Chapter 5313: Show of Might
Bai Yunqing retracted his gaze and turned his attention toward the divine monument. Even though he had managed to produce a golden glow, he hadn’t broken its record yet. He wasn’t content with just proving that he had superior talent. He wanted to leave his name on the divine monument.
That was also the goal of Zhou Dong, Qin Shu, Jia Chengying, and the others.
Putong!
Someone suddenly collapsed to the ground.
One of the challengers couldn’t withstand the divine monument siphoning his energy and fainted. As he fell to the ground, the divine monument finally released its suction on his palm, setting him free. This meant that he had been eliminated.
And this was only the start.
More people collapsed to the ground afterward. In just a few moments, there were only six challengers left in the test. They were the white-haired woman, Zhou Dong, Qin Shi, Jia Chengying, Bai Yunqing, and Chu Feng.
“It looks like our strongest Martial Exalted level cultivator isn’t anything much,” Jia Chengying remarked with a sneer.
The divine monument before Chu Feng was glowing white.
“Inferior talent. It looks like that’s all there is to our strongest Martial Exalted level cultivator. You must have been very hardworking, or else you wouldn’t have been able to claim the strongest title despite your lacking talent,” Bai Yunqing scoffed.
Now that he had chosen to side himself with Jia Chengying, Chu Feng had become a thorn in his side. Naturally, he wouldn’t show any goodwill to Chu Feng.
The people of the Ancient Realm also started chatting amongst themselves. They didn’t expect the strongest Martial Exalted level cultivator to have such lacking talent. Those who had previously expressed their admiration for Chu Feng didn’t see him with the same heated gaze anymore.
In truth, Chu Feng was doing this on purpose. He was preventing the divine monument from absorbing too much of his energy. He knew that this so-called talent assessment was the Ancient Realm’s Ancestral Ritual, and he wasn’t going to allow them to take advantage of him.
At the same time, he sensed a message within the divine monument. It was extremely faint, and he had to focus his attention to grasp it. It took a while for him to acquire the full message.
“Eggy, I can’t hold back anymore. I’ll have to give it my all for this Ancestral Ritual,” Chu Feng said.
“Why?” Eggy asked.
“I sense martial enlightenment inside the divine monument. The more I give to it, the greater the feedback from it,” Chu Feng replied.
“But the divine monument is consuming your talent. Won’t it affect your future progress?” Eggy asked worriedly.
“It won’t. I have already ascertained it. While the divine monument is indeed feeding on my talent, it is unable to steal it away from me. It’ll weaken my physical body in the short run, but I should be able to recover soon enough after the Ancestral Ritual,” Chu Feng said.
“Since that’s the case, you should do what you want. Put your name on the divine monument,” Eggy said.
“My intention exactly,” Chu Feng replied.
Meanwhile, Bai Yunqing and Jia Chengying were still mocking Chu Feng.
“Why aren’t you saying anything, Chu Feng? Is this test too tiring for you?” Bai Yunqing asked.
Just then, Chu Feng opened his eyes and looked at Bai Yunqing.
“Bai Yunqing, Jia Chengying, why do the two of you have so much nonsense to prattle on about? Your talents aren’t anything much either,” Chu Feng replied.
“Aren’t anything much? Even if my talent isn’t anything much, it’s still much better than your inferior talent,” Bai Yunqing scoffed.
“Indeed. Someone with inferior talent like you actually has the cheek to make light of us, who have superior talent? I’m wondering now if you have only won the Trial of the Strongest through trickery. Just think about how important talent is to cultivation. That isn’t something that can be compensated with just hard work. How could someone with inferior talent possibly be the strongest Martial Exalted level cultivator in our Totem Galaxy?” Jia Chengying spoke out loud.
His words stirred the crowd.
“Indeed. There’s no way someone with inferior talent could have defeated so many experts in the Totem Galaxy.”
The people of the Ancient Realm agreed with Jia Chengying. As cultivators, they understood how important talent was. No amount of hard work could compensate for a lack of talent. A prodigy could achieve in decades what others took millennia to accomplish.
