Piercing Sky, Shattering Clouds

"The options left to you are only two paths."

"The first is the safe path: advance steadily and securely, and guarantee a place in the top eight."

"The second is to charge forward with courage and ferocity, pressing onward without retreat, ending the battle swiftly, trading injury for injury. Before your true qi and stamina are exhausted, end the fight as quickly as possible, then strive to reach the top four, or even the finals."

"I will only offer you advice, not make decisions for you. What you do is up to you."

Zhou Leng nodded. "Thank you, Instructor."

"Go warm up."

Zhou Leng began jogging.

The students of Class 01 murmured among themselves.

"Which path do you think Zhou Leng will choose?"

"Do we even need to ask? With how hard he pushed himself during military training these past few days, he'll definitely choose the fierce path."

"On the surface, he's a quiet little white rabbit. Deep down, he's a ruthless, vicious beast."

"Six days of military training, first place for five of them. He's absolutely a desperate madman. Even Blood-Circulating Stage cultivators wouldn't dare push themselves that hard."

As everyone chatted, Chief Instructor Huang Jingqiu shouted, "Warm-up is over. Begin drawing lots."

The four students from Class 01 drew first, and every number they drew belonged to another class.

Zhou Leng ranked first in Class 01 and bore the number 0101. He drew 0403: Yan Jianhua.

When Zhou Leng raised his number, the Class 01 students erupted in cheers.

This was an unbelievably lucky draw.

Class 04 truly had no particularly outstanding students, and he had drawn their third-ranked student.

Over in Class 04, Yan Jianhua wore a smile.

A student beside him said with a grin, "You're probably not as agile as he is, but as long as you drag it into a prolonged battle, he'll definitely lose."

"That's right. As long as you don't clash with him head-on, his Qi-Nourishing Stage true qi won't last long."

"Yan Jianhua, how long did you run in the luck test?"

"Eight minutes and five seconds."

"You've got this in the bag!"

After the drawing ended, under the instructors' supervision, the sixteen contestants stepped onto eight makeshift arenas.

Each class's four instructors spread out around the arenas assigned to their class.

Deng Zhijue and the Class 04 instructor stood outside the arena where Zhou Leng and Yan Jianhua faced off.

Both had the authority to halt the match.

"Ready... begin."

Zhou Leng and Yan Jianhua clasped their fists in salute at the same time.

Yan Jianhua said, "I know your dodging and footwork are formidable, but actual combat only distinguishes victory from defeat, not good from evil. Next, I'll be using delaying tactics. I hope you won't say I won unfairly."

Zhou Leng said, "When we reach Demon City, the demons won't care how much true qi I have either. Please."

"Please."

Yan Jianhua immediately retreated, while Zhou Leng channeled true qi into both legs and charged straight ahead.

Yan Jianhua had expected this long ago and began circling with a smile.

Zhou Leng closed in. Yan Jianhua either evaded, blocked, or defended, never attacking at all.

They had exchanged only ten moves when students at Arena Five burst into loud cheers.

"Xu Kang'an is badass! He won in ten moves!"

"As expected of the martial academy's number one!"

The smile on Yan Jianhua's face widened.

Zhou Leng took a deep breath and cast aside all distractions.

Zhou Leng said, "I cultivate the Mystic Tide Art and Wave-Stacking Palm. At first, they may seem ordinary, but once unleashed, they come layer upon layer, fierce and swift. If anything goes wrong, please forgive me."

Zhou Leng stepped into the Eight Trigrams Step, and his figure suddenly appeared before Yan Jianhua. He thrust out a straight palm at Yan Jianhua's chest.

This move, Rushing Tide Strikes Shore, made the body a wave and the palm a tide. Like a colossal wave crashing in, it struck, it rolled, and murderous intent lurked beneath.

Yan Jianhua's heart skipped a beat. The move came too fiercely—he could neither evade it nor block it. He could only take it head-on.

Yan Jianhua hurriedly circulated his true qi and smashed a fist toward Zhou Leng.

Qi flowed into his blood, and a faint purple sheen surfaced over his fist.

Fist and palm collided.

Zhou Leng retreated one step. Yan Jianhua retreated half a step.

The watching students outside the arena were mildly astonished. A Qi-Nourishing Stage fighter against a Blood-Circulating Stage fighter, yet the difference was only half a step.

Yan Jianhua's blood and qi churned. Before he could steady them, Zhou Leng disregarded everything and launched another attack.

