After reaching the sixth layer, converting the spiritual qi into endless true qi and attacking the various acupoints no longer seemed as useful as before.
At this moment, the sword qi in Li Qingshan’s dantian gave him a great inspiration. He tried merging the sword qi into his true qi so that he could forcefully split open meridians and smash through acupoints. He never thought he would actually succeed.
His true qi was already extremely pure. Combined with the support from the sword qi in his dantian, the various obstacles on the path of practising qi could no longer serve as a bottleneck to him. The Cursive Sword Calligraphy truly was extraordinary.
Liu Chuanfeng saw Li Qingshan take a step in the corridor. The mist gathered rapidly beneath his feet. His speed of using techniques had become startling.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m obviously going to go find Chu Tian. I think it’s best if I take back that sum of spiritual stones.” Li Qingshan clasped his hands without looking back. Xiao An leapt onto the cloud, and with a whoosh, the cloud took off with a long tail.
The school of Buddhim had a forest of stūpas, while the school of Confucianism had a forest of stone tablets on Great Virtue island.
The dark-grey, shiny tablets recorded the life events of the past seniors of virtue of Confucianism to inspire the later generations.
Chu Tian and a group of confucian disciples sat before a huge stone tablet as they listened impatiently to the instructor explain the past events. What sh*tty virtuous person? Could he match a celestial?
The instructor suddenly stopped and gazed past Chu Tian. Chu Tian turned around, and his eyes suddenly widened. He saw Li Qingshan leaning against a stone tablet, smiling at him. He was not dejected or resentful over his loss at all. He even waved his hand, like he was greeting an old friend.
And- and he had actually reached the seventh layer too, just like him. This brought great disappointment to Chu Tian, as he wanted to see Li Qingshan’s appearance as a defeated dog. He no longer cared about the ongoing lesson and suddenly stood up.
“Li Qingshan!”
“It’s about time anyway. We’ll stop here for today.” The professor glanced at the sky. He was reluctant to offend a rising genius disciple like Chu Tian. It was not like a lot of people were actually paying attention to this lesson anyway.
The confucian disciples all gathered beside Chu Tian, gazing at Li Qingshan nearby. Their eyes were filled with contempt.
Chu Tian said, “You’re still bold enough to come here?”
Li Qingshan answered, “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“What do you want? Don’t tell me you’ve come to admit your defeat? Now that’s something a man would do. Call me big brother, and from now onwards, we’ll be…”
“Have you defeated me?”
Li Qingshan interrupted him with a single question. Chu Tian immediately lost his temper. He pointed at Li Qingshan. “Acting shamelessly isn’t going to save you from me!”
Li Qingshan said, “How about this? Would you like an opportunity to defeat me?”
“Is that so? Alright, I agree. I’m just afraid you’ll scamper away with your tail between your legs again!” Chu Tian sneered, and the confucian disciples laughed along.
Li Qingshan extended four fingers. “This time, we’ll gamble this much. Four thousand spiritual stones!”
The laughter stopped. All the confucian disciples taking the lesson here were new disciples. Even if they poured together all the spiritual stones they had seen in their lives, they had never seen so many before. They could not help but become frightened by the number. Chu Tian was stunned too.
Li Qingshan asked, “What, you don’t have enough spiritual stones? Need me to lend you some?”
“Alright. Since you’re gifting me spiritual stones, why wouldn’t I agree?” Chu Tian sneered as he ravished in joy. He was filled with absolute confidence. He had already attained an extremely deep understanding of the Great Palm of the Five Elements. As he practised five kinds of true qi simultaneously, the five elements promoted one another, so he had over ten times as much true qi as regular seventh layer Qi Practitioners. How could he lose?
“Same location. As for the time, let’s do three days later, just in case something else gets in the way and a scoundrel ends up getting away with his small success again!”
“This time, I will leave you convinced over your defeat,” Chu Tian said viciously. Not only did he want to win, but he wanted to properly humiliate Li Qingshan too. He planned to show him the difference between a mortal and a celestial.
……
Three days later, in the Main Martial Arts stadium of the school of the Military.
This was the first time Li Qingshan had come to Great War island. When he saw the Main Martial Arts stadium, it reminded him of a huge arena, but there were no tightly-jammed seats. Instead, several platforms of varying heights stood in the surroundings. They were for watching the demonstrations of martial might. From afar, there was a clear order among the platforms with quite the pattern. It did not seem messy at all. Clearly, it was the handiwork of an architect from the school of Mohism.
Chu Tian stood with his arms behind his back as his white clothes fluttered about. Although he was not exactly handsome, he appeared to be filled with an intense bearing in the eyes of onlookers as a result of his great strength.
The platforms in the surroundings were filled with standing people. This huge gamble had already attracted the attention of the entire academy.
A few figures were vaguely visible in the special seats at the very top.
Wang Pushi gazed at the sun. It was about time.
However, Li Qingshan still was not here. The other platforms were filled with discussions.
A group of legalist disciples either sat or stood on one of the platforms. There were plenty of familiar faces that Li Qingshan would recognise.
“Why hasn’t he come yet? Don’t tell me he’s afraid again!”
“He gave away a few thousand spiritual stones last time. Why haven’t I run into an opponent as nice as him?”
“You’d better stop talking. He’s the primary disciple of the school of Novels! You can’t afford to offend him!” Wu Gen said extremely seriously.
It led to a roar of laughter. Wu Gen laughed along as well and felt proud of himself.
“Rongzhi, how much have you gambled this time?”
