Chapter 21 – Max level
Obviously, Zhao Feng’s words caused an outrage. Especially in the seventh group, almost all of them hated Zhao Feng.
“Hmph! This guy is way too arrogant.”
“Zhao Chengang! Take him down!”
The disturbance caused others to look over.
“Core rank martial art? That is a bit interesting.” A quiet girl smiled as she looked on interestingly. She was Zhao Qin, who was ranked fourth amongst the inner disciples.
Being an inner disciple, Zhao Qin did not need to enter the preliminaries. With her cultivation she could beat everyone present. Even when compared to Zhao Yue their difference was to big.
“Fine…. Fine…. Fine! I will see….. how strong your core ranked martial art is!” Zhao Chengang’s face was deadly. The opponent’s performance was slapping his face!
“Flowing Wind Fist!” Zhao Chengang pushed down his anger and used the high rank skill Flowing Wind Fist.
This fist skill used strength and speed to overpower the opponent. Its attack was like a raging storm.
Zhao Chengang’s strength was well within the crowd’s expectations. His power was approaching that of a Quasi Martial Artist and did not disappoint. However, most of them were more focused on Zhao Feng. Facing the outer disciples ranked seventh, would he still use core rank martial arts?
Zhao Feng used his actions to prove what he said.
“Flaming Metal Fist!” The simple punch gave off a red glow.
It was core martial arts again!
“It is Flaming Metal Fist again!”
“He is still using core rank martial arts?” The Zhao sect disciples were shocked. A lot of them had thought that Zhao Feng was just joking, and that he wasn’t going to do it.
However, the truth was, he was even crazier than expected!
“Kid, fall!” Zhao Chengang’s eyes looked as they could spit out fire as his two fists came crushing towards Zhao Feng. The power contained inside his fists made many Zhao sect disciples shout out.
“Normal third rank cultivators won’t even be able to take this one punches.”
“Not bad, Flowing Wind Fists has reached the low level, it is obvious that he has trained hard!” Even some of the older generation nodded their head.
Peh!
The two figures clashed together, fist against fist.
“Go down!” Zhao Chengang pushed his Flowing Wind Fist to the max. If he used a high rank martial art and couldn’t take down Zhao Feng in two or three moves, then how would he be able to get a foot in amongst the top ten outer disciples?
“Open!” Zhao Feng was calm. His fists seemed to be alive and easily blocked Zhao Chengang’s fist.
Boom!
The burn on Zhao Chengang’s fist made his fist go numb as hewas pushed back two steps, while Zhao Feng only trembled but did not move.
“……. How is this possible?” Zhao Chengang was shocked. He had thought that he could take down Zhao Feng in one punch, but in reality, he was casually blocked by a core ranked martial art!
“What is going on!” The Zhao sect disciple around paused.
“I do not believe it…… it was an accident! It accidentally hit the weakness of my move.” Zhao Chengang howled as he again pounced towards using Flowing Wind Fist.
Pah!
Once again Zhao Chengang was pushed back. Although the first two moves were even, Zhao Chengang was being constrained.
“It really is a core martial art skill….. How did he do that?”
“How can a core rank martial art gain the upper hand while facing a high rank martial art?”
The Zhao sect disciples were confused.
One move…. Two moves…. Three moves…..
Every time, Zhao Chengang was pushed back.
When two people of the same rank fought it was normal to have one side gain the upper hand. However, using a core rank martial art while fighting against a high rank martial art was unheard of.
What was going on?
Zhao Chengang turned crazy as he used all of his power.
Many looked towards the judge and the older generation of the sect.
“Zhao Feng’s battle conscience and skill far surpasses Zhao Chengang’s.” The judge said uncertainly. His analysis didn’t satisfy the people.
“Hehe, this kid has trained a core ranked skill to the ‘max level’.” An old voice sounded from the centre of the crowd. It was an old man who had a white beard. It was this contest’s main judge.
Max level?
A few judges quickly nodded their heads. Everyone knew that the higher the skill level, the more damage was dealt. However, this was not the case for everything!
For example, when one trained a low rank martial art to the high level, and another trained a high rank skill to the low level, the high rank martial art would not be as powerful as the low rank martial art.
Normally, the levels were: Beginner, low, high and peak level.
Peak level meant that it had reached ninety percent or higher.
Normally, someone training a martial art to the peak level was already very rare. However, peak level did not mean that it was the limit. Above peak level was the max level!
Max level meant that the skill had been trained to at least ninety-nine percent of its fullest potential. It could be said that it was ‘perfect’.
“Although it seems like there is a small difference between the max level and the peak level, the gap is insanely huge! The difference is even bigger than the difference between the low level and the high level!” The main judge smiled faintly.
“But even so, Zhao Feng should only be able to fight on par against Zhao Chengang.” One martial artist still did not understand.
After all, high ranked martial art skills were three levels higher than core ranked martial art skills, and Zhao Chengang had trained the high rank martial art to the low level.
“You are right! The max level of a core rank martial art can barely fight on par with the low level of a high rank martial art. But as you can see, Zhao Feng’s body strength, reaction speed, battle conscience etc all far exceeds that of Zhao Chengang’s.”
The main judge praised. Through his explanation the crowd now fully understood.
Just at this moment, the battle on the seventh stage was changing.
“Zhao Feng’s starting to attack now!”
“Oh my god! What a fast speed!”
Peh! Pah! Beng…..
The audience’s eyes were attracted by the seventh stage, only to see Zhao Feng’s defense turn into offense. His fists had already surpassed the realm of what Flaming Metal Fists could achieve.
His speed, power, all struck at the opponent’s weaknesses. Zhao Chengang, who was in a frenzied state, instantly fumbled and got hit by one of Zhao Feng’s punches.
Pah—
Zhao Chengang gave a scream as his shoulder was ripped out of its socket.
“Number one hundred and eighty-eight wins!” The judge of the seventh said as he let out a breath.
Hua!
The seventh group went into an uproar.
“Zhao Feng beat Zhao Chengang by only using a core ranked martial art!”
“Unbelievable! Zhao Chengang was ranked first in the group…….”
Zhao Feng won had won his fifteenth match. This meant that he was now the strongest in group seven.
At this moment Zhao Yue, Zhao Yijian and Zhao Yufei all looked over.
“Max level? When the martial artist held the lecture, I felt all the moves of Flaming Metal Fist disappear from my mind….. This is probably why.” Zhao Feng understood.
When he came back from the lecture he felt that his core ranked martial art had reached a peak, where it could fight against quasi martial artists. And Zhao Chengang’s strength had only barely reached that of a quasi martial artist.
“Not bad. It looks like the outer disciples have a black horse.” The main judge smiled.
“Core rank martial art…. Although he has trained it to the max level, he will still lose against my son Zhao Yijian. After all, core ranked martial arts are just core ranked!” A middle-aged man faintly smiled.
“Oh?” The main judge sent an interested look towards the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man was Zhao Yijian’s father. The middle-aged man laughed as his eyes glanced towards Zhao Yijian with a confident expression.
“True…. The potential of core ranked martial arts are limited…. Zhao Feng must have spent a lot of time and effort to train it to the max level, which means that he would not have much time left to train in other skills….. So unfortunate.” As the main judge spoke up to here, he shook his head.
“Hmph! Max level of a core ranked martial art?” Zhao Yijian looked mockingly at Zhao Feng. In his eyes, core ranked martial arts were rubbish.
The white-clothed girl looked shockingly at Zhao Feng, “Brother Yijian, you have got to beat him.”
“Xue’er, it is fine. I only need three to ten moves at most! But I won’t let him off the hook that easily, I am also going to humiliate him.” Zhao Yijian said confidently. His voice was very loud so many of the people present heard it.
At this time, Zhao Feng’s eyes landed upon them.
Their four eyes met. While Zhao Yijian’s eyes were cold, Zhao Feng had a faint smile on.
“Number one hundred and eighty-eight vs number two hundred and thirty-three!”
The group contest still continued.
After Zhao Feng beat Zhao Chengang he had no more opponents that were his match on the seventh stage.
Sixteen wins….. Seventeen wins….. Eighteen wins……
Most of the people Zhao Feng met admitted defeat. And those who had the courage to fight, they were finished in one fist.
“It is too disgraceful to lose against a core ranked martial art!”
The Zhao sect disciples looked at Zhao Feng like he had a disease.
Eighteen wins…. Nineteen wins…… Twenty wins in a row!
Finally Zhao Feng won twenty matches in a row, allowing him to proceed to the next round!