Martial Sage from the Vajra Skill

BANG!

CRACK!

As their palms collided, Force surged outward. In an instant, countless bamboo stalks were obliterated, many of them ripped out by their very roots from the tyrannical power.

The ground beneath Ji Yun’s feet cracked. He felt a power like a collapsing mountain crashing toward him from Xu Yang’s hand—overwhelming and unstoppable.

He couldn’t help but shudder, spitting out a mouthful of blood. With a sickening crunch, the hand he had used to strike Xu Yang was shattered, and the bone jutted out from his shoulder.

"Marrow Cleansing..."

Ji Yun’s voice trembled as uncontrollable fear gripped his heart. Xu Yang had already reached the Marrow Cleansing realm.

Even his own disciple, Kong Yu, who ranked third among the Ten Heroes, couldn’t have possibly reached Marrow Cleansing in such a short time if he were still alive. Xu Yang’s talent was truly terrifying.

This meant that Xu Yang’s earlier words hadn’t been a ploy to break his concentration. He really could be the one who had murdered his disciple and his illegitimate son.

And to think, he had truly caused the deaths of his most brilliant disciple and his illegitimate son just to save a little face.

"Back then, I was weak. For just a few words, you had your disciples gang up on me at the Martial Arts Examination. Do you regret it now?" Xu Yang strode forward.

"I..." Ji Yun opened his mouth.

His guts twisted with regret.

Back when Xu Yang and Yang Jun fought to settle their grudge, they had agreed to rely on their own abilities. But after Xu Yang revealed his Great Achievement in Qi Gathering Cultivation, Ji Yun accused him of being despicable, which set all the following events in motion.

At the time, he had thought Xu Yang was an ant he could crush at will. He never imagined things would escalate to this point.

Not only had he caused the deaths of several disciples, including his most brilliant one and his illegitimate son, but now he himself was about to die here tonight.

"You can go die now!"

Seeing Ji Yun’s regret, Xu Yang felt the last of his old resentment finally vent. Wasting no more words, he chopped down with his palm as if it were a great saber.

Ji Yun tried to block, but before he could even raise his arm, Xu Yang’s hand-blade had already descended.

SPLURCH!

With a sound like a sharp blade slicing through meat, Xu Yang’s hand-blade cut open Ji Yun’s chest, shattering his internal organs.

His body flew backward, snapping several bamboo stalks before landing on the ground, his life already extinguished.

With another chop of his hand, Xu Yang sliced a bamboo stalk and impaled Ji Yun’s corpse on it before strolling away.

The next day, while everyone was still buzzing about the annihilation of the Cyan Snake Gang, new rumors spread: Ji Yun, the master of Gale Hall, had been killed in the bamboo forest, his corpse left hanging from a bamboo stalk.

For a time, all of Qingyuan County was in an uproar.

It had been many years since a major figure like Ji Yun had been killed.

Onlookers surrounded the bamboo forest in thick crowds until Li He arrived with several masters and dispersed them.

’Showing up here in the middle of the night wearing Night Clothes, only to be killed... Could he have been involved in something shady?’

Li He inspected the scene and the corpse, but aside from determining that Ji Yun had been killed in just a few moves, he found no other useful information.

’To kill Ji Yun in a few moves, the attacker’s cultivation must be at the Marrow Cleansing realm at the very least. Since when does Qingyuan County have a Bone Marrow Cleansing Strong Person?’

Li He’s expression shifted slightly. ’Could it be someone from the Demon Sect?’

Besides the Demon Sect, he couldn’t think of anyone else who would kill Ji Yun, the master of Gale Hall, at such a critical time.

But if it was the Demon Sect, why was Ji Yun wearing Night Clothes? Could he have been colluding with them?

"Have the men from Gale Hall take the body away," Li He ordered. "And summon the masters of all the Martial Arts Halls to see me."

If the Demon Sect had truly sent a Bone Marrow Cleansing Master, things were about to get very complicated.

The City Guard Army and men like Li Qiang alone wouldn’t be enough to ensure the Martial Arts Examination could proceed smoothly.

Who killed Ji Yun wasn’t important. The priority was to ensure the Martial Arts Examination proceeded smoothly.

...

"Wind and Thunder Strength is also known as Inner Strength or Hidden Strength," Xu Yang explained. "This power is as light as the wind and as fierce as thunder. It’s incredibly insidious. Watch how I generate the force..."

Xu Yang was unaware of the events unfolding outside. He was using the two days he had left to see if he could guide Xu Qing to comprehend Wind and Thunder Strength.

Lin Cheng had been stuck at Gang Qi Great Success his entire life, which spoke volumes about his talent.

Although he had founded Weiyuan Hall with his Mountain-Shaking Bear Fist, he had certainly never mastered Wind and Thunder Strength, so he was unable to guide Xu Qing in this regard.

Of course, Lin Cheng could use Wind and Thunder Strength, but only by relying on his advanced Cultivation Realm. He had never truly comprehended it himself.

