Chapter 230: Faster Than Sound
Ever since witnessing Yun Jing’s power in the first two rounds of the Foundation Establishment exam and understanding the gap between them in both strength and wealth, Bai Zhenzhen had quickly come to a realization.
“If I just improve my strength step-by-step, even if I give it my all and eventually reach a level similar to my opponent, the fight will still be a fifty-fifty toss-up.”
“So, if I want to secure a Foundation Establishment certificate, just mindlessly increasing my power isn’t enough.”
“And it’s not as if I have no advantages… My advantage is that in the first two rounds, I was weak enough—so weak that he wouldn’t even give me a second glance.”
From the moment the groupings were finalized, she had regarded Yun Jing as her greatest adversary, constantly observing him, learning about him, and gathering intelligence.
“I know his bionics, his cultivation techniques, his dual dantian technology… but he knows very little about me.”
This information gap, born from her perceived weakness, was Bai Zhenzhen’s edge.
“To leverage this informational advantage, I must strengthen myself with a specific focus.”
“My goal isn’t to surpass my opponent, but to defeat him in the arena.”
“These are actually two different paths.”
It was like how surpassing a Songyang High School student in strength required arduous training day and night.
But defeating a Songyang High School student might only require a dump truck, or perhaps just slipping a pirated technique into his desk.
It was upon grasping this point that Bai Zhenzhen began to gradually adjust the direction of her training.
Her choice of new cultivation techniques, the direction her True Spiritual Root pushed those techniques, the changes in her combat style… everything began to revolve around arena combat, with Yun Jing as the ultimate target.
Bai Zhenzhen had to specialize herself into the perfect state for defeating Yun Jing in the arena.
Even if it meant sacrificing improvements in other areas of her strength, she had to do it, all for the sake of obtaining that Foundation Establishment certificate.
And now, at the very beginning of the third round, the moment Yun Jing heard Bai Zhenzhen’s words, he once again activated the dual dantians in his body, unleashing a deluge of magic power that transformed into a sea of fire and bombarded her.
Watching Bai Zhenzhen rush left and right under his barrage, scrambling to evade, Yun Jing sneered inwardly, Defeat me with a single sword strike? Try getting close to me first.
But Yun Jing soon realized something was amiss, for the Bai Zhenzhen before him made no attempt to approach. Instead, she cleaved through the sea of fire sword strike after sword strike, as if she and the flames were the real enemies.
What is this woman trying to do?
No, whatever she’s planning, I have to stop her.
I absolutely cannot fall here. The Yun family is waiting for me to revive its fortunes.
If the family corporation collapses, the only things I’ll have to rely on are myself and this Foundation Establishment certificate.
A bad premonition surged in his heart. Yun Jing let out a low growl, pushing the circulation of his magic power to its limit. His dual dantians roared like bellowing great dragons, spewing forth mouthfuls of lava-like magic power that morphed into fiery dragons and blasted toward Bai Zhenzhen.
The slightest touch from these fire dragons resulted in a thunderous explosion; besides dodging, taking one head-on would guarantee injury.
But Bai Zhenzhen’s face was a mask of serenity. Facing the roaring fire dragons, she neither dodged nor evaded, meeting them with the technique of her Myriad Sword Everlasting Art.
Amidst a colossal boom, Bai Zhenzhen, now covered in scorch marks after cleaving a fire dragon in two, still did not stop, charging toward the next one.
One strike… another strike… and another… The lightning crackling around Bai Zhenzhen’s longsword grew increasingly brilliant, and the speed of her attacks grew faster and faster.
This was the effect of her level 10 Myriad Sword Everlasting Art after being augmented by her True Spiritual Root, allowing her sword strikes to continuously accelerate under the infusion of thunder magic power. Each strike was faster than the last, until the fifteenth, which would reach the limit and break the sound barrier.
In a flash, she had already executed the fourteenth strike of her Myriad Sword Everlasting Art.
At that moment, the aura around Bai Zhenzhen changed abruptly. A sharp light glinted in her eyes, which were now locked onto Yun Jing on the other side of the inferno.
Then, Bai Zhenzhen activated the martial art she had spent the last three months cultivating—Nine Heavens Thunderwalk.
Aside from using thunder magic power to accelerate her movement, this technique’s greatest feature was its ability to leave residual thunder magic power on the ground, forming an electric field within an area that would continuously boost the user’s speed.
One could say that the longer this technique was used in a fixed area, the stronger the resulting electric field would become, and the greater the acceleration effect for the cultivator.
After Bai Zhenzhen used her True Spiritual Root to augment it, the duration for which the residual thunder magic power could form an electric field was greatly increased.
This was the technique she had specifically chosen, cultivated, and augmented for arena combat, all to further enhance her speed advantage on the stage.
And today’s best-two-out-of-three rule was even more suitable for her than she had anticipated.
In the second round just now, she had single-mindedly stalled for time with no intention of winning, all for the purpose of leaving behind enough thunder magic power on the stage to push the effects of Nine Heavens Thunderwalk to their absolute limit in the third round.
At this very moment, streaks of lightning suddenly erupted from the arena floor, coalescing into an invisible electric field that enveloped the stage.
Bai Zhenzhen felt the electric field and the thunder magic power coursing through her body attract each other, as if countless springs were coiled tightly behind her, waiting for her command to launch her forward like an electromagnetic projectile.
