Chapter 142 – The Advancing Fist
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
(TN: Way of Choices will be on break from December 25th, 2017 – January 7, 2018)
The examinee suddenly turned around to the supervising Li Palace priest and pointed at the four examinees behind him, asking, "Can I challenge one of them?"
These four examinees were the last four people from the first sixty-four examinees to cross the Qu River. When they heard that this person wanted to challenge them, not only were they not angry, they actually revealed expressions of joy and immediately voiced their willingness.
The Li Palace priest coldly asked, "Do all of you think that the Grand Examination is a game? I earlier said loud and clear that the first forty-nine examinees could choose any person from the bottom forty-nine examinees as their opponent and that the winner would advance into the next round. Did none of you understand?"
There was a long period of silence, after which the examinee suddenly said, "This isn"t fair!"
He turned his gaze to those examinees who had been ranked behind and won in their matches and angrily roared, "I had better grades in the martial test than them, I crossed the river before them, but now why do I have to challenge even stronger opponents? The Grand Examination is naturally no game, but doesn"t Sir think that these rules are too unreasonable?"
The Li Palace priest"s face was still expressionless as he indifferently said, "This only means that your luck is poor. Who made it that you just so happened to be one of the people who were sixtieth to sixty-fourth to cross the river?"
The crowd was in an uproar at these words, with some people thinking, is something like luck also tested in the Grand Examination? This priest"s words are far too unreasonable.
The priest knew what these young cultivators were thinking. With a somewhat chilly expression, he said to them, "Just what in this world is absolutely fair? On the battlefield, if you are put in the rear and ordered to stop the most powerful demon expert, even if you think it"s unfair, can you refuse the order? If you want to survive, luck will always be the most important factor."
The examinees were all silent. They still did not agree with this argument, but they did not know how to respond.
Helpless, the examinee could only accept this sorrowful fact. He found solace in the fact that he had more choices to pick from than the four examinees behind him.
He turned once more to the forest, his gaze moving back and forth across Chen Changsheng and the others, hesitating as to who to choose.
The area in front of the Hall of Washing Away Dust was quiet; even the atmosphere seemed to chill. Several dozen examinees nervously waited for his final decision.
In contrast, those who should have been the most nervous, those fellows who could only wait by the forest to be challenged, seemed rather calm and unperturbed.
For some reason, the Li Palace priest did not urge him to choose as he had done in previous cases. Perhaps he and the other examiners were also very interested as to what he would choose.
Ultimately, the examinee decided and pointed at Xuanyuan Po, declaring, "It"s you."
The silence was broken, replaced by the buzz of discussion. Any other examinee would probably also be clueless as to who to choose.
Xuanyuan Po froze for a few moments, then came to his senses and said to Luoluo, "Teacher, I"m departing."
On the side, Tang Thirty-Six arched his brows and said, "The word "departing" isn"t lucky; change it."
Xuanyuan Po ignored him. He bowed to Chen Changsheng and said, "I"m departing."
Logically speaking, he should have addressed Chen Changsheng as Grandteacher, but although he deeply admired and respected Chen Changsheng, he still could not bring himself to call him that.
The ignored Tang Thirty-Six was not angry. He raised his hand high and patted the demi-human youth on his broad shoulder, whispering, "Do you still remember what we spoke about last night?"
Xuanyuan Po grunted in affirmation, then recited, ""Don"t give the opponent a single chance to think. Close the distance as quickly as possible and then knock him over.""
After saying this, he suddenly realized that something was off about Tang Thirty-Six"s expression. He then realized that Luoluo and Chen Changsheng were also looking different, and even Su Moyu had his mouth agape as if in a state of extreme shock.
"What"s wrong?" He rubbed the back of his head in bewilderment. "Did I say something wrong?"
Tang Thirty-Six sighed and patted him on the shoulder again, saying, "You said nothing wrong, but you spoke a little too loudly."
At this time, Xuanyuan Po noticed that the area around the Hall of Washing Away Dust was utterly silent. Everyone was looking at him, and the expressions on their faces were quite splendid to behold.
His voice was loud and clear, and he had responded to Tang Thirty-Six very naturally, not even attempting to control his volume.
