Going back to two minutes ago…
Upon entering the room, Zhang Xuan scanned his surroundings.
The room wasn’t exceptionally big. Upon entering, Zhang Xuan immediately saw a weapon rack. There were swords, sabers, spears, and many different kinds of weapons that a person could imagine of on it.
Elder Bai stood at the very center of the room with an impassive expression. “Take the weapon that you’re the most adept at!”
“Weapon?” Zhang Xuan shook his head. “It’ll be hard not to hurt another using a weapon so there’s no need for it!”
The three weapons that he specialized in-sword, spear, and saber-had all reached the level of Weapon Intent. He didn’t think that there was any need to go to such an extent just for a mere test.
“You…”
Elder Bai’s face darkened.
It’s indeed easy to hurt another using weapon, but do you think that you can hurt me?
His eyebrows shot up coldly.
The other party was an arrogant brat.
“Alright. Since you chose this of your own accord, don’t blame me for not going easy on you!”
Not bothered about arguing with the other party, Elder Bai suppressed his cultivation of Transcendent Mortal 4-dan pinnacle to just 1-dan pinnacle.
“I’ve suppressed my cultivation to your level already. Make your move!”
Elder Bai stretched his arm and beckoned with a cold gaze.
As a Transcendent Mortal 4-dan, he found it humiliating to face a weaker, bare-handed cultivator with a weapon. Thus, he chose to fight with his bare hands as well.
“You should go first…”
Zhang Xuan waved his hands.
“You…” Elder Bai felt so infuriated that his eyelids started leaping.
Is this fellow so confident or is he simply being narcissistic? Given my strength, if I were to make a move first, you won’t even get a chance to retaliate! I’m giving you a chance, you know?
One must know that the previous competitors had come at him with their strongest moves as soon as the battle started. It was only through their relentless barrage of attacks that they barely managed to survive twenty blows from him…
Are you sure you can withstand it if you allow me to go first?
“Alright then!”
Seeing that the other party had no intention of making a move, Elder Bai’s eyebrows shot up. Stepping against the ground, he dashed forward.
Huala!
Afterimages appeared in his place, and in the blink of an eye, he appeared before the young man.
“Fall!”
Seeing that the other party didn’t even try to dodge his offense, Elder Bai harrumphed coldly and sent a powerful palm at him.
Hu!
But to his shock, his palm struck empty air.
At some point, Zhang Xuan had suddenly disappeared from his sight.
“Shit…”
Narrowing his eyes, Elder Bai hurriedly turned around, only to see a sole appearing right before his eyes.
Pah!
Before he could even react, he was already sent flying. Crashing heavily onto the wall, the injury he sustained seemed to be even more severe than the previous victim, Elder Wu.
Elder Bai spewed large mouthfuls a blood, and for a moment, he was completely stunned.
The battle technique he had just executed was known as ‘Shadow Plunder’ and it had reached the level of Spirit intermediate-tier.
It was an extremely formidable move which contained innumerable changes and twists that confused one’s opponent, making it difficult for one’s opponent to differentiate a true attack from a feint.
Elder Bai thought that he would be able to toy with the other party once he executed this move… Yet, never in his wildest dreams did he expect for the other party to actually dodge his attack!
What made him even more faint-headed was that… unlike other conventional battle techniques where the mingmen was located at the crotch, below one’s armpit, or back, the mingmen of Shadow Plunder was at one’s qingming acupoint!
The qingming acupoint was located at one’s glabella, thus making it exceptionally conspicuous and vulnerable. However, at the same time, it was precisely due to the vulnerability of the location that no one could have imagined that the weakness of the technique was right next to their eyes.
This was a secret that even his closest direct disciple and Pavilion Master Kang didn’t know about. Yet, this fellow immediately charged up and struck him on this mingmen…
In an instant, with the strike on his mingmen, the zhenqi throughout his body immediately dissipated. If not for him releasing his suppressed cultivation at the last moment, thus warding off the impact of the blow with his full might as a Transcendent Mortal 4-dan pinnacle, he might have already died from that blow already!
