People in the crowd had their mouths wide open and were left breathless. They were only staring at that dazzling sword.
Such a sword attack had surprisingly been carried out by a cultivator of the Ling Qi layer, Lin Feng. Suddenly, they understood that Du Bi was not a match for Lin Feng.
Under that sword, a horrible shriek of agony filled the air. It was shocking.
That horrible shriek had obviously been emitted by Du Bi. The crowd only saw that incredibly proud young man, Du Bi, slowly fall from the sky. Besides, his body was surrounded by flames; that sword attack had set him on fire.
Du Bi no longer had any arms left attached to his body. He would never be able to use his blade again.
"Ahhhhhhh!" shouted Du Bi furiously while glaring at Lin Feng with hatred in his eyes.
"You say that I cannot withstand your second blade attack, but I just cut off your arm with my first attack. You only have yourself to blame," said Lin Feng coldly.
While looking at Du Bi, he said: "I will not kill you. You came here to prove to everyone how extremely strong and powerful you are, but your arm is the price you pay for being insufferably arrogant and threatening me."
Du Bi had been defeated by Qiong Bi Luo and had wanted to use Lin Feng to regain his reputation. Nobody would have ever thought that he would end up losing his arm because of it.
Du Bi wasn't the best disciple in the Celestial Academy anymore, and on top of that, he wasn't even the second best either. Lin Feng had easily defeated him and could easily take his life.
Qiong Bi Luo and Lin Feng were incredible geniuses.
The only question was between Lin Feng and Qiong Bi Luo: who was the strongest?
Initially, everybody already considered Qiong Bi Luo as the strongest in the Celestial Academy. That was because nobody, not even Du Bi, could rival him. However, that day's battle had just shown them that being at the top in the ranking didn't necessarily mean they were the strongest, and also that rushing into a higher cultivation level, before you were ready, didn't necessarily increase a cultivator's battle power either.
The one who used to be the top ranked disciple of the academy, Du Bi, had already lost two battles. On top of that, Lin Feng had cut off his remaining arm, making him completely armless, yet Lin Feng had been merciful and spared his life.
"As expected, it's the era of the geniuses," said people in the crowd while sighing. Each and every hidden genius was now starting to reveal their power. Lin Feng and Qiong Bi Luo were both good examples of people who had more power than originally believed.
However, the so called geniuses who didn't advance and give it their all were doomed. For example, Du Bi had lost his reputation and lost his last remaining arm.
Being a genius was a perpetual fight; if geniuses could rise, others could fall. For example, in Xue Yue, who knew if the eight high officials would be the same in the following year? Who would become the genius of the geniuses? Who had what it took to shock the masses?
"Get lost," said Lin Feng to Du Bi, which made Du Bi's facial expression go rigid. The expression on the corner of his mouth seemed to indicate that he found himself to be ridiculous.
He had thought that he was amazingly strong; that Lin Feng was the same as an insect before him. But at that moment, Lin Feng was dominating the entire situation and talking to him as if he didn't even matter anymore.
Besides, if Du Bi didn't leave, it would mean that even though he had lost his last arm, he still wanted to fight.
He turned around, stepped on an extremely weak blade made from pure Qi and left. His silhouette vanished into the sky, which made many people look disappointed. On the vast public square, various comments were spreading through the crowd.
After that battle, the news would spread very quickly, and everybody would quickly know that Lin Feng had cut off Du Bi's arm.
People were even trying to figure out what the new ranking list could look like. Everybody agreed on the fact that Qiong Bi Luo was the top ranked in the academy.
Lin Feng was a bit weaker than Qiong Bi Luo, so the crowd thought that he would be ranked second.
Wen Ao Xue's ranking, as before, wouldn't change; he was still the third best in the academy.
The crowd had been completely dumbstruck by Lin Feng's performance, but they still considered Qiong Bi Luo as stronger than Lin Feng because he had broken through to the Xuan Qi layer. His cultivation level was higher than that of Lin Feng. Besides, his Blue Void spirit was monstrously powerful. Nobody was able to escape his Blue Void Underworld. If he wanted to kill Du Bi, he could have done it very easily. Because of all of this, people estimated that it would be extremely difficult for Lin Feng to defeat Qiong Bi Luo, who was monstrously strong.
