Chapter 103: An Advance Battle
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
The confrontation earlier had allowed the students of Yunwu Commandery to recognize how powerful Zhang Ruochen’s cultivation was and thus, their confidence soared. They all rushed toward Wang Lang and Qing Haitian to beat them up.
Even Zhang Shaochu rushed over. He lifted his foot up and gave Wang Lang a kick in the crotch.
The Family-ending kick caused Wang Lang severe pain. His body shook violently and his legs grew weak.
“You…You guys are rebelling…”
Wang Lang cried out loud. Suppressing the sharp pain in his groin, he activated the Genuine Qi in his body and was ready to fight back.
Before he could retaliate, Liu Chengfeng struck a palm toward his head to knock him down, causing him to unceremoniously fell to the ground again. Liu Chengfeng said, “You’ve got the nerve to fight back, don’t you? Let’s break their legs, strip them naked and threw them to the drill ground of Western Campus. I’m eager to see who’ll dare to bully the students of Yunwu Commandery in the future!”
Somewhere in the distance, Qing You who was lying on the ground had already woke up. As he watched Wang Lang and Qing Haitian getting beaten by the crowd, he decided to shut his eyes and continued to fake unconsciousness so that people would leave him alone.
Liu Chengfeng walked toward Zhang Ruochen, clasped his hands in greeting and asked with a smile, “Your Highness, do you think I’ve gone a bit too far?”
Zhang Ruochen did not know what to say. If he was asked to beat Wang Lang and Qing Haitian, he might be too embarrassed to do so. However, he knew that they should give a lesson to the Square Commandery’s students.
Once they were beaten, only then they would think twice when they wanted to mess with the Yunwu Commandery’s students next time.
Since Zhang Ruochen did not say a word, Liu Chengfeng knew that Zhang Ruochen had acquiesced to his actions.
There was a huge uproar among the crowd.
Together with dozens of young students, Feng Zhilin walked out from the crowd and stood in front of Zhang Ruochen. It turned out that someone had informed Feng Zhilin about the incident and thus, he rushed to the dormitory right away.
Feng Zhilin bellowed. “That’s enough!”
His voice, mixed with Genuine Qi, rang out in the air as if a thunder had exploded.
Liu Chengfeng, Zhang Shaochu as well as other students of the Yunwu Commandery were obviously more afraid of Feng Zhilin, who had a powerful cultivation. Therefore, all of them stopped their beating as soon as they saw Feng Zhilin. They quickly retreated and hid behind Zhang Ruochen.
“Master Feng, you… you have to… take revenge for us…” Qing Haitian laid on the ground naked. His face was red and swollen and his head was bleeding. Even his legs had been cut off by Zhang Shaochu with the huge stone. The sight was too horrible to watch.
Looking at the wounded under the massive stone, Feng Zhilin frowned slightly as he felt somewhat displeased. He asked, “Who are you?”
“I’m… Qing… Qing Haitian…” The voice of Qing Haitian was unintelligible. He could not even speak a word clearly.
“You’re Qing Haitian?” Feng Zhilin walked over and took a closer look at him. He could finally identify that he was indeed Qing Haitian.
It was no surprise that Feng Zhilin could not identify Qing Haitian. Wang Lang and Qing Haitian were brutally beaten up to the point that both had become barely recognizable.
“Boom!”
Feng Zhilin unleashed a palm strike that sent the massive stone pressed on Qing Haitian’s legs flying off to the side. Looking at Qing Haitian who was lying on the ground in sore straits, Feng Zhilin’s expression turned cold and said, “Zhang Ruochen, they are also students of Western Campus. Aren’t you too harsh on them?”
Zhang Shaochu said angrily, “Harsh? When you broke my arms one month ago, why don’t you think you’re harsh?”
Feng Zhilin narrowed his eyes, a hint of coldness shone in his pupil. “Piglet Zhang, do you really think that Zhang Ruochen can be your shield? Stop being naive! When he died on the life and death platform, I’ll take care of you by myself!”
