You Nearly Hurt Me

The young cultivator quietly approached Daoist Fu Feng and whispered, "Brother Fu Feng, I haven't offended you, have I? The Bao Household hasn't, either."

Daoist Fu Feng coughed a few times, able only to bluff his way through. "Don't be impatient. Keep watching and you'll see."

The young cultivator fidgeted restlessly, able only to watch Wei Yuan head north. The two Confucian scholars, though, were pleasantly surprised, and both pretended not to notice the fortune arts Wei Yuan had suddenly displayed.

Every great household had its own fortune arts. The Bao Household's Forget Flowing Years was especially famous; it could make Bao Yun's strength surge in an instant. Since Li Zhi had already been accepted into Four Saints Academy, he must know Xing Li Chapter. And it wasn't just Li Zhi and Bao Yun—many young scions from great clans present also possessed fortune arts. If they were strict about it, they might uncover twenty or thirty. So the evaluators all understood: this matter couldn't be investigated.

In the northern central camp, a girl in a pale-yellow dress watched the sand table and calculated the time. "If Li Zhi still hasn't arrived in fifteen minutes, we attack!"

Before she had even finished speaking, a few grains of sand suddenly trickled down from several small mountains on the sand table before her!

The girl lifted her head and said calmly, "Li Zhi's got some ability after all. He actually made it here."

Everyone around her looked south. They were all calm and composed; no one showed the slightest fear.

Unlike Li Zhi, these people had joined forces before the unified examination even began. They hadn't waited until they entered the dormitory to start gathering a following. They also trusted Bao Yun completely. By sending out both wings, Bao Yun was forcing Li Zhi's main force to come fight them, so they could settle things in one battle, finish the assessment early, and head back for drinks.

After gazing into the distance for a moment, they saw that what appeared at the edge of their vision wasn't a yellow-clad army, but a moving mountain of flesh.

Wei Yuan rode the boar up a small hill and stood at the top, gazing at the orderly military formation ahead. His eyes saw nothing but the sea of blue uniforms and armor. In the illusion, the weapons and armor each person chose were automatically colored, so there was no way to confuse the sides.

Everyone in the blue-clad military formation also saw the yellow heavy armor Wei Yuan wore.

Bao Yun stared at Wei Yuan in astonishment. "Who is that?"

Everyone shook their heads in confusion. They had known which important figures served under Li Zhi before the Martial Assessment, but no one knew who this man riding a boar was.

As they hesitated, Wei Yuan didn't stop. He watched the neat ranks before him as another strand of black silk slipped into the wild boar's body. The boar grew several sizes in an instant. White breath steamed faster and faster from its nostrils, gathering into great clouds that enveloped Wei Yuan.

Wei Yuan willed it, lowered his spear, and pointed ahead. The boar immediately threw back its head and howled, its roar echoing through the entire illusion!

Blood quickly spread over the boar's two tusks, and its steaming breath turned streaked with red. It lowered its head and charged at the military formation, trailing clouds of vapor!

The formation had been perfectly orderly, and the soldiers standing in its ranks had been full of confidence. But this formation was meant to deal with Li Zhi, not a wild boar as large as a small hill. Only when a boar weighing more than ten thousand catties charged straight at them at full speed did they realize how terrifying it was. There was no way human strength could stop it!

The soldiers in the center of the front rank dropped their weapons and turned to flee. The two ranks behind them were caught off guard; by the time they tried to run, it was too late.

The boar crashed into the formation. Its tusks, several feet long, tossed several people into the air with a single thrust. As they flew through the air, before they could even struggle, spear shadows flashed before their eyes—and they vanished in streaks of light.

The formation, originally prepared to withstand an all-out assault from Li Zhi's army, had been pierced through by Wei Yuan in a single charge.

After breaking through the formation, Wei Yuan squeezed his legs. The boar planted all four hooves, but its massive body still slid more than ten zhang on the force of its momentum, scraping sparks from its hooves before it finally managed to turn around.

A broad path had now been carved through the center of the blue-clad formation. Several beams of white light rose from the churned earth, one after another.

Several young men rushed out from beside Bao Yun and charged at Wei Yuan. One of them shouted, "Don't be afraid! Let's join forces and take down that beast first!"

Faint light rose from the young men's bodies. They raced forward like lightning, clearly all wielders of fortune arts. The boar had only just swung its enormous body around and hadn't yet gathered momentum. The young men had already reached it. They leaped into the air, bringing every kind of weapon down on the boar.

