“Humph!”
Facing the devastating attacks all around him, Zheng Yang didn’t panic. Instead, a smile crept onto his lips.
“Finally!”
He ignored the attacks and leaped into the sky instead.
“What is he doing? He will only expose more openings in the sky and hasten his loss!”
“If he attempts to escape at this point, he will only be cornering himself further! Is he trying to admit defeat?”
“Even though he will be able to avoid the attacks for the time being through his move, he will only be exposing himself to even more danger in a moment. This is truly a failed move.”
…
A commotion broke out amid the crowd.
Zheng Yang had displayed incredible battle sense and outstanding maneuvers throughout the course of the battle, aweing everyone, so why would he make such a fatal flaw in this crucial moment?
Chrysalis realm cultivators were incapable of flight, and if he had remained on the ground, he might still have stood a chance against the combat masters. The inability of Chrysalis realm cultivators to maneuver adeptly in the air only meant that he would become an easy target for his opponents to strike.
Before innumerable shocked gazes, Zheng Yang moved horizontally in the air to dodge all of the attacks heading for him before charging downwards with his spear.
“Is he… flying?”
“How can a Chrysalis realm cultivator fly?”
Everyone was stunned.
Only a Half-Saint who had opened their Zhukong acupoint was capable of flying freely in the sky.
The young man before them was just a Chrysalis realm cultivator, so how could he maneuver so freely in the air?
Wang Ying chuckled. “It seems like Teacher has taught him the Red Dust Heaven Ascending Steps as well.”
Their teacher had been able to fly in the air freely despite being at Transcendent Mortal realm because he had cultivated this movement technique. Clearly, Zheng Yang had inherited that technique as well.
“Zheng Yang is indeed rather sharp. He knows that under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t be able to stand against their strongest moves. Thus, he chose to intentionally display an opening to focus everyone’s attacks on him, but making use of the conventional notion that Chrysalis realm cultivators are incapable of flight, he caught them off guard and easily averted the crisis while turning the situation on them at the same time. Those three are done for,” Liu Yang said with a smile.
It was a common notion among cultivators that those beneath Chrysalis realm were weak in the air because they were incapable of flight, and it was making use of this notion that Zheng Yang had been able to earn an opportunity to strike.
Before Liu Yang could finish his words, Zheng Yang’s spear transformed into innumerable bursts of light that shot forth from the sky, barraging the three combat masters on the stage.
Peng! Peng! Peng!
Under the relentless assault, the faces of the three combat masters paled as they were knocked back, and two even fell straight off the stage.
“It seems like I have won!” Holding his spear, Zheng Yang stood upright on the stage as he shot a sweeping gaze at his surroundings with an indomitable disposition.
Many had thought that he would fall at the Dragon’s Back, but he had managed to clear it successfully.
After clearing this section, Zheng Yang didn’t rush ahead. Instead, he sat cross-legged on the ground and swallowed a pill to recover his stamina and depleted zhenqi.
Upon seeing his actions, the surroundings immediately fell silent so as not to disturb his recuperation.
Beneath the stage, Liao Song clenched his fists tightly as his face reddened in agitation.
The fact that Zheng Yang had successfully cleared the Dragon’s Back bore testimony to his strength. As long as he trained diligently after entering the Combat Master Hall, he would surely be able to become a Captain at the very least in the future. To have discovered such an expert, he would surely be able to rise through the ranks.
Even if Zheng Yang failed to clear the final Dragon’s Head, he would still benefit greatly from this matter.
…
Zheng Yang rested for a whole hour before standing up. At this point, the energy coursing through his body had reached a new peak. As if a powerful storm had been raised within his body, the deep rumbling of thunder could be vaguely heard from within his body.
With every step he took forward, the aura he emanated grew stronger and sharper by a bit. By the eighth step, a loud buzz sounded, and his cultivation advanced from Chrysalis realm primary stage to intermediate stage!
“He is advancing his cultivation right before the battle?” Wo Tianqiong was astonished. He turned his gaze to Liao Song and asked, “Will the combat masters in the Dragon’s Head adjust their cultivation accordingly?”
