Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
A hint of doubt flashed across Xie Jingsheng and Mu Chuanhuaâs eyes.
They didnât watch the lower house discipleâs rank challenge, but they had heard rumors about Lin Shen afterward. However, it seemed that Lin Shen wasnât as outstanding as he was said to be.
Jiang Hao watched him for a while and curled his lips.
âI thought that the rumored commoner genius was outstanding, but heâs just so-so!â
Xie Jingsheng frowned slightly and glanced at Jiang Hao.
He knew that Jiang Hao thought highly of himself and had always been proud of the bloodline of influential families. He looked down on the commoners in the academy, but most of the time, he buried it in his heart and wouldnât speak bluntly.
And now, he was so straightforward in expressing his disdain for Lin Shen. It was most likely because of Xie Jingsheng.
A month ago, the Nine Suns Sect bestowed the academy with a batch of Golden Marrow Pills. Due to the limited number, only three of the top ten disciples could obtain them.
For this reason, the ten great disciples even sparred in private to decide the ownership of the Golden Marrow Pill.
In that battle, Jiang Hao was defeated by Xie Jingsheng and missed the opportunity to get the Golden Marrow Pill.
Jiang Hao had always disliked Xie Jingsheng, who wasnât from an influential family. After this incident, he secretly hated him.
Jiang Hao had also seen Xie Jingsheng expressing his affection for Lin Shen just now. It was very likely that he had targeted Lin Shen because of this, which was why he had belittled him.
Xie Jingsheng pondered and said, âSince Junior Brother Lin can advance to an Earth-rank disciple, thereâs naturally no doubt about his strength. 1 guess he might have some considerations.â
Jiang Hao sneered and said, âWhat considerations can there be? Weâre in a life and death battle with the Tiger Tribeâs demons, not a spar between disciples. Does he want to hold back?â
âIn that case, weâll know when we ask Junior Brother Lin later.â
Xie Jingsheng smiled and didnât argue with Jiang Hao. He casually skipped the topic.
Seeing this, Jiang Hao snorted and didnât say anything else.
Mu Chuanhua smiled as he watched the two of them fight. He didnât interrupt and only sat quietly at the side to watch the show.
He didnât want to become enemies with Xie Jingsheng, but he also didnât want to offend a narrow-minded fellow like Jiang Hao. Therefore, he didnât help either side and just watched from the sidelines.
If even Mu Chuanhua was like this, the other disciples didnât dare to interrupt. They all looked down and pretended not to hear the conversation between the two upper-house disciples.
The battle on the mountain peak quickly came to an end.
As expected, all the spiritual beasts were wiped out. The price that the academyâs disciples paid was that one of them was accidentally torn in the chest by the tiger and was severely injured.
Even so, with the physical strength of a Long Breath Stage cultivator, coupled with the nourishment of medicinal pills, he would recover in four to five days at most.
At this moment, the tower didnât lack medicinal pills at all.
For this war, the Nine Yang Academyâs pill pavilion had stored a large number of medicinal pills to recover injuries and spiritual essence on the pagodas. There was enough to sustain the disciples for several months.
The disciples who had returned triumphantly returned to the tower with their heads held high, ready to receive the cheers of the crowd. However, they were greeted with a strange silence.
Even the slowest person could sense that something was wrong with the atmosphere.
Soon, they discovered the source of this strange atmosphere. The Black-rank and Yellow-rank disciples who stayed behind kept looking back and forth between Lin Shen and the three upper-house disciples.
Lin Shen also realized this, but he didnât care at all. He calmly returned to his seat and sat down.
As soon as he sat down, he saw Xie Jingsheng turn around and ask him with a smile,
âJunior Brother Lin, 1 saw that you didnât seem to be using your usual martial technique just now. Why?â
Upon hearing this, Lin Shen immediately understood what was going on. It turned out that these upper house disciples had been watching him just now.
Lin Shen laughed inwardly and shook his head, but he remained calm. He smiled and said,
?Iâve recently cultivated a few new martial techniques, so I want to take this opportunity to train in actual combat.â
Before Xie Jingsheng could speak, Jiang Hao glared at him and sneered.
