Chapter 37: The first horn of the dragon

Once Cao Yun took his spear in hand, he looked different, like an animal with its fangs and claws out. Zhi Yin followed suit and her friendliness disappeared at once. She was one with the steel of her sword, calm and ready.

Many people were excited by this fight, this was the last one and it opposed two legends. Cao Yun had been known through the news they got of the trials. He rapidly became a legend because he broke many records. In the Eight Directions Engulfing array formation, he took out all the eight beasts as they attacked together. In the Eighteen Weapons Mechanical Puppet trial, he chose a 1-star Human rank manual and got one of the highest score in history. It was not in the top ten, but if you only considered 1-star Human rank martial arts, he was in the top three. Finally, he broke the record in the Yin-Yang Torture Illusion array formation.

All the disciples had gone through these trials as well and knew how difficult each one was. So Cao Yun really impressed them. Of course, some disciples refused to believe without seeing and ridiculed the ones who already idolized him.

On the other hand, Zhi Yin was known as 'Fairy Zhi' by some. Last year, she was the only candidate to beat one of the first-years. Since then, she had quickly climbed up the power ranking of the sect. Her way of the sword was very famous and for many, flawless. When you added her elegant beauty to the mix, she was worshiped as a fairy by a few disciples. As a matter of fact, she found it pretty disturbing. But as long as they kept to themselves, she wouldn't say anything.

Instead of listening to all the chatter down below, Cao Yun focused all his intent on the fight. It was the first time he was going to be able to use 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars' in an actual battle. He even had obtained some insights since the Eighteen Weapons Mechanical Puppet trial. From the get go, he circulated Yi and Zhi together.

-

Around the platform, the disciples were still chattering about the fight as the opponents were gauging each other.

"How do you think he will fare against Fairy Zhi?"

"From the rumors, this Chen Guo got 283 points. Last year Fairy Zhi only got 258 points..."

"Only 258?! How many did you get, you?!"

Anyone who would speak in a bad or not flattering way about Fairy Zhi immediately met a wall of outrage.

"I only meant to say that he got a bit more than her."

"So what?! If she took the tests right now, aren't you convinced that she would beat his small record, huh?"

"Yes! And just because you have a higher score doesn't mean that you'll win!"

"I never said that he could beat her!" The young man who had first talked tried to backtrack a little under this barrage. "But he should be able to last some time."

The disciples were overexcited, and were looking forward to the fight. On the chief elders' platform, the atmosphere was way different. On one side, Chief Elder Baishen focused all her senses on the fight. And on the other side, Chief Elder Suxian was completely devastated. The only thing on his mind was the Exquisite Purple Jasmin. Chief Elder Luoming felt really awkward as he could not speak to any of them.

"Hum... Miss Xiao? What do you think about your candidate against Zhi Yin?"

"I'm not too sure either. She's a 6th-grade Mortal and her sword art seems very well refined for her age. She's a formidable opponent even within her own cultivation grade. However, Chen Guo looks like he is a raw material waiting to be modeled."

"What do you mean?"

Chief Elder Baishen interrupted. "He gained some insights in the 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars' and he wants to test them in actual battle. I don't think his chances of winning are very good right now. But if he can confirm what he guessed, Zhi Yin may be in danger."

Chief Elder Baishen loved fighting, but what she loved even more was seeing fighters progress. That was the main reason why she had decided to be the Chief Elder of the martial art pavilion. She could follow each fighter's evolution. Even young martial artists could have ideas she would never have thought about. After all, she could not learn every single martial art to the Perfection stage.

Among the crowd, many disciples were also speaking in a more quiet way. They were trying to figure out how they could make Cao Yun rally their side.

-

Both fighters watched each other for an instant. Zhi Yin was the first one to move.

'Peng Opens his Wings' As she charged, a huge gust of wind formed behind her. Mortal cultivators could not use Qi manifestation so they could not control the Qi outside of their body. But by using a martial art and controlling the flow of Qi within their meridians, some phenomena could still happen around them. They just lacked a real control over it. These phenomena were caused by their martial art itself.

