Chapter 32 – Evaluation
“It all depends on his performance.” Zhu Chi said with some thought.
At this time, Liu Ming gave a low roar as his arms suddenly thickened. Quickly, he raised the steel lock above his head with ease before putting it back down again.
Liu Ming’s performance brought forth quite a few surprised expressions from the crowd.
Because Liu Ming had shown that he mastered the first level of his Entrance Cultivation Method, it was no surprise that he could lift the lightest lock. However, the easy manner in which Liu Ming lifted it was quite surprising.
Some disciples were quite curious if their new junior could lift the second steel lock.
Contrary to their expectations, Liu Ming took a deep breath and restored his arms back to normal before walking towards the stone monument.
After chanting, a green wind blade shot out and left a scar on the monument, similar in size to the one that Yu Cheng had left.
This barely decent result left Zhu Chi and the nun quite disappointed.
“For the first two events, the first is a ‘moderate – high’ and the second is a ‘moderate’.” The scholar appraised after thinking a bit.
Hearing this, Liu Ming looked at the golem inside the circle and instinctively rubbed the Tiger’s Bite Bracelet on his wrist.
The moment he stepped into the circle, the golem immediately, and furiously, rushed towards him.
However, Liu Ming was well-prepared; his feet slightly moved and with a strange angle, he dodged the straightforward attack from the golem. Afterward, he shook the Tiger’s Bite Bracelet on his wrist and whispered, “Lighten”.
The Tiger’s Bite Bracelet shone with a white light!
Instantly, Liu Ming’s body became a few times lighter than before, and among the twists and turns, he seemed to have become much more agile.
After the golem’s punches all missed it suddenly opened its arms. After spinning crazily around like a spinning top, several illusory arms, created by high spinning punches, appeared and attacked Liu Ming.
For a moment, there were shadows of punches all around Liu Ming, trapping him in the middle without any way of escape.
Seeing this, Liu Ming’s eyes flashed as the black smoke on his body suddenly thickened. Then, he suddenly passed through the punches of the golem with incredible agility and ended up right in front of the golem.
With a slight move of his arm, the hand that had the Tiger Bite Bracelet was placed onto the crystal at the golem’s chest. Then, Liu Ming called out: “Tiger’s Roar”.
With a slight buzz, a yellow tiger head surfaced from the bracelet and roared, creating a white sound wave blasted ahead.
With a “hong” sound, the golem was blasted backwards by the sound wave. After stumbling a few steps backwards, it suddenly became motionless with a noisy creak.
Even though the golem was not harmed in the slightest, the Spirit Stone lodged in it’s chest had completely shattered.
“Haha. Good. Not bad. To be able to find the weak spot of this low-level golem in such a short amount of time. That was pretty good. Looking at your reaction time and movement, you have some real combat experience right?” Gu Ru Quan laughed as he saw the golem defeated.
“I have previously trained mortal secret techniques and have thus been in quite a few fights.” Liu Ming vaguely answered.
“Great. For your final event, I will give you a ‘good’ grade. Therefore, your average grade is a ‘moderate to good’ and with this grade, you should be eligible for the extra awards at the end.” The Spirit Master peacefully said while showing a smile.
“Thank you teacher Gu!” Liu Ming felt joy in his heart as he made a bow to the scholar and returned to his place among the new disciples, whom now surrounded him with surprised gazes.
“Senior Bai, you’re so strong. To actually find a method to directly defeat the golem, that’s incredible.” Wan Xiaoqing was still incredulous when Liu Ming returned.
“That’s right. Senior Bai, have you really finished the first level of the Ghost Spirit Method? If it was not for us going through the Opening Spirit Ceremony together, I would have never thought that you would be a Three Spiritual Pulse like us.” Xue Shan said with envy.
The red-haired teen standing at the side also looked at Liu Ming with a complex look.
“Didn’t you listen to what Teacher Gui said? This time, I was just lucky to find the golem’s weakness so that I could beat it in one attack. If the first one to be tested was me, surely I would not have been able to do a thing,” Liu Ming replied with a smile.
Although these words sounded a bit empty, the disciples Xue Shan and Yu Cheng finally found some reasons to their previous failures and their hearts were finally at ease.
Only Wan Xiaoqing was still staring at Liu Ming and after a while, the corners of her lips slightly curled, showing that she did not believe Liu Ming’s words.
However, Liu Ming did not care about whether a girl believed in his words or not, and instead put all of his attention on the last new disciple to be tested, Xiao Feng.
Xiao Feng was quite handsome with only his nose being a little flat. However, as a Nine Spiritual Pulse disciple, before he even appeared in the field, a lot of people were already taking secret glances at him.
Earlier on, even though he was standing amongst the new disciples, he did not talk to anyone; his eyes even showed disdain towards the results of Xue Shan and the other new disciples.
