The Tip of the Iceberg

Chapter 66 – The Tip of the Iceberg

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[Pills]

Basic Healing Pill (10): 1 Yang Essence

Basic Spirit Pill (10): 1 Yang Essence

Basic Refreshment Pill (10): 1 Yang Essence

Basic Berserk Pill (1): 1 Yang Essence

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[Manuals]

Demonic Body Strengthening (Volume 2): 1,000 Yang Essence

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[Permanent Skill]

Aphrodisiac Immunity: 1,000 Yang Essence

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[Familiar]

Spirit of Xu Xiuying's Clone: 1,000 Yang Essence

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Two items in the system shop were added after Xu Miao had completed the previous quest. One of the items was basic berserk pills, and the other was a cultivation manual.

The berserk pill came with a description. Once used, the consumer's strength would increase by two folds, but the user would lose their rationality for a few hours. Most importantly, their future cultivation progress would be frozen for a year as a side effect.

It was a pity that the berserk pill couldn't cripple the consumer's cultivation for good, but a year was enough for Xu Miao to catch up with Xie Tian's monstrous talent and upgrading speed.

Right now, Xie Tian's cultivation was already 2nd stage level 7, which increased from before by 2 levels. As for Xu Miao, the system stopped his advancement at 1st stage level 10, which frustrated him.

Xu Miao needed time the most, but time was against him. He knew that Xie Tian would keep getting stronger. Within a year, this protagonist might even reach the 5th stage and could square against elders with ease.

A combination of gathering intelligence, sabotaging, and making use of stronger cultivators was needed if Xu Miao wanted to kill Xie Tian.

Jiang Lan would spy on Xie Tian's skills and his hidden techniques. The berserk pill that Xu Miao gave Xie Tian would sabotage the latter's advancement, and the Wei Clan and others were now Xie Tian's enemies.

Everything went according to Xu Miao's plan, but he wasn't satisfied. Unless his cultivation base surpassed Xie Tian, he wouldn't make a move. At least, he wanted to be strong enough to fight Xie Tian on one-on-one combat, just in case all his plans went south and he was forced to deal the final blow.

For now, Xu Miao had to wait. From his perspective and prediction, the Wei Clan would try to kill Xie Tian during the next event. With the protagonist's plot armor, Xie Tian would survive or even defeat his foes, but he would suffer a serious setback. Afterward, he would recover and come back with more strength.

But the question was – Will Wei Huang take action?

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After Jia Shan and Xu Xiuying had handled all rewards, the mountain goose elders cleaned the stage. While they were at it, Jian Meng announced the main event.

"All passing test-takers are now official outer disciples of either the mountain goose sect or the silver phoenix sect. However, all new disciples have a chance to prove their strength if they're not satisfied with being an outer disciple. They can challenge one of our top inner disciples to prove their worth!"

The crowd cheered. This was the event they were looking for, the 1-on-1 combat challenge.

The 400 new disciples also looked forward to the event, but not all of them wanted to participate as they were aware of their weaknesses and their inferior cultivation base. All inner disciples were 4th stage elites, but most of the new disciples were 2nd stage rookies.

Still, many over-achievers wanted to show off their skills. One of them, Qing Zhong, laughed and stood before the stage, securing the first queue to challenge an inner disciple.

Jian Meng continued explaining the rules and encouraging the rookies, "Everyone has one chance to challenge an inner disciple. Also, challengers don't need to defeat an inner disciple in combat to earn their promotion. They only need to show what they can do against a stronger foe and impress our elders! All elders here will guarantee that none of you will die during the event, so every new disciple should take this opportunity to compare your strength against elites and show us what you can do! We've prepared refined spirit stones for every brave challenger. If one of the elders approves your promotion, you will also receive a copy of your sect's core technique! Do your best!"

Mountain goose disciples hit their drums again, signaling the start of the last event.

Qing Zhong jumped onto the stage right away. As if he knew what he should do, he looked at one of the girls from the silver phoenix sect and bellowed, "I, Qing Zhong, the great young master of the Qing Clan, challenge any fairy from the silver phoenix sect!"

It was a custom that mountain goose disciples should challenge a senior from the same sect, but this lecherous fat man wanted to use this chance to impress women instead.

All elders shook their heads, disapproved of Qing Zhong's action. However, they didn't stop him.

One of the Virgin Yin inner disciples leaped from the VIP stand and stood on the stage. It was a pink-haired woman who was in her early 20s. Her face, bright eyes, and her nose were the same as Zhu Qiao, but her demeanor was the opposite.

Zhu Yanyu, the elder sister of Zhu Qiao, was the 10th strongest inner disciple, who was also the amazon elder's disciple. She came with her magic bikini armor and a medium-grade magic tower shield.

As soon as Zhu Yanyu stood in front of Qing Zhong, their height difference was apparent to the crowd. This pink-haired girl was 180cm tall, and she had toned muscle. Because of her healthy physique, her 6-pack was visible, and her butt was thick as well.

All male spectators who admired strong women drooled as they gazed at Qing Zhong's firm body. They fantasized about being ravished by such a tough girl.

"Qing Zhong, go to hell!"

"Die, fatty!"

"Sister Zhu, kill that fatass!"

