The Might of the Layered Wave Slash

As soon as Su Chen's voice faded, everyone present instantly drew in a sharp breath of cold air.

One had to know that the First and Third Households together pooled a total of forty Lesser Origin Pills each month, which came to four hundred and eighty per year.

That was to say nothing of three years, or five years...

The bet Su Chen proposed could not be described as anything less than ruthless; he was aiming to cut off the First and Third Households' supply of Lesser Origin Pills!

Jiang Minghao, however, agreed without even thinking. Hmph, what's wrong with that?

Anyway, there was no way he could possibly lose, so he might as well agree!

Just at that moment, however, a voice rang out from the sidelines: "Wait!"

Following that, Jiang Shan strode over with a slightly darkened expression. "Minghao is only a junior, so he cannot make the call on such a huge wager. You had better change the stakes."

Su Chen had long anticipated that Jiang Shan would interfere, so he was not surprised.

If it were Jiang He instead, he would not have tried to stop it, because on the surface, Su Chen's chances of winning were virtually zero.

Yet the inherently cautious Jiang Shan would never allow any possibility of an accident to occur. Should Su Chen somehow have a stroke of blind luck and win, the cultivation resources of the First and Third Households would be ruined.

Of course, that possibility was exceedingly slim to begin with.

Su Chen said calmly, "Very well, then let us change it so that if I win, the First and Third Households will give the Second Household five hundred Lesser Origin Pills in a single lump sum."

Five hundred Lesser Origin Pills were enough to shake the foundations of the First and Third Households.

Jiang Shan and Jiang He exchanged glances, and Jiang Shan slowly said, "Very well."

After all, it was the people on their side who had proposed the wager first, and if they refused this revised stake, it would be rather like slapping their own faces.

"Don't worry, First Uncle, I won't lose!" Jiang Minghao said full of confidence.

Su Chen remained silent, a cold sneer tugging at the corner of his mouth. Just wait, Jiang Shan will soon regret this foolish nephew of his to the bone.

Soon.

The sparring match began.

Jiang Minghao sneered as he drew the

</di>

longsword at his waist. "Su Chen, didn't you tell me to unleash my full strength? Swordsmanship is what I excel at the most. Let's see if you can last three moves under my sword!"

"So much pointless chatter."

Su Chen gave a light scoff and casually pulled out his own longsword. "Then I'll play along with you using the sword."

The moment both sides drew their longswords, a wave of exclamations rose from the onlookers. It turned out that Jiang Minghao's sword had been specially commissioned by his father, Jiang He, from a craftsman using Coldglow Meteoric Iron, forged through eighteen complex procedures. Whether in terms of sharpness or its affinity with a Qi-Attraction Realm martial artist, it was far beyond what an ordinary longsword could compare to.

Yet the longsword in Su Chen's hand was merely an iron sword as ordinary as they came.

Judging by weapons alone, Su Chen was already at a massive disadvantage.

With the longsword in hand, Jiang Minghao's aura grew even more imposing. He erupted with the cultivation of the Eighth Layer of Qi-Attraction Realm, unleashing a Yellow-Tier Low-Grade sword martial art as he lunged toward Su Chen.

Three Talents Swordsmanship!

Jiang Shan, standing outside the arena, nodded in satisfaction. Although Jiang Minghao's martial art tier could not compare to the one Jiang Mingxuan had just used, Jiang Minghao's Eighth Layer of Qi-Attraction Realm cultivation alone was more than enough to instantly slay Su Chen at the Seventh Stage of the Qi-Attraction Realm.

One had to know that a gap of a full cultivation stage meant a world of difference in strength. The saying "Ten layers of Qi-Attraction, each layer a different world" was no empty phrase!

Just as Jiang Shan was thinking this, however, he saw Su Chen suddenly take a step forward on the dueling platform.

It was precisely this single step that suddenly stirred up a wave of true qi around Su Chen, one that was not the least bit inferior to Jiang Minghao's!

Seventh Stage of the Qi-Attraction Realm!

Eighth Layer of Qi-Attraction Realm!

Xu Yin, not far away, drew in a sharp breath of cold air, her face displaying utter shock. Xiao Chen has actually broken through to the Eighth Layer of Qi-Attraction Realm!

