Next, Li Fuchen had defeated Wang Hao, Shentu Qing, and Cui Rongguang one after the other.
Wang Hao and Shentu Qing were easy to deal with but it was rather difficult to deal with Cui Rongguang.
Every contestant was a heavenly prodigy and all had exceptional combat skills and acute awareness. Li Fuchen was able to defeat them in a solo fight but if he had to fight two at the same time, it would be rather difficult.
Especially when Cui Rongguang’s Water Clone was impossible to destroy at all once. Not even Li Fuchen was able to do it unless he revealed his Heart of Blazing Flame.
At the crucial moment, Cui Rongguang would use his Water Clone to block in front of him and create opportunities for him.
Hence, even when Cui Rongguang was defeated by Lan Fei’er, Li Fuchen had a ‘harder’ time when defeating Cui Rongguang as compared to defeating Lan Fei’er.
Of course, ‘harder’ was simply a slight difficulty. The outcome was still obvious.
Round 35… Li Fuchen encountered Yang Shihuo.
Yang Shihuo’s single-target attack was far superior to Lan Fei’er and Li Fuchen was having a hard time with this match.
Without a choice, Li Fuchen could only go into close combat with Yang Shihuo.
During close combat, Li Fuchen’s qi and dragon elephant power burst out in unison, boosting his sword art’s lethal power significantly. He might not be able to execute the Green Sun Sword Intent perfectly, but in terms of raw power, it was enough to split Yang Shihuo’s Violent Storm.
This was even before Li Fuchen burst out with all his body refinement strength. Otherwise, if he used all his body refinement strength, it would be enough for Li Fuchen to kill Yang Shihuo in a single fist.
After the miniature elephant appeared in Li Fuchen’s heart, his body refinement strength was already comparable to the 16th level of Reincarnation Realm. When combined with the trance stage of the Tiger Soul Fist, his body refinement strength had reached over the 20th level of Reincarnation Realm.
But doing so would be too exaggerating.
Once Li Fuchen exposed his body refinement strength, it was the same as telling others he had an earth class mid-tier body refinement technique.
It would inevitably attract trouble.
Of course, if Li Fuchen was forced into a ‘desperate state’, he wouldn’t mind revealing it.
But it was obvious that no one was able to force him to reveal his true strength.
He had two trump cards: His divine ability, Heart of Blazing Flame, and his body refinement strength.
The latter was actually more terrifying than the Heart of Blazing Flame.
Clang!
When the Scarlet Blood Sword clashed with the golden spear, there was an explosion of sparks.
“Damn it!”
Yang Shihuo was sent flying by the sword and his arm was a little numb.
In this year’s Ranking Tournament, he believed that only Bai Lingshuang and Ling Yijian would prove to be a threat to him. He didn’t think that Li Fuchen was also a threat.
“Yang Shihuo, time for defeat!”
Li Fuchen didn’t execute his sword art and merely slashed at Yang Shihuo repeatedly.
The golden sword radiance looked indestructible and was extremely scorching.
“Li Fuchen, it isn’t that easy to defeat me.” Yang Shihuo wouldn’t accept defeat so easily. His spear dao power burst out over the limit, causing the Violent Storm to become increasingly violent.
Li Fuchen’s dodged the spear storm with ease while a golden miniature elephant shivered in his heart. Immediately after, the aggressive dragon elephant power transferred to the Scarlet Blood Sword.
Chi!
Once the sword was brandished, the golden sword radiance split the air.
The golden spear was disarmed and Yang Shihuo was forced to fly off the stage while vomited a large amount of fresh blood.
“I didn’t expect for Li Fuchen’s body refinement strength to be as formidable as his cultivation strength.”
“He is able to progress so quickly even with dual cultivation of qi and body. How much more horrific is this person’s perception?!”
Everyone was in a heated discussion as they exclaimed.
A person’s energy was limited and just the cultivation of qi was already difficult. If one had to cultivate qi power or extraordinary qi power, it would prove to be a burden for most people. They would either give up or concentrate on either path.
“It seems like the South Forest Martial Institution is going to soar into the sky this year.”