âYou used the Iron Claw and Golden Goose Technique just now, right? These two martial techniques are below average among martial techniques in the academy. You already have Meltdown and Shadows. Why do you still need to cultivate the Iron Claw and Golden Goose Technique?â
Lin Shen glanced at Jiang Hao and acutely sensed the hostility in the latterâs words. Although he was puzzled as to why Jiang Hao wanted to find fault with him, Lin Shen didnât intend to spoil him. He immediately chuckled and said,
âWhat? Does the academy forbid its disciples from cultivating more than one type of martial arts?â
Jiang Hao was dumbfounded. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
Of course, the academy didnât have such a rule.
It was just that no disciple would do such a thing, which was a waste of their time and energy.
However, he couldnât question Lin Shen with that, so he had to swallow his anger.
To his surprise, Lin Shen went on.
âSenior Brother Jiang, I didnât know you cared so much about me. You even have to worry about my cultivation skills. How considerate of you!â
It sounded like she was praising Jiang Hao, but anyone could tell what he meant. He was actually saying, âItâs none of your business!â
Hardly anyone here was an idiot, and they all reacted differently when they heard what Lin Shen said.
Mu Chuanhuaâs cheeks twitched, and he was obviously trying to suppress his laughter.
Many of the lower house disciples pursed their lips as well, fearing that they might burst out laughing. They also looked at Lin Shen in amazement and admiration.
Lin Shen was bold enough to confront a disciple of the upper house like this!
Jiang Haoâs face was livid. He had gripped the chair so hard that his knuckles had turned white. It was obvious how frustrated he was.
Ever since his breakthrough, no disciple of the lower house had dared to talk to him like that!
That damn bumpkin!
Jiang Hao was about to lose his temper when Xie Jingsheng interjected with a smile.
âI admire you for that as well, Junior Brother Jiang. When youâre busy cultivating, youâre always caring for your juniors. Youâre indeed a role model!â
Xie Jingsheng wasnât easy to handle either. He cut off Jiang Haoâs chance to flare up and stabbed him in the back. After that, he raised his hand and brushed it off.
âLetâs keep moving forward. We need to clear two more mountains before sunset!â
As soon as he said that, the pagoda shook and kept moving forward.
Jiang Haoâs face turned livid, but it was too late to lose his temper now, and he had no excuse. He could only give Lin Shen a dirty look and let it drop.
Lin Shen didnât think much of it. He looked away and went back to the battle.
Because he hadnât exerted his full power, he had only killed over twenty spiritual beasts.
The effect of Testify by Killing had only been activated once, but the improvement was astonishing. It directly increased the level of Iron Claw by 25%!
Lin Shen wasnât surprised.
He had already discovered this pattern during his training in the Dragon Abyss Mountain Range some time ago.
The lower the grade and stage of the martial technique, the more obvious the increase after triggering the effect of Testify by Killing.
Moreover, as his cultivation increased, the benchmark of this low-level martial technique would further increase.
For example, when he was only at Level 4 or 5 of the Long Breath Stage, low-level martial techniques like Wolf Soul Claw and Iron Claw would rarely increase by more than 15% at the Beginner stage.
However, after he reached Level 7, the increase in low-level Beginner stage martial techniques was usually about 20%. Sometimes, it would even increase by 25% like just now.
It could be foreseen that after he broke through to the Bright Aperture stage and triggered the effect of Testify by Killing by killing an Enlightening Stage spiritual beast, perhaps it could directly raise a low-level martial technique by a stage!
At the thought of this, Lin Shen grew excited.
After calming himself down, he closed his eyes and began to conserve his energy.
After what happened just now, the disciples didnât dare to talk loudly anymore. The martial arts arena fell into a strange silence. It was not until the pagoda reached the next mountain that Xie Jingsheng gave the order to move out.
It was still the Heaven-rank and Earth-rank disciples who attacked.
Lin Shen got up and leaped out of the pagoda, descending from the sky under the support of the clouds.
He wanted to take advantage of this war to fuse a Path-stage movement technique!