“Supreme Extreme Realm?”
“Bu Qianfan once reached that supreme realm in the legends?”
“It shouldn’t be true! Not many people have been able to do so since ancient times.”
……
A stone stirred up a thousand waves, the entire Pilgrimage Heavenly Staircase’s trainees, all of them were shocked, and an unknown number of pairs of eyes, converged on Bu Qianfan’s body.
Bu Qianfan, however, remained calm and collected, only gazing at Zhang Ruochen without turning his eyes away.
Zhang Ruochen, however, was not surprised in the slightest, after all, he himself had reached the Supreme Extremity Realm three times, thus showing that the Supreme Extremity Realm was not as difficult to achieve as one might think. At the very least, human power could do it.
Zhang Ruochen said, ”I guess you have some misunderstanding, for your strength, you don’t need to prove anything at all, the reason why I don’t want to fight you. That’s because, the person you want to defeat is Emperor Yi, not me.”
Bu Qianfan’s brows tightened as both fists were violently clenched, a wave of Qi surging out from his body as he said, “Since that’s the case, then I’m offended!”
Suddenly, he took three consecutive steps forward, using his palm as a blade and slashed towards Zhang Ruochen’s neck.
Zhen Jun Breaking Mighty Blade Technique.
A Ghost Grade Lower Grade Martial Skill, blending the most rigid and direct moves of the Blade Technique, Splitting, Zapping, Wrapping the Head, and Wrapping the Brain …… In the end, the complexity was reduced to simplicity, and there were only three moves left.
Seemingly only three moves, but each move contains the essence of the knife, and strive to kill with a knife.
In the army, only officers who have reached the level of “commander” are qualified to practice the Zhenjun Breaking Mighty Blade Technique, and if you want to succeed in practicing the technique, you have to go to the battlefield and keep on practicing it, and only after you have killed tens of thousands of people, you will be able to succeed in practicing the technique.
The first move that Bu Qianfan performed was the “Zhen Jun’s Blade”, which appeared to be a blade technique that was only slashed with the arm, but in front of the arm, a half-moon shaped shadow of blade light was formed.
“Wow!”
Before Bu Qianfan’s arm even landed, Zhang Ruochen could already feel the murderous, sharp, and hostile aura contained on it, which seemed to be able to slash all enemies in its way.
Zhang Ruochen had to strike, pinching his index and middle fingers together, also using his hand as a sword, he executed one of the Nine Swords of Yang Yi – Taking Chestnuts from the Fire.
Sword intent and true qi condensed at the tips of the two fingers and stabbed out sharply, striking at the side blade of Bu Qianfan’s palm.
“Boom!”
The sound of swords clashing resounded as the two men sparred hard.
Bu Qianfan’s eyes were quick and his hands were quick, his whole body’s strength surged upwards, the strength of his body drove his arm to rotate, and he immediately executed the second blade move.
“Blade of Broken Might.”
The second blade seemed to be even more terrifying than the first, with an astonishing power, even using the naked eye one could see the shadow of a large blade above Bu Qianfan’s arm, chopping towards Zhang Ruochen’s waist and abdomen along with the trajectory of his arm’s movement.
“Looking at the moon in the water.”
Zhang Ruochen performed another sword move from the Nine Swords of Yang Yi, once again blocking Bu Qianfan’s second blade.
“Sword of the Killing King.”
Without stopping, Bu Qianfan executed the third and strongest blade of the Zhen Jun Breaking Mighty Blade Technique.
Vaguely, one could see that it looked like a giant in armour stood behind him as he swung his blade down towards Zhang Ruochen’s head.
“Rumble!”
It was like a single blade, and it was like millions of blades, chopping down at the same time.
Three knives in a row, one after the other, one after the other, with increasing power.
In the face of the mountains and seas of incoming blade energy, Zhang Ruochen also looked grave, taking a step back as a way to alleviate the pressure from the blade technique.
