Chapter 309: The Rewards
“Clang!” Zen cut on Evan's sword.
As he raised his sword, Zen stopped him with another intercept. It was a basic swordsmanship, but the move was flawless.
Evan drew the sword.
“Clang!” Tension gripped him.
The senior disciple took the sword again.
“Clang!” a third time.
Everyone waited with bated breath.
But Evan was unable to perform his move. "Do not intercept my sword again, okay?
Please," he begged.
The once arrogant face turned mournful.
People watching the match heard Evan's shameless words and were shocked speechless.
Keeping the sword posture, Zen gently held the Streamer Sword and silently shook his head.
"Well in that case, there seems to be no other way.
I'll fight it out with you!" Evan shouted. There was a swift change in his facial expression. A while ago, he was pleading with Zen. In a snap, there was now a ruthless look on his face.
At the same time, Evan's sword technique also changed.
The Falling Flowers Sword was a very light and agile swordsmanship. As Evan changed to another form of swordsmanship, a powerful momentum came out of his body as his feet remained firmly fixed in the arena like a mountain god.
Taking a step to retreat, Zen's swordsmanship changed accordingly. He knew he could not block Evan's next attack with “intercept.”
His opponent was strong, so he had to be stronger to subdue Evan's sword trick!
“Groundbreaking Sword!”
As Evan called out his next move, a steady and destructive sword shot out from his hand, and it was nothing like a cutter. A cutter usually went in the way of mighty and strong, but the sword typically went in the way of smart and agile. It was rare to see such powerful sword shot.
And the shot was likely to cut through the mountains and even split the earth!
As the shot was released, Zen's eyelids fluttered involuntarily, and his wrist dropped causing the sword tip to collapse.
“Flick the sword!”
Flick the sword was the most powerful move in the basic swordsmanship.
Once simplified, the power of it became even purer, and one could not escape the fate of chipping!
“Boom!”
The sound jolted the audience.
The flash when the two swords collided was made more intense by the sudden sound heard in the arena. Then they saw a white sword spinning like a roulette wheel before falling to the ground. It became clearer to everyone that Evan's Cloud Return Sword had been flicked away.
And then to everyone's surprise, Zen was pointing the Streamer Sword's tip against Evan's chest.
Shocked at what just happened, Evan stood motionless, disbelief written all over his face. His chest was heaving as he breathed heavily. The result of the competition exceeded his expectations.
But the disciples around the arena seemed to have anticipated this scene.
Zen hadn't lost a single combat since the All Peaks Competition started.
In the swordsmanship competition, Evan had been suppressing Zen, although the tide suddenly turned in this battle. It was clear to everyone present that Zen's victory was inevitable, considering the young disciple's ability to become stronger and more powerful when facing stronger opponents, and this was Zen's most impressive characteristic.
Even Evan could not stop Zen from winning.
What an exceptional talent!
What was most unusual was the fact that Zen's performance had completely convinced everyone watching the competition. If he had failed, it would have been a strange turn of events.
“You lost,” Zen said with a faint smile.
But Evan refused to accept his defeat. "No! I don't accept that!
You are no match for me!" Evan screamed.
He was now hysterical.
“Evan!” a voice boomed. “You have lost,” Elder Ge rebuked the senior disciple. He wore a long face to show his displeasure as he entered the battle field. The Cloud Sect elder had been watching the battle and was very clear about the result.
“If I could use life vitality, it just needs three moves to beat you. Three moves would have been enough to defeat you!”
He argued with reluctance.
On the other hand, Zen was too lazy to pay attention to the idiot. He carefully wiped the Streamer Sword and returned it to his space ring. Then he said, “You're right. I really couldn't beat you if we both applied life vitality. But I am sure that before long, I would defeat you.”
“You...” Evan choked on his words and was unable to finish. The young Zen was right. Evan was unsurpassed for his great talent, but Zen was even more talented. Without a doubt, even Evan would have a hard time beating the younger disciple should he have more time to practice.
But Evan wasn't afraid of that. Casually, he said, “I don't care about the future. At least now you're not my opponent!” Then with more bravado, he challenged, "Let's fight again with life vitality. Come on!
If I don't defeat you with three moves, I will call you my master!"
Evan was clamoring for another fight with Zen. Just as he finished speaking, a hundred thousand disciples thought of the same thing: Evan was an idiot. And he deserved the reputation of an idiot.
With a smile, Zen looked back and as he was about to walk down the fighting field, he said, “I am not interested in being your master.” Then he jumped down the fighting field and walked over to Yan.
He left the still unwilling Evan in a daze in the arena. Seeing Evan still standing there, Elder Ge had to shake his head. 'Has the man no shame? Okay, let it be, ' he thought. Then he threw Evan out of the arena.
Then Elder Ge began to announce the rankings of the Cloud Sect Chart.
Evan was used to being in the first place, and this honor could have been his once again. But that was not to be the case now.
