Zhang Ruochen jumped off the back of the Blood Feathered Eagle, and saw four large and powerful characters carved on the cliff to the south of the White Stone Square, “Western Academy Martial Stadium.”
Each character, which was seven meters long and deep into the stone wall, contained a powerful sword intent.
It seemed like a supreme powerhouse, using a sword, had carved the word marks on top of the stone wall.
“The person who carved these four words must have already cultivated sword intent to the realm of Sword Mind.” Zhang Ruochen’s heart murmured.
Zhang Ruochen was only at the Sword Follows the Heart Higher Stage realm even now, and only after breaking through this realm would he be able to reach Sword Mind Understanding.
It was never an easy task to reach the realm of Sword Mind Understanding. Many supreme experts of the Heavenly Extreme Realm were also unable to cultivate to the Sword Mind Enlightenment.
In other words, if a Heavenly Extremity Realm martial artist was able to reach the realm of Sword Heart Understanding, then he would definitely be considered a powerhouse amongst the Heavenly Extremity Realm martial artists.
“This year, in the Yunwu County Kingdom, there are only a few people who have come to participate in the exams of the Martial City Academy?” A discordant voice rang out.
A valiant young man walked over, and when he saw Zhang Ruochen, Liu Chenfeng, Zi Xi, and the other young martial artists from the Yunwu County Kingdom, a few sneers appeared on his face.
A young martial artist from the Yunwu County Kingdom with a rather stout body was very annoyed and said in a deep voice, “What do you mean?”
That one valiant young man, laughed, “Sifang County Kingdom, Shen Mengxi. Mister Shen doesn’t mean anything else, I just feel that the young martial artists of Yunwu County Kingdom are getting worse every year.”
“What did you say?”
The young martial artists of the Yunwu County Kingdom all revealed angry faces and surrounded towards Shen Mengxi.
Shen Mengxi appeared very calm, still wearing a smile on his face, “Could it be that what Mister Shen said is wrong? Yunwu County Kingdom’s young martial artists were originally getting worse every year. Last year, Yunwu County Country still had at least a hundred and something people to participate in the examination, this year, there are only sixty or so people left, not even one tenth of our Sifang County Country. Haha!”
That one stout young martial artist, coldly said, “How dare you insult our Yunwu County Kingdom’s young martial artists, I’m going to challenge you and beat you down with my own hands.”
“Good! If you are able to catch three moves from me, I will immediately retract what I just said.” Shen Mengxi laughed.
“Three moves? Damn it, to dare to underestimate me like this, I will definitely make you regret it.”
That one stout young martial artist roared, the true qi in his body, flowed at a rapid pace, running with his meridians to his arms.
In an instant, the lanky young martial artist’s arms turned crimson, emitting a faint heat wave.
Stout young martial artist violently rushed out, five fingers pinch fist, a punch out, will air impact issued “pop” sound.
A young martial artist was slightly moved and said, “Jiang Heng reached the early Xuanji realm three years ago, his true qi is quite thick, moreover, he has cultivated the Fire Dragon Fist to a small level, even if he fights with a martial artist in the middle Xuanji realm, he can still fight for more than ten rounds.”
That one lanky young martial artist’s name was Jiang Heng.
It was important to know that the young martial artists who came to take the exams of the Martial City Academy were all under thirty years old. Therefore, more than seventy percent of the martial artists’ cultivation levels were at the early Xuanji Realm. The remaining 30% of the martial artists were almost all mid Xuanji Realm cultivators.
As for the late Xuan Extreme Realm and Xuan Extreme Realm Minor Extreme Position martial artists, they were simply few and far between.
Of the sixty-seven young martial artists from the Yunwu County Kingdom, there was only one late Xuanji Realm and one Xuanji Realm Minor Extreme Position.
That one young martial artist at the Xuanji Realm Minor Extreme Position was naturally Zixi.
The other late Xuan Extreme Realm martial artist, who had reached the age of twenty-nine, almost had no chance of becoming a student of the Martial City Academy. This was because, he was too old and it was impossible for him to reach the Earth Extreme Realm before the age of thirty.
If an outer palace disciple of the Martial City Academy Palace was unable to reach the Earth Extremity Realm before the age of thirty, he would no longer be able to continue staying in the Martial City Academy Palace to cultivate.
