Martial Saint with Passives

CLANG!

A clear cry, like a dragon’s roar, rang out as the ancient longsword on her back was finally unsheathed!

The gleam of the sword, like a pool of autumn water, instantly illuminated the entire arena!

After drawing her sword, Gu Qingxuan’s entire aura changed completely!

If she was an iceberg before, she was now a volcano on the verge of eruption!

Her sharp Sword Techniques, combined with her extraordinary Sword Intent, wove an inescapable net that instantly enveloped Jiang Che!

The pressure on Jiang Che instantly multiplied!

He had no choice but to block with his Gloves.

Every collision sent a numbing shock through his arms, making his Qi Blood churn.

The Passive Effect of [True: Infinite Battle Armor] began to operate frantically!

Although he looked a bit battered, he had somehow managed to endure more than ten moves under Gu Qingxuan’s blade!

This scene left everyone in disbelief!

Gu Qingxuan finally got completely serious.

She stopped her attack, standing with her sword in hand. Her cold gaze locked onto Jiang Che. ”You... are very different. I’m going to use my full power now. Be careful.”

Jiang Che took a deep breath, shook his numb arm, and grinned. ”Don’t hold back. Bring it on!”

In the stands, the crowd erupted at the sight!

”Heavens! Jiang Che actually forced Senior Sister Gu to use that move!”

”He’s too strong! He just broke through to the Refining Organ Realm!”

Gu Qingxuan said no more. She slowly raised her longsword, its tip pointing to the sky.

A mysterious and profound, yet utterly terrifying, aura began to gather around her!

Jiang Che’s pupils shrank!

He felt an unprecedented sense of crisis wash over him!

This sword strike even gave him a faint taste of... the True Master Realm!

”Lingxiao Celestial Fall!”

Following Gu Qingxuan’s clear cry, the longsword in her hand, imbued with a Supreme Sword Intent that seemed capable of felling stars and toppling the heavens, came crashing down!

Faced with this world-destroying strike, Jiang Che had nowhere to run!

With a roar, he poured all the Strength in his body into his fists without reservation and met the attack head-on!

He secretly used the fifteen-times multiplier strike from his [True: Infinite Battle Armor] to block Gu Qingxuan’s sword!

’Although this might reveal some of my trump cards,’ he thought.

’I’m not worried about triggering an investigation from the higher-ups.’

This was because the principle behind the fifteen-times strike was simply to make his next attack fifteen times more powerful.

He just had to use the Fist Technique of the Nine Heavens Azure Cloud Technique.

Others would only notice that the power behind his Nine Heavens Azure Cloud Technique was unusually immense.

They wouldn’t be able to find anything else.

The only things he truly couldn’t expose were the Black Armor and Shadow Escape.

The former was a direct, inhuman Transformation, and the latter made him vanish into thin air. Both were far too strange.

On the high platform.

Witnessing Jiang Che not only refusing to dodge but also meeting the attack head-on,

Xu Qingshan’s expression changed drastically in an instant.

”Not good!”

’That strike’s power is astounding. I’m afraid Jiang Che won’t be able to block it!’

He shot to his feet, about to rush over and save Jiang Che!

However, before he could reach him, a massive explosion erupted from the arena!

BOOM!!!

A blinding light exploded in the center of the arena, and a terrifying shockwave swept out in all directions!

When the light faded, everyone saw Jiang Che stumble back dozens of steps before barely managing to steady himself at the edge of the arena.

His face was flushed, and he seemed to have suffered some internal injuries.

However.

Though he looked utterly wretched, he... had actually taken it head-on!

The entire arena once again fell deathly silent!

Xu Qingshan had just reached the edge of the arena.

Seeing that Jiang Che had blocked the strike, his face first showed shock, which was quickly followed by endless laughter.

The heavens had taken his beloved disciple Lin Bihe, but now they had sent him Jiang Che!

’My, Xu Qingshan’s, disciple is second to none!’

Up on the high platform, Sect Leader Xu Zhouzi, who had been watching with half-closed eyes in feigned indifference, suddenly snapped his eyes open. A brilliant light flared within them!

He looked at Jiang Che below the arena, a sincere smile gracing his face as he slowly said,

”Good, very good! My Cangyun Sect has produced another peerless genius!”

At his side, Vice Sect Leader Xie Songnian’s heart sank upon hearing this!