The opponents in the Dragon’s Tail, Dragon’s Back, and Dragon’s Head of the Dragon Gate Formation were scaled according to the cultivation of the challenger. Given that Zheng Yang had achieved a breakthrough, would the opponents behind adjust the difficulty of the challenge according to the present circumstances?
“They won’t. There is a time limit of two hours to the trial, and achieving a breakthrough within this limited time can be considered a method of adaptation by the cultivator. It won’t cause any difference to the difficulty of the later trials,” Liao Song replied.
If a challenger was able to achieve a breakthrough within the duration of the Dragon Gate Formation, it would be attributed to the challenger’s own capability as well. As such, no adjustments would be made.
Besides, a breakthrough by a cultivation stage wouldn’t make much of a difference to the trial. After all, there was no way one could achieve a breakthrough by an entire cultivation realm within two hours!
While they were speaking, Zheng Yang continued walking. By the eleventh step, he had already managed to reinforce his Chrysalis realm intermediate stage cultivation fully.
Proceeding ahead, the zhenqi in his body began rumbling once more, just like before, and his aura continued to grow stronger.
Boom!
By the nineteenth step, he overcame his bottleneck and successfully reached Chrysalis realm advanced stage!
“This…”
Everyone’s eyebrows leaped up. As cultivators, they had seen many breakthroughs throughout their lives, but they had never seen a person making consecutively breakthroughs so quickly!
To make two breakthroughs while walking a little more than a dozen steps, this was inconceivable!
On top of that, Zheng Yang was showing no signs of stopping yet. As he continued walking forward, the energy in his body continued to rumble furiously.
By the time he reached the Dragon’s Head, his cultivation had already reached Chrysalis realm pinnacle!
Wang Ying smiled. “Over the past few days, Zheng Yang has accumulated a vast amount of zhenqi, but he chose to suppress his cultivation until this moment. Finally, his hard work has paid off…”
Back when Zheng Yang received news that he was going to take the assessment to become a combat master, he worked harder than ever on his cultivation, but he chose to suppress it despite already being able to achieve a breakthrough. The purpose of it was so as to allow him to swiftly reach higher realms in the middle of a battle and catch his opponent off guard.
Of course, the main reason he was able to do so was also due to the unique nature of the cultivation technique that his teacher had imparted to him. For normal cultivators, it would already have been incredible if they advanced a cultivation stage on the spot. Due to the capacity of their dantian, they were incapable of storing sufficient zhenqi to make multiple breakthroughs on the spot.
“This move of his is not bad; he has lessened the gap between him and the combat masters in the Dragon’s Head. Perhaps I should try the same when I challenge the trial later on,” Liu Yang remarked with a smile.
Zheng Yang didn’t rush to attack the combat masters of the Dragon’s Head. Instead, he flicked his wrist and popped a scarlet fruit into his mouth.
“That is… the Scarlet Firefly Fruit?”
Beneath the stage, Wu Xu and Lu Cheng recognized the item that Zheng Yang had just ingested, and their eyes narrowed in alarm.
Back then, they had gone to a valley in order to procure that fruit, only to leave empty-handed. All along, they had suspected that Zhang Xuan had taken it before them, and from the looks of it now, that was indeed the case.
The Scarlet Firefly Fruit was known for its effect of enhancing a cultivator’s chances of achieving a breakthrough to Half-Saint. That fellow on the stage had already advanced his cultivation by three stages. It couldn’t be that he still wanted to make the breakthrough to Half-Saint on top of that?
There was huge gap between Chrysalis realm and Half-Saint. If one were to succeed, there would be a qualitative leap in one’s fighting prowess. By then, given his combat capability, clearing the Dragon’s Head would be a walk in the park.
Wu Xu and Lu Cheng weren’t the only ones who noticed this. Having come to the same conclusion as well, Liao Song bellowed, “Strike the army while it’s crossing the river!1”
Hong long long!
Upon hearing the bellow, the three combat masters in the Dragon’s Head immediately raised their weapons and charged at Zheng Yang.
