Chapter 375: Another Level 20 Cultivation Art?
As soon as the competition began, Ma Xuan’s first move was to assign his team members’ roles, particularly regarding the construction workers.
After all, as the defending side, the higher the completion rate of their structure within the hour, the higher their score would be.
The competition required them to build a bunker, and the building materials had already been placed next to the construction site before the start.
“Bu Ziran, Ji Susu… you two will handle the construction.”
After careful consideration, Ma Xuan ultimately decided to leave only two members to focus on building.
His original plan had been to leave three members for construction, while he and the other two would intercept the opposing team of six.
In Ma Xuan’s view, their team’s strength far surpassed the opponents’, allowing them to easily outnumber and overwhelm them. By leaving more members to build, they could achieve a higher score.
However, Su Yanyang’s warning lingered in his mind, prompting him to play it safe and leave only Bu Ziran and Ji Susu to handle the construction.
Bu Ziran was a tall young man. If Zhang Yu were here, he would recognize him as the guy who had ignored him when he first joined the contest group and had been showing off his Lung Bionic.
Ji Susu was a tall biological female. Since she rarely spoke in the group chat, Zhang Yu didn’t know much about her.
Ma Xuan continued, “Ji Yuanshu, you’re on perimeter support.”
With a flash, Ji Yuanshu vanished, leaving behind a gust of wind.
As Ma Xuan made his arrangements, Shi Huaiyu and her six companions charged forward like lightning bolts.
Seeing their opponents hurtling toward them like six streaks of lightning, Ma Xuan immediately activated the power of the Minor Threefold Combination.
The earth rumbled as a tsunami of mud and sand surged toward Shi Huaiyu and her team, threatening to engulf them.
Shi Huaiyu countered with her own Minor Threefold Combination, but Ma Xuan could sense that his junior sister’s cultivation in this technique was clearly inferior to his own. If they continued this clash, Ma Xuan would undoubtedly gain the upper hand in the storm of colliding mud and sand.
But in the next instant, as Zhang Yu’s figure burst through the dust cloud and plummeted toward them from above, Ma Xuan’s gaze narrowed slightly.
As the former captain who recruited Zhang Yu into the team, Ma Xuan believed he knew him well.
Zhang Yu’s formidable physique, exceptional resilience to damage, and mastery of the Nine Heavens Cloud Void Force — which allowed him to redirect force against his opponents — meant prolonged battles and severe wear on his Bionics.
This made Zhang Yu an opponent many would rather avoid.
Ma Xuan immediately understood their strategy.
“They think sending Zhang Yu alone will disrupt our formation?”
“They seem to be… overestimating him.”
Meanwhile, Zhang Yu, arms crossed and feet treading the void, plummeted toward them like a meteor, tearing through layers of air at supersonic speed.
His cold gaze fixed on Ma Xuan and the others, his lips moved slightly, as if speaking.
In the chaos of supersonic combat, verbal communication was impossible.
But Zhang Yu’s words had already been transmitted as messages, appearing directly on the Bionic Eyes of his opponents.
This was a common method of communication in high-speed combat, and a mandatory skill for every student in the Security Department.
Zhang Yu: “Not trying to stop me will be your greatest regret today.”
While studying the Security Department’s provocative tactics that Shi Huaiyu had sent him, Zhang Yu gained a deeper understanding of many principles.
For instance, simple insults rarely work in serious battles. Combatants aren’t easily provoked.
To truly incite an opponent, one must tailor their words to the situation, naturally triggering anger, resentment, or battle lust.
The most common, versatile, and effective method? Posturing.
When done flawlessly — naturally, convincingly, and with flair — posturing can effortlessly stir an opponent’s emotions, even making them unaware they’re being provoked, driving them to unleash their full power. This is the highest form of provocation.
At that moment, as Zhang Yu spoke, their gazes clashed in the atmosphere, as if two invisible forces of battle intent were pressing against each other.
Yet Ma Xuan’s movements remained unchanged. He continued to firmly control the swirling sand, sending it crashing toward Shi Huaiyu and her team like a tidal wave.
Simultaneously, his voice echoed through the Bionic Eyes of all his teammates.
“He’s trying to provoke us. Don’t let him get to you.”
“Cong Na, go repel him.”
“Everyone else, stick to the original plan. Don’t give him a chance to use our own strength against us.”
Cong Na looked up at Zhang Yu descending from the sky, a wide grin spreading across her face. “Leaving the team will be the biggest regret of your life.”
In the next instant, she crouched low, her thigh muscles bulging violently as she unleashed an explosive burst of power.
Boom!
The ground beneath her feet cratered instantly, and Cong Na’s figure vanished in a blur, tearing through the atmosphere as she charged straight toward Zhang Yu.
“Mid-air, with no leverage, you’re a sitting duck,” she thought coldly. “I know you want to land and use your superhuman physique and counterforce cultivation art to disrupt our formation.”
“But I won’t give you the chance.”
Gang Qi condensed to its limit in her right palm, her muscles roaring to life as she unleashed a palm strike with overwhelming force, aiming to crush Zhang Yu.
Cong Na intended to exploit his mid-air vulnerability, where he had no footing, to blast him away in one decisive blow.
“This is the best way to deal with Zhang Yu. Overwhelm him with superior force, drive him off the battlefield, and deny him any chance to regroup.”
Facing Cong Na’s palm strike, Zhang Yu calmly said, “Trying to knock me away?”
“That’s exactly what I had in mind.”
