Chapter 275 - 234: Qingcang Divine Acupoint Chief

Chapter 275: Chapter 234: Qingcang Divine Acupoint Chief

Although Zhang Ji was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, he still gave the many disciples a chance to display their skills. He allowed every opponent he met to make the first move and show what they could do before defeating them.

He was now playing the part of Li Long: a cultivator of extraordinary talent and pride, but one who also conducted himself with propriety and possessed the dignified bearing of a true Martial Artist.

’If this were truly me,’ he thought, ’I would have insta-killed them all, using my full power to eliminate every opponent as quickly as possible.’

’If there was any chance of making a lasting enemy, I’d just kill them on the spot.’

’But that persona wouldn’t be very popular here. To fit in, I have to be a bit more subtle.’

Soon, Zhang Ji had eliminated five opponents.

The five remaining opponents, however, seemed to have noticed something.

It was because a disciple Zhang Ji had defeated earlier had sent out a signal, his call echoing for hundreds of miles in every direction.

So now, they all knew of an existence like him—someone who was practically invincible among his peers.

The five of them were beginning to entertain the idea of teaming up.

And Zhang Ji had no intention of stopping them, letting them band together as they pleased.

’Hunting them down one by one would just take more time,’ he reasoned. ’It’s better to let them group up. That way, I can sweep them all aside at once.’

Zhang Ji didn’t have to wait long. The five had already formed a group.

In a canyon, two figures appeared before and behind Zhang Ji. Two more were positioned on the cliffs above, and another was hidden in the shadows, waiting to ambush him.

"The Heavenly Lord’s personal disciple is truly extraordinary, as expected. But if you want to make a name for yourself by stepping on us, you’ll have to prove you have the skill!"

A young man in blue robes standing opposite Zhang Ji spoke.

He wielded a long staff with both hands, which suggested he was a disciple from Qiankua Peak, known for its staff techniques.

Behind Zhang Ji stood a young man with a saber. Judging by his light blue robes, he was a disciple from Frost Peak.

The Cold Frost Saber of Frost Peak was rather famous among the ten peaks.

The two disciples above were from Jingchu Peak and Huaxiang Peak, respectively.

’Then, that just leaves the swordsman from Ruding Peak,’ Zhang Ji thought.

"Just come at me together. It’ll save me some trouble," Zhang Ji said.

"Arrogant!"

The disciple from Frost Peak roared and took the lead, slashing his saber at Zhang Ji.

His saber technique already carried a trace of intent.

A piercingly cold wind suddenly whipped through the air, and frost began to creep across the canyon walls and ground.

Zhang Ji still showed no intention of drawing his sword. With a surge of Qi and Blood, he flicked his middle finger, striking the saber’s edge directly.

CLANG!

Zhang Ji didn’t move an inch. The disciple from Frost Peak, however, was sent stumbling back, his feet carving shallow furrows into the ground. The force of the impact had split the skin of his palm, and blood was already seeping out.

WHOOSH!

As the long staff swept down, Zhang Ji shifted slightly, dodging the blow from behind by a hair’s breadth. He then casually pushed outward, sending both the staff and its wielder flying.

The two figures above seized the opportunity, striking at the precise moment when Zhang Ji’s old momentum was spent and before new power could be generated, aiming to catch him during his recovery.

As a huge boulder came crashing down, they leaped from the cliffs, using the momentum of their descent to unleash their own attacks.

One wielded a massive Wide-Backed Broadsword, while the other held a weapon resembling a long-handled guandao.

Both were the kinds of weapons designed for slaughter on a battlefield.

For the cultivators of this world, Body Refinement was the first major hurdle. Since none of them lacked for physical strength, their choice of weaponry tended to be more extravagant.

At higher realms, it wasn’t unheard of for cultivators to uproot an entire mountain and refine it into a Magical Artifact.

Seeing the boulder and two heavy weapons bearing down, most of the audience broke out in a cold sweat for Zhang Ji.

They couldn’t help but wonder, ’Surely he has to draw his sword now?’

