Chapter Ten: The War of Selection

  Zixue looked at me with deep affection and said, "Of course I'm willing, but Father only has my sister and me as daughters. Unless absolutely necessary, let's not take that step, okay? Just bear with him a bit more for my sake."

  I helplessly sighed and said: "Improving my strength is a must for me, but entering the imperial court to be an official is something I am unwilling to do. I have many difficulties."

  Zi Xue said gently: "Do what you want to do, I won't force you. You didn't say that if it really doesn't work out, we can still..."

  I pulled up Zixue's small hand and said, "Thank you, Zixue. With your words, I can rest assured." It was impossible for me to be an official in the Dragon God's court after all, since I still had the blood of a beastman. Moreover, I was a spy.

  In the following month, in order to truly compete with Liva, I reduced my time spent with Zixue and devoted myself wholeheartedly to practicing, Zixue was very understanding of this, as in today's society, no woman does not hope that her lover is the strongest.

  Finally, on the eve of the competition, I successfully broke through the second layer of Kyoshin Jutsu and also learned the second style of Kyoshin Ken - Kyosen Tenka. The promotion speed of Tenma Jutsu is abnormally surprising, I have almost completed the third layer, but when I got here, I encountered obstacles, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't break through, and the difficulty was even more than when I first practiced Kyoshin Jutsu's first layer. This should be a bottleneck, time doesn't allow me to make another breakthrough anymore. The tournament is about to arrive.

  Teacher Zhuang stood on the podium and said to the whole class: "The college martial arts competition will start in two days. Next, I want to confirm the participants for this competition. Students who are willing to participate, please raise your hands."

  I reckon it's because everyone is clear about their own strength, only 5 people raised their hands, and they are me, Fengwen, Fengjuan, Huoxing, and Luolei. What surprised me the most was Huoxing, with his strength, it's impossible for him to surpass Fengwen and Fengjuan, unless he teamed up with his brother. He actually also hopes to participate. Luolei hasn't been idle this semester, because after losing to me in the competition for the top spot, according to what I heard from Fengwen, this kid has been practicing hard, and his strength has increased very quickly.

  Mr. Zhuang smiled slightly and said: "Since there are five classmates willing to participate in this competition, then let's have an internal competition first. And the judges will be everyone."

  Phoenix stood up and said, "Teacher, I'm the leader of our class, so do I still need to participate? After all, I'm also the top student in the whole class. Let them four compete, and the winner will join me in the competition." Isn't she too shameless?

  Mr. Zhuang said: "This probably won't work, after a semester of hard work, everyone has made progress to varying degrees, I hope the five of you can have a fair competition."

  Phoenix said with a hum: "Then you tell me, how are we going to compare?"

  Teacher Zhuang said: "I have thought of the competition items, which are: strength, speed and endurance. The three items will be scored by you students, with a full score of 100 for each item. The first place will get 100 points, and the rest will be scored according to the difference from the first place. The top two total scores will represent our class in the competition. Does anyone have any opinions?"

  Feng Juan heard the teacher say this, and suddenly smiled, repeatedly expressing no objection. She was very confident in her own strength and speed, although she was fat, but Feng Juan's terrifying speed we had all seen before. The rest of us naturally didn't have any objections either.

  Mr. Zhuang said: "Since everyone agrees, then let's gather at training ground No. 4 this afternoon for a competition."

  It's the No. 4 training ground again, the first place where I was taken to the infirmary.

  As soon as the lunch break was over, all the students of our Magic Warrior Class 4 had arrived. Teacher Zhuang announced: "The competition is about to begin, please line up the contestants, first round, Power Contest."

  Feng Juan stood confidently in front, obviously determined to win this match. She said to Teacher Zhuang, "Teacher, you say it, how do we compete."

  "Alright, I'm ready," said Teacher Zhuang. "God of Space, I request that you transport the items in the formation." With a wave of her hand, she drew a golden six-pointed star in mid-air, and as her hand moved, the star floated down to the ground. In an instant, five large iron balls with diameters exceeding 2 meters appeared on the scene.