But the crowd also admittedly thought that even though Qiong Bi Luo was the best in the academy at the moment, that would probably change in the future. After all, Lin Feng was younger than him by a few years. Lin Feng had huge potential. When Qiong Bi Luo was at the same age as Lin Feng, he wasn't nearly as strong as Lin Feng.
Qiong Bi Luo was monstrously powerful and best in the academy.
Lin Feng had extremely high natural abilities and had the greatest future potential.
However, potential couldn't be used to determine a cultivator's strength. For example, after Qiong Bi Luo had broken through to the Xuan Qi layer, he had immediately challenged Du Bi and easily defeated him. He had thus become the best in the academy. It seemed like Qiong Bi Luo had become an entirely different person after breaking through. Even though Lin Feng had high potential, would he follow the same path as Qiong Bi Luo in the future? Nobody could predict the future.
"If Qiong Bi Luo could fight against Lin Feng, that would be the best," thought the people of the academy. They were thinking that in the past, when Lin Feng had come out right after Qiong Bi Luo had left, it was a pity. If the two of them had fought, wouldn't it have been an inspiring battle?
Qiong Bi Luo knew nothing of the comments, which were spreading in the crowd. After defeating Du Bi and becoming the top ranked disciple in the academy, he had confined himself for a few days to strengthen and consolidate the power gained from breaking into the Xuan Qi layer. At that moment, he had just come out and was walking through the public square. He heard peoples' comments and whispers and learned that Lin Feng had also defeated Du Bi and that he, on top of that, had cut off Du Bi's last arm, making him unable to wield a blade.
At that moment, everybody was comparing Qiong Bi Luo with Lin Feng.
Qiong Bi Luo was walking unnoticed through the crowd, which showed the power difference between him and them. He then took off his bamboo hat, and a strange smile appeared on his face.
"Lin Feng is amusing. He is just a weak cultivator of the Ling Qi layer. Could he really overturn the heavens!" said Qiong Bi Luo mockingly. He then smiled coldly and said: "Du Bi is really worthless, he cannot even compete with a cultivator at the Ling Qi layer. If I had known that, I would have crippled his cultivation to help avoid him making a fool of himself again."
When people around him heard his words, they turned around and looked at him. They couldn't help but be astonished.
Qiong Bi Luo. Surprisingly, it was Qiong Bi Luo!
Some people were gasping with astonishment. Immediately, more and more people started turning around and looking at him. Qiong Bi Luo was really there!
Qiong Bi Luo glanced at the crowd with an extremely arrogant look. He enjoyed the sensation of being observed and worshiped by tens of thousands of people. He just had to show himself and he could draw everybody's attention.
Lin Feng would never be able to steal his grandeur; he wasn't as charismatic.
"It seems like on that day, when Lin Feng and I didn't fight, you all have misunderstood something. Since you want to compare Lin Feng and me, I will show you who, between Lin Feng and me, the real genius of the academy is. I want everybody to clearly understand that Lin Feng, the one that you describe as a genius, is, in front of me, as worthless as Du Bi," Qiong Bi Luo sounded extremely arrogant.
Immediately after, his silhouette flickered and shot through the sky, which made people shiver. Their eyes were twinkling. From what Qiong Bi Luo had said, it seemed like he wanted to fight against Lin Feng. He wanted to crush Lin Feng and be considered the sole genius of the academy. He wanted to be the only person at the top.
Lin Feng also didn't know what was going on within the academy.
Something incredible had occurred in the Imperial City recently. In the eastern part of the city, there was a hill called the Dong Ling Hill. It seemed like the sun was shining on that area much more than usual, especially towards the top of the hill. It was particularly pleasant to go there to observe the sunset because the temperature was surprisingly much nicer than in other places.
At that moment, at the top of the Dong Ling Hill, the atmosphere wasn't filled with warmth; instead, flames were invading the atmosphere. These flames were aggressive and blazing. These flames were incredibly monstrous and unyielding.
Around the Dong Ling Hill, many people were astonished. Surprisingly, there was a fire. They were wondering what kind of strong fire cultivator would have set such a fire. Or maybe it had been caused during a battle between two extremely strong cultivators. It was possible that they created some flames made from pure Qi, which ignited Dong Ling Hill.
Besides, no matter what caused the fire, the cultivation strength must have been monstrous because, at this moment, the ground and the atmosphere itself were catching on fire.
However, nobody noticed that when the flames rose, there was a person covered with sweat who seemed exhausted. That person was walking away, and with Dong Ling Hill to their back, they didn't even look back at the fire behind them.