Yan's strongest skill is her swordsmanship. Previously, Zhang Ruochen had caught her off guard and cut off her sword, preventing her from showcasing the advantage of her sword skills.

  The second time they clashed, she didn't plan on going head-to-head with Zhang Ruochen and prepared to reasonably utilize her advantage in speed.

  "Let's start"

  Zhang Ruochen held the Xuan Yuan ancient sword, also a starting move, standing like a pine tree, quiet and motionless, giving people an unfathomable feeling.

  "Snowflakes fall continuously."

  Swallow lightly danced out a move of top-grade swordsmanship, planning to actively probe Zhang Ruochen and force him to reveal his flaws.

  As Yan Qingwu's sword drew closer and closer to Zhang Ruochen, it seemed that Zhang Ruochen was about to be pierced through the heart by Yan Qingwu's sword.

  Suddenly, Zhang Ruochen swung his sword and slashed it down, moving like lightning, with a sword aura like a waterfall, slashing past Yan Qingwu's body.

  "Boom"

  The swallow lightly danced and flew out backwards, when she fell to the ground, her body was cut in half at the waist.

  The sword in her hand also broke into two pieces.

  "It turns out it only takes one sword."

  Zhang Ruochen didn't even glance at Yan Qingwu's Ling virtual body, sheathed the Xuanming Ancient Sword and walked out of the testing chamber.

  Reaching the extreme realm of the Great Extreme Position, Zhang Ruochen's fastest speed had already reached 290 meters per second, far surpassing Yan Qingwu. In terms of speed, Yan Qingwu didn't have any advantage at all.

  With the sharpness of the ancient sword added, he only used one sword to kill Yan Qingwu, who was ranked first on the Earth Ranking.

  At this moment, at the top of the Earth Ranking Palace, Lei Jing sat with an old man with white hair and a youthful face, just in time to see Zhang Ruochen kill Yan Qingwu.

  That sword just now was truly stunning, almost reaching a state of perfect flawlessness.

  "With a clear and sharp mind, there is no flaw."

  "That old man sighed and said, 'It's really formidable. I didn't expect that the Tianmo Ridge would actually give birth to such a powerful young hero. If news of this gets back to headquarters, even the higher-ups in the Academy and the Qianzhuang will likely take notice of him.'"

  Lei Jing shook his head and said, "Don't send the message back to headquarters for now."

  "Why?" asked the old man.

  Lei Jing smiled and said, "Zhang Ruochen is now only at the Earthly Boundary stage of cultivation. In the eyes of those Half-Saints and Saints, he's just a child. Wanting to kill him would be as easy as flipping one's hand over. You should know that within Wumeng Xue Palace, it's not all ironclad unity either. If word were to get out, it would only bring mortal danger to Zhang Ruochen. So the fewer people who know, the better."

  The old man also nodded and said: "In other words, conceal Zhang Ruochen's test results and do not report the news back to headquarters."

  Lei Jing nodded and said, "It's not that it wasn't passed down, but rather that it wasn't completely spread. If people were to know that Zhang Ruochen was only a Great Extreme Realm cultivator who could kill the first hundred ranked expert on the Earth Board with just one sword strike, it would definitely cause a huge stir. It might even attract the attention of the Demonic Sect and the Black Market's experts, who wouldn't hesitate to kill him at all costs."

  However, if he were to fight against a top-ranked expert on the Earth Ranking, he would only be able to hold his own and win by a hair's breadth. In that case, although his innate talent is still astonishing, it has not yet reached the level where the Demonic Sect and the Black Market would fear him. At that time, even if a powerful expert were to come and try to kill him, I would be able to help him take them on.

  The old man said, "I understand that if Zhang Wuji is in the Earth Pole Boundary's Great Extreme Position, he can only contend with the top 100 experts on the Earth List. Even if he breaks through to the Earth Pole Boundary's Great Perfection, his strength will be at most among the top 20 on the Earth List. Although he still looks down on all the heroes in the world, he has not yet reached the point of defying heaven. After all, every few years, a new batch of people will replace those in the top 20 on the Earth List."

  It's just a difference in boundaries, but it's two levels of concept.

  Lei Jing and that old man had simply hidden a part of Zhang Ruochen's true strength and talent in another way.

  Lei Jingdao said, "Zhang Ruochen is after all just a prince of a lower-ranking kingdom. To reach a higher level and receive the best training, he must have access to a large amount of cultivation resources. I can only help him so much, so he must show some natural talent and gain recognition from the Academy. Only then will they allocate more resources to him and help him go further."

  The old man said, "Since that's the case, we'll just announce to the outside world that Zhang Ruochen has reached the Earth Extreme Boundary and the Great Extreme Position in his martial arts cultivation. At the same time, we will only report the results of the first and second rounds of actual combat testing to headquarters, and the result of the third round will be directly suppressed."

  "I'll leave this matter in your hands." Lei Jing said with a bow.

  The old man smiled and said, "We are all doing things for the Wu City Money House. I also don't want the genius of the money house to be killed in the cradle before he can grow up. Now, I will transmit today's test results and battle projections to the Earth Ranking Spirit."

  The old man in front of him was not a real human being, but a spiritual body of the earth board.

  After sending out the test results, Lei Jing also bid farewell and left, going to see Zhang Ruochen again.

  Lei Jing saw Zhang Ruochen and was in a good mood, smiling: "Zhang Ruochen, there's something I didn't discuss with you beforehand, so it might be a bit presumptuous."

  "What's wrong?"

  Lei Jing then told Zhang Ruochen about the decision he had just made with Di Banger's Ling split body.

  After listening, Zhang Ruochen's eyebrows furrowed deeply and said: "It has been sent back to headquarters"

  Lei Jing saw Zhang Ruochen's worried expression and smiled: "You don't have to be too tense, showing off your part of the talent is also a good thing, you can get the attention of the Academy's high-level, give you more cultivation resources. If it really attracts some strong people who want to kill you, I will definitely protect you with all my might."

  Zhang Ruochen was not afraid of being assassinated by a master, but worried about another matter.

  During the second test of the exercise, Zhang Ruochen and Yan Qingwu had a conversation, mentioning some things about Chi Yao's cultivation that were absolutely confidential.

  Zhang Ruochen was not afraid of being known by the higher-ups of the Wumeng Academy, after all, in the eyes of those higher-ups, it was just the nonsense of a young man at the Earth Extreme Boundary, and they wouldn't take it to heart.

  Zhang Ruochen was afraid, what if the news reached Chi Yao's face.

  She associates with "Zhang Ruochen" this name, then definitely will not think that is a coincidence.

  Once Chi Yao knew that he was not dead, with Chi Yao's current unstoppable power and invincible cultivation, Zhang Ruochen would be a dead man even if he escaped to the ends of the earth.

  "What I said, some of it was quite treasonous, the higher-ups at Wushu Academy probably wouldn't spread it around, after all, I'm also a member of Wushi Academy now. The probability of those words reaching Chi Yao's ears is extremely low, almost negligible."

  Zhang Ruochen slowly exhaled a long breath, trying to relax his mood as much as possible.

  "Why bother scaring myself? After all, 800 years have passed, who still remembers that 800 years ago there was a person named Zhang Ruochen and Chi Yao, maybe they've already forgotten me."

  Ten years is enough time for people to forget many things and many people. Let alone eight hundred years.

  Eight hundred years, it's been too long

  Lei Jing saw that Zhang Ruochen's face was still a bit off-color and asked: "Is there anything else you're worried about?"

  Zhang Ruochen shook his head and said, "No."

  "After some thought, Zhang Ruochen said: 'Can't I wait until the next ranking announcement three months later to enter the Earth Ranking?'"

  "You want to postpone for three months"

  Zhang Ruochen said, "Once the news of me entering the top 100 on the Earth List spreads, it will definitely cause a huge stir in Tianmo Ridge. At that time, the number of people who want to kill me will probably increase tenfold. Therefore, I need three months to consolidate my current cultivation and strive to further improve my strength to face even more brutal challenges ahead."

  Lei Jing's heart slightly moved, and he said: "Alright, postponing for three months is also a good thing for you. I'll take care of this matter, you go back and focus on your cultivation, don't delay your own martial path."

  Zhang Ruochen returned to the Xiu Lian secret mansion, still feeling somewhat uneasy in his heart. The words spoken in the testing chamber kept echoing in his mind, and he couldn't help but wonder what would happen if they were to reach Chi Yao's ears.

  Sitting cross-legged in the cultivation chamber, Zhang Ruochen's entire body was like a burning furnace, his skin turned crimson red, and beads of sweat oozed out, soaking through his clothes.

  "It won't work, with the current state of mind, one will inevitably go insane."

  Zhang Ruochen's eyebrows were tightly furrowed, his face was pale, and even his lips were extremely dry. The veins all over his body were slightly bulging, making him look somewhat ferocious.

  Kong Xuan walked in from outside and found Zhang Ruochen's abnormality. He asked anxiously, "Master, what's wrong with you?"

  "It doesn't matter."

  Zhang Ruochen retracted his true energy and made an effort to remain calm, staring at Kong Xuan with a faint tone: "You're not contemplating the sword intent, how did you get in?"

  "A woman has arrived outside, saying she is under the orders of Luo Shizi, and requests that the master go to Luo Shizi's cultivation manor for a meeting." Kong Xuan said.

  "I promised Luo Shijie that I would exchange martial arts with her, and almost forgot about it"

  Zhang Ruochen rubbed his temples and temporarily put aside the distracting thoughts of Chi Yao and Di Bang, saying: "Kong Xuan, you don't need to follow me over there, stay here and continue to comprehend the meaning of the sword."

  Outside the mansion of the Cultivation Villa stood a 16 or 17-year-old girl, slender and weak in build, very delicate, with a temperament somewhat similar to that of Luo Shuihan.

  Her martial arts cultivation reached the Xuanji boundary of Xiaoji position, she is a collateral genius girl of the Luo tribe, named Luo Xinyao.

  If we talk about natural talent, Luo Xinyao is more excellent than many outer palace students and has the qualifications to enter the inner palace academy.

  After waiting for a while, Zhang Ruochen still didn't come out, and Luo Xinyao became somewhat impatient. She said in an icy tone: "You're just an inner palace disciple, yet you still put on airs when Sister Luo personally invited you. Who knows how many people have tried to visit Sister Luo but were unable to see her? What makes you think you're so special?"

  Luoxin Yao is just a collateral branch of the Luozu people, but also a member of the Shengzhe Men family, so naturally she doesn't take the warriors of Tianmo Ridge seriously.

  She really couldn't understand why Luo Shixiong would attach so much importance to this Zhang Ruochen, and even took the initiative to invite him to discuss martial arts together.