Zhang Yu unleashed his own palm strike.
But this strike erupted with a series of dragon roars.
Roar!
Ten earth-shattering dragon roars echoed through the air, accompanied by ten dragon-shaped streams of Gang Qi that surged forth with overwhelming force.
It was Xiao Qingxuan’s Nine Dragons Heavenly Gang Palm.
Before they had thrown Zhang Yu out, Xiao Qingxuan had unleashed twenty consecutive palm strikes, channeling them all into Zhang Yu’s Gang Qi. Zhang Yu had temporarily stored this energy within his Void Aperture using the Nine Heavens Cloud Void Force.
Now, with this sudden burst of ten strikes, the violent Gang Qi instantly tore through Cong Na’s palm force, completely engulfing her figure.
“Quiet down for a moment, Cong Na.”
Boom!
A thunderous explosion shook the air, sending shockwaves rippling outward. Cong Na’s figure shot away like a projectile.
After knocking Cong Na away with a single strike, Zhang Yu continued his descent, his icy gaze sweeping over the crowd below. A savage battle intent pressed down on everyone.
“Come at me together.”
Zhang Yu descended from the sky, his palm striking downward. Dragon-shaped Gang Qi, accompanied by a whistling roar, shot toward the battlefield like a meteor shower.
In another instant, he unleashed ten strikes, completely exhausting the twenty attacks Xiao Qingxuan had launched.
This display revealed a crucial piece of information to everyone watching, both inside and outside the arena, who understood the nature of the Nine Heavens Cloud Void Force:
Twenty strikes… Zhang Yu’s Nine Heavens Cloud Void Force had reached Level 20!
This was the second Level 20 cultivation art Zhang Yu planned to reveal during the competition, aside from the Battle Demon Life-Shattering Art.
He thought to himself, “After all, on the very first day I learned the Nine Heavens Cloud Void Force in my senior year of high school, I demonstrated astonishing talent, rapidly advancing its level and ultimately defeating Wang Yin.”
“Now, as a Second-Year student, reaching Level 20 with this art seems perfectly reasonable.”
As the crowd below scrambled to defend against Xiao Qingxuan’s dragon-shaped Gang Qi, Zhang Yu finally landed with a thunderous crash.
The impact of his feet striking the ground sent visible shockwaves rippling outward, carrying layers of dust, sand, and surging air currents in all directions.
Ma Xuan remained in the Minor Threefold Combination state, coordinating with Ji Yuanshu to attack Shi Huaiyu and her group in the distance, preventing the enemy’s main force from advancing.
Simultaneously, Ma Xuan calmly assigned tasks to each team member, messages already appearing in their Bionics.
“Ignore Zhang Yu. The borrowed power he wielded has been exhausted.”
“Bu Ziran and Ji Susu, continue with the construction.”
“Ji Yuanshu, follow my marker and attack Shi Huaiyu.”
“Cong Na, no need to rush over. Coordinate with me to intercept the others.”
“Yang Yan, suppress Zhang Yu alone. Everyone else, hold back, he’ll use your attacks against you…”
A series of commands was issued in an instant, appearing in the Bionic Eyes of every team member.
Yang Yan was a burly man clad in alloy armor.
Zhang Yu remembered him as the one who had ignored him upon joining the group, preferring to discuss Bionics with Bu Ziran. He was also the most welcoming member when Ji Yuanshu joined the team.
With a single stride, Yang Yan’s alloy-armored frame shook the ground slightly as he charged toward Zhang Yu’s landing spot like a tank.
But just as Ma Xuan issued his orders, Zhang Yu erupted with a sky-filling Formless Cloud Gang, a surging sea of clouds that engulfed everyone.
Amidst the churning sea of clouds, Yang Yan watched the approaching figure and thought, “He’s coming for me first?”
At the same moment, blurry humanoid figures emerged from the sea of clouds beside nearly everyone present, launching lethal attacks.
Faced with this sudden assault, almost everyone reacted instinctively.
“Zhang Yu is targeting me?”
Without hesitation, Yang Yan unleashed a thunderous punch, the surging force instantly tearing the Formless Warrior before him to shreds.
As Zhang Yu’s Formless Warrior shattered, Yang Yan inwardly cursed and roared, “Don’t attack!”
But his warning came too late. With a series of earth-shattering explosions echoing through the sea of clouds, the assembled warriors had already shattered the Formless Warriors attacking them.
This meant Zhang Yu had already borrowed the power of each person’s initial strike.
In the next instant, even more Formless Warriors materialized, charging into the fray.
“Yang Yan! Why are you attacking so fiercely?!”
“Ji Susu! Stop now!”
“Bu Ziran! Don’t use that technique…”
The surging Gang Qi fluctuated violently under the impact of overwhelming force, transmitting wave after wave of power beyond its capacity.
Each opponent’s techniques were observed, learned, and mimicked under the gaze of Zhang Yu’s Third Eye Mystic Power.
Fourfold Thinking calculated the combat rhythms of everyone present.
Zhang Yu’s physical body, Magic Power, mental acuity, martial arts, Dao Seed… all were pushed to their absolute limits. This fully unleashed his talent for group combat, allowing him to single-handedly plunge the battlefield into utter chaos.
The combatants felt as if their own teammates’ attacks were being turned against them.
Faced with this situation, they couldn’t afford to let the attacks go unanswered, forcing them to retaliate. Zhang Yu then used his Nine Heavens Cloud Void Force to absorb even more of their techniques and power.