The gaze of the Cangyun Emperor swept pa.s.sed everyone. As his line of sight shifted over Gongyi Tianheng, it stopped but for a moment before continuing on.
Afterwards, he smiled and instantly appeared amiable and approachable: “Everyone, please sit.”
The palace hall had many seats. The ones furthest in front numbered eight. There was no doubt that those were for the top eight finalists of the Clan War.
As for the members of the Five Clans, including those brought by the other forces, all of them sat on either side, making them appear like spectators — Even Gu Zuo and Dragon One, who were obviously attendants, could only sit all the way in the back. This could be counted as a kind of honor.
Besides the five great young masters, the other three powerful martial artists arrived long ago. They all had the support of their own Families, and these Families were first-cla.s.s powers. It was relatively surprising that the five Great Clans didn't have a second person enter the top eight. One didn't know if luck was the reason, or if it was something else.
Gu Zuo secretly thought: Maybe it was purposefully arranged for compet.i.tors to eliminate the other Clan's contestants? As a conspiracy theory, the royal family decided on opening the Azure Dragon Pool before the Clan War, but the placements were limited. They didn't want to let such superior grade Clans occupy too many placements and affect the balance or something…
In actuality, Gu Zuo's thought process was indeed correct.
Apart from each of the five Great Clans taking a placement, there'd be three left. When allocated, which Clans would get them? Once a Clan had more placements, it would potentially cause some social upheaval. The monarch regarded these powers very seriously. The Clans were the same as feudal va.s.sals, so naturally the worse the relationships got between the Clans, the better it was for the Emperor.
Moreover, Gongyi Tianheng was capable of practicing martial arts. The one who was most satisfied with this was the Cangyun Emperor.
Because the Gongyi Clan was formerly viewed as the best among the five Great Clans, it was originally quite solitary. Huangfu [1] with Duanmu, and Sima with Helian — It could be said that the relationships between the two groups were pretty good, especially within the last couple of decades. This kind of trend became more and more obvious. Sooner or later, it could form one or two alliances between three Clans. By then, the Gongyi Clan would definitely become the weakest among them. Under those circ.u.mstances, the Gongyi Clan could only strengthen its power to mutually restrict those three-way alliances to stabilize. Apart from this, any of the other two “dual alliances” getting stronger wasn't a scene the Empire would be happy to see.
The current Gongyi Clan's Gongyi Tianheng became powerful. It was very possible for him to bring great glory to the Clan within a hundred years. When that time came, it would also be very advantageous to the Empire.
Thus, not only was it unlikely for the Cangyun Emperor to ignore the remarkable Tianheng rather the Emperor hoped that he could become even more outstanding — It wasn't only for the sake of stability, but because a major event would occur afterwards. He urgently needed this kind of especially preeminent young genius.
Back to the matter at hand, once the Cangyun Emperor saw that everyone was seated, he wasn't long-winded as he said forthrightly: “At this time, the Azure Dragon Pool will open and there will be twelve placements available. Everyone here are all extremely remarkable elites. If you can pa.s.s several tests, you can receive a placement and enjoy the baptism of the Xiantian Dragon Qi.”
Mentioning this, he changed the topic, “But if you cannot pa.s.s…then the remaining placements will be for those selected from the best.”
The martial artists in the hall all expressed their understanding.
After so many years, the existence of the Azure Dragon Pool hadn't remained a secret. Everyone understood that if the royal family wanted to open it, they had to pay a very high price. Many resources had to be sacrificed to achieve this. Originally, the imperial household shouldered this part of the costs and was willing to share the placements. So, it was only fair for them to issue tests and such.
They had decided long ago that no matter how difficult the test, giving up was absolutely impossible!
The Cangyun Emperor was very pleased and he waved his hand.
A rumbling echo could be heard from the back of the palace.
There were more than ten Houtian stage nine perfect-grade martial artists who were red in the face as they spared no effort in carrying an immense block of stone up to the center of the hall. Then they released their hands and the giant stone fell down.