Cao Yun stood his ground. He focused his intent on Zhi Yin's sword and stabbed with his spear. His weapon collided with the sword and altered its trajectory. Unable to change it in time, the gust of wind went into the distance, hitting nothing. Using the distraction, Cao Yun stabbed again.

'Peng Goes Back to Sea'. Zhi Yin jumped backward and landed gracefully on her feet.

Cao Yun was relentless. Spear in hand, he ran toward the woman and kept on stabbing in an obvious motion.

Zhi Yin tried to block the stabs by deflecting the shaft with her sword. But as soon as her sword touched the spear, a strange vibration entered through it and went into her arm. Without any hesitation, she jumped back again and had to grab her right arm with the left to stop it from shaking.

Cao Yun had incorporated 'Slaughtering the Enemy' with his normal stab. This was a feint to force her to get in contact with his weapon. He charged again and was about to stab when he retracted the spear completely and made a big sweeping motion with the shaft. Ready to dodge on the side so as to not suffer this strange vibration, Zhi Yin got surprised.

'Black Wings Cover the Sky'. She used her sword as a shield before her. As both weapons collided, Cao Yun sent the same vibrations from the spear to the sword. But this time, Zhi Yin was prepared. She stabbed the sword in the ground just at the moment of impact, creating another vibration through it. She then changed hand and ran toward Cao Yun.

'Ninety Thousand Li'. Her figure flashed before his eyes. She was already behind him. As he was attacking with the shaft, Cao Yun got just enough time to block her sword with the tip of his spear.

'Annihilating the Horses'. He went low to sweep off her legs. As she easily dodged, he exerted all of his strength in his leg and took some distance, combining once again 'Annihilating the Horses' and 'Cutting the Retreat'.

The spear properly back in hand, Cao Yun tried to focus on the binary star that was revolving in his sea of consciousness. He was preparing another stab.

This time, Zhi Yin had no desire to come close to him. She understood that if she had not dodged his legs, her bones would have been broken. But a sword was at a disadvantage against a spear if she kept a long distance. She had the perfect move to solve the problem.

'Mount Tai Fills the Sky'. She jumped and slashed with her sword. As the blade came down, the winds gathered around the strike. It formed a long blade of air following the trajectory of the sword.

Cao Yun persevered and paid no attention to this sharp wave. His mind was entirely focused on the binary star and its rotation.

Just when the air blade was going to strike him, he stabbed with the spear. By adding the vibration from 'Slaughtering the Enemy', he made a strange motion with his hands. The spear began to rotate in his back hand along its axis. It became like a drill directed at Zhi Yin.

He had finally uncovered the first move hidden within 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars'. First star, Horn Star, 'The Pillar Piercing the Sky'.

The 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars' manual contained techniques and moves, but they were just the basics. To really master this martial art, you had to meditate on the stars themselves and derive hidden techniques from them. Of course, doing so without seeing the actual stars was terribly hard and it explained why many people just gave up on it. But Cao Yun had the chance to be able to get inside his sea of consciousness. This way, he could emulate the creator of this martial art and directly observe the stars for himself.

The rotation and the vibration both hit the blade made of air and the tip of the spear pierced through it as if it was paper. Continuing its trajectory, it was going straight for Zhi Yi's chest.

Seeing this drill going right for her, Zhi Yi circulated the last variation of 'Peng's Journey to Heaven', 'Journey to the Southern Darkness'. Once more her figure disappeared for an instant and she reappeared in a blind spot of Cao Yun.

Her technique was very mysterious as it used the wind to move at incredible speed. But she still had some issues with controlling the last variation and she got disoriented. Luckily for Cao Yun, he had his Earth Intent. The movement of Zhi Yin could not escape his eyes, she wasn't fast enough yet. If she was a bit more proficient in this last technique, he never could have followed her move just now.

Using the force of the spear going forward, he jumped and took some distance from the young woman behind him.

