During the third round, after two matches of the ‘A’ group had concluded, Tong Yiming announced the names of two students. Upon hearing the names, the entire battle dojo swiftly erupted forth with cheers and applause.
A heavyweight battle would soon start!
Sun Mo’s student Jiang Leng vs. Bai Shuang’s student Miao Rui.
Bai Shuang had obtained the title of a ‘top graduate’ from the Skyraise Academy of the Nine Greats. She also had very high attainments in the art of spiritual control.
And her student Miao Rui was the top-ranked student among this batch in the Skyraise Academy.
Comparing fame, Jiang Leng was naturally much less famous. But because of Sun Mo, in addition to how he crushed the powerful Gui Jiarong earlier, he also had a few supporters.
“Who do you guys think will win?”
“Miao Rui should be a shade superior, right? After all, he is from the Skyraise Academy!”
“Yeah, if Bai Shuang encounters something she can’t resolve, she can still seek help for her teacher for the sake of her student. Besides, the opponents sparring against Miao Rui daily are all top-graded students from the Skyraise Academy.”
The majority of great teachers looked favorable upon Miao Rui.
It was like a boxer who sparred against ten military personnel every day. His training would definitely be more intense compared to other boxers.
“Junior martial brother, do your best. After you win, I will treat you to some melons!”
Lu Zhiruo waved her little fists.
“Could it be that you won’t treat me if I lose?”
Jiang Leng countered-asked.
“I will still treat you!”
The papaya girl was a generous person, but she started after she spoke. In that case, what was the meaning if he won or lost?
“Hehe!’
After teasing his endearingly silly senior martial sister, Jiang Leng went up the stage.
“The two of you, exchange your greetings!’
Tong Yiming reminded them.
“Jiang Leng, spirit-refinement realm. Please guide me!”
Jiang Leng clasped his fists.
“Miao Rui, spirit-refinement realm. Please guide me!”
After Miao Rui spoke, he laughed. “Let us stop once a clear winner is decided. If one of us can’t win, let us admit defeat cleanly. By doing so, we wouldn’t harm the harmony between us. What does junior brother Jiang think of this suggestion?”
Although Bai Shuang lost to Sun Mo in the Great Teachers Battle and had to teach in the Central Province Academy for three years, she had buried the hatchet and had a pretty good impression of Sun Mo now. Hence, Miao Rui didn’t wish to fight too intensely against Jiang Leng as it might cause the relationship between their teachers to stiffen.
“Sure!”
Jiang Leng nodded.
“Let’s get started then?”
Miao Rui asked.
“Sure!”
Jiang Leng pulled out his dagger and waited quietly.
“This Miao Rui is very confident in himself!”
Tantai Yutang’s lips twitched.
“Eh?”
Ying Baiwu and Lu Zhiruo were astonished. Why did Tantai Yutang say that?
“Only those who are sure they would win would say something like this. Don’t you guys feel that this Miao Rui seems to be very confident in himself? He speaks in an imperious manner like a lofty king peering down on his subjects.”
The sickly invalid explained.
Ying Baiwu frowned. She originally felt that this Miao Rui, who was quite good looking, was a gentleman. So it turned out that he already thought that he would win this fight.
The iron-headed girl grew unhappy upon thinking of this and she directly shouted.
“Jiang Leng, crush him!”
Ying Baiwu’s cheering was the same as her personality – simple and direct. She wasn’t tactful at all.
“Junior brother Jiang, there’s no need for you to wait for me to summon my spiritual beast. It would be unfair to you!”
Miao Rui persuaded.
Jiang Leng didn’t speak, but he didn’t move as well.
“He is also someone with pride!”
Bai Shuang mused. Usually speaking when one was fighting against a spiritual controller, they would definitely act first to seize the advantage. If not, if the spiritual controller had summoned their spiritual beast successfully, they would have won half the battle.
“Actually, even if you attack now, I won’t be at a disadvantage!”
Miao Rui placed his thumb on his mouth and bit the skin before snapping his finger.
Pak!
The blood from his thumb flew out. Before it landed, it transformed into a ball of red mist. After that, a strange diagram was formed.