Both sides were now using fortune arts. With a shift of his divine sense, Wei Yuan had already sensed the fortune surrounding his opponents. As their fortunes resonated, the three young men before him seemed like candles in the wind, each one tiny and weak. In Wei Yuan's eyes, their movements slowed to a snail's pace. They were in midair, unable to dodge or change direction—a better target couldn't be found. Wei Yuan leveled his spear and thrust. One thrust per man, and in the blink of an eye, every young man had vanished in a beam of light.

Wei Yuan slowly lowered his spear and turned his gaze to the remnants of the formation. When the candidates in blue saw him look their way, they suddenly broke and fled in every direction.

Wei Yuan looked up and saw the young men and women standing on the hilltop. He pointed his spear toward the girl standing in the middle.

"Impudent!" A strikingly handsome young man beside the girl flew into a rage, stepped forward, and shouted, "I'll teach him some manners!"

Bao Yun said gently, "Brother Xu, be careful."

The young man replied proudly, "No need! A mere barbarian—I'll take him down in a snap!"

The young man clearly had fortune arts of his own. Two purple flames ignited in his eyes, and purple fire rose from his body. His speed suddenly increased several times over. Like a purple fire dragon, he charged toward Wei Yuan, then leaped into the air and shouted, "Barbarian, face my sword!"

Wei Yuan watched the purple-flamed young man crawl toward him through the air in slow motion, then thrust straight at his chest.

The young man leaped several zhang, his sword glittering like a cold star. Yet the tip was still several feet from Wei Yuan's throat when it could go no farther.

The young man slowly lowered his head and saw that Wei Yuan's spear had somehow pierced his chest. Two lateral branches had caught his body, stopping him from moving forward. He stretched out his arm with all his might, but his three-foot sword only edged forward by two inches. He couldn't reach Wei Yuan at all.

Wei Yuan swung the great spear through a circle in the air and flung it with all his strength. The young man shot like a meteor into the crowd on the hillside. Three beams of white light rose at once.

The girl sighed softly, raised her long sword in both hands, and prepared to fight herself.

At that moment, the young man behind her, who held a sword in his arms and was every bit as handsome as she was, stopped her. "Looks like Brother Xu isn't going to cut it."

The girl said, "But Brother Xu did his best! It's all right. I'll go myself."

She struggled twice, but couldn't free herself from the boy's grip. He held her fast and smiled faintly. "Your Brother Xu really is brave. But fighting isn't his strong suit. I'll handle this."

"Hmph, I can do it too!" The girl struggled forward.

"You don't need to." The boy pulled her behind him and said, "To borrow your Brother Xu's words: a mere barbarian—I'll take him down in a snap!"

The boy drew his long sword. Clear energy rose from his body, making him look like an immortal child, and he flew toward Wei Yuan without haste.

Watching the boy's back, the girl suddenly called, "Xiao Yu... brother, be careful!"

The boy laughed. In an instant, the clear energy around him rose three feet higher. He pointed his long sword at Wei Yuan and shouted, "Three Thousand Lotuses!"

Wei Yuan's vision blurred. The boy's figure suddenly vanished, leaving only countless blue lotus blossoms in sight. They shot through the air like lightning and crashed into Wei Yuan, raising a great shower of blue flames. Wei Yuan had no time to block them. In that instant, he didn't know how many sword strikes had hit him!

A huge beam of light rose, and amid the shower of blue flames, the boar vanished in a flash of light.

The lotuses dispersed, and the boy appeared once more, floating before Wei Yuan with his sword in his arms. His eyes were clear, his gaze fixed on the distant sky; he didn't even seem to see Wei Yuan.

The boy's clear, gentle voice rang out. "Since you took my Three Thousand Lotuses and didn't fall at once, if your score is poor when the assessment ends, I'll give you a spot in a Blessed Land. All right, you can go without worry."

The boy closed his eyes and waited for several breaths. Then he opened them—and saw Wei Yuan still standing there, not vanished in a beam of light.

Wei Yuan lowered his head and looked himself over.

Countless tiny dents and faint scratches had appeared on the plates of his heavy armor. They were all marks left by that strike of Three Thousand Lotuses.

Wei Yuan estimated the dents' size and the scratches' depth, then said sincerely, "You nearly hurt me."

The boy's small face grew paler and paler. His long hair drifted gently, and his little mouth involuntarily puckered. The color gradually drained from his lips.