-

Chief Elder Baishen was in a trance. These moves were nothing for a Spirit Warrior like her, but seeing someone derives new understandings about their martial art right in the middle of the fight got her excited.

Xiao Xuefeng was silent, but according to her own words earlier, Cao Yun was like a raw material waiting to be modeled. With her spiritual senses, she could feel that he was trying to figure out something with this fight. It turned out, he was in the process of deriving the moves of the first star.

Zhi Yin was maybe going to be the only first-year beaten by a junior this year. Losing against such a talent did not seem humiliating for Zhi Yin, nor for anyone else watching the show. But it would be ironic that the only one who was able to beat a first-year during the last examination would then be eliminated the following year.

She would fight until the end. There was still one move she had not used from her 'Peng's Journey to Heaven'. It was a move she had not been able to pull off in actual battle as of now. Even in training, it was too taxing on her, and she could only do it once. This move required her to circulate her Qi along a certain pathway and suddenly reverse it with as much strength as possible. With her 6th-grade Mortal cultivation, her meridians and vessels were not strong enough yet to bear this kind of pressure and she would be completely worn out afterwards.

Not willing to use it, she tried to think of what she could do instead. In the end, she reckoned that she would probably wear herself out fighting this boy and he would win anyway.

She made her decision and assumed the position of 'Lake of Heaven'.

Cao Yun felt something odd with this position and readied himself. His intent was focused on Zhi Yin and he was the first to perceive what she was doing, apart from the Spirit Warriors who could literally see her Qi within her meridians of course.

'Splashing the Lake of Heaven'. She stabbed straight in front of her and a wave of wind erupted in all directions. The waves looked like ripples created on the surface of a lake.

Cao Yun used the newfound 'The Pillar Piercing the Sky'. His spear and the wave of wind collided, creating a cone of violent gale around Cao Yun. In this situation Cao Yun had a small advantage. The secret martial art of the Cao family was 'Three Storms' and the first storm was 'The Wind rises in the East'. Thus, he already had some familiarity with wind. His father could literally create small hurricanes when he used this technique with Qi Manifestation.

Combining everything he knew with his stronger intent, Cao Yun directed his spear toward the weakest point he could find and the cone of gale vanished. The boy was pretty shook but Zhi Yin had no more strength at all. She put down her sword and admitted defeat.

"I have exhausted my strength. This is my loss, junior brother."

All the onlookers were astounded. Fairy Zhi was an idol for the first-years. Some were of course a little annoyed by Cao Yun, but his talent was real.

"Thank you for letting me win, Senior Sister."

Cao Yun put down his spear and bowed politely.

All around the platform, many people were in deep thought. Cao Yun had showcased a great talent, but he was new in the Wubei Sect. Still ignorant of the rules, he did not know about the structure of the sect and many people began to think of ways to get him on their side.

Orders were given to not make things difficult for him and to find out as much as possible about his actions. In order to recruit him, they needed to know what could sway him.

Once again, among the new disciples, Ren Chao was the loudest.

But there was a great change. Sun Liao had still a glimmer of hope a moment ago. Just now, it had died down. No matter what he did, he would never be able to beat Cao Yun. He had even thought about challenging him by betting some of his points, but Cao Yun could just refuse and the elders would maybe not even allow it. Seeing the strength of Cao Yun just now, he was utterly convinced. He had hit an iron pot. Finding no other way to get out of this predicament, he finally made his peace with his loss.

-

Chief Elder Baishen who was excited by the fight got a little frustrated.

"I'd want him to fight someone able to push him beyond his limits. Little Zhi was good but she sadly came short. If she had mastered her 'Peng's Journey to Heaven' or if she was one grade higher, it would have been better. Not only did he understand the first move of the Horn Star, he even mixed it with other martial arts. If he were to fight a stronger opponent, he could advance a little more." She turned toward Xiao Xuefeng.

"You really picked an impressive candidate. Too bad I didn't find him beforehand... But he must join my pavilion!"