Qian Rongzhi said, “The same as last time.”
“The same? Surely not.” Last time, Qian Rongzhi had wagered on Li Qingshan and lost quite a lot of spiritual stones as a result. Wu Gen gave Li Qingshan a good scoffing to her, but he never expected that she would still gamble in the same way. It made Wu Gen quite unhappy.
She possessed quite a lot of suitors in the academy right now. She even seemed to have a somewhat ambiguous relationship with that genius, Chu Tian. However, she had always maintained her distance from him.
Wang Pushi lowered his head and asked Hua Chengzan beside him, “How much did you gamble this time?”
Hua Chengzan sat on the edge of the platform with his legs crossed. He extended two fingers. “Two thousand. I need to make back what I lost last time, after all!”
Wang Pushi said, “You just trust him that much?”
Hua Chengzan smiled. “If he loses this time, then I’ll wager four thousand next time.”
“He’s here, he’s here!” A series of calls rang out from below, and everyone raised his heads.
A cloud with a long tail shot over. It glided past a high platform, and Xiao An leapt off, landing beside the One Thought master. The One Thought master looked at his primary disciple he had not seen in quite a while with a bitter smile. He had no idea whether to praise her or berate her. At least there was someone beside him now.
The unspoken rule of the academy was that only the primary disciple could stand beside their respective school leader. Although this high platform was very spacious, only two people could stand on it at most.
Hua Chengzan said, “Old Wang, were you this fast back then?”
“My affinity for water is only yi.” Wang Pushi could use the Hell of Ice, so he was obviously familiar with this water element technique with the highest practicality. However, he did not move as quickly as Li Qingshan when he was at the tenth layer.
“This speed seems to make him more than just high jia,” Hua Chengzan said in thought.
The formation for testing elemental affinity was only used on Qi Practitioners. High jia was already an extremely rare affinity, so there was no point in setting the range so that it could measure to something higher.
After reaching the second layer with the Spirit Turtle’s Method of Sea Suppression, his connection with water had increased drastically, which was why he was able to sense the snowfall from inside the cultivation dwelling. Just like the Ox Demon’s Fist of Great Strength and the Tiger Demon’s Fist of Bone Forging, the Spirit Turtle’s Method of Sea Suppression gradually changed his constitution.
They were trying to measure a spirit turtle’s water affinity using a human formation. Was that not a joke? A spirit turtle was water itself, no, the ruler of water.
After dropping off Xiao An, the cloud plummeted down without slowing down at all, straight towards the ground.
With a boom, the cloud was smashed into pieces and dust rose up in the surroundings.
Yu Zijian felt something tighten around her right hand. She saw how Hua Chenglu was extremely nervous.
“Are you worrying for him?” Yu Zijian asked quietly.
“You idiot! I’ve wagered a lot of spiritual stones on this!” Hua Chenglu stared straight into the mist and vaguely saw a figure standing with his chest held high in there. Only then did she relax.
The dust dispersed. Li Qingshan stood with his arms crossed. He smiled slightly as his bronze face radiated with confidence. His blueish-green clothes that should have been very elegant just radiated with power on him.
This time, he was perfectly on time.
The leader of the school of Military, Han Anjun, was presiding over the battle, and he said, “During the battle, all pills, talismans, puppets, and spiritual stones are forbidden from use. If you break these rules, you will be disqualified immediately.”
This was the rule for fighting within the academy. Most of the battles were competitions of martial prowess and matches to grow stronger in. They were not battles to the death.
If they were allowed to use these items that offered boosts, it would devolve into a pointless battle of endurance where they would waste large amounts of resources for nothing. The academy did not endorse that. School leader Han Anjun was presiding over this battle to ensure that he could stop the battle at any time to minimise injuries and avoid casualties.
After a simple explanation of the rules, he cut right to the chase. Han Anjun asked, “Do you have any objections?”
“I don’t.” “I don’t.”
“Begin!”
The giant lumberman Mu Kui wielded a huge hammer and struck a bronze gong that stood even taller than him.
The thunderous sound boomed through the entire island, startling flocks of birds. The battle began.
Chu Tian said, “And I had thought you would run away from the battle again. Hmph, seeing how you’re gifting me so many spiritual stones, go ahead. I’ll let you take three moves first.”
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Without batting an eye, Li Qingshan launched three water arrows. They failed to even pierce Chu Tian’s protective true qi. Water element techniques were not known for their offensive power. He did not use his entire strength in the attack either.
“Courtesy demands reciprocity. I’ll let you take three moves too. Go ahead!”
Chu Tian was furious. He never thought he would actually try toying with him. Sharp, golden light lit up in his hand and swung out like a blade. He called out, “Metal Crescent Slash!”
The sharp, crescent-shaped golden light whistled through the air.
“One move.” Li Qingshan took half a step back and twisted his body naturally. The Metal Crescent Slash brushed past him. He was completely unscathed.
Before he could even correct his posture, he felt the ground below him shake.
“Lone Wood Spiling!” Chu Tian’s voice rang out. Green light flickered around his right foot as he stamped down.
A huge log burst out from the ground, straight into the air.
“Two moves.” Li Qingshan leapt up slightly and stomped down. The log splintered loudly.
Waves of heat emanated over. Fire turned Li Qingshan’s face bright red.
“Bird of Flames!” A bird scorching with fire like a phoenix extended its wings that spanned over thirty meters across and lunged over violently. It turned into a sea of flames that swallowed Li Qingshan.
