Great Tyrannical Deity - Chapter 98

“The first round shall filter off those who have the insufficient cultivation needed to become a core disciple,” Elder Li announced.

He then waved his hand, forming a pit that was tens of meters deep and a hundred meters long. In an instant, the pit was filled with water, probably done with the purpose of saving those disciples who fail this test.

“Everyone who shall participate in this competition, please head towards the opposite side of the pit. What you need to do is use your qi to go across this pit and reach the end. It could through flight, or through walking on water. As long as you don’t touch the sides of the pit, I shall not disqualify you.”

Most of the inner disciples gulped, fearing that they might touch the sides by accident. Shi Li, on the other hand, looked at the pit with curiosity.

‘Hmm…I guess I’ll utilize only 10% of my power on this. That would be enough to walk on water right?’

He checked the sect disciples around him, and saw that their cultivation realms fluctuated from Qi Creation Stage 6 to the peak of Qi Creation. Some are even exuding an aura that was somewhat similar to the Fanxia realm.

He limited himself to using only 10% of his power since he didn’t want to stand out much.

On another part of the pit, an inner disciple stood there with his legs shaking crazily.

‘I’ve trained for 8 years to become the strongest in this current competition. I hope I become the champion.’

…

The first participant stood in front of the long pit, looking at the crowd that surrounded him. Taking a deep breath, he channeled his qi towards the soles of his feet, gradually making him levitate in mid-air.

With one step, he moved half a meter from his previous position, dodging the pit. Little by little, he was getting farther and farther from his previous position as he took more and more steps.

A few minutes later, he landed on the other side of the pit without touching the sides of the pit at all. This garnered him a round of applause from the crowd as he went back to where he previously was.

The next few dozen of participants had some winning and some failing.

Some failed by either touching the sides, or falling to the water since they ran out of qi. While those won, either flew their way, or had enough qi to last them as they landed on the other side of the pit.

One participant even walked through the water like it was second nature, but in the end the participant fell into the water as his qi didn’t last.

“Hey, isn’t that the one who couldn’t break through Qi Creation Stage 6 for 8 years?”

“Yeah, yeah! What was his name again? Zhu Linfeng or something?”

“No, no, no. It was something more along the lines of Hu Diewen.”

“You’re both wrong. It’s Chu Tianleng.”

The other participants started to gossip about the man standing in front of the pit, still with his legs shaking.

This man was Chu Tianleng, and according to them, he couldn’t break through Qi Creation Stage 7 for 8 years now.

Chu Tianleng took a deep breath as he glanced towards the opposite end of the pit, gripping on his sword tightly.

‘I need to give it my all to become the champion’

‘But not now. I’ll limit myself…can’t really show my trump card now can I?’

Slowly, Chu Tianleng let go of his sword, letting it levitate just a few centimeters above the water. Afterwards, he put one of his feet on the sword. The sword dipped a bit from the weight, but with the reinforcement of his qi, it went back to its normal height.

Making sure that the qi surrounding the sword was enough, he placed the other foot on the sword, signalling his start.

Little by little, the sword was moving across the water… but rather than getting praises from the audience, all he got was sarcastic remarks.

“Oh wow. The trash is moving through the water.’

“Is he going to make it to the end of the pit? Of course he can.”

“Haaah…is he halfway through the pit?”

Hearing this, he frowned but he instantly calmed down. Without hesitation, he released an aura that exuded sharpness and ferocity.

‘Time to show the fruits of my effort.’

Instantly, he infused more qi onto the sword, with the qi taking corporeal form as it emanated a faint silver light. With this, the sword glided through the water with great ease as he rode on it.

The speed the sword was moving at was multiple times faster than what he showed before, bringing him faces of shock and surprise.

“What? H-He broke through to Qi Creation Stage 6?”

“Yes, but that’s not all. With the color of his qi, he’s sure to be at Qi Creation Stage 9!”

“Bah! Look at the aura he’s exuding. The sharpness of his aura is being emanated from a special place in his body. That’s a sign that he’s almost breaking through to the Fanxia realm!”

More and more people were shocked at the prowess Chu Tianleng showed, Shi Li included.

“Elder Li, could you tell me the background of this Chu Tianleng?” Shi Li asked Elder Li through voice transmission.

Without any delay, Elder Li responded, “This Chu Tianleng is someone we’ve taken in around 10 years ago. He didn’t show any great talent at the start, but we were mistaken. His talent was his unyielding perseverance.”

“Even though the other disciples say that this Chu Tianleng was stuck at Qi Creation Stage 5 for 8 years, that wasn’t the case. He was in secluded cultivation for 8 years, ceaselessly breaking through stages at a rate of one stage per two years thanks to a fortuitous encounter.”

At the time Elder Li explanation ended, Chu Tianleng reached the other side of the pit without difficulty. All of a sudden, many other disciples rushed to meet him.

“Senior Brother Tianleng, that was so cool! Can you teach me?”

“Junior Brother, that was nice! If you have time, can we spar?”

“Junior Brother, good job.”

After showing his strength that was higher than the rumors, the remarks that showered Chu Tianleng went through a full 180.

“Elder Li, give a bit of preferential treatment to this Chu Tianleng. I have a feeling he’s gonna go places,” Shi Li transmitted.

Elder Li did what he was told and slowly went up to Chu Tianleng.

“What’s your name?”

Keeping his sword back into his sheath and shaking off the water from his clothes, Chu Tianleng stood straight and firmly replied, “Chu Tianleng!”

Elder Li smiled. “Keep up the good work. The new sect leader may pick you at the end of the tournament.”

Hearing this made Chu Tianleng happy while the others were filled with envy.

Coughing a bit, Elder Li announced, “The last participant is Shi Li! Is Shi Li here?”

Shi Li, who was always at the back of the crowd, slowly made his way towards the front of the pit as he raised his hand. “Here.”

Elder Li nodded and said, “If you’re ready, you may start.”

Shi Li suppressed his strength down to 750 ren as he exuded an aura that was close to Chu Tianleng’s but different in its own way. The aura exuded strength that could shake the whole world.

With this display of power, some disciples were shocked.

“He’s so skinny…yet his power makes him look so terrifying. I now know what ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ truly means.”

Even after the 9 months of his cultivation journey, his body still stayed skinny. There was nothing Shi Li could do about it, it seemed that his body was meant to be that way. On the other hand, his muscles weren’t bulging, yet they were defined so well, making it look streamlined.

Squinting his eyes, Shi Li exerted all of the 750 ren down to his right leg, propelling him forward through the water with a zoom.

That one step was enough for Shi Li to reach the halfway point of the pit, to which he responded with another exertion of 750 ren onto the water, this time with his left leg.

As he stepped hard on the water, he was propelled even further at a faster speed, the place where he stepped on created a wave that was a few meters high, but it was negated with Elder Li’s manipulations.

Finally, Shi Li stood at the other side of the pit calmly before walking away in a smooth manner. His travel through the pit didn’t even take a tenth of a second to happen.

The other participants rubbed their eyes to see if they were hallucinating. They even pinched their cheeks, only to realize that it all happened in reality.

“That guy was really fast! He crossed a hundred meters of water without a problem!”

“What was his name again? Shi Li?”

“Yeah! Yeah! That guy is definitely my idol!”

These disciples didn’t hear about the disciple recruitment event that happened at Grand Tian City so they didn’t know Shi Li’s true tyrannical prowess.

But what they all knew in their minds was that…Shi Li is one of the dark horses of the tournament.