Chapter 44 – Killing You is Just Right
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“Simple. I want to fight Lin Ming. If I lose, I will completely admit defeat. But if I win, then I want the first place candidate spot to be turned over to me!” Wang Yanfeng suddenly swiveled to Lin Ming and with provocation in his voice said, “Lin Ming, do you dare!?”
Before Lin Ming could answer, Elder Xu rose again and said with a smile, “This idea is good. The truth is that the Martial House examination trials vary, but ultimately are looking for the same attributes. The first is combat skill, the second is talent. Wang Yanfeng obviously wins when it comes to talent, but if the actual combat skill is also won by him, then the situation in principle should be his, and the first place candidate should belong to Wang Yanfeng.
The few words Elder Xu said had already blocked Lin Ming’s exit and left him with nowhere to retreat to. However Elder Xu felt this was insufficient. He turned to Lin Ming and said with a eerie smile, “Not only must a martial artist cultivate their body, and fortify the mind, the martial artist must have faith that they can overcome obstacles and win against challenges. If they feel fear and do not fight, then their heart will falter. This type of person would have no great future achievements.”
Elder Xu’s words were not wrong, but he said them with malicious intent. Under this type of situation, once someone lost then they would suffer an enormous blow to their self-confidence and psyche, especially considering that Lin Ming was only fifteen years old. If he at first place lost to the second place candidate and the gap was too large, then he might be unable to psychologically recover in light of this.
Elder Xu had already recognized that Lin Ming had the greatest chance of losing. After all, Wang Yanfeng was ahead of Lin Ming by an entire stage, and in the Exquisite Pagoda he did not have any treasures on him so he was unable to display the true strength of his family skill ‘Nine Paths of Truth’. Martial skills greatly increased a martial artist’s fighting ability. Sometimes high-level martial skills could let martial artists fight those that were ranks beyond them.
As for Lin Ming’s inborn divine strength, it was easy to use against the slow beasts of the Exquisite Pagoda that had high defensive power. But against a real person, brute strength was not so simple a solution.
Under these circumstances, it was impossible for Wang Yanfeng to lose.
Lin Ming turned a cold eye to Elder Xu and took note of him. He then looked to Wang Yanfeng and said, “I could fight with you, but in this competition the only one to suffer a loss would be me. If I fight with you, then as the first place candidate, if I win I am still first place and I do not gain any advantage. But if I lose, then I have to just meekly surrender my spot like that? What do you think about this?”
When Wang Yanfeng heard Lin Ming already intent to compete, his heart immediately blossomed with happiness. ‘This little fellow is just bargaining back and forth as if he could win just because he reached the fifth floor of the Exquisite Pagoda. Humph, he really is an idiot. I will let you know how fierce the ‘Nine Paths of Truth’ really is.’
Wang Yanfeng playfully smiled and asked, “What do you want then?”
Lin Ming responded, “If I win then I want you to give me your Golden Snake Scarlet Pill. If I lose, you can take first place candidate and also the Crimson Gold Dragon Marrow Pill. How about it?”
“Good! Since you said it then you meant it!” Wang Yanfeng felt a great happiness in his heart. This way he could have both precious pills for himself! It was really a dream come true. He impatiently said, “Then let us start our competition!”
“Mm. Sure.”
Seeing Lin Ming agree so readily and happily, Elder Sun could only shake his head slightly. Lin Ming would most certainly lose, or at least he had more than a fifty percent chance of losing. Undergoing the trials and fighting with a real person was different. This Wang Yanfeng came from an aristocratic family and had a special master in his youth teach him to fight, and he also had martial skills.
This fight was already a foregone conclusion, there was nothing left to say.
As soon as Wang Yanfeng arrived at the center stage of the contest field, he flicked his saber and gave it shake as he roared, “Come up!”
Seeing Wang Yanfeng’s long saber, the crowd present were startled, “a rare weapon!”