The heck!
What the hell was going on?
I am a Transcendent Mortal 4-dan pinnacle expert, and the person I’m fighting with was just a Transcendent Mortal 1-dan pinnacle fellow. Even though I suppressed my cultivation, how could I be sent flying with a single kick, and on top of that, almost losing my life from that impact…
I am here to gauge his strength, but in the end… I failed to even withstand a single blow…
The more he thought about it, the more stifled he felt. The immense frustration he was feeling left his face slightly livid.
Struggling down from the wall, Elder Bai began to alleviate the rampant zhenqi within him from that blow. At that moment, the young man walked up to him and asked, “Elder Bai, are you fine?”
“Humph!”
Elder Bai harrumphed coldly out of embarrassment. However, before he could fully recover, the young man before him lamented under his breath, “The reason why I let you go first is so that you can at least withstand a few more blows. In the end, you didn’t even last the first blow. Aren’t you a little too weak…”
Pu!
A mouthful of fresh blood spilt out.
The heck! Shouldn’t those be my words?
I should be the one assessing your strength! How could I have ended up being subdued in a single kick…
The more he thought about it, the angrier he felt. As such, he bellowed furiously, “Shut up!”
“Shut up? Does Elder Bai want to go another round?” the young man said.
“I…”
Elder Bai immediately went mute. There was a stifled sensation weighing down on his chest, leaving him suffocated. He found himself on the verge of crying.
The other party’s movements were as swift as lightning. He would surely have been able to dodge the kick at his full strength, but with his strength suppressed to the level of a Transcendent Mortal 1-dan…
What left Elder Bai even more frustrated was that, even though he was caught off guard in the previous attack, he knew that it was completely impossible for him to avoid the kick with just the cultivation of a Transcendent Mortal 1-dan!
Harmonized with the environment, this move was exceptionally powerful and swift. On top of that, the other party had found his weakness. Even without considering the other moves that the other party might have in store, just these two factors was more than sufficient to guarantee him a ten out of ten matches loss rate.
Even more so, he was starting to think whether it might even be possible for him to defeat the other party when his cultivation is suppressed to that of a Transcendent Mortal 2-dan!
Didn’t they all say that he’s the easiest to deal with because of his weak cultivation? Like hell that is true…
“Let’s go out!”
Afraid that he might die from anger at the words the other party might say, Elder Bai disregarded his injuries, stood up, and walked out of the door.
Seeing that the other party was so anxious to leave, Zhang Xuan shrugged and followed behind him.
…
Shocked by the sight, Pavilion Master Kang cursed. His voice immediately pulled everyone’s gazes to the door of the chamber, and the sight left their eyes widened and blood threatened to spew from their mouths.
They saw Elder Bai walking out clutching his chest. A trail of blood flowed down the edge of his mouth, and a bright-red shoeprint was imprinted on his face.
“What happened?”
“Elder Bai… is wounded?”
“Wasn’t he in the midst of assessing Zhang Xuan?”
…
Everyone looked at one another in bewilderment.
Elder Bai had gone in to test Zhang Xuan, but why did he seem to be in an even worse state than Elder Wu previously was?
Look at his face, that shoeprint, and his appearance… Aiyo, it would be better to avert one’s gaze from him. Otherwise, one might really be tempted to puke.
“Elder Bai, this…”
Pavilion Master Kang looked at him with a bizarre expression.
“I…” If only there was a hole in the ground now, Elder Bai would surely leap in immediately.
“I’m sorry, Pavilion Master Kang. It’s all my fault. I should have gone easy, just that… I didn’t expect Pavilion Master Bai with his cultivation suppressed would be that weak… As such, I failed to control my strength and accidentally injured him. I apologize for that!” Zhang Xuan said apologetically.
“Weak?”
“Failed to control his strength?”
“Accidentally injured?”
…
The other candidates on the stage stared at one another with widened eyes, as though they had seen a ghost.
Fu Xiaochen and Ruohuan gongzi, who were gleeful a moment ago, stared at each other with trembling bodies. They seemed as if they might faint at any moment now.
They thought that this fellow had been knocked out in a single blow, but their conjecture was only half accurate. Someone was indeed knocked out… but that person was Elder Bai!
Are our eyes playing tricks on us?
That was a Transcendent Mortal 4-dan pinnacle cultivator, an expert that was second only to Pavilion Master Kang in the Myriad Kingdom Alliance. For him to be kicked in the face…
When they fought with Elder Bai before, they had exerted every last ounce of strength they had, but even so, they only managed to hold on for thirty blows. Yet, this fellow managed to defeat the other party so easily…
They could only feel their vision going dark. They dared not believe this to be real.
“This…”
Pavilion Master Kang, Su shi, and Ling shi had their mouths agape. They hurriedly turned their gazes over the Elder Bai, wanting to know the exact happenings from him. However, after seeing his nod his head helplessly, in an instant, it was as though lightning was rumbling around them. The shock they suffered as so great that it would no longer be surprising if they were to fall dead now.
They had just agreed on that due to Zhang shi’s rapid rise in cultivation, it was impossible for him to survive ten blows from Elder Bai… Only at this moment did they know that it was Elder Bai who was too weak for the other party…
“Alright, now that Zhang shi has completed his test… Allow me to reannounce the results!”
Forced to change his words once more, Pavilion Master Kang’s face flushed, “In first place, Zhang shi. In second place, Fu Xiaochen. In third place, Ruohuan gongzi. In fourth place, Feng Mosheng and Du Hu…”
Once again, obtaining the first place, Zhang Xuan proved to be the dark horse of the selection round once again.
There was no choice but to give him first place! The test was to withstand as many blows from Elder Bai as possible, but he went on ahead to knock the other party out… The difference between him and the other candidates was as great as the difference between heaven and earth. There was no choice but to concede to him!
“Alright, let’s move on to the third test!”
Knowing that this would never come to an end if they were to dawdle on this matter, Pavilion Master Kang glanced at the surroundings and decisively announced.
“We’ve covered Soul Depth and cultivation in the first two tests. Even though these two factors are important, they are only the fundamentals to becoming a master teacher! To become a truly outstanding master teacher, one has to be proficient in the art of knowledge impartation!
“Thus, this shall be what will be assessed in the third round!
“In a usual examination, the examinees would hide their identity, join an academy as a teacher, and take a class for a period of several months to two years. After which, the students of the examinees will be put against one another, and this will serve as an evaluation of the teacher’s ability to impart knowledge… However, there are only two months left to the Master Teacher Tournament, so we don’t have enough time to do so much. Thus… I thought of a much more efficient and effective way to test the candidates’ ability to impart knowledge.
“That is… Continuity of Spiritual Wisdom.” Pavilion Master Kang declared.
“Continuity of Spiritual Wisdom? What is that?”
“I’m not too sure as well. I’ve only heard of Spiritual Wisdom. If I’m not mistaken, it’s an ability that painters would gain upon after reaching 5-star. It’s an ability to infuse wisdom into the characters of the painting, granting them the ability to absorb spiritual energy from the air and sustain themselves for a very long time.”
“Now that you speak of it, I do remember it being so. Such a work is known as a painting of the sixth level!”
“Indeed. Reality Depiction, Spiritual Canvas, Infused Intentions, Breathtaking Verisimilitude, Spirit Creation, Spiritual Wisdom… Only 5-star painters are capable of creating a painting of this level, and unfortunately, there’s no one possessing such ability in the Myriad Kingdom Alliance!”
“Since Spiritual Wisdom is an ability belonging to that of a 5-star painter, what could Continuity of Spiritual Wisdom be? And how can it assess a person’s ability to impart knowledge?”
…
The crowd below discussed with perplexed expressions. None of them were able to understand the concept of Continuity of Spiritual Wisdom.
Even Zhang Xuan frowned as well.
However, there was one exception. Upon hearing the content of the test, Ruohuan gongzi’s face immediately glowed in delight, and he clenched his fists in agitation.
As a 4-star painter, this test was advantageous to him.
