Chapter 36
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"Bring a training weapon rack up on stage," Shi Xingtai said to a nearby clan member through voice transmission. The clan member nodded and went to get a training weapon rack, bringing it up on stage minutes later.
The rack was filled with wooden weapons that had a similar weight and shape to weapons usually used in real life combat. Swords, sabers, axes, maces, zithers, hammers, you name it, that weapon is probably there.
After making sure that the weapons were not tampered with, Shi Xingtai nodded his head and looked at the remaining participants.
"How many participants are left again?" Shi Xingtai mumbled as he counted with his fingers. "In the first round, we had around 150 participants. Over 60 participants left, so that leaves us with more or less 90 participants remaining."
Taking a deep breath, he said, "Since all of you are old-timers, I'd assume that most of you haven't increase your comprehension at all. Some of you are at the adept level while most of you are at the beginner level."
"This would mean that most of you are instantly disqualified for this round...unless you prove that your comprehension level is at the adept level..." Shi Xingtai pointed his finger to the white pillar. "Using the white pillar."
...
Shi Li was utterly dumbfounded as to what was happening. He was already cultivating for over three months but he didn't know things that are common sense for the majority.
Steeling himself, he went to where Shi Shisi was and whispered a question to his ear. "Could you explain how the second round works?"
Shi Shisi raised his eyebrow and looked at Shi Li with slight shock. "Do you not know how the tournament works? Did the patriarch tell you anything?"
Shi Li sighed and shook his head. "Father — I mean the patriarch didn't tell me anything at all. He just told me to cultivate to the Second Stage of Skin Tempering so I can enter this tournament."
He skipped over the fact that he and his father made a deal as to how far Shi Li would be able to go.
Shi Shisi frowned a bit as he looked at Shi Li. He didn't sense any hint of mockery whatsoever, it was truly a sincere question.
Since it was like that, Shi Shisi wracked his brain as he recalled how the second round worked. "Well the second round is like the first round, but with the usage of your first martial technique. The martial technique increases the potency of your strength, allowing your attacks to be stronger than if they were used without techniques."
He then continued, "A normal Low Human martial technique, when practiced to the level of perfection, would allow a cultivator to unleash twice the cultivator's body strength. So if you had a body strength of 30 ren, your attack would easily reach 60 ren."
He then noticed Shi Li's dazed look after he finished explaining. He snapped his fingers to jolt back Shi Li to reality as he asked, "Do you understand?"
Shi Li took a while for him to absorb the information given by Shi Shisi, yet he still nodded. After a while, he had a somewhat thorough understanding of how the second round worked and looked at the stage.
...
A young boy at the age of 13 went up on stage and bowed respectfully to Shi Xingtai.
"Oh? Shi Lüzhang? I didn't expect that the first person to come up would be you," Shi Xingtai couldn't help but say.
Shi Lüzhang chuckled a bit before replying, "Elder jokes. I've trained a lot in my [Spiralling Pierce] technique and I feel like I have reached the adept level in it." He then went to the training weapon rack and grabbed a wooden spear before standing beside the pillar.
"Well...go ahead. No one's hindering you from doing so. Just make sure that you don't die from embarassment," Shi Xingtai laughed. The other participants laughed as well.
Shi Lüzheng stabilized his footing before positioning his spear perpendicular to his body, the tip tens of centimeters away from the group.
Gradually, the laughter died down as they saw Lüzheng concentrating on this one attack.
Once it was silent enough, Shi Lüzheng rotated the spear with his full body strength as he stabbed at the pillar in one swift motion.
"[Spiralling Pierce]!"
Bang!
A small dent was made on the pillar, making the participants applaud for Shi Lüzheng. Shi Lüzheng wanted to look at the audience and smile, but he wanted to see if he had truly reached the adept level.
Within seconds, the number on the pillar reached 30 ren, the strength of a Second Stage cultivator.
After that, it slowly increased, making Shi Lüzheng grip the wooden spear tightly.
31...
33...
35...
36 ren.
The pillar stopped at 36 ren, making Shi Lüzheng kneel to the floor as he sighed in disappointment.
Shi Xingtai went closer to him and placed his hand on Lüzheng's shoulder. "You may not have reached the adept level of comprehension, but you're getting there. Increasing the potency of your strength by 20% is already halfway there to reaching adept level, just polish your techniques even more and I'm sure you'll reach it."
