The remaining four matches soon ended.
Some defeated their opponents in three moves; others fought until they were drenched in blood before barely managing to blast their opponents off the platform.
Half an hour later, all five victors had been decided.
The white-haired elder picked up the register, sweeping his gaze over the five in turn.
"The second round is over."
"The five victors are officially promoted to the inner sect."
As his words fell,
a wave of envious chatter immediately rose across the square.
The white-haired elder raised a hand to quiet them.
"Next comes the ranking competition, which will determine the top five places in this outer sect assessment."
He was just about to announce the rules when a figure had already passed through the crowd.
Thud!
Chu Yunfei stepped onto the stone steps.
His heavy footfall made even the platform tremble.
Every gaze immediately converged on him.
The white-haired elder frowned. "Chu Yunfei, the ranking competition hasn't begun yet. What are you coming up here for?"
Chu Yunfei turned and looked at the outer sect elites below who still had strength to fight.
Li Hu.
Wang Jingshan.
And the other two disciples who had just won.
"To challenge them."
The white-haired elder froze.
"What did you say?"
"Let all four of them come at me together."
Chu Yunfei's tone was calm, as though he were discussing something utterly ordinary.
"If I win, first place is mine."
"If I lose, I'll leave the inner sect."
The vast square fell silent for an instant.
The next moment, the crowd erupted.
"One against four?"
"Two of them are at the body tempering ninth stage. Has he gone mad?"
"Does beating Wu Kou with one punch really make him think there's no one left in the outer sect?"
The elders in the stands could no longer sit still either.
The wrist of the gray-robed elder on the far right jerked, spilling most of his tea on the spot.
"Arrogant."
He stared at Chu Yunfei, taking a long while to utter that single word.
The black-robed elder beside him narrowed his eyes.
"More than arrogant."
"This brat is even more arrogant than before his cultivation fell."
The white-haired elder did not respond immediately.
He looked at Chu Yunfei, then at the ten disciples below.
A challenge like this was not part of the assessment rules.
But Chu Yunfei had even staked his place in the inner sect.
If he truly won this battle, there would naturally be no further dispute over first place.
"Chu Yunfei."
The white-haired elder asked gravely, "Are you certain you want to fight four alone?"
"Certain."
Chu Yunfei did not hesitate in the slightest.
The white-haired elder stared at him for another two breaths before finally nodding.
"Very well."
"Since you proposed it yourself, I shall give you this opportunity."
He turned toward Li Hu and the others.
"The other four qualifiers, come onto the platform."
"If you can defeat Chu Yunfei, the rankings for this assessment will be reassessed."
At those words, Li Hu was the first to step forward.
He was tall and powerfully built, his arms thick as iron, his muscles and bones making faint sounds as he walked.
Body tempering ninth stage.
Ranked among the outer sect's top three.
He had already cultivated his Iron Arm Art to the seventh level and could shatter the protective spiritual power of an eighth-level Body Tempering martial artist within three punches.
Yet now, Chu Yunfei had singled him out to join forces with the other three qualifiers.
This was no challenge.
He clearly intended to trample all four of their faces beneath his feet and ascend to first place in the outer sect!
"Chu Yunfei."
Li Hu climbed onto the platform through gritted teeth.
"What do you take us for?"
Chu Yunfei glanced at him.
"Opponents."
That single brief word darkened Li Hu's face further.
Merely opponents?
Even with all four qualifiers joining forces, was that the only word they deserved in Chu Yunfei's eyes?
Wang Shan followed close behind.
He was also at the body tempering ninth stage, his palms unusually broad and thick, their surfaces covered in calluses.
The other two qualifiers also stepped onto the platform one after another.
The four spread out, surrounding Chu Yunfei in the center from different directions.
Two at the body tempering ninth stage.
Two at the eighth level of body tempering.
Four presences burst forth simultaneously, and the air above the platform seemed to sink all at once.
Loose stones along its edges kept bouncing.
The weaker disciples below turned pale and instinctively retreated several steps.
One ninth-stage Body Tempering cultivator was already enough to sweep through most of the outer sect.
With two ninth-stage Body Tempering cultivators and two eighth-level Body Tempering cultivators joining forces, who would dare meet them head-on?
Li Hu raised his arms.
Iron-gray spiritual light spread upward along his skin, covering both arms in an instant.
Iron Arm Art, seventh level!
Wang Jingshan crossed his palms, dark red spiritual patterns lighting up in their centers.
Rock-Shattering Palm!
The other two drew their weapons at the same time.
A saber and a staff, spiritual power coiling around them, their threatening edges aimed straight at Chu Yunfei.
