Wang Mazi was not from a noble family. If one insisted on finding a connection between him and a noble family, then they could only trace back to his uncle’s mother-in-law, who once washed dishes for a few years at the An family mansion.
It could already be considered to be quite fortunate for a family of commoners to have a disciple with a decent cultivation base, who was selected to attend the Celestial River Academy. At the very least, his Eighth Strength Martial Stage would qualify him for many jobs and his future was definitely assured. He may not become extremely rich, but filling his stomach wouldn’t be an issue.
However, Wang Mazi was not content. In the area where he grew up, he was the kid with the most outstanding aptitude. However, he was a nobody at the Celestial River Academy.
He was already eighteen years old, but he was only at the Eighth Strength Martial Stage. It would be quite difficult for him to progress to the Energy Martial Stage in the future and as such, none of the teachers regarded him as a bright prospect. As a veteran who had been attending that academy for many years, he wasn’t even as popular as some disciples who were younger than him and had inferior cultivation bases. Wang Mazi became very bitter as a result, and this was only compounded by the fact that his severe acne often had female disciples avoiding him as if he were some sort of freak. Thus, he was desperate for a chance to prove himself and attract the attention of the teachers and fellow disciples of the academy.
This was the perfect opportunity!
In Wang Mazi’s eyes, Duan Tianshan was just a stupid c*nt who stood on the spot and allowed Qi Ying to use him as a punching bag. Did he really think that Qi Ying was that weak?
Wang Mazi had seen Qi Ying’s admission test results and knew that he possessed extraordinary strength. He knew that Qi Ying was able to rip apart beasts with his bare hands and he had a rough gauge on Qi Ying’s combat prowess. As such, he felt like he had a very good chance of securing victory; he leaped onto the dueling platform with the intention of defeating Qi Ying and making a name for himself.
“Come on then!”
Qi Ying turned to Wang Mazi and said in an indifferent voice.
If anyone wanted to fight him, then all they had to do was get on the platform.
He would beat them up until everyone was beaten into submission!
Showing off too much could spell trouble, while keeping a low profile could spare him trouble. However, if trouble came knocking on his door and he still chose to cower and hide, then some of the mentally-twisted disciples there would see him as a target to be bullied. That would be a really troublesome situation!
Whoosh!
For that fight, Wang Mazi took the initiative. He rushed toward Qi Ying and his hands flew through the air, leaving a trail of afterimages in their wake.
He cultivated in the Flying Sparrow Cultivation Method, which made his body as light as a sparrow and granted him extreme agility. At the same time, all of his strikes came from tricky angles and were aimed directly at Qi Ying’s vital regions.
Whoosh whoosh!
Wang Mazi was exclusively targeting the regions like Qi Ying’s throat, the area beneath his ribs, his armpits, his groin, and the back of his knees. If an attack failed to land, then he would immediately take evasive action to prevent a successful retaliation from Qi Ying. Then, he would find another opportunity to strike again. He was like an agile beast that was relentlessly harassing another beast with extraordinary strength, but was lacking in speed.
“Annoying b*stard!”
Wang Mazi was indeed extremely fast and alert. Even if Qi Ying unleashed his fastest punches, he was still unable to strike his opponent.
“Alright, if that’s how you want to play, then…”
Qi Ying intentionally exposed a weakness to his opponent. He pretended to have exerted too much force into a straight punch and overbalanced, thereby exposing his defenseless side to Wang Mazi.
“There it is!”
Wang Mazi thought that this was a result of Qi Ying’s inability to fully control his strength, having just made a breakthrough. His eyes immediately lit up and he aimed a vicious knee into Qi Ying’s side.
However, he had only just raised his knee when a shiny, silver hand latched onto his calf in a vice-like grip, rendering him completely unable to struggle free.
“What?!”
Before Wang Mazi even had a chance to react, the world suddenly began to spin around him and everything in his field of vision was tipped upside-down.
In the blink of an eye, Qi Ying had hoisted Wang Mazi into the air by his right calf. He raised his hand high into the air and began to swing Wang Mazi in circles above his head like a human windmill…
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
After swinging Wang Mazi around for several dozen circles, Qi Ying finally threw him off the dueling platform. By this point, Wang Mazi was already unconscious and thumped on the ground like a dead dog.
“Who else wants a fight?”
Qi Ying stood on the platform and stomped his foot into the ground as he let loose a loud roar!
“Gasp…”
All of the spectating youths were only fifteen to eighteen years of age and they all took a backward step or two in the face of Qi Ying’s terrifying aura. The fact that Qi Ying had just beaten the crap out of two disciples in quick succession sent chills running down their spines.
Was this the same Qi Ying that never interacted with anyone and dedicated all of his time to completing missions for pills? Was this the same coward who was defeated by Duan Renshan two days ago with a single blow?
“Come on then! Who else wants to have a go?”
