章 20: Let’s Make a Bet
Lao-Chu also wondered why all of a sudden, Zheng-Fu could gain strength that much within only a short period of time. He was not supposed to even break through the third level of the Qi Gathering stage because his body was weakening. How did his energy level increase so strikingly? And he could withstand the mind test this far too…
‘He must possess a special item, otherwise, he will not level up this fast. I need to know what he’s hiding.’ Lao-Chu thought while staring at Zheng-Fu with malicious and greedy intent.
It was about to reach three shichens in any minutes now, but Zheng-Fu had not shown any sign of needing to break the crystal ball at all. That made the audience around the courtyard exceptionally excited because they wanted to see if Zheng-Fu could make it through three shichens. Even the people who were about to leave the test venue wanted to stay because they wanted to know how far Zheng-Fu could go…
In the mind dimension…
“That’s that glowing entity again, but that’s…!?”
As Zheng-Fu was absorbing the Qi energy from the mind dimension, the glowing entity that he met in the forbidden forest appeared in front of him again. However, there were all three of them this time. Each glowing entity was moving according to the three sword fighting patterns that Zheng-Fu picked up from the manual tower. They were doing it slowly enough for Zheng-Fu to see and take it all in…
That was not the only thing that they did. When they finished showing Zheng-Fu the fighting patterns, they started to fight each other by using the techniques that they showed Zheng-Fu a minute ago. The first glowing entity used the Soft for Defense technique of the Belt Sword skill to make a soft defensive move against the second glowing entity that used the Sword of the Wind skill. Then the first glowing entity turned to block the attack from the third glowing entity who used the Sword of the Willow Leaves skill…
The three glowing entities were fighting against one another continually. After a short while, they stopped fighting and then turned to Zheng-Fu, who was watching them. They made a gesture as though they were inviting Zheng-Fu to join them…
“Do you guys want me to do according to what you guys are doing?” Zheng-Fu wanted to make sure so he shouted out the question…
They did not say anything but nodded in a bid to answer Zheng-Fu’s question. When Zheng-Fu saw that, he got up on his feet and walked towards them. As he started to walk, the surroundings in that dimension started to change. Now what Zheng-Fu saw around him was the endless sky and he then realized that he was standing in a gigantic fighting courtyard…
Zoom!
The second glowing entity attacked Zheng-Fu with the Sword of the Wind skill, without warning him…
Whoosh!
Zheng-Fu could feel the wind and energy wave that was launched from that glowing entity. He could really feel the energy wave as though it was the real thing. He could feel the existence of everything as though he was not in another dimension. He was not aware of the projected energy because it was so sudden and it caught him off guard. But at that moment, he felt like he was holding a sword in his hand and then lifting it up to block the wind-wave energy automatically…
Boom!
Zheng-Fu’s body was bounced backward for many paces by that attack. He could feel the pain and numbness on his hand too…
Outside of the mind dimension…
“There’s blood coming out of him!”
When everyone heard that there was some blood coming out of Zheng-Fu, everyone turned to pay attention to him instantaneously. No one knew what happened in his mind realm, but what Zheng-Fu experienced there caused a small amount of blood to come out from the corner of his lips. His face got paler too…
“Wh…what happened? Why did he bleed?” Tang-Ling was very frightened to see the blood on Zheng-Fu’s lips...
“That can be expected, Tang-Ling dear. Every young participant must face their ultimate fear. When they get hurt during the mind test in another dimension, it affects their physical body outside the dimension too.” Lao-Chu pretended to explain to use the opportunity to confuse Tang-Ling’s wish for Zheng-Fu to participate in the third test. And when Tang-Ling heard the explanation, she turned to Kong-Shi to check if Lao-Chu spoke the truth…
“Right, Elder Lao-Chu was correct. You’ve never been through this martial arts test, so it’s not wrong that you don’t know about this. *Sigh!*” Kong-Shi nodded to answer his wife’s question. He was well aware of this kind of incident because he had gone through the test before. Tang-Ling would not know about this because she was married into the clan…
“Will Zheng-Fu be alright?”
“Well…”
“There’s no need to worry about it, sister-in-law. He’ll be fine. If he can’t tolerate the test, he’ll break the crystal ball to stop it. This is all just a test, so you don’t have to worry that much.” Tong-Lang who was nearby tried to assure Tang-Ling to comfort her…
“Thank you!”
Even though Tang-Ling heard the assurance, she still worried for Zheng-Fu. What she could do was only to get back to watch her son going through the process with this concerned look in her eyes…
In Zheng-Fu’s mind dimension…
“That…! That really hurts. Good thing I concentrated on the Qi energy source, otherwise it would be worse.” Zheng-Fu complained about the pain that he could feel in the mind dimension. Before he had a chance to linger on the experience, the third glowing entity attacked him with the Sword of the Willow Leaves technique…
Whoosh!
“Coff!”
“I won’t let that happen again.” Zheng-Fu is determined to not underestimate the glowing entities. He started to recall the images that he saw earlier when the three glowing entities showed him the movements of the three sword fighting techniques.
The first stage of the Belt Sword!
[The Soft for Defense skill]
Boom!
The sword that aimed to attack Zheng-Fu from the third glowing entity was stopped by Zheng-Fu’s Soft for Defense move. The clash could pause the glowing entity for a second, which allowed Zheng-Fu to use another fighting technique to continue to counter the entity…
[The Soft for Fencing skill]
The counter threw the third glowing entity and his sword off the ground. Then the second glowing entity would not let Zheng-Fu rest at all. He rushed to attack Zheng-Fu, but Zheng-Fu showed that he knew how to deal with this particular attack technique. He used the counter technique instantly…
Bam!
