Martial World

The sweet dulcet tones of the zither echoed crisply onstage. Even those people that were sitting in the Seven Profound Valleys’ Grand Hall were able to clearly hear the melody.

“Why the hell would I want to listen to your zither music!?” Jing Chanyu coldly snorted and sealed off her ears with true essence.

She didn’t need to be a genius to know that there was something strange about this zither music. Jing Chanyu pushed her true essence to the extreme. Facing someone like Qin Wuxin, she had to have the mindset of going all out from the start, otherwise even the smallest chance of resisting would slip through her fingers.

The thick yellow defensive barrier surrounded her. Jing Chanyu hadn’t even moved. Her palm was like a saber, she was preparing to use the Halcyon Reflection Great Wisdom Palm. This was also the strongest instant martial skill in her repertoire.

However, just as she was ready to strike out, her body suddenly froze. Her eyes opened incredibly wide. The absolute defense that she was proud of and had poured all of her true essence into suddenly began to inexplicably crack. A single crack had just appeared, and then it instantly covered her entire defense.

Peng!

There was a loud shattering sound, and her tenacious defensive shell was shattered like brittle glass thrown to the floor. Particles of her lingering true essence began to float down.

Jing Chanyu was shocked. Her true essence protection was broken and yet she hadn’t even been attacked. She didn’t even know what sort of attack was used to shatter her defense. All she could hear were the tempting melodies still ringing in her ears, just like a gentle mountain stream; there wasn’t a hint of murderous intent at all. But yet her defensive barrier had instantly cracked like an elephant stepping on a fragile eggshell.

Did the attack come from the gentle zither sounds?

“I… I admit defeat!” Jing Chanyu closed both her eyes and bitterly smiled.

She had only wanted to see how great the disparity was between them, but now it seemed as if she wasn’t even able to estimate the gap.

From the beginning to the end, Qin Wuxin had only inadvertently glanced at her, there weren’t even any true essence fluctuations from her body! Although Jing Chanyu knew that she would definitely lose, she didn’t imagine she would lose in a way where she hadn’t even been able to perceive her opponent’s attack.

“Qin Wuxin, victory!”

The referee announced with no suspense.

Lin Ming inhaled a deep breath of cold air. This Qin Wuxin was simply too terrifying.

Lin Ming had an extremely formidable perception, he was able to keenly capture each and every true essence fluctuation in the air. Qin Wuxin’s precision and control of her true essence was enough to make his blood boil! It was simply outrageous!

Even though Lin Ming knew Flow like Silk, and had achieved a nuanced level of control over his true essence, he had to admit that even he couldn’t achieve something like what Qin Wuxin did.

Qin Wuxin had fused true essence into her sound waves and focused the full force of that to attack Jing Chanyu’s protective barrier, instantly crushing it. Her true essence didn’t even have the least bit of spillover, so Jing Chanyu hadn’t been injured. Most people probably wouldn’t even have noticed anything strange.

“The Zither Faction’s cultivation method really surprised me!” Lin Ming knew that a sound wave was in truth a form of vibration. If true essence was contained in the sound wave, that meant that the true essence would vibrate!

This was achieving the exact same result as the ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’ Flow like Silk, but only with a different method!

Flow like Silk was to adjust the breathing rate of all the tiny units in the body and cause one’s true essence to vibrate.

But the Zither Faction’s cultivation method was to integrate true essence to the acoustic vibrations, and achieve the effect of true essence vibration along the sound waves.

From this point, the Zither Faction’s cultivation method manual was far inferior to the ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’. But to a certain extent, the Zither Faction’s cultivation method was able to achieve a similar effect to Flow like Silk, for instance, ignoring all defensive barriers.

Lin Ming had used a fist to crush Jing Chanyu’s defensive barrier.

Qin Wuxin was the same!

“I really can’t underestimate the heroes of the world. Sky Spill Continent still has an inheritance of tens of thousands of years, naturally, countless geniuses must have emerged! Although they are far less profound and formidable than the Realm of the Gods’, they aren’t much worse in certain aspects!

As Lin Ming was thinking, he hadn’t noticed that the first round of the finals was over, and the second round was soon beginning.

As for the first match, Lin Ming was in it.

“First match, Lin Ming against Fang Qi!”

When the referee announced the names of the contestants for the first match, Lin Ming was surprised. Fang Qi was one of the seven direct disciples. Although he knew that the direct disciples of the Array Faction and Refiner Faction were the weakest of the seven, for better or worse he was still a direct disciple. He hadn’t imagined that of the 29 matches, he would encounter a direct disciple on the second round.

Thinking this, Lin Ming wryly smiled and shook his head. This was normal. After all, he wasn’t a seeded player so there was no way he would be left for the finals.

In his first few matches, he would inevitably run into direct disciples or someone on the level of Jiang Lanjian. Relatively speaking, starting out with Fang Qi was pretty nice too.

Fang Qi smiled as he looked at Lin Ming. “We missed each other in the group stage, but in the end, we play against each other in the second round. Your luck is quite bad to meet me here. It’s already quite good that you can maintain your string of undefeated victories up to now. This round, there are only 15 people left that can claim total victory. Of course, your lucky run must now come to an end.

Lin Ming cheekily smiled, flashing his brilliant white teeth. “I think I’m quite lucky. I ran into you instead of someone good, like Jiang Baoyun or Ouyang Ming. This situation isn’t too bad.”

As soon as Fang Qi heard Lin Ming’s taunt, his face immediately sank. He admitted that he was inferior to Jiang Baoyun and those like him, but even so, it wasn’t up to some rural martial artist bumpkin from the 36 countries like Lin Ming to provoke him. Just what sort of qualifications did he have to look down on him?