’That old fool Xu Zhouzi is starting to covet his talent!’

Xie Songnian himself had, of course, also seen Jiang Che’s incredible potential.

In the eyes of True Master Realm experts like them,

the truly astonishing thing about Jiang Che wasn’t that he had blocked Gu Qingxuan’s attack.

There were actually quite a few people in the Refining Organ Realm who could block that move.

He knew what had truly moved Xu Zhouzi.

It was the *way* Jiang Che had blocked that sword strike!

Although the power Jiang Che had displayed in that move was unbelievably immense,

it was still the purest form of the Nine Heavens Azure Cloud Technique’s Cultivation Technique and moves!

There wasn’t a trace of any other Cultivation Technique’s aura!

Nor did he rely on any treasures!

In other words,

even though Jiang Che was only at the Early Stage of the Refining Organ Realm,

he had already cultivated the Nine Heavens Azure Cloud Technique to an extremely profound Realm!

If this wasn’t a genius, then what was?!

But the more this was the case, the more fiercely the hatred and killing intent in Xie Songnian’s heart burned!

Because it was a genius just like this who had killed his son!

Elsewhere, Ye Lianzhen was also stunned.

She’d had a feeling before that, besides the Dissipating Technique, Jiang Che might have other trump cards she didn’t know about.

’Now it seems that this trump card is his Talent itself?’

’The Talent to cultivate the Nine Heavens Azure Cloud Technique to the Extreme Realm?!’

To be able to cultivate to this level with a Middle-Lower Root Bone...

...meant that apart from his slightly lacking Root Bone, he was outstanding in all other aspects!

And he was also extremely compatible with this Cultivation Technique!

Over in the audience section.

Tang Qiaoqiao, Liu Qing, Su Wan, Yun Weiwei, Mu Jun, Shu Yaxin, and the others were already too shocked to speak.

In their eyes,

this fellow disciple—who had previously been at about their level, or at most a little stronger, and had never shown his true colors—

was now fighting the sect’s number one prodigy to such a degree?

Was this still the Jiang Che they knew?

’It’s not someone in disguise, is it?’

And in the guest seating, the gazes of Qin Wuya, Chen Jiayu, Xiao Qingge, and the masked woman from the Fang Family had also completely changed as they looked at Jiang Che.

They had all, without exception, marked his name as one of the most important rivals on their future paths!

From this moment on, the name Jiang Che had truly entered the ranks of the most elite experts of the younger generation in the entire Cangzhou Prefecture!

Atop the arena.

Jiang Che calmed his churning Qi Blood, looked at Gu Qingxuan opposite him, and shook his head with a wry smile.

He knew there was no point in fighting any longer.

He had already used his fifteen-times strike and had only barely managed to block her attack.

’Without transforming into the Black Armor, it’s impossible for me to defeat the current Gu Qingxuan.’

’And as for transforming... there’s no need for that.’

”I surrender,” he said calmly.

No one was surprised by this choice; everyone felt it was a matter of course.

The refereeing Elder immediately announced the result.

But this time, no one looked down on Jiang Che anymore.

Gu Qingxuan sheathed her sword and gave Jiang Che a deep look, her brow furrowing almost imperceptibly.

She had a feeling that this person... still hadn’t used his full strength.

Her lips moved slightly, and she spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear, ”I don’t know why you held back. But next time, if you dare do so again, the sword in my hand won’t be so light!”

Hearing this, Jiang Che just smiled without explaining.

’When I transform into the Black Armor, I can’t control myself.’

’If I ended up beating her to death, Gu Qingxuan would probably regret saying that.’

Besides.

He could also sense that Gu Qingxuan might not have used her full power either.

It seemed she also had her own trump cards.

Of course, for a top prodigy from a major sect like her,

this was very normal.

Afterward, Jiang Che walked off the arena stage.

Wherever he went, the crowd automatically parted to make a path for him.

Everyone’s gaze was filled with awe.

Fang Muye, in particular, stared at him intently, his expression more serious than ever before.

He kept putting himself in Jiang Che’s shoes, only to realize with horror that against Gu Qingxuan’s final move, ”Celestial Fall,” while he might have a chance to dodge it, he couldn’t take it head-on like Jiang Che had!

’Could it be... that this Jiang Che’s strength is already faintly above mine?’

’How is that possible?! He just broke through to the Refining Organ Realm!’

...