Chapter 155 – Regularity (1/2)

The Tower of Purging Dust opened, Liang Ban Hu and Qi Jian walked out, the clergy member’s announcement that Qi Jian was the victor, brought about a commotion; they themselves didn’t have much of a reaction, quietly talking to each other, as if they didn’t care about the slashes and blood stains that covered their clothing; between the gaps, there were still remnants of the saintly radiance used to heal them.

They walked down the steps, heading towards the streambank, continuing to converse in hushed tones as they walked.

Some of the examinees were closer and could hear that the two fellow disciples were actually discussing their match: you didn’t use this move properly; Senior used that manoeuvre too slowly…

For these past few years, the Divine State’s Seven Laws were the idols or perhaps better described as aim, for many amongst the younger generation.

The battle records of these seven disciples from Li Shan Sword Sect were circulated across the world and were a relished topic of conversation for many people, just as how Qi Jian had lost to Zhang Huan Yu by a single move some years ago, due to it being a rare record of defeat for the Divine State’s Seven Laws, it was analysed and discussed ceaselessly.

But very few had witnessed a battle between the fellow disciples.

It wasn’t until today that people finally knew why the younger generation of Li Shan Sword Sect are so powerful; why the Divine State’s Seven Laws are so astounding.

Being able to employ all their strength in a battle between members of the same school, yet not retaining any hatred or resentment, for them, this was but a standard affair.

Carrying out such a regular activity makes it extraordinary, how could Li Mountain not be strong?

Tang Thirty-Six looked at the four disciples from Li Shan Sword Sect by the streambank, feeling a little dejected and said: “It seems my loss to Liang Ban Hu was a matter of course; Qi Jian is also far stronger than I am.”

This statement of “loss” and “stronger”, was not referring to power levels, but something else.

Chen Chang Sheng replied: “We can learn from them.”

Tang Thirty-Six glanced at him and said: “How? Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed that Liang Ban Hu is happy about his loss, genuinely happy.”

“Uhm?”

“In the Grand Examination, they can fight as they please without worrying about crippling or killing each other, this makes them especially happy.”

“And?”

“I’m not that type of freak, I can’t copy them, I surrender.”

From entering Li Palace early in the morning and then the Education Palace within the Green Leaf World; from the Hall of Zhao Wen to the Tower of Purging Dust; throughout all these locations, the amount of clergy seen by the examinees had been few in number, but in truth, Li Palace in its entirety, or more specifically, the entirety of the Orthodoxy, was working for the Grand Examination

A lot of the clergy that weren’t seen by examinees were busy with various tasks; in the Grand Examination, wanting to die was a difficult thing.

Once again entering the Tower of Purging Dust, Chen Chang Sheng intentionally gave a glance towards the second floor, but didn’t see anyone, he then turned his gaze towards his opponent.

In the third round, his opponent was a young girl; the one who had mocked and ridiculed him at the divine avenue and was finally admonished to tears by Tang Thirty-Six, the little junior from Holy Maiden Peak, Ye Xiao Lian.

Holy Maiden Peak and the Longevity Sect were both large sect organisations within the religious system of the Southern Domain, governing many sects and cloisters, Ye Xiao Lian was from Ci Jian Temple.

In the information provided to Orthodox Academy by the Education Board, it clearly noted that this young girl’s cultivation talent is fairly high, once she reaches a suitable age, it was likely that she would enter the Nan Xi Institute, of course, she could only enter the outer circle for her cultivation.

No matter how high a cultivation talent, Ye Xiao Lian was too young, as one of the youngest participants in the examination, her cultivation level was sure to be unstable, logically, it should have been very difficult for her to enter the third round, but her luck in the lot drawing was extremely good.

In the first round she had easily won, in the second round, her opponent was a common student that had entered the examination after completing the foundation trial. Her level was comparable to her opponent’s, but her True Essence levels were not as profound, in the end, she had relied upon an item from her school she had been carrying, in order to propitiously win the match.

After leaving the tower, she had jumped into her senior’s arms and cried, unable to restrain her joy.

For the drawing of lots in the third round, she heard the name of Chen Chang Sheng, coming to know that her luck had finally came to an end.

Ye Xiao Lian looked at Chen Chang Sheng, her tender little face full of anxiety and unease, becoming a little pale.

That day upon the divine avenue, she had said that Chen Chang Sheng is a toad that wishes to dine on the Phoenix, she had always believed that he was useless trash, yet who could have guessed that Chen Chang Sheng would actually win two rounds in a row, in the previous round he had even defeated Scholartree Manor’s Huo Guang, different from her lucky draw and obviously relying upon his own strength.

Ye Xiao Lian knew that she wasn’t Chen Chang Sheng’s match, thinking that she had previously offended this person, made her even more nervous.

At that moment, the examiner’s voice came down from the second floor: “If you’re ready, then start.”

Chen Chang Sheng looked towards Ye Xiao Lian, inclining his head in acknowledgement.

With a single glance from him, Ye Xiao Lian couldn’t stop herself from feeling terrified, her eyes became red and her skirt shuddered.

Chen Chang Sheng was a bit startled, wondering what was going on.

Ye Xiao Lian really was very scared, her body continuously quivered, the string of little bells on her wrist shaking alongside her quivering, giving off sharp jingling sounds.

The sharp jingling sounds cleared her head, she gathered her courage and tossed the string of bells from her wrist at Chen Chang Sheng.

She was separated from Chen Chang Sheng by a distance of around 30 metres, the string of bells managed to arrive before him in an instant.

The string of bells is a tool of Ci Jian Temple, Bells of Mantra, it couldn’t possibly compare with a legendary level item like the Thousand Mile Button, but was still extremely powerful, being only slightly weaker than the umbrella used by the Heavenly Academy student Chen Chang Sheng was matched against in the first round.

Were this not the case she would not have been able to rely upon it to win against her opponent in the second round.

The string of bells was made of some unknown metal, its band indistinctly contained some sort of keen sword manifestation.

Within its sharp ringing sound there seemed to be some sort of concealed aura that could disturb a cultivator’s True Essence flow; alas, it seems Ye Xiao Lian’s luck really had been depleted on the previous rounds, her opponent, Chen Chang Sheng, was weakest in terms of True Essence capacity and was least reliant upon using True Essence for battling.

His right hand became a fist that struck out, his fingers then stretched out, becoming akin to a blossoming flower, accurately grabbing the Bells of Mantra.

The Bells of Mantra continuously shook in his hand, as if it was struggling, transferring a massive amount of force to the surroundings, at the same time, that aura which disturbed True Essence flow became increasingly apparent.

The True Essence flow within Chen Chang Sheng was indeed severely affected, but the problem was, even if the Bells of Mantra was to do nothing, his True Essence flow would already have problems flowing freely, with his meridian channels being broken.

He didn’t use True Essence, only employing his body strength, and had already managed to tightly grip the Bells of Mantra in his hand.

*DING* *DING* *DING*

The Bells of Mantra violently shook, struggled, wanting to escape from his grasp, yet, in the end, it couldn’t.

Moments later, the Bells of Mantra finally pacified, stilling within his grasp.

Ye Xiao Lian looked at this scene, completely forgetting that she was in a battle and used her hand to cover her mouth, surprised to the extreme.

The Bells of Mantra were given to her by a teacher at Ci Jian Temple

She clearly understood the amount of power contained within the string of bells while it was dancing in the air and that it would be very hard to restrain, she had imagined that Chen Chang Sheng would have many methods to easily stop the Bells of Mantra’s effect, but she never would have expected that Chen Chang Sheng will directly use his hand to grip the bells.

The sharp jingling sounds disappeared and the tower became quiet.