Shi Lüzheng looked at Shi Xingtai and lightly smiled before nodding multiple times. "Un! I'm sure I can. I just have to exert more effort into cultivating the technique!"
He stood up and bowed once more to Shi Xingtai before looking at the audience and bowing to them as well, gaining a loud applause from the audience.
Shi Xingtai urged Shi Lüzheng to get off the stage before continuing to ask the other participants, "Would anyone want to check if their strength would allow them to proceed to the third round?"
All of a sudden, a silhouette appeared on stage within seconds, making multiple people exclaim.
"It's Lightning Feet, Shi Kuai!"
"Shi Kuai is on stage, does that mean he improved his level of comprehension? Isn't he already at the adept level?"
"He's already 15 this year, he's bound to improve as time passes."
Shi Kuai bowed respectfully in front of Shi Xingtai before saying, "I would like to check if I have improved my comprehension of the [Lightning Stab] technique."
Shi Xingtai's eyes gleamed as he looked at Shi Kuai. Shi Kuai was quite similar to Shi Shisi, not in the sense of pursuing an extremely stable foundation, but rather in the pursuit of higher strength. The strength he pursued was that of speed, because as they say, as long as an attack is fast enough, then it makes someone unparalleled.
Shi Kuai grabbed a wooden rapier from the rack and gripped on it tightly before exerting a set of basic rapier movements. After that was done, he moved to the white pillar and positioned the tip of the rapier perpendicular to his body.
Channeling all of his strength towards the his legs and the arm that held the rapier, he took a deep breath before lunging towards the rapier as he extended his arm.
"[Lightning Stab]!"
Clink!
Thanks to the strength exerted through his legs, his rapier collided with the pillar within a few breaths of time, even driving the tip into the pillar by a few inches.
After that was over, Shi Kuai retrieved the stuck rapier from the pillar and stood solemnly as he waited for the results from the pillar.
Everyone looked at the pillar as well as they gulped their salivas, anticipating Shi Kuai's new comprehension level.
Shi Xingtai also looked at the pillar as well, but thanks to his qi, he was able to see a 4 on the tens place of the pillar, smiling inwardly.
45 ren.
Everyone looked at Shi Kuai and cheered for Shi Kuai. Shi Kuai's eyes glistened with light as he stood up and raised his arms up in victory.
Shi Xingtai looked at Shi Kuai and said, "Not bad! You were able to reach the minor success level of comprehension! See you on the third round."
Shi Kuai smiled and bowed respectfully before leaving the stage. "Thank you Elder!"
...
Shi Xingtai looked at the audience and said, "Are there any more participants willing to check their comprehension level?"
Looking at each other for a bit, almost all of the participants shook their heads.
Shi Xingtai nodded. "Well, I figured as much. Since that's the case, that only leaves Shi Li again. Come up here!"
...
Shi Li hurriedly came up on stage since he was ordered by Shi Xingtai to do so. He bowed respectfully to Shi Xingtai not long after he came on stage.
"You know the mechanics of the second round, right?" Shi Xingtai asked because he knew it was Shi Li's first tournament.
Shi Li nodded. "Thank you for asking Elder. I already asked the other participants as to how it works."
Shi Xingtai nodded back. "I see, what technique are you going to show us?"
Shi Li pondered for a bit and inwardly shook his head. The [Ardent Magma Manipulation Art] was a hammer technique of the High Huamn grade. If the other participants knew this, they would freak out. He decided to reply the origin of the [Ardent Magma Manipulation Art]...
"[Magma Swipe]."
"Oh? A hammer technique. That's rare," Shi Xingtai's eyes slightly widened as he recalled this technique from the clan library. It was truly suitable for those who wanted to use the elements without having any elemental affinity whatsoever, its disadvantage only being harder to cultivate.
"Well good luck," Shi Xingtai smiled at Shi Li. Shi Li smiled back as he went to the training weapon rack and grabbed a training hammer. He lifted it up and down and threw it in the air a couple of times before nodding his head.
Seeing that Shi Li chose the hammer as his main weapon, the participants revealed understanding looks.
"I see why he chose the hammer. Since he had the body strength, he would be better off wielding the hammer that relies on brute strength."
