Chapter 79: The Third Trial continues

Li Gengxin never imagined his growth would be this terrifying. Not only could his son contend with an Upper Exalt, he even possessed a monster companion of comparable power.

Li Gengxin had once dreamed of such a future, but he never thought it would arrive so quickly.

Give Ryan a little more time, and how far would he go?

The thought made Li Gengxin tremble with excitement. His gaze toward Ryan overflowed with pride.

That was his son.

The other person who saw through everything was Wang Zongyao.

From the moment the black-clothed men stormed in, Wang Zongyao had already foreseen their grim end. What he hadn’t anticipated was just how calm Ryan would be, or how much his strength had grown.

From start to finish, Ryan never panicked. Even when facing an Upper Exalt, his movements were effortless, as if everything unfolded exactly as he wished.

More importantly, after only a few days, Ryan’s aura had changed dramatically. Ordinary people couldn’t sense it, but to Wang Zongyao, an Upper Exalt himself, the pressure radiating from Ryan was terrifying. The higher one’s cultivation, the clearer that sensation became. Once unleashed, it would be enough to make even kings tremble.

This only confirmed Wang Zongyao’s belief that befriending Ryan was one of the wisest decisions he had ever made.

With a soft sigh, Wang Zongyao gave his orders. “Clean up the ring immediately. The third trial of the qualification exam will continue as scheduled.”

“Yes!”

Several Western Mansion masters responded and moved swiftly to clear the remains. The shattered corpses were far too grotesque, and no one could focus on competing while staring at such a scene.

Just like that, the black-clothed incident passed.

Though whispers and speculation lingered—about who those men were, why they targeted Ryan, and how he had obtained such a monster—the crowd’s attention soon returned to the real focus of the day: the allocation of qualification slots.

Once the ring was cleaned, the third trial resumed.

Ryan proceeded through his third, fourth, fifth, and sixth matches in succession.

And every single one ended the same way.

Ryan didn’t lift a finger.

His opponents charged forward… and somehow flung themselves out of the ring.

Again and again.

It was so absurd it bordered on farce.

The audience exploded in boos and curses, convinced they were watching the worst acting they had ever seen.

“Damn it, how many actors did Li Wei hire? Can he even take this exam seriously?”

“Every match is the same. People get on the ring and immediately rush off. What kind of nonsense is this?”

“This is the worst qualification exam I’ve ever seen.”

“Disgusting inside deals!”

“Li Wei, get out of here!”

“Anyone who helped Li Wei act should get out too!”

“If someone like Li Wei represents Fengyue City at Western Mansion, we’ll be a laughingstock!”

The shouts were sharp, angry, and completely irrational. To many in the stands, Ryan’s matches had crossed from strange into outright offensive. In their eyes, this was no longer a competition, but a farce.

Of course, not everyone was blinded by rage.

“Still… isn’t it strange? How could so many opponents rush off the ring by themselves?”

“Exactly. Once or twice might be a coincidence, but this many times in a row? That’s not normal.”

“And some of them are family disciples. You really think all of them are willing to act?”

“The strangest part is that Western Mansion hasn’t stopped it. As an organization known for fairness, how could they ignore something like this?”

“Yeah. That’s what really doesn’t make sense.”

As the discussions grew louder and more conflicted, Ryan stepped onto the ring for his seventh match.

His opponent was none other than Su Sidao.

A seed candidate. A two-star Upper Elite. One of the most promising participants of this year’s exam.

If there was anyone who was almost guaranteed a qualification slot, Su Sidao was among them.

The moment the pairing was announced, attention flooded toward the ring.

In theory, there was no suspense. Su Sidao should crush Ryan without difficulty. Yet because everyone Ryan faced had somehow “cursed” themselves into rushing off the stage, the crowd now waited with morbid curiosity.

Would Su Sidao break the curse?

Or would he, like all the others, mysteriously fling himself out of the ring?

The clash between a so-called waste and a recognized genius should never have been this anticipated. The irony alone was enough to make people laugh.