But the reality was, Zhang Ji still had no intention of drawing his sword.

His Qi and Blood condensed around him, forming an egg-shaped Shield. At the same time, his feet sank completely into the earth, and currents of air swirled around his body, becoming a soft fluid that constantly buffered the incoming force.

The Eight Extremes Fighting Skill and the Yuzi Skill!

It was a technique Zhang Ji had developed by combining the principles of the Zhendi Sect and the Divine Wind Sect. By using his Protective Gang Qi to distribute the force across his entire body while simultaneously using the earth and air currents to dissipate the impact, he could achieve an all-directional defense.

As the great boulder fell, Zhang Ji didn’t use brute force to shatter it. Instead, he guided it with his surface Gang Qi, and with a light flick of his fingers, the multi-ton boulder was sent flying forward. It smashed into the disciple from Frost Peak, eliminating him from the competition on the spot.

The next moment, the Wide-Backed Broadsword and the long-handled guandao came chopping down simultaneously.

They were prodigies to begin with, and they were putting their full power into the attack, further enhanced by the momentum of their fall.

Even an expert at the Unity Realm would have to take this combined strike seriously; without a special technique of their own, they wouldn’t dare to receive it head-on.

But Zhang Ji stood firm, neither dodging nor evading, and simply allowed the two blades to slam into his Protective Gang Qi.

The blood-red Protective Gang Qi was struck, yet Zhang Ji’s body remained motionless, and the Qi itself didn’t even ripple. The ground in a six or seven-meter radius around his feet, however, sank slightly, a web of cracks spreading across its surface.

"Is that all you’ve got?" Zhang Ji asked.

He had thought they might have a follow-up, but from the looks of it, they had no other moves prepared.

Zhang Ji lifted his leg and threw two lightning-fast kicks into the air. The two figures shot away like cannonballs, smashing directly into the canyon walls.

BOOM! BOOM!

The two were left embedded in the mountainside, blood overflowing from their mouths. Their internal organs were severely injured, and their combat ability was all but gone. As their bodies slid down the rock face, they were teleported away in mid-air.

The young man from Qiankua Peak, who was behind Zhang Ji, had just gotten to his feet. He looked at the staff in his hands, his expression conflicted, unsure whether to attack or not.

Seeing his predicament, Zhang Ji didn’t make things difficult for him. A single pulse of energy from his fingertip sent the young man out of the arena.

And then, there was only one left.

’King against king?’

Yu Cifeng, sword in hand, approached and stopped about ten meters from Zhang Ji.

He could have launched a sneak attack; that had been their pre-arranged strategy, after all.

But after seeing Zhang Ji’s immense power, he abandoned the idea.

’An expert of this caliber shouldn’t be defeated by despicable means,’ he thought. ’He deserves to be beaten in a direct confrontation.’

More importantly, Yu Cifeng was confident he could be the one to do it.

"The last time I drew my sword was five years ago," Yu Cifeng said. "That was right after I broke through to the Divine Acupoint Realm. I’ve been nurturing it ever since, infusing it with a sliver of pure Sword Intent every single day. I didn’t want to use this strike here—I wanted to let it mature longer—but I believe you are worthy of it."

"Thank you for the honor," Zhang Ji said. "Then, let’s see it."

"You still don’t intend to use your sword?" Yu Cifeng asked. "Is it for the same reason as me? You feel this isn’t the right place for it, and you want to continue nurturing it to build its Sword Momentum? Or is it that you don’t think I’m worthy?"

"I don’t really use weapons," Zhang Ji replied. "If I did, *that* would be me not taking you seriously."

To anyone else, his words would have sounded illogical, but Yu Cifeng’s intuition told him that Zhang Ji was not lying.

"Then, receive my sword!"

As his voice fell, Yu Cifeng drew his sword.

Five years of accumulated Sword Momentum was about to be unleashed in a single instant.

The art of nurturing a sword—or more broadly, the art of nurturing a weapon.

It involved condensing one’s own essence, energy, and spirit, and infusing a tiny thread into the weapon each day.

