Chapter 19: I Have A Very Simple Idea.
As Zen walked by the stone slab, his jade pendant slowly turned from green to blood-red.
A big smirk appeared on his face as Zen turned and waved his jade pendant at the four men behind him.
The four men following Zen were enraged when they saw his victorious smile.
Before the start of the initial exam, someone gave them the task of dealing with a boy at the organ refining level.
As the men were more powerful, they had scoffed at the mission. They believed that dealing with a person at such a low level was beneath them.
They had assumed that they would be able to defeat Zen. However, they did not expect that he would be able to escape. Moreover, Zen dared to provoke them by being openly triumphant. How dare he behave like that?
The four men fumed at the humiliation.
The scholar-like man glared viciously at Zen as he spoke, “Guys, let's terminate this boy by any means necessary!”
“He passed the initial exam, so killing him in front of the examiners may be too...” The strongest of the four men grunted in response. On his face was an expression that conveyed his hesitance.
The scholar-like man was furious. “Billy said that he could deal with any consequence. This boy is not a native of the Imperial Capital. He doesn't have a high social background either. Even if we kill him, who will take revenge on us on his behalf?”
The other three men glanced at each other when they heard the scholar-like man's explanation. What he said seemed to assuage their fears.
Without further hesitation, the gang acted on the resentment they were feeling. In a heartbeat, they lunged at Zen. Their expressions conveyed that they were going to rip him to shreds.
Zen was pleased to see their reaction. In fact, he had deliberately enraged the four men.
At the moment, there were two ways of improving his power rapidly. The first was to let the black fire swallow many mysterious weapons in order to light up the dragon scales. But Zen had found it difficult to procure the many mysterious weapons it would take to do it.
The second way was to let other people beat him. In receiving such a beating, the warm currents would be produced and they, in turn, would remove impurities in his viscera.
Each member of this gang had the strength of cultivators at the marrow refining level. And so their attacks were just moderate in degree for Zen.
If cultivators at a lower level were to beat him, there would be no effect.
Equally, if a cultivator at half of a step into the nature level was to beat him, the force might be too strong to bear, and Zen might even be killed. Thus, these four men could be regarded as the perfect 'blacksmith' for Zen.
That was the reason why Zen had turned the jade pendant red and then immediately implemented his plan to provoke them.
Seeing the four men rushing toward him, Zen turned around and ran forward. Aside from angering the four men, Zen wanted to use this opportunity to stay on the path as a test to see how much pressure he could actually withstand.
After running 20 miles, Zen found the pressure had increased from 2, 000 to 4, 000 pounds. It was now twice as high as it had been a moment ago!
Under such high pressure, he felt as though his whole body was being dragged to the ground by a great force. If it had not been for his great strength, his body would have collapsed under the weight.
At the same time, the four men chasing him had also slowed due to the pressure.
For a bystander, the scene would have been entertaining to watch.
Zen was running slowly, and four men were pursuing him equally slowly. It appeared as though someone had put on a slow-motion film.
Zen could have run faster, as so far, he had only used his strength. He hadn't as yet, used the power of the two dragon scales. He was sure that he could be twice as fast had he employed his hidden powers.
However, he was motivated to give the four men an opportunity to catch him. After all, his body would only undergo further refinement if they were able to beat him.
The scholar-like man was the first to catch Zen. As soon as he was within striking distance of Zen, he blustered, “I'll kill you, you jerk!” He used all his strength to make eight successive palm-strikes. Under the pressure of 4, 000 pounds, even though he was at the marrow refining level, the man was still out of breath from the effort.
The man's palm connected with Zen's back. Not only did the force of the impact push Zen forward, but it also helped release the warm currents. Zen moaned with satisfaction when he felt the warm currents remove impurities in his body.
By the time Zen had absorbed the warm currents, the rest of the men had caught up to him.
“Frost Wolf Fist!”
“Bursting Elbow Strike!”
“Vigorous Collapsing Fist!”
The four men attacked Zen; each strike landing on his back and pushing him forward. The impurities in Zen's body mixed with sweat and were released from his skin at an incredible rate. The result was a dark-red mixture that was being exuded.
The more the four men attacked Zen, the more upset they became.