He mobilised the power of his sword intent and executed the realm of Sword Mind, his hands coming together, his entire body was like a sword as he stabbed straight towards Bu Qianfan.
“Boom!”
Bu Qianfan retreated backwards and landed five feet away, his arm trembled non-stop, and a drop of blood actually flowed out from his sleeve.
Zhang Ruochen also took three steps backward, his ten arms numb with pain, as if he had just struck on top of an iron mountain.
“Impressive, actually blocking my Zhen Jun Breaking Might three slashes, no wonder he was able to defeat Emperor Yi.”
Bu Qianfan’s face sank, and on his arm, a layer of true qi halo emerged, and in an instant, the blood that flowed out turned into blood qi, which he inhaled into his mouth and nose.
Zhang Ruochen said, “You are also very strong, I have already used my full strength!”
A hint of laughter appeared in Bu Qianfan’s eyes as he said, “Full strength? I think otherwise! I’ve looked up your information, and your spiritual power already exceeded the 30th rank when you were at the Xuan Extreme Realm.”
“The Zhen Jun Breaking Mighty Blade Technique that I cultivate pays the most attention to momentum, and the moment the blade comes out, it has to break the spirit of the martial artist first. Even a martial artist of the Fish Dragon Realm can’t be completely indifferent in front of this set of blade techniques, yet you have not changed your face from the beginning to the end.”
“So, I’m guessing that your spiritual power, which has already reached the fortieth rank, can be called a spiritual power master. If you were to perform a mental power attack, your strength should be more than that.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “Forty orders of spiritual power? You dare to guess.”
As if he was very sure of himself, Bu Qianfan continued, “If you weren’t spiritually powerful to a certain extent, how would you be able to block the power of Emperor Yi’s Demon Heart? With your Sword Dao realm of Sword Mind, in the same realm, you still can’t defeat Emperor Yi.”
Then, Bu Qianfan added, “Even if you have spiritual power as a base card, you may not be invincible in the same realm, I also have a base card. If it’s a life and death struggle, I have a greater chance of surviving than you. Because, you have a weakness that perhaps even you don’t realise.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “What weakness?”
“Combat experience, combat experience in hovering between life and death.”
Bu Qianfan said, “I grew up on the battlefield since I was a child, experiencing no less than 10,000 battles of all sizes, with hundreds of them hovering on the brink of death, struggling in the dying, crawling through the piles of the dead, and honing in the blood.”
“The battles I’ve experienced exceed you tenfold. Every time, either you die or I die. Even when Emperor Yi defeated me back then, he couldn’t kill me and could only watch me leave.”
Zhang Ruochen’s eyes became heavy because, what Bu Qianfan said was true, compared to him, Zhang Ruochen’s battle experience and life and death honing did seem a bit lacking.
Of course, if it was a real life and death duel, Zhang Ruochen didn’t think that the one to die would be him. Because, Zhang Ruochen also had the belief of being undefeated.
Zhang Ruochen said, ”I’m curious, why did you lose to Emperor Yi in the first place? With your martial heart, how can you still be broken?”
Bu Qianfan was silent for a moment, seemingly recalling something, and then, but then he shook his head and turned around to walk towards the bottom of the Pilgrimage Heavenly Staircase, saying, “Zhang Ruochen, if you want to know the answer, come to me at the Military Ministry Camp. You want to make up for your weakness, you must come.”
Zhang Ruochen stared at Bu Qianfan’s back and revealed a hint of a smile, saying, “Quite an interesting person.”
Bu Qianfan was not a Sacred Body, yet he continued to sharpen his skills on the battlefield, breaking through to the Supreme Extreme Realm and giving himself the strength to fight against Sacred Bodies.
Not being a Sacred Body, yet being able to stay at the number one position in the Earth Ranking for three years, there really was something that ordinary people couldn’t compare to.
Zhang Ruochen stared towards Xu Qing, who was not far away, and said, “Still want to fight?”
