Chapter 17 – Third Place

Chapter 17 – Third Place
Zhang Horan smiled viciously and relaxed his body, moving towards the other two at an extremely fast speed. When he was half-way to his opponents, he started swinging his fists forward, the blue light creating a stream behind his fist which made it look like a roaring dragon was coming with the fist.
The punch was not even close, yet Wu Zongming and Ye Chen were already wobbling. In their view, there seemed to be a ferocious dragon coming their way, it was so powerful that they almost froze in fear.
Obviously, they would have to fight back to survive. It was the only way.
Ye Chen was about to do something before he realized that Wu Zongming was already prepared.
“Zhang Haoran, don’t think that you could so easily beat me with a Tiger Roar Dragon Fist! Burning Sacrifice!” Wu Zongming put his hands together, quickly accumulated his Qi, blocked out Zhang Haoran’s punch. Then he jumped toward Zhang Haoran with his whole body and threw out a punch that seemed slow but extremely fast.
Hearing Wu Zongming’s words, Ye Chen was shocked. The Burning Sacrifice was a extremely strong skill, it burnt Qi in exchange of a higher power level. However, it only lasted a short amount of time, and had a severe consequence on user’s body. If it was used too many times, the user would eventually wreck their ability to do martial arts.
Boom!
When the two fists touched, the rocks on the ground shot out, away from the explosion.
The next moment, both of them bounced back and there was blood coming out both of their mouths.
“No wonder you would dare to fight against me, it turns out you have mastered the Burning Fire Sacrifice Spell.” The Burning Fire Spell was only a high rank Mortal Realm martial art. However, once mastered, the user could bring up his power level for about thirty percent, but in return, the user would suffer in severing side effects, if they were lucky, only the user’s body would be damaged, otherwise the user might be wrecked, so no one really dared to use it regularly. Therefore, it was marked as a forbidden skill in the Sky Clouds Martial School. On the other side, even Zhang Haoran gave up on fighting Wu Zongming, he had already put in too much, if he backed out, it might affect his attempt to reach the Condensing Reality Stage.
Wu Zongming was about to say something, but he realized there were people chasing up from behind, he sneered: “Sorry, got to go!”
Woosh!
With his Burning Fire Sacrifice Spell active, Wu Zongming increased his speed to its peak, brought up a wave of heat, and disappeared into the distance.
“Consider yourself lucky, this time.”
Zhang Haoran really wanted to teach Ye Chen a lesson, but he was afraid that Wu Zongming would steal his No.1 place. Plus, he had already been wounded, and that Tiger Roar Dragon Fist had already burnt out his Qi, he was not even sure if he could make it, so he could only leave this meaningful comment and then run after Wu Zongming.
Ye Chen sneered and then he stood still and continued to remove the coldness.
Shortly after, at least ten people showed up in the lane.
Minutes later, Ye Chen opened his mouth and let out a breath of cold air. His right hand squeezed the sword, his steps lightly touched the ground, and he shot out into the lane like an arrow.
Deep in the lane.
The wooden sword artists jumped out one after another, chopping at whatever they sensed. The ten people running in front of Ye Chen had to slow down, so that they would not be attacked at the last minute.
“Damn, that guy behind us is so fast!” The person who was in the back yelled when he saw Ye Chen ignoring all the wooden artist as he ran, and managed to dodge the deadly attacks every single time.
Ah!
Right after yelling, he was knocked, by a wooden sword artist, to the ground, regretting his carelessness.
Ye Chen jumped above him, effortlessly cut off the incoming wooden sword, then passed between two wooden sword artists dangerously with perfect timing.
The reason that Ye Chen could be so calm about this, it was all because of his strong soul power. He could sense the surroundings within five meters without his eyes, then calculated a perfect route to travel, which saved plenty of time.
Ye Chen finally made his way back to third place, and ditched the number four far behind him.
…
The exit of Mu Ren Gang was the same as the entrance, which meant all of the contestants had to run in a huge circle. One could imagine how huge the Mu Ren Gang field was.
Although Ye Chen could already see the exit, but that did not mean he had succeeded yet.
There was a skinny short wooden sword artist standing by the exit. It was made of a hundred pieces of dark red wood. Holding a long thin sword in its hand, it did not seem to be alive, however, it projected a fierce aura.
Click, clack, click!
The wooden sword artist came running towards Ye Chen, faster and faster. When it was only five steps away, it swung its sword.
Ching!
Ye Chen almost lost the sword in his hand, he was surprised at the wooden sword artist’s power.
With its first attack being blocked, it started its second round of attack with the same power and speed.
“The Search for Opportunity!”
Ye Chen took a breath, his great steel sword twisted like an eel, and hit the wooden sword artist’s elbow at an awkward angle.
Although, it did not break its elbow,it created a flaw in its sword’s path Ye Chen quickly punched it in its chest.
Boom!
The wooden sword artist was blown away.
Challenge completed!
Outside the exit, Master Lin was a little bit surprised when he saw Ye Chen, he smiled: “Congratulation, you have won the third place. Here are three Windy Dew pellets. As for the high rank Mortal Realm skill and art, you would have to go pick it out yourself in the Pavilion of Martial Arts. And this is the access permit for the second floor, however, it can only be used once.”
Put away the pellets and the permit, Ye Chen finally let out a breath, it was not easy to get third place.
Wu Zongming smiled as he walked close, “Once you have a high rank Mortal Realm Art, I am afraid you will catch up with me in no time.”
Ye Chen could handle Zhang Haoran’s punch with only his Mortal Realm Stage 6 cultivation, it made Wu Zongming very interested in becoming friends with him. A friend was always better an enemy.
Ye Chen humbly replied: “No way. If it wasn’t for you, I probably wouldn’t even be standing here.”
“Never mind that, we need to hang out in the future.”
“Certainly.”
“Oh yeah, be careful around Zhang Haoran. Although he can’t really do anything to me,he might try to mess with you, so be careful.”
Ye Chen nodded, and looked towards Zhang Haoran.
Zhang Haoran did not look good, he had failed epically today. Not only he did not beat Wu Zongming, he failed to help his cousin. Luckily, he won the championship with his Inching Steps, otherwise, he would never forgive himself.
Actually, Ye Chen could not care less about Zhang Haoran. With the new high rank Mortal Realm art, he was confident he could reach the next level in a short time. In a few months time, when he trained his Qi to stage 7 or 8 and he took his arts to the highest stage, it would not be impossible for him to fight against Zhang Haoran. However, the opponent’s Tiger Roar Dragon Fist would be a threat which would be very tricky to deal with. It was rated highly among top rank Mortal Realm skills. However, Ye Chen would not be far behind, with his unique Lone Peak of Thirteen Swords, he was confident he could handle Zhang Haoran.