Chapter 229: The Victor Is Decided
While Zhang Yu and Ye Lingxiao were quietly preparing for the final test, the vast majority of the audience was no longer focused on the body tempering arts track examination hall.
For these viewers watching remotely via the Spirit Realm network, they were simultaneously observing the finals of all four tracks of the Kunxu First Layer’s Foundation Establishment examination.
Many university representatives, due to their own interests and specific recruitment needs, hadn’t been paying much attention to the body tempering arts track anyway, their focus largely fixed on other competitions.
So, when Zhang Yu and Ye Lingxiao’s match went on a temporary break, even those who had been watching naturally turned their attention to the other arenas.
“The Dao heart and magic power tracks aren’t very exciting to watch.”
The Laughing-Crying Face glanced at the Dao heart and magic power examination halls before ultimately deciding to check on the martial arts track.
“Among the Qi Refinement stage’s four tracks—Dao heart, magic power, physical body, and martial arts—the most interesting exams have to be physical body and martial arts.”
“But the body tempering arts track gets more viewers, since it’s applicable to so many different majors.”
“As for martial arts, it’s a practical combat test every year. It’s mainly the representatives from security, weapons, warfare, and military-related fields, plus perhaps combat-oriented artifact refining, bionics, and alchemical enhancers, who pay close attention…”
The thought had barely crossed the Laughing-Crying Face’s mind when he looked at the martial arts arena and was slightly taken aback to see that the match there had already concluded.
“That was fast.”
Looking at the woman lying on the platform, her body on the verge of disintegration, the Laughing-Crying Face curiously selected the replay function.
The scene before him began to rewind rapidly, soon replaying the match from the very beginning.
On another examination stage, also being distractedly hosted by Huang Zichou.
First, the venue materialized, followed by an explanation of the test content and rules, and then the preparation time for the contestants.
After all that was settled, Bai Zhenzhen and Yun Jing ascended the platform from opposite sides.
This final martial arts examination would consist of three platform battles in a best-of-three format.
After each battle, both contestants would receive unlimited medical treatment covered by insurance.
Furthermore, in each match, the righteous gods would intervene to save them before a fatal blow could be struck.
This meant that in each of the three rounds, both fighters could go all out with the most ferocious, desperate, and unrestrained attitude possible, unleashing their full combat potential.
Additionally, a variety of combat spiritual roots and weapons were displayed to the side, available for either contestant to choose from.
However, neither Yun Jing nor Bai Zhenzhen opted to borrow a combat spiritual root.
Bai Zhenzhen, on the other hand, selected a Primordial Magnetic Vibration Sword. By infusing it with magic power, the blade could vibrate at a high frequency, unleashing tremendous destructive force.
Feeling the coldness from the hilt, Bai Zhenzhen thought, An enterprise-grade magical treasure like this… would my normal self ever have the chance to use it?
And unlimited medical insurance after every round… The thought brought an irrepressible smile to Bai Zhenzhen’s lips. I have truly never fought such a well-funded battle in my life.
As the countdown above the platform ticked down to zero, Bai Zhenzhen suddenly raised her sword high and shouted, “University representatives in the audience, watch closely!”
She pointed her sword at Yun Jing and declared, “Next, I will defeat my opponent in a single move.”
“You all should think carefully about what kind of offer you’re going to make me.”
At the other end of the platform, Yun Jing’s expression remained calm as he heard her words, but he thought, Just like when I fought Dai Xingzhi last time. Is she trying to provoke me?
This woman really loves to use taunts.
Yun Jing offered no verbal reply to Bai Zhenzhen’s provocation. The moment the countdown hit zero, he responded with action.
The dual dantians in his chest and lower abdomen flared to life simultaneously, and a molten torrent of magic power erupted forth. With a palm strike from Yun Jing, it transformed into a towering wall of fire that surged out, sweeping toward Bai Zhenzhen’s position like a waterfall.
In their battle three months ago, it was this wide-area attack that had forced Bai Zhenzhen off the platform, costing her the match.
But now, three months later, the move that had once seemed insurmountable was now riddled with openings in her eyes.