  "Teacher Zhang said: "The strength competition is mainly to test how much energy you can burst out in an instant. The rules are as follows: try your best to damage the iron ball, limited to one hit. The iron ball has a magical seal on it, so be careful. If you knock the iron ball into the ground, it's invalid. You must make the iron ball itself suffer damage. I will calculate the damage rate for you, whoever makes the iron ball suffer the most damage wins this round, got it?"

  The five of us replied in unison: "Understood."

  "Feng Juan said: 'Teacher, let me go first.'"

  Mr. Zhuang smiled and nodded, saying: "Okay, you start."

  Phoenix tightly grasped the large iron hammer in her hand, walked to the front of the iron ball, stretched out her muscles and bones, gripped her own iron hammer with both hands and started swinging it freely. The massive iron hammer seemed weightless in her hands, and in a short while, Phoenix's speed reached its limit, and her figure gradually became invisible. The circular wheel she formed suddenly flew up from the ground, and Phoenix shouted loudly: "Giant Hammer Whirlwind Break!" The wheel shadow flashed towards the iron ball like lightning.

  A loud "Boom" shook everyone's hearing temporarily, although it didn't break the protective barrier, the huge iron ball originally turned into a hemisphere. What was strange was that such a powerful force did not knock the iron ball into the ground, indeed formidable.

  Only I saw clearly that just now, Feng Juan emitted a burst of energy when she was about to rise up, which supported the iron ball from below, or you could say it lifted the iron ball, resulting in such an outcome. However, due to the dispersion of her strength, she couldn't further destroy the iron ball.

  Mr. Zhuang exclaimed in surprise: "Damage degree 50%, Feng Juan, you've done a great job!"

  Phoenix's temples were slightly sweaty, and it was clear that the previous move had cost her a lot of energy. Upon hearing Principal Zhuang's words, she proudly said: "Of course, Principal, I became the leader through my own strength." She got angry when he called her fat, what a joke.

  "Who's next?" said Mr. Zhuang.

  Mars said: "Teacher, I'll go." After finishing speaking, he drew his long sword and walked over.

  I asked the fire path next to me: "What's wrong with your brother? Doesn't he know his own strength?"

  He watched his brother walk up and replied, "My brother has been through a lot of hardships recently and has practiced a move. Although he may not be able to make it to the finals, he will definitely surprise you, just wait and see."

  Mars, with a complex and solemn expression, walked towards another testing iron ball. He narrowed his eyes, held the sword in both hands, and muttered: "Great Fire God, please ignite the fire elements around me, let endless flames become my ultimate armor." Red flames began to surround him as Mars chanted, growing stronger and more intense. Standing at the center, Mars was like a god of flames, standing quietly.

  Mars suddenly shouted: "Break free from the shackles, flames of light." The red flames gradually turned white, emitting a strong brightness, as if using light system magic.

  Mars suddenly opened his eyes, with a captivating divine light flashing in them. His hands slowly lifted the sword tip from bottom to top, a very light long sword, which seemed to be lifting a weight of ten thousand jun in his hand, extremely laborious. I could clearly see Mars' sweat turning into cyan smoke in the white flames.

  "I said in a strange tone: 'With Mars' strength, it shouldn't be able to command such a powerful flame.'"

  Huǒ said in a low voice next to my ear, "My younger brother has our family's heirloom, the Huǒyào Líng Fú (Fire-avoiding Spirit Symbol), which can protect his body. He uses this to protect himself and doesn't need to worry about the backlash of the flames, so he can use high-level magic techniques, although it's a bit strenuous. You have to keep this secret for him."

  I said: "Why are you telling me this? I'm Mars' current opponent."

  Huoxing smiled slightly and said, "We're all brothers, what secrets do we need to keep? My younger brother just came to make an appearance, he's exhausted after this move and won't be able to participate in the next round. He just wanted to prove himself, this kid is also very competitive."

  At this moment, the Mars in the arena finally raised his sword above his head, his feet tapping on the ground and jumping high, shouting: "Light Flame Slash." A white light flew out along his long sword like a chain, and the iron ball in front of him was split into two halves under his powerful attack.