Some of the crowd knew Zhu Yanyu. They booed Qing Zhong while they cheered for the sexy girl.

Zhu Yanyu ignored the crowd. She slammed her tower shield on the stage and brought out a long spear, which was also a medium-grade magic weapon. She took a combat stance as if she were a Spartan.

She came here with a determination to fight!

"I, Zhu Yanyu, will be your opponent! Take out your weapon!"

Qing Zhong sneered. He took out his most expensive weapon from his spatial ring, a high-graded battle axe. It was a giant metal axe that weighed 100kg, but this fat man held it with only one hand.

"I know that you'll come out first, fairy Zhu. Before we battle, can we make a bet?"

Zhu Yanyu frowned, "What bet?"

"If I can defeat you, how about you become my wife?"

The crowd, elders, and Zhu Yanyu looked at the fat young master in disgust. Mockery and jeer got louder. Some of the spectators even threw trash at Qing Zhong to chase him out from the stage.

Zhu Yanyu maintained her posture, remaining calm. She also sneered, "If I win, how about I take that battleaxe of yours."

"Fair enough! Deal!"

"Then, let's fight!"

When the challengers and the challenged were ready, Jian Meng took the duty as a referee to start the duel, "BEGIN!"

Zhu Yanyu stood firm, bending her knees, hiding behind her tower shield while pointing her spear over her shield. There was no peek hole for her to see what in front of her, which was unusual and suspicious.

Qing Zhong didn't care about that. He had come here with a plan. The fat man had expected that Zhu Yanyu would appear first, and her battle style focused on defense-and-counter. Since she wouldn't attack first, Qing Zhong plotted to win with one super attack.

Thus, Qing Zhong prepared a specific weapon to defeat her with the strongest weapon of his father, the thunder battle axe.

The high-graded magic axe emitted sparks of electricity. It glowed in yellowish light. Qing Zhong's dantian circulated all remaining 2,000 strands of yang qi into his axe.

"TAKE THIS!! THUNDER SPLITTER!!"

That was Qing Zhong's strongest attack skill. He didn't believe that the girl with bikini armor could resist against thunder magic and the supreme impact force.

*BOOM*

The axe slammed onto Zhu Yanyu's shield. Electric current zapped her.

Zhu Yanyu didn't move or react to the attack. Her shield and spear stayed in the same position.

Qing Zhong grinned. As he had expected, the thunder attack should have stunned the girl. He was sure that a 4th stage cultivator like her wouldn't be able to stand against a direct magic attack like this.

"Hahaha! You've lost! There's no shame admitting defeat, sister Zhu! I promise that I'll love you every day until you give me 12 children!"

Being sure of his victory, Qing Zhong pulled back his axe from the shield with difficulty. For some reason, it got heavier.

"ReAlLy? aRe yOu SuRe?"

The weird cold dialect of the bikini-armor girl alarmed Qing Zhong. She was still conscious after the lightning strike.

"NoW tHaT yOu hAd AtTaCkEd, iT's mY tUrN!"

Zhu Yanyu's shield flashed in yellow light. Then, thunder magic was released and zapped Qing Zhong.

It was Qing Zhong's thunder art earlier. Zhu Yanyu used it against him.

*BOOM*

Getting electrocuted, the fat man turned into a roasted black pig. Black smoke came out of his mouth, nostrils, ears, and butthole.

After five seconds, Qing Zhong fell unconscious.

"Winner, Zhu Yanyu!"

Jian Meng stopped the match. Ten mountain goose disciples jumped on the stage and carried the fainted fat man away.

Zhu Yanyu only snorted as she walked toward the dropped item. She picked up the heavy battleaxe with one hand and lifted it as if it was as light as feather.

"tHaNkS fOr ThE aXe, DuMbAsS."

The Spartan girl coughed a few times to adjust her vocal cord before she returned to her seat on the VIP stand.

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When Zhu Yanyu returned, Xu Miao didn't miss this chance to question how she had defeated Qing Zhong.

"Senior Zhu, how did you defeat that fatty? I only saw magic skills, but I didn't understand anything."

Zhu Yanyu glanced at Xu Miao and shrugged, "wHeN yOu-*COUGH*-*AHEM*-When you can use essence instead of qi in combat, you'll understand. Let's just say my shield can store magic attacks and use it against the caster. Every attack that lands on it will make my opponent's weapons heavier. You should be able to understand everything once you reach the 4th stage."

"…"

Xu Miao broke a sweat. So far, he only encountered weak opponents without magic treasures in the real world. This was his first time seeing real elite fighting like one of the clones by using unique treasures.

'What kind of monster will she be if I fight her in that space? What is her potential percentage in that fight? Did she go all-out, or was that just a warm-up?'

Learning is improving. While Xu Miao was plotting to backstab Xie Tian, he never forgot to collect data and compare them to the clones.

'I guess I have to start fighting 2nd stage cultivators instead of beating 1st stage weaklings. I have to try surviving against 3rd stage or 4th stage elites with max difficulty, too.'

A new training schedule had been arranged for future training.

Although killing Xie Tian was important, Xu Miao couldn't neglect training. Cultivation was a long journey, and his journey had hardly begun.