They're All Sneaks!

They're All Sneaks! "Greetings, Brother Chen!"

Across the arena, seeing Chen An slowly step onto the platform, Zhou Shuyan followed the courtesies between fellow students and politely cupped his hands in salute.

"Greetings, Brother Zhou!"

Chen An's gaze lifted slightly. Sensing no strong hostility from the other man, he calmly returned the salute.

"Enough. It's getting late, so let us begin!"

The instructor serving as referee glanced at the darkening sky. The setting sun hung low, and dusk was near. His gaze swept over the two men on the platform. Unwilling to waste more words, he raised a hand. "Prepare!"

"Begin!!!"

As the instructor's right hand came down, this match officially began.

"Brother Chen, forgive my offense!"

Zhou Shuyan drew a deep breath, his eyes secretly flicking toward the direction of the ancestor on the high platform. Then he gathered his focus. True qi suddenly surged violently around him, while faint thunder rumbled between his palms and fierce winds coiled about them.

It was the high-grade Profound-tier martial skill he had long cultivated to the minor achievement stage—Thunderbolt Wind-Rending Palm!

Facing Chen An, who had once defeated a peak Qi Condensation Realm expert in only eight moves, he did not dare hold back in the slightest, much less entertain any luck.

He knew full well that if he were even a little careless, he would only lose faster and more miserably.

Yet the ancestor's order weighed like a mountain. He had no choice but to go all out. Even knowing his opponent was unfathomable and impossible to defeat by force, he still had to pour everything into this battle.

The next instant, Zhou Shuyan stomped hard on the bluestone platform. His body shot forward like an arrow released from the bowstring, his palm carrying the force of roaring thunder and howling wind, wrapped in the robust true qi of the eleventh level of Qi Condensation, as it blasted straight toward Chen An.

Facing Zhou Shuyan's oncoming assault, laden with thunder and wind, Chen An raised an eyebrow slightly and immediately understood his plan.

He was preparing to crush him head-on with cultivation and martial skill!

Yet Chen An's expression did not ripple in the slightest. As the lightning-wreathed palm shadow closed in, his body suddenly slid sideways. Like drifting clouds in the wind, he lightly evaded the heavy, earthshaking blow.

Boom!!~~

The palm wind screamed past the edge of his robes and slammed into the platform, sending shattered stones flying and making the entire arena tremble slightly.

His strike missing, Zhou Shuyan's heart tightened, but he did not pause at all. Seizing the momentum, he changed techniques. Palm shadows layered forth in succession, the moves of Thunderbolt Wind-Rending Palm advancing one upon another. Palm winds wrapped in terrifying true qi sealed off Chen An's room to evade from every direction. Each move was fierce and forceful, carrying a frightening might.

Yet Chen An continued to move about with ease. He did not take the initiative to launch a fierce attack, relying only on exquisite footwork to dodge and dismantle the attacks. Every time, he narrowly avoided the edge of the palm winds. He appeared passive, but in truth, he saw every detail of Zhou Shuyan's offensive clearly.

After several exchanges, Zhou Shuyan's all-out attacks had still failed to touch even the corner of Chen An's clothes. The true qi in his body was steadily draining away, and anxiety grew fiercer in his heart.

He knew that if this continued, defeat would be inevitable. Immediately gritting his teeth, he gathered his strength and poured all his true qi into his palm. The thunderous roar swelled explosively as he unleashed the killing move of Thunderbolt Wind-Rending Palm, driving his palm toward Chen An's chest!

This attack gathered the foundation of his entire life. Its might was terrifying, and it was already the strongest blow he could unleash at present.

Chen An also saw through the substance of this palm strike. At the instant the palm wind arrived, he finally stopped evading and threw out a fierce punch.

Mountain-Crushing Force!!!

Bang!!!~~

Fist and palm collided, and a blast of air exploded outward.

Zhou Shuyan only felt a vast, mountain-and-sea-like force surge back at him. In an instant, it jolted his blood and qi into turmoil, numbed his arm, and scattered the true qi in his palm on the spot. He staggered back more than a dozen steps in succession until he reached the edge of the platform. His body swayed precariously, and he nearly fell off.