  I said to Huo Xing, "This move is really good, the attack power is super strong, but unfortunately, the condensation time is too long. If I were to fight him, I would never give him a chance to use this move."

  Mars leaned on his sword to support his body, panting and asking the teacher: "Teacher, what percentage is this?"

  Mr. Zhuang's mouth was agape with surprise, and he said: "Huo Xing, I didn't know you could use such powerful magic skills! You broke through the seal, splitting the iron ball in two - that's a 100% success!"

  Mars listened to Mr. Zhuang's words and a triumphant expression appeared on his face, he fell to the ground with a thud and fainted.

  He rushed over and helped him up.

  Feng Juan sneered: "Underestimating one's own strength, not knowing to reserve some power. If I had also used my full strength just now, humph, it would have definitely been a hundred percent too."

  Feng asked the third one to come on stage, he was simple and straightforward, using the spiral sword technique that I had used against him earlier to smoothly pierce through the iron ball's defensive boundary. Although the momentum wasn't enough to destroy the iron ball, since the boundary had been broken, Master Zhuang gave him a score of eighty percent.

  Rakurai made his fourth appearance, and somehow managed to find another long spear that looked even better than the previous one. Rakurai's method was similar to Fūjin's, using a piercing attack, but he still couldn't match Fūjin's refined abilities, and his lightning magic didn't have much effect in this test (of course, referring to his current level being insufficient). In the end, he failed to break through the barrier, only leaving a hole on the iron ball. He was judged by Master Shō to have caused 30% destruction.

  Finally, it was my turn to take the stage. I walked naturally towards the last iron ball and stood in front of it, activating my Crazy God Fighting Aura that had already reached the second level. My body lightly jumped up and landed right above the iron ball, and with a gentle palm strike, I slapped the iron ball (I learned this move from Old Yue's father, although previously when we fought, I would make a big commotion, feeling very cool, but always felt that it wasn't as elegant as Old Yue's father's two moves, so today I changed my approach). The iron ball was easily pressed to the ground by what seemed like a light and gentle palm strike from me.

  Phoenix laughed loudly and shouted: "Handsome guy, using brute force won't work, it's useless like this, I estimate you don't even have one percent."

  Looking at her annoyed me, I glared at her and said coldly: "Shut your stinking mouth, watch yourself."

  Phoenix heard me scolding her, and was about to get angry, but was immediately stunned by the scene in front of her. The iron ball that I had knocked to the ground suddenly exploded, making a loud noise and blasting a large hole in the training field. The iron ball disappeared, leaving only some scattered iron filings on the ground. What I used just now was Furious Gale Storm, condensing my fighting energy into one stream and striking it down from there, causing it to burst out from there. It would be strange if the iron ball didn't turn into fragments under the compressive attack of my fighting energy.

  I fiercely said to Feng Juan: "Is your flesh ball hard or iron ball hard."

  The phoenix was intimidated by my powerful aura and kept saying: "Iron ball is hard, iron ball is hard."

  I hummed in satisfaction and returned to everyone's team.

  Mr. Zhuang looked at me like I was a monster and announced, "Lei Xiang, destruction rate of 100%."

  Huǒ said to me while taking care of his fainting younger brother: "Lei, you're really amazing, your strength has increased so much."

  "I calmly said: 'Strength itself is my strong point, what's the big deal.'"

  "First round of testing has ended. Huo Xing and Lei Xiang are tied for first place with 100% destruction, Feng Wen is third with 80% destruction, Feng Juan is fourth with 50% destruction, and Luo Lei is fifth with 30% destruction. If there are no objections, the scores for the first round will be calculated based on the percentage of destruction."

  Phoenix didn't get high scores in her strong points, she was very dissatisfied, but with me standing there, she didn't dare say anything. She knew I would definitely make it through, so she could only go for another spot. Although Huo Xing got a perfect score in the first round, his body couldn't support the rest of the competition, so he could be temporarily ignored. Feng Que's first-round score was 0 points, 30 points higher than hers, and now she had to catch up with him. Phoenix secretly seethed with anger.

