Chapter Forty-Four Drawing Lots

  The token in front of Sun Ming's body instantly transformed into a giant shield that was about one zhang long and half a zhang wide, with a cyan and yellow color.

  The giant shield collided with the golden long sword that was thrusting at high speed. After a low, muffled sound was emitted, the golden long sword's attack was easily dissolved by the giant shield, and the golden sword itself was also knocked flying by the shield's collision, spinning crookedly in mid-air.

  But at this time, the copper ring also brought a burst of whistling wind and heavily smashed onto Sun Ming's defensive light shield.

  This light shield had withstood the attack of seven or eight fire snake talismans before, and now it was shattered into tiny sparks under the full force of this copper ring's blow.

  The copper ring was slightly decelerated by the light mask, and then it continued to smash towards Sun Ming himself. If this hit was true, Sun Ming would definitely be seriously injured.

  Although the physique of a cultivator far surpasses that of an ordinary person, it is also impossible to withstand a blow from a magic weapon with just one's physical body.

  The momentum of the copper ring's descent was fierce, but Sun Ming's movements were extremely fast. The giant shield transformed from the token deflected the golden long sword and quickly changed direction, blocking it just in time to meet the falling copper ring.

  A deafening loud noise, and the copper ring was also bounced back by the giant shield.

  Just then, the golden long sword that was originally knocked flying by the giant shield flashed with a faint golden light and came slanting over from another direction.

  Sun Ming's heart was filled with frustration! The opponent's magic tool was slightly inferior to his, yet it still had the power to entangle and fight. Even though he used up more than half of his spiritual energy and employed the Sword Edge Technique, he still couldn't achieve a decisive victory. The longer the battle dragged on, the more unfavorable it became for him. After all, he was using the Sword Edge, which consumed a huge amount of spiritual energy, to forcefully slash at the opponent's defensive magic tool. In the face of the opponent not caring about their own magic tool and stubbornly insisting on withstanding the attack even if it meant destroying the tool, Sun Ming could only continue to waste his spiritual energy, gradually damaging the opponent's magic tool bit by bit.

  But that's not all, the opponent can also manipulate three artifacts at the same time, and continuously attack him with two of them. He can only control one defensive artifact again, and it's inevitable to be overwhelmed. And he doesn't have more spiritual power to maintain a full-body defense shield anymore. If this continues, if he's not careful, his blue giant sword may not even break the opponent's golden shield before being ambushed by the golden sword and copper ring first.

  Sun Ming thought of this and reluctantly stopped attacking the Golden Shield, instead manipulating the blue giant sword to stab at the golden long sword.

  Zhao Di saw the green sword flying towards his Gong Bu Sword and immediately understood Sun Ming's intention. The opponent wanted to rely on the sharpness of the sword tip, which was unstoppable, to directly destroy the Gong Bu Sword in three or two moves, and then focus on dealing with himself.

  Although he still had two top-grade magic items in his storage bag that could be used for attack, he was not willing to appear too rich until the last moment.

  Among the outer disciples, there were only a few who had two top-grade artifacts. He had already taken out three, although they were made of refined copper and not expensive materials, but it was still considered to be among the wealthy and oily cultivators. If he took out one or two more top-grade artifacts, he would likely arouse even more suspicion and speculation.

  With such a taboo, Zhao Di didn't want the golden long sword to be destroyed like this, so he hastily manipulated the golden long sword to surround Sun Ming and change direction randomly, not even bothering to engage with the cyan giant sword.

  This green giant sword belongs to the kind of magic weapon that is powerful but lacks agility, and in terms of speed, it is slightly inferior to the golden long sword. Under the opponent's deliberate avoidance, the green giant sword could never cut down the golden sword.

  But every time the cyan giant sword turned its head to attack Zhao Di, the golden long sword would quickly stab towards Sun Ming. And the copper ring did not stop at all, constantly colliding with the giant shield, giving the opponent no chance to breathe.

  This advantage in the number of magic tools will make the opponent's magic tool spin around, which is rare in the battle of Qi refining monks. The monks watching from below are also enjoying themselves, and some people occasionally comment on a few sentences.

  However, Zhao Di and Sun Ming on the stage were deaf to these people's discussions, and they were both calling their divine consciousness and spiritual power to the limit. As long as one party was slightly distracted, it would be extremely likely to become the loser of this competition.