When Su Sidao saw Ryan across from him, a bright, satisfied smile spread across his face. He had wanted this matchup for a long time.

Not to spar.

To humiliate.

A waste like Ryan was never qualified to stand on the same ring as him. This farce of Ryan collecting victories had already embarrassed Fengyue City enough.

If someone like Ryan were sent to Western Mansion headquarters, what would candidates from other cities think?

Su Sidao didn’t care how Ryan had managed his previous matches. Once he stepped onto the ring himself, that nonsense would end.

He would beat Ryan back into his original shape.

Standing opposite Ryan, Su Sidao sneered. “Didn’t I warn you before? I told you not to meet me in the exam, or you’d regret it. I didn’t expect it to happen so soon. Thanks to Western Mansion changing the format, otherwise you might not even have lasted long enough to face me.”

Ryan smiled lazily, completely unconcerned. “You look happy. Why do I feel like you’re the one about to be miserable?”

Su Sidao’s smile turned cold. “You think I’ll rush off the ring like those others? I don’t know what tricks you pulled, but they won’t work on me.”

“Less talking,” Ryan yawned, rubbing his eyes. “I’m tired. Let’s finish this quickly so I can go home and rest.”

“Good,” Su Sidao said sharply. “Since you’re rushing to die, I’ll grant your wish. I’ll show you what a true Elite looks like, and how wide the gap is between a genius and a waste.”

His fist clenched.

“Body-Breaking Fist!”

With a roar, Su Sidao lunged forward. His punch tore through the air, wrapped in a brilliant pale-gold glow. The energy around his fist surged violently, producing explosive sounds as it advanced.

The power was unmistakable.

Even spectators with mediocre cultivation could tell this was no ordinary punch.

On the high platform, several patriarchs and elders reacted immediately.

“Patriarch Su, impressive,” one of them said in surprise. “Your Su Sidao has already learned the Domineering Body Fist? If I’m not mistaken, that’s a mid-grade Earth rank martial art.”

The Su Clan patriarch waved his hand modestly. “He’s only scratched the surface. Hardly worth mentioning. Compared to the Li Clan, it’s nothing. After all, Li Wei doesn’t even need to move to win. That kind of ability… now that’s truly divine.”

The sarcasm was unmistakable.

Laughter rippled through the surrounding families.

Yet what happened next stunned everyone.

The elders of the Li Clan spoke up, faces solemn and sincere.

“It really is just a minor trick.”

“After practicing for over a decade and still only reaching minor success, it’s rather embarrassing.”

“If I were the Su Clan, I’d be too ashamed to show such a martial art.”

“Li Wei is a once-in-a-century genius of our Li Clan. Just look at his posture, his calm expression. In this state alone, Su Sidao has already lost. There’s no need to fight at all.”

Silence fell.

Faces froze.

Earth rank mid-grade martial arts… embarrassing?

The Su Clan patriarch stared blankly, utterly dumbfounded.

Had the Li Clan gone mad?

Li Wei, a once-in-a-century genius?

Where did this confidence come from?

The Su Clan patriarch swallowed his disbelief, snorted coldly, and turned his attention back to the ring.

Fine.

Once Su Sidao crushed Ryan, he wanted to see how long the Li Clan could keep talking like this.

The other families no longer bothered to argue with the Li Clan. In their eyes, the Li elders were simply being stubbornly delusional, clinging to blind confidence in a notorious waste like Ryan.

Only the Mu family patriarch felt something was off.

If Ryan were truly worthless, the Li Clan should have been ashamed, keeping their heads low. Yet the opposite was happening. Every Li elder looked proud, even reverent. The way they watched Ryan was not how one looked at a disappointing junior, but how one gazed at someone worthy of respect.

That alone was strange.

Add to that the earlier matches. One opponent after another had fallen out of the ring in bizarre ways. At first it was laughable, then suspicious, and now… unsettling.

Could it be that the calm, indifferent Ryan standing on the ring truly possessed strength so overwhelming that no one could see it clearly?

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep