Chapter 548 - 330: Passing the Test
Chapter 548: Chapter 330: Passing the Test
"I... surrender..." Lin Jingyu said with great difficulty.
As if those few words had drained him of all his strength, he immediately collapsed backward onto the ground. His breath grew weaker and weaker, leaving only his limbs to twitch unconsciously.
Everyone fighting nearby came to a halt, staring in shock at the fading Lin Jingyu.
The genius ranked eleventh on the Lingyun List had been eliminated, and his life was coming to an end.
Blood flowed from Lin Jingyu’s body, dyeing the soil red.
The moment he voiced his surrender, even his final ounce of willpower vanished.
"They did it. Xu Yang and Sun Tao actually did it," Yue Zhong muttered, his face flushed red with excitement and his whole body trembling.
He never expected that Xu Yang and Sun Tao joining forces could actually reach this level.
No wonder they had been completely indifferent back when he was running around frantically pulling strings. It turned out the two of them hadn’t been bragging at all—they truly didn’t fear Lin Jingyu and Huo Xiaochen teaming up.
"Our Purple Sun Sect has produced true prodigies," Bai Shaoling said, equally thrilled.
That was the eleventh-ranked genius on the Lingyun List—a man whom even Thousand-Year-Old Noble Families would offer their daughters to recruit—yet he had just been eliminated by disciples of the Purple Sun Sect.
He had been on edge for the two of them this whole time, terrified they would be killed by Huo Xiaochen and Lin Jingyu. He had never anticipated an outcome like this.
"Impossible! This is impossible!"
Huang You’s vision darkened, and he nearly fainted. The Yellow Maple Valley had finally produced a true genius with great difficulty, only to meet such an end.
Coupled with the fact that Luo Ying, Huang Xiao, and the others had also been eliminated, the Yellow Maple Valley had suffered catastrophic losses this time.
SLAP!
In another direction, the crisp sound of a slap rang out.
Shen Qianshan’s face was terrifyingly gloomy, while Fang Xinghai covered his cheek in horror, his expression filled with utter disbelief.
"No..."
Luo Ying screamed hoarsely as she stumbled over. She saw that Lin Jingyu’s breath was already as faint as a thread; he was gasping for air and barely clinging to life, his eyes entirely vacant.
"Lin Jingyu is dead..." Huo Xiaochen felt a chill run down his spine.
He wasn’t too far away and could sense that Lin Jingyu’s presence was virtually non-existent.
He, too, had never imagined things would escalate to this point—that Lin Jingyu would be beaten to death alive.
"I underestimated them. No wonder they refused to give me their credits," Gu Qingfeng said, a look of profound shock on his face.
Lin Jingyu’s fate had caused both him and Huo Xiaochen to entirely forget about their own ongoing battle.
All around them, no fewer than several hundred people who had similarly ceased fighting were completely stunned by this scene.
"Let’s not waste time. Let’s slaughter that bastard Huo Xiaochen too," Sun Tao said, his face alight with excitement.
After today, he, Sun Tao, was destined to become famous throughout Yun Province.
This was the battle that would make his name!
Since they had already slaughtered Lin Jingyu, they might as well kill Huo Xiaochen too and solve both problems at once.
"Alright!" Xu Yang’s killing intent surged once again.
Without wasting a single word, the two charged straight at Huo Xiaochen, their auras surging like a tidal wave.
"They want to kill Huo Xiaochen as well?"
High in the sky, Chu Nanguai’s expression turned exceedingly grim. If another Root Bone Perfection genius died, the Mansion Master would probably tear him apart bone by bone.
"Huo Xiaochen has messed with the wrong people!" The expressions of the surrounding crowd changed dramatically as well.
Today wasn’t a case of Huo Xiaochen and Lin Jingyu teaming up to eliminate Xu Yang and Sun Tao—two geniuses ranked near the bottom of the Lingyun List. Instead, it was these two lower-ranked geniuses eliminating Lin Jingyu and Huo Xiaochen.
"Not good!" Huo Xiaochen’s expression shifted drastically.
He was slightly older and his strength was a bit greater than Lin Jingyu’s, but not by much. What was more, there was still the tenth-ranked Gu Qingfeng to deal with.
The Qin Family, which Gu Qingfeng had allied himself with, originally had a grudge against the Xiao Family. That was precisely why he had come to help Xu Yang’s group, meaning there was absolutely no chance he would stop now.