Boom!
The spirit qi in the surroundings started to surge. In the blink of an eye, a basketball-size jellyfish was summoned. It simply floated in the air.
Hua~
A commotion appeared among the audience as the gazes of tens of thousands of people were drawn to that jellyfish. It was too beautiful and rare.
The body of the jellyfish was translucent, hence, one could see the blood flowing within. As its tentacles moved, some motes of light were emitted.
“What’s that?”
Several people curiously asked.
Westmountain was a mountain city. Let alone jellyfish, the citizens had never even seen lobsters and crabs. Their understanding of water creatures was stuck at the chinese perch that they would eat during autumn.
“Isn’t this fellow a little too flashy?”
Sun Mo was speechless. Such a summoning posture was definitely privately chosen and trained.
Bai Shuang had black lines on her face. (How many times have I said that the summoning ritual just has to be simple, direct, and highly efficient? Try your best not to attract the attention of others. Yet, you even snapped your fingers?)
“Junior brother Jiang, please!
Miao Rui stretched out his right hand and made an inviting gesture, allowing Jiang Leng to attack first.
Jiang Leng lunged forward like a hunting leopard and instantly appeared before Miao Rui. After that, his dagger stabbed toward Miao Rui’s throat.
The jellyfish that was floating in the air suddenly trembled as a blue-colored bolt of lightning crackled and materialized, shooting toward Jiang Leng.
“Ah?”
Lu Zhiruo covered her eyes in fright.
Jiang Leng dodged. The lightning blasted onto the stage and because of the static electricity, some small arcs of lightning landed on Jiang Leng’s body.
Crackle!
The second lightning bolt blasted forward.
However, this time around, Jiang Leng had sped up and changed his position, shifting around and circling behind Miao Rui. He used Miao Rui’s body to block the jellyfish’s attack.
“Impressive!”
Upon seeing this scene, Bai Shuang’s eyes brightened as a hint of admiration could be seen on her face.
In the past, the majority of the opponents Miao Rui had encountered would choose to temporarily evade the sudden lightning bolts and observe the situation before making a decision. However, this Jiang Leng actually didn’t even want to take a single step back.
Such courage was truly shocking.
One must know that the pressure brought along by the lightning bolts was extremely immense.
“It’s useless!”
Miao Rui’s expression also grew heavy. After he spoke, the jellyfish shot out another bolt of lightning, but it actually curved around and avoided Miao Rui, shooting straight toward Jiang Leng.
Jiang Leng circled around Miao Rui again and decisively stabbed his dagger toward Miao Rui’s throat.
Ding!
A long word slanted out and blocked Jiang Leng’s dagger.
Crackle!
Crackle!
The lightning continuously blasted onto the stage, causing fragmented stones to fly about randomly.
“Wonderful!”
Tong Yiming involuntarily applauded and praised loudly.
Because Jiang Leng kept circling around Miao Rui, using the latter as a shield between him and the jellyfish, the lightning bolt always had to curve if it wanted to hit Jiang Leng.
The moment the lightning curved, given the amount of time wasted, Jiang Leng would have observed and evaded it.
Naturally, some arcs of lightning still bounced onto his body. However, the degree of damage they caused wasn’t severe at all.
“Careful!”
The papaya girl felt extremely alarmed and scared as she watched the battle. Her palms were already coated in sweat.
“What an interesting opponent!”
Xuanyuan Po had envy in his eyes. He wanted nothing more than to fight on behalf of Jiang Leng.
The situation continued to remain like this for roughly two minutes before Jiang Leng suddenly increased his speed and retreated. He stood at a corner of the stage and maximized the distance between him and Miao Rui.
What surprised everyone was that Miao Rui actually didn’t continue to attack.
“Miao Rui is as expected of a student from a prestigious school. He is so gentlemanly!”
From the viewpoints of some people, Miao Rui could win if he commanded his jellyfish to attack.
“There are so many fools!”
Li Ziqi’s lips twitched when she heard the discussion. (Do you guys think that the lightning from the jellyfish is unlimited? Clearly, it has used up all its energy.)