The entire palace hall seemed to quake.
Gu Zuo saw that this stone block was suffused with a faint silvery light. It was roughly five meters tall and three meters on each side. Its surface was smooth as if a metallic mineral was mixed in. It didn't look like it was a simple rock.
Yet, just what was this Emperor up to bringing this thing? Could it be that the test for the eight of them was whether they could lift it by their own strength? It took more than ten martial artists of nearly the same realms to successfully do this. It must weigh several tons… That said, each increase in a Houtian martial artist's realm gave them the strength to carry an additional hundred to one hundred fifty kilograms. When they reached perfect-grade, their strength could carry one thousand five hundred kilograms at most. If it really had to be lifted, then there was no one who could do it.
As it turned out, Gu Zuo still didn't guess incorrectly.
The Cangyun Emperor said: “Everyone, please step forward one by one to move this Qianjun Stone [2].”
Gu Zuo: So it wasn't five thousand kilograms, but fifteen thousand… The Cangyun Emperor's heart was truly black.
All the martial artists looked at each other in dismay, but this was the imperial household's test. Wouldn't not even trying just be losing face? Perhaps this was testing their mentality when they faced a challenge? So even though Helian Xingcheng and the other's complexions were unsightly, they still prepared to take the initiative.
Gongyi Tianheng sat in his chair and grinned. His posture was so calm.
Gu Zuo saw that and felt a little baffled.
His adoptive big brother always could avoid doing things he wasn't perfect at. After he condensed so many bone pearls in his acupoints, Gu Zuo didn't know how great his strength became. However, no matter how strong he was, it was an exaggeration to say he had the strength to lift fifteen thousand kilograms. According to his big brother's personality, Tianheng definitely had something he didn't know on the inside. Of course, big brother already saw through this.
At this moment, Gu Zuo realized.
The ashen-faced Helian Xingcheng stood before the Qianjun Stone. Both of his hands grasped a corner of this boulder and his legs bent slightly. Immediately, he started using his strength.
Following the increase in his power, despite the Qianjun Stone not moving at all, a red line suddenly appeared from the interior of the stone. The red line started underneath and began extending upwards.
When the martial artists saw this, their mouths gaped.
As it turned out, the Qianjun Stone also had such a magical side to it — It was totally used for testing one's power.
However, after that, they were a bit concerned. They didn't know how strong one had to be to meet the qualifications?
On the side, Xingcheng couldn't see any changes in the Qianjun Stone in front because there was no way he could lift the fifteen thousand kilogram stone. Thus, although it seemed like he used a large portion of his strength, in actuality he never exerted his full power.
After using a lot of effort for about eight minutes, he stopped.
The red line on the Qianjun Stone was approximately nine inches [3] long. Each inch represented about one hundred kilograms. Thus, the measurement of Helian Xingcheng's strength was nine hundred kilograms.
If it was an average martial artist, nine hundred kilograms would really be ordinary. However, if it were placed with Helian Xingcheng, who had the brilliant reputation as one of the four great young masters, the numbers were certainly an eyesore.
Immediately, a painful heat graced the faces of many people in the Helian Clan.
It didn't matter if the others really thought that Xingcheng only had this much strength or that they understood that Xingcheng didn't use all his strength in this test that required full power. This was a rare humiliation.
After Xingcheng released his grip, he discovered that the situation was strange.
Every time the Qianjun Stone made its measurement, there would always be about ten seconds [4] before the red line faded.
At once, he saw it.
After hearing the embarra.s.sed and softly spoken explanation of a Helian Clan member, Xingcheng's complexion turned gray. He only felt that he received the greatest dishonor!
He could even imagine how the people he couldn't handle would jeer at him!
In fact, Gu Zuo was one of those who were secretly mocking him.
Gu Zuo had already seen him in a bad mood many times before. It was all because this guy took the lead to cause a ruckus. He simply had a bad case of Eighth-Grade Syndrome [5], and his heart was completely rotten. This type of person threw away so much face just now. It was truly retribution! You said a person's foolish, but then you coming out to show off wasn't? It was really pathetic to be strutting your stuff and showing off your own foolishness.
