Actually Able to Block My Spear

Wei Yuan found the boy utterly baffling; he had no idea what he was so angry about. This boy was unlike the others. Even under the resonance of karmic destiny, he moved with remarkable speed in Wei Yuan's eyes. Though suppressed by Wei Yuan's karmic destiny, the effect was limited—he was not crawling like Brother Xu, much less moving at a snail's pace like the rest. His Three Thousand Lotuses sword strike had been magnificent and awe-inspiring, and it had even concealed a clever trick: most of the lotuses had not been aimed at Wei Yuan, but had greeted the wild boar instead, successfully dispatching it in an instant. Precisely because of this, Wei Yuan genuinely thought well of him, showing him full courtesy and taking special care to sound sincere. It just seemed the boy did not appreciate it at all. The boy grew angrier and angrier. A river of stars seemed to suddenly shatter in his eyes, and the sword in his hand blazed with dazzling radiance, like a rising azure sun! In an instant, Wei Yuan's vision was engulfed in a boundless expanse of azure light, blinding him completely. Against his armor rang out a rapid chime like pearls cascading onto a jade plate, struck by who knew how many sword blows. In his ears rang only the boy's furious shouts: "Winding Waters Like a Dirge!" "Lonely, Deaf to Flutes and Drums!" "A Fisherman's Song Flowing East!" "A General's Pavilions Inquiring for Immortal Ties!" ... "Barbarian, face my blade!" ... Wei Yuan felt as though he were caught in a violent tempest, able to catch only glimpses of the boy's silhouette amidst the myriad rays of azure light. At the center of the azure storm, wisps of black qi rose from Wei Yuan's body. As Outlaw of Heaven and Earth circulated, fissures appeared in the azure light filling the sky, and the boy's figure flickered repeatedly through the cracks. Wei Yuan leveled his spear and thrust, but the boy flickered back and forth; not a single spear strike hit its mark! Missing several times in a row, Wei Yuan felt anger flare within him. He gave a heavy grunt, and under the suppression of his karmic destiny, the boundless azure light suddenly stalled for an instant, revealing the boy's figure in a particular spot. Without a second thought, Wei Yuan gripped the spear with both hands and swung it like a staff straight at him! *Smack!* Though the boy flickered twice more, the spear had been swung wide, and it caught him viciously across the waist! His body bent at a bizarre angle, instantly dissolving into light. As the pervasive azure light dispersed, Wei Yuan saw that his heavy armor was covered in dents and pits. Looking at the battered armor, he could not help feeling a lingering chill—this time, he really had come within a hair's breadth of being injured. Wei Yuan looked toward the crest of the hill again. By now, only three or four people remained at the top. The girl in the middle was unimaginably beautiful, looking frail and delicate. She held a longsword in both hands, though it resembled the opening stance of a dance far more than a defensive guard. Lifting the sword with visible effort, the girl said to those beside her, "Looks like I'll have to step in myself after all! Don't be afraid. He's just a barbarian, nothing to worry about." This time, however, no one stepped forward. The remaining three boys and girls did not even possess karmic destiny secret arts; all they could do was cheer from the sidelines and stand there looking pretty in the background. Wei Yuan strode up to the hilltop and thrust his spear straight forward. The girl swung her sword with airy lightness, parrying it. Wei Yuan was stunned. The force behind this thrust had been equal to the strike that had snapped Xiaoyu at the waist just now, yet this little girl had effortlessly deflected it? Meeting a true match for the first time, something inside Wei Yuan seemed provoked, slowly stirring awake like an exalted true immortal looking down upon ten thousand years of mortal vicissitudes. Wei Yuan had experienced this feeling once before when he was three years old, back when he drove a short spear into the heart of a refugee. Outlaw of Heaven and Earth circulated of its own accord. Wisps of black qi spilled from Wei Yuan's visor. Exerting fresh force through his parried spear, he drove it forward again. Then came a pop, as though an invisible bubble had burst. The girl felt an insurmountable, crushing force bearing down upon her. The longsword in her hands abruptly shattered, sending countless fragments flying in all directions. Three pillars of white light rose simultaneously around her, and bathed in blood, she tilted backward and collapsed. Looking down at the fallen girl, Wei Yuan gave a snort and glanced around. *Hiss—!