Taking Action

"Liu Feng and Zhong Jing are fighting?"

Lin Nan froze. Through the crowd, he vaguely saw two agile figures, fists flashing as dust billowed across the center of the field.

A woman with tear-streaked cheeks stood at the edge of the field, shouting without pause, "Stop! Stop fighting!"

"Could it be a spar?"

Confusion appeared on Lin Nan's face. The martial school disciples had annual sparring assessments, but this was not the time for one.

"Damn it! How dare you!"

In the field, Liu Feng's face had turned livid. His blood and qi surged through his arms as he unleashed Serpent Flow Force, sweeping toward Zhong Jing's chest.

Opposite him stood a tall man with bronze-colored skin, regarding Liu Feng with haughty eyes.

"This move is too broad. Far too many openings."

With casual ease, he rounded his hands as though a long snake were winding through the grass. With a light deflection, he caused Liu Feng's attack to miss.

Lin Nan recognized it at a glance. This was Serpent Flow Force at the perfected realm. Whether in its power or timing, it had been executed flawlessly.

"You!" Liu Feng's first attack missed, but he immediately changed moves. His blood and qi roiled as both arms shot out together like venomous snakes leaving their dens.

Zhong Jing merely stepped sideways at an angle and effortlessly evaded another move.

For a time, one attacked while the other defended, and the two became locked in battle once more.

Elsewhere.

"Zhong Jing's Serpent Flow Force has grown more and more proficient."

Eldest Senior Brother Zhao Xun stood in a green robe atop a high chair, offering praise again and again.

"Third level blood and qi, Serpent Flow Force at major achievement and perfection, and even the Tongue-Thrust Baleful Intent he just learned—Liu Feng looks like he's in for a world of pain."

Third Senior Brother Luo Meng lifted his teacup, watching the scene before him with great interest. He seemed thoroughly excited.

Jie Ling, standing nearby, frowned. "Do we really not need to stop them? Liu Feng is the son of Liu Lie, the head escort of the Far Army Escort Bureau. If he gets injured, it will be difficult to explain later."

"Liu Lie?" Zhao Xun burst into laughter.

"He's merely a martial artist at the third level of the Skin-and-Flesh Realm. If Master Jie were not on good terms with him, did he think his family's meager wealth was enough to let him study martial arts at White Snake Martial School?"

"Eldest Senior Brother is right," Luo Meng echoed.

"I think we should first ask why they are fighting before deciding who is right and who is wrong."

A trace of displeasure flickered through Jie Ling's eyes. "We martial artists have always valued clear debts of gratitude and vengeance, settling scores with swift satisfaction. If we cannot distinguish black from white, how are we any different from the people of the three major gangs?"

As she spoke, she was about to rise, but an arm forcefully pressed down on her shoulder.

"Eldest Senior Brother, you..." Jie Ling felt the immense force on her shoulder and was immediately startled.

"Between Zhong Jing and Liu Feng, whoever has value to the martial school is its future. Those who have no value to the martial school are unfit to remain here."

Zhao Xun spoke indifferently.

"You..."

A flash of anger crossed Jie Ling's face. She stared at Zhao Xun for a long while, but in the end said nothing more and sat back down on her own.

"Perhaps Senior Brother Zhao is right..."

In the martial arts field.

Liu Feng panted heavily, drenched in sweat. Yet no matter how he exerted himself, he could not so much as touch the corner of Zhong Jing's clothes.

Before him, Zhong Jing's expression remained calm, his brows filled with condescending arrogance.

"Are you done?"

"You beast!"

Liu Feng's face blazed with fury. Blood and qi churned throughout his body. With a sway of his figure, all his strength gathered in his arms, and he charged forward again with Serpent Flow Force.

A cold, contemptuous smile curled Zhong Jing's lips. He swept his gaze around and saw that the three core disciples seated on the high platform showed no intention of stopping them.

At once, he understood.

"Now it's my turn."

As Liu Feng's fist force neared him, Zhong Jing suddenly raised his hand and threw a punch forward.

Bang!

A dull blast erupted.

Liu Feng only felt a tyrannical, razor-sharp force rush straight at him. It instantly crushed his Serpent Flow Force, making his entire body shudder.