Crack!
Bam!
The battle between Zheng-Fu and the three glowing entities kept going as if it had been a whole day. It was strange that Zheng-Fu did not feel exhausted at all. In turn, he felt like his energy had increased a lot more than the time that he was just sitting and absorbing the Qi energy…
“The more I fight with these glowing entities, the more energy I gain. If it continues this way, I’ll definitely penetrate to the next level. But it’s too bad that the time…”
“Time!?”
When Zheng-Fu thought of time, he was startled because he remembered that he was still in the mind test. It seemed like he had been in the mind dimension for a whole day…
“How come I wasn’t kicked out of this dimension? The time should surpass three shichens for a long while now!” Zheng-Fu stopped to think about time and wondered why he had not been ejected out of this mind testing realm because the time was supposed to be up by now. While Zheng-Fu was being aware of the time issue, the three glowing entities started to disappear. Things around him started to change back to normal too. As it happened, Zheng-Fu was gradually losing consciousness too. Then, he started to hear noises from a crowd, then he heard a familiar voice…
Whoosh!
“Look! He opened his eyes! He has opened his eyes!” Hai-Gang shouted loudly narrating the situation as he saw Zheng-Fu come out of the mind realm. Everyone heard him clearly…
Seeing that, Kong-Shi did not wait any longer. He soared down from the stands immediately to the test courtyard. Tong-Tieng and Tong-Lang followed suit. Hai-Gu and Hai-Gang followed the two Monitors. As for Tang-Ling, she had to run down the stands to the courtyard because she was not a martial artist…
“Zheng-Fu! Zheng-Fu, son!”
“Wait!”
“This place?” As Zheng-Fu’s eyes adjusted well, he saw his father and other people surrounding him. Everyone stared at him with a certain kind of questioning look…
“How are you, Zheng-Fu, son?” Kong-Shi asked right after he saw that his son gained total consciousness…
“How am I? Why? I’m fine. Nothing’s wrong with me.” Zheng-Fu mumbled back to his father while feeling confused about his father’s question…
Zheng-Fu’s answer bedazzled everyone. It was strange that Zheng-Fu looked more than fine after he came out of the mind testing dimension. It was weird that he was that way because he had been in the test for more than three shichens. People were worried about him being in there…
“Did you know how long you had been in there?” Tong-Lang asked loudly…
“I don’t know, sir. I would like to know too for how long.” Zheng-Fu also wanted to know how much time he spent in that mind realm…
“You don’t know!?”
“Zheng-Fu, my nephew! It’s been six shichens now since the test started. It was surprising that your crystal ball didn’t break after three shichens. It just broke a minute ago.” Hai-Gu explained about the time situation to Zheng-Fu…
“Six shichens?!”
Zheng-Fu knew that the crystal ball was supposed to break itself after three shichens. But it took six shichens with him. At the same time, he thought that he had been in there for more than six shichens because when he got to fight with those three glowing entities, it seemed the whole day had disappeared. It was already strange that the crystal ball did not break after three shichens. But the time thing made him confused even further. However, Zheng-Fu tried to ignore the whole thing, so he asked…
“What about the test, sir?”
“The test? The mind test was over. There are about a little over 10 people who passed this test. You’re one of them. But what's more is that you’ve just broken the clan’s all-time record there.” Kong-Shi smiled before letting Zheng-Fu know about the test. He was so proud of his son…
“Is that so, father? And where is mother?”
“Your mother just went back home a minute ago. She was afraid that you would be hungry when you finished the test, so she rushed back home to prepare a meal for you. And since you are back from that realm now, let’s go home!”
“Yes, sir!”
Before Zheng-Fu left, he looked around the test courtyard and saw that it was already dark. There were a few people in the area, including him, his father and his friends, and some others who waited for him to wake up from the test. Lao-Chu and Dong-Chu had gone back since the time passed three shichens. They left because they were too jealous to watch…
Zheng-Fu continued to check out the test venue, then he realized that Tian-Qi and her father were still hanging out there. He found that they were both looking at him. Tian-Qi’s father, Mo-Zi looked at Zheng-Fu, feeling impressed. However, Tian-Qi was feeling different from her father. Her eyes were red and filled with tears…
Tian-Qi did not know how to take in what just happened about Zheng-Fu. For the past 10 years, she had been the genius of the clan. But now, all of a sudden, she was not a genius anymore. It was all because of Zheng-Fu. That was why she was so angry when she looked at him. And then she shouted…
“It’s about time that you awoke! I hope you’ll participate in the third test. But if you are afraid…”
“Of course, Miss Plywood! Don’t worry! I’ll be there.” Zheng-Fu did not wait for Tian-Qi to finish her sentence…
“You!”
From being just frustrated, Tian-Qi now turned furious because of Zheng-Fu’s response. As for Kong-Shi and the rest, Zheng-Fu’s words surprised them tremendously. No one ever thought that Zheng-Fu knew how to talk like that…
“Hahaha!”
“He’s a little rascal! Not bad at all, your son, Elder Kong-Shi.” Tong-Lang liked what he heard from Zheng-Fu, so he teased him and turned to look at Kong-Shi. Kong-Shi, in return, gave Tong-Lang a dry smile. Tian-Qi was caught off guard and did not know how to respond to Zheng-Fu. She was so embarrassed about it, but tried to hide it by saying…
“Great! Then we’ll know who’s the real genius in this clan!”
Genius?!
“Fine, fine! But I don’t think the genius thing is anything fun. I think it’s better to make a bet! Shall we?”
“A bet?!”
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