  Time passed bit by bit, and the four or five magic instruments on the stage were flying back and forth quickly. However, the trial was still unable to distinguish between victory and defeat. Sun Ming had also taken out a pale green intermediate wooden spirit stone more than half an incense stick ago, supplementing his own spiritual power that was almost depleted.

  However, it is clear that relying on spirit stones, even mid-grade spirit stones, to replenish spiritual energy would be far from enough to keep up with the consumption during a battle.

  Zhao Di was delighted to see that the sword's blade was gradually shortening, from over a foot long it slowly became seven or eight inches, then shortened again to only two or three inches, and finally completely disappeared.

  And his golden long sword, although it was cut off by the blue giant sword during the escape, still emitted a faint golden light and did not completely break down.

  Sun Ming's face turned whiter and whiter, finally becoming as pale as a sheet of paper. He never thought that he would be unable to win against Zhao Di, who was inferior to him in both magical tools and spiritual power. He had prepared for this foundation-establishing trial for four or five years, not only using almost all his family's wealth to obtain the top-quality magical tool, Qingjian, but also spending more than three years practicing swordsmanship.

  When he finally exhausted his last bit of spiritual energy and didn't have time to get more from the spirit stone, Zhao Di's golden sword and copper ring attacked him simultaneously, one after another. Helpless, he could only reluctantly admit defeat.

  Zhao Di's spiritual power was almost depleted at this time, which was still the result of using spirit stones to supplement his spiritual power shortly after the trial began. Otherwise, it would be hard to say who would exhaust their spiritual power first between him and Sun Ming. Of course, if Zhao Di were to exhaust his spiritual power first, he would have thrown out a dozen or so fire snake talismans beforehand, and by that time, the opponent probably wouldn't be able to defend against them either.

  This battle thoroughly shattered Zhao Di's idea of keeping a low profile, as almost all the outer sect disciples knew that there was a new disciple who had entered the sect two years ago and could simultaneously control three top-grade artifacts. Moreover, he had defeated Sun Ming, a senior brother whose cultivation was one level higher than his and whose artifact was slightly better. Even some of the foundation-building cultivators in the sect took notice of Zhao Di.

  Zhao didn't know where he was, but even with such careful and low-key efforts, it still brought him great hidden dangers.

  Although Zhao Di won this competition, he couldn't feel proud of it.

  In this battle, his magic tools were severely damaged. All three of the magic tools that appeared on stage had traces of Sun Ming's cyan sword edge cutting through them. Especially the brocade sword, which was probably unable to reach even mid-grade magic tool power at this point.

  But this is only the third round, and to get the foundation-building pill, there are still two more rounds of fierce battles. If these few artifacts are not repaired, the next trial will be even more difficult to use.

  That golden shield is still good, it should be fine with just a slight repair; the copper ring must be remade using mid-grade spirit stones; and as for that workmanship sword, it can no longer be repaired and needs to be remade.

  There is only one short day left until the fourth round, and Zhao Di still needs to sit and recover his spiritual power, so it's absolutely impossible to finish everything.

  If he only repaired the Golden Shield and Copper Ring, it would still be in time, but then he wouldn't have a main attack magic weapon; if he took out another new top-grade magic weapon, it would be too eye-catching. Zhao Di was once again caught in a dilemma.

  It's hard to have both strong abilities and keep a low profile at the same time.

  Under Zhao's helplessness, he decided to make a decision on the spot. If his opponent was not too strong, he could win with the copper ring and golden shield, along with some talismans. In that case, there would be no need for him to use the new top-grade artifact. But if he encountered another powerful expert who was evenly matched against him, then under helplessness, he had no choice but to reveal that dazzling new "Slashing Immortal Flying Knife".

  What slightly delighted Zhao Di was that in another venue, a match that almost took place at the same time as his and Sun Ming's battle, Jian Xiang'er also managed to defeat her opponent with difficulty and successfully advanced to the fourth round.

  After a whole day of rest and fully recovering his spiritual power and physical strength, Zhao Di, who had also repaired the Golden Round Shield and Copper Ring, arrived at the drawing location for the fourth round.

  He casually picked up a wax pill, crushed it lightly, and on a bamboo slip the size of a fingernail, the numbers "59" were engraved from top to bottom.

  But then Jian Xiang'er, with a face full of peach blossoms, came running towards him from not far away and said something that made him feel like a thunderbolt on a clear day:

  "Wugeng, I drew number 59, what about you?"

  (Fourth update! Released in advance, good evening and focus on writing. Please collect this book and vote for recommendation! If you think the book is not bad, feel free to recommend it to other readers, thank you all for your support!)