Fighting Young Master Jun (2)

Young Master Jun's spear had no fire dragons; it was only simple thrusts and blocks. Combined with Young Master Jun's unique movement technique, each attack was faster than the last.

"Thrust."

"Parry."

Lu Chen continuously controlled the Azure Emperor Divine Tree's tentacles, forming shields in front of him to block the attacks.

In such an intense battle, Lu Chen's combat awareness rapidly improved. His recently broken-through cultivation showed signs of another breakthrough.

Lu Chen's own Spiritual Energy cultivation had long since reached the Grand Perfection of the Qi Gathering Realm. What he lacked now was combat experience. As long as his level of understanding of cultivation reached the required point, breaking through would be a natural progression.

"My cultivation is about to break through. I can't drag this out any longer. I must end this battle quickly."

Lu Chen felt the surging Spiritual Energy within his body and wanted to end the fight as soon as possible.

"Silver Serpent Emerging from its Lair."

"Dragon Descending into the Sea."

"Azure Emperor Divine Tree."

Lu Chen quickly circulated the Spiritual Energy within his body and used Silver Serpent Emerging from its Lair to attack Young Master Jun's legs from underground, disrupting Young Master Jun's attack rhythm once again. Immediately after, Lu Chen unleashed Dragon Descending into the Sea with all his might, attacking Young Master Jun from three directions, while the divine tree's tentacles continuously harassed Young Master Jun from behind.

"Star Serpent Hidden in Clouds."

Lu Chen's true form suddenly appeared above Young Master Jun's head and he struck down, intending to end the battle with a single palm strike.

Seeing the attacks coming at him from all directions, Young Master Jun flicked his wrist, picking up the Eight Treasures Rolling Cloud Spear beside him and catching it with his left hand.

At this moment, Young Master Jun held the spear with both hands, dancing it in front of him in a series of spear flowers, continuously blocking Lu Chen's attacks.

Lu Chen flashed backward, gathering all his Spiritual Energy into his hands. He then drew out the fiery energy from the Yang Sea Pearl, and flames began to condense in his hands. He was about to unleash his final move, the Six Yang Palms that Split the Heavens, to end the battle.

Young Master Jun continued to dance his spear flowers. Just as the last spear flower was completed, Young Master Jun pointed both spears at the sky and recited a cryptic incantation. Continuous thunderclaps echoed from outside the camp. Many of Jun family disciples, who were already inner disciples, stammered as they heard the incantation, "This is the Jun family's Heavenly Dao Control Art! Myriad thunders, regardless of friend or foe! Run, run!"

"Six Yang Palms that Split the Heavens: Blazing Sun Splits the Heavens!"

"Heavenly Dao Control Art: Heavenly Thunder Art!"

The two unleashed their strongest attacks simultaneously and charged at each other.

Hearing this shout, everyone fled outside.

Only Young Master Jun, Jun Wudi, Lu Chen, and the drunken Nantian Yijian remained in the camp.

Jun Wudi leaped between the two and used a palm technique to push them apart.

Lu Chen charged forward, his attack landing on the ground beneath the camp, forcefully digging a pit more than five meters deep into the reinforced earth.

Meanwhile, streaks of heavenly thunder descended from the sky, piercing through the camp.

After unleashing their attacks, Lu Chen and Young Master Jun both fell to the ground. In the end, no victor was decided. However, strictly speaking, Lu Chen was only at the seventh level of the Qi Gathering Realm, while Young Master Jun had reached the Grand Perfection of the Qi Gathering Realm. This battle was a win for Lu Chen.

The surrounding cultivators, unaware of the situation, cast their gazes towards the Fengtian Prefecture's camp, murmuring amongst themselves.

"Look quickly, what happened to Fengtian Prefecture? Why is the camp breached?"

"Did something happen inside?"

"Shut your mouth! Be careful you don't attract unwanted attention. You can't just gossip about major sects."

"What's wrong? Can't I say anything..."

In the direction of Medicine King Villa, a mysterious figure watched the continuously falling heavenly thunder and murmured, "Heavenly Dao Control Art... has someone from the main Jun family arrived? This is going to be interesting."

The thunderous sounds ceased.

Everyone re-entered the camp from outside and gasped at the scene within the tent. If they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, they would never have believed it.

"Did two people in the Qi Gathering Realm cause this during a fight? They can probably contend with someone in the Breath Regulation Realm now."

"It seems we underestimated Lu Chen's strength."

"Lu Chen can be considered a brother of our Fengtian Prefecture. I, Wang Laosan, acknowledge this brother!"

"That's right, I do too."

"..."

Most sect disciples were arrogant. While they didn't dislike Lu Chen, they hadn't become disciples of Jun Wudi after years of cultivation. Now, with Lu Chen's arrival, he was about to be taken as a disciple, which no one would readily accept. Thus, through intentional or unintentional arrangements, someone proposed a match between Lu Chen and Young Master Jun.

This battle brought too much astonishment. Lu Chen and Young Master Jun were fully qualified to become disciples of Jun Wudi. This battle truly allowed Lu Chen to establish a firm foothold and remain in this place.

As everyone was sighing with emotion, a pair of hands emerged from the ruins in the corner: "Holy crap, who buried me here? Hurry and pull me out."

The crowd burst into laughter seeing Nantian Yijian's comical appearance.

"Stop laughing and pull me up! I'm dying! Ahhh!"

Everyone quickly pulled Nantian Yijian out. Nantian Yijian was truly an unusual person. He was friendly and boisterous, and upon arriving, he immediately became brothers with these Jun family disciples, which was truly endearing.

Jun Wudi looked at Lu Chen on the ground and felt that his decision was the right one.

"Today's sparring ends here. Clean this place up and get some rest," Jun Wudi's voice came from behind.