"Well the same rule applies to Shi Li as it applies to Shi Kuai, if an attack is fast enough, then it's unavoidable. If the attack area is large enough, then it's unavoidable."
Shi Li took a deep breath before going down the stage, where the earth was.
One of the participants saw this and couldn't help but ask, "Shi Li, what kind of technique are you going to use?"
Shi Li looked at the participants and solemnly replied, "[Magma Swipe], I need the earth to create my magma pool."
Not long after, Shi Li raised the hammer upwards and channeled his strength to his arms. He then combined the intent of breaking through anything into his attack as he slammed the hammer down.
Bang!
The earth shook as spiderweb cracks formed on the ground. Shi Li gradually lifted the hammer, revealing a small magma pool which surprised the participants.
Through the movements of his hammer, he willed the magma to condense into a small ball before waving the hammer to throw the magma ball to the pillar.
"[Magma Swipe]!"
Splash!
Magma collided with the pillar within a short span of time, turning parts of the pillar into black. The floor was affected as well as small drops of magma slightly burnt it, to which Shi Xingtai countered with his qi.
Shi Li didn't bother going up on stage and looked at the pillar, waiting for his result.
The participants looked at the pillar as well, eager to find out if Shi Li only had strength, or he had comprehension as well.
Shi Xingtai looked at Shi Li's result with his qi and couldn't help but gulp a bit of saliva as he looked.
Seconds later, the result finally showed itself to the masses, making them scream and cheer.
Shi Li couldn't help but take a step back from shock.
99 ren. That was his result.
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"Bring a training weapon rack up on stage," Shi Xingtai said to a nearby clan member through voice transmission. The clan member nodded and went to get a training weapon rack, bringing it up on stage minutes later.
The rack was filled with wooden weapons that had a similar weight and shape to weapons usually used in real life combat. Swords, sabers, axes, maces, zithers, hammers, you name it, that weapon is probably there.
After making sure that the weapons were not tampered with, Shi Xingtai nodded his head and looked at the remaining participants.
"How many participants are left again?" Shi Xingtai mumbled as he counted with his fingers. "In the first round, we had around 150 participants. Over 60 participants left, so that leaves us with more or less 90 participants remaining."
Taking a deep breath, he said, "Since all of you are old-timers, I'd assume that most of you haven't increase your comprehension at all. Some of you are at the adept level while most of you are at the beginner level."
"This would mean that most of you are instantly disqualified for this round...unless you prove that your comprehension level is at the adept level..." Shi Xingtai pointed his finger to the white pillar. "Using the white pillar."
...
Shi Li was utterly dumbfounded as to what was happening. He was already cultivating for over three months but he didn't know things that are common sense for the majority.
Steeling himself, he went to where Shi Shisi was and whispered a question to his ear. "Could you explain how the second round works?"
Shi Shisi raised his eyebrow and looked at Shi Li with slight shock. "Do you not know how the tournament works? Did the patriarch tell you anything?"
Shi Li sighed and shook his head. "Father — I mean the patriarch didn't tell me anything at all. He just told me to cultivate to the Second Stage of Skin Tempering so I can enter this tournament."
He skipped over the fact that he and his father made a deal as to how far Shi Li would be able to go.
Shi Shisi frowned a bit as he looked at Shi Li. He didn't sense any hint of mockery whatsoever, it was truly a sincere question.
Since it was like that, Shi Shisi wracked his brain as he recalled how the second round worked. "Well the second round is like the first round, but with the usage of your first martial technique. The martial technique increases the potency of your strength, allowing your attacks to be stronger than if they were used without techniques."
He then continued, "A normal Low Human martial technique, when practiced to the level of perfection, would allow a cultivator to unleash twice the cultivator's body strength. So if you had a body strength of 30 ren, your attack would easily reach 60 ren."
He then noticed Shi Li's dazed look after he finished explaining. He snapped his fingers to jolt back Shi Li to reality as he asked, "Do you understand?"
Shi Li took a while for him to absorb the information given by Shi Shisi, yet he still nodded. After a while, he had a somewhat thorough understanding of how the second round worked and looked at the stage.
...
A young boy at the age of 13 went up on stage and bowed respectfully to Shi Xingtai.
"Oh? Shi Lüzhang? I didn't expect that the first person to come up would be you," Shi Xingtai couldn't help but say.