Zhang Shaochu felt a strand of coldness arose instantly in his heart when he thought of how cunning and ruthless Feng Zhilin was. He could not help but retreated two steps.
On the contrary, Zhang Ruochen moved two steps forward and said, “Feng Zhilin, how arrogant you are! Do you really think you are strong enough to defeat me?”
Zhang Ruochen and Feng Zhilin were separated by a five-steps distance. They stared at each other with a rising momentum.
Feng Zhilin looked into Zhang Ruochen’s eyes and put on a smile all of a sudden, “Looks like the Ninth Prince is full of confidence. Well, let’s not wait until tomorrow. We’ll fight on the life and death platform tonight!”
He continued, “Yet, I’m not sure if the Ninth Prince dares to do so.”
“Great! See you on the Platform tonight!” Zhang Ruochen gave a faint smile and replied.
Liu Chengfeng was a relatively smart man. He said, “Your Highness, beware of falling into Feng Zhilin’s trap! You’ve just fought with three masters in the Medium State of the Black Realm. You’ll be put into an unfavorable position fighting with him on the life and death platform!”
Liu Chengfeng was right. This was exactly what Feng Zhilin had in mind.
When Feng Zhilin saw Nie Xuan, Wang Lang, and Qing Haitian lying on the ground, he immediately knew that Zhang Ruochen’s cultivation must have been greatly improved. He was going to be a tough opponent.
He firmly believed that after fighting three Martial Arts masters, Zhang Ruochen’s physical strength and Genuine Qi must have been greatly consumed. Therefore, he proposed to fight on the life and death platform tonight so as to maximize his advantage.
Feng Zhilin was definitely a smart person.
Yet, it did not bother Zhang Ruochen too much as he knew that he hardly spent any energy defeating Nie Xuan, Wang Lang, and Qing Haitian.
Since Feng Zhilin brought up the idea of fighting on the life and death platform tonight, Zhang Ruochen agreed right away as he would like to settle the trouble as soon as possible.
The news of Zhang Ruochen and Feng Zhilin pushing the fight forward spread like wildfire through Western Campus.
Students who were in the middle of their secluded refinement had all came out of seclusion. Released themselves from refining, they rushed to the life and death platform and were ready to enjoy a high-level match.
Although disputes and battles happened frequently among Western Campus, there was rarely anyone who have the guts to fight on the life and death platform. Anyhow, no matter how serious the dispute was, none of the students would actually dare to take each other’s lives. They believed that if they worked hard, they would still get the chance to revenge.
The life and death platform was a completely different story.
There must be a deep hatred between two warriors for them to come to a duel on the life and death platform. Once both students entered the life and death platform, one of them would have to lose his life.
Every year, there would only be one or two times where students bring the fight to the life and death platform on Western Campus. It usually happened due to the conflict arose between two male students who wanted to impress a particular female student. Or, vice versa, two female students fought for a male student.
It was said that the female students should not be underestimated, especially those on Western Campus. Once they fought, they would probably be scarier than the male students.
The fight tonight on the life and death platform had undoubtedly become the hottest topic of the School as one of the opponents was the freshman of the year who had a magnificent talent.
Everyone was curious. If such a genius student was defeated on the life and death platform, would the presbyter of the School intervene? The School might have lost a warrior with incredible talent.
The presbyters of Western Campus had indeed heard of the fight between Zhang Ruochen and Feng Zhilin.
When Elder Xie, who had a good impression of Zhang Ruochen heard the news, he frowned tightly and murmured to himself, “Why didn’t this young man inform me beforehand and insist to fight Feng Zhilin on the life and death platform? Would he be able to stand up to Feng Zhilin with his cultivation?”
In fact, Elder Xie was aware of the grudge between Zhang Ruochen and Feng Zhilin. At first, he thought that if Zhang Ruochen had told him about the fight and asked him for help, he would no doubt help Zhang Ruochen to resolve the dispute.
However, Zhang Ruochen still did not approach him after one month. He thought that Zhang Ruochen had already informed other presbyters, so he did not ask anymore.