Before the four even attacked, a suffocating pressure already weighed upon the platform.
In the front row of the stands,
Ling Feng leaned against his chair, a trace of a cold sneer finally appearing on his face.
"He's courting death himself. That saves me the trouble."
His confidant beside him hurriedly agreed.
"Neither Li Hu nor Wang Jingshan is a brute like Wu Kou."
"With four people sealing every escape route, Chu Yunfei will go down even if he has three heads and six arms."
Ling Feng said nothing.
He only stared at the platform, his eyes icy.
On the other side,
Yan Guining rested her folded hands on her knees, her expression deeply conflicted.
Chu Yunfei had already passed the assessment and returned to the inner sect.
She had lost their wager.
But if Chu Yunfei lost this battle, or was even severely wounded by the four...
Only then did Yan Guining realize that she actually did not know whom she should hope would win.
Not far away,
Situ Shuang'er clutched the hem of her clothes tightly, crumpling the fabric into a ball.
She stared at Chu Yunfei in the center of the platform, repeating the same words over and over in her heart.
Defeating Wu Kou with one punch doesn't mean he can fight four alone.
The Body Tempering Realm is ultimately only the starting point of the martial path.
Even if Chu Yunfei has recovered his cultivation, he can't possibly catch up to me now that I've awakened a special physique.
Impossible.
Yet this time, even she felt that word sounded somewhat powerless.
At the center of the platform,
Chu Yunfei's expression did not change at all as he faced the four surrounding him.
He raised his right hand.
Hum! His storage ring glimmered.
The next moment, the five-hundred-and-thirty-jin Abyss-Devouring Sword fell into his palm.
Thud!
The sword tip touched the ground.
A section of the hard stone platform caved in on the spot, cracks spreading outward from the sword tip.
The black blade seemed to swallow the surrounding light.
There was no spiritual glow, nor any astonishing Sword Qi.
Yet the moment Abyss Swallower appeared, all four of Li Hu's group felt their hearts tighten.
It was as though a vicious beast lurking in the darkness had fixed its eyes on them.
Wang Jingshan clenched his hands and barked in a low voice:
"Don't give him a chance to swing!"
Li Hu clearly had the same thought.
"Attack!"
Boom!
All four charged at once.
Li Hu attacked head-on, his iron fist wrapped in gray spiritual power as it smashed viciously toward Chu Yunfei's face.
Wang Jingshan closed in from the left, his Rock-Shattering Palm aimed straight at Chu Yunfei's shoulder.
The saber slashed down from behind.
The iron staff swept toward his waist and abdomen.
Four attacks sealed off front, back, left, and right, leaving not even half a step of retreat.
Never mind a body of flesh and blood.
Even a rock several zhang tall would have been shattered on the spot by this combined assault.
Everyone below held their breath.
Several elders leaned forward, already prepared to intervene at any moment.
Just as the four attacks were about to land, Chu Yunfei moved.
The Boundless Creation Scripture circulated at full force.
Spiritual power surged from his dantian into his right arm, his muscles and bones resonating all at once.
Pivoting on his right foot, he twisted his waist and turned.
The five-hundred-and-thirty-jin Abyss-Devouring Sword swept out!
There were no complicated moves.
Only a single, utterly direct horizontal slash.
Yet the instant its edge cut through the air, three ink-black sword gleams lit up in succession.
The first had barely appeared before the second caught up.
Then came the third!
The three streams of sword force linked end to end, stacking layer upon layer.
In the end, they actually formed a complete ink-black ring that expanded outward from Chu Yunfei, skimming along the platform.
Triple Wave Slash!
The first wave of sword force struck Li Hu's iron fist.
Crack!
The iron-gray spiritual glow split apart on the spot.
Li Hu's expression changed drastically.
Before he could draw back his fist, the second wave of sword force was already bearing down.
Bang!
The protective layer of spiritual power covering his arms shattered completely, countless motes of light exploding before his eyes.
On the other side, the dark red spiritual markings on Wang Jingshan's palm held for only an instant before the sword force tore them apart as well.
The saber light died out.
The iron staff veered aside.
The combined offensive of all four had failed to withstand even the second wave of sword force.
The third wave followed close behind!
At that moment, Chu Yunfei turned his wrist slightly.
The sword's edge shifted half an inch aside.
He forcibly reined in the sharpness that could have torn through flesh, leaving only the immensely heavy, overlapping waves of concussive force.
Boom!
An ink-black ring of sword force swept across the entire arena.
Li Hu bore the brunt of it.
