7: The Cangshan Academy is renowned throughout the region.

The first month, cultivating the Sword-Shod Startling Swan Steps, I comprehended Startling Swan, Roaming Dragon, and Cloud Shadow, with only the Innate-level Mountain and River Map left to grasp.

The second month, the Five Elements Fist's White Tiger, Wood Deer, and Water Dragon techniques entered their initial stages and gradually became proficient.

The third month, my cultivation broke through to the eighth layer of the Houtian Realm. The Five Elements Fist became proficient, my swordsmanship reached mastery, and I comprehended Sword Intent.

Three days before the martial arts hall competition, you clenched your fist. Facing the concern of the Five Elements Grandmaster and Yu Qingwei, you confidently replied, "I am fully prepared!"

After three months of hype, the entire Yuefu City was buzzing with discussions about your duel with Wang Teng.

One was an Innate Martial Body, blessed with countless opportunities, destined for greatness.

The other was a mountain dweller by birth, a young Hunter King, capable of defeating opponents beyond his rank.

Although most people didn't favor you, they still believed you could deliver an exciting battle.

Your background was thoroughly investigated.

When you were at Houtian sixth layer, you slaughtered Houtian seventh layer members of the Thirteen Bandits of the Green Forest as easily as butchering dogs.

As a child, you were ignorant, but at twelve, you suddenly awakened, and your martial arts cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds. Many Jianghu wanderers also had high hopes for you.

Most of them were rogue cultivators and wandering heroes.

Some even opened bets for your duel. The Wang family and Six Harmonies Hall reportedly placed heavy bets on Wang Teng.

The Lu family and Five Elements Hall also bet on you.

Zhao Shan, whom you easily defeated, almost wagered his entire fortune on you.

You gave him a thumbs up, acknowledging his good judgment.

Wang Teng's background was also revealed by the Five Elements Grandmaster and others over these months: he possessed at least three, or even four, Innate inheritances.

The Wang family once produced an Innate Grandmaster. Although they are in decline now, their inheritance remains. The Six Harmonies Hall's Innate palm technique, and another, was rumored to be a Way of Military Martial Arts.

The Great Xuan Dynasty was founded on martial arts. The Grand Ancestor of Great Xuan achieved the Heavenly Human Realm through military martial arts. It is evident that the strongest inheritances in the Great Xuan Dynasty are military martial arts and sword martial arts! Heavenly Human Martial Saints of the sword have always been renowned in Great Xuan.

It is said that there is a Cang Mountain Sword Saint in the capital, who calls himself Old Man Cangshan. More than ten years ago, he established Cangshan Academy, recruiting disciples with the strong support of the Great Xuan imperial family. He is now famous throughout the Five Kingdoms. Old Man Cangshan annually assesses the Cangshan disciples who come to apprentice, recruiting personal disciples.

Over the past decade, he has only accepted three personal disciples. It is said that he will eventually accept nine personal disciples in total, imparting the Way of Heavenly Human to them.

The Five Elements Grandmaster also recommended you to take the assessment. If you can defeat an Innate Martial Body at the same level or by transcending your rank, your fame will spread far and wide, and you will also have a chance to gain the favor of a Heavenly Human.

It is rumored that Wang Teng is also preparing for Old Man Cangshan's assessment.

Old Man Cangshan only accepts talented heroes under twenty-five years old and below the Innate Realm.

The Five Elements Grandmaster told you that the path to Innate, the foundation of the Martial Body, the essence of martial arts, and heavenly comprehension are all key points of Old Man Cangshan's assessment.

Old Man Cangshan only accepts prodigies who have forged their own martial path. This means he does not accept those who break through to Innate by cultivating predecessors' techniques, nor those whose Houtian-condensed Innate Martial Body is weak.

Old Man Cangshan is extremely strict in accepting disciples. He seeks prodigies at the Houtian ninth layer who possess the talent to create the rudimentary form of a Heavenly Human Realm technique to qualify as his personal disciples.

Nine personal disciples mean that Old Man Cangshan plans to cultivate nine Heavenly Human Martial Saints! Those who become his personal disciples will receive Old Man Cangshan's lifelong Heavenly Human inheritance, yet they are not allowed to fully follow his Heavenly Human path.

Those with some insight know that Old Man Cangshan's ambitions are vast, yet the Great Xuan imperial family strongly supports him. The intricacies of this are not for outsiders to know.