Shi Lüzhang chuckled a bit before replying, "Elder jokes. I've trained a lot in my [Spiralling Pierce] technique and I feel like I have reached the adept level in it." He then went to the training weapon rack and grabbed a wooden spear before standing beside the pillar.
"Well...go ahead. No one's hindering you from doing so. Just make sure that you don't die from embarassment," Shi Xingtai laughed. The other participants laughed as well.
Shi Lüzheng stabilized his footing before positioning his spear perpendicular to his body, the tip tens of centimeters away from the group.
Gradually, the laughter died down as they saw Lüzheng concentrating on this one attack.
Once it was silent enough, Shi Lüzheng rotated the spear with his full body strength as he stabbed at the pillar in one swift motion.
"[Spiralling Pierce]!"
Bang!
A small dent was made on the pillar, making the participants applaud for Shi Lüzheng. Shi Lüzheng wanted to look at the audience and smile, but he wanted to see if he had truly reached the adept level.
Within seconds, the number on the pillar reached 30 ren, the strength of a Second Stage cultivator.
After that, it slowly increased, making Shi Lüzheng grip the wooden spear tightly.
31...
33...
35...
36 ren.
The pillar stopped at 36 ren, making Shi Lüzheng kneel to the floor as he sighed in disappointment.
Shi Xingtai went closer to him and placed his hand on Lüzheng's shoulder. "You may not have reached the adept level of comprehension, but you're getting there. Increasing the potency of your strength by 20% is already halfway there to reaching adept level, just polish your techniques even more and I'm sure you'll reach it."
Shi Lüzheng looked at Shi Xingtai and lightly smiled before nodding multiple times. "Un! I'm sure I can. I just have to exert more effort into cultivating the technique!"
He stood up and bowed once more to Shi Xingtai before looking at the audience and bowing to them as well, gaining a loud applause from the audience.
Shi Xingtai urged Shi Lüzheng to get off the stage before continuing to ask the other participants, "Would anyone want to check if their strength would allow them to proceed to the third round?"
All of a sudden, a silhouette appeared on stage within seconds, making multiple people exclaim.
"It's Lightning Feet, Shi Kuai!"
"Shi Kuai is on stage, does that mean he improved his level of comprehension? Isn't he already at the adept level?"
"He's already 15 this year, he's bound to improve as time passes."
Shi Kuai bowed respectfully in front of Shi Xingtai before saying, "I would like to check if I have improved my comprehension of the [Lightning Stab] technique."
Shi Xingtai's eyes gleamed as he looked at Shi Kuai. Shi Kuai was quite similar to Shi Shisi, not in the sense of pursuing an extremely stable foundation, but rather in the pursuit of higher strength. The strength he pursued was that of speed, because as they say, as long as an attack is fast enough, then it makes someone unparalleled.
Shi Kuai grabbed a wooden rapier from the rack and gripped on it tightly before exerting a set of basic rapier movements. After that was done, he moved to the white pillar and positioned the tip of the rapier perpendicular to his body.
Channeling all of his strength towards the his legs and the arm that held the rapier, he took a deep breath before lunging towards the rapier as he extended his arm.
"[Lightning Stab]!"
Clink!
Thanks to the strength exerted through his legs, his rapier collided with the pillar within a few breaths of time, even driving the tip into the pillar by a few inches.
After that was over, Shi Kuai retrieved the stuck rapier from the pillar and stood solemnly as he waited for the results from the pillar.
Everyone looked at the pillar as well as they gulped their salivas, anticipating Shi Kuai's new comprehension level.
Shi Xingtai also looked at the pillar as well, but thanks to his qi, he was able to see a 4 on the tens place of the pillar, smiling inwardly.
45 ren.
Everyone looked at Shi Kuai and cheered for Shi Kuai. Shi Kuai's eyes glistened with light as he stood up and raised his arms up in victory.
Shi Xingtai looked at Shi Kuai and said, "Not bad! You were able to reach the minor success level of comprehension! See you on the third round."
Shi Kuai smiled and bowed respectfully before leaving the stage. "Thank you Elder!"
...
Shi Xingtai looked at the audience and said, "Are there any more participants willing to check their comprehension level?"
Looking at each other for a bit, almost all of the participants shook their heads.
