Chapter 241: Coming Together
At this point in the rookie ranking competition, the entire arena seemed to belong to Yi Yun and Chu Xiaoran. Everyone else was playing second fiddle.
When people looked at other battles, they only had one thought in their mind, and that was: “Hurry up and finish your battle. Let Yi Yun and Chu Xiaoran go on stage.”
All the rookies that could still go on stage were the best amongst the rookies. All of them grew up with a halo around their heads, but now they were just supporting characters on the stage. This made them feel helpless, but they had to admit that Yi Yun and Chu Xiaoran were on a completely different level from them.
The referee intentionally scheduled Yi Yun and Chu Xiaoran’s battle at the end of the day. This was to ensure that Yi Yun and Chu Xiaoran would be able to recover to their optimal states, so their battle could be a showdown at the highest levels.
The Sun slowly set in the west and dusk set in. People were all waiting for the beginning of this big battle. All the other rookies had finished their battles, so all they were waiting for was for Yi Yun and Chu Xiaoran to go on stage.
Suddenly, near the arena’s main entrance, a commotion in the crowd happened. The tightly-packed crowd suddenly began to disperse.
The people who dispersed had faces of confusion or shock.
“Oh? What’s wrong?”
People began to look over and all they saw was a number of men in black cloaks at the entrance. And in between these black-cloaked men, there were two elderly men who strolled in leisurely.
They are…
Everyone was shocked, especially the rookies. They had never seen these two old men before, so it was natural they did not recognize them.
But the rookies vaguely knew about these black-cloaked men. The only people who wore black cloaks in the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom were law-enforcers.
Law-enforcers? Why are there so many law-enforcers here?
The rookies were dumbfounded, and at this moment, some of the stronger veteran cultivators recognized the two old men after a momentary pause.
“Elder Jian Ge! Elder Cang Yan! Why did they come to the arena!?”
All of the rookies were dumbstruck when they heard this.
Elder…These two old men are Elders!?
To all the cultivators present, the Divine City’s Elders were legendary figures. In the entire Tai Ah Divine Kingdom, there might not even be one in 500 years.
What were they doing here in the arena?
The rookie ranking competition…was not something worth the attention of the Elders. Ignoring the rookie ranking competition, even Qin Haotian, who was ranked number one in the arena, would not receive such treatment by the Elders when he was challenged by those ranked second or third. At most, the Elders would just watch a video disk array.
There were firsts every year in the Divine City. Every year, the person ranked first on the Earth roll of honor would be challenged numerous times in a short period of time. The Elders were not so free to watch it every time.
Typically, the Elders never appeared in the arena. Instead, it should be said that cultivators typically did not have the chance to meet the Elders.
Rookie cultivators might have a chance of meeting Elder Cang Yan when he did his occasional guest appearance as the door-manning old man; however, they did not know he was an Elder.
Seeing Cang Yan and Jian Ge sit in the seats of honor, everyone was still in a daze, “Could they be…here to watch Yi Yun and Chu Xiaoran’s match?”
Upon thinking of this possibility, people were in disbelief. But thinking further, Yi Yun and Chu Xiaoran’s match was indeed a notable event!
“Amazing! This rookie ranking competition is getting the attention of the Elders?”
People looked at each other with puzzled faces. No matter how impressive Yi Yun and Chu Xiaoran were, they were not at Qin Haotian’s level. They managed to get two Elders to watch them as rookies? This was really unbelievable.
At this moment, Cang Yan and Jian Ge calmly sat in the seats. It was indeed something that had never happened before, for some Elders to come in person to the arena.
They came here to see Yi Yun’s understanding of the Saber Truth’s 32 Words in person.
Although the Tai Ah Divine City’s video disk array could be used to record video, it was not enough to record laws that cultivators had insights into.
The unclear video images were unable to reflect the charm of the saber truths.
“Yi Yun! Chu Xiaoran! Divine Wilderness Stage!” The referee announced. With the two Elders here, the referee also felt pressure.
With his Thousand Army Saber in his hand, Yi Yun walked up onto the Divine Wilderness Stage. And his opponent, Chu Xiaoran held a soft sword in her hand. She had a quiet demeanor and she seemed to lack the sharpness of an expert.
As she walked, Chu Xiaoran glanced at the two elderly men in the seats of honor, “They are the Divine City’s Elders…The real pillars of support for the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom. They are stronger than my grandfather, my father and master…”
Chu Xiaoran came from the Chu family, which was a family clan with a deep heritage, but there was never a human sage in the family.
Even the current head of the Chu family was only a peak-human lord.
