Chapter 50: Wang Yichui

Just as Sun Xiaoyan's victory sent shockwaves through the crowd, Lin Zhengli, having just awakened from his coma, was whispering complaints behind his elder brother's back.

"Why did you help me concede? If you had woken me up then, I might have been able to fight!"

"And then what?" Lin Zhengren replied without looking back.

"If I hadn't been careless, how would that barbarian have had a chance? Not to mention that guy from Fenglin City—he didn't even manage to lay a foundation! I'm not reconciled to letting him take the championship!"

"Even if you had beaten him, based on the points system, he would still be the top freshman. It would have been meaningless. Besides..." A slight smirk tugged at the corner of Lin Zhengren's mouth, "What if you had lost again?"

"How is that possible!" Lin Zhengli looked left and right, then lowered his voice, saying indignantly, "You don't believe in me? That I would lose to him?"

"Who knows?" Lin Zhengren gave a nonchalant smile.

Lin Zhengli felt a surge of indignant fury at being looked down upon, especially since he had indeed been pinned down and pummeled in front of so many people just moments ago.

Just as he was about to say something more, Lin Zhengren suddenly turned around and grabbed him by the collar.

"Remember! You have already used your stupidity to make an enemy."

He lowered his voice and said, "If you do not have absolute certainty, do not give your enemy the opportunity to fulfill their destiny. He has not defeated any of you; his championship would be far from complete."

He released his grip, letting go of his brother, and turned back to watch the match. There was not a trace of gloom on his elegant face.

"Do not let him have it."

...

In the tournament rounds, Fenglin City had decent luck with the draw; no civil wars occurred in the first round.

Li Jianqiu had a bye, so Wang Changxiang and Sun Xiaoyan fought the first match.

Neither side had any intention of changing their combat styles.

Sun Xiaoyan continued to charge forward mindlessly, while Wang Changxiang still opened with his mist.

"What is this! Mist again!"

"Exactly! You can't see a thing!"

Unable to see the match clearly, the spectating commoners stopped giving the Wang family any face.

However, the opinions of the audience were clearly not something Wang Changxiang considered.

Sun Xiaoyan bumped around blindly in the mist, missing every strike. Once the Daoist incantation was completed, the wind rose and the mist dispersed.

That gentle breath passed through the finger positions, instantly becoming violent and transforming into a tornado. It roared as it tore through the thick fog, crashing straight toward Sun Xiaoyan!

"Ah!" The chubby boy let out a roar, though it lacked much intimidation, sounding more like a piglet's squeal.

But his strength was undeniable. He still attempted to charge forward amidst the roaring tornado!

His clothes were shredded by the wind, and his face turned bright red.

His feet gripped the ground firmly, but the floor tiles shattered piece by piece, and he was forced back step by step.

To step outside the line was to lose.

Sun Xiaoyan began to perform hand seals. Performing them within such a tornado was extremely difficult, but he managed to succeed nonetheless.

A stone wall appeared before him, but it was blown to pieces in a single breath.

The flying debris struck Sun Xiaoyan, causing him to lose control completely. He was swept into the air and thrown out of the arena.

The *Kunpi Drum* technique was indeed powerful in defense; even in such a forceful tornado, no wounds could be seen on his body, and the stones hitting him didn't even leave a bruise.

But he still lost.

Sun Xiaoyan's defense was almost insurmountable at this stage. In a real battle, Wang Changxiang might not have been able to do anything to him either. But this was a competition; being blown out of the arena meant defeat.

Jiang Wang sighed softly, because he suddenly realized that whether facing Wang Changxiang or Sun Xiaoyan, he seemed to have no effective solution. The defense of the *Four Spirits Body Tempering* was clearly inferior to the *Kunpi Drum*, and while the *Purple Qi from the East Sword Art* was sharp, it likely wouldn't break through such defense. If he had a good weapon, he might have had a chance. Currently, he could not defeat this chubby boy.

As for Wang Changxiang, as soon as the Breath-Blowing Tornado appeared, his only option was to run.

That was a Grade A Daoist technique! In the entire Fenglin City Dao Academy, including the instructors, how many people could actually use one?

Freak!

"Wind Sparrow." The hunchbacked old man spoke up again. "His Dao-vein True Spirit should be a Wind Sparrow, naturally attuned to wind-elemental essence. That is why he can use a Grade A Daoist technique despite his level."

This was the first time Jiang Wang had heard of a Wind Sparrow as a Dao-vein True Spirit. In the academy's lectures regarding Dao-veins, the instructors had only ever described the Earthworm True Spirit. Jiang Wang had once thought that all Dao-vein True Spirits were Earthworms.

Knowledge often dictates one's perception of strength.

Jiang Wang and his companions exchanged glances, and their attitude toward this disheveled-looking old man became much more respectful.

"Forgive my ignorance, but what is your honorable surname, elder?" Huang Azhan coughed, his tone respectful and polite.

Perhaps holding a grudge against his previous big mouth, the hunchbacked old man treated Huang Azhan quite poorly. He gave a cold snort and did not respond.

"That's right, Grandpa, what is your surname?" Jiang An'an suddenly turned around, her large eyes filled with curiosity. "I always see you, but I never know how to address you."

"Gui!" Just as the little girl Qingzhi opened her mouth, the hunchbacked old man caught it with a bright smile. "Grandpa's surname is Gui. Just call me Grandpa Gui."

