Battling a Sky Realm Cultivator

Carrying with it boundless power, a howling sound of the sword ray piercing through the air was created.

In less than a second, both the sweeping current and the sword ray collided into each other, and a loud explosion was heard as loose debris began to fly around the arena, blocking their sights.

A muffled groaned abruptly came after, followed by a loud thump sound that sounded as though a huge weight had been thrown onto the ground.

The crowd leaned over their shoulders, and saw that the person who had fallen, was Ceng Hun!

Ceng Hun laid on the ground as his entire body felt a bout of powerlessness. The sword ray had pierced through his move, and then directly impacted him in the stomach.

However, at the last moment, he could feel that the power of the sword ray had been slightly retracted, if not he would have sustained really heavy injuries.

Just by staring at that sword ray alone sent goosebumps running up his body, and an unimaginable sense of danger to permeate his senses.

It was…a strike comparable to that of a Sky Realm!

"Thank you for going easy on me." Ceng Hun stood up after a while, then cupped his fists towards Long Chen.

Whether he had won or lost was pretty obvious, and it did not take long before the Supervising Elder loudly announced, "Long Chen defeats Ceng Hun to take the 53rd Rank on the Heaven's Pride Ranking!"

Loud roaring cheers from the crowd followed after, filling up the entire hall with thundering noises. The rest of the disciples who were fighting in the other arenas were stunned silly by this, and paused their battles for a moment to look towards Long Chen and Ceng Hun.

Xiao Tian stared at Long Chen for a while, before he turned towards Feng Xin while asking, "Did you sense that power within his last strike?"

Feng Xin lightly nodded her head while still looking towards the arena with a pondering expression on her face.

"I didn't know that your Junior Disciple has already reached such a stage so quickly. It seems like he would join the ranks of the Chosens soon. Even if he does not have that good character which you were talking about, he will surely be the most loved disciple by the female disciples within the entire Moonlight Sect." Xiao Tian commented with a hint of envy on his face.

On the arena.

"Long Chen, or should I say, Senior Disciple Long Chen, it is my pride to fight against a monster like you! In the past, I was always cheering for Goddess Feng, but now, I have decided that I would completely devote my cheers to you!" Ceng Hun took a deep bow while saying.

"There is no need for that. You were quite strong yourself too." Long Chen kindly replied. However, in his heart, he was wondering why someone in the Peak Elementary Realm was that weak.

Was his strength right now, truly that great?

After a round of casual talk with Ceng Hun, he rose up from the stage and looked at the Supervising Elder, "I would like to challenge another person."

"Oh? Who is it?" The Supervising Elder lightly lifted his eyebrows as he asked in a faint, unsurprised tone of voice.

"Rank 49." Long Chen casually picked a number and stated.

His bottleneck still stood there, impeding his path. He could still cultivate to break through his bottleneck, but he felt that battling would be able to allow him to break through at a much faster rate at this moment.

Since even Ceng Hun from the 9th Elementary Realm could not prove to be much of a challenge to him, he shall go for the Early-Stage Sky Realm geniuses instead.

The Supervising Elder wordlessly took out a challenge slip and wrote a few words on it, before letting it fly out to the one being challenged.

"Long Chen defeated somebody in the Peak Elementary Realm! How is this possible? Doesn't this mean that he now has the strength of a Peak Elementary Realm cultivator?"

"This is unbelievable! If not for the fact that even I had sensed the power of his last strike, I would have thought that they were simply acting out a fight!"

Meanwhile, there were other disciples who were simply incoherently mumbling to themselves, "How could there be such an existence in the world?"

The disciple ranked 49th came a while later, and like Long Chen, he carried a sword in his hands while approaching the stage.

With an expressionless face, the disciple slightly bent his waist and cupped his fists, "I am Huang Qin, ranked 49th on the Heaven's Pride Ranking, and am here to accept the challenge."

"Long Chen, ranked 53rd." Long Chen directly replied while cupping his fists in return.

When they were done with the introduction, the sword cultivator Huang Qin did not waste any words of nonsense, and instantly dived towards him.

