Zero To Hero In The Martial Arts Library

Chapter 161: A Bolt From the Blue

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Hearing his master’s words, a hint of battle intent appeared in Song Qiufeng’s eyes.

It was said that since ancient times, right and wrong had turned to nothing. However, who did not want to become the best?

Be it a blacksmith or a martial artist, there had to be a win or loss.

If one lost an opponent, lost a win, or lost in comparison, it would be hard for one’s life to have any meaning.

At least, most people were like that.

“In order to ensure your victory, your teacher specially chose three materials for you.

“This was the material that your teacher chose after many years of research and careful evaluation of the competition format. It will not cause you to lose points due to using your own materials. Moreover, it can also improve the quality of your refining.”

Song Qiufeng’s expression had two points of rejection.

“Master, I. . .”

The teacher waved his hand and smiled faintly.

“Do you think that I, Chen Danian, can’t afford to play around with you?”

Song Qiufeng did not speak, but Chen Danian continued to speak,

“Child, in this world, there is no absolute justice. There will always be only one first place. If you don’t get it, others will get it too. The difference between first place and second place is something that you can never imagine.

“For example, before I got first place, even evaluating an associate professor was as difficult as ascending to the heavens. After I got first place, I became a full professor of the academy.

“Whether it is the treatment of living or the treatment of teaching resources, there is a world of difference.

“Furthermore, do you really think that Zhang Guangyang’s disciple will not bring the materials to the competition?

“Who wouldn’t rack their brains and go all out to get the first place?

“It’s not just them and us. Third place, fourth place, fifth place… Let me tell you, as long as there are conditions, they will bring in a certain amount of materials.”

“I see, then I understand.”

Seeing that his disciple understood, Chen Danian nodded his head in satisfaction.

…

Time passed very quickly. In the blink of an eye, it was already the next day. When Ye Xiao woke up the next morning, the Golden Book had already cultivated the Earth-burrowing Technique to perfection.

He could use it now.

Ye Xiao immediately used the Earth-burrowing Technique and directly drilled into the ground.

The surrounding light was pitch-black, but the Earth-burrowing Technique had a certain level of perception and could sense the changes in the surrounding situation.

Some instances would be whether there was a dung pit or the like in front.

At the same time, Ye Xiao also tested the speed of the Earth-burrowing Technique. Compared to the Divine Intent technique, it was indeed much slower.

However, that did not mean that the Earth-burrowing Technique was completely useless.

When the Divine Intent technique is used when one encountered danger, they could only run away. However, when the Earth-burrowing Technique is used when one encountered danger, they could hide underground and save its life.

It could only be said that each had its own unique strengths.

Moreover, Ye Xiao thought of a combo. Using the Earth-burrowing Technique and the Divine Intent Technique to switch back and forth, he should be able to achieve a combo that caught him off guard in battle.

A rather perfect move!

It was exhilarating.

At that moment, the time for the competition was almost up. With a thought, Ye Xiao immediately used the Earth-burrowing Technique and headed toward the competition grounds.

However, when he arrived at the bottom of Hu Cheng river, he accidentally barged into a seal.

‘What is this?’

Ye Xiao was a little stunned. Following closely behind, a sinister voice sounded in his ears.

“Hiss, hiss, hiss… To think that there’s actually a human brat who broke into the seal. It’s been a long time since I’ve tasted the taste of human flesh. Looks like I’m going to eat meat today. Hiss, hiss, hiss…”

Upon hearing that voice, Ye Xiao used the Big Dipper’s Grand Mystery to take a glance and immediately understood what was going on.

Just like how Jianghai city would seal powerful star beasts as the core of the array to create a spirit-gathering array to help the city absorb spiritual energy.

There would definitely be one on Hu city’s side as well.

Moreover, as the top-tier first-tier martial arts city in the nine provinces, there would be even more star beasts sealed in Hu city.

Hence, when he was not paying attention, he accidentally entered one of the seals.

Inside that seal, there was a Xiantian seventh-grade Black Earth Python.

Ye Xiao had seen it on the star beast encyclopedia. The Black Earth Python’s meat was fresh and delicious, its blood essence was rich, and its spiritual energy was abundant.

It was also an extremely good tonic.

At that moment, the Black Earth Python could not wait to begin its attack.

It opened its bloody mouth. Its body was too huge so the moment it breathed, it could absorb a lot of air, resulting in waves of intense hissing sounds. It was as if the air was being absorbed into a large black hole.

“Feel the suffocation of death, human!”

…

The Black Earth Python passed yet it did not pass peacefully.

That was because it was too big.

Ye Xiao’s current spatial storage ring was unable to completely store it.

His spatial storage ring was only the size of two three-story small villas, while the Black Earth Python’s physical body had already exceeded one and a half small villas. Not to mention, in the small villa, there were also a few other star beasts’ corpses and some materials.

Therefore, Ye Xiao could only chop it into pieces and store as many as he could.

What made it feel even more despair and pain was that Ye Xiao had even sealed its soul onto one of the pieces.

That was because Ye Xiao was going to resurrect it later to raise it. Without a soul, the healing technique would not be able to do that.