With a sudden burst, Zhou Leng rushed to Yan Jianhua's left. His right palm became a blade, slashing diagonally toward Yan Jianhua's ribs with a variation of the fifth form of Wave-Stacking Palm, Wavehead Coils Down.

Deng Zhijue outside the arena gave a slight nod.

The move itself was executed only passably, but Zhou Leng had linked it to the palm intent and true qi of the preceding Rushing Tide Strikes Shore.

Yan Jianhua hurriedly swung an arm up to block, but Zhou Leng's right arm moved like a swimming snake, sliding along Yan Jianhua's arm as his palm transformed into a fist.

Mystic Tide True Qi surged layer upon layer, crashing together with his fist into Yan Jianhua's left ribs.

Crack...

A rib broke, piercing through flesh.

Yan Jianhua screamed, and his true qi abruptly stagnated.

Zhou Leng suddenly slid forward, dropping low as both hands pressed against the ground.

His entire body became parallel to the ground. His left foot kicked off the floor for a second burst of force, while his right leg became a long spear and his right foot its spearhead, stabbing straight toward Yan Jianhua's left calf.

Leg piercing the sky, foot shattering clouds.

The most vicious seventh form of Cloud-Flying Leg: Piercing Sky, Shattering Clouds.

Yan Jianhua's left ribs were injured and his true qi was in chaos. There was nowhere to evade. His eyes filled with terror.

"Stop!" the Class 04 instructor shouted. "We concede!"

Before his toes touched Yan Jianhua, Zhou Leng halted his momentum, rolled sideways, and then rose to his feet.

"Thank you for yielding." Zhou Leng clasped his fists toward Yan Jianhua.

Yan Jianhua returned the salute. "Thank you, classmate, for showing mercy."

The Class 04 instructor walked over and smiled as he patted Zhou Leng's shoulder in praise. Then he supported Yan Jianhua and headed toward the infirmary.

Wei Hong said, "Use Rushing Tide Strikes Shore to force the opponent to take the attack head-on and disrupt his stance and breath; use Wavehead Coils Down as a feint, then turn Mountain-Punching Fist into the real strike. Finally, the sliding sweep and stabbing kick. I could think up that whole sequence too, but I could never execute it so smoothly and quickly."

"Palm techniques, fist techniques, footwork, leg techniques, stabbing kicks... they aren't even from the same system. Let alone us, even Blood-Circulating Stage cultivators might not be able to switch between them so fluidly."

"This is the terrifying part of a perfect score in true qi control. No wonder the instructors value him so highly."

"If that kick had landed just now, the other guy's calf bone would've snapped clean in two. That was brutal."

Zhou Leng stepped out of the arena and glanced toward the other arenas.

For now, only the arena where Xu Kang'an stood had finished its battle. Xu Kang'an happened to look over curiously as well.

The two gave each other a slight nod.

Zhou Leng sat down on the spot to meditate and recover his true qi.

From the initial pursuit to the final strike, only a little over a minute had passed, yet he had used up a quarter of his true qi—more than he had expended during the luck test run.

"A winner has been decided at Arena Two. Zhou Leng of 0101 and Du Qianfang of 0302, begin your match immediately. The top-eight-to-top-four round begins now."

Zhou Leng opened his eyes, stood, and walked toward Arena Two.

He still had four-fifths of his true qi remaining.

Yet Deng Zhijue frowned slightly. Du Qianfang excelled at both footwork and leg techniques. If she resorted to guerrilla tactics, Zhou Leng would inevitably be at a disadvantage.

Du Qianfang smiled. "Classmate Zhou Leng, I'm delicate and frail. Please go easy on me."

Zhou Leng said, "And then your opponent ends up beaten flat on the ground?"

"That was only because he was careless."

"Please."

"Please."

Zhou Leng moved like a gale, charging straight at Du Qianfang.

As Du Qianfang retreated and circled, she smiled. "I wouldn't dare fight you head-on. You defeated your opponent so quickly that I can only keep moving."

Zhou Leng did not say a word. He pursued relentlessly, still employing aggressive tactics.

But Du Qianfang's footwork and movement techniques were far stronger than Yan Jianhua's. Zhou Leng chased her for a while, only for her to evade him again and again.

The two chased, dodged, twisted, turned, and darted across the makeshift arena like two butterflies flitting among flowers.