Long Chen's eyes sparkled with interest. The disciple in front of him was unlike the others. It was as though his nature was to fight, then talk later. And this suited his needs.

He did not come up to the battle to have a verbal battle, but to fight with his fists and sword.

His eyes slightly narrowed, and he moved.

Piercing Cloud Movement!

His speed increased by many times as he rushed towards Huang Qin, then unleashed a sword strike at him.

Similarly, Huang Qin grabbed his sword and made a slashing motion towards him.

Two sword rays were created in mid-air, each with their differences, and they both collided into each other with a loud bang sound.

After the explosion, came a moment of silence as both sword rays dissipated in mid-air, signifying that both forces had equally cancelled out each other.

But the peace did not last for long, as Long Chen dashed towards the right corner of Huang Qin, while sending another sword strike towards his body.

Huang Qin almost instantly reacted to Long Chen's movement, then rose his sword and created yet another sword ray to meet his.

This time however, both sword rays were considerably stronger than before, as they impacted together and caused the surrounding air to burst out in waves from the collision.

Yet again, the sword rays dissolved into thin air.

On Huang Qin's previously expressionless face, came a trace of surprise. He was a Sky Realm cultivator, and against someone who seemed to have the strength of a Peak Elementary Realm cultivator, he did not need to use his full strength.

However, he still used a good portion of his strength against Long Chen, which could easily knock off any Peak Elementary Realm geniuses.

Yet Long Chen had actually managed to equal his strength!

The trace of surprise quickly disappeared from his face, and he began to use more of his power to strike against Long Chen.

Following the increase in power, Long Chen also followed up, bit by bit.

Countless amounts of sword rays appeared around the arena, as both Long Chen and Huang Qin were unleashing strike after strike, while maneuvering around the entire arena.

The speed and power within their strikes also rose as time went by, till they reached the point where barely any of the audience were able to catch their hand movements, and could only see the numerous sword rays simply flashing about and creating explosions within the air.

As they were both engaged in an intense sword fight, Huang Qin abruptly spoke up while still moving his sword, "I have to admit, I have not met an opponent as strong as you within the Elementary Realm before. You reputation really precedes you."

"To be able to exchange so many moves with me while still in the Elementary Realm, it won't take too long before you will be able to easily surpass me. However, I won't go easy on your because of this."

"In this fight, I will demonstrate to you why an Elementary Realm cultivator can never win against somebody in the Sky Realm."

As Huang Qin's words landed, his feet began to leave the ground, as he slowly rose above the ground. During the entire fight, it was always an equal match, with neither being able to gain the slightest advantage over the other.

However, after Huang Qin began to fly above ground, he began to take control of the match, especially since he was able to move around so much easily and attack Long Chen at a lot more angles.

In retrospect, since Huang Qin was high above him, Long Chen was unable to reach out to him, and he became much harder from him to attack him.

The moment Huang Qing had rose above ground, the ball was in his hands.

Suddenly, Long Chen felt a sword ray rushing towards his back, and he was far too slow to turn around and defend against this.

Out of pure instincts, he began to use the one defensive combat skill he had.

Sinking Barrier!

An illusory barrier rose up from below the ground, powered by his Elemental Qi. It was a faint shade of blue that was shimmering with light.

The sword ray crashed upon the light blue barrier, causing the barrier to tremble for a bit, before it regained its normal structure.

Huang Qin's pupils involuntarily narrowed when he saw how effortlessly this defensive skill was able to defend against his strike.

His face still maintained its calmness, but his heart was inwardly reeling in shock. During the entire battle, after exchanging many moves with Long Chen, he could sense how great his understanding was of each of the skills.

Not to mention, he also could feel Long Chen's aura while they were fighting, and it was at the Peak of the 9th Elementary Realm.

He could not imagine how somebody could have both a high cultivation and great understanding of combat skills at such a young age, and if not for the flight advantage that he possessed since he was in the Sky Realm, he would never have managed to gain an advantage.

Long Chen looked towards the defensive skill he had just used, and quickly retracted this skill.

It was good and all, but he could clearly sense that the Elemental Qi within him was swiftly being consumed for every second the skill was one, especially when it had taken the sword ray from Huang Qin.