Since Xu Qing was determined to participate in the Martial Arts Examination, all he could do was support her and do his best to guide her over the next two days.

If she could comprehend Wind and Thunder Strength, she would be that much safer during the examination.

"Brother, I think I’m starting to get it! You’re even better than Master. He never taught me any of this," Xu Qing said, pleasantly surprised.

Under the guidance of someone like Xu Yang, who had even comprehended Mixed Element Strength, she began to grasp the knack of Wind and Thunder Strength.

"You’re still a long way off. It would be impressive if you could master it within two days. It’s impossible to master Wind and Thunder Strength in just a few hours," Xu Yang said, shaking his head.

He now surpassed Lin Cheng in every respect. A casual piece of advice from him was like a profound truth of the Martial Dao to a Qi Gathering Martial Artist.

If Xu Qing had zero comprehension, she never would have been able to reach Qi Gathering Great Success.

The fact that she could reach Qi Gathering Great Success proved that Xu Qing did have some talent.

Xu Yang continued to guide her with repeated demonstrations. At times, he even infused his Gang Qi into Xu Qing’s meridians, allowing her to personally experience the mysteries of Wind and Thunder Strength.

Only someone like him—who had comprehended Mixed Element Strength even before reaching Qi Cultivation Gang and had also cultivated Golden Gang Qi—could guide another person to comprehend Wind and Thunder Strength in such a direct manner.

By evening, Xu Qing could finally produce Wind and Thunder Strength, though she was not yet proficient enough to use it effectively in a real fight.

It was then that Qiu Wenjie arrived with Sun Tao.

"Keep practicing!"

After giving the order to Xu Qing, he invited Sun Tao into the house. "Senior Brother Sun, what’s happened?"

If something hadn’t happened, Sun Tao would never have had Qiu Wenjie lead him here.

Sun Tao was taken aback. "You don’t know? Ji Yun from Gale Hall was killed."

Xu Yang shook his head. "I haven’t been out today, so I hadn’t heard. Who did it?"

’Could it be that Junior Brother Xu really didn’t do it?’

Sun Tao replied, "We don’t know, but Commander Li He suspects it was someone from the Demon Sect. A master from the Demon Sect may have come to specifically assassinate the experts of Qingyuan County.

After discussing it, Li Qiang and Commander Li He have assigned us to protect the talented youths of Qingyuan County. Pack your things; we need to go."

If masters from the Demon Sect had truly come, the ones they would most want to kill would naturally be the most talented candidates.

Killing one talented youth was worth more than killing ten ordinary ones. Protecting these candidates would be an extremely dangerous task.

"What a sinister plot," Xu Yang said, a cold light flashing in his eyes.

This move by Li Qiang showed he couldn’t care less if he and Sun Tao lived or died. He might even be hoping to use the Demon Sect to get rid of them both.

He and Sun Tao were the only ones assigned to protection duty; Gu Haoming and Li Qiang had made the excuse that they were responsible for the overall security of the examination.

After saying a word to Xu Qing, Xu Yang departed with Sun Tao.

In this year’s Martial Arts Examination, Qingyuan County had three particularly famous geniuses. One of them was said to possess talent on par with the previous year’s Kong Yu.

His name was Qiao Yong. Although his Root Bone was only B+, inferior to Kong Yu’s A-class, it was said that he had comprehended the Heaven-Reaching Strength of the Tongbi Fist after practicing martial arts for less than seven months. His Comprehension was frightening.

To put that in perspective, Lu Ren from the previous year had only comprehended Wind and Thunder Strength after the Martial Arts Examination was over, a year and a half into his training.

And even that had been enough to shock a great many people at the time.

To comprehend Heaven-Reaching Strength—a power on the same level as Wind and Thunder Strength—in just over half a year spoke volumes of his talent, enough to compensate for his Root Bone being inferior to Kong Yu’s.

The person Xu Yang was assigned to protect was this very Qiao Yong, and he soon met him at the Tongbi Fist Hall.

He was an arrogant youth, even more so than Kong Yu had been. Upon seeing Xu Yang, he merely gave a faint nod before resuming his practice.

Xu Yang didn’t mind. He found a spot to the side, sat down, and began to meditate.

When night fell, Qiao Yong finished his practice, took a bath, and invited Xu Yang to dinner.

"I’ll have to trouble you to protect me, Brother Xu. Once I enter the Purple Sun Sect, I will be sure to protect you in the future as well," Qiao Yong said.

His words were brimming with self-confidence; otherwise, he wouldn’t have said something as bold as protecting Xu Yang in the future.

He might be arrogant, but he wasn’t a complete fool. He knew his safety was in Xu Yang’s hands for the time being, so he began trying to win him over with words, writing a check he couldn’t cash.

He had a bit of cunning, but his worldly experience was still shallow.

If he knew what the Purple Sun Sect was really like, he would understand that to someone who had scraped by there for two years, his words were no different from a fart.