During this time, Bai Zhenzhen had been tempered in battle after battle through gang warfare. She had witnessed the incredible ingenuity of the cultivators at the very bottom of Songyang City, who fought for money, for survival, for business, for their very lives.
And through this constant fighting, Bai Zhenzhen felt her True Spiritual Root continuously adapting. The masters of the Golden Class Gang seemed weaker and weaker, their moves filled with more and more flaws.
She had once thought it was because all of the Golden Class Gang’s peak Qi Refinement experts had been killed off.
Only later did she understand that it wasn’t the gang members who had gotten weaker; it was she who was getting stronger, better able to discern an opponent’s weaknesses through the fluctuations of spiritual energy in the air.
Just like at this very moment, the seemingly impenetrable wall of fire had several points of weak firepower in her eyes.
With a flick of her longsword, Bai Zhenzhen passed through the wall of fire and started walking toward Yun Jing.
“Here I come,” Bai Zhenzhen said with a faint smile, and in the next instant, she shot toward Yun Jing like a bolt of lightning.
Myriad Sword Everlasting Art? Yun Jing thought.
Bai Zhenzhen’s attack was swift, but it did not escape the observation of Yun Jing’s eyes.
His eye bionic almost instantly identified her move, its potential follow-ups, and the weaknesses in each one.
I certainly can’t learn a whole host of cultivation techniques in just three years of high school like that freak Ye Lingxiao.
But the number of cultivation techniques I’ve purchased is by no means less than his!
The reason Yun Jing bought the copyrights to so many cultivation techniques was to load their data into his eye bionic, allowing him to instantly identify an opponent’s moves and find their weaknesses in the heat of battle.
The amount of money required to achieve this was, obviously, beyond what an ordinary student could imagine.
Even Yun Jing himself had invested a great deal of time and energy into it.
After all, though he was born into a wealthy clan, the money his family gave him wasn’t unlimited. If he wanted more, he had to earn it himself.
And so, with his father’s encouragement, Yun Jing had started his first business in the second grade.
He still remembered his father’s words.
“There are two principles in this world I want to teach you.”
“First, although you can only begin to cultivate the Immortal Dao in high school, the act of making money can begin from the moment a person is born.”
“Second, the upper limit a person can reach on the Immortal Dao is determined by the wealth they command.”
“From these two facts, we can draw a conclusion.”
“The true cultivation of the Immortal Dao actually begins the moment you are born.”
“Start making money, Yun Jing. The earlier you start, the better you’ll be at it, and the more you make, the farther you’ll go on the path of the Immortal Dao.”
Yun Jing deeply agreed with his father’s philosophy. By kindergarten, he had already started investing, becoming an angel investor for several companies.
In the second grade of elementary school, he founded his first company.
While his classmates were doing homework, he was up late preparing financial reports.
While his classmates were studying for exams, he was presiding over midnight meetings.
While his classmates were cramming with practice tests, he was pulling all-nighters with his employees.
And after entering Immortal Cloud High, Yun Jing had not strayed from this path.
While others were doing breathing exercises, I was making money.
While others were in combat training, I was making money.
While others were doing body tempering, I was still making money.
It is precisely because I persisted in making money, day after day, year after year, that I have reached this point today…
I have been cultivating immortality since I was five years old!
Just like in the past three months, Yun Jing’s cultivation had been to continue making money.
It was because he had earned more money that, despite his family’s limited budget, he could afford more cultivation technique copyrights for his eye bionic, could outsource the body tempering of his meridians and flesh to a host of university graduates, and could use a Host Spiritual Root to buy the magic power of university students…
Yun Jing thrust out both palms, attacking the flaws in Bai Zhenzhen’s technique as guided by his eye bionic.
But the next moment, he was stunned to see Bai Zhenzhen suddenly change her move, executing a basic high school sword technique.
With no time to think, Yun Jing followed suit, altering his own attack.
Seeing this, a small smile played on Bai Zhenzhen’s lips.
Our battle actually began six months ago.
Three months ago, at the end of the second round of the Foundation Establishment examination, was when Bai Zhenzhen had identified the man before her as the strongest opponent on her track.