That was also why cultivators in the Lower Realm remained weak no matter how long they cultivated.
“Talent, you say? I’ll show you just what kind of talent I have,” Chu Feng said as he pushed his hand deeper into the divine monument.
Boom!
The divine monument suddenly began trembling intensely. The crowd jolted in astonishment. A moment later, the light emanated by the divine monument started to change in color, turning to silver and eventually golden.
Furthermore, while the other divine monuments were emitting a flickering golden glow, Chu Feng’s divine monument was emitting a steady golden light. This golden light grew steadily stronger until it eventually became as bright as the sun, outshining everything else.
“That fellow!”
Bai Yunqing and Jia Chengying were rendered speechless. The Ancient Realm’s chief and the others stared at Chu Feng in shock. Even Zhou Dong and Qin Shu revealed looks of unease.
They were all here to prove themselves, but all of them were being outdone by Chu Feng.
Zhou Dong glared at Jia Chengying and Bai Yunqing, as if blaming those two for provoking Chu Feng. On the other hand, the white-haired woman revealed a rare smile.
While others might not know better, she was aware that Chu Feng was no ordinary cultivator. After all, he was the only one who cleared the tower trial during the Trial of the Strongest. It was just a pity that she couldn’t see Chu Feng doing it with her own eyes.
This was the first time she was getting a glimpse into how powerful Chu Feng was, but despite her already high opinion of him, he still turned out to be stronger than she had expected.
And this was nothing but the start.
The square started to shake as well. All of the divine monuments had begun trembling.
“What the hell is going on?”
Bai Yunqing and Jia Dongqi looked embarrassed. The divine monuments in front of them were trembling too, as if they were reacting more to Chu Feng than them.
“Look at those shackled divine monuments!”
Even the ten shackled divine monuments in the square had begun trembling too. Its chains were rattling so hard that it looked almost as if a terrifying beast was about to break loose.
At last, the chains shattered.
The ten divine monuments emanated a terrifying aura that turned the faces of the crowd pale. Even the Ancient Realm’s chief looks nervous.
The pressure exerted by the divine monuments was fatal to the people of the Ancient Realm. They could very well die if this pressure wasn’t curbed in time, but the problem was that no one knew how to curb it.
Weng!
Just as they were at a loss, Chu Feng’s body suddenly released a golden light that was identical to the one emanated by the divine monument earlier. The golden light diverged into ten rays that shot into the sky before falling into the ten unshackled divine monuments.
The unshackled divine monuments finally calmed down, thus putting a halt to the excruciating pressure they released. At the same time, they began glowing golden.
Everyone in the Ancient Realm looked at Chu Feng in a different light. They could tell that the ten divine monuments had submitted to Chu Feng.
The eleven divine monuments had become one with Chu Feng.
“Could that be the use of the additional ten divine monuments? Were those prepared specifically for him?”
The Ancient Realm’s chief couldn’t remain calm. He had risen to his feet and was staring intently at Chu Feng. There was no animosity in his eyes, just shock.
Just then, another seven rays of golden light shot out from Chu Feng’s body.
“Damn it! That fellow can’t possibly be thinking of…” Bai Yunqing’s expression tensed up as an ominous feeling gripped his heart.
As expected, those seven rays of golden light fell into the divine monuments of Jia Chengying, Bai Yunqing, and the five eliminated individuals. Chu Feng had chosen not to interfere with the white-haired woman, Zhou Dong, and Qin Shu’s divine monuments.
“Damn it!” Jia Chengying cursed.
The divine monuments in front of Jia Chengying and Bai Yunqing were releasing a brilliant golden light, but the two of them could tell that their connection with the divine monuments had already been severed. The divine monuments were no longer devouring their energy.
Chu Feng had actually single-handedly lit up so many divine monuments with golden light.
Despite having lost control of their divine monuments, neither Jia Chengying nor Bai Yunqing chose to release their hands from their divine monuments. They knew that moving away now would only prove that they had been outdone by Chu Feng.
They were unwilling to take the humiliation.
“Why are your hands still on the divine monuments? They are mine now,” Chu Feng said.