No matter how formidable he was, he was no match for three experts of this caliber.
"Flee!"
Without a moment’s hesitation, Huo Xiaochen turned and fled, disappearing from his spot like a bolt of galloping lightning.
"Where do you think you’re going?"
Gu Qingfeng bellowed, blasting a palm strike at Huo Xiaochen’s back. A massive handprint flew out.
BOOM!
This palm was incredibly overbearing, like a landslide or an earth-shattering quake. The very ground trembled and cracked apart. Huo Xiaochen, who had managed to escape several dozen feet away, suddenly felt his body sink. He plummeted from the air and hastily spun around to slash out with his sword.
"Die!"
Xu Yang and Sun Tao continually struck out along their pursuit. Anyone who belonged to Huo Xiaochen’s side and happened to be in range was met with a casual, devastating attack.
Before they even caught up to Huo Xiaochen, the two had already killed two Iron Sword Sect disciples, as well as a third person of unknown identity.
By this point, Huo Xiaochen was the only one left on the Iron Sword Sect’s side.
Kong Cheng, Fang Xu, and the others were so terrified they fled for their lives, deathly afraid they would be casually killed by these two fiends.
"Huo Xiaochen, your life is mine!"
Finally, the two caught up with Huo Xiaochen, who was entangled with Gu Qingfeng. Sun Tao’s sword light cleaved through the air from a distance, tearing space apart as a great sun bobbed up and down behind him.
Xu Yang tread upon the empty air, executing the Wandering Dragon Void Step as his killing intent continuously surged.
BANG!
The sword light exploded, shattered by Huo Xiaochen.
Gu Qingfeng slammed his large hand downward with the momentum of a collapsing mountain, striking right through the violent waves of Qi.
Xu Yang pierced through the dust and smoke, charging into the battlefield like a fierce dragon. He blasted out the Fuyue Bear King’s Palm from another direction to kill Huo Xiaochen.
BANG, BANG, BANG...
The ground within a radius of a hundred feet instantly pulverized. Waves of mud churned like the tide, and the explosive blasts of Qi knocked back those still fighting nearby.
Although Huo Xiaochen managed to block the attacks from Xu Yang and Gu Qingfeng, his face flushed completely red as he stumbled backward, the bones and tendons in his body whining in protest.
The large black sword in his hands trembled violently, nearly flying out of his grasp.
His expression was incredibly ugly, as if he could already foresee himself meeting the same fate as Lin Jingyu.
"Huo Xiaochen, are you still acting arrogant now?"
Sun Tao shouted as he charged forward with his sword raised, his battle intent surging. He had long wanted to teach Huo Xiaochen a lesson, and finally facing off against him now brought an incomparable sense of exhilaration.
He wove his way between Xu Yang and Gu Qingfeng to enter the fray, his Sword Qi as resplendent as a rainbow.
At the same time, Xu Yang and Gu Qingfeng took large strides forward, blasting out their boiling power.
"Time is up!"
Just as the combined strike of the three was about to land on Huo Xiaochen, Chu Nanguai’s voice rang out abruptly.
BANG, BANG, BANG!
However, the power of the three experts still blasted forward.
Huo Xiaochen swept his large black sword horizontally to block, but was violently blasted away. The blade wailed, on the verge of snapping in two.
SPURT!
He spat out a mouthful of blood. The hand gripping the sword trembled uncontrollably, covered in bloody fissures, and his sleeve exploded into shreds.
The combined strike from three experts of the same level, paired with his prolonged battle against Gu Qingfeng, injured him instantly and sent his Weapon flying.
But he smiled!
"Haha..." Huo Xiaochen laughed heartily, because he had survived until time ran out.
"Stop!"
Chu Nanguai bellowed from the sky. Immediately after, a terrifying oppressive might pressed down from the heavens, enveloping the battlefield. Everyone felt as if they were bearing the weight of a massive mountain on their backs. Even those who had been swept up in true bloodlust were forced to halt and focus entirely on resisting the terrifying pressure.
The massive battlefield instantly fell silent. Everyone’s faces flushed red as their power was forcefully suppressed back into their bodies.
Xu Yang and his two companions had no choice but to stop, their faces filled with shock.
Suppressing over a thousand Celestial Essence Strong Persons entirely on his own—this was Chu Nanguai’s true strength.
"Consider yourself lucky!" Sun Tao snorted coldly, putting his longsword away.