"Yes, Elder."

The others carried Lu Chen and the other person to the bed and began packing up the tents.

Inside the tents, people chatted while packing, all saying Lu Chen was a genius and Nantian Yijian was a noisy devil. Nantian Yijian, however, was completely bewildered, not knowing what had happened and just followed along with the packing. But no one expected that the group in the tent now had witnessed the birth of the demonic musical art that would later strike fear into the hearts of people across the land.

"Bang"

A soft sound came from Lu Chen's body. Lu Chen sensed his own realm; he had finally reached the eighth level of the Qi Gathering Realm, with only two more realms to Grand Perfection. He was one step closer to becoming strong enough to save his grandfather.

Lu Chen lay on the bed, thinking about the recent battle. Fighting against humans was far more intense than fighting Demonic Beasts. Demonic Beasts lacked intelligence and had only a few attack methods, but humans were different; they could think and use various Martial Skills.

His fight with Young Master Jun had yielded more gains than his battles against hundreds of Demonic Beasts. He wondered if, after completing the thousand-target quest, he could start challenging human cultivators to speed up his cultivation.

Thinking this, he asked Young Master Jun, "Little Junzi, how long did it take you to cultivate to this point?"

"Five years."

"What, ten years?" Lu Chen exclaimed in surprise upon hearing Young Master Jun's words.

If Lu Chen were to be precise, he had only been cultivating for half a year. Excluding the time spent practicing Martial Skills, his actual cultivation time was less than a month. Lu Chen suddenly felt his cultivation speed was a bit abnormal.

"What's wrong? Ten years for Qi Gathering, a hundred years for Breath Regulation, and I'm already reaching the Breath Regulation Realm in just five years. Do you think I'm cultivating too fast? By the way, how many years have you been cultivating?"

Hearing Young Master Jun's explanation, Lu Chen didn't dare to tell the truth and casually replied, "About the same, about the same."

"I knew it! Someone who can fight me to a draw must have a fast cultivation speed, haha."

"Right, what kind of technique was that just now? You created a deep pit in the ground while in the Qi Gathering Realm, truly amazing." Young Master Jun stared curiously, realizing Lu Chen had far more secrets than he could see.

"An elder passed it down to me, haha, impressive, right?"

Lu Chen also stared at Young Master Jun, laughing heartily. He didn't want anyone to know about his Earth Tier Martial Skill yet. He casually said it and quickly changed the subject, "Your Heavenly Thunder Art is also very powerful. When shall we have a serious rematch?"

"Okay! I have the same idea. Next time, I will definitely use all my abilities."

Lu Chen looked at Young Master Jun again and asked, "Little Junzi, what was that move where you put the Heavenly Net onto your weapon just now? I've never learned anything like it."

Young Master Jun explained, "It's normal for you not to know since you haven't joined a sect. This is a minor application of the Heavenly Net. It can connect a person with their weapon, allowing for the rapid release of techniques stored on the Heavenly Net, and it can also enhance the weapon's attack power."

"See, you just place it directly onto the weapon, slightly bend your right middle and index fingers, and chant the incantation to activate your Spiritual Energy to merge the Heavenly Net into the weapon." As he spoke, Young Master Jun demonstrated it again in front of Lu Chen.

"Here, try it."

Lu Chen took the Heavenly Net and the spear. He succeeded on his first try, feeling a peculiar connection established between himself and the weapon.

"This is truly marvelous. It seems I still have much to learn." Lu Chen returned the two magical artifacts to Young Master Jun.

"Once you return to Fengtian Prefecture, you can systematically learn cultivation knowledge. Don't worry."

Lu Chen felt that although there were similarities to what he had learned from Feng Tiancheng, the discrepancies were too significant. Moreover, he had too many secrets now, and without understanding the continent, he could easily make mistakes.

"It seems I need to be careful," Lu Chen thought to himself.

"It seems you must go to Fengtian Prefecture to study as soon as possible," Feng Tiancheng's voice entered Lu Chen's mind.

"This continent has changed too much. I can guide you through the cultivation process with my experience, but you need to quickly adapt to the current cultivation knowledge."

Feng Tiancheng had also overheard the conversation between Lu Chen and Young Master Jun. He had spent too long in the Secret Realm, and the cultivation on the continent had changed significantly. Some common knowledge was completely unknown to them, just like the techniques Young Master Jun had used earlier, which neither of them understood.

For the next few days, the light of the Secret Realm did not dissipate. Feeling bored, Lu Chen continued to hunt Demonic Beasts in the vicinity.

Although Demonic Beasts in the Qi Gathering Realm no longer posed much pressure on Lu Chen, he still hoped to quickly complete his goal of hunting a thousand beasts in a month. He needed to rapidly improve his combat experience.

Young Master Jun accidentally heard about Lu Chen's goal of hunting a thousand beasts in a month. Since their last competition had not concluded, Young Master Jun sought out Lu Chen, wanting to compete again to see who could hunt more beasts in a day.

Young Master Jun watched Lu Chen hunting Demonic Beasts and repeatedly said to him, "Little Lu'er, let's continue our last competition and see who hunts more beasts."

Seeing Young Master Jun's persistent attitude, Lu Chen reluctantly agreed, "I'm only a hundred beasts away from my goal. Let's make that the target. Whoever kills a hundred beasts first wins."

"Who's afraid of who? I wasn't even using my full strength last time." With that, Young Master Jun charged forward and began competing with Lu Chen to hunt Demonic Beasts.

Lu Chen smiled at Young Master Jun's excited demeanor, "Be careful, I'm about to accelerate."

One, two, three... ninety-seven, ninety-eight. Ninety-nine. The number of Demonic Beasts Lu Chen and Young Master Jun hunted increased rapidly.