Xu Qing’s injuries had almost healed, and as his true qi revolved, his hands immediately turned into silver-coloured metal as he laughed, “Zhang Ruochen, there’s no need for us to continue fighting, we can compare a little bit of something else.”
“Compare what?”Zhang Ruochen said.
Xu Qing’s finger pointed above the Pilgrimage Heavenly Staircase and said, “Compare who climbs higher. If you can win against me, all previous grudges will be cancelled. If you lose, you will have to kneel in front of the gate of the Xu Sage Sect Valve for three days and apologise to our Xu Sage Sect Valve. Kneeling to a Saint Sect Valve isn’t a disgrace, is it?”
“It’s that simple?”Zhang Ruochen was a bit unconvinced.
One must know that there was the suppression of the power of the Gods above the Pilgrimage Heavenly Staircase, and the higher one’s cultivation level was, the stronger the suppression would be.
Only martial artists with higher natural talent, stronger spiritual power, and stronger martial souls could ascend to the higher rungs of the ladder.
Xu Qing should know very well that his greatest advantage was that his cultivation was higher and deeper than Zhang Ruochen’s.
Since this was the case, why did he give up his advantage and instead use his disadvantage to compete with Zhang Ruochen?
Although, Zhang Ruochen felt that Xu Qing must be scheming, he did not shy away from agreeing directly.
Xu Qing rushed out first, quickly reaching the fortieth step of the heavenly ladder, and, at an extremely fast speed, continued to ascend upwards.
Zhang Ruochen rushed to the thirtieth heavenly ladder first, and after leaving his name on top of the jade tablet, he ascended to the thirty-first heavenly ladder, and the thirty-second heavenly ladder ……
A few moments later, Zhang Ruochen was already standing on top of the fortieth heavenly ladder.
At this moment, the invisible pressure became quite massive, as if there was forty times gravity acting on his body, not only was it just squeezing Zhang Ruochen’s physical body, but it was also squeezing Zhang Ruochen’s martial soul.
For an ordinary martial artist, they would definitely have already slumped to the ground.
Zhang Ruochen looked up and saw that the number of martial artists who had ascended to the 40th step was already fifty-seven. Earlier, when a few trainees from the Heavenly Demon Ridge fought with the trainees from the Xu Sheng Sect Valve, there were also other martial artists who ascended the Pilgrimage Heavenly Stairs, climbing upwards step by step.
Among them, one of the most powerful martial artists had already reached the sixty-fifth step of the heavenly ladder.
It was an heir of a Saint Sect, wearing a metal waistcoat, revealing a pair of bronze-coloured arms, making his body look extraordinarily powerful.
There were a total of three martial artists who had stepped onto the sixtieth step of the heavenly ladder. The other two, were also heirs of the Saint Sect.
There were a total of eighteen martial artists who had stepped onto the fiftieth step of the heavenly ladder.
Zi Han Sha, who had been climbing the Pilgrimage Heavenly Stairs earlier, had also reached the fifty-fourth step of the Heavenly Stairs.
It was just that his potential, it seemed, had been exhausted as he stood on top of the heavenly ladder, struggling to support himself, sweating and bending his torso, but how could he not step onto the fifty-fifth step of the heavenly ladder.
“Puh!”
Zi Han Sha forcefully took a step, wanting to ascend the fifty-fifth step of the heavenly ladder, but he was sent flying by an invisible force, spitting out blood from his mouth as he rolled downwards.
He rolled all the way down to the fortieth step of the heavenly ladder before he was able to regain his footing and climbed up from the ground, just in time to see Zhang Ruochen not far away.
“Damn it, that brat Zhang Ruochen, he is so powerful, I must not lose to him.”
Zi Han Sha naturally saw Zhang Ruochen’s earlier battle with Xu Qing and Bu Qianfan, and now, seeing Zhang Ruochen walk in front of him, his heart was very unwilling.
Thus, he clenched his teeth, regrouped, and followed closely behind Zhang Ruochen as he climbed upwards once again.