He crossed his arms before his chest, yet felt as though a mountain hurtling sideways had struck him head-on.
"Pfft!"
He spat out a mouthful of blood.
His feet left the ground, and he flew straight over the edge of the arena, slammed heavily into the square, and rolled several more yards before stopping.
Wang Jingshan followed right behind him.
His protective spiritual power crumbled inch by inch, and he flew backward faceup, smashing into the ground and sending cracks spreading in every direction.
The other two fared even worse.
Bang! Bang!
Two figures flew out of the arena in succession.
One struck a stone pillar, his long saber flying from his hand.
The other crashed into the crowd and lost consciousness as he hit the ground, his iron staff rolling several yards with a string of piercing clatters.
From the moment the four attacked until all of them flew out of the arena, fewer than two breaths had passed.
The Abyss-Devouring Sword stopped in midair.
Its black blade remained perfectly steady, without the slightest tremor.
The square fell utterly silent.
An outer sect disciple stood with his mouth open, unable to make a sound for a long while.
He lowered his head to look at the four qualifiers sprawled every which way around the arena, then looked back at the figure in the center and swallowed with difficulty.
Four people had attacked together.
Then one sword strike had laid them all out.
Others fought their ranking matches one bout at a time.
But Chu Yunfei?
He had cleared the field outright.
The white-haired elder abruptly rose, planting both hands on the stone table.
"Triple Wave Slash..."
His voice sounded a little dry.
"Turning a straight strike into a ring, uniting three forces as one, releasing and retracting at will."
"Great perfection!"
Several elders' expressions changed at once.
The teacup in the gray-robed elder's hand cracked, fine fissures appearing across it.
"Triple Wave Slash is only a low-grade Yellow-tier martial technique, but no fewer than a hundred outer sect disciples practice this sword art."
"Not a single one has truly brought it to great perfection."
He turned toward the library pavilion, as though he had suddenly remembered something.
"How many days has it been since Chu Yunfei took this sword art?"
No one answered.
Because that answer was even more frightening than defeating four qualifiers with a single sword strike.
A matter of days.
A martial technique at great perfection.
This was no longer something that could be explained by simply calling his talent astonishing.
The crowd below finally erupted.
"One strike! He really only used one strike!"
"Li Hu and Wang Jingshan are both at the Body Tempering Ninth Stage!"
"Is this really the same Chu Yunfei from before?"
"What do you mean, from before? He was never crippled at all!"
A disciple who had just been waiting to enjoy the spectacle shrank back, quietly slipping behind the crowd.
That slap in the face had been far too brutal.
Fortunately, Chu Yunfei had no time right now to settle accounts with them one by one.
In the front row of the stands.
Situ Shuang'er's face was pale.
Three days earlier, standing in that dilapidated courtyard, she had told Chu Yunfei herself.
"You're not worthy of me."
Now those words seemed lodged in her throat.
She could neither spit them out nor swallow them down.
She closed her eyes, forcibly suppressing the wavering in her heart.
It was only an outer sect assessment.
Even taking first place couldn't change the true gulf between them.
But this time, even she was unsure how much longer that reason could convince her.
Ling Feng remained seated in his original spot, motionless.
There was no anger on his face, nor any discernible expression.
Only five deep finger marks had appeared on the chair's armrest.
"Interesting," he said softly.
Hearing that single word, his confidant beside him instead broke out in a cold sweat down his back.
On the arena.
Chu Yunfei reversed his grip and put away his sword.
Abyss Swallower turned into a streak of black light and vanished into his storage ring.
He looked at the white-haired elder, quietly awaiting the result.
The white-haired elder remained silent for several breaths.
His gaze swept over the four qualifiers lying outside the arena in turn before finally returning to Chu Yunfei.
The other four qualifiers for the inner sect had all been defeated.
There was no longer any doubt who ranked first in the outer sect this time.
"In this outer sect assessment."
"First place, Chu Yunfei!"
His voice carried across the square.
No one objected, nor did anyone dare to.
Chu Yunfei walked down from the arena.
Wherever he passed, the watching disciples stepped aside of their own accord, opening a broad path.
But he did not head toward the qualifiers' area.
Instead, he walked straight toward the front row of the stands.
Yan Guining stiffened.
Clutching the hem of her clothes tightly, she watched the figure drawing closer and closer, her pretty face gradually flushing red.
Chu Yunfei finally stopped before her.
Their surroundings quickly fell silent.
Countless pairs of eyes turned to follow him.
Chu Yunfei looked at Yan Guining with a meaningful smile.
"Senior Sister Yan."
"The assessment is over."
"Isn't it time we settled our wager too?"