Shi Xingtai nodded. "Well, I figured as much. Since that's the case, that only leaves Shi Li again. Come up here!"
...
Shi Li hurriedly came up on stage since he was ordered by Shi Xingtai to do so. He bowed respectfully to Shi Xingtai not long after he came on stage.
"You know the mechanics of the second round, right?" Shi Xingtai asked because he knew it was Shi Li's first tournament.
Shi Li nodded. "Thank you for asking Elder. I already asked the other participants as to how it works."
Shi Xingtai nodded back. "I see, what technique are you going to show us?"
Shi Li pondered for a bit and inwardly shook his head. The [Ardent Magma Manipulation Art] was a hammer technique of the High Huamn grade. If the other participants knew this, they would freak out. He decided to reply the origin of the [Ardent Magma Manipulation Art]...
"[Magma Swipe]."
"Oh? A hammer technique. That's rare," Shi Xingtai's eyes slightly widened as he recalled this technique from the clan library. It was truly suitable for those who wanted to use the elements without having any elemental affinity whatsoever, its disadvantage only being harder to cultivate.
"Well good luck," Shi Xingtai smiled at Shi Li. Shi Li smiled back as he went to the training weapon rack and grabbed a training hammer. He lifted it up and down and threw it in the air a couple of times before nodding his head.
Seeing that Shi Li chose the hammer as his main weapon, the participants revealed understanding looks.
"I see why he chose the hammer. Since he had the body strength, he would be better off wielding the hammer that relies on brute strength."
"Well the same rule applies to Shi Li as it applies to Shi Kuai, if an attack is fast enough, then it's unavoidable. If the attack area is large enough, then it's unavoidable."
Shi Li took a deep breath before going down the stage, where the earth was.
One of the participants saw this and couldn't help but ask, "Shi Li, what kind of technique are you going to use?"
Shi Li looked at the participants and solemnly replied, "[Magma Swipe], I need the earth to create my magma pool."
Not long after, Shi Li raised the hammer upwards and channeled his strength to his arms. He then combined the intent of breaking through anything into his attack as he slammed the hammer down.
Bang!
The earth shook as spiderweb cracks formed on the ground. Shi Li gradually lifted the hammer, revealing a small magma pool which surprised the participants.
Through the movements of his hammer, he willed the magma to condense into a small ball before waving the hammer to throw the magma ball to the pillar.
"[Magma Swipe]!"
Splash!
Magma collided with the pillar within a short span of time, turning parts of the pillar into black. The floor was affected as well as small drops of magma slightly burnt it, to which Shi Xingtai countered with his qi.
Shi Li didn't bother going up on stage and looked at the pillar, waiting for his result.
The participants looked at the pillar as well, eager to find out if Shi Li only had strength, or he had comprehension as well.
Shi Xingtai looked at Shi Li's result with his qi and couldn't help but gulp a bit of saliva as he looked.
Seconds later, the result finally showed itself to the masses, making them scream and cheer.
Shi Li couldn't help but take a step back from shock.
99 ren. That was his result.
