Chapter 9

The banquet began and Yun Che went into the room. He had not made the mistake of bringing Yuanba along, as that would have only led to problems.

In the past one month, the new Palace Chief, Qin Wuyou, had interacted with the students of the New Moon Profound Palace and gained all their respect. He had particularly spent a lot of time with Yun Che, the most talented genius in the Palace and also the one with the highest cultivation base.

After all, from the outsider's perspective, Yun Che was at the 9th level of Nascent Profound realm, one minor level above Lan Xueruo and just one minor level below Xiao Luocheng, the official most talented genius of the city.

Yun Che had also become quite famous among his fellow students, and they had placed their hopes upon him to salvage their pride at the banquet.

So he went forward and sat together with Cang Yue among the students at the front, who would take part in the upcoming 'exchange of pointers'.

Soon, the various clans and sects came to the banquet: Iron Spear Clan, Seven Deadly Sword Pavilion, Stormy Profound Palace, Profound Heart Sect, Cloudy Sun Sect, Burning Heaven Clan outer sect and Xiao Sect branch sect.

The members of all the factions except Iron Spear Clan were arrogant and looked down upon New Moon Profound Palace (not literally), but when they sensed the profound aura of Cang Yue and Yun Che, they were stunned.

Cang Yue was emitting a profound energy of 8th level Nascent Profound realm, which was the third highest cultivation base among the disciples, while Yun Che was emitting an aura of 9th level Nascent Profound realm, which was the second highest. Furthermore, Yun Che was only 16 years old, meaning he was almost as talented as Xiao Luocheng!

Xiao Luocheng's eyes brightened as he felt Yun Che's aura, but they quickly dulled again. From his perspective, even though Yun Che's profound energy level was almost as high as his own, he definitely wouldn't be a match in terms of profound techniques. After all, he practiced the profound techniques of Xiao sect, one of the four major sects of the empire.

Soon, the disciples of the other factions had begun the unofficial tournament under the guise of 'exchanging pointers'. A 16 year old disciple of Profound Heart Sect came up first, already at the 2nd level of Nascent Profound realm.

Before Qin Wuyou could select a competitor from New Moon Profound Palace, Yun Che whispered to Cang Yue, "Senior sister Lan, you go up and take care of these weaker opponents. When you can't fight any longer, I will take your place." Understanding the logic behind this, Cang Yue jumped up to the stage and volunteered to fight.

Everyone was speechless. How could the opponent compete, when Lan Xueruo was 6 levels above him? Wasn't this too shameless?

Yes, this was extremely shameless. After all, the representative of the seven major sects had set the rule that a younger disciple of the seven major sects would challenge an older disciple of New Moon Profound Palace. This would work normally, because this usually meant challenging opponents only a few months older, but how could they anticipate that New Moon Profound Palace would throw away its face in this manner?

As a result, the first competitor of Profound Heart Sect lost very easily. However, unwilling to give up and confident of the superiority of their profound arts over those of New Moon Profound Palace, the seven major sects sent more of their disciples to challenge Lan Xueruo.

Unfortunately for them, Lan Xueruo was actually the princess of the empire and had access to many powerful profound arts as well. Furthermore, her actual cultivation was at 3rd level True Profound realm and she was suppressing it with an artifact. She easily defeated the next two opponents, and started struggling only in her fourth battle against the young master of Iron Spear Clan.

By her fifth battle, which was against a 7th level Nascent Profound realm disciple, although she had a perfect win record, she had become completely exhausted. She came down and Yun Che went up to replace her.

Seeing that the next competitor had an even higher cultivation level, none of the seven sect's disciples dared to go up any longer. Apart from Xiao Luocheng, the highest cultivation level among them was at 7th level of Nascent Profound realm, who had already lost to Lan Xueruo.

Seeing no one was coming up to challenge him, Yun Che spoke, "Since no one is coming to challenge me, let me choose my own opponent. Brother Xiao Luocheng, you are the only one with higher cultivation than me. It would be appropriate if I were to exchange pointers with you." He said calmly, neither with arrogance nor with humility.

Xiao Luocheng raised an eyebrow and nodded his head. His lips curled up in an arrogant smile and he walked up to the stage after putting down his drink.

Although he was arrogant, he knew not to underestimate his opponent. After all, he knew nothing about the way he fought, and their cultivation levels were close.

Yun Che suggested, "First let's exchange pointers on pure physical technique rather than using any weapons." Xiao Luocheng immediately agreed. After all, using weapon skills it might be possible, but in a clash of pure physique, it would be difficult for someone to defeat a higher level opponent.

The battle started and Yun Che immediately rushed forward, throwing a left punch at Xiao Luocheng's right side. The Xiao sect young master put up his right hand as a guard to defend against the punch, confident that he would be able to block it.

Now, Yun Che could have easily broken past his defense using his higher cultivation and stronger physique due to Great Way of the Buddha, but he didn't want to reveal too much of his true power. He wanted to win in such a way that it would appear he was weaker than Xiao Luocheng, but won due to skill and technique.

His left punch didn't even connect with the defense and dispersed. It was just a feint – something not commonly used in cultivation battles due to the importance of 'face'. From an unseen angle, Yun Che's right leg rose and kicked at the left kneecap of the distracted Xiao Luocheng.

With no defense to protect it, the left kneecap was brutally struck and Xiao Luocheng fell to a kneeling position. Before he could recover, Yun Che used his superior speed to launch a right hook at the kneeling opponent's face. It connected and Xiao Luocheng was immediately knocked out.

An average individual at 9th level Nascent Profound realm couldn't have broken past the protective profound aura of Xiao Luocheng, so this was actually something abnormal. Yet, the audience who knew Xiao Luocheng's arrogant personality assumed that he had simply not put on a protective profound barrier at all.

The battle thus ended as Yun Che's win in only two moves. The audience was shocked. The people from the seven major sects had been placing bets on how many moves Yun Che would last against Xiao Luocheng, they had never considered this result. The people from New Moon Profound Palace were ecstatic.

That day ended as a shameful loss for the seven major sects – they had failed to win even a single battle. Lan Xueruo later approached Yun Che and suggested him about going to Blue Wind Profound Palace, having seen for herself that he was indeed someone who could fulfill her father's dream.

Having aimed for exactly this, Yun Che agreed, and also requested to take Yuanba along with them, to which Lan Xueruo agreed.