Chapter 118: Thunder Law Hunt, Ranked Ninth!

When Lu Bang pressed down with both hands, the Cloud Law trial immediately entered its second phase.

The vast majority of people had no mind to consider dealing with others, because resisting Lu Bang's Cloud Law was already extremely difficult.

"Hum~"

Under Lu Bang's press, everyone's cloud rapidly dropped in altitude.

Clouds below one hundred meters meant elimination.

No one dared to be distracted; they all hurriedly performed their Cloud Law to resist the pressure from above.

"Soaring Thunder to the Nine Heavens, rise for me!"

In a corner of the eastern outskirts, Yu Chunwu's face flushed bright red. He had just been watching the battle between Li Feng and Zhao Xing, and had even wanted to personally go question Zhao Xing about why he had schemed against them.

But now, where could such thoughts remain? His entire mind was focused on resisting Lu Bang's oppressive might.

Yu Chunwu was already not considered weak, yet even with his full effort controlling the thundercloud.

His cloud still dropped bit by bit toward the one-hundred-meter altitude.

"Sizzle sizzle~"

Within the thundercloud, wisps of cloud qi drifted away, floating toward Lu Bang's cloud at a thousand meters.

Cloud Qi Domain!

Although Lu Bang was not employing a Cloud-Swallowing Law, his cloud qi had already formed a domain, slowly absorbing the cloud qi of the geniuses below.

As one grew and the other shrank, the difficulty of resistance became even greater.

"Hum~" His cloud finally could not hold out.

Yu Chunwu felt himself wrapped by a gust of wind, and in the next instant his vision blurred.

In the blink of an eye, he found himself outside the boundary stele.

"Trial failed. Report to one of the other branch academies." An armored man looked at Yu Chunwu indifferently. "There will be opportunities in the future to advance to the Four Great Academies; no need to fixate on a single result."

"Yes." Yu Chunwu nodded respectfully. Though somewhat unwilling, he knew a trial was a trial.

As time passed, the number of those eliminated continued to grow.

Two quarter-hours later, of the nine hundred and thirty-one people, fewer than eight hundred remained.

At this point, Lu Bang's cloud had also been pressed from a thousand meters down to seven hundred meters.

"Still pressing down — just how many people does this old bastard need to eliminate before we can move to the next stage?"

Zhao Xing also felt the pressure.

His cloud was currently maintained at an altitude of six hundred meters.

Originally, after devouring Li Feng, his altitude had risen to nine hundred meters; at that height, there had been only a few people.

However, with Lu Bang's downward pressure, he too was forced to descend.

But he still maintained the standard of the first tier.

"The number eliminated is still increasing; it's already dropped below eight hundred."

Zhao Xing swept his gaze around — every time someone was eliminated, they were directly wind-shifted outside the boundary stele.

Gradually, the people standing around him grew sparse.

"Hum!"

Lu Bang's cloud pressed down further.

Suddenly dropping to an altitude of five hundred meters!

Zhao Xing got a fright.

"That old fellow has no martial virtue, launching a sneak attack."

"Dropping two hundred meters in one go — he's trying to kill people!"

Zhao Xing cursed furiously in his heart.

His cloud had nearly been smashed apart by that old bastard.

Although it did not collapse, much of it had been scattered — it was an all-out crushing pressure, utterly impossible to resist.

After reacting, he immediately controlled his cloud to descend to an altitude of four hundred meters.

The cloud qi broke from whole into parts, then was absorbed and replenished once more.

The others were not in much better shape.

The top-ranked Shi Yong, Zhuang Ziqing, Hua Zhilin, Feng Qiu, Guan Junyang and others — their Cloud Law had all suffered considerable damage.

As for those further below, they were in even worse shape.

The challengers barely maintaining themselves at the hundred-meter altitude were dealt a heavy blow by such a violent press.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh~"

Within the boundary stele, several dozen people vanished in an instant.

"Trial concluded! All participants, please dismiss your clouds and rest on the spot."

Zuo Zizhi's voice rang out.

The dark-gold cloud qi domain in the sky likewise vanished.

"Phew~"

The challengers all let out sighs of relief in succession; some even plopped down on the ground.

The pressure was immense — Lu Bang was at least a fifth-rank powerhouse. Even with so many resisting together, the pressure distributed to each person had not lessened.

"Finally passed. I wonder how many people are left?" Zhao Xing looked up at the sky.

"Second trial — seven hundred and twenty people passed. The rest may proceed to the other branch academies to report in and compete for rankings within those academies."

"Those eliminated need not be disheartened. If you perform outstandingly in the other branch academies in the future, you too will have a chance to advance to the Four Great Academies."

Zuo Zizhi's voice spread across the four directions on the wind.

"Only seven hundred and twenty left?" Zhao Xing clicked his tongue inwardly.

Mainly because of that last strike.

Lu Bang had launched a sudden attack.

That one wave eliminated at least sixty or seventy people.

The second trial, first stage: hold the clouds, fight for control.

Second stage: ascend in height; the cloud layer's height also determines the spell's range.

The final stage tests the cloud layer's stability.