Cold and piercing force passed through his arm in an instant, scattering a spray of blood.

Liu Feng cried out in pain and was about to retreat.

A ruthless glint flashed through Zhong Jing's eyes. His punch did not slow, instead carrying a violent tearing whistle as it shot directly at Liu Feng's wrist.

Jie Ling's expression changed in alarm.

She had not expected Zhong Jing to be so calculating. He actually wanted to cripple Liu Feng. She was just about to rise.

But it was too late!

At that critical instant.

A smooth, lingering wave of soft force suddenly spread outward.

Zhong Jing felt his condensed Tongue-Thrust Baleful Intent strike something soft as cotton. Its force was instantly dismantled and dissolved.

Then a rebounding force surged through his fist, jolting his body and forcing him two steps back.

"Who?!"

Zhong Jing steadied himself sharply, both shocked and enraged as he looked into the field.

It was Lin Nan.

At some point, he had appeared in front of Liu Feng.

Whoosh!

The three core disciples on the other side rose to their feet in unison.

"Lin Nan? How could it be this guy?" Zhao Xun's brows knitted slightly.

For a moment.

Every martial artist present wore an expression of stunned disbelief.

Among the inner disciples and Martial Apprentices present, aside from the three core disciples and those inner martial artists who had gone on to become guards in past years, who else could stop Zhong Jing now?

Lin Nan? Wasn't he that overaged martial artist at the first level of blood and qi?

"Lin Nan, this isn't your place! Leave, now!"

The instant Liu Feng saw Lin Nan, his expression changed drastically. He did not want to drag his friend into this.

"You dare stop me?" Zhong Jing's face darkened. "Lin Nan, a useless piece of trash at the first level, and you dare meddle in my affairs?"

"Since that's the case, I don't mind crippling one more person!"

Before his words had even faded, Zhong Jing's blood and qi surged again. Tongue-Thrust Baleful Intent filled his fist, and in the next instant, he lunged at Lin Nan's face once more with a piercing shriek of wind.

"Tongue-Thrust Baleful Intent? I know it too."

Lin Nan's lips curved slightly. Without dodging or evading, baleful force quietly circulated through his hand. His body moved like a white snake slithering forward as he charged head-on toward Zhong Jing.

Bang!

The two fists collided with a thunderous crash in midair. The enormous impact forced both men to stagger several steps back, landing on opposite sides of the martial arts field.

A draw!

For a moment, the entire field fell deathly silent.

"He... he actually fought Zhong Jing to a draw?!"

Liu Feng lay on the ground with a blank expression, utterly consumed by self-doubt.

Is everyone in the world a genius? Am I the only one with ordinary talent?

Zhong Jing stood rooted to the ground, staring fixedly at Lin Nan. His eyes were filled with disbelief.

"When did you reach the third level of blood and qi?"

Third level of blood and qi!

Everyone in the field was shocked. Lin Nan? Third level of blood and qi? What kind of joke was this?

Seeing the deathly silence around the field, Lin Nan really wanted to say, "I'll take on ten of you," to liven things up.

But in the end, he merely stood with his hands behind his back, maintaining the image of an unfathomable master with a smile.

"Did you think you were the only martial artist at the third level of blood and qi?"

From that brief exchange, he had already seen through Zhong Jing. Zhong Jing's Tongue-Thrust Baleful Intent had only barely reached the entry level. Though his blood and qi matched Lin Nan's, his techniques were far too crude.

If the two fought to the death, Lin Nan was confident he could deal with Zhong Jing within twenty moves!

"Hmph, again!" Zhong Jing's face was full of defiance as he prepared to charge forward.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Three piercing blasts of force rang out from nowhere. In the blink of an eye, three figures landed almost simultaneously in the center of the field, blocking Zhong Jing and Lin Nan.

They were the martial school's three core disciples!

"You? Third level of blood and qi?"

Zhao Xun, the leader among them, fixed his gaze tightly on Lin Nan and began sizing him up from head to toe.

"That's right, third level of blood and qi."

A voice brimming with approval came from outside the martial arts field.

Everyone turned to look.

Master Jie strolled over, accompanied by a tall man in black. On the chest of the man's robe was embroidered a crimson blade pattern!