Chapter 55: Strength

Wei Changqing, a man who was born in a big clan in Yunying City, normally wouldn’t be too surprised to see a young man in the mortal realm fourth stage.

But Wei Changqing had heard from Qu Dayou that when Xu Ning first entered the Black Armored Guards, he was only in the mortal realm second stage muscle bone realm.

Going from the muscle bone realm to the qi realm in three months’ time was impressive, even by Yunying City standards.

‘Perhaps Xu Ning will be the one chosen to enter the Source Faction…’

Wei Changqing looked at Xu Ning, who had walked back into the crowd.

The match between Xu Ning and Tan Fenglu was over, and more challengers continued to fight.

However, the other gray plate and cyan plate holders were less well-known, so they received less attention.

Wei Changqing and Qu Dayou, who were sitting on the platform, also soon lost interest.

So far, no one apart from Xu Ning was able to surprise the audience.

Xu Ning was currently in the audience watching everyone’s fight.

As expected, most of the people challenged someone from other villages.

There were only a few people that challenged someone from their own villagers, perhaps due to personal disputes, or perhaps it was a tactic for the challenged one to preserve their plate.

Finally, two rounds of gray plate challenges were over.

In the second round, no one took the initiative to challenge Xu Ning.

For the last person, the rules restricted him to challenge Xu Ning only, so he just gave up. This at least saved Xu Ning some energy.

Throughout the two rounds of challenges, the plate color distribution amongst various villages did not drastically change.

In the Tao Village, they originally had six cyan plate holders and twelve gray plate holders. After the challenges, they now had seven cyan plate holders and eleven gray plate holders. Two of them were promoted and one was demoted.

Tao Qingping, who was the first to go up, had chosen a weaker opponent, but failed to successfully finish his challenge. He felt extremely regretful.

Next up, it was the challenge between the cyan plate and yellow plate holders.

All of the cyan plate holders were preparing, hoping to replace the yellow plate holders to obtain their monthly Qinglu Dan.

As for the yellow plate holders, some were calm and relaxed, while the others were obviously worried about their own strength.

“The first cyan plate challenger, Song Weishu…”

The straw draw started again. This time however, the Black Armored Guard in charge of the assessment drew a name from the cyan plate box.

The assessment continued.

Unlike the previous battle between the gray plates and cyan plates, the fights between cyan plate and yellow plate holders were obviously much more advanced.

The newcomers who practiced quietly could finally show off their newfound strength.

Over these past three months, most of them had received more resources than they had ever had. Moreover, whenever they were stuck during practice, they could go and receive guidance from senior members.

Although Xu Ning didn’t need this kind of guidance, it was a good way for most people to learn.

“The next challenger, Xu Ning!”

Finally, in the later part of the first round, Xu Ning was selected as a challenger.

If his challenge was successful, Xu Ning’s cyan plate would turn into a yellow plate.

Because he was drawn in the first round, Xu Ning had to go through two challenges from the cyan plate holders before he could receive his yellow plate qualification.

This was the disadvantage of being selected in the first round.

“Xu Ning, who will your opponent be?”

The examiner asked Xu Ning.

Xu Ning didn’t even hesitate. “Tan Fengying.”

Although Tao Qingyuan’s suggestion was Tan Chang yesterday, Tan Chang had already been challenged.

Hence, Xu Ning chose Tan Fengying because his options were running out.

Since Tan Fengying had asked Tan Fenglu to gauge Xu Ning’s strength, Xu Ning wasn’t going to let Tan Fengying’s information go to waste.

“I knew it.”

Tan Fengying was forced to go on stage.

“Xu Ning.”

“Tan Fengying”

After taking the stage, the two introduced each other.

There was conflict between the Tao Village and the Tan Village, but it was not a deep rooted hatred.

After more than three months of training, Tan Fengying had become stronger as well.

“Xu Ning, have you already been promoted to the qi realm?”

Before starting the fight, Tan Fengying asked.

Xu Ning did not intend to conceal his strength. He just pondered for a moment before giving an honest reply.

He had nothing to hide.

After hearing Xu Ning’s answer, Tan Fengying let out a long sigh.

Afterwards, he squeezed the spear and controlled his emotions.

“Bring it on!”

Tan Fengying was utilizing his fighting spirit.

He knew he had no hope of keeping his yellow plate, but he still decided to fight Xu Ning, to at least show off his three months worth of hard work.

Xu Ning nodded.

He was holding a long thin-bladed knife. There was an air current surging between the meridians in his body.

After seeing Tan Fengying’s gesture, Xu Ning decided to test the power of his internal energy.

After all, Xu Ning had only used his physical strength in the previous fight with Tan Fenglu.

Tan Fengying took the lead, stirring gusts of wind with the spear in his hand.

He leaped towards Xu Ning.

Xu Ning did not dodge the incoming attack, instead he counterattacked with his long knife.

‘Let’s see how strong the qi realm is…’

Xu Ning condensed the air current in his body into his right palm.

Suddenly, Xu Ning felt his palm warming up. Air currents could be seen hovering above his palm.

The tip of the spear and the knife collided, giving off a metallic clink sound.

Tan Fengying’s arm trembled. He bounced backwards and nearly fell out of the arena.

Tan Fengying was obviously weaker.

This huge difference in power was not due to the difference in internal skill.

Although reaching the mortal realm fourth stage would still increase one’s physical strength, the increase was minute.

The reason why Tan Fengying was weaker was due to the difference in realm in their Source Breath Bodybuilding Tactic.

“It hurts!”

Although only their weapons collided against each other, Tan Fengying still felt a sharp sensation in his forearm.

“The power of the qi realm!”

Tan Fengying instantly realized something.

Internal qi was not fully formed at the qi realm, so Xu Ning could only use weapons or direct contact to exert his force.

Force was different from pure strength. Strength was straightforward, but force contained a certain amount of torque, which increased its lethality.

“Is this the power of force…”

Xu Ning was also surprised by the effect of his own attack.

In fact, with Xu Ning’s speed and explosive power, Tan Fengying could be instantly defeated.

But in order to test his strength, Xu Ning decided to go easy on Tan Fengying.

Tan Fengying was obviously not worthy to be his opponent.

In this fight, Xu Ning just wanted to test the force of his knife skills.

But before that could happen, Tan Fengying actually threw away his spear, raised his hand, and jumped out of the arena.

“I surrender.”

Tan Fengying glanced weakly at Xu Ning before walking towards the back of the crowd.

Tan Fengying already knew that he had lost all respect from the Tan Village.

“From now on, I will not care about reputation or fame, I will only care about martial arts.”

Tan Fengying was humbled.

Tan Fengying rolled his sleeves. He saw that his forearm was red and swollen.

‘No wonder they say there is a huge gap between the inner enrichment realm and the qi realm…’

Tan Fengying smiled bitterly.

Just from the short confrontation, Tan Fengying could already tell the difference between his and Xu Ning’s strength.

If they continued to fight, he would undoubtedly be overpowered by Xu Ning.

If he continued to persist, he might even be permanently injured.

Therefore, Tan Fengying decisively chose to surrender.

The examiner announced Xu Ning’s victory.

The crowd did not exclaim in surprise, instead they went silent.

Everyone now knew that Xu Ning had to have reached the qi realm already.

This foreigner from the Tao Village was the strongest Black Armored Guard in Camp Site Three.

Xu Ning definitely deserved the position of acting lieutenant.