Right at this moment when he heard that Zhang Ruochen and Feng Zhilin had even brought forward the fight, Elder Xie suddenly realized that the situation had taken a turn for the worse.
“We finally have a talented student in the School of the Martial Market in Yunwu Commandery. He can’t just throw his life away on the life and death platform. I should try to persuade him,” said Elder Xie nervously.
Since Xie Nantian was one of the warriors of Yunwu Commandery, he naturally tended to favor Zhang Ruochen. He hoped that Zhang Ruochen could fully develop his techniques and become a high-level official of the School of the Martial Market as well as the Martial Market Bank.
At the same time, the news about the fight had reached Dragon Martial Temple.
“This is a fight to the death for either one of the warriors, interesting! I’m going to see how much improvement he has made in his cultivation during these two weeks of practice!” Duanmu Xingling showed a witty smile when she heard the news. She swiftly turned into a green, slim shadow and flew toward the life and death platform.
Duanmu Xingling was very confident that Zhang Ruochen would not lose against Feng Zhilin. She only went to watch the fight out of curiosity. She wanted to see the results he had obtained over the two weeks of practice.
As soon as she arrived, she noticed that there was a startling beauty standing afar on the spectator stand. With the bright moon shining down upon her, she looked as if she had been covered with a layer of holy light. Every inch of her skin was flawless and clear, shining with a luster that made people awestruck.
She was carrying an ancient sword on her back with a long royal blue hair draped over her shoulders. Her beautiful curves and her cold, unapproachable demeanor made her looked like a Moon Fairy descended from the skies. Other students did not dare to get close to her.
The woman who looked like she popped out of a fairytale was Huang Yanchen. She was known as one of the three female devils on Western Campus, which was why no one dared to approach her.
“Sister Chen, how come you got here before me?” Duanmu Xingling squinted her eyes before skimming to the side of Huang Yanchen. Only fuzzy shadows of her were left behind as she flew over.
Huang Yanchen looked at Zhang Ruochen in the distance with icing air in her eyes and said, “I’m here to witness how he is going to die at Feng Zhilin’s hands.”
Duanmu Xingling smiled mysteriously and said, “Well, he’s the Yellow No.1 of our Dragon Martial Temple. He’s extremely talented. You should have some confidence in him. Who knows, he may defeat Feng Zhilin by surprise.”
“A Mid Stage warrior of the Black Realm defeated a warrior at the Final State of the Black Realm. Are you sure there was such a genius in the history of the School of the Martial Market?” Huang Yanchen shook her head slightly. She was not very optimistic about Zhang Ruochen’s ability.
“But I’ve heard that his cultivation seems to have improved a lot and achieved the Advanced Stage of the Black Realm.” Duanmu Xingling said with a smile.
Huang Yanchen replied, “It means nothing even if he does reach the Advanced Stage of the Black Realm. There is still a three-realms difference between them.”
Huang Yanchen herself was a top-level genius, so she was very clear about the ability of a genius.
Some geniuses were invincible in the same realm. Some could jump across one or two realms and defeat their opponents.
However, it was too difficult to defeat a warrior who was three realms higher. Such genius was extremely rare.
Not to mention Feng Zhilin was a student of Western Campus.
All the students enrolled in Western Campus had been meticulously selected. Every single one of them was a genius. Among the warriors at the Final State of the Black Realm, Feng Zhilin was the best of the best. He was powerful enough to fight against three to five warriors in the same realm.
Therefore, it was basically impossible for Zhang Ruochen to defeat Feng Zhilin.
Huang Yanchen was not the only one who thought that Zhang Ruochen had no chance to win. Many students who came and watched the fight shared the same opinion. Almost none of them were optimistic about Zhang Ruochen. They felt that this was another easily predictable battle.
It did not matter even if Zhang Ruochen had defeated three warriors in the Medium State of the Black Realm. Warriors in the Medium State could not be compared to those in the Final State as they were on a totally different level.