Chapter 240: The Weak overcoming the Strong
After Yi Yun beat Qiuniu, he quickly submitted the name of the person he wanted to challenge next. Some people began to peek at the challenge form when the referee received it.
There were a few people standing near the referee’s table and they began to probe into the name that Yi Yun wrote and the person he chose was Chu Xiaoran!
Yi Yun versus Chu Xiaoran!
No one was surprised that this was going to happen. The rookie ranking competition needed someone to stand on top. Yi Yun and Chu Xiaoran were destined to have a final showdown.
In fact, it was an experience a person like Yi Yun needed to have by battling against the experts amongst the rookies. He had to accumulate combat experience to train his martial arts!
“Yi Yun wants to battle Chu Xiaoran!” Someone spread the news.
“He wants to battle Chu Xiaoran? Chu Xiaoran is going to feel the pressure now!”
In the past, Chu Xiaoran’s performance had always subtly exceeded Qiuniu’s, but not by much. Everyone knew that Chu Xiaoran had held back a trick or two. But even so, it didn’t seem like she could do much when she faced Yi Yun!
“Yi Yun is a freak, even when Qiuniu gave it his all at the end, he could also break it in one shot. With his extraordinary movement techniques, his attack and speed leaves others in the dust. Can Chu Xiaoran defeat him? It is going to be difficult!”
“It may seem like that now, but who knows how much hidden strength Chu Xiaoran has not used. When Qiuniu and Yi Yun fought, he too had his trump card. So wouldn’t Chu Xiaoran have one either? Don’t forget that Chu Xiaoran is a person who had gained insight into nomological truths…”
People debated on this topic but in the end, most people believed Yi Yun had a higher chance of winning.
At this moment, the referee announced, “Divine Wilderness Stage, 2600, Long Li. Challenger, Chu Xiaoran!”
Before battling Yi Yun, Chu Xiaoran had already set up a match, she was challenging the 2600th person on the Earth roll of honor.
This was Chu Xiaoran’s third to last battle. Tomorrow, she still had two opportunities to challenge someone. No one knew how high Chu Xiaoran could rise up.
Chu Xiaoran held a sword that was soft as water and she walked up onto the Divine Wilderness Stage.
No matter who she faced in this battle or if Yi Yun was going to face her in her next battle, they were all strong rivals. But even so, Chu Xiaoran was still very calm.
Many people admired her for having such bearing.
“She’s indeed worthy to be an expert by not panicking. She did not react at all, even when she saw Qiuniu being defeated…”
People were secretly horrified. They did not know the limit to Chu Xiaoran’s strength.
Chu Xiaoran’s opponent Long Li held a spear in his hand. With the spear in his hand, he gave an impressive pose.
He took his opponent very seriously and he did not dare to treat her lightly.
“Chu Xiaoran…” On the participant benches, Yi Yun, who was meditating, opened his eyes. He too wanted to see the impressive style of the current number one rookie.
The battle had begun.
Many people focused their eyes on the stage. They were waiting to see Chu Xiaoran’s hidden strength. Qiuniu had plenty of hidden strength, so Chu Xiaoran definitely had hidden strength too.
Everyone imagined that in this battle, Long Li would slowly suppress Chu Xiaoran until she had to use her hidden strength to turn the tables.
But, this battle was different from what they imagined.
Long Li was indeed very fierce in his opening attacks. His spear shot out spear beams!
The spear was known as the best weapon among soldiers. Long Li was more than 1.8 meters tall; hence, he had an impressive aggressiveness while attacking with the spear.
But Chu Xiaoran was using a soft sword.
When a sword exchanged blows with a spear, it was usually at a disadvantage. Chu Xiaoran was quickly suppressed by Long Li!
Long Li’s spear was fast and he also injected his surging Yuan Qi into it.
Long Li attacked with one move after another like billowing waves that would not stop. As for Chu Xiaoran, she was like a small boat in the ocean. She was moving around like she was being rocked around by the waves and wind.
It seemed like Chu Xiaoran was in a dangerous situation, but…no matter how forceful Long Li’s attacks were, Chu Xiaoran remained undefeated.
After being unable to take her down for a long while, Long Li began feeling anxious. It seemed like he was just a tiny step away from defeating Chu Xiaoran.
If Long Li was a rock, then Chu Xiaoran was like a blade of grass. No matter how hard the rock pressed on it, the blade of grass would just bend and it would not snap!
This made many rookies frown. They wished for Chu Xiaoran to win her matches beautifully, but in reality, Chu Xiaoran was being suppressed.
The rookies did not feel good about this.
Did Chu Xiaoran not have any hidden strength? If she was being suppressed by Long Li like this, how was she going to fight Yi Yun?
People knew that Long Li was very strong. Being ranked at 2600 in the Earth rankings and even amongst the third years, he was considered one of the top experts. In past years, whichever rookie could battle a cultivator ranked 2600 to such state would be a freak. It was practically guaranteed for them to get first place in the rookie competition.
But this year, it was different. There was the incredibly powerful Yi Yun here. By fighting like that, she was not enough to pose a threat to Yi Yun!
Although the audience was anxious, Chu Xiaoran was not anxious at all. Chu Xiaoran carried on following a prescribed order and she parried every attack from Long Li. It looked dangerous, but she was doing it with such ease.
In the arena, Long Li’s heart sank. He knew that if this carried on, his energy would be depleted faster than Chu Xiaoran’s. In the end, he would end up losing.
He had to accumulate his strength to win in one hit!
He could only use his trump card now. Long Li had just recently learned this move and he was not skillful using it. But now, he only had this move to clinch victory.
As Long Li attacked Chu Xiaoran, he began preparing his best move. After he finished preparing it, he forced Chu Xiaoran to retreat and with his whole body’s Yuan Qi exploding, a surge of energy appeared in front of him!
Just as Long Li was prepared to use his trump card, something unexpected occurred.
Chu Xiaoran, who was sent retreating by him, suddenly seemed to borrow the energy from his attack and flew back at him, sending out an attack!
This attack looked unexciting and it did not seem like it was going to threaten Long Li’s energy wave.
But this attack shot out a sword beam, which destroyed a portion of Long Li’s energy wave!
This was because it had hit a weak spot in Long Li’s attack!
“Peng!”
Long Li’s Yuan Qi was broken, so, even though Long Li was able to react at that moment and try to protect his body while he retreated, it…was too late!
Chu Xiaoran was too fast and her sword was too precise!
Her body charged into Long Li’s spear beams like a ghost and she broke through Long Li’s protective barrier with her sword!
This attack was like a venomous snake coming out of a cave and it seemed to twist around Long Li’s neck.
The cold blade beam sank Long Li’s heart and all his Yuan Qi stopped circulating.
Wh…What?
Long Li was dumbfounded. He stood motionless as if he had been petrified.
“You have lost.” Chu Xiaoran withdrew her soft sword and quietly took a step back.
Long Li dazed as he saw Chu Xiaoran retreat. He could not believe what had just happened.
From the beginning, he constantly had the upper hand. It was because he could not take her down after prolonged attacks that he had to use the killing blow he had just learned. But before he could use it, Chu Xiaoran suddenly turned the tables and beat him. An ordinary looking move was able to break his defenses to secure victory in one move.
This huge reversal from defeat to victory happened almost in an instant!
Long Li felt that he was stronger than Chu Xiaoran, but in the end, he still lost!
This feeling was like in chess. When one was suppressing their opponent by removing a large portion of their opponent’s pieces, they had victory in hand. But suddenly, the opponent made a move that ended up checkmating their King…
The whole match was lost!
Long Li felt aggrieved at his loss. He could not imagine how Chu Xiaoran managed to break through his move.
The audience was also confused at this battle outcome. It seemed like Chu Xiaoran had won easily and not easily at the same time. Some people even thought that Chu Xiaoran had won by a fluke.
How did this happen? They were waiting for Chu Xiaoran to reveal her hidden strength, but from the beginning to the end, all Chu Xiaoran did was that one move. And just the strength of that one move allowed her to defeat Long Li in an unknown way.
“Does Chu Xiaoran not have any hidden strength? Is that all she has? Then, how is she going to fight Yi Yun? Isn’t she sure to lose?”
People inevitably had such thoughts. By struggling to beat Long Li, it was difficult for her to beat Yi Yun.
At this moment, someone said, “On the contrary…I think Chu Xiaoran’s performance in this battle is terrifying. The strength she used was weaker than Long Li’s, but the final result was unexpected! By defeating Long Li with a weaker strength, that is skill. How would you know that the strength Chu Xiaoran used was her limit?”
When this person returned with a question, it stunned the audience.
“If she can win with 60% strength, why didn’t she use 100%? Instead, by beating a 70% opponent with 60% strength, that shows skill. Maybe, Chu Xiaoran was training and honing her skills!” The person who said this was a veteran cultivator.
Now, many veteran cultivators had to admit that Chu Xiaoran was terrifying, even though it was embarrassing to admit that a rookie was stronger than them.
Upon hearing this, no one said anything. To hone oneself using the rookie ranking competition?
Recalling this battle, Chu Xiaoran was very calm from beginning to end. She never panicked, it was as if everything was under her control.
If she really could not beat Long Li, it was unlikely she could be that calm.
And in the final attack, it looked simple, but was it really that simple?
A simple attack had broken through Long Li’s forceful killing blow?
Upon realizing this, people found Chu Xiaoran unfathomable.
In this rookie ranking competition, Qiuniu was always ranked behind Chu Xiaoran. When one thought about it, it was probably Qiuniu’s intention to challenge Chu Xiaoran on the final day!
Although it was likely that, deep down, Qiuniu did not believe that he would lose to Chu Xiaoran, but this indicated that Qiuniu was previously weaker than Chu Xiaoran. If not, he would not have positioned himself as a challenger.
Unfortunately, now it was no longer Qiuniu challenging Chu Xiaoran, but Yi Yun…