Shen Mengxi of the Four Direction County Kingdom was also at the early Xuan Extreme Realm cultivation level, however, his battle power was actually even higher than Jiang Heng.
He only saw his arm swing, slashing out a wave of true qi blade, which impacted on Jiang Heng’s chest.
“Boom!”
Jiang Heng screamed miserably and flew out backwards, falling heavily to the ground.
His chest was split by a three-foot-long bloody gash by the wave of true qi blades, and even his tendons and veins were broken by the shock, and scarlet blood kept gushing out from the wound.
With just one move, Jiang Heng was seriously injured and would definitely not be able to participate in tomorrow’s Academy Palace Examination.
“Haha! The Yunwu County Kingdom’s young generation’s expert can’t even catch a single move from this gongzi, what a disappointment.” Shen Mengxi laughed.
Those young martial artists of the Four Direction County Kingdom all laughed when they saw that Shen Mengxi had seriously injured a young martial artist of the Yunwu County Kingdom with just one move.
“Yunwu County Kingdom only had three people who entered the Martial City Academy last year, and I’m afraid that this year, not even one of them will be there.”
“With Shen Mengxi’s strength, she should be able to defeat everyone from the Yunwu County Kingdom.”
“According to this development trend, it won’t be long before Yunwu County Kingdom will be annexed by our Four Directions County Kingdom. Lol.”
Zhang Ruochen walked over to Jiang Heng’s body and took out a healing elixir, Sacred Nirvana Pill, and gave it to him.
The Sacred Nirvana Pill was a second grade healing elixir that was quite powerful, and although it could not possibly help Jiang Heng recover the two broken meridians, it could quickly allow him to recover from his external injuries. As long as the meridians in his body weren’t completely broken, he would still be able to slowly renew them back.
After taking the Sacred Nirvana Pill, Jiang Heng’s face gained a few more shades of blood, and he said with great gratitude, “Thank you, Your Highness the Ninth Prince.”
“No harm done, it’s just an elixir.” Zhang Ruochen smiled faintly and helped Jiang Heng up from the ground.
“Ninth Prince? This year, among the candidates of Yunwu County Kingdom, there is even a prince, how wonderful!”
Shen Mengxi’s eyes immediately lit up when she heard Jiang Heng’s words, her gaze looking towards Zhang Ruochen as she said, “I’ve long heard of the great name of the Yunwu County Kingdom’s royal family’s national treasures, the Innate Feats, Your Highness, the Ninth Prince, has cultivated to the Xuanji Realm at such a young age, so he must have practiced the Innate Feats, I wonder if Your Highness, the Ninth Prince, could give us a few pointers?”
Seeing Shen Mengxi preparing to provoke Zhang Ruochen, Elder Xie, who was standing at the edge of the West Courtyard Martial Stadium, frowned slightly and wanted to go and stop it.
After all, Zhang Ruochen was the prince of the Yunwu County Kingdom, his status was much higher than Jiang Heng, if he was also seriously injured before the exam, the Martial City Palace would definitely be responsible.
Elder Situ stopped Elder Xie and laughed, “Young people are practicing martial arts amongst themselves, why should we interfere?”
Elder Situ was the receiver of the candidates from the Four Directions County Kingdom, and was on good terms with the Four Directions County Kingdom, so he naturally spoke in favor of the Four Directions County Kingdom.
The more young martial artists from the Four Direction County Country who tested into the Martial City Academy Palace, the more rewards the guide received from the Martial City Academy Palace.
Therefore, every time the exams of the Martial City Academy Palace were held, not only were the candidates from each county competing with each other, but every guide was also competing with each other.
Elder Xie was a bit displeased and said, “He’s the prince of the Yunwu County Kingdom, if anything goes wrong before the exam, do you think the Yunwu County King will be kind enough to let it go?”
“Elder Xie, you’re worrying too much, nothing can happen. If something goes wrong, how about I take responsibility?” Elder Situ laughed.
“Hmph!”
Elder Xie snorted coldly and retreated.
Elder Xie didn’t want to offend Elder Situ because, Elder Situ’s cultivation was one realm higher than his. Since Elder Situ had said that he would be responsible for the matter, Elder Xie naturally gave him face.