Zen's body seemed unusually firm! Even the body refiner of the Ogre race did not have such a strong body.
What angered them more was that Zen was able to resist damage from their attacks. This was beyond their imagination!
“Dang it! I've used up all my strength!” One of the men stopped and gasped. He felt so weak that he couldn't even raise his arms.
Under the weight of the pressure on this stretch of the road, the man's body gave out. He collapsed on the ground, shook his head, and said, “This terrible pressure and the running have made me very tired, not to mention beating that brat. Holy garbage!”
The pressure of 4, 000 pounds was originally designed for cultivators at the marrow refining level. Under normal conditions, these men wouldn't have tired. However, their strength ran out faster as they were attacking Zen while bearing the great pressure. They soon felt weary.
Just as they were about to give up, the scholar-like man suddenly called out with excitement, “He is bleeding!” He saw the red liquid flowing out of Zen's body and assumed it was blood. He said with pleasure, “I doubted whether this kid's body could be injured. Now, look at him! We have wounded him. He's done! Let's carry on hitting him!”
Seeing that Zen was bleeding, the four men were overjoyed. They didn't want to fail the client.
They motivated themselves to keep striking Zen as hard as possible.
When Zen thought they were going to give up hitting him, he felt upset. He could feel his body growing stronger with each blow. It was disappointing that they were giving up. He did not want it to end so quickly.
However, when they mistook the impurities flowing from Zen's body to be blood, they thought he was close to reaching his physical limit. So, they renewed their efforts!
Zen was ecstatic inside, but he didn't show any emotions. On the contrary, he pretended to be close to complete exhaustion. While suffering their beatings, he staggered forward, being ready to enjoy the second round of body refining.
Zen did not know that thirty miles away, the chief examiner, an elderly man with white eyebrows, was watching the scene.
Beside the chief examiner stood a young woman dressed in green.
Both of them stared at a waist-high jade slab, also known as the 'Picture Slab', in front of them. They could see everything that was happening on the whole path.
At this time, the images on the Picture Slab were showing the scene of Zen being chased and beaten.
The woman and the chief examiner could not look away. Their expressions conveyed the astonishment they felt.
“He is resisting the attacks of four cultivators at the marrow refining level, but he is only at the organ refining level. It seems that we have an interesting candidate in the initial exam this month!” said the young woman with a smile.
The chief examiner felt embarrassed when he heard the young woman's statement. It seemed that the examinee had invoked her interest. He thought for a while and said, “Master Su, you can't think like that! If the masters of the other 32 peaks of Cloud Sect pick their disciples like you do, it will lead to a big mess!”
Master Su grinned and turned to face the chief examiner. She said, “Well, if that is the case, then let the masters also pick their own disciples. I will not mind.”
“But according to the rules, these disciples are supposed to be allotted to a peak by the ranking of their exam results. Last month, you picked quite a gifted disciple. The other masters have been discontent since. If this month you pick another, then...” The chief examiner elder stopped and shook his head.
Master Su snorted with disapproval and said, “So what? They are unhappy? Well, they can always come and speak with me if they feel that way. What exactly are they accusing me of? The fighting power of the Drizzle Peak was ranked the lowest among the 33 peaks of Cloud Sect. If I don't use some tricks, how can I hope to change that? Mmm, let me think! Right, I have a very simple idea. I will go and tell this boy to save his strength so that he doesn't get the top rank in the entrance exam! Then the other masters won't be upset that I pick a strong disciple, right?”
“Ah...” the chief examiner had not expected Master Su to come up with such a surprising idea. The idea did not sit well with him!
Cloud Sect provided the inner and the outer disciples with 33 peaks for cultivating. To stimulate all of the disciples to cultivate hard, Cloud Sect had made a set of very rigorous, scientific rules. The most important rule was about the competition among the 33 peaks.
The competition affected not only the disciples but also their masters. Each master had their tasks and goals. To produce better disciples, they would naturally scramble for the gifted ones.
If a person passed both the initial and the entrance exam and showed great talent and strength, every master would be eager to pick that person as their disciple.
If Master Su broke the rule for the benefit of the Drizzle Peak, she would incur several complaints from the other masters.