Thus, he had told the strategy that the Orthodox Academy had prepared for him to everyone, including his opponent.
Then would this strategy still be useful?
Chen Changsheng shook his head and placed two crystals in Xuanyuan Po"s pocket, then offered up the water pouch to his mouth to let him take a few sips.
Tang Thirty-Six scooted up to Xuanyuan Po and whispered a few words to him.
The Li Palace priest looked to the Orthodox Academy"s group, wanting to smile but successfully suppressing it as he said, "Quickly."
Xuanyuan Po was somewhat nervous at being urged on, and almost choked on the water. Chen Changsheng quickly patted him on the back and Tang Thirty-Six began to talk faster, reminding of what he needed to pay attention to in the match. The scene seemed very rushed and muddled, and Su Moyu couldn"t help but shake his head at what he was seeing. "All of you spent such a long time being bored and loafing around; it"s a bit too late to be in a hurry."
"You don"t understand—if we talked about it earlier, he might have forgotten. And besides, we didn"t know who he was going to fight, so what could we teach him?" Tang Thirty-Six defended without turning his head.
Luoluo walked up to Xuanyuan Po and said, "Since your victory is certain, there"s nothing to be nervous about."
Xuanyuan Po stammered, "There…there…there"s nothing I can do about it."
Chen Changsheng stared into his eyes and said, "Remember Thirty-Six"s words and your victory is certain."
Xuanyuan Po forcefully nodded his head.
Tang Thirty-Six finally finished his impromptu instructions and threw a fist into his chest, saying, "Have a good first match."
Xuanyuan Po stood on the sand-covered ground, raising his head to the surrounding circle of black eaves and that circle of blue sky. He suddenly recalled the porcelain used to hold food in the Hundred Herb Garden.
With a creak, the door to the Hall of Washing Away Dust closed behind him.
He came to his senses and realized that his mind had been wandering just now. He was not panicked by this fact. On the contrary, he recalled what Tang Thirty-Six had said a few nights ago and thought to himself, this means I"m not nervous, right?
He looked across and clasped his hands to his opponent.
At the moment, the floor of the Hall of Washing Away Dust contained only him and the other examinee. There was no examiner, nor could any sound be heard from outside. It seemed that some sort of sound-blocking array was in use.
It was at this point that an emotionless voice came from the upper floor of the hall.
"If you are ready, just begin."
Xuanyuan Po looked up but saw no one, and he saw no windows either. He couldn"t help but be curious about where the examiners were hiding. He suddenly recalled something that Chen Changsheng had warned him about and hurriedly asked, "What…what happens if someone dies?"
The hall was silent as the hidden examiners pondered this question.
His opponent had a very ugly expression.
The examiner"s voice rang out again. "No one will die."
"Oh." Xuanyuan Po turned to his opponent and asked, "Are you ready?"
His opponent was an examinee from Yellow Mountain Valley.
Yellow Mountain Valley was in the south.
Not every sect of the south could have a disciple partic.i.p.ate in the Grand Examination. Just like the pre-examination for the Grand Examination held in the capital, the south would hold a similar test. That this examinee from Yellow Mountain Valley was able to pa.s.s this pre-examination was proof of his ability. And he had also completed the martial test faster than the majority of examinees outside the top fifteen, which meant that the strength of his spiritual sense and quant.i.ty of true essence were quite excellent.
He had earlier seemed to struggle over which opponent to choose because the Orthodox Academy"s fame as of late had been far too great, but this did not mean that he lacked confidence. Moreover, that he ultimately chose Xuanyuan Po meant that he had a certain confidence, or countermeasures, against Xuanyuan Po.
Upon entering the Hall of Washing Away Dust, Xuanyuan Po had first blankly gazed at the sky and then said those sorts of words to him. This disciple of Yellow Mountain Valley had no idea that Xuanyuan Po was naturally simple and honest, only that he was being deliberately humiliated. His mood had already been quite disastrous, and now his rage instantly exploded. He wanted nothing more than to chop this fellow in half with a single strike of his sword.
"I heard that you were crippled, so are you prepared to lose?"
The Yellow Mountain Valley disciple sneered at Xuanyuan Po.
He sneered, but he did not take the initiative to attack.