  "Alright, let's begin the second round, a contest of speed. From here to the college entrance is less than 1000 meters away. Whoever can complete three turns with the fastest speed will be the first place winner. Which student is willing to go to the college entrance to supervise that end?"

  Luo Lei suddenly spoke up, saying: "Teacher, I give up this match. Let me go over there to supervise instead." Luo Lei had just seen my formidable strength and his heart was thoroughly chilled. He no longer had any intention of competing with me for victory. In the strength competition, he ranked last, and his hopes of advancing were already extremely slim. It would be better to be magnanimous and withdraw himself.

  Mr. Zhuang said: "Since you are willing to withdraw from the competition, then go to the school gate for supervision."

  The three of us stood at the starting line, and with a shout from Teacher Zhuang, the three figures shot out like arrows.

  Feng asked, with one horse leading the way and Feng Juan closely following behind. I fell to the back, so I activated my Flight Technique, trying to lighten my body's weight as much as possible. However, despite this, I still couldn't compare to Feng's wind magic that he had practiced since childhood. And that Feng Juan fellow, who knows how he cultivated his abilities? He was only waist-high to me, yet his weight exceeded mine, but when he moved, it was extremely swift, just like a bouncing meatball.

  The three rounds ended quickly, Feng asked the inevitable and got 100 points, Huang Quan 0 points, and I only had a pitiful 50 points.

  After two rounds, Feng Wei led with 10 points higher than me, I had 150 points and Feng Juan had 130 points.

  The third and final item is a test of endurance. Teacher Zhuang said, "For the last test, in order to be fair, I have specially invited members of the third-grade Magic Warriors to test you." After finishing speaking, he stretched out his hand and drew a small six-pointed star in the air, seemingly using a simple spatial magic for close-range communication.

  Third-grader? How can you test us.

  Before long, nine people walked in from outside. They looked like they should be quite skilled. Principal Zhuang said: "These are your seniors in the third grade. The final test will be conducted by them. They will attack each of you individually in groups of three. These nine students were carefully selected by me and the teachers of the third-grade magic warrior class, their strength is very evenly matched, absolutely fair."

  "Feng Wen couldn't help but ask: 'Teacher, how are these seniors going to test us?'"

  Mr. Zhuang smiled slightly and said: "It's very simple, each of you will withstand the attack of three seniors, whoever lasts the longest will be the final winner."

  Wow, three against one, and they're all seniors too, I really don't know how Mr. Zhuang came up with this idea.

  "Alright, let's begin then," said Teacher Zhuang. "In order to be fair, all three groups will start at the same time."

  Feng Juan held a large iron hammer in her hand, let out a loud shout, and charged forward. The momentum of her fearless charge startled the three senior students who were responsible for exchanging blows with her.

  Feng asked politely and said, "Please advise, seniors," before quickly moving on.

  And I walked steadily, exuding a powerful aura. The three seniors in front of me were two magic swordsmen and one who used a strange claw-like weapon that looked like two long, large claw-shaped things wrapped around his hands. Seeing me approach, the senior with steel claws launched the first attack, shouting loudly as he soared into the sky, his arms spread wide like an eagle in flight. The other two seniors also swung their magic swords and charged towards me.

  No wonder he's a third-year senior, his skills are indeed much stronger than the students in our class. If it were one-on-one, I should have an upper hand, but against three, it's hard to say. With a wave of my hand, I sent several ice cones flying towards the senior above me, quickly taking a step forward and punching out with one fist.

  The senior student's steel claw in his hand suddenly emitted two lightning bolts, shattering all the ice cones I had released. Unchanged, he still pounced towards me, but since I took a step forward, he became attacking my back instead.