In any case, the other party was already in their area of battle, so it wasn’t against the rules for them to make a move.
“Hehe, it just so happens that I could use some help digesting this surge of energy. I will use you all to practice my spear!” Zheng Yang’s eyebrows shot up as he raised his spear to retaliate.
Typically speaking, the Scarlet Firefly Fruit would require at least two to four hours to digest, but if one were to be pressured in battle, the speed could be hastened significantly.
Back then, during the Master Teacher Tournament in the Myriad Kingdom Alliance, Zhang Xuan had used the same method to raise his Transcendent Mortal 4-dan Clarifying Turbidity realm’s cultivation swiftly.
Under normal circumstances, it would be nigh impossible for Zheng Yang to defeat the Dragon’s Head. However, with the Scarlet Firefly Fruit, his chances would be boosted manyfold!
And as expected, the more he clashed with the combat masters, the greater the energy within his body became. In this moment, it was as if he had become a tireless machine of perpetual motion.
Not only so, his cultivation was swiftly progressing to Half-Saint. After trading around a hundred blows, a crisp echo sounded from his body, and his fighting prowess suddenly went through a qualitative change and surged exponentially.
Half-Saint, reached!
Upon reaching Half-Saint, Zheng Yang’s fighting prowess had more than doubled. With his newfound strength, the three combat masters of the Dragon’s Head whom he had struggled against just a moment ago were no longer a match for him. Within ten blows, he had already knocked them off the stage with his spear.
Dragon Gate Formation, cleared!
“He… really succeeded?” Clenching his fists in agitation, Liao Song could hardly believe what he was seeing.
A feat that countless geniuses in the Combat Master Hall had failed to achieve, and yet, this sixteen or seventeen-year-old youth who wasn’t even a master teacher had actually cleared it so easily… This was inconceivable!
“Cleared!”
The will from the headquarters supervising the Dragon Gate Formation from the sky left behind this word before gradually fading. In other words, the result of this trial was recognized by the Combat Master Hall headquarters.
In the future, if Zheng Yang were to head to the Combat Master Hall headquarters, he could challenge the Dragon’s Pearl directly without undergoing the previous three sections!
While this wasn’t the complete Dragon Gate Formation, over the span of the past three hundred years, there were less than ten combat masters who had successfully cleared this trial. To be even more direct, at this very moment, Zheng Yang had already become a candidate to become the Progeny of Combat.
Clenching his fists tightly, tears began to stream down Zheng Yang’s cheeks. “I have succeeded…”
He was only an ordinary youth who had a passion for spearmanship. Had he not met his teacher, he probably would have remained in Tianxuan Kingdom his entire life, unaware of the greater world out there. His cultivation would have been capped at Tongxuan realm1, and he might have become a spearmanship teacher for other cultivators. He would have spent the hundred years of his life humbly and idly, achieving nothing significant at all, leaving nothing worthy of note when he was reduced to dust at the end of his life.
It was his teacher who had changed his life, showing him that the world was greater than what he could see.
It was his teacher who had brought him to where he was, reaching a height that he dared not imagine in the past.
It was his teacher who had given him confidence and a goal, teaching him what he should fight for.
Clenching his fists tightly, Zheng Yang made a vow. “Teacher, don’t worry. I will surely advance further and further. I will make a name out of myself in the Combat Master Hall so as to not let you down!”
As Zheng Yang walked down the stage, Liao Song turned his gaze to Wang Ying and the others. “Alright. Now that Zheng Yang has cleared the trial… do the rest of you still want to give it a try?”
“Of course!” Wang Ying smiled.
Even if she didn’t become a combat master, she wished to show the world her strength and bring glory to her teacher’s name!
Wang Ying was just about to leap onto the stage when she heard a slightly soft and gentle voice from the side.
“Senior, why don’t you allow me to try first? I am the most junior of us, so if I am able to clear the trial, you will surely be able to do the same!”
Turning around, she saw a pair of eyes looking at her with a brilliant gleam within.
Wei Ruyan.