Huo Xiaochen’s expression was dark. Arrogant as he was, when had he ever been mocked by such a nameless nobody?
Looking around, the few disciples of his Iron Sword Sect who actually had a chance at Dragon Ascension were either beaten to death or crippled. He was the only one left.
This time, not only had he lost face, but he had also suffered heavy losses, leaving him with no way to explain himself to his Sect.
Unable to hold it in, he spat out another mouthful of blood.
"Those who have passed, come forward to register. Those who have been eliminated, don’t even think about trying to sneak through; your identities have already been recorded. Also... you may begin collecting the corpses," Chu Nanguai’s voice announced.
Only now did Xu Yang and the others who passed the test have time to scan the battlefield. They saw that the entire area had sunk in from the fighting. Giant craters were everywhere, and the soil had been completely reduced to fine dust.
"How cruel," Xu Yang sighed.
Many areas were dyed red with blood, and there was no shortage of severed limbs and broken arms buried in the dirt. With just a casual glance, he spotted twenty or thirty corpses.
Gu Qingfeng’s mouth couldn’t help but twitch as he thought, "You killed several people yourself, yet you still have the nerve to call this cruel?"
At the same time, figures flew about on the periphery as numerous Sect Elders rushed over to heal their disciples or collect their bodies.
Huang You flew over in a frantic rush, but someone was even faster than him. In an instant, the person landed beside Lin Jingyu—it was Kong Shuyuan, an Elder of the Kong Family.
"Tenth Elder, please save Junior Brother Lin!" Luo Ying cried out, her eyes swimming with tears.
Kong Shuyuan’s palm emitted a soft light as he pressed it against Lin Jingyu’s body. A few breaths later, he shook his head and said, "He’s beyond saving."
Multiple meridians were severed, his internal organs were shattered, and his vitality was practically annihilated. There was nothing he could do for injuries like these. It was only due to the formidable Life Energy of a Celestial Essence Martial Artist that Lin Jingyu was still clinging to his final breath.
Luo Ying swayed on her feet, looking as though she had been struck by lightning.
SPURT!
Nearby, Huang Xiao directly spat out blood, his breathing falling into sheer chaos.
Kong Cheng, Fang Xu, and the others wore grim expressions. The eleventh-ranked genius, Lin Jingyu, had actually been beaten to death. Huo Xiaochen, who was the one who had the initial conflict and fell out with Xu Yang, hadn’t died; instead, it was Lin Jingyu, who had merely stepped in to help, who was killed.
A wave of lingering fear washed over them. Thank goodness they hadn’t picked a fight with Sun Tao and Xu Yang, otherwise they would be dead too.
"Don’t worry, Brother Lin. I, Huo Xiaochen, will definitely avenge you," Huo Xiaochen said coldly.
Without saying a word, Huang You bent down, picked up Lin Jingyu, and led Luo Ying and the others away.
"Go register," Kong Shuyuan said, taking large strides as he hurried after them.
Soon, a few more figures landed in the area. There were Elders from both the Iron Sword Sect and the Cold Water Sect, all arriving to handle the corpses of their disciples.
An Elder from the Cold Water Sect dug Li Yunzhou’s corpse out from under a pile of dirt and carried him away in silence.
The Iron Sword Sect Elder’s face was livid as he dug up several corpses in succession.
"Brother Xu, Brother Sun, you two are truly astonishing," Zhang Jun and Liu Rumei said, walking over with large strides and looks of total shock.
If they had known Xu Yang and Sun Tao possessed this level of skill, they wouldn’t have needed to give their credits to Gu Qingfeng.
However, if they hadn’t given Gu Qingfeng their credits so he would block Huo Xiaochen, Xu Yang and Sun Tao would never have had the chance to kill Lin Jingyu.
Gu Qingfeng’s fellow disciples, who had previously given Xu Yang and Sun Tao the cold shoulder, now looked at them with softened gazes. Even Gu Qingfeng himself was chatting and laughing with the two, no longer putting on the airs of the tenth-ranked genius on the Lingyun List.
"It’s all thanks to Brother Gu blocking Huo Xiaochen," Xu Yang said with a smile.
Holding their jade tokens, the group walked out of the ring to line up for registration. They realized that out of the original two thousand or so participants, more than half had genuinely been eliminated. Even many of the geniuses on the Lingyun List had been knocked out.