"Bring a training weapon rack up on stage," Shi Xingtai said to a nearby clan member through voice transmission. The clan member nodded and went to get a training weapon rack, bringing it up on stage minutes later. The rack was filled with wooden weapons that had a similar weight and shape to weapons usually used in real life combat. Swords, sabers, axes, maces, zithers, hammers, you name it, that weapon is probably there. After making sure that the weapons were not tampered with, Shi Xingtai nodded his head and looked at the remaining participants. "How many participants are left again?" Shi Xingtai mumbled as he counted with his fingers. "In the first round, we had around 150 participants. Over 60 participants left, so that leaves us with more or less 90 participants remaining." Taking a deep breath, he said, "Since all of you are old-timers, I'd assume that most of you haven't increase your comprehension at all. Some of you are at the adept level while most of you are at the beginner level." "This would mean that most of you are instantly disqualified for this round...unless you prove that your comprehension level is at the adept level..." Shi Xingtai pointed his finger to the white pillar. "Using the white pillar." ... Shi Li was utterly dumbfounded as to what was happening. He was already cultivating for over three months but he didn't know things that are common sense for the majority. Steeling himself, he went to where Shi Shisi was and whispered a question to his ear. "Could you explain how the second round works?" Shi Shisi raised his eyebrow and looked at Shi Li with slight shock. "Do you not know how the tournament works? Did the patriarch tell you anything?" Shi Li sighed and shook his head. "Father I mean the patriarch didn't tell me anything at all. He just told me to cultivate to the Second Stage of Skin Tempering so I can enter this tournament." He skipped over the fact that he and his father made a deal as to how far Shi Li would be able to go. Shi Shisi frowned a bit as he looked at Shi Li. He didn't sense any hint of mockery whatsoever, it was truly a sincere question. Since it was like that, Shi Shisi wracked his brain as he recalled how the second round worked. "Well the second round is like the first round, but with the usage of your first martial technique. The martial technique increases the potency of your strength, allowing your attacks to be stronger than if they were used without techniques." He then continued, "A normal Low Human martial technique, when practiced to the level of perfection, would allow a cultivator to unleash twice the cultivator's body strength. So if you had a body strength of 30 ren, your attack would easily reach 60 ren." He then noticed Shi Li's dazed look after he finished explaining. He snapped his fingers to jolt back Shi Li to reality as he asked, "Do you understand?" Shi Li took a while for him to absorb the information given by Shi Shisi, yet he still nodded. After a while, he had a somewhat thorough understanding of how the second round worked and looked at the stage. ... A young boy at the age of 13 went up on stage and bowed respectfully to Shi Xingtai. "Oh? Shi Lzhang? I didn't expect that the first person to come up would be you," Shi Xingtai couldn't help but say. Shi Lzhang chuckled a bit before replying, "Elder jokes. I've trained a lot in my Spiralling Pierce technique and I feel like I have reached the adept level in it." He then went to the training weapon rack and grabbed a wooden spear before standing beside the pillar. "Well...go ahead. No one's hindering you from doing so. Just make sure that you don't die from embarassment," Shi Xingtai laughed. The other participants laughed as well. Shi Lzheng stabilized his footing before positioning his spear perpendicular to his body, the tip tens of centimeters away from the group. Gradually, the laughter died down as they saw Lzheng concentrating on this one attack. Once it was silent enough, Shi Lzheng rotated the spear with his full body strength as he stabbed at the pillar in one swift motion. "Spiralling Pierce!" Bang! A small dent was made on the pillar, making the participants applaud for Shi Lzheng. Shi Lzheng wanted to look at the audience and smile, but he wanted to see if he had truly reached the adept level. Within seconds, the number on the pillar reached 30 ren, the strength of a Second Stage cultivator. After that, it slowly increased, making Shi Lzheng grip the wooden spear tightly. 31... 33... 35... 36 ren. The pillar stopped at 36 ren, making Shi Lzheng kneel to the floor as he sighed in disappointment. Shi Xingtai went closer to him and placed his hand on Lzheng's shoulder. "You may not have reached the adept level of comprehension, but you're getting there. Increasing the potency of your strength by 20% is already halfway there to reaching adept level, just polish your techniques even more and I'm sure you'll reach it." Shi Lzheng looked at Shi Xingtai and lightly smiled before nodding multiple times. "Un! I'm sure I can. I just have to exert more effort into cultivating the technique!" He stood up and bowed once more to Shi Xingtai before looking at the audience and bowing to them as well, gaining a loud applause from the audience. Shi Xingtai urged Shi Lzheng to get off the stage before continuing to ask the other participants, "Would anyone want to check if their strength would allow them to proceed to the third round?" All of a sudden, a silhouette appeared on stage within seconds, making multiple people exclaim. "It's Lightning Feet, Shi Kuai!" "Shi Kuai