Chapter 329: Start The Show (2)
Generally, those between the 30th to the 50th places were capable of facing even sixth-stage Infinite Strength cultivators.
As for Su Yu, when he defeated Huang Qifeng, he had displayed a level of strength capable of contending against a fifth-stage Infinite Strength cultivator. In truth, the battle had ended too fast. Huang Qifeng wasn't even given a chance to unleash all his strength.
Su Yu did not hesitate. He said, "The moment you step into the ring, we will have to fight until a victor emerges. Since everyone is paying so much attention to me, I'll have to be frank. If you find yourself not my match, just concede. Otherwise, I won't be pulling my punches. You can't blame me since you are obviously trying to step all over me. I won't let that slide."
Zhao Ming smiled, "I don't care about your grudges. Su Yu, which challenger are you fighting?"
"Wang He." Su Yu said, "Ranked 38th, right? I'm pretty curious about the strength of a senior at this rank."
Naturally, this Wang He was now ranked 75th.
Among the crowd, a young man clad in white smiled and jumped into the ring. He said, "Junior Brother Su Yu, I am not trying to bully you here. Put yourself in my position. When an opportunity arrives for you to get a willpower text written by a peak Mountainsea cultivator, would you give it a try?"
Su Yu nodded, "Yes. But it's pointless to say all that. Since you want the willpower text, show your strength. Since we're both standing in a ring, we will talk with our ability. Within the bounds of the rules, let victory and defeat decide everything."
"Well said!" Wang He smiled, "I do not have a grudge against you. This is merely a spar. I saw your match with Huang Qifeng. You're very impressive, Junior Brother."
He was trying to elevate Su Yu's status. That way, he would lose less face challenging a junior like Su Yu. Su Yu couldn't even be bothered to say anything else. He could let it slide if the challenger was just a normal student from the top 100. But someone like this who had deliberately lowered his rank just to challenge him was clearly trying to use him as an offering to get some benefits for himself.
Zhao Ming wasted no time and announced, "Start."
This time, Su Yu did not try hiding his strength. His cultural weapon appeared, his five characters attached themselves to the saber, and all 153 of his acupoints opened wide to take in the ambient source qi around him.
He sent the saber flying out and unleashed a kick. He was astonishingly fast.
Whoosh!
The attacks whistled through the air as they approached Wang He. As someone previously in the 38th position, Wang He was naturally not weak. He was a fourth-stage Infinite Strength and peak Mental Tempering Stage cultivator.
He opened all his acupoints and took out a cultural weapon in the form of a sword.
Illusion!
Shadow!
Lightning!
Su Yu unleashed one character ability after another. Meanwhile, Wang He was also not pulling his punches. His willpower and characters erupted, turning the very air itself red.
The entire ring became filled with fire. A fire-related character!
The illusions wavered, the lightning bolts vanished, the killing intent was burned into nothingness, while the battle intent weakened.
Bang!
Su Yu's kick landed, but it only struck through Wang He's afterimage.
"Speed-related character!"
Someone among the crowd exclaimed. Wang He had more than one Divine Character. He was extremely fast. He wasn't as fast as Su Yu, but as he was already ready for Su Yu's attack, he was able to avoid it in time.
Su Yu's kick hit nothing, creating a small explosion in the air. Right that moment, a thin sword descended from the sky. Holding the sword was Wang He who was stepping on thin air.
He aimed his sword straight at Su Yu's One Hundred Openings acupoint. Before the sword arrived, a powerful willpower was already approaching, sending a chill into Su Yu's One Hundred Openings acupoint.
The attack aimed to break his acupoint.
Source Break!
Fast.
He was fast, but Su Yu was faster. With a step to the side, Su Yu stomped on the ground and leaped into the sky. He released a kick.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Wang He answered the kick with a punch, creating booming sounds around them. At the same time, two cultural weapons clashed in the air.
Su Yu sent kick after kick, borrowing the momentum to remain in the air, forcing Wang He to retreat again and again.
This wasn't supposed to happen, but each kick by Su Yu gave him an impression that space itself was working against him. He had no way of avoiding those kicks.
Around the ring, even the researchers were impressed by the technique Su Yu was using. This was an extremely powerful technique.
"Heaven-grade technique!"
Many of them were able to see that this was a heaven-grade technique. As a fourth-stage Infinite Strength cultivator, Wang He was not weak. And he was a true Infinite Strength cultivator who had advanced by fusing 10 acupoints. He was not as strong as an expert with 12 fused acupoints, but among cultural researchers, he was very impressive. He wouldn't have been able to reach the 38th place in the ranking otherwise.