However, when he saw Liu Ming defeat the golem in one hit, his face finally showed a hint of seriousness.
When Gu Ru Quan finally called his name, he finally came out of his trance and stepped forward.
Taking a few steps towards the steel locks, he did not stop in front of the smallest lock and instead stopped at the second lock. After taking a light breath, threads of green light appeared beneath his skin and made him seems as if he had turned into a light green human.
TL: Here comes Hulk!
Zil: Glowing One! He’s radioactive!
“That’s the Withering Wood Method. Teacher Gui actually taught him that method. In addition, from the looks of it, he has even finished the first level of the method.”
The older inner disciples, who were watching Xiao Feng, flinched in surprise as someone yelled out Xiao Feng’s Cultivation Method.
Although the Withering Wood Method was an entrance Cultivation Method, it was one of the hardest methods of the thirteen entrance Cultivation Methods. If one did not have someone guiding them, or exceptional talent, it was impossible to actually learn it!
After the green flash of light under Xiao Feng’s skin faded, he bent down and slowly raised the second steel lock above his head.
This incredible feat silences the buzzing crowd that was still discussing Xiao Feng’s Cultivation Method.
After throwing down the steel lock, Xiao Feng did not leave. Instead, he started chanting on the spot.
“Is he trying to…”
Some of the disciples understood what Xiao Feng was doing and showed expressions of surprise.
After a second, a flash of blue light sparkled and an icicle that was about a feet long appeared in Xiao Feng’s hand. With a light flick of Xiao Feng’s wrist, the icicle shot towards the stone monument thirty steps away.
The result was an explosive sound. The upper half portion of the monument had been covered by frost, while in the middle of the monument there was a small hole with a radius of half an inch!
“He actually mastered the spell – Icicle Technique. It really is incredible. Did he really start training half a year ago?” Another buzz sounded throughout the crowd.
Seeing this, the scholar nodded his head as he showed a pleased expression:
“Very good. I had thought that because you were practicing the Withering Wood Method, your spells would be a little weak. It looks like that I worried needlessly. Your comprehension abilities are extremely good and for the first two event, you deserve ‘good’ grades for both. However, I hope that you don’t disappoint me in the actual combat event.”
After replying “yes”, Xiao Feng fished out a light green ring and walked towards the circle.
With a “huchi” sound, the golem, which had a new Spirit Stone, pounced towards Xiao Feng.
Xiao Feng did not show any intentions of dodging and instead lowly roared. Instantly, his skin turned into a shade of strange, oily green.
With a “peng”, the golem’s punch landed on Xiao Feng’s shoulder. However, the only effect of that punch was Xiao Feng leaning back a bit while his feet were firmly planted on the ground.
Not only did the punch not have much of an effect, Xiao Feng used the time in which the golem had not retracted its arm and punched three times with both of his arms towards the golem.
With a “hong” sound, the golem was sent flying, and when it finally landed, it could no longer stand.
The Spirit Stone in its chest had turned to dust after the three hits.
“Haha. Good. Feng Er, to be able to push your advantages to the max and using the Withering Wood Method’s defense ability to help you make that crucial attack. Impressive! This event also deserves a ‘good’ grade. With this, your average grade is ‘good’.” The scholar praised happily.
“It’s the result of Teacher Gui and Martial Uncle Zhu’s teaching. I do not dare to take credit.” Even though Xiao Feng was extremely gleeful, he didn’t forget to bow and humbly give the credit to his teachers.
“If not for your outstanding talent, you would not get such a result no matter how much I tried to teach you. However, you can’t be too full of yourself. Also, look at your seniors in their events. For now, you can go back to the new disciples.” The scholar smiled as he walked back towards Zhu Chi and the nun.
“Junior Zhu and Junior Zhong, how do you think Feng Er did? Can he be of use in the next Large Competition?” Once the scholar neared to the other two Spirit Masters, he immediately asked.
“Feng Er did quite well and really stands over the other disciples which was to be expected since he is a Nine Spiritual Pulse. However, I think that him performing in the next Large Competition is too hasty. No matter how fast he trains, he will at most be a Middle Spirit Apostle by the next Large Competition.” Zhu Chi first nodded before furrowing his eyebrows.
“I’m not expecting Feng Er to gain a Core Disciple spot at the next Large Competition. I just hope that our faction will look a bit better. Our Nine Infant faction has really underperformed in the past few Large Competitions. Not only do we not have a spot in the top ten Core Disciples, we don’t even have that many disciples with potential.” Gu Ru Quan sighed.
“Since senior is thinking like that, then it’s alright. However, that personal disciple named Yu Cheng is quite ordinary. He’s probably not worth your efforts while that Three Spiritual Pulse disciple named Bai Chong Tian performed quite well. However, how could he have possibly finished the first level of the Ghost Spirit Method with his talent? Does he have a hidden Spirit Body?” The pretty nun finally spoke up.