"That surname is so elegant." Huang Azhan began to savor the name, nodding his head rhythmically.

His subsequent flattery would be endless.

Even Jiang An'an and Qingzhi quickly turned their heads back to the arena.

The second round of combat had begun.

Wang Changxiang versus Li Jianqiu.

Whether based on the long-standing rankings on the Dao Merit List or the combat power they were currently displaying, Wang Changxiang held an overwhelming advantage. Yet, for some reason, Jiang Wang felt that Li Jianqiu was more than just that.

"Senior Brother Wang, can we please not use such a rogue technique as the Breath-Blowing Tornado?" Li Jianqiu negotiated before the fight began.

By this time, Wang Changxiang had already replenished his Dao Essence, his energy being full and robust. Hearing this, he merely smiled. "Junior Brother, you joke."

His demeanor was as gentle as ever.

The Daoist incantation was completed, and the mist dispersed.

At that exact moment, Li Jianqiu spread his arms wide, and a gale suddenly rose.

A Grade C, low-rank Daoist technique: *Call the Wind!*

This was not the Nether Mist from Xiaolin Town; ordinary wind could blow it away.

Ultimately, the mist was not an insurmountable technique; the only truly insurmountable thing was the Breath-Blowing Tornado. In the previous two matches, it wasn't that the opponents lacked ways to break the mist, but rather they had prioritized their own defense first, only to find it destroyed in a single strike.

In the clearing mist, Wang Changxiang's hands continued to perform seals, his voice calm. "Junior Brother Li, you weren't interested in wind-elemental techniques before."

The world of Daoist techniques is vast and boundless; it is better to be specialized than to be a jack-of-all-trades, and better to be profound than to be broad.

Li Jianqiu finished his incantation, and two swords of flame flickered from his hands. With a light tap of his toes, he soared into the air like an eagle striking the sky.

"I learned it for you, Senior Brother!"

At this moment, he was in mid-air, his momentum like a rising rainbow.

Wang Changxiang's expression remained unchanged as he brought his hands to his lips. His index and middle fingers met, while his thumbs, ring fingers, and pinkies were pressed together respectively. Within the triangular area formed by his middle and ring fingers, he exhaled.

Breath-Blowing Tornado!

That single breath instantly transformed into a tornado. Li Jianqiu had already closed in; without any leverage, he suddenly performed several consecutive backflips in mid-air.

"Good!" Huang Azhan clapped loudly in praise!

Except in very rare circumstances, it was nearly impossible for a human to fly through physical strength before opening the Heaven-Earth Gate. The levitation ability Li Jianqiu displayed was nothing short of astonishing.

However, the people around him looked at Huang Azhan as if he were an idiot. After a few claps, Huang Azhan sheepishly retracted his hands.

Because although Li Jianqiu's mid-air flips were spectacular, he flipped himself right out of the arena, which was essentially a concession.

Li Jianqiu landed, dissipated his dual flame swords, and said with a look of shock, "Your Breath-Blowing Tornado can be completed this quickly now?"

It was only natural that he was surprised. Any cultivator with a discerning eye could see it. The key to defeating Wang Changxiang lay in the time before he completed the tornado, but no one knew that he not only mastered a Grade A technique but had mastered it so proficiently and rapidly that he could even shorten the incantation time!

This also meant that in his previous battles, he didn't need such a long preparation time at all; the mist was merely a trivial smokescreen used to deceive opponents like Li Jianqiu.

"If I went any slower, I feel like something would have gone wrong," Wang Changxiang said with a gentle smile.

Li Jianqiu fell silent for a moment, then suddenly smiled with a sense of relief.

"I lost."

The champion of the three-city competition for the third-year students was thus decided. Wang Changxiang won both his matches and returned in glory.

Following this battle, Wang Changxiang gained a new nickname: "Wang One-Blow"...

Meaning that no matter what opponent he faced, he could settle it with one blow. Of course, it also expressed that he only had the strength of one blow.

In Huang Azhan's words, it was "short but fierce."

The subsequent battle between Li Jianqiu and Sun Xiaoyan could no longer affect the outcome, so their fight was quite perfunctory.

Though it still appeared intense to the spectating commoners—with Li Jianqiu almost perfectly demonstrating the ferocity of fire-elemental techniques and his hand seals moving like flying—and Sun Xiaoyan again charging recklessly relying on the *Kunpi Drum*—before they even engaged in close combat, Li Jianqiu drifted out of the line and conceded once more.

But in Jiang Wang's eyes, Li Jianqiu had not gone all out. Because from beginning to end, the ancient longsword at his waist had never left its scabbard.

As the crowd dispersed, the stage was cleared for the fifth-year students of the academy.

As a close junior brother, Jiang Wang naturally went up to offer a few words of comfort to Li Jianqiu.

But Li Jianqiu spoke first: "I had prepared a surprise, but I didn't get the chance to perform it."

Jiang Wang knew he was referring to the astonishing speed at which Wang Changxiang completed that Breath-Blowing Tornado.

"When you were fighting the Sanshan City student just now, why didn't you try it, Senior Brother?"

Although the fight had been dazzling, anyone with eyes could see that Li Jianqiu had no intention of fighting for victory.

Li Jianqiu gave a bitter smile. "First, I might not be able to break his defensive technique. Second, there is no meaning in being second or third."

He turned to walk away.

"The matches are about to start!" Jiang Wang reminded him.

Li Jianqiu had already walked off, his hand on his sword. "I'm not watching."