This process subtly transformed the weapon over time while also storing a measure of power within it.

In theory, this power could be stacked infinitely.

Of course, the wielder’s realm and the weapon’s quality imposed certain limits.

The sword in Yu Cifeng’s hand was a treasured blade at the Profound Tier Peak.

Since his breakthrough, he had nurtured his sword for five years without a single day of rest.

At this moment, the power contained within this single strike was comparable to a full-force blow from most cultivators at the Unity Realm Peak.

Everyone thought that this time, Zhang Ji would surely dodge.

But he didn’t move, standing just as he had before.

A profound light flashed in Zhang Ji’s eyes. Using the Pupil Rune Skill from the Eight Extremes Fighting Skill combined with his powerful Spirit observation, he saw the sword strike with perfect clarity, understanding its every nuance and bringing all its details under his control.

To him, the strike held no more secrets.

The sword was fast, but time around Zhang Ji seemed to slow to a crawl.

He, too, formed a sword-finger. With the energy of a weaker realm and his fingers as his blade, he would counter a strike that had been nurtured for years—a strike of peerless might, delivered by a powerful weapon—with a blow of his own, launched second.

His sword-finger traced a profound trajectory, rapidly and precisely striking several points within Yu Cifeng’s Sword Momentum.

In an instant, his Sword Momentum collapsed. The energy of the strike, deprived of its form, dissipated along with it.

BOOM! CRACK! RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE! WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

In the void, the sword light shattered. The energy that had been accumulated over so long scattered in all directions. The canyon walls on both sides looked as if they had been hewn by countless swords, showering rock fragments everywhere as a fierce wind howled through the gorge.

And below, Zhang Ji stood with his fingers pressed between Yu Cifeng’s eyebrows. Yu Cifeng’s face was a mask of utter disbelief.

Zhang Ji applied a slight pressure, and Yu Cifeng’s body was instantly teleported away.

With that, Zhang Ji had obtained the highest honor for the Divine Acupoint Realm within the Qingcang Sect: the title of "Chief of the Qingcang Divine Acupoint"!

His title of Chief was one of genuine substance.

Unlike those who struggled for half a day to claw their way to the top, Zhang Ji had simply steamrolled the competition with raw power.

And it wasn’t by relying on superior attributes, but on superior skill.

From start to finish, the level of energy Zhang Ji used had been far weaker than that of his opponents.

This was consistent with the realm he was publicly displaying. He had only opened eight divine acupoints and was currently at the Eighth Heaven of Divine Acupoints.

Compared to the other cultivators, who were all at the Divine Acupoint Peak, his cultivation level was far inferior.

But he had won nonetheless, and decisively at that. The entire competition hadn’t even taken half a day.

When Zhang Ji was teleported out of the competition grounds, he was met with a roar of cheers.

Immediately, an avatar of Divine Intent formed by Sect Leader Chen Hong appeared to personally offer Zhang Ji a few words of encouragement. With that, the Divine Acupoint Realm portion of the Ten-Peak Grand Competition was officially over.

Returning to the area designated for Divine Peak, Zhang Ji was met with a wave of congratulations.

Even Ji Ziyang offered a few words of affirmation to Zhang Ji.

"Junior Brother Li, congratulations," Xiao Mingyu said to Zhang Ji with a smile.

Zhang Ji returned the gesture with a slight bow. "I wish Senior Brother Xiao the best of luck in taking first place tomorrow as well."

"You’re too kind, Junior Brother Li," Xiao Mingyu said with a wry smile. "I’ll be fortunate if I can just make it into the top five. I dare not hope for more."

Zhang Ji didn’t respond, merely continuing his silent calculations.

’There really are too many variables,’ he thought. ’Among all the experts, Xiao Mingyu is near the bottom. I gave him a technique at the last minute, but a bit of temporary practice won’t boost his combat power by much. It’s mainly just for show, to confuse his opponents.’

’Still, I’ve interfered as much as I should. I can’t do any more, or the calculations will become too complex to finish in time. All that’s left is to wait.’