However, while Xingcheng would've said this was a tragedy, other people would've said this was a comedy.
No need to mention how many secret compet.i.tions the five Great Clans had, what only needed to be said was that Helian Xingcheng took the lead to give them an “example.” Everyone understood what would happen next.
Sima Yuanyou, Duanmu Qingrong, Huangfu Zhanghao quickly advanced in batches and didn't dare hold back the tiniest bit of strength.
As a result, their performances swiftly appeared.
Sima Yuanyou: Two thousand one hundred fifty kilograms!
Duanmu Qingrong: Two thousand two hundred kilograms!
Huangfu Zhanghao: Two thousand three hundred fifty kilograms!
Numerous martial artists were speechless.
They deserved to be called the outstanding children of the younger generation. Compared to an ordinary martial artist's limit of one thousand five hundred kilograms in strength, their levels reached an even higher degree.
Helian Xingcheng's fists clenched so tightly that popping sounds came from the joints.
Not only did his heart contain intense remorse, but he felt a lot of hatred towards the other young masters. They all sensed the bitter resentment in his eyes, including Sima Yuanyou, who could've been considered an ally.
Yuanyou furrowed his brows in annoyance.
It was he who dashed out to be the daring vanguard, and after the event, he conversely blamed everyone but himself. What was the meaning of this? They were in a genuine alliance, but he wasn't Xingcheng's slave to heap his grievances upon!
Xingcheng over yonder sensed Yuanyou's mood and found it odd. He slowly exhaled and pushed the resentment to the bottom of his heart. They, the Helian Clan, still needed the Sima Clan's strength.
Following this, the other three children of the first-cla.s.s Families still met Tianheng's eyes as he sat leisurely on the side, then they went to test their power one by one.
Similarly, they didn't dare hold back their strength, which wasn't weak at all. Unexpectedly, the measurements were one thousand seven hundred fifty kilograms, one thousand nine hundred kilograms, and one thousand eight hundred twenty five kilograms.
They all totally surpa.s.sed Helian Xingcheng.
Seeing these numbers, the eyes of the Cangyun Emperor flashed with a hint of disappointment before vanishing.
It was merely this much?
Originally, these five great young masters were much stronger than the previous generations, which gave him a lot of hope. However, now it seemed that it still wasn't enough.
Finally, it was Gongyi Tianheng who remained.
Between the malice-filled gaze of Helian Xingcheng and the complicated looks of the others, he slowly stood up and took a few steps to reach the Qianjun Stone.
In his heart, Gu Zuo said to himself: Big brother, refuel [6]! Send them packing!
Tianheng seemed to notice something and his brows rose slightly. Both hands were placed on the sides of that Qianjun Stone.
Afterwards, he closed his eyes and then opened them again. A radiant streak of light flashed across them.
In a split second, everyone saw it very clearly.
The red line on that Qianjun Stone was like a ray of light. In the blink of an eye, it shot straight up!
The red line was forty inches long! Four thousand kilograms of force!
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[1] The author wrote 上官 instead of 皇甫, but this was the only one of the five Clans that wasn't named. So I think this is a typo.
[2] 千钧 - Qian (thousand) jun (thirty catties), thus it weighs about fifteen thousand kilograms. I kept the pinyin for the aesthetics.
[3] The author uses both the metric and customary system of measurements, so I'll just follow along and not convert everything to metric.
[4] The author uses 息 for breathes. Let's pretend each breath is a second long.
[5] First of all, 中二 refers to someone with the mindset of an adolescent youth who fantasizes that they are the protagonist or superhero of a story, colloquially termed “chuunibyou” in j.a.panese. The author wrote 比中二还中二, which actually means that he was even more chuunibyou than a regular chuunibyou.
[6] 加油 - Jia you, a cheer used to encourage others to do their best.
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