From beginning to end, Chen Yunxuan had remained composed and calm, as untroubled as drifting clouds and a gentle breeze.
His words had been arrogant, but his tone had always been level and calm, without the slightest ripple.
Even after defeating Elder Liu, there was still no change in his voice.
No joy, no conceit, and certainly no sense that he stood above everyone else.
It was as though none of this mattered to him.
Deep down, Chen Yunxuan was somewhat disappointed. If Elder Liu's level was all they had to offer, he had truly come here for nothing.
After a brief shock, everyone came back to their senses.
Though they were already stunned enough, Chen Yunxuan's words still baffled them.
Why did he want to continue?
He had clearly beaten Elder Liu and proven his strength. Wouldn't it be better to quit while he was ahead?
If he lost, wouldn't that leave a stain on his record?
Chen Yunxuan had such strength at so young an age; his future achievements were boundless. A defeat would surely become a stain on his record.
"You... you weren't using your full strength just now, were you?"
Elder Liu had his suspicions, but he refused to believe them. He could not believe that even without going all out, a youth had still been more than he could handle.
"Eighty percent."
Chen Yunxuan's answer nearly made Elder Liu faint on the spot.
Eighty percent? This brat had used only eighty percent of his strength?
Was this still the Transcendent Realm? Since when could someone hold back while challenging an opponent above his realm?
Worst of all, Elder Liu suspected that even eighty percent was an overstatement. Chen Yunxuan had looked far too relaxed.
Had he really used eighty percent of his strength?
Or had he...
Impossible!
Absolutely impossible!
Elder Liu did not dare think any further. Chen Yunxuan was already prodigious enough. If his guess was right, just how monstrous was the boy?
A monster among monsters!
"Are you truly from the Northern Domain?" Elder Zhao asked, finally voicing the question on his mind.
Could such a prodigious youth truly have come from the Northern Domain?
"That's right." Chen Yunxuan nodded.
"Do any of you know of a Chen Family in the Northern Domain?" Elder Zhao asked with a frown.
"Well... there are plenty of people surnamed Chen, but I don't think there's a particularly strong Chen Family among the cultivator lineages."
"That is strange. Could he be from an utterly unremarkable family?"
"Elders, I know who he is."
"Oh? Cheng Yushu? You know?"
"I do."
Cheng Yushu stepped forward. After all, he was the only person there who had crossed paths with Chen Yunxuan before.
Cheng Yushu recounted exactly how he had met Chen Yunxuan.
Everyone froze at his account.
A prodigy like this had emerged from an obscure family in a tiny place like the Great Zhou Kingdom?
Most terrifying of all, Chen Yunxuan had been only at the Transcendence Realm Second Layer then, yet he could already fight someone in the Divine Ability Realm.
What fearsome combat strength!
"So that was this brat? No wonder his name sounded familiar."
"Yushu, was everything you told us back then true?"
"This brat really is that much of a prodigy?"
An elder of the Cheng Family remembered it too. But everyone had thought Cheng Yushu was lying at the time, so none of them had taken the name Chen Yunxuan to heart.
"Elder, you finally believe what I said?" Cheng Yushu said with a wry smile.
"We were too set in our ways, our thinking too old-fashioned. Who would have thought a true dragon could rise from a place like the Great Zhou Kingdom?" the Cheng Family elder said with a sigh.
After listening from the side, Elder Zhao looked at Chen Yunxuan with growing interest.
If the Blazing Flame Sect could win over someone like him, it would be an enormous boon.
Others had the same thought, but was Chen Yunxuan someone they could win over so easily?
"Chen Yunxuan, I am an elder of the Blazing Flame Sect."
"I'm at the seventh layer of the Divine Ability Realm. I wonder if I might serve as your opponent?"
"Am I qualified?" Elder Zhao asked with a smile.
His words startled everyone all over again!
What had Elder Zhao just said? I'm at the seventh layer of the Divine Ability Realm. Am I qualified to be your opponent?
Wasn't he giving Chen Yunxuan far too much respect?
"The seventh layer of the Divine Ability Realm?"
"I'm interested."
For the first time, excitement showed on Chen Yunxuan's face. Clearly, someone at the seventh layer of the Divine Ability Realm could stir his fighting spirit.
"Why do I get the feeling this brat's only getting serious now?"
"He's a monster! If I heard my opponent was at the seventh layer of the Divine Ability Realm, I'd drop to my knees in terror. Why's he getting excited instead?"
"That's the difference between you and a prodigy. The stronger the opponent, the stronger he gets. Understand?"
"I see. Maybe only someone with his temperament can keep growing stronger."
"Yeah. We're just too far behind!"