“Good! What an extremely arrogant tone! I had been prepared to show you some mercy on behalf of us having been in the same group, but now that you have so much confidence, don’t blame me if you are severely wounded!” Fang Qi coldly snorted, his feet moved, and then he appeared onstage.

The audience immediately roared with cheers and cries. In order to increase their momentum, the disciples of the Array Faction had even drawn up miniature voice amplifying array formations to increase the loudness of their cheers. This sort of small array formation was a piece of cake even for the minor Array Faction disciples. Naturally, Fang Qi’s cheers directly impacted into the sky, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call them earth-shaking.

“Fang Qi! Fang Qi!”

“Fang Qi, you gotta win!”

Especially those disciples that were envious, jealous, and hateful of Lin Ming having the qualifications to compete for the top 10. These disciples were shouting out until their throats were sore.

“Kill him! Destroy him!”

“Ruin that loser!”

“Down with the country hick!”

This was the superiority of home field advantage. Standing on stage, Lin Ming had become public enemy number one. The weak cheers that came from the 36 countries’ martial artists soon passed; even though they also came from the 36 countries, over 90% of them didn’t believe that Lin Ming could win. The power, prestige, and fame that the title of direct disciple had acquired over time was just too heavy. Even Qin Ziya had a solemn expression, he hadn’t thought that Lin Ming would encounter a direct disciple so soon.

At this moment, a true essence sound transmission rang in Lin Ming’s ear, “You have to defeat him, please!”

Lin Ming turned around and was surprised to see the veiled Jing Chanyu standing 200 feet away, looking at him with wide eyes, full of hope and expectation for him. Lin Ming smiled, and glanced at the audience. He saw that many of martial artists from the 36 countries were staring at him, their fists tightly clenched, a similar look of hope and desire coloring their face.

They didn’t cheer loudly like the disciples of the Seven Profound Valleys, but were instead quietly sitting there with fists gripped tight. Maybe it wasn’t because they didn’t want to cheer, but rather because they didn’t have the energy and confidence to.

The martial artists from the 36 countries had an inferiority complex that was beat into their bones – it simply could not be erased!

The foundation and resources of the 36 countries were scarce, 90% of their resources had to be delivered as tribute to the Seven Profound Valleys!

How many martial artists had ended up with hidden wounds in their body because they couldn’t afford or find the medicinal herbs to cure themselves, and finally ended up a lifelong cripple?

How many artists had risked their lives hunting vicious beasts in the jungle in order to obtain a few dozen taels of gold? How many were hunting for those basic vicious beast materials that the disciples of these large sects would never care for?

Because of lack of heritage and legacy, how many martial artists ended up practicing subpar second-rate inferior cultivation methods?

How many martial artists, in order to reach that fabled Pulse Condensation realm had struggled for a lifetime, only to end up with nothing but despair!?

And yet, the martial artists of the Seven Profound Valleys were born with a superior advantage. They ate rare spirit vegetables and high-quality vicious beast meat that ordinary martial artists could only dream of. They had the best treasures, they had pure true essence stones, they could study the core inheritances that came from a large sect, they had the top cultivation methods, they had medicinal herbs aiding and tempering their bodies since birth as well as all sorts of miracle medicines at their disposal.

Even if they were stupid like pigs, and spent each day lazing around like gluttons and doing nothing at all, by the virtue of their birth they could easily reach at least the Pulse Condensation period!

The Seven Profound Valleys’ direct disciples were the pinnacle existence of these characters, and also their representatives.

This battle against Fang Qi represented not just Lin Ming, but all of the hopes and dreams of the martial artists from the 36 countries who felt inferiority in their bones. Lin Ming was their weapon to declare war on the direct disciples!

The reason these disciples of the Seven Profound Valleys were cheering like crazed madmen was because they hoped that Fang Qi would maliciously destroy Lin Ming. In their hearts, the martial artists of the 36 countries were nothing but beggars begging for alms. How could they tolerate these martial artists surpassing them? How could they tolerate these martial artists stepping on them, violating their inborn sense of superiority and dignity?

Lin Ming took a deep breath and his expression became earnest, filled with a righteous solemnity. Not too long ago, he had been one of these common martial artists. If he hadn’t accidently experienced a massive twist of luck, then he might also be risking his life to hunt dangerous vicious beasts in the jungle. He would also be practicing with all his mind and heart only to leave hidden wounds in his body. He wouldn’t even have a decent cultivation method!

“This match, I will absolutely win. Not only I win, I will win with force, so that I can take back all the wrongs that have been done to the martial artists of the 36 countries! This is our justice!”

Lin Ming clenched his fists, and the tiny units within his body began to resonate together. 5000 vibrating true essence filaments condensed on his fist, perfectly melding with the power of thunder.

At this time, the referee hadn’t even announced the start of the match.

Fang Qi noticed true essence fluctuating on Lin Ming’s body. He laughed and said, “Are you nervous? Whatever you are planning in advance will not change the end result. In fact, you don’t even need to prepare. After the match starts, I will allow you three moves! You will have plenty of time to do whatever you want.”

Lin Ming icily said, “I do not need anything from you.”

“Haha, facing you country bumpkin martial artists from the 36 countries, if I cannot allow you three moves, then what kind of direct disciple would I be?”

Fang Qi’s voice penetrated out to the farthest corners, as if there was a faint array formation helping it. It could even be clearly heard over the deafening cheers of the audience.

“Fang Qi, well done!”

“Give him three moves! Show him the disparity between him and us!”

“This countryside loser needs to go home and eat rice! He wants to reach the top 10? What an idiot! Take a good look at yourself, what sort of qualifications do you think you have?”