Many of the deans were sighing and looked at Meng Chihang with envy.
With Li Fuchen’s strength, he was basically guaranteed with the top three spots of the Ranking Tournament.
The first place would have 50 points, second place would have 49 points, third place would have 48 points. When including Situ Tao and Wang Heilong, the South Forest Martial Institution’s total points would be at least 50 points. If they were a little lucky, they might reach 60 points.
60 points was enough to reach the top ten ranks of the 24 Martial Institutions.
If they could obtain a total of 70 points, they would be ranked higher.
Round 40…
“No.1 Ling Yijian will go against No.15 Li Fuchen.”
Finally, two formidable contestants were going to clash.
On the contest stage, the two swordsmen were 20 meters apart from one another.
Ling Yijian’s was wearing blue while Li Fuchen was wearing green. Both of them were equipped with an artifact sword by their waist.
“You are formidable, but still not a match for me.” Ling Yijiang spoke indifferently.
“We will know after we try.” Li Fuchen smiled insipidly.
“That’s true. Let me test your sword skills then!”
Ling Yijiang didn’t execute his divine ability. As of now, no one was able to force him to use his divine ability.
Clang!
When the sword was unsheathed, Ling Yijian slashed repeatedly. His sword qi was like swallows and goshawks. All the sword qi contained shocking sword intent and were all aimed at Li Fuchen.
Just based on this sword move, there were only a few individuals in this year’s Ranking Tournament that could block against it.
After all, Ling Yijian was at the 7th level of Reincarnation Realm and his earth class high-tier sword art, Green Cloud Sword Art was at the trance stage, while he had also comprehended the Green Cloud Sword Intent.
Li Fuchen executed the Divine Flame Transformation and turned into a flame. He vanished and when he reappeared, he was already very close to Ling Yijian.
Li Fuchen understood that he wasn’t a match for Ling Yijian if they competed from long distance.
Li Fuchen was at the 4th level of Reincarnation Realm now while Ling Yijiang was at the 7th level of Reincarnation Realm. Even if Ling Yijiang’s earth class mid-tier cultivation technique wasn’t at the highest rank, his qi quality was superior to Li Fuchen.
Clang!
Li Fuchen unsheathed his sword while his sword light flashed like lightning and sliced through the void.
Ling Yijiang raised his right hand to block Li Fuchen’s sword slash.
“Such a powerful force.” Ling Yijiang frowned and retreated quickly.
During the process of retreat, Ling Yijiang executed the Green Cloud Sword Art’s signature move, Green Cloud Shake.
With Ling Yijian’s sword as the starting point, there were ripples that undulated.
It was obvious that Ling Yijian didn’t want to have close combat with Li Fuchen. He could see that Li Fuchen’s body refinement strength was extremely powerful and it wouldn’t be advantageous for him.
The ripples looked soft but Li Fuchen knew clearly that the ripples contained shocking sword qi. Once the ripples were close to the body, it would burst out with dreadful lethal power. The contestants that crossed moves with Ling Yijian had dozens of sword holes in their body after getting struck by this sword move.
In the air, the golden sword radiance flashed and split the ripples.
With the boost from dragon elephant power, it wasn’t difficult for Li Fuchen to neutralize this move.
After breaking the sword move, Green Cloud Shake, Li Fuchen continued to approach Ling Yijian.
“Green Cloud Net!”
Ling Yijian was still rapidly retreating. When he saw Li Fuchen coming close, his brandished his green longsword, launching a net of sword light that enveloped Li Fuchen.
“Break!”
With his exceptional awareness, Li Fuchen was able to find a few crucial points of the sword net and had neutralized Ling Yijian’s sword move again.
This time, Ling Yijian’s face changed.
His Green Cloud Net was considered an inescapable net. Unless his opponent had strength that was superior to him, it was impossible to neutralize it.
Furthermore, Li Fuchen seemed like he was able to predict Ling Yijian’s retreat and didn’t allow Ling Yijian to pull away.
Without a certain distance between them, Ling Yijian would have to face the danger of being in close combat with Li Fuchen.