"Do you think it's possible that... Chen Yunxuan believes he can beat someone at the seventh layer of the Divine Ability Realm?"
"You've got to be joking. That's the seventh layer of the Divine Ability Realm!"
"But someone at the fifth layer has already lost."
"Well..."
While everyone argued, Chen Yunxuan and Elder Zhao had already begun to fight.
High in the sky, they traded blows back and forth, neither able to gain the upper hand.
"So he really hadn't used eighty percent of his strength."
Elder Liu gave a helpless, wry smile. Judging by the fight now, Chen Yunxuan was far more formidable than he had imagined.
Even against Elder Zhao at the seventh layer of the Divine Ability Realm, Chen Yunxuan was not at the slightest disadvantage.
At the sixth layer of the Transcendent Realm, he had combat strength comparable to the seventh layer of the Divine Ability Realm. Who could stand against that?
Boom!
With a thunderous crash, Chen Yunxuan and Elder Zhao each retreated more than ten meters.
Elder Zhao looked at Chen Yunxuan, his eyes blazing with fighting spirit too!
"Good! Now that's exhilarating!"
"Hahaha! I never imagined you could fight me to this point."
"I underestimated you."
"In that case, I'll use my full strength from here on."
"Chen Yunxuan, you'd better be careful."
Elder Zhao felt more than admiration for Chen Yunxuan now. He was deeply impressed.
A youth in his teens had forced him to use his strongest move. How could he not respect that?
"I couldn't ask for more!"
"Elder Zhao, then I won't hold back either!" Chen Yunxuan said with a faint smile.
"Good! Then let me see just how much of a prodigy you are!"
Elder Zhao laughed, and his aura surged.
The others felt a jolt of alarm at the force erupting from his body.
"This is bad! Fall back!"
"Get farther away! Do you have a death wish?"
"Move!"
Everyone fled farther away, afraid of being caught in the crossfire.
"Blazing Flames!"
The temperature around Elder Zhao kept rising, and a massive fireball appeared above him.
With a sweep of his palm, the enormous fireball burst apart into countless smaller fireballs that hurtled toward Chen Yunxuan.
"Scorching Sun Burns the Heavens?"
"That's the Blazing Flame Sect's strongest martial skill!"
"Can Chen Yunxuan really withstand it?"
"That's... hard to say."
Facing Elder Zhao's attack, Chen Yunxuan smiled faintly. Then an overwhelming aura erupted from him, as though none above the heavens or below the earth could stand before him.
Heavenly One Artistic Conception!
"What an overpowering aura!"
"Is that... an artistic conception?"
"What? Chen Yunxuan has even comprehended an artistic conception?"
"How... how many more tricks does he have?"
Chen Yunxuan radiated sheer dominance. His powerful aura made Elder Zhao's heart tremble.
In the next instant, golden light enveloped Chen Yunxuan, and he shot toward Elder Zhao at blinding speed.
Boom!
Golden light exploded. All anyone saw was Elder Zhao flying backward, exactly as Elder Liu had when he was defeated!
"He lost!"
"Even Elder Zhao... lost?"
"Hiss!"
Sharp intakes of breath sounded all around. Clearly, no one had expected this outcome.
Chen Yunxuan had truly... worked a miracle!
A legend as earthshaking as the first splitting of heaven and earth!
"Cough, cough!"
"I lost."
"Chen Yunxuan, were you... still holding back?" Elder Zhao asked with a frown.
"That was a full-strength strike. I held nothing back."
A full-strength strike?
Elder Zhao breathed a sigh of relief at Chen Yunxuan's answer. So the brat had reached his limit after all.
"Chen Yunxuan, from this day on, you are the foremost of the Northern Domain's younger generation."
"You deserve a place at the Four Regions Martial Arts Gathering," Elder Zhao said with a smile.
No one objected. If Chen Yunxuan represented the Northern Domain, he would surely shine and leave the other three regions dumbstruck.
"I'll go to the Four Regions Martial Arts Gathering, but I won't compete."
"Being the foremost of the Northern Domain's younger generation was never my goal."
"Oh? Then what is?"
"Before, it was to be the best in the Northern Domain. But now..."
"I want to be the best in all four regions!"
The best in all four regions?
Wasn't this brat's ambition a little too great?
Still, given Chen Yunxuan's age and the combat strength he had just displayed, it was only a matter of time.
"You want to unite the four regions?" Elder Zhao asked in shock.
"No!"
"My goal doesn't lie in the four regions."
"Then where?"
"The Central Heaven Domain!"
With that, Chen Yunxuan looked toward the Central Heaven Domain.
"Ancestor, would you be pleased with what I've done?"
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