  I was surprised that he didn't slow down, and the punch I threw, although it forced back the senior on my left who was using fire magic sword, also put me in a state of being attacked from both sides. I gritted my teeth and shouted "Crazy Wind Storm". A heavy fist struck the ground. My target was the senior in front of me. Just as my Crazy God Fighting Spirit was about to burst out from under his feet, he may have detected the energy fluctuation and quickly jumped up, trying to dodge my attack. The power of this punch, Crazy Wind Storm, was surging forward, and although he dodged the direct attack, he couldn't resist the residual waves. The ground exploded with a loud noise, and the violent energy mixed with various debris rushed forward, completely enveloping the senior who had been forced out first and the one who jumped up. Both of them desperately swung their magic swords to resist the onslaught of energy and debris.

  Although my sudden storm achieved a good effect, I was also hit by the senior behind me. In the moment when his steel claw touched me, my body shook violently and shed most of its power, while the Thunder Armor released the Crazy God's Dueling Qi externally.

  A sharp, stinging pain shot through my back, followed by numbness. Ah, his attack had the attribute of lightning. I grunted, turning around to grab at him with my steel claws. This senior was extremely agile, and although he was surprised by my defensive strength, his reaction wasn't slow in the slightest. He landed a hit, quickly leaping into the air just in time to dodge my counterattack.

  I let out a loud hum, casting the flying spell on myself, making my body much lighter. I tapped my toes on the ground and rapidly charged forward, dashing towards the two seniors who were busy fending off my previous stormy attack. Although the two seniors wielding magic swords were not weak, they still couldn't withstand my full-on assault earlier, and both of them ended up with some minor injuries.

  My greatest advantage is my strong aura, I must defeat two of them before they can surround me successfully in order to have a chance of winning. However, my plan didn't work out as expected, the senior's claws rubbed together and released a bolt of lightning that struck me with precision. By the time I realized what was happening, it was too late, the lightning had already hit me, causing a strong numbness that temporarily made me lose consciousness. Just then, the Heavenly Demon Technique inside my body played a huge role, a cool sensation quickly spread throughout my entire body, allowing me to recover in a very short period of time. Now I look extremely disheveled, the clothes on my back were torn apart by the senior's steel claws earlier, and after being struck by lightning again, most of my clothes had become charred and blackened, my hair standing on end.

  The two seniors who wielded the magical swords stepped forward, and one of them said, "Junior, admit defeat. Although you are very strong, under our joint efforts, you have no chance at all."

  I took a sneak peek at Feng Wu and Feng Juan beside me, they were still going on. Feng Wu was too cunning, utilizing his wind magic to its advantage, not directly confronting his opponent head-on, instead completely relying on his agile movements to play a game of hide-and-seek with the opponent. On the other hand, Feng Juan's side was more terrifying, she was like a mad tiger (mother tigress?) swinging her massive hammer to create a powerful whirlwind, those few seniors over there couldn't do anything about it for a while. If I admit defeat now, I might be eliminated, no way, I still want to challenge Liva, how can I easily give up?

  I snorted, saying: "Come on, I won't back down. Fierce wind and rain." Another punch heavily hit the ground. The two seniors in front were scared and quickly retreated backwards, trying to dodge my abnormal attack. But they thought wrong, this time I wasn't targeting them, but rather the one behind, Lei Ying (the nickname I gave him).

  The senior behind me just shocked me, I thought I would definitely admit defeat, but I didn't expect to be so stubborn. Just as I was about to continue attacking him, the ground in front of him cracked open and a strong aura rushed towards him. My body quickly turned around and followed the aura flying rapidly towards him. This Lei Ying senior showed his extraordinary strength at the critical moment, while retreating he chanted: "Invoke the divine thunder of the nine heavens, take the urgency of the earth, come out, the wall of Cang Lei." A flashing electric light wall condensed in front of him, not only neutralizing my aura but also preventing all debris from crossing the thunder pool.

  When he withstood the stormy rain, I arrived too. A heavy punch struck past him. Because my hand was wrapped in the Crazy God Dueling Aura, plus his Azure Thunder Wall had just withstood my Stormy Rain and was already at its last gasp, it was easily pierced by me.

