, his physical strength had reached eighteen Yun Shi without any physical training, and was now effectively higher than Bi Fan’s.
If and when Bi Fan was able to reach the ‘Bone’ layer, then his physical strength would see an enormous rise.
Bi Fan’s strenuous training of physical strength was very likely to pay back very heavily in the future by this theory.
However, Bi Fan could feel an increase in pressure on himself as he continued to watch these core disciples in action. These people were nothing in comparison to people like Shuai Ying Tian, and he would first have to overtake them before he could even hope of competing against the man.
The contest kept the viewers hooked the entire day, and Bi Fan, Mo Nan and Jing Feng enjoyed the displays thoroughly.
Bi Fan, Mo Nan, and Jing Feng had never antic.i.p.ated that the gap between their strengths and that of the core disciples would be so huge, and it took them a while to recover from the shock.
But still, Bi Fan was very comforted to see Yan Yu Si’s performance.
In fact, even Yan Yu Si was a bit worried that Bi Fan might get complacent after his victories, and may not pay attention to this tournament, but as she watched Bi Fan observe the contest with full focus, she realized that she needn’t be worried.
The Quinyang Sect disciples did a very job on day one, and most disciples won all their matches, with only one disciple losing a match.
The contest proceeded to the next day, and the first round came to a close soon enough.
Five of the Quinyang Sect disciples managed to advance to the second round, which could be considered a very good result.
The best result was still obtained by the Wu Ji Sect since eight of their disciples advanced to the second round.
The total of sixty contestants who had advanced to the second round was equally divided into twenty groups, and it was already quite hard to speculate the winners of this round.
Out of the Quinyang Sect’s delegation, in addition to Yan Yu Si and Luo Xiong, there was another man named Yang Yan who had already advanced into the ‘Bone’ layer, and was expected to make it to the third round without much trouble.
The other two aspirants, Lin Qing Yao and Luo Jia were only inside the ‘Emerging from the Womb’ layer at the moment, and weren’t certain to advance to the third round.
A contestant was required to win both their matches of the second round in one day in order to advance to the next round.
Since all the remaining contestants were quite strong at this stage in the contest, so beating even one opponent in a day was likely to come at the cost of high energy consumption, making this round a very difficult one to get past.
Even though this rule was quite cruel, it was the only possible way to elect true elites from the lot.
In fact, even Luo Xiong and Yan Yang weren’t guaranteed to progress to the next round, while it appeared as if Yan Yu Si hadn’t even exposed her real strength yet.
Yan Yu Si’s first contest of the Second round was against a ‘Gold Dan’ layered Wu Ji Sect disciple named Xuan Yuan Ling.
Xuan Yuan Ling was a very highly seeded contestant, but it seemed that he had run out of luck since he had met Yan Yu Si so early in the contest.
Once inside the ‘Gold Dan’ layer, a martial artist is able to condense their energy in their Dan Tian, and this is capable of increasing the combat effectiveness of the fighter.
A senior martial artist is only considered to be a genuinely strong fighter after they advance into the ‘Gold Dan’ layer.
The ‘Gold Dan’ realm is the third layer after the ‘emerging from the Womb’ layer, with ‘Developing Marrow’ and ‘Bone’ layer in between. As compared to ‘Bone’ layer, which provides a ma.s.sive boost to the physical strength, the ‘Gold Dan’ layer also provides the ability to condense energy inside the Dan Tian.
This condensed energy can be very powerful and can be used as a life saving measure in critical junctures. This obviously adds another threatening attack in the a.r.s.enal of the fighter.
Therefore, one must be very careful while competing against a fighter who has already crossed into the ‘Gold Dan’ layer since such an opponent is capable of creating an explosion out of this condensed energy.
Yan Yu Si however, seemed very indifferent towards Xuan Yuan Ling; in fact, she didn’t even draw her weapon against him. So far, she hadn’t considered anyone to be worthy of facing her weapon.
“Die!” Xuan Yuan Ling screamed as he charged towards her, making it obvious that he wasn’t interested in conceding the fight very easily.
Xuan Yuan Ling’s ‘Yin Yang Sword’ attack was far more powerful than Wu Ji Xuan’s ‘Wu Ji Sword’, and a large network of blades fiercely condensed into one as they aggressively charged towards Yan Yu Si.
Seeing this dense and acutely fierce attack charging towards Yan Yu Si made Bi Fan a bit worried about her safety.
However, Yan Yu Si just glamorously stood glued to her spot, with no expressions of her face, and it was evident that she didn’t mind facing the attack head-on.
“Miss Yan Yu Si, you need to be careful….” Bi Fan was really very worried at this point.
As the attack approached closer to her body, Yan Yu Si finally made her move. Yan Yu Si slowly raised her delicate hand, and breezed the incoming attack aside at such a fast pace that Bi Fan couldn’t even see her movements properly.
“Miss Yan Yu Si is insanely powerful! Just how strong is she? She actually managed to defuse Xuan Yuan Ling’s attack so casually?!” Bi Fan wondered out loud.
“Yes, ah, when will we be able reach her strength level?” Jing Feng also exclaimed.
Ling Xin Ya smiled and said: “Miss Yan Yu Si’s strength isn’t very far behind the elders of the Sect, so Xuan Yuan Ling is definitely no match for her. If you wish to catch up to her, then you must redouble your efforts.”
“Master, just how strong is Miss Yan Yu Si?” Bi Fan couldn’t help asking.
Bi Fan naturally wished to know her strength since he wanted to catch up with her in the future.
Everyone craned their necks to listen in since everyone wanted to know more about Yan Yu Si.
Ling Xin Ya replied with a smile: “I’m not very clear on Miss Yan Yu Si’s real strength as yet, but I believe that she has already broken into the ‘Primordial Spirit’ layer.”
“Primordial Spirit!” Jing Feng exclaimed out loud.
The ‘Primordial Spirit’ layer was a big jump in the martial world, and once a martial artist breaks into this layer, then it possible for the person to survive even if their physical body is destroyed.
Yan Yu Si had managed to break into this layer at a very young age, which indeed effectively made her stronger than some of the martial artists of the older generations.
Jing Feng had been under the impression that he was genius martial artist. But he was now beginning to realize that the difference between him and a real genius was still too large.
Yan Yu Si was two layers above Xuan Yuan Ling, so it wasn’t surprising that she was able to neutralize his attacks very casually.
As the fight continued, Yan Yu Si went on to defeat Xuan Yuan Ling with ease.
Xuan Yuan Ling was left lamenting his luck for meeting such a strong opponent so early in the tournament.
Yan Yu Si seemed very calm and composed after winning the match. A complete lack of emotion on her part was clearly exhibiting that she didn’t consider him to be any match for her.
Xuan Yuan Po Jun was also displaying extremely strong performances, and even though his opponents weren’t directly conceding their fights either, he too was able to defeat them very comfortably.
Even Xuan Yuan Po Jun didn’t brandish his weapon over the course of the second round, same as Yan Yu Si.