This Li Fuchen was much hard to deal with than Ling Yijian had thought and Li Fuchen was also much more formidable.
“Green Cloud Absolution!”
Ling Yijian turned stern and his green longsword suddenly vanished.
“Mm?” Li Fuchen felt a slight sting in his chest.
“Such a sharp and swift sword move.”
Li Fuchen’s Scarlet Blood Sword twisted and shattered the swift and aggressive sword qi that attacked with instantaneous speed.
“He can even neutralize Yijian’s Green Cloud Absolution?” The High Heaven Martial Institution’s Dean frowned.
The Green Cloud Absolution was the Green Cloud Sword Art’s ultimate kill move. Once the move was executed, none would survive and it was always successful.
How would he know that Li Fuchen’s awareness had already exceeded the Reincarnation Realm and was already beyond the Battle Spirit Realm? Li Fuchen didn’t know if his awareness had reached the Primary Sea Realm but in the same realm, it was impossible for him to get hit carelessly.
“Meteor Fall.”
Leaping up, Li Fuchen was above Ling Yijian before he thrust down with his sword.
This sword move was the Meteor Sword Art’s Meteor Fall.
During close combat, he was unable to execute the Green Sun Sword Intent perfectly. When his qi and dragon elephant power were converged, there were some conflicts and it wasn’t that easy for him to execute his moves as he desired.
But the Meteor Sword Art was an exception.
There was only one sword move for this sword art. The sword move and sword intent were extremely simple.
Precisely because it was extremely simple, it contained extraordinary power. The conflicts between the qi and dragon elephant power didn’t have much impact on it.
Before the sword move was close, Ling Yijian could already felt the dominance and intent of death from the sword.
“Mm? This sword move is a little interesting.”
Meng Chihang and the others could see something extraordinary from Li Fuchen’s sword move.
In the world of martial arts, there were two different paths. Turning the simple into complex or turning the complex into simple. Either path were extremely fearsome when at the extremity. Li Fuchen’s sword move might not have an excessively powerful sword intent, but it was still very dominant and pure. It was so pure that no flaws were tolerated.
“In terms of sword skills, it is Ling Yijian’s lost.” Bai Lingshuang shook her head.
Pfff!
At the crucial moment, Ling Yijian executed a light body technique and vanished from the sword art’s range. But he was still injured at the shoulder. Fresh blood was flowing as there was a bloody wound.
Ling Yijian had an extremely unpleasant expression when he lowered his head and saw the wound on his shoulder.
“Li Fuchen, I didn’t think that you are actually able to injure me. But the match shall end now. I will let you witness, my Ling Yijian’s sword dao divine ability… Sword Lotus!”
A terrifying sword intent shot out in all directions. In the air, there were rotating sword lights that were glittering and radiating.
“Danger.” Li Fuchen turned into a flame and rapidly retreated.
“Are you able to escape?” Ling Yijian yelled out.
An illusory lotus expanded rapidly and it was obviously faster than Li Fuchen’s retreat speed.
When taking a closer look, this wasn’t a lotus. It was a sword lotus that was made up of sword radiance.
Clang Clang Clang…
Li Fuchen brandished his Scarlet Blood Sword and constantly attacked the Sword Lotus.
But the Sword Lotus was extremely tyrannical. When Li Fuchen’s slashed at the surface of the lotus, he wasn’t able to break it and was even repelled by the rotating force of the Sword Lotus. Delicate sword qi was emitted at the same time and had penetrated his qi protection easily.
The series of movements had happened within a spark. The Sword Lotus was about to catch up with Li Fuchen and Li Fuchen was almost retreating off the stage.
No matter what, Li Fuchen was definitely going to lose.
Meng Chihang and Lin Zhubai shook their heads. They were already very satisfied with Li Fuchen to make it this far. They had to admit that it was a pity but Li Fuchen wasn’t going to turn the tables when facing Ling Yijian’s sword dao divine ability.
“It is over.” The High Heaven Martial Institution’s Dean had a dull expression.
Once Ling Yijian executed his sword dao divine ability, none of the High Heaven Martial Institution’s inner institute mentors were a match for him, let alone Li Fuchen.