This was because everyone outside the Hall of Washing Away Dust had clearly heard this st.u.r.dy demi-human youth use his thunderous voice to declare that he would attack first, closing the distance with his opponent.
He did not know if Xuanyuan Po had said this intentionally to confuse or if he had really prepared to carry out this plan, but out of caution, he naturally had to consider retreating to defend himself, increasing the distance between them. Then, using his exquisite sword techniques, he could brawl with this demi-human youth.
The Yellow Mountain Valley disciple decided without hesitation to retreat, crossing five zhang in a single leap.
At the same time, he unsheathed his sword. A cool breeze wound around him, instantly forming a defense.
Xuanyuan Po was startled at this sight, thinking to himself, how does Tang Thirty-Six guess at everything?
Outside the hall, Tang Thirty-Six had said to him that once the match began, his opponent would absolutely retreat and absolutely put up a defense. Thus, he didn"t need to think. From the very start, he just needed to advance, burning all his true essence to advance. No matter how much his opponent"s sword danced, how much true essence his opponent released, now matter how solid his defense, he just needed to advance!
Xuanyuan Po truly did exactly as he was told.
When he asked if his opponent was ready and his opponent began to retreat, he began to advance.
When he was thinking about how Tang Thirty-Six was able to calculate everything and began to admire him, he had already advanced ten-some zhang.
Tang Thirty-Six had calculated very accurately and had spoken something close to a truth: retreat was always slower than advancing.
No one could expect that someone with as large and st.u.r.dy a body as Xuanyuan Po"s could possess such speed.
This was because no one knew that when Xuanyuan Po was small, he had to navigate his way through the precipitous mountains while he hunted down Red Minks that were as fast as lightning.
Retreating in defense? A brawl? After receiving Tang Thirty-Six"s instruction, Xuanyuan Po would not give his opponent a chance for any of this to happen.
The Yellow Mountain Valley disciple had retreated five zhang, but Xuanyuan Po had already advanced ten-some zhang, arriving right in front of the disciple.
He could clearly see that his opponent"s face was somewhat pale, could even see his reflection in his opponent"s eyes.
The Yellow Mountain Valley disciple howled, his sword rising like the wind as it chopped at him, the edge of the sword gleaming with an elegant light!
Xuanyuan Po remembered Tang Thirty-Six"s words. He thought of nothing but advancing.
He burned up all his true essence in this advance.
His opponent"s sword created a curtain in front of him.
He did not see it or care about it, but continued his advance.
His fist advanced faster than his body.
Buzz.
The wind raised by his fist glimmered with star radiance, tearing through the sword wind and blowing against the Yellow Mountain Valley disciple"s face.
The disciple"s eyes reflected countless motes of starlight, contained absolute shock and disbelief.
Wasn"t Xuanyuan Po a new student of Star Seizer Academy? Hadn"t he only entered the Orthodox Academy just a few months ago? Wasn"t he last on the Proclamation of Azure Sky? Wasn"t his right arm crippled?
Then how he was able to explode with such a fist? Wasn"t this star radiance something that only people at the upper level of Meditation could display?
The Yellow Mountain Valley disciple could no longer keep on this line of thought.
Xuanyuan Po"s fist had exploded past his sword and fallen on his body.
Boom!
The Yellow Mountain Valley disciple flew like a stone, eventually crashing several dozen zhang away into the wall of the Hall of Washing Away Dust.
The wind howled and dust flew.
The Yellow Mountain Valley disciple seemed to have dug into the wall. His clothes were torn and his body was covered in blood.
Xuanyuan Po stopped and stared at his own fist, his expression somewhat perplexed as he thought, why didn"t he block?
Hurried footsteps echoed through the Hall of Washing Away Dust.
Ten-some examiners arrived on the scene, hurriedly beginning treatment on the Yellow Mountain Valley disciple.
"You…"
An examiner walked up to Xuanyuan Po, pointing at him and wanting to say something, but he said nothing in the end.
Xuanyuan Po recognized that this examiner was the one who was speaking earlier and then turned to the Yellow Mountain Valley disciple currently being treated. Somewhat uneasy, he muttered out a question. "Did I do something wrong? Sir just said that no one would die. If…if something happens to him, it has nothing to do with me."