The Quake

After the first punch passed, Xueming was already convinced that this test stone had a hidden anomaly. That anomalous thing must definitely be related to Li Biao and his crew. Despite feeling disgruntled, he pressed on with the test. Li Biao's dishonest action was a sheer confirmation that injustice existed in the world where the strong and powerful determined everything against Xueming’s fate. Plus, in the depths of Xueming's heart, he started to feel rebellious against the rules of this world.

Although it was the second chance of the test, Xueming didn’t want to risk exerting all his power to attack. After all, his attack was still a little below the 1,000 Jin fist weight threshold. This made Xueming decide to use the Gut-Piercing Punch again. But this time, he concentrated and threw out his punch all the way.

Xueming's second punch was apparently stronger than the first. Even the newly-set foot posture was so powerful that it hit the ground, the stage floor was broken and collapsed almost 6 Hun. During the collapse, the floor reverberated as if it had been crushed by a huge hammer. The Gut-Piercing Punch was spinning until causing a loud whistling sound.

Li Biao opened his eyes widely and looked with jealousy and malice. His minions had a startled look on their faces. Who would believe that a cultivator with the second level of the basic Qi would have such a powerful punch? Without seeing this themselves, if someone had just told them about this, they would surely argue that the person was insane.

The swirling fist slammed into the center of the test stone. Everything was similar to the first time. Something sucked the punch power away. Like during the first punch, the numbers on the calculating pad ran quickly at first and slowed down when the numbers went over 500 Jin. The weight of this punch ran until it stopped at 992 Jin, which still did not pass the threshold.

Li Biao's sigh sounded at the same time as the numbers on the calculating pad completely stopped, followed by the laughter of Li Biao’s minions.

Without having to glance, Xueming could guess where the source of the sound came from. But he did not get angry nor burst out his fury or even cry out for sympathy from anyone, because in the past, Xueming was mostly the victim. In the Yong family, during his childhood people were doing good to Xueming just because he had been hailed as a genius and had a grandfather leading the family. But as those statuses faded away, everything hidden within those fake eyes gradually became visible, and the last straw was when his mother died, which caused him to be determined not to ask for sympathy from anyone anymore. Even after receiving the lost power back, Xueming was even more firmly resolved that he would become stronger and not succumb to any obstacles that come in his path of being a cultivator.

... Hmmm, now I need to use all my strength. If I still can't overcome this dirty scheme, I would have to blame myself for being too weak.

Xueming didn't pay attention to the noise from below the stage. He closed his eyes again. A hot stream of heat warmed up in the chest before slowly flowing to stop on his right arm. But this time there was no flame because for the past one month he did not practice using this heat stream. However, when he practiced his Qi, as usual, the heat stream deliberately revealed itself and flowed in his bloodstream all the time until he got used to it. This caused him to gradually understand how this heat energy worked and then to control it skillfully.

Even though the flame did not appear, his white forearm began to turn red. The blood that ran in his right arm was boiling inside. Xueming confidently cast his gaze towards the test stone before taking a deep breath to fill his lungs. He firmly fixed his left leg before stepping his right foot into the front lightly, unlike any time before. A smile flashed on Xueming's face, then his face turned serious. A straight fist was not spinning like before, but as soon as the right fist was pulled backward, the surrounding air became evaporating heat until distorted, forming the steam heat to support the state of the straight punch.

Xueming shouted the word ... “Destroy!” while twisting the waist to send the centrifugal force for the right fist moving forward at the same moment he stomped his foot on the stage floor. The exploding sound resonated all over the place until the people surrounding the 25 test stages turned to the source of the sound all at once.

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…Let’s go back to the previous event.

As soon as Xueming's second punch failed to pass the threshold, Zi Hui arrived in front of the Elder of the Azure Dragon Academy, the person assigned to ensure that the test would operate smoothly, flawlessly, and fairly.

"My respects to Elder Buzhen." Since Zi Hui was a descendant of the Purple Jade City Governor, it was not strange for him to have met with the Elder of the Azure Dragon Academy before.

The Elder nodded. "Young Master Zi Hui, you’ve done a very excellent job. If I remember correctly, your performance this year is even more superior than your cousin of the Zi family."

"Thank you, Elder Buzhen, for giving praise. But I have something to inform, Sir." Although Zi Hui felt good to receive the praise, especially that he was superior to Zi Jiang, the matter that he was anxious about was more important.

“If the matter is urgent, just say it.” Elder Buzhen replied calmly.

“I’ve seen something unusual on the twenty-fifth test stage, Sir.” Zi Hui spoke frankly without any ambiguity.

"Hmmm, the twenty-fifth test stage." Elder Bu Zhen thought for a moment. "It seems that no one has passed the test." Despite hearing Zi Hui's words through his ears, he had no suspicion of the incident because in the past, in some test stages, it used to happen that not even one person passed the test. "And how unusual..."

Before Elder Buzhen's words ended, a thundering noise from the twenty-fifth test stage happened. Elder Buzhen furrowed his white eyebrows and gazed over the source of the noise, just like Zi Hui who was confused about what had just happened because he was confident that the person on the twenty-fifth test stage right now was definitely Xueming.

Yet, the incident at the twenty-fifth test stage happened so fast like lightning. The two men who were far from there could not get to know the story from the beginning. Turning around, they saw the test stone in the twenty-fifth test stage was blown to dust. In the end, when the smoke cleared, the body of a young male contestant appeared standing on the stage ... Long Xueming.

Having clearly seen that Xueming was the one who had caused the stone to explode, Zi Hui unconsciously flashed a big smile. Although Zi Zheng had tried to educate Zi Hui to have a profound and complex personality like himself, the latter couldn’t help smiling in that situation due to his innocence according to his young age. Zi Hui's association with his first friend who was deliberately introduced by Zi Zheng in the hope he would become Zi Hui's hands and feet in the future started to bear fruit as expected.

"Young Master Zi..." Elder Buzhen's voice sounded, causing Zi Hui to turn around. "Thank you for coming to inform me of the matter. I think that on the twenty-fifth test stage the test stone equipment really had a problem, so an explosion occurred.” Elder Buzhen's words made Zi Hui gasp. "I must go over there and oversee the test myself." After his speech, Elder Buzhen soared to the twenty-fifth test stage in the blink of an eye, leaving Zi Hui standing alone with his head in his hands at the steps in front of the entrance of the Azure Dragon Academy.