“The young martial artists of Yunwu County Kingdom are indeed too weak, I’m afraid that not many of them are Shen Mengxi’s opponents.” Elder Xie glanced towards Zhang Ruochen and gently shook his head.
Reaching the Xuanji Realm at the age of sixteen, his natural talent was not low, but unfortunately, he was still too young, and he could not be compared to Shen Mengxi at all, and he would definitely lose.
“Since Shen Mengxi knows his identity, he shouldn’t lay a heavy hand on him, at most, he will only defeat him and humiliate him a bit as a way to strike a blow to the confidence of the young martial artists of Yunwu County Kingdom.” Elder Xie’s heart thought so and sighed once again.
Seeing Shen Mengxi asking Zhang Ruochen for a lesson, all those young martial artists from the Four Directions County Kingdom laughed, thinking that Shen Mengxi would undoubtedly win.
Prince Huo Xing of the Four Direction County Kingdom, with his hands behind his back, stood in the center of the martial arena and laughed, “Shen Mengxi, if you are able to defeat the Ninth Prince of the Yunwu County Kingdom within three moves, this prince will reward you with a True Martial Treasure Weapon!”
“Why do I need three moves? Just one move is enough.”
Shen Mengxi decided to put on a good show in front of Prince Huo Xing, and his gaze once again fixed on Zhang Ruochen as he laughed, “Your Highness, the Ninth Prince, as you also heard just now, if Mister Shen defeats you within three moves, he will be able to obtain a True Martial Treasure Artifact. Therefore, for the next battle, Mister Shen will go all out, if I have offended you ……”
Zhang Ruochen interrupted Shen Mengxi and said, “Shen Mengxi, I’m afraid you’ve misunderstood, I never said I wanted to fight you.”
Shen Mengxi was slightly stunned, and then reacted, laughing in her heart, “This Ninth Prince is capable of yielding, after seeing my powerful cultivation just now, he definitely didn’t dare to fight with me, and so, he took the initiative to escape. If you want to escape, how can I let you go?”
Before Shen Mengxi could continue to speak, Zhang Ruochen added, “It’s not the Academy Palace Examination yet, you injured a martial artist from the Yunwu County Kingdom, you must compensate for the medical expenses. I won’t extort you either, you take out 30,000 silver coins and compensate Jiang Heng. I’ll let this matter go!”
A very fair price, Zhang Ruochen neither asked for more nor less.
Shen Mengxi froze once again.
This Ninth Prince was joking, right?
The young martial artists of the Four Direction County Kingdom all burst out laughing, looking at Zhang Ruochen as if he was a fool. This Ninth Prince was too naive!
Liu Chengfeng stood out and scolded, ”Shen Mengxi, His Highness the Ninth Prince asked you to take out 30,000 silver coins of compensation, are you going to take it or not? If you don’t take it out, believe it or not, will you break your legs?”
Thirty thousand silver coins, almost all of Shen Mengxi’s wealth, how could she possibly take it out?
Shen Mengxi knew that Liu Xifeng was once a Yellow Ranked Martial Artist, and he was definitely not his opponent, so he once again stared at Zhang Ruochen, letting out a sneer and said, “The prince of Yunwu County Kingdom, it turns out that he is just a shrunken turtle, he doesn’t even have the guts to fight with me, it’s really a disgrace to the King of Yunwu County.”
Zhang Ruochen frowned slightly.
Liu Xifeng revealed a hint of a smile and said, “Shen Mengxi, you are also too big of a talker. Even if you were to fight me, you would still be bound to lose. How dare you still want to fight His Highness the Ninth Prince?”
Shen Mengxi sneered, “Fine! If His Highness the Ninth Prince is able to win against me, I will immediately hand over 30,000 silver coins to that one injured martial artist from the Yunwu County Kingdom and apologize to him. If His Highness the Ninth Prince loses, hey, how can a strong person apologize to a weak person? Does everyone say so?”
“Shen Mengxi is right, it’s impossible for the strong to apologize to the weak.”
“If the Ninth Prince doesn’t even have the courage to fight, he’d better roll back to the Yunwu County King’s Palace and eat his milk! Haha!”
All those martial artists from the Four Direction County Kingdom followed suit, wanting to force Zhang Ruochen to fight. If the Ninth Prince of the Yunwu County Kingdom was beaten into a pig’s head by Shen Mengxi, it would definitely be quite an interesting event.