It was his bad fortune that he competed with Zen on swordsmanship.
Because of his defeat, Evan fell from first to second place, and then he was removed from the list.
Now, without a doubt, the first place on the Cloud Sect Chart was occupied by Zen Luo, followed by Patrick Pei in second place, while Rocher Hua took third place.
The rankings from first to one hundred was announced by Elder Ge loudly. Meanwhile, there was no need to read the succeeding nine hundred because the list was going to be posted in thirty-three peaks of the Cloud Sect for every disciple to check their rankings.
The Cloud Sect Chart was the highest honor for every disciple of the sect. As long as you were one of 1000 on the Cloud Sect Chart, you were part of the elite one thousand from the tens of thousands of disciples.
By checking the Cloud Sect Chart, many disciples would practice and encourage themselves, hoping one day their names could be on the list, too.
They could aim for top 100, top 10, top 3...
For many disciples, achieving this dream might seem impossible.
But now, they've seen a disciple at stage two of nature level achieve that. Perhaps, it was almost unimaginable in many disciples' eyes. If they didn't see it, they would never have believed it. What an inspiration for others.
Believe it or not, they witnessed something unimaginable take place before their very eyes, and in the end, they agreed Zen deserved the first place. His impressive defeat of Evan in swordsmanship meant no one could question Zen's strength. He not only displayed amazing talent in martial arts, but he was also the biggest miracle since the establishment of the Cloud Sect!
And they believed there would be no similar miracle in the future.
After announcing the results, Elder Ge turned to Zen and said, “Zen Luo, the leader asked to see you. Rocher Hua and Patrick Pei, you two are to go with him.”
The three looked at one another.
When Elder Ge finished speaking, a flying chariot stopped in front of them, and a steward escorted the three disciples aboard. Then the flying chariot headed westward.
The other disciples could only look at them with envy. They all knew that one reward for the top three was the Cloud Road trial.
To walk on Cloud Road, one needed a million points or two million cubic crystals.
That was to say, as top 3, each disciple won two million cubic crystals for himself. Many big noble clans might not be able to afford it. And even for the top seven noble clans, it was difficult to offer such a huge amount of cubic crystals.
With a small smile, Yan glanced at the downhearted Evan, “Why are you not one of them? ”
Evan tried to sound callous, "Who knows?
I'm not interested in the Cloud Road. The leader might not even be willing to let me go..." He shrugged.
Evan had been to the Cloud Road but fell asleep midway, which made Kenneth angry. It was not a big deal for Evan to fail the Cloud Road trial. But what made him furious was that some people from Cloud Hall knew that and sneered at him for it. It greatly embarrassed Kenneth.
As for Evan's future, Kenneth could have other plans for him.
Standing on the flying chariot, the strong wind whipped across their faces. Within an hour, they came to a mountain in Cloud Sect. In the mountain was a simple palace, and it was here where the leader of Cloud Sect lived. It was known as the Cloud Palace.
The Cloud Palace had a very distinct architecture. Its cornice was rolled up like clouds. Were it not the home of the leader, it looked more like a fairy palace, sitting high on a mountain.
Finally, the flying chariot fully stopped on a platform in front of the palace's gate. The steward that escorted them during the ride now led them inside Cloud Palace.
In the middle of the vast palace stood Kenneth. He stood motionless like a statue, with thick air puffs coming out of him.
Zen, Patrick, and Rocher walked in together, stopped in front of Kenneth and saluted him.
The leader looked closely at the three disciples, satisfied, and nodded to acknowledge their presence. Their performances at the All Peaks Competition considerably impressed Kenneth. Both Patrick and Rocher had performed far better than the talents in previous battles.
He was disappointed last time.
That time, the first place went to that Evan. Although his performance was strong, Kenneth was not pleased with him.
For the last three years, his mates at Cloud Hall had been sneering at him after Evan fell asleep on Cloud Road. That depressed him a lot. This time, he was going to shock those people. Of that, he was quite confident.
He would finally shut their mouths for scoffing at him all this time!
Fortunately, the result of this All Peaks Competition did not disappoint him. Not only was he impressed by the talented Rocher, but with Patrick as well. Both of them performed strongly.
More importantly for him was that Zen took first place!
After looking over the two disciples, his eyes finally settled on Zen. “Zen Luo, there will be a Turbidity Clearing Pill for you as a reward for taking the first place. There will also be a fairy weapon for you. Now, you can choose which fairy weapon you want.” His eyes twinkled while saying this.
Excitedly, Zen asked, “Fairy weapon? Can I choose the one I like?”
He couldn't stop bobbing his head in excitement at the thought of owning another fairy weapon. Because of Lily's impressive performance, Zen was desperate for another fairy weapon. She proved to be stronger than he was, as she executed the sword dance and malicious aura at the same time. So, Zen was looking forward to getting another fairy weapon.