But he had less acupoints than Su Yu, his source qi was not as pure as Su Yu's, and even his martial technique was weaker. Thus, he was unable to gain an upper hand through physical combat.
The two continued exchanging punches and kicks. The skin on both his hands started tearing apart while his blood flowed out. At that moment, he suddenly realized that something wasn't right. He was losing way too much blood. These tiny wounds weren't supposed to have much effect on him. But he had lost so much blood that he even felt weakened.
"Damn it!"
Wang He was alarmed. Apart from during the battle with Zheng Yunhui, Su Yu had never revealed his blood absorption ability. Thus, very few people were aware that he had such an ability. And that ability actually came from a second tier character. Thus, he was able to absorb blood at an astonishing speed.
Wang He kept feeling a sense of weakness spreading all over his body while Su Yu seemed stronger the longer they fought. With 153 acupoints actively absorbing source qi, Wang He couldn't even regenerate source qi as fast as him.
Eventually, with a loud bang, Wang He was sent flying before crashing onto the ground. He hurriedly got back on his feet and took the chance to pull away from Su Yu. He swallowed a drop of source qi liquid and healed the wounds on his arms, hurriedly stopping himself from bleeding.
With a pale expression, he frowned as he looked at Su Yu. His white outfit was already stained with dust and dirt while not even a crease had formed on Su Yu’s clothes. Apart from the beads of sweat on Su Yu’s forehead, he still looked the same as before.
Wang He was alarmed. This was indeed a difficult opponent. It was no wonder the single character faction had offered such a prize to defeat Su Yu. He had thought that Su Yu wouldn't be his match, but now, he found that this fellow was no weaker than Infinite Strength cultivators despite his Great Strength cultivation.
In terms of physical combat, he reckoned not even the war academy would have a Great Strength cultivator stronger than Su Yu.
Around the ring.
The students were also greatly shocked. After Su Yu's victory over Huang Qifeng, everyone knew that he was strong. But he had still surpassed everyone's expectation by suppressing even the ranked 38th Wang He.
A researcher curiously said, "His willpower has grown even stronger. I think he has reached 70 percent willpower. And his willpower is even more durable than Wang He's."
The two had been fighting intensely, but Su Yu had not been suppressed even once. He was even able to split his attention and use his blood character to absorb his opponent's blood. The actual strength of his willpower was far higher than what it should be at his current level of cultivation.
His growth had been too fast. Before anyone knew it, he had reached 70 percent willpower. A few people in the crowd were even more astonished than the others.
Liu Hong and Wu Qi had been paying attention to Su Yu before this. During the Divine Character tournament, Su Yu hadn't even reached 60 percent willpower. Only such a short period of time had passed yet he was already at 70 percent?
How was this guy growing so fast?
At a corner.
Zhao Li stood hugging his arms. The weaponsmith that had appeared during the Divine Character tournament was standing beside him. He softly asked, "Teacher, did you teach him the Soul Expanding Art?"
"Does that have anything to do with you?"
The middle-aged man did not know whether to laugh or cry. He said, "Teacher, are you going to make him your successor? He is a member of the multiple character faction."
"How does that concern me?"
"..."
The middle-aged man softly said, "Teacher, be careful lest you attract some new enemies. A lot of people are saying that Su Yu has learned your Soul Expanding Art."
Zhao Li had actually been quite mild in front of Su Yu. In front of others, he had a terrible temper.
He said, "So what if he has learned the Soul Expanding Art? Zhou Mingren is free to come after me. He is free to try. Fuck him. I have never gotten involved in their factional conflicts. Why do they care what I do with my own cultivation method? I will continue focusing on weaponsmithing. Who would dare to mess with me? At worst, I'll become a retainer of the Xia Family. If the Xia Family tries to meddle in my affairs, I can join the Zhu Family from Great Ming. If not, I can also join the Great Zhou. Who the fuck can stop me?"
Zhao Li said in disdain, "I don't owe the academy anything. I have been spending the money I earned myself all these years. So what if I decide to teach someone the Soul Expanding Art? Do they think they can control me?"
The more Old Zhao spoke, the more agitated he became. He suddenly raised his middle finger in the direction of the Heart Cultivating Pavilion and said, "Screw all of you. If I lose my patience and leave, you guys will have to return the Source Qi Secret Grotto to me. Otherwise, I'll get an Invincible to collect the debt for me."
"..."