You felt that this was your main quest, and Wang Teng, the Thirteen Bandits of the Green Forest, were at most minor obstacles on your main path.

In a blink of an eye, the day of the competition arrived. Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the two of you entered the arena.

Wang Teng was extremely arrogant: "A commoner like you should have rotted among the weeds. How dare you now provoke the tiger's whiskers of a superior man?

Very well, I shall cast you into the dust, never to see the light again, as a boon for glimpsing a corner of the Heavenly Palace!"

You raised an eyebrow, your arrogance tinged with disdain: "A frog in a well knows not the height of the sky! One who offers his head for sale knows not that his death is near!

Do you even deserve to compete with me?

Just a mere Innate Martial Body, yet you dare to claim Heavenly Human potential?

Shameless, brazen fellow, your boasting to me now is the most glorious moment of your life. From now on, I will only regard you as roadside weeds, utterly insignificant!"

He was arrogant, you were haughty. The onlookers, who initially intended to side with you after hearing Wang Teng's arrogant words, were dumbfounded by what you said.

They became even more eager for your duel. Who can't talk big? Proving it with skill is what truly matters.

Wang Teng laughed in extreme anger: "Good, good, good! I'll see how an ant can defy the heavens! I will grant you fear and death!"

You said blandly: "Idiot!"

You saw, he was getting agitated! He wanted to defeat you quickly, trample you underfoot, and thoroughly humiliate you.

Startling Swan transformed into a shadowless blur, sword qi into a roaming dragon. You moved with ease, dodging in time, and Wang Teng gained no advantage.

He began to take you seriously, realizing you were no clown, but his desire to kill you did not lessen.

You had the Startling Swan Steps, he had the Myriad Shadow Decimation. Your speeds were incredibly fast, surpassing what was expected of your current realm.

The Five Elements Fist and Six Harmonies Palm began to clash. You did not gain the upper hand, as you had only been cultivating the Five Elements Fist for a short time.

However, you integrated the Five Elements Fist into your hunting techniques, treating Wang Teng as a precious beast in the mountains. You gradually assimilated, initiating a predatory duel, and your attacks became sharper.

There are no undeserving reputations. Wang Teng was strong, but you were not weak. Both of you were at the Houtian eighth layer. You had just entered the eighth layer, while he was at the peak of the eighth. Perhaps his vitality and divine abilities were slightly stronger than yours, but only marginally so.

With your martial intuition perceiving everything, you attacked his weak points and avoided his sharp edges, like an experienced hunter, gradually weakening your prey.

Wang Teng realized this. In his anger, he also understood that he couldn't fall into your rhythm. After a powerful strike repelled you, he launched a flickering attack with his family's leg techniques.

With the flash of the Startling Swan Steps and the dance of the Roaming Dragon Sword, your movement technique was not weak, even stronger than his.

Of course, Wang Teng's goal was not to suppress you with leg techniques; he was accumulating power. The Way of Military Martial Arts, burning vitality, is renowned for its ferocity, might, and the strength of a thousand armies. The "Myriad Army Decimation" is conceived with the idea of one person fighting ten thousand armies.

The Military Martial Arts momentum, with the might of ten thousand armies, overwhelms enemies. Imposing pressure through momentum, among all forms of momentum, military momentum is the strongest.

This is indisputable.

However, military martial arts momentum often relies on gathering the strength of many.

Although Wang Teng possessed the momentum of a single person forming an army, he lacked sustained power and was not invincible.

Sword Intent — Heavenly River Star Radiance, like the Milky Way falling from the nine heavens. This sword intent, derived from the Great White Scripture's supreme Grandmaster-level Innate technique, was not inferior to others.

Sword Intent and Military Momentum collided, reaching a stalemate for a moment.

Military momentum is strongest at the first charge, weakens at the second, and is exhausted at the third. Wang Teng, seizing the advantage, pressed on relentlessly. The surging roar of ten thousand things was unceasing. He wanted to crush you like an ant with overwhelming force.

Stars like scattered points of sword shadows, the Heavenly River descending with myriad stars, the Great White Star shining with murderous intent, Great White Seven Kills!

The three forms of the Great White Scripture merged into one. The Great White Sword Intent was like a Flying Immortal from beyond the heavens—swift, deadly, sharp, violent, and elegant!

You finally managed to put on a grand display of power!

The crowd fell silent!