Come Test Me!

Yu Zhen chuckled in surprise and rose from his swivel chair. He had been waiting a long time for those words. Ever since Long Hengxu had mentioned the word "monster" to him, he had wanted to see just how monstrous this monster was. He pointed toward the door and smiled. "Come on. I've wanted to see how capable you are for a long time, Little Monster."

He looked at Chen Qingquan and patted his old superior on the shoulder.

"Brother Quan, let me see that fine student of yours."

Chen Qingquan grinned, his smile blooming like an old chrysanthemum. Bai Yushan's strength was his greatest source of pride. That little brat had a foul mouth, but his skills had never disappointed him.

Seeing this, Long Hengxu, who had remained silent all this time, sighed and gave Ye Yingluo a look of exasperation at her failure to measure up. This class one teacher had decent strength and talent, but her horizons were still a little narrow. He had personally brought someone to the dean's office. Could she not tell how seriously this matter was being taken from those two details-"personally bringing someone" and "the dean's office"?

Would a student who had the dean personally speaking up and the director personally running errands be an ordinary student?

But it was too late to say anything now, so he might as well stay silent. Ye Yingluo had missed an opportunity, one that might have brought a qualitative change to her career. Long Hengxu did not remind her. Some things, once missed, were simply missed.

The group left the administration building, crossed the sports field, and arrived at Eastsea Academy's indoor training ground.

The training ground was enormous, fully half the size of a soccer field. Its floor was laid with specially made soul-conducting alloy plates capable of withstanding high-intensity Soul Power impacts. Defensive soul-conducting arrays covered the surrounding walls. Once activated, even immense power inside would have difficulty affecting the outside.

The lighting Soul Tools on the ceiling illuminated the entire space as brightly as day.

Yu Zhen went to sit in the spectator stands. Chen Qingquan sat beside him, Long Hengxu beside Chen Qingquan, and the four teachers in the row behind them.

Bai Yushan walked into the center of the training ground and loosened up his muscles and joints.

He twisted his neck, rolled his shoulders, and worked through his wrists and ankles. Faint cracks came from his body, like a rusty machine starting up again. Electric current flowed slowly inside him, unreleased, merely warming up, like adding wood to a furnace and letting the flames gradually build.

He raised his head and looked toward the stands. His gaze passed over Yu Zhen, over Chen Qingquan, over Long Hengxu, and settled on the blue-haired figure in white at the far right.

"You should be the strongest one here."

His voice echoed through the empty training ground, carrying provocation, anticipation, and a disquieting fervor.

He extended a hand and pointed at Wu Changkong.

"Come on. Come test me!"

The training ground fell silent for a moment.

Everyone's eyes landed on Wu Changkong. Yu Zhen's expression was subtle, Chen Qingquan's expectant, Long Hengxu's helpless, and the four teachers' complicated.

Wu Changkong stood up. He walked forward like water flowing down from a height, like snow sliding from a mountain peak. His white robes shone cold white beneath the lights, and his waist-length blue hair hung down his back like a length of blue silk.

He descended from the stands, entered the training ground, and walked up opposite Bai Yushan.

They stood facing each other, ten meters apart.

One wore white and had blue hair, cold and stern as frost. The other wore black and had black hair, wild and unrestrained as thunder.

"Wu Changkong."

Wu Changkong gave his name, his voice quiet but clear.

Bai Yushan grinned.

"Bai Yushan."

Wu Changkong did not smile, but a sharp gleam flashed through his eyes, like a hunter sighting prey, or a swordsman sighting an opponent.

He raised his right hand, his fingers slightly spread, and white light shone from his palm.

The Heavenly Frost Sword.

A snow-white longsword appeared in his hand. Its blade was long, slender, and sharp, radiating bone-piercing cold. Frost blossoms flowed across it, each one crystalline and translucent, so beautiful that it seemed less a weapon than a work of art.

Cold spread from the blade, radiating outward with Wu Changkong at its center. The air temperature plummeted. White frost blossoms began appearing on the ground, spreading outward from beneath his feet, as though winter were approaching step by step.

Bai Yushan felt that chill, but instead of retreating, he took a step forward.

Blue-white arcs began dancing over the surface of his body. This was not a deliberate release, but the electric current's instinctive response to the cold, like fire meeting ice, like lightning meeting snow.

"What is your Martial Soul?" Wu Changkong asked.

"Bioelectricity."

"Never heard of it."

"Then today you'll see it!"

Bai Yushan raised his right fist. Electric current gathered toward it, blue-white light shining around his fist with a sizzling sound. His hair began to float, the magnetic field generated by the current curling individual strands upward.

"Lightning Rushing Thunder Fist!"

Bai Yushan shot forward like a cannonball. The soul-conducting alloy plate beneath his feet was stamped into a shallow dent, cracks spreading outward from the point where he had stepped. His entire body became a bolt of blue-white lightning, reducing the ten-meter distance to nothing in the blink of an eye. His right fist, wrapped in fifty thousand volts of electric current, smashed straight toward Wu Changkong's chest.

The power of this punch was enough to blast a thousand-jin boulder into rubble.

Wu Changkong's gaze sharpened slightly. The Heavenly Frost Sword lay across his body, its blade blocking Bai Yushan's fist.

Fist and sword collided with a muffled boom, like someone striking an anvil with an iron hammer. Blue-white current burst from Bai Yushan's fist and spread up the Heavenly Frost Sword's blade like glowing snakes, trying to bite Wu Changkong's hand.

But the cold upon the Heavenly Frost Sword was even more violent than the current. Frost blossoms raced across the blade, and the chill became a white surge of air that held all the current away from the blade. Ice and electricity collided in the air, sizzling and stirring up a cloud of white mist.

Wu Changkong's body did not budge.

But his hand went slightly numb.

In that instant, he felt the force transmitted through the blade. That was not strength a nine-year-old child should possess, nor strength a One-Ring Soul Master should possess.

That force was pure, savage, and utterly unreasonable, like a wild beast that did not know what retreat meant, crashing headfirst into his sword and making the web of his hand tingle slightly.

A flicker of surprise passed through Wu Changkong's eyes.

He had originally only intended to test this boy who knew neither the height of heaven nor the depth of earth, to see just how much weight he carried. How strong could a child with innate rank-three Soul Power and rank-sixteen cultivation possibly be? Showing him a trick or two to make him recognize the difficulty and retreat would have been enough.

But this punch told him he was wrong.

When Bai Yushan's first strike failed to land, he flipped in midair, sweeping his left leg toward Wu Changkong's waist with electric current trailing it. The wind of his kick howled, blue-white arcs tracing a curve through the air like a whip swung by the god of thunder.

Wu Changkong dodged sideways. The left leg swept past the hem of his clothes, and electricity exploded in the air with a loud crackling. Bai Yushan's kick struck empty air, but he did not lose his balance. Instead, he used the force of his rotation to send his right fist smashing toward him again.

Each punch was faster than the last, each punch fiercer.

Wu Changkong raised the Heavenly Frost Sword, blocking left and parrying right. The blade traced white arcs through the air, keeping all of Bai Yushan's punches and kicks at bay. Clang after clang rang out without pause, like a smithy where an anvil had been heated red-hot and an iron hammer pounded against it, sending sparks flying everywhere.