As long as it was a rare treasure, the value would be several thousand gold taels. Even aristocratic family juniors would only receive one after reaching the Fourth Stage of Body Transformation or even the Fifth Stage. Only then would they have the qualifications to receive a rare treasure like this. They had not thought that this Wang Yanfeng, who was only at the Third Stage of Body Transformation, would have one, and one that had an inscription on it. Obviously this Wang Yanfeng had a high position within his family.
The people looked at Lin Ming to see if he could also put out some equally rare weapon. Thinking of his family background, it was just not possible for him to have any rare treasures.
Although this may not seem fair, but in the Sky Fortune Kingdoms, martial artists’ contests had always been like this. It was impossible to trade weapons to momentarily use, and even if possible then they would be unfamiliar with it.
One’s family was also a form of strength. If the weapon is unfair, then the pills or other medicines that increase cultivation are also unfair. It would be impossible to prohibit martial artists from assisting their cultivation with pills.
Therefore Lin Ming could only swallow this disadvantage.
“This Lin Ming probably doesn’t have any sort of good weapon.”
“Mm. There is no way that he would have something worth several thousand gold taels. The average person just doesn’t have those advantages. Hopefully Lin Ming doesn’t pull out something too inferior and is immediately cut down. This way he might have a chance.”
As these people talked, Lin Ming took out a weapon from his pouch. This was his deboning knife that he had used to slice meat at the Great Clarity Pavilion.
Seeing this scrappy deboning knife, everyone’s eyes immediately widened. This was… was this… a pig butchering knife?
Though no one had thought that Lin Ming would have a good weapon, they did not think he would pull out such an inferior weapon. It was only a foot in length. As the saying went, one inch longer one inch stronger. This one foot deboning knife compared to a three foot long saber was at a bit more than just a disadvantage. Moreover could a knife used to kill pigs even be sturdy? What would happen if it were to be cut in half by the opposition’s sword?
Wang Yanfeng saw this deboning knife and laughed. “You would use that to challenge me? That’s just a knife for killing pigs! You really are a daft idiot!”
Lin Ming appeared slightly surprised. He said, “I didn’t notice it but it seems you were right, this really is a knife for killing pigs. I usually do use it to kill pigs, so for today, killing you is just right.”
Lin Ming’s scolding words insinuated that Wang Yanfeng was just a pig. This made Wang Yanfeng furious. He shouted, “You don’t know the meaning of death!”
As Lin Ming slowly stepped on stage in the contest field, and Wang Yanfeng had drawn his saber, he had already been using an inscription master’s soul force to study the sword’s strength and its inscription. In this, Lin Ming was an expert.
Wang Yanfeng’s saber looked powerful and impressive, but in Lin Ming’s eyes it could only be considered common goods. Even that inscription would not even normally grab his attention. As long as an inscription master knew the proper technique they could use the soul law formula to seep their soul force into the treasure and judge whether its quality was good or bad. Lin Ming had learnt his inscription skills from the memories of an elder who came from the Realm of the Gods, thus he also naturally knew a viewing technique. Although he had only studied this technique a bit, it was already far more than enough to take a look at Wang Yanfeng’s saber.
The saber was able to greatly enhance a martial artist’s combat strength, but Wang Yanfeng was only at the early Third Stage of Body Transformation and had not reached Altering Muscle or Bone Forging. Thus Lin Ming was not worried, as he could only display a very limited effect of the saber.
Of course, even if Wang Yanfeng could not display the saber’s true strength, compared to Lin Ming’s deboning knife in hand, it would be immediately cut apart if Lin Ming used it to receive a strike. Although this was a good and trusted knife he had used for countless hours, it was just made of regular iron from an ordinary blacksmith.
But this did not matter to Lin Ming. Lin Ming had not planned on using this deboning knife originally; he would rely on the strength of his own fists. ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’ was an unsurpassed almighty Body Transformation skill manual that was the essence of light and Yang. For those that practiced this, their own muscles and bones were themselves the best weapons!
With Lin Ming’s peak Second Stage cultivation, his fist strength reached 2700 jins. With this strength he could punch straight through a thick iron wood tree. If this fist directly hit a person’s body, even a master at the Altering Muscle or Bone Forging stage could not necessarily withstand it!