  The senior student put his paws together in front of his chest, trying to block my punch. I let out a cold hum and suddenly burst into a fierce aura, causing the senior student to let out a shrill cry as he was blown away by me. I reckon he won't be able to move for several days. This is still me showing mercy; otherwise, even if he didn't die, his hands would definitely be crippled. You wanted to use lightning to strike me? This is called one report for another. All of this happened in the blink of an eye, and when the two senior students who were using magic swords came to their senses, Senior Lei Ying had already heavily crashed into the wall of the training field with a barrier.

  It's all settled then. I was about to continue fighting the other two seniors when Teacher Zhuang's voice rang out: "Lei Xiang, stop, you've already won." I turned my head in surprise and saw that Feng Juan's large hammer had been knocked flying, and I was sitting on the ground catching my breath. Feng Que was not much better off than me, his clothes were also charred and blackened like mine, and he had lost a lot of hair, but it wasn't because he was electrocuted, it was because he was burned. It turned out that earlier, Feng Que thought to himself that he must be the first one, no one could hit him, as long as he persisted until Lei Xiang and Feng Juan were defeated, he would succeed. But his careless and arrogant attitude enraged his opponents, they left two people to entangle him, and another senior who was skilled in fire magic used a high-level all-around fire magic spell with his magic wand, instantly defeating Feng Que. And the moment he was defeated was also the moment when Lei Xiang was knocked flying by me, Teacher Zhuang saw that I had already won, fearing that I would get hurt, immediately stopped this test.

  The one who got hurt the worst was none other than poor Lei Ying. After Principal Zhuang announced that Feng Wu and I would be participating in the grade competition, he immediately used water magic to treat him. The two seniors who had fought against me walked up to me, and the senior who wielded fire magic sword said, "Younger brother, your skills are quite impressive. The three of us joined forces and still got beaten by you so badly. It seems that the champion of your grade is none other than you."

  Several seniors' strong strength also won my respect, I politely said: "This is all because of the several seniors who let me, that Lei Ying senior, at that time, I will still trouble you two to help me explain it, I really can't hold back."

  The two seniors looked at each other and smiled, saying: "Lei Ying, this nickname really suits him. His name is Park Soo-young, he's one of the strongest among us, but we're a bit weaker, so we were divided into a group. We also represent our class in the grade competition. In the future, you'll have the opportunity to meet again, don't worry, he won't blame you. He likes making friends with strong people."

  "I'm worried and said: 'Will his injury affect his participation in the competition?'"

  A senior said: "Don't worry, this kid is very stubborn and has Teacher Zhuang treating him, so he'll definitely be fine."

  Apart from Feng Juan, who walked away with a huff, all the other classmates came to congratulate me and Feng. Even Luo Lei walked over and said to me: "Lei Xiang, I admit that I'm not your match yet, but you'd better be careful, I'll keep working hard, and one day, I'll defeat you."

  I smiled slightly and said, "Feel free to ask anytime. That Lei Ying senior's kung fu is actually quite worth learning from you. If I wasn't lucky, I probably wouldn't have been able to beat him." Luo Lei's eyes lit up when he heard my words, turned around and left.

  Director Zhuang let everyone disperse and called me and Feng Wen alone to the office.

  Mr. Zhuang smiled and said, "How's that? The teacher's eyes are sharp, I knew you guys would definitely be better than others."

  Feng Wen smiled wryly and said, "Teacher, it's really not easy for us to come out of this situation. Look at me and Lei Xiang, we're like two black people." I exchanged a glance with Feng Wen, saw the awkward look on each other's face, and couldn't help but burst into loud laughter together.

  "Alright, stop laughing, you all," said Teacher Zhuang. "I asked you to come here mainly to point out some combat techniques."

  It turned out that we were going to be taught kung fu. Feng Wen and I immediately became serious, and Master Zhuang continued: "Feng Wen, do you know where you lost the final today?"

  "Feng asked Meng Ran and said: 'The opponent's magic is too strong, it's an all-around attack, I can't dodge it.'"

  Mr. Zhuang shook his head slightly and said, "No, the reason you lost is that you're not fast enough. Today, I'll teach you three words. If you can fully understand them, you'll be unbeatable."

  "What three words?"