“I don’t know but looking at his appearance, he seemed as if he had recently joined the Academy, however, he wasn’t among the people who tested during the Disciple Selection Ceremony.”
As the crowd below questions this youth’s identity, and why he was competing in this competition, Shiming snorted at the youth's words and actions before he turned to Yang Su.
‘I’ll deal with that arrogant kid later, for now, my main focus is on this second prince’s assistant. I’m sure uncle would want me to completely humiliate him to knock that talented trash down a notch.’
Yang Su who suddenly felt a rather intense gaze boring into the back of his head, turned around to see Shiming staring at him.
Yang Su thought to himself, ‘This Ming Shiming, from seeing him battle a few times, I know he’s hiding a lot more of his strength. If that’s the case maybe I can use a bit more of my strength against him. Maybe about forty percent? Ah no wait, maybe I should battle him at thirty percent first and see how he fair against my strength then.’
Again Yang Su wasn’t being arrogant, but since he had only started cultivating three to four weeks ago, certain things that other people could instinctively do or make a decision on, had to be done by him actively as he was not like those youth from big clans that were being taught martial arts and cultivation knowledge from a young age.
As a green horned to the cultivation world, Yang Su was still learning.
Drawing his saber from its scabbard, Shiming's battle intent ignited, and Yang Su seeing this got ready to battle.
The crowd below placed the previous events at the back of their mind as this match was quite interesting. Yang Su was affiliated with the second prince who was from the royal family and Shiming was from the Ming Clan.
One could even say this was an indirect clash of power between the Royal Family and the Ming Clan.
On the stage, Shiming and Yang Su stood face to face, but Shiming suddenly frowned as he saw that Yang Su’s hands were empty, he then said, “Draw your weapon. If you think you won’t need it then you’ll regret it.”
Hearing that, Yang Su was slightly taken aback, and after thinking about it he realized that he didn’t have a weapon, only that wooden sword Xi Shen had given him before, but he couldn’t use that.
Xi Shen who was in his chair let out a dark chuckle in his heart when he saw that everything had gone according to his plan.
Everyone could then hear him say, “Yang Su, catch!”
With that, a metal pole which was about three and a half feet long, and was completely black, appeared in his palm, before he accurately sent it flying like a javelin towards the stage.
Everyone watched as the black pole left a streak in the air overhead, to quickly appear a few meters in front of Yang Su in no time.
Yang Su, upon seeing what the object was from this distance, had his face went pale white and thoughts of not touching the pole appeared in his mind, but Xi Shen’s voice echoed out once again saying, “I’m only lending you it this one time as a weapon, and make sure you don’t scratch my precious Divine Encouragement Pole!”
Hearing that accursed name, Yang Su was like a war veteran suffering from severe PTSD, as images of the days he spent training with Xi Shen flash across his mind. His body then felt numb all over before chills crept up his back.
However, he still swallowed his fears and easily snatched the small metal pole from mid-air.
When everyone finally saw what was the item Xi Shen had thrown to Yang Su was, their faces sported a wtf expressions.
“Is that… a metal pole? Is the second prince really giving his assistant a metal pole to fight his match?”
“Yeah. Isn’t that being a bit too cheap? Couldn’t he at least give him a proper weapon, like a sword or a saber? Hell, even a kitchen knife would have been a better choice than that!!”
Suddenly, comments about Xi Shen being a cheap miser towards his underlings echoed from the crowd, further reinforcing the idea that Xi Shen was trash of a person.
Shiming who was equally taken aback by the choice of weapon, had his face turn into a hideous expression before he glared at Yang Su and menacingly said, “Are you taking me for a joke, you backwater village bastard? Why don’t you crawl back where you came from you piece of human garbage...pitua!”
Shiming spat out a slimy lump of spit to his right as he said those last words.
However, to a female disciple's dismay, he had done so, so hard that his spit went flying through the air to land on her head which was covered in a luscious mane of hair.
That female disciple let a scream of horror as the spit started to drool down to her forehead.
Seeing the lump of spit on the girl’s head, the disciples who were nearby gagged a bit due to being disgusted beyond belief.
Back on the stage, Yang Su who was starting at Shiming with a bit of pity before, and was even planning to go a bit easy on him, had his expression turn extremely cold.
Being called derogatory names wasn’t something he was unfamiliar with, but up until this point no one had ever disrespected his mother by calling him a bastard.
All the pity he felt for Xi Shen making him use this pole against him was dashed through the window, and thoughts of beating the crap out of him with it started to consume his thoughts.
After spitting rather carelessly, Ming Shiming drew his saber, and at the same time, his Spiritual Qi pressure spread into the surroundings unrestrained, which immediately gave off an oppressive feeling around the entire stage.
Sensing Shiming’s power level, all the disciples gasped in shock.
Even the members of the aristocratic families and the various clans in the Pavilions quickly stood up from their chairs in utter shock and disbelief.
The experts who were on their magic vessels were also looking at Shiming, who had a massive raging fiery aura surrounding his entire body, in astonishment.
The reason why everyone was so shocked, was because the aura Ming Shiming was releasing was almost similar in power to someone who was in the Sea Expansion Realm.
They were sure he wasn’t in the Sea Expansion Realm nor was he forming his Qi Sea.
And yet still his aura was similar to a Sea Expansion Realm cultivator.
“Th-this is unbelievable, this Ming Clan youth is giving off the Spiritual Qi pressure of a Sea Expansion Realm cultivator despite being in the Bone Reconstruction Realm! The only time something similar like this had happened was when the Crown Prince made history by being the first person to open 91 meridians and stepped into the mythical Fifth Phase of the Meridian Opening Realm. Just what kind of method did that Ghuanyu created to achieved such heaven deifying results, it’s completely absurd!”
An expert who was floating on a broadsword that looked to be made of ordinary metal spoke in astonishment.
He was an Elder of the Divine Moon Academy, a rather mid-tier cultivation institute, that was well known for its use of broadswords.
He and others like him shared the same thoughts.
On the stage, a smug Shiming looked at Yang Su with ridicule in his eyes as he said, “You see this? This is what absolute power feels like, a trash like you who only knows how to latch onto someone’s fat thigh would never be able to achieve this level of power.”
Yang Su didn’t say anything and only stared at Shiming coldly, metal pole in hand.
With a bellow, Shiming raised his foot and stomped on the stage, immediately it shook uncontrollably before his figure dashed towards Yang Su at blinding speeds, leaving behind an inch-deep footprint as he went.
Before the disciple down below could recover from the massive shaking that traveled from the stage to under the feet, Shiming was already slashing his saber at Yang Su’s unprotected neck, no in fact it was already several inches away from making contact!
The disciples were completely stunned by Shiming's sudden burst of power and complete ruthless attack.
However, their eyes along with even the experts around the venue had popped out of their heads when they saw Yang Su’s bare hand suddenly appearing between his neck and Shiming saber to catch it with his five fingers that were covered in a layer of Fire Qi.
With Shiming being so close to Yang Su, he could hear the latter’s mocking words drift into his ears, which sent shivers down his spine and cause disbelief to flood his heart.
“To try and use Fire Qi against me, are you taking me for a joke?”
After Yang Su said that, the Fire Qi on his palm that was of a brighter luster than Shiming’s own, engulfed his whole saber that was covered in his own Fire Qi before he did something that looked completely strange to anyone who saw.
Yang Su’s Fire Qi seemed to have consumed Shiming’s own, causing it to visibly lose a bit of its luster.
Shiming’s face suddenly went pale as this happen, as he could feel a bit of his Fire Qi within his Dantian being sucked out.