His eyes widened, his face filled with shock. In disbelief, he looked up at Chen An, who remained standing where he was, calm as drifting clouds and gentle winds.

"Puh!!~~"

Suddenly, Zhou Shuyan's expression changed drastically. He spat out a mouthful of blood, his body swayed, and he truly fell from the platform.

"Uproar!!!~~"

Seeing Zhou Shuyan exchange a punch with Chen An, only to be knocked back and cough up a large mouthful of blood as though severely injured, the entire martial arena erupted into an uproar.

Before this, when Chen An had fought students whose cultivation exceeded his own, he had mostly relied on his mysterious movement technique to evade calmly, circle around, and maneuver. He rarely clashed head-on with anyone's attacks.

Even when he won in the end, he had likewise relied on that mysterious footwork to counterattack.

This had led everyone to believe that he merely possessed strange movement techniques and nimble moves, excelling at winning through cleverness. His strength in direct clashes might not be all that formidable.

But the scene before them completely overturned everyone's understanding.

Zhou Shuyan, at the eleventh level of Qi Condensation and wielding a high-grade Profound-tier martial skill at the minor achievement stage, had thrown his full-strength palm strike—only to be severely wounded by Chen An's single fist in a head-on collision and knocked off the platform.

Could it be that Chen An's cultivation was not merely at the sixth level of Qi Condensation? Had he hidden his cultivation?!

On the high platform!

Zhou Tong, the Zhou Family ancestor, watched Zhou Shuyan spit blood and fall from the platform in a miserable state. His face instantly darkened like water, coldness churning between his brows as an intimidating pressure faintly radiated from his body.

He had intended to use Zhou Shuyan's hand to blunt Chen An's edge, suppress this suddenly rising dark horse, and ease his foul mood over losing a Earth-tier Realm-Breaking Pill because of this brat.

Never had he imagined that Zhou Shuyan would be so useless, suffering a crushing defeat from a single move.

Zhou Tong's gaze locked tightly onto the composed Chen An on the platform, and an almost imperceptible trace of sinister malice flashed through his eyes.

"What a powerful punch!"

Unlike the students and ordinary instructors below, Fan Suiyun, as a Xiantian Realm expert, could tell that the punch Chen An had just thrown was far from ordinary. It was at least a mid-grade Profound-tier martial skill cultivated to the major achievement stage.

Only thus could someone at the sixth level of Qi Condensation clash head-on with—and even severely injure—Zhou Shuyan, who stood at the eleventh level of Qi Condensation and controlled a high-grade Profound-tier martial skill at the minor achievement stage.

Fan Suiyun had not expected that someone in the county academy could comprehend a fist technique, at minimum mid-grade Profound-tier, to the major achievement stage while still in the Qi Condensation Realm.

One had to know that even many Houtian Realm experts might not necessarily be able to cultivate a Profound-tier martial skill to the major achievement stage.

And the more so it was, the more it showed that Chen An's comprehension was extraordinary.

"What a pity. I heard this boy's aptitude is merely a mid-grade martial bone!"

Fan Suiyun suddenly recalled that during Chen An's entrance examination, he had only tested as possessing a mid-grade martial bone. He could not help but sigh softly.

Everyone knew that the grade of one's martial bone determined one's potential in cultivation!

A mid-grade martial bone was mediocre in aptitude and could hardly achieve greatness. Under normal circumstances, one would likely spend an entire lifetime hovering around the Qi Condensation Realm.

Fan Suiyun had always believed that cultivation was the foundation of martial arts!

Even if Chen An's comprehension was extraordinary, his martial skills exquisite, and he was invincible among those of the same realm, the shackles of his martial bone would ultimately leave his cultivation far behind those geniuses with high-grade, Earth-grade, and Heaven-grade martial bones. He would find it difficult to become a truly peak expert.

Meanwhile, Chen An, standing on the platform, paid no attention to the students' shock below. Nor did he know that Fan Suiyun on the high platform was lamenting his aptitude and martial bone. Instead, he looked toward the spot where Zhou Shuyan had fallen, a subtle strange glint flashing through his eyes as the corner of his mouth twitched almost imperceptibly...