Qi Ying cast his eyes around the dueling platform and let loose another roar. His eyes were wide and menacing and all of the muscles on his entire body were trembling. “Who else wants to duel me?”
“Gasp…”
In that instant, all of the disciples were struck by the feeling that a wild beast was standing on the platform as opposed to a human!
What kind of wild beast was this?
It was a wolf.
This was not just any wolf; it was a wolf king who had defeated countless opponents and emerged from a sea of blood! In the face of that ferocious wolf king, all of the other wolves could only tremble and were completely unable to muster up the courage to challenge him!
“This aura…”
An Ruyi stared at Qi Ying in disbelief. She suddenly felt like Qi Ying was no longer the Qi Ying she knew. She knew that Qi Ying was actually even more powerful than this, but that was the first time she had seen Qi Ying reveal such a dominant and ferocious side to himself. In her eyes, he was a little arrogant, and a little… badass.
He was only one man, but he had intimidated several hundred disciples who were provoking him just a moment ago!
…
Following Wang Mazi’s defeat, no one else dared to challenge Qi Ying. The more powerful disciples didn’t want to duel Qi Ying as there was no glory in winning, but it would be a huge disgrace if they were to lose. As for the normal Strength Martial Stage disciples, none of them felt like they had much of a chance against Qi Ying. The few disciples who were looking to try their luck all cowered in the face of Qi Ying’s ferocious roars, as they were afraid that they would also end up like Duan Tianshan and Wang Mazi, if they were to challenge him.
“Let’s get out of here!”
“An Ruyi has already said that this was a misunderstanding, so why are all of you kicking up a fuss?”
“Alright, nothing more to see here!”
Most of the spectators left in quick succession, leaving only a few people loitering around.
“That should be the end of it!”
Qi Ying flexed his wrists and stepped down from the dueling platform.
Someone suddenly approached him. “Young Mast.. I mean… Qi Ying, Brother Qi Ying.”
“Oh? What do you want?”
Qi Ying turned to discover that the person who had approached him was Duan Renshan.
Duan Renshan had a smile plastered across his face and was dragging along a bruised and battered Duan Tianshan. “Brother Qi Ying, my little brother is an idiot who really likes to show off! We’re really sorry about what happened today and I’ll make sure to teach him a good lesson! ”
“What are you saying, big brother? Why are you apologizing to this hillbilly?”
Duan Tianshan was in disbelief.
Was this really his brother? Even though they weren’t of a very high status among the nobles, they were still far superior to those underprivileged disciples. Qi Ying may be powerful in one-on-one battles, but there were many ways to exact revenge on him in the future. Why was his brother stooping as low as to apologize to someone like him?
Slap!
A loud slap landed on Duan Tianshan’s swollen face.
Duan Renshan was furious. “Who the f*ck did you just call a hillbilly? Brother Qi Ying is an extraordinary man! Why don’t you try groping An Ruyi’s chest then challenge everyone to duels on the dueling platform? Do you have the guts?”
“But…” Duan Tianshan was still unconvinced.
Slap!
Duan Renshan gave him another slap. “Shut the f*ck up! All you’re doing is getting Brother Qi Ying mad!”
“Forget about it.” Qi Ying waved his hands with furrowed brows, then said, “I can see that Brother Tianshan is a man of justice. He was simply misguided and arrived at some false conclusions, so let’s just put an end to this matter.”
Duan Renshan wasn’t slapping Duan Tianshan to discipline him. This was just a performance for Qi Ying so he wouldn’t pick on Duan Tianshan in the future.
As such, he accepted that unspoken truce offer as there really was no need to press the issue any further.
“My thoughts exactly!” Duan Renshan plastered a smile across his face again, as he pulled out a small jade vial, “Brother Qi Ying, you’ve just made a breakthrough to the Eighth Strength Martial Stage, so you must be in need of some pills, right? I have a vial of Energy Containment Pills here as a gift to you…”
“No need. Hurry up and find some ointment to apply on your little brother’s face. He looks hideous with his face swollen like that.”
“Thank you, Brother Qi Ying. Let’s go, Tianshan.”
Duan Renshan forced himself to keep smiling, but he was cursing Qi Ying in his heart.
That cocky b*stard was acting like he was forgiving them, when he was the one who beat up Duan Tianshan! He should be glad that they weren’t asking him for compensation!
From that day forth, Qi Ying began to gain some notoriety among the disciples in the Celestial River Academy. In fact, he had become even more renowned than some of the young masters from noble families, but that was no longer just because of his peculiar silver glove or his confrontation at the dueling platform. Instead, he became widely renowned as a prodigious disciple of humble upbringing, challenging hundreds of disciples on the dueling platform, none of whom dared to accept his challenge. As a result, he was regarded by countless disciples in the Celestial River Academy as someone who could not be messed with at all.
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