Chapter 2117 — The Challenge Continues, and Then, Still Without Expression, He Said: "You of the Fire Wolf Gang, You'd Best Steady Yourself—We Are About to Inject True Qi and Activate the Artifact!"

"Ready," An Mingyue answered—again it was An Mingyue speaking, not the Fire Wolf Gang disciple.

This struck Wei Zhao as odd. The Fire Wolf Gang fellow was a strange one indeed: every time he wore that blank, dull stare, and Wei Zhao had the nagging feeling he had seen something like it somewhere before.

But before Wei Zhao could place it, the contest had begun again.

"Let us begin!" Old Master Zhao said, once more placing his palm on the true-qi injection point of the artifact. Old Master Yu, Old Master You, and Old Master Tang followed suit in turn, all channeling their true qi at once. The energy bar on the artifact leapt instantly to the preset late Earth Rank, and the giant arm burst out from it again. With a thunderous boom, the Fire Wolf Gang disciple was likewise sent flying!

With a heavy "clang," the Fire Wolf Gang disciple crashed to the ground—more brutally than Wei Zhao or the Hidden You family disciple before him. After all, those two had known something of how to fall safely; they had not slammed down with such violence, which was practically wound upon wound.

Yet the Fire Wolf Gang disciple seemed not to care in the least. After landing, he coughed up a great gush of blood—and still managed to rise, staggering in An Mingyue's direction. But An Mingyue merely gave an order to another of his hangers-on, who promptly escorted this disciple away from the contest ground at speed.

Wei Zhao frowned, guessing dimly that this Fire Wolf Gang disciple would not live much longer. But since the man had not died on the spot, even if Wei Zhao wished to find fault, Old Master Zhao would surely have some excuse ready—that birth, aging, sickness, and death were simply the way of the world, and that what became of a man after the match, and when he died, had nothing whatsoever to do with the contest.

So Wei Zhao could not be bothered to argue with these people.

"The Fire Wolf Gang's current endurance rating is late Earth Rank. Will the next contestant please take the stage!" Old Master Zhao, who seemed to know a thing or two about the matter, announced the result with unseemly haste; as for where the Fire Wolf Gang disciple had gone or what he was doing, he neither asked nor looked, pretending he had seen nothing at all.

"The Golden Bell Sect—peak late Earth Rank!" This time the one to step up was the last contestant from the written test, and the dark horse everyone had favored to win the whole contest. But Wei Zhao merely cast him a cold glance. The moment this one took the stage, he had stirred his external-school mental cultivation method—nothing but a disciple at the peak of early Profound Rank, most likely one of the Golden Bell Sect's ace disciples!

The Golden Bell Sect was a school of external-school disciples, the kind who temper the body through relentless conditioning. The weakness of such training was that the higher one climbed, the harder each step became; and since the Golden Bell Sect lacked any truly formidable mental cultivation methods or ancestral masters, their disciples' strength was naturally modest.

To pit peak late Profound Rank strength against a peak late Earth Rank strike, they relied entirely on that hardened, conditioned body. Ma Zhu and Jin Wudi had been the same back then, their bodies extraordinarily resistant to blows—even when Wei Zhao fought Ma Zhu, a mid Profound Rank opponent, he had to injure himself just to land a wound.

"Good!" Old Master Zhao nodded all the same, set the dial on the artifact straight to peak late Earth Rank, and then said, still without expression, "You'd best steady yourself—we are about to inject true qi and activate the artifact!"

"Ready," the Golden Bell Sect disciple said, brimming with confidence.

"Good, let us begin!" Old Master Zhao said, once more placing his palm on the true-qi injection point of the artifact. Old Master Yu, Old Master You, and Old Master Tang followed suit in turn, all channeling their true qi at once. The energy bar on the artifact leapt instantly to the preset peak late Earth Rank, and the giant arm shot out abruptly, slamming into the Golden Bell Sect disciple with a resounding "bang"!

This time, however, it was different from Wei Zhao and the others. After the giant arm struck the Golden Bell Sect disciple, he was still standing there on the spot—he had taken the blow head-on! Standing firm as a pine, utterly motionless.

It was not that he did not wish to ride the force and fly off; rather, such was the way of the Golden Bell Shield technique—one had to stand fast and channel one's qi without moving, or the effect would be greatly diminished. So to withstand this peak late Earth Rank attack head-on, he could only stand there, gritting his teeth, and not budge.

At last the force dissipated. This Golden Bell Sect disciple had endured it—but then he spat out a mouthful of blood with a "pff." Plainly, the strike of peak late Earth Rank power had exceeded what he could bear and left him gravely injured within.

Even if this blow had not cost him his life or shattered his Golden Bell Shield, at the very least he would need three to five years to recover; otherwise he would never again make any progress. But the moment he thought of Diamond Xu's promise—that if he took the championship, he would be allowed to use the Golden Bell Sect's secret body-tempering elixir—his heart surged with excitement.

So he had taken the injury, and injured as he was, his heart was glad; he walked back to Diamond Xu's side beaming.

"The Golden Bell Sect is, to date, the record holder for the highest endurance rating! Peak late Earth Rank—are there disciples of other families or sects who are unconvinced and wish to challenge it?" Old Master Zhao asked after announcing the result.

Han Xiaopo had not expected that the disciples who came up afterward would challenge ever higher endurance ratings, and that Wei Zhao had already been pushed out of the top three—he had not foreseen that at all! Originally, in his view, even if Wei Zhao did not win, he should at least place in the top three. But now, he was actually ranked fourth!

Was the contest to be lost just like that? Han Xiaopo was somewhat unwilling to accept it—and of course, that unwillingness sprang from his blind trust in and admiration of Wei Zhao. In his eyes, Wei Zhao could not lose! If he had entered, then he must have been sure of himself; Wei Zhao did not do things he was not sure of!

But reality had dealt Han Xiaopo a blow. If possible, he would even have gone up himself and tried challenging peak late Profound Rank strength! After brooding a moment, Han Xiaopo said, "Old Master Zhao, I have a question!"

"Oh? Surely you do not mean to take Wei Zhao's place and challenge? Of course, that is permitted—you are a disciple of the Hidden Han family as well. If that is your question, there is no need to ask it!" Old Master Zhao said, eyeing Han Xiaopo with a teasing smile.

In his view, this Han Xiaopo, only at mid Yellow Rank, would have nothing but death awaiting him on that stage—there was no second possibility.

"Of course not!" Han Xiaopo said. "I want to ask: if we of the Hidden Han family issue a challenge, and we too take on peak late Earth Rank strength, and we withstand it—then how does that count?"

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