"How can that brat be at the Eighth Layer of Qi-Attraction Realm?"

Jiang He, standing beside Jiang Shan, was also incomparably shocked. According to the intelligence they had gathered, Su Chen was clearly at the Seventh Stage of the Qi-Attraction Realm, and having broken through to the Seventh Stage not long ago, how could he possibly have broken through to the Eighth Layer of Qi-Attraction Realm again?

"Elder Brother, we seem to have misjudged that brat's strength!" Jiang He's expression turned gloomy. He had originally thought Jiang Minghao's cultivation would steadily crush Su Chen, but who could have foreseen such a twist?

Jiang Shan was also somewhat surprised, but quickly spoke again, "What are you panicking for? Even if their cultivation is the same, the gap in martial arts and weaponry cannot be made up for. Do you have no confidence in your own son?"

Leaving aside the might of Jiang Minghao's sword, the Three Talents Swordsmanship Jiang Minghao practiced was also relatively precious among Yellow-Tier Low-Grade sword martial arts, falling only slightly short of Yellow Grade Middle Tier sword techniques!

"Elder Brother is right. I refuse to believe that brat can pull out a better sword martial art than the Three Talents Swordsmanship!" Reminded thus by Jiang Shan, Jiang He resumed his sneering.

Su Chen was merely an ordinary disciple of the Orthodox Unity Sect; the sect fobbing him off with an ordinary Yellow-Tier Low-Grade martial art was already generous, so how could he possibly hope to obtain a precious Yellow-Tier Low-Grade martial art like the Three Talents Swordsmanship from the sect?

To take a step back, even if the Orthodox Unity Sect had bestowed a precious Yellow-Tier Low-Grade martial art upon Su Chen, a martial art of that grade was not something just any Eighth Layer of Qi-Attraction Realm martial artist could master casually.

Jiang He had lost his composure for a moment upon suddenly seeing Su Chen's true cultivation—after all, the wager was a full five hundred Lesser Origin Pills.

Now that Jiang He had calmed down, however, he knew Su Chen had no chance of winning.

In the arena.

Jiang Minghao shouted, "Receive my sword!"

The sword light was like snow, reaching Su Chen's face in the blink of an eye!

Yet Su Chen kept his eyes half-closed the entire time, appearing as though he had entered a state of meditation, neither dodging nor evading.

Seeing this, the corners of Jiang Minghao's mouth could not help but curl into a sneer.

</di>

Could it be that this Su Chen felt he had no chance of winning and thus gave up resisting?

Just as Jiang Minghao was thinking this, however.

Su Chen's half-closed eyes suddenly snapped open.

When Jiang Minghao's sword was only a foot away from him, Su Chen abruptly raised his longsword!

Layered Wave Slash!

Tier upon tier of sword momentum erupted like wave after wave of the sea, one following closely behind the other, carrying a crushing, overwhelming force as it horizontally slashed toward Jiang Minghao with a motion that appeared slow yet was terrifyingly fast!

First wave!

Second wave!

Third wave!

Clang!

The longswords in both of their hands crashed heavily together.

Boom, boom, boom!

Following three muffled muffled explosions of qi, the arm of one of them trembled violently, almost failing to hold onto the longsword in his hand, while his body staggered backward, retreating more than a dozen steps in a row!

That person was not Su Chen, as everyone had imagined, but Jiang Minghao!

"How is that possible? Young Master Minghao was actually forced back such a long distance by a single sword strike from Su Chen?"

Jiang Minghao barely managed to steady his stance, his face filled with shock and disbelief as he muttered to himself, "How is this possible?"

His head-on confrontation with Su Chen had actually ended with him staggering back more than a dozen steps?

"What on earth just happened? Su Chen only slashed out with a single sword, yet he broke Young Master Minghao's swordsmanship?"

Everything that had just occurred happened far too quickly, and many of the onlookers had not seen it clearly.

Only Jiang Minghao knew in his heart that Su Chen's sword strike just then appeared to be a single blow, but in reality, it contained three tiers of force, with each tier stronger than the last!

When the second tier of force erupted, Jiang Minghao had already found it somewhat difficult to withstand, and the eruption of the third tier of force had led directly to his defeat.