That also meant that its future fate would not be easy.

…

Very soon, Ye Xiao arrived at the competition venue.

At that moment, the participating refiners had already entered the competition venue one by one.

Ye Xiao walked past the crowd. He did not need to use the Big Dipper’s Grand Mystery to hear everyone discussing the few seeded contestants in that competition.

Hu Cheng Martial Arts Academy, the proud disciple of blacksmith master Professor Zhang Guangyang, the genius blacksmith, Yu Qiuxuan.

Jingdu Martial Arts Academy, the proud disciple of blacksmith master Professor Chen Danian, Song Qiufeng.

Shangqing Martial Arts Academy, the proud disciple of blacksmith master Professor Wang Chunyu, Bai Yishui.

…

Basically, they were the proud disciples of blacksmith masters from the top martial arts academies in the region, and all of them were well-known.

People like them were basically the top few in the competition.

It could not be helped. The teaching resources were good, and they were all among the top in the country. In addition, they had some talent, and they could easily refine the best things.

As for the others, their teaching quality was poor, their training resources were poor, and their talent was even worse.

They had not even started, but they were already far behind the others.

There was a saying that said that the starting point of some people was the endpoint of others.

However, Ye Xiao was not interested in those people. He was not too interested in the first place either.

He was only interested in one thing, and that was the prize for the fifth place in the competition, the spatial amethyst.

Very soon, he entered the competition ground and found his own position.

All the refiners were separated in order to prevent some people from having an unbalanced mentality and affecting the participation of others.

The materials for the competition were already prepared and there would be cameras monitoring the entire process.

However, that camera was completely useless to Ye Xiao.

If he wanted to refine artifacts, he would have to use spiritual energy. Even if it was just a trace, he was still a divine grandmaster.

Under such circumstances, the magnetic field around his body was sufficient to render the surveillance camera ineffective.

The competition began. Ye Xiao glanced at the materials and instantly had a plan in his mind. Thus, he decisively began refining.

At the same time, the commentator on the high platform also started to communicate with the judges, judging the refiners on the big screen one by one.

After all, such a big competition would definitely have to be broadcast live to get some benefits.

The host was a man and a woman, which was very consistent with the official fixed model of the nine provinces.

The standard of a man and a woman matching each other and not tiring at work.

…

“Okay, dear viewers in front of the TV, what you are seeing now is the live broadcast of the 103rd Refiners’ Competition, the Nine Provinces Competition, by the Hu City TV station.

“Now we can see that the contestants of the competition have started the official competition…”

The host babbled a lot of nonsense before he brought it to the main topic.

“It’s said that there are also many talented contestants in this competition.

“For example, the genius armament-refining girl from Hu Cheng Martial Arts Academy, Yu Qiuxuan.

“The armament-refining genius from Jingdu Martial Arts Academy, Song Qiufeng.

“They are all from famous families and have outstanding talent. They have already won many awards in many international youth competitions.”

The staff behind the screen that controlled the big screen was also very skilled. When the host just mentioned a few geniuses, they were directly switched to their screens on the big screen.

The audience was immediately attracted.

“Hiss, as expected of a famous teacher. These young people are all so powerful.”

As the saying goes, once an expert made a move, one would know whether there was one or not.

Those watching the competition were also mainly refiners. Therefore, many people could immediately feel the superb refining skills of the crowd.

“That Yu Qiuxuan’s technique is indeed exquisite. Look at her purification speed. In just one minute, she has already purified one-fifth of the material. I estimate that she can complete the purification in five minutes.”

“That’s too abnormal. Other people might need an hour to purify it, but she can complete the purification in five minutes. In that case, it won’t take long for her to finish the forging later.”

“The duration of the competition is a huge bonus. With her speed, I’m afraid that she will gain quite a lot of points.”

“That Song Qiufeng isn’t bad either. He’s only slightly slower than Yu Qiuxuan, but the purity that he has refined seems to be a little purer than Yu Qiuxuan’s. If that’s the case, his forging speed might be faster than Qiuxuan’s later on. If the two of them work together to offset each other, it’s hard to say who will win or lose.”

“After all, a master teacher produces a good disciple. Their teachers are all outstanding figures in the nine provinces’ blacksmith world. Their performance naturally won’t be too bad.

“I estimate that they only need an hour to complete the competition.”

“It seems that the top few in this competition will fall into their hands.”

Everyone’s eyes were filled with envy. They were all very young and had such deep attainments in the field of refining. Their future was limitless and they had almost set a successful life.

In the judges’ seats, Chen Danian glanced at his old opponent, Zhang Guangyang, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

In that competition, he had passed on his unique forging skills to his disciple.

Later, when he was forging, Song Qiufeng’s true level would be revealed.

At that time, the real climax of the competition would come!

In shock, people would see with their own eyes that his disciple, Song Qiufeng, had surpassed Zhang Guangyang’s beloved disciple, Yu Qiuxuan, and become the champion of this nine provinces competition!

However!

Just as everyone thought that the result of the competition had been decided, in the next second, a refining spot on the stage suddenly pressed the finish button.. The big red light suddenly lit up, and that muffled and loud sound, which caused everyone present to be shocked.