124: Take my sword

"Remember, strike first! You must choose the Nian Needle!!!" Yun Yi instructed.

"Nian Needle? I don't think that's necessary, I'm confident!" Long Yuan immediately said.

"Oh? Are you really confident?" Yun Yi asked.

"Teacher, don't worry! I will definitely secure the victory!" Long Yuan replied, stepping into the cloud cabin.

The door of the cloud cabin automatically closed, and a voice rang out, saying, "Welcome to the Great Ming Cloud Challenge! Please insert your identification card into the slot!"

Long Yuan inserted his student card, and a glowing light immediately appeared. After flickering a few times, the voice said, "Welcome, student Long Yuan! Your identity has been verified! You are currently participating in the ranking competition for the Martial Apprentice Realm. Please enter the combat position and select your standard weapon first!"

Long Yuan followed the prompt and walked into the combat position. A helmet slowly descended, covering him. Immediately, a projection of a light screen appeared before his eyes, displaying various weapon patterns. With a thought, his Soul Power landed on the longsword pattern, and the voice rang out, saying, "You have selected the standard longsword. Please prepare for battle. The System is currently matching an opponent for you..."

He felt a surge of energy probing his body, which must have been detecting his cultivation Realm. When he entered, he had suppressed his Realm to the early stage of Martial Apprentice, and he wondered if this detection method could uncover anything more... As he was thinking, the information light screen representing him displayed the words "Early Stage Martial Apprentice." He immediately felt a slight sense of relief. Thankfully, the Breath Concealment Art truly deserved its reputation as a Divine-grade Immortal Art; it was not something this small cloud cabin could detect.

As for his Divine-grade Physique and Bloodline, they were also not displayed. The cloud cabin likely did not have a detection function for those aspects. Since this was a cloud battle, everyone competed based on Realm, Martial Skill, and combat ability; Physique and Bloodline were excluded. Therefore, from this perspective, cloud combat did not represent true external combat, because real combat outside had many more variables that could influence the outcome, such as the equipment of both parties, hidden Profound Weapons and secret moves, as well as Physique and Bloodline Power, etc. Each of these factors could potentially cause significant changes in the outcome... While Long Yuan was pondering the operating rules of the cloud cabin, the voice rang out again, saying, "Your opponent has been matched. Please prepare for battle!"

His spirit momentarily wavered, and he found himself standing at the edge of a dense forest. His Divine Sense swept out and landed on a vortex of Qi not far ahead. The vortex spun gently for a moment, and a figure slowly emerged from it—a robust and handsome young man holding a saber!

Looking at the informational projection beside him, it read:

[Name: Fu Fei]

[Location: Shuntian Prefecture, Shuntian No. 1 Middle School]

[Realm: Martial Apprentice Peak]

[Selected Profound Weapon: Standard Long Saber]

[Matches: 25 battles; Record: 25 wins, 0 losses, 0 draws; Win Rate: 100%]

[Points: 4200; National Ranking: Not ranked until 100 battles are completed]

"Strange, how could the System match me, an early-stage Martial Apprentice, with a Martial Apprentice at the Peak? Is the System looking at the purity of the Xuan Power?" Long Yuan muttered to himself, but quickly figured out the reason. Although he had suppressed his Realm, that only suppressed the Xuan pressure. The System had genuinely scanned the purity of his Xuan Power. Even that single trace of Xuan Power at the early Martial Apprentice stage was comparable to the standard of a Martial Apprentice at the Peak. Therefore, the System probably used this as a standard to directly match him with an opponent at the Martial Apprentice Peak.

At this moment, the teachers and students watching outside were all dumbfounded, seriously suspecting that the System had malfunctioned, or that it was deliberately trying to make all the students from Fengyang No. 1 High School suffer a massive defeat today!

Matching an early-stage Martial Apprentice with a Martial Apprentice at the Peak, and a super expert with a 100% win rate at that—who could possibly withstand this?

Shuntian No. 1 Middle School! That was the highest-ranked middle school in the entire Great Ming in terms of strength. No wonder this person could achieve a one hundred percent win rate!

When Fu Fei saw Long Yuan's information opposite him, a look of surprise immediately flashed across his Face, and then he burst out cursing, "System, you can't be serious, can you? I thought you were going to match me with a Martial Artist opponent, and this is what I get?!"

A hint of awkwardness appeared on Long Yuan's Face, but he had previously promised Yun Yi and Lu Shijie that he would strive for victory. For the sake of Fengyang No. 1 High School's Face, he couldn't worry about anything else. No matter who the opponent was, he had to cut him down this time. So, he scoffed, "Make your move!"

"What?! You want me to move and kill you?! I suggest you quickly commit suicide so you don't dirty my hands! A weakling like you isn't even worth me making a move!" Fu Fei shouted loudly.

Long Yuan paused, then said coldly, "Since you won't move, then take a strike from my sword!"

He casually thrust out a sword strike. Fu Fei was initially completely unconcerned, but he suddenly froze, his eyes fixed intently on the approaching sword. A look of confusion flashed across his Face, because the sword suddenly appeared incredibly profound in his eyes. He was completely unable to determine the direction from which the sword was striking, or where it was aimed. He reacted sharply, hastily executing his family's "Misty Smoke Steps" to evade, his long saber ready to counterattack at any moment. However, he discovered in horror that no matter where he dodged, the longsword was still coming for him. Because he couldn't determine the exact location of the longsword, he couldn't swing his long saber. In an instant, he shifted his posture and position dozens of times, but before he could complete the final change, the sword struck his right knee joint. With a "thud," he fell to the ground, his long saber having flown off somewhere unknown!

This scene was instantly frozen by the System, and then a light screen lit up: "Long Yuan wins!"

The teachers and students watching outside were all stunned at this point, standing motionless like wooden statues, unable to comprehend the scene.

At this moment, Long Yuan heard the System's voice ring out again, saying, "Student Long Yuan, would you like to continue the challenge? Winning a match against the same Realm or lower grants 100 points, plus a 100-point winning streak bonus. Successfully challenging across one minor stage grants an extra 500 points. Successfully challenging across one major stage grants an extra 10,000 points! Conversely, points are deducted accordingly, but no points are deducted for failed challenges across stages or major stages!"

"There are point rewards? Then let's continue!" Long Yuan's interest was piqued. After his classmates failed earlier, they seemed to have points deducted, becoming debtors. If he achieved a winning streak, he could both earn Face for the school and accumulate more points. These points were the basis for future rankings, so he decided to grab them first.

"Please wait, the System is currently matching an opponent for you..."

After a moment, the voice rang out again, saying, "Your opponent has been matched. Please prepare for battle!"

...