Therefore, based on her observations, she began to research the model of the bionic he used, the martial art he practiced, the nature of his dual dantians, and the meaning behind the strange phenomena that occurred during his digestion and combat…
Bai Zhenzhen seized every opportunity to observe, and through diligent information gathering afterward, she slowly but surely pieced together a complete picture of her opponent’s combat data.
Take his bionic, for example.
After countless searches on shopping websites and visual comparisons, Bai Zhenzhen finally confirmed the model.
‘Heaven’s Secret,’ an enterprise-grade bionic from Heaven’s Eye Corporation, usable even at the Qi Refinement stage.
Bai Zhenzhen knew the data and performance of this eye bionic by heart.
She scoured the internet, reading every review and comment, even sending private messages to review bloggers and influencers to ask for specific details, not hesitating to tip them for their trouble.
Through this process, Bai Zhenzhen had come to know this bionic inside and out.
The greatest weakness of Heaven’s Secret is that its artifact spirit is too rigid.
When I execute a basic high school sword technique, because the technique is so simple and common, its flaws are already well-established. Therefore, the countermeasure from Heaven’s Secret is predictable.
For Bai Zhenzhen, the moment she executed that basic sword move, she already knew how her opponent would counter. This meant she knew his next move in advance.
Bai Zhenzhen did not dodge, nor did she block.
She chose, with foreknowledge, to accept having half her body engulfed in flames and severely burned, in exchange for the chance to thrust her sword into her opponent’s body.
With a thud, Bai Zhenzhen, reeking of scorched flesh, fell to one knee.
At the same time, with a soft squelch, the crackling sword blade pierced Yun Jing’s shoulder.
But Yun Jing was unconcerned. With my body protection technique and my combat spiritual root, her sword will definitely not break through…
The next moment, the minor wound on Yun Jing’s shoulder, stimulated by magic power, suddenly expanded. A fountain of blood sprayed out, accelerating the collapse of his body.
“What?!”
Yun Jing watched in disbelief, utterly unable to comprehend how his body—outsourced to hundreds of university students and tempered a thousand times over—could be breached by such a light sword strike.
After that battle, it took Yun Jing three months of investigation to learn that several of the university graduates who had taken his outsourced project had then subcontracted it to a group of junior college graduates.
And among that group, one person had outsourced his own work to a high school student.
It was due to that high school student’s negligence that Yun Jing’s body had a tiny flaw.
And this tiny flaw was what Bai Zhenzhen had detected, allowing her to shatter his body protection technique.
At this moment on the platform, with a sharp tearing sound, the longsword followed the erupting flaw and nearly sliced through half of Yun Jing’s body.
It was at this precise moment that the righteous gods intervened, saving both Yun Jing and Bai Zhenzhen.
And though Bai Zhenzhen was severely injured, Yun Jing had suffered a fatal wound that brought him to the brink of death.
First round, Bai Zhenzhen wins.
After treatment, Bai Zhenzhen took the stage for the second round. She looked at Yun Jing with an air of arrogance and said coolly, “I told you I would defeat you in one move.”
Looking at Bai Zhenzhen’s condescending expression, Yun Jing had to admit that he was, indeed, somewhat angered.
And that anger was laced with a certain tension, a nervousness born from not knowing how she had breached his body protection technique.
Thus, as the second round began, Yun Jing went all out, giving her absolutely no chance to get close.
Relying on the insane output from his dual dantians, Yun Jing transformed nearly the entire platform into a sea of fire, completely denying Bai Zhenzhen any opportunity to approach.
Under his relentless bombardment, Bai Zhenzhen struggled for over ten minutes before finally being forced off the platform.
After the second round, Yun Jing’s confidence returned. He knew his raw power was superior to hers. As long as he played it safe and didn’t fall for her tricks, he couldn’t possibly lose.
It’s one win, one loss now, Yun Jing thought. As long as I win this final round, the Foundation Establishment qualification certificate is mine.
But as the third round began, Bai Zhenzhen once again pointed her sword to the sky and addressed the audience. “Everyone, watch closely.”
“This round is already over.”
“In a moment, I will once again defeat him with a single sword strike.”
“My university target is only the top ten.”
“You’d better prepare your competitive offers to recruit me.”