Beating Up Noobs

"Thank you, Teacher."

After thanking Teacher Xun Fei, Chen Wu returned to his dormitory first.

While waiting, he opened the wooden box containing the champion's reward. Inside were a bottle of top-grade Qi-Concentrating Pills and a saber manual.

Gale Saber Art, low-grade Profound rank. Once unleashed, it was incredibly fast, like a gale sweeping across the land, leaving opponents with no time to react.

This saber art had likely been acquired by Principal Li in his younger years. Now, for the provincial high school league, he had contributed it.

After reading through it once and committing its key points to memory, Chen Wu put the manual back into the wooden box.

The first step is done. The name of a genius has been spread. Next, it depends on how Sister makes her move.

Before long, the dorm supervisor knocked on the door to deliver the key to the training room.

After taking the key and thanking her, Chen Wu locked his dormitory door and headed for the training room.

Over the past ten days, he had either been refining his body and spirit or completing his palm art. His training with saber and halberd had been somewhat neglected, so the arrival of the Gale Saber Art was perfectly timed.

He had also only just obtained Windmoon Severer and Silver Evil. It was a good chance to familiarize himself with them in the training room.

Meanwhile, news of Gu Yuyue entering seclusion to break through to the sixth rank and creating a high-grade Profound-rank palm art caused quite a stir in Golden City's police circles. Representatives from both the provincial department and city bureau came to witness it.

Before the many police leaders present, Gu Yuyue performed all eighteen forms of the Dragon-Subduing Divine Palm.

After on-site verification by martial arts experts, this palm art was confirmed to possess the power of a high-grade Profound-rank technique.

Some even believed that, if mastered to the great completion realm, it could fully unleash the power of a low-grade Earth-rank technique.

Following the plan they had discussed beforehand, Gu Yuyue announced on the spot that she would donate the Dragon-Subduing Divine Palm free of charge.

Under national regulations, aside from the creator of a martial art, everyone else possessed only the right to learn it, not the right to pass it on.

Learners were forbidden from copying or selling it.

Anyone who violated this rule would be jointly hunted down by the Dragon Guard, the Ministry of Public Security, the military, and others.

The reason Gu Yuyue had been able to give Chen Wu the body-refinement technique she had exchanged for earlier was that she had not learned it herself.

Moreover, after reading it, Chen Wu had not cultivated it. He had merely used it to improve his own Golden Bell Shield.

As the creator of a technique, he naturally had the right to pass it on to whomever he wished.

Of the money learners spent to purchase a secret manual, a portion would also be given to the technique's creator as a share.

Gu Yuyue's announcement that she would donate the Dragon-Subduing Divine Palm for free meant giving up that share, lowering the threshold for obtaining the manual.

Naturally, the province could not simply take it for nothing. In addition to medals and points, her position was also raised.

Three days later, the appointment of Gu Yuyue as acting chief of the New An Police District in Golden City would officially be issued.

Everything proceeded smoothly according to plan.

Time flew by, and a month quickly passed.

On the final day before National Day, in the school's private training room, Chen Wu stood bare-chested, his lean, powerful upper body exposed as he freely displayed everything he had learned.

As he executed the Dragon-Subduing Divine Palm, his movements and force flowed like drifting clouds and running water, without the slightest pause. Palm shadows instantly filled the room.

When he reached the final form, the force of his palms suddenly surged. Dragon-like qi shot forth with waves of dragon roars, and even a full zhang away, it remained fierce and powerful.

It slammed heavily into the training room's metal wall, blasting out a massive dent.

It was the divine palm's strongest move: "Regretful Dragon Soars to Heaven."

Though his palm technique had ended, Chen Wu was not the least bit out of breath. Every pore of his body absorbed the metallic qi in the air, tempering himself, while a great golden bell faintly appeared around him.

Unlike before, when his strength gathered from his limbs before covering his entire body, this time—

Bolstered by the metallic qi of heaven and earth, he drove the force blanketing his body to its limit. He was on the verge of breaking through.

"Hah!"

With a deep shout, the framework of the golden bell aura shield around Chen Wu's body was completed. A golden bell flickered in and out of sight, its majesty three parts greater than before.

The fifth stage was complete.

Chen Wu's path of body refinement rose once more. Furthermore, the Golden Bell Shield cultivated both inside and out, feeding back into his qi and spirit paths.

The Origin Seed above his dantian had reached the peak of the eighth refinement after this enhancement.

On the Dao-Demon Battle Diagram within his sea of consciousness, the ink-blue Daoist and the wolf-riding demon general had solidified into distinct forms, seeming both real and illusory as their true names appeared.

Mo Chenyin was the Daoist's name, while Life-Sparing Child was the demon general's title. With the two joining the battlefield, the struggle between Dao and demon on the battle diagram became even fiercer.

The two Daoists joined forces in flawless coordination. Qin and sword struck together, multiplying their power.

On the demon side, although Buddha Devourer had gained a powerful ally, he was still unable to withstand the might of the Daoists' combined assault. He retreated step by step, forced to withdraw into the demon camp.

Linking his aura with the other two demon generals whose forms had yet to solidify, he formed an array at the edge of the battle diagram, cutting off the Dao side's attack and gaining a brief chance to catch his breath.

After observing this battle between Dao and demon with his divine sense, Chen Wu finally understood how Buddha Devourer had escaped alive from Zhe Shan Jun's hands, and how he had rallied himself for another fight.

After watching the Dao-demon battle, Chen Wu withdrew from his sea of consciousness and reviewed the results of his month of cultivation.

His control over true qi had improved further, and the Golden Bell Shield had reached the fifth stage. This also meant that the amount of true qi he could mobilize had greatly increased, allowing the Dragon-Subduing Divine Palm to begin revealing its power.

The Gale Saber Art had also reached perfection. He had further comprehended the move Windmoon Slash, and derived a leg technique that increased both movement speed and offensive power.

As for the most important path of qi refinement, the Ninefold Essence Refinement was only one step away from completion.

The further one progressed in martial cultivation, the harder breakthroughs became.

Therefore, Chen Wu did not intend to break through immediately. He would wait until his body had fully adapted to the fifth stage, then achieve success in one stroke.

Today was the final day before the National Day holiday. Once the holiday ended, the city preliminaries would officially begin.

Teacher Xun Fei had informed Chen Wu that morning that he needed to go over in the afternoon to encourage the special training class before the National Day holiday arrived.

Thus, after leaving his private training room, Chen Wu headed to the martial arts hall.

There, he found Xun Fei and the twenty-two students of the special training class waiting for quite some time.

After a month of sparring training, they finally had somewhat of a martial artist's bearing.

Wu Yiming, Zhao Zihan, and Tang Jie had even entered the fifth refinement realm of Ninefold Essence Refinement, their strength greatly increasing.

Seeing Chen Wu arrive, Shen Yang said smugly, "Chen Wu, you came too late. What a pity—you didn't get to see the results of my month of training."

Clearly, being defeated twice in a row by Chen Wu last time still gnawed at him.

Chen Wu looked at Xun Fei in some confusion.

Xun Fei explained the situation to him.

It turned out that, in order to motivate the students of the special training class, Principal Li had merely asked Xun Fei to briefly tell everyone that Chen Wu, due to his genius status, had received preferential treatment and could cultivate wholeheartedly alone in a private training room. He had not revealed Chen Wu's realm.

This gave Shen Yang and the others the mistaken impression that Chen Wu had been shut away, building a cart behind closed doors.

Just moments ago, the special training class had finished holding its second martial arts competition.