Chu Xiaoran had her own ambitions. She was determined to be the first sage in the Chu family. She wanted to start a new glorious chapter in the Chu family’s history. However, this ambition had always been buried deep in Chu Xiaoran’s heart. She had never mentioned this to anyone.
Now, having seen two sages at once, it struck a nerve.
In the future, she also wanted to reach that level!
A sage appeared once in 500 years. She wanted to be the strongest expert in the past 500 years! She could not fail here!
Chu Xiaoran drew out her sword. She was silent and her breaths were well tempered; however, her beautiful eyes could not hide her fighting spirit!
Yi Yun slowly drew out his Thousand Army Saber, “Chu Xiaoran, I know you are hiding your strength…And from the strength you have shown up to now, it is not enough to defeat me. If you do not use your trump card early on, you might not have the opportunity to use it.”
“Thank you for your advice! Make your move.” Chu Xiaoran was very calm. She was never more serious for this battle than before. It might be because of the appearance of the two sages that had ignited the fighting spirit in Chu Xiaoran!
She wanted to win!
At this moment, Yi Yun started to move.
His body moved like a gust of wind and the terrifying saber beam, which condensed into one that could shatter all kinds of blade beams, slashed down at Chu Xiaoran!
This move flooded the vision of everyone. Even at a distance, people felt that a long saber was hanging by their neck with a murderous intent!
A terrifying saber!
Chu Xiaoran contracted her pupils and she flew backwards to dodge the beam. Then, she stabbed her soft sword towards the beam.
All her body’s Yuan Qi also surged into the sword. This Yuan Qi was accompanied with an indescribable softness in it to meet the saber beam!
However, Yi Yun’s saber was much sharper than Chu Xiaoran’s sword!
With a “Chi Chi Chi” sound, the beam sliced through Chu Xiaoran’s sword Qi. All people could see was that the beam was travelling towards her face.
People could not help but exclaim!
Chu Xiaoran was a beautiful, young girl. If Qiuniu was slashed by the saber, it was alright. But no one could bear seeing Chu Xiaoran being slashed!
In a split second, just as Chu Xiaoran was about to be slashed by the saber, Yi Yun’s saber beam mysteriously shifted to the side.
Cha!
This slash eventually went parallel to Chu Xiaoran’s face, and it hit the purple tungsten ground heavily.
The solid purple tungsten stage quaked and a deep four feet long saber mark appeared on it!
Chu Xiaoran’s body fluttered thirty meters in the air before she landed softly on the ground, but…there were a few strands of hair that dropped down onto her cheeks…
What…happened just now?
The audience stared with their eyes wide open.
They were completely focused on the beam and they were afraid that they would miss an exciting moment. But even so, they could not clearly see what had happened during Yi Yun and Chu Xiaoran’s clash.
It was too fast and in a split second, the two were separated apart. Following that, the stage was slashed open by the saber beam. It made people breathless.
“I clearly saw Yi Yun’s saber beam in front of Chu Xiaoran. Why did he not fully slash downwards. Did Yi Yun feel tenderness towards women at the last moment and held back?” Someone asked.
“Don’t be silly” A veteran cultivator shook his head. “You think she is a frail maiden? This is the Hard-Soft concept. Chu Xiaoran used the Hard-Soft concept at the last moment to dissipate Yi Yun’s force, but…she did not manage to dissipate all of it…”
Some of the veteran cultivators, who were ranked around 2000 on the Earth ranking, could clearly see Yi Yun and Chu Xiaoran’s battle.
The Hard-Soft concept could dissipate many attacks, but if the difference in strength was too great, it still could not reverse the tide.
Many people noticed that a few strands of Chu Xiaoran’s hair had fallen off. It was Yi Yun who held the upper hand in their first engagement.
Yi Yun looked at his own saber and thought about the power from before. He was amazed that his saber could change directions against his will.
Yi Yun said, “Hard-Soft…It’s indeed amazing to use a weaker force to overcome a stronger force! But it is not enough to obtain victory with that. My first slash was just a probe. Following up, I will use all my strength!”
Probe!?
Hearing this, people turned speechless. Such a strong saber attack was just Yi Yun’s probe.
Many amongst them knew that they could not even resist this saber attack, nor did they know how to do so!
Previously, they knew Yi Yun was very strong. But they did not know how big the difference was. Now, they had an intuitive feel of the difference!
Now, it was no surprise that Qiuniu was defeated. They were not Qiuniu and did not know the pressure Qiuniu experienced when fighting Yi Yun. They would probably know the feeling if they were the one standing on stage.