“However, this Miao Rui is indeed quite impressive. Although he is a spiritual controller, his individual combat strength isn’t weak and he can actually handle Jiang Leng’s rapid attacks.”
Gu Xiuxun praised.
Pak! Pak! Pak!
Applause rang out from the judging panel.
The major characters weren’t stingy with their praises as the clashes within these two minutes were truly too fascinating. Their courage, abilities, flow of thoughts, and battle strategies were all clearly displayed.
“Are you not afraid?”
Miao Rui was curious. Those lightning bolts could even kill a horse instantly, and the arcs of lightning might be small, but if they hit someone, that person would definitely not feel well.
However, this youth with the word ‘cripple’ on his forehead didn’t even frown at all.
Jiang Leng didn’t reply. He was flexing his wrist.
Miao Rui had a meticulous personality and was proficient in guessing things from his opponent’s expression. However, this Jiang Leng was a complete deadman face.
(I don’t believe it!)
Miao Rui commanded the jellyfish to glance over. Its tentacles sparkled with sparks of lightning as though it was preparing to cast an ultimate attack.
Jiang Leng coldly observed.
“Junior brother Jiang, if you want to concede, there’s still time. Otherwise, I can’t guarantee that I would be able to hold back enough to show mercy.”
Miao Rui persuaded him.
Many great teachers were shocked because Miao Rui’s words weren’t an empty threat. They could all sense it was the truth. Because between opponents of relatively equal strength, one would never be able to hold back as they might lose just because of one slight mistake. Hence, they could only go all out.
“Life and death are predestined. Student Miao, you don’t have to be bothered with this!”
Jiang Leng replied.
He used the term ‘student’ instead of following what Miao Rui did and addressing Miao Rui as ‘senior brother’. Even for the sake of etiquette, Jiang Leng wouldn’t call him that because in his heart, only Li Ziqi and the others were his seniors and juniors.
Miao Rui started. His expression grew heavy because he understood the coldness exuding from Jiang Leng. (Could it be that this fellow has no emotion?)
(But for this round, I’ve won for sure.)
Miao Rui took the initiative to attack. His longsword was akin to a shooting star from outer heavens, piercing straight toward Jiang Leng.
Jiang Leng waved his dagger and blocked.
“Eh? Why is junior martial brother not attacking?”
Li Ziqi was surprised. Jiang Leng had always been walking the path of ‘seizing the initiative and attacking first to suppress others’. But this time around, he actually chose to defend passively.
“Because he has forgotten the cultivation art he was most proficient in.”
Sun Mo explained.
“Huh?”
Not only Li Ziqi and the others, but even the surrounding examinees glanced over in astonishment when they heard that.
“Can someone even forget the cultivation arts they trained in?”
Zhang Yanzong was puzzled.
Li Ziqi contemplated, “Was it caused by that jellyfish?”
“Not bad!”
Sun Mo glanced at the jellyfish floating in the air. “Its name is the amnesia jellyfish. It lives in the deep oceans of the Darkness Continent and is extremely rare. It uses lightning bolts to hunt prey and if the lightning bolts failed to kill the prey, it would be able to cause the prey to ‘forget’ its hunting abilities.
“The amnesia jellyfish’s lightning bolts have the effects of ‘amnesia’, causing humans to forget their cultivation arts. After all, cultivation arts can be considered a type of hunting ability.”
After Sun Mo finished speaking, the people fell into silence. Everyone had a dumbfounded look on their faces. (There’s actually such a species of darkness?)
Mother nature was indeed mysterious!
“The foundation of the Skyraise Academy is truly deep. They could even obtain such a rare species of darkness!”
Sun Mo sighed ruefully. He didn’t feel that Miao Rui would be able to head to the Darkness Continent to capture the amnesia jellyfish given his age and current capabilities.
Everyone subconsciously nodded. No one could afford to antagonize such an academy.
“Ah?”
The papaya girl suddenly cried out in shock, “Doesn’t that mean that junior martial brother Jiang will lose?”
[1] Although Miao Rui is referring to Jiang Leng as ‘junior brother’, they don’t study under the same teacher. This is just a respectful term of address.