* After a breath so long it seemed endless, all the surrounding black qi was drawn into Wei Yuan's heavy armor. His divine sense perception expanded continuously, and soon several small beasts came scurrying over. Wei Yuan's gaze swept over a rabbit, a wolf, and a wildcat, judging none of them capable of bearing his weight. In the end, his eyes fell back upon a wild boar. A wisp of black qi shot from between his brows and sank into the boar's body. Amid agonizing squeals, the wild boar experienced all manner of immortal tribulations as its body swelled in an instant, turning into a colossal beast one zhang tall and several zhang long. Wei Yuan walked toward the boar, his combat boots thudding against the ground step by step. His final step landed right on the sand table. The exquisite miniature landscape instantly shattered to pieces, dissolving into drifting sand. Wei Yuan paused and looked down, seeing that only the last corner of the sand table remained underfoot. The little hill modeled there was lifelike and delicate, sculpted by who knew whose deft hands. His boot did not continue forward; instead, he pivoted on the spot, the toe of his boot sweeping across the final hillock and snapping it in half. On the hilltop, a blood-soaked girl still lay face down on the ground, life or death unknown. Wei Yuan walked over to her side, raised his spear, and brought it down. A white light rose. Dead silence reigned in the Evaluation Hall. The young cultivator covered his face, remaining motionless for a long time. The other evaluators wore wildly varying expressions, and even Daoist Fufeng raised an eyebrow, quietly drawing a sharp breath. The two Confucian scholars had been sitting placidly, secretly gloating, but then they saw Wei Yuan mount the wild boar and turn south. Their expressions froze instantly. On his way south, Wei Yuan mentally reviewed the battle just now. The commander of the northern azure team had directed her troops like a god, her soldiers had fought with devotion, and under her command were many experts possessing karmic destiny arts. The girl in the goose-yellow dress had been remarkably powerful herself, actually able to block a strike from him! Such an army, wiped out by him just like that? "Talking and laughing while masted ships dissolve into ash and smoke"—wasn't that precisely the poise of a master military strategist? Wei Yuan suddenly wondered: *Could I actually be a master of the art of war too?* The boar sprinted like the wind, and in the blink of an eye, Wei Yuan had charged through the central zone and entered the southern zone. Li Zhi was pacing with restless anxiety. On the hills flanking either side, the two forces were locked in bloody slaughter, but facing thirty azure troops on each side, Li Zhi had only dispatched twenty men to hold each flank. His main force—especially the thirty elites of his central army—remained entirely motionless, facing steadfastly north. Seeing his flanking troops dwindle by the minute, Li Zhi still refused to commit his main force. A girl beside him said anxiously, "Senior Brother Li, if we don't reinforce the flanks, all our people will be dead!" Li Zhi flew into a sudden rage and roared, "What do you know?! If the central army moves and Bao Yun attacks now, we will be completely crushed!!" Startled, the girl shrank back and said, "B-but she hasn't come!" Li Zhi paused as well. "That's right... why hasn't she come yet?" Even before the martial test, Bao Yun had outmatched Li Zhi at every turn. She had organized her team early on, holding an advantage not only in numbers but also boasting a far greater count of experts blessed with karmic destiny. Once inside the martial test, Bao Yun had cleanly swallowed up Li Zhi's vanguard in a single bite. Her flanking pincer now was an open scheme designed to grind down Li Zhi's forces through attrition, firmly establishing absolute dominance. The reason Li Zhi dared not move his central army was precisely his fear that Bao Yun's main force would launch a surprise assault; if that happened, it really would be an utter rout. Li Zhi knew he was likely to lose, but how he lost mattered greatly. If he threw his own formation into disarray by moving the central army and was subsequently routed by Bao Yun's ambush, his score would drop drastically. Although Li Zhi knew he had patrons protecting him, Bao Yun had even more. Such a massive blunder would inevitably cause his score to fall behind hers. Another option was to take the initiative and attack, but Li Zhi was certain that the prolonged absence of Bao Yun's main force meant she was waiting for him to come to her. With his current troop count, attacking would only lead to defeat, so holding his ground was the better choice. Li Zhi refused to believe that Bao Yun could turn a bunch of kids into battle-hardened veterans in such a short time; by the time her troops marched from north to south, they would surely be a disorganized mess. When that time came, Li Zhi would await the exhausted enemy at leisure. With his thirty central army elites fully rested, having pooled the medicinal pills of everyone under his command, repeated charges might truly give them a shot at defeating Bao Yun. Li Zhi was betting that Bao Yun, priding herself on her noble status, would not confiscate the pills of regular examinees.