It’s not enough…
Bai Zhenzhen knew she only had one chance with this sword strike, so she had to push it to the absolute extreme.
Thus, she activated another martial art she had never revealed to Yun Jing—Thunder God’s Decisive Bolt.
It reinforced her entire body with astral qi condensed from magic power, increasing her speed while simultaneously allowing her to withstand the physical pressures of high-velocity movement.
The augmented effect of this technique allowed Bai Zhenzhen to erupt with all the thunder magic power in her body at once, delivering a single, impossibly fast strike that surpassed her own limits.
Whether it was the Myriad Sword Everlasting Art, the Nine Heavens Thunderwalk, or the Thunder God’s Decisive Bolt, throughout the process of selecting and augmenting her techniques, Bai Zhenzhen had adhered to a single objective: to give herself a greater advantage, a higher probability of victory, when fighting Yun Jing in the arena.
Along with the full activation of Thunder God’s Decisive Bolt, Bai Zhenzhen felt every last trace of thunder magic power surge out from her body, leaving nothing behind.
Yet under the circulation of her Cold Soul Ice Heart Art’s heart art, in this perilous situation where she held nothing in reserve, Bai Zhenzhen could feel the flesh, blood, power, and astral qi throughout her body growing increasingly vibrant under its influence.
Boom!
The next instant, accelerated by layers of electric fields, Bai Zhenzhen took a single step and collided head-on with the sea of fire, her sword slashing toward Yun Jing.
The fifteenth strike of the Myriad Sword Everlasting Art was like it had been strapped to a rocket booster, producing a deafening sonic boom from the collision of lightning and air.
The subsequent activation of Thunder God’s Decisive Bolt then allowed Bai Zhenzhen to pour every ounce of her magic power into this one strike.
Go! Take all of my magic power, all of my astral qi!
She roared inwardly, even infusing her protective astral qi into the blade, all to make this strike faster, just a little bit faster.
And because her body now lacked the protection of astral qi, it quickly became a bloody mess under the intense pressure of her speed, bursting with innumerable tears.
Amidst a series of thunderous booms, Bai Zhenzhen had already outpaced sound itself, crossing through the sea of fire that was being compressed and shattered by shockwaves to appear right before Yun Jing.
Her longsword had been gradually accelerating since the first round today, and now, in this moment of the third round, the speed of this strike finally reached its zenith, surpassing the speed of sound!
Under the full power of her heart art and her extreme mental focus, though the strike was faster than sound, Bai Zhenzhen felt the entire world slow down in her eyes.
She watched her longsword inch toward Yun Jing’s shoulder, while his eyes were a sheet of blank incomprehension, completely unable to react.
Just as I calculated. After accelerating to this degree, I should be able to exceed the observational limits of Yun Jing’s eye bionic…
Having memorized every parameter of Yun Jing’s eye bionic, Bai Zhenzhen knew the most reliable way to overcome it was to accelerate to a speed he couldn’t even register.
All three of today’s matches were for the sole purpose of accelerating this one strike to this point…
No… A year of ascetic training flashed through Bai Zhenzhen’s mind, along with countless life-and-death battles and instances of enduring overwhelming pressure.
Even more memories surfaced: the frustrations of hiding her spiritual root since childhood, the years of arduous study to climb the Immortal Dao…
For this single strike, I have been accumulating and accelerating for more than a decade, chasing after you all for more than a decade.
Now… this strike has finally caught up.
Thump!
As the longsword collided with Yun Jing, his skin, muscle, and bone tore apart layer by layer. A massive hole was blasted through his upper body, and with a calamitous bang, he was sent flying.
And Bai Zhenzhen, after pouring everything into that one strike, her body pushed beyond its limits and across the sound barrier, was now a bloodied mess, her muscles feeling as though they were about to tear themselves apart.
Feeling the shroud of divine power descend upon her, Bai Zhenzhen forced her eyes open and said, “Did… did I win?”
Huang Zichou looked at the woman before him and nodded. “You won. One of today’s four Foundation Establishment certificates belongs to you.”
Bai Zhenzhen managed a faint smile, thinking, Yu-boy, Mom handled her part. The rest is up to you.
The next moment, Bai Zhenzhen succumbed to her injuries and lost consciousness completely.
In the spectator stands, Laughing-Crying Emoji finished watching the replay of all three rounds and commented, “A little interesting.”
“This Bai Zhenzhen’s raw power isn’t as strong as Yun Jing’s, but it’s clear her combat talent and potential are a cut above.”
“And now she has a Foundation Establishment certificate…”
Laughing-Crying Emoji instantly sensed that this Bai Zhenzhen had great investment value and could already imagine how many universities were probably negotiating admission offers for her right now.
“Oh? She’s from Songyang City too?”
Laughing-Crying Emoji glanced at the examinee’s file and smiled faintly. “And she goes to the same school as Zhang Yu? In that case, I might as well hire her too.”
“By the time they start university, I should be about done with my work here and ready to head back, right?”
This time, even the Smiling Emoji beside him did not reject the proposal, saying, “Although this Bai Zhenzhen is also from the dregs of poverty, the fact that she could secure a Foundation Establishment certificate on her first attempt proves she is indeed talented. She could be of help to you in university…”
“But don’t forget to give her the new employee orientation and establish the rules. We can’t have her bringing the habits of the lower class up here…”
Just then, the final match between Zhang Yu and Ye Lingxiao began on the other side, and the attention of the crowd immediately shifted.