is on stage, does that mean he improved his level of comprehension? Isn't he already at the adept level?" "He's already 15 this year, he's bound to improve as time passes." Shi Kuai bowed respectfully in front of Shi Xingtai before saying, "I would like to check if I have improved my comprehension of the Lightning Stab technique." Shi Xingtai's eyes gleamed as he looked at Shi Kuai. Shi Kuai was quite similar to Shi Shisi, not in the sense of pursuing an extremely stable foundation, but rather in the pursuit of higher strength. The strength he pursued was that of speed, because as they say, as long as an attack is fast enough, then it makes someone unparalleled. Shi Kuai grabbed a wooden rapier from the rack and gripped on it tightly before exerting a set of basic rapier movements. After that was done, he moved to the white pillar and positioned the tip of the rapier perpendicular to his body. Channeling all of his strength towards the his legs and the arm that held the rapier, he took a deep breath before lunging towards the rapier as he extended his arm. "Lightning Stab!" Clink! Thanks to the strength exerted through his legs, his rapier collided with the pillar within a few breaths of time, even driving the tip into the pillar by a few inches. After that was over, Shi Kuai retrieved the stuck rapier from the pillar and stood solemnly as he waited for the results from the pillar. Everyone looked at the pillar as well as they gulped their salivas, anticipating Shi Kuai's new comprehension level. Shi Xingtai also looked at the pillar as well, but thanks to his qi, he was able to see a 4 on the tens place of the pillar, smiling inwardly. 45 ren. Everyone looked at Shi Kuai and cheered for Shi Kuai. Shi Kuai's eyes glistened with light as he stood up and raised his arms up in victory. Shi Xingtai looked at Shi Kuai and said, "Not bad! You were able to reach the minor success level of comprehension! See you on the third round." Shi Kuai smiled and bowed respectfully before leaving the stage. "Thank you Elder!" ... Shi Xingtai looked at the audience and said, "Are there any more participants willing to check their comprehension level?" Looking at each other for a bit, almost all of the participants shook their heads. Shi Xingtai nodded. "Well, I figured as much. Since that's the case, that only leaves Shi Li again. Come up here!" ... Shi Li hurriedly came up on stage since he was ordered by Shi Xingtai to do so. He bowed respectfully to Shi Xingtai not long after he came on stage. "You know the mechanics of the second round, right?" Shi Xingtai asked because he knew it was Shi Li's first tournament. Shi Li nodded. "Thank you for asking Elder. I already asked the other participants as to how it works." Shi Xingtai nodded back. "I see, what technique are you going to show us?" Shi Li pondered for a bit and inwardly shook his head. The Ardent Magma Manipulation Art was a hammer technique of the High Huamn grade. If the other participants knew this, they would freak out. He decided to reply the origin of the Ardent Magma Manipulation Art... "Magma Swipe." "Oh? A hammer technique. That's rare," Shi Xingtai's eyes slightly widened as he recalled this technique from the clan library. It was truly suitable for those who wanted to use the elements without having any elemental affinity whatsoever, its disadvantage only being harder to cultivate. "Well good luck," Shi Xingtai smiled at Shi Li. Shi Li smiled back as he went to the training weapon rack and grabbed a training hammer. He lifted it up and down and threw it in the air a couple of times before nodding his head. Seeing that Shi Li chose the hammer as his main weapon, the participants revealed understanding looks. "I see why he chose the hammer. Since he had the body strength, he would be better off wielding the hammer that relies on brute strength." "Well the same rule applies to Shi Li as it applies to Shi Kuai, if an attack is fast enough, then it's unavoidable. If the attack area is large enough, then it's unavoidable." Shi Li took a deep breath before going down the stage, where the earth was. One of the participants saw this and couldn't help but ask, "Shi Li, what kind of technique are you going to use?" Shi Li looked at the participants and solemnly replied, "Magma Swipe, I need the earth to create my magma pool." Not long after, Shi Li raised the hammer upwards and channeled his strength to his arms. He then combined the intent of breaking through anything into his attack as he slammed the hammer down. Bang! The earth shook as spiderweb cracks formed on the ground. Shi Li gradually lifted the hammer, revealing a small magma pool which surprised the participants. Through the movements of his hammer, he willed the magma to condense into a small ball before waving the hammer to throw the magma ball to the pillar. "Magma Swipe!" Splash! Magma collided with the pillar within a short span of time, turning parts of the pillar into black. The floor was affected as well as small drops of magma slightly burnt it, to which Shi Xingtai countered with his qi. Shi Li didn't bother going up on stage and looked at the pillar, waiting for his result. The participants looked at the pillar as well, eager to find out if Shi Li only had strength, or he had comprehension as well. Shi Xingtai looked at Shi Li's result with his qi and couldn't help but gulp a bit of saliva as he looked. Seconds later, the result finally showed itself to the masses, making them scream and cheer. Shi Li couldn't help but take a step back from shock. 99 ren. That was his result.
