157: Chapter 157 The Second Round of Battle Ends

After the first round, the light screen on the martial arts stage was readjusted, dividing the top eight into four battle zones.

Principal Gongsun's voice resonated across the entire venue through spiritual power: "Next is the second round, a round-robin tournament. Everyone must face the others one by one; whoever accumulates the most wins will claim the championship."

"Remember, running out of spiritual power means elimination. Endurance and strategy are more important than momentary bursts of power."

Zhang Wen stood in the rest area, pinching a piece of "Qi Condensation Jade" used to replenish spiritual power between his fingertips, the patterns on the jade fading at a rate visible to the naked eye.

The spiritual power consumed in the battle with Zhou Tong had not yet been fully replenished, but his opponent for the second round had already appeared on the light screen—Wind Shadow Lingfeng.

Second Round: Zhang Wen VS Wind Shadow Lingfeng.

Ling Feng had clearly learned from his defeat against Xiao Zhan; from the very start, he pushed his speed to the limit, his figure transforming into dozens of afterimages as he moved at high speed around Zhang Wen.

"No matter how fast your Lightning Radiance is, can you strike a shadow?"

His mocking voice came from within the afterimages, mixed with whistling Wind Blades, attacking all of Zhang Wen's vital points from every direction.

Zhang Wen did not rashly swing his spear.

The lightning mark on his left arm lit up, and the Nine Heavens Tribulation Thunder flowed slowly along his Meridians, keeping spiritual power consumption to a minimum.

"No matter how many shadows there are, there is always a real body."

He suddenly closed his eyes, relying solely on his Thunder Element technique's perception of airflow to capture Ling Feng's trajectory—every afterimage that swept past would stir up a minute fluctuation of spiritual power, but only the real body could cause the air to vibrate.

Three breaths later, Zhang Wen snapped his eyes open, and the sky-splitting startling thunder spear swept out, the Lightning Radiance at its tip precisely striking an afterimage to the southeast.

With a "puff" sound, the afterimage dissipated, and Ling Feng's real body was forced out, his shoulder grazed by the Lightning Radiance, instantly turning charred black.

"Impossible!" He staggered backward, the onslaught of his Wind Blades falling into disarray.

Zhang Wen did not pursue, merely standing there holding his spear: "Your speed relies on bursts of spiritual power, and every afterimage consumes your Origin. If you keep holding on like this, you'll only make it easier for the people who come after."

Ling Feng's expression changed abruptly. He truly could not hold on much longer; just now, in order to confuse Zhang Wen, he had already overdrawn much of his spiritual power.

When Zhang Wen's second bolt of Lightning Radiance struck, he couldn't even condense a Wind Shield and was directly blasted out of the light screen.

Upon landing, he looked at Zhang Wen, who was calmly retracting his spear on the martial arts stage, and suddenly understood: a true expert is never confused by flashy Moves.

Su Qing VS Shi Lei.

Shi Lei repeated his old trick, with earthen walls rising from the ground to trap Su Qing in the center.

"This time I added 'Black Iron Sand', let's see how long your lousy sword can keep hacking!"

The surface of the earthen walls shimmered with a metallic luster, and Su Qing's rusted sword left only shallow white marks when it struck.

Su Qing, however, was neither hurried nor impatient; she circled the earthen walls, occasionally lightly scratching the surface with her rusted sword.

"Earth Element techniques may be stable, but they fear 'vibration'." She suddenly stopped, the tip of her sword pressing against an inconspicuous crack on the wall, "Crimson Lotus - Collapse!"

Essence blood was injected into the rusted sword again, crimson light spreading along the crack, and a "crack" sound of shattering came from inside the earthen wall.

Shi Lei's expression changed drastically; just as he wanted to reinforce the earthen wall, the entire wall collapsed with a roar. Amidst the flying debris, Su Qing's rusted sword was already pressed against his throat.

"You have lost."

Lu Yan VS Chu Yao.

Chu Yao's vines surged toward Lu Yan like a tide, their thorns shimmering with a sinister green poisonous light.

"My 'Bone-Eroding Vines' can decompose metal; no matter how hard your Vajra Body is, it can't withstand three days and three nights of gnawing."

She stood behind the vines, flicking her fingertips, controlling the vines to tighten continuously, attempting to drain Lu Yan's stamina.

Lu Yan just chuckled, letting the vines wrap around his limbs.

"My ma said, resisting hard is not as good as borrowing power." He suddenly exerted force, his muscles bulging, and the entangled vines were actually snapped by him.

Even more bizarrely, the sap from the broken vines splashed onto his skin, but instead of corroding it, it was absorbed by his skin, and his bronze-colored skin took on a faint green glow.

"You... you are absorbing my spiritual power?"

Chu Yao retreated in shock.

Lu Yan scratched his head, his simple smile broadening: "Vajra Body can refine foreign spiritual power, thank you for the 'feeding', Miss."

He strode toward Chu Yao, and before his fist even arrived, the powerful wind had already shattered her vines into pieces.

Seeing this, Chu Yao, not wanting to give this person any advantage, voluntarily jumped out of the light screen.

Ye Chen VS Xiao Zhan.

This was the most brutal duel of this round.

Ye Chen's black mist sword shadows were like maggots on a bone, always able to pierce in from the blind spots of Xiao Zhan's defense, forcing him to constantly activate his Overlord Body, consuming the red light extremely quickly.

Although Xiao Zhan's fists were fierce, they were always half a step away from hitting Ye Chen's real body. The black iron stage surface was smashed into dozens of deep pits by him, and his spiritual power consumption was even greater than Ye Chen's.

"You hiding rat!" Xiao Zhan roared and smashed a fist onto the ground. The red light of his Overlord Body surged suddenly; he was actually going to force Ye Chen to face him head-on at the cost of burning his own spiritual power.

Ye Chen's black mist churned violently; he had clearly also reached his limit.

Just as the two were about to determine the victor, Ye Chen suddenly withdrew his sword and retreated: "I'll count this round as your win; we'll decide life and death next time."

Xiao Zhan panted heavily, watching Ye Chen's figure disappear into the shadows, and spat out a mouthful of blood-stained saliva: "You're sensible!"

He knew that if they kept fighting, he would definitely run out of spiritual power first. Ye Chen's Move of retreating to advance was ruthless enough.

After the second round concluded, the temporary scores appeared on the light screen of the martial arts stage: Zhang Wen and Lu Yan each had 2 points, Su Qing and Xiao Zhan each had 1 point, Ye Chen and Chu Yao each had 1 point, and Wind Shadow Lingfeng and Shi Lei had 0 points.

As the sun set, the matchup list for the third round lit up, and next to Zhang Wen's name, the two characters "Ye Chen" appeared prominently.

Zhang Wen looked at the black figure in the shadows of the rest area, and the tip of his sky-splitting startling thunder spear unconsciously flickered with Lightning Radiance.

He knew that the real tough battle had only just begun.

And at this moment, no one noticed that on the recorder of the Sakura Country Yin and Yang master off the stage, the scene of Zhang Wen closing his eyes to perceive was being played back repeatedly, with a small line of text noted next to it: "SSS-Rank Talent, requires priority monitoring."