Even though these nine hundred plus were already the best of the best, after the second trial, over two hundred were still eliminated.

"The Military Si Nong's screening is truly strict."

In Zhao Xing's view, the Ten Sun Grotto-heaven's screening of Military Si Nong was also extremely strict.

"I wonder what the next trials will be. Eight trials in total, and we've only passed two."

Many people were also discussing in low voices.

"The first trial was wind, the second trial was clouds."

"The third trial should be thunder or rain?"

Zhao Xing rested while quietly thinking.

"The Four Arts of Heaven's Timing — cloud and wind arts have been tested; there's no reason thunder and rain arts wouldn't be tested."

"It just depends on how they'll test them."

"They should all be comprehensive trials."

The first trial: wind to pass messages; the second trial: clouds pressing down as if to crush.

Both were combined with real combat.

The third trial probably isn't as simple as comparing whose thunder art has more revolutions.

"That's about enough." Lu Bang stood on the flying boat and said, "Bring the tower ship over."

"Not letting them rest a bit more?" Zuo Zizhi asked, "They've only rested for a quarter-hour."

"A quarter-hour is already a long time." Lu Bang said coldly, "When a real war begins, having a quarter-hour to rest is a luxury."

"Fine, you're the commanding officer, you call the shots." Zuo Zizhi said helplessly, taking out his Earth Mirror to send a message.

"All trial-takers, please board the Cloud-Rain Tower Ship."

"You will be heading to the 【Ten Thousand Beasts Garden】 area."

"Ten Thousand Beasts Garden is an enclosed stretch of plains and hills. The exotic beasts within are numerous; the weakest are all Entry-rank, or in some aspects comparable to Entry-rank, though the strongest is only ninth-rank."

"Trial-takers will be dropped into random areas of Ten Thousand Beasts Garden. The trial's requirement is to kill exotic beasts."

"The trial lasts four hours; ranking is determined by the number of beasts killed."

On the tower ship, Zuo Zizhi announced the rules to everyone.

Everyone listened quietly.

"You may use the standard equipment of a Si Nong, but only cloud arts and thunder arts are permitted. There are no supplies."

"Using any other spells results in elimination."

"If you encounter a life-threatening danger and are rescued, you exit the trial early, and your score is based on the number of exotic beasts killed at the time of rescue."

"After four hours, the rankings will be announced. The top five hundred may proceed to the next trial."

After Zuo Zizhi finished announcing the rules, the people below couldn't help but shake their heads.

Another two hundred plus to be eliminated!

"Four hours, exotic beasts all comparable to Entry-rank, or outright Entry-rank, and we can only use cloud arts and thunder arts."

"Thunder arts are powerful, but without supplies, how many times can they be used?"

"Encountering a life-threatening crisis and being rescued? That means serious injuries are possible."

"This trial is very dangerous…"

Even though these new soldiers, most of whom weren't truly new soldiers in the strict sense, still changed color at this moment.

All Entry-rank exotic beasts, or comparable to Entry-rank.

Called Ten Thousand Beasts Garden, so the numbers surely won't be small either.

But having come this far, no one wanted to retreat.

They all silently seized the time to rest on the Dragon-Head Tower Ship.

Before long, the Dragon-Head Tower Ship flew into Ten Thousand Beasts Garden.

The Si Nong may choose to jump down from any location.

But they must make their choice within a quarter-hour.

Before landing, other spells may be used; after landing, spells other than thunder arts and cloud arts are forbidden.

Once used, it's elimination.

"Whoosh~"

Zhao Xing leaped down from the Dragon-Head Tower Ship.

He activated the Minor Nine Gang Wind Art, drawing gang wind from the sky to swirl around himself.

Compared to that time jumping down from the Dahu entrance.

This time Zhao Xing was much more at ease.

Soon, he landed on a patch of barren soil with shrubs.

By now the sky had grown dim; the two suns had respectively set toward the east and west.

"Awoo~"

The moment he landed, the sound of beasts roaring came from all around.

"Cloud Devouring!"

Zhao Xing didn't hesitate, immediately casting the Cloud Devouring art to prop up a layer of clouds.

He didn't expand the cloud layer's range, only covering a hundred meters in radius.

"Use the cloud art to sense the presence of the strange beasts, use the thunder art to kill the enemy."

After Zhao Xing propped up the cloud layer, he quickly sensed eighteen strange beasts in the vicinity.

Clearly there was a pack of social strange beasts nearby.

"Boom-crack!"

Zhao Xing pointed, and within the cloud layer thunder immediately descended, striking toward the strange beasts in the darkness.

"Swish swish swish~"

The strange beasts were extremely fast, making them very difficult to lock onto.

Although the mid-grade perfected Thunder Summoning had great power, the previous strike only hit half of them; the other half was rapidly closing in on Zhao Xing.

"Relying on the Thunder Summoning art alone consumes too much and is inefficient."

"Fortunately, I know more than one thunder art."

"I must slow these strange beasts down first, then use Thunder Summoning to attack."

Zhao Xing remained calm in the face of danger.

This stage also tests real combat mentality—being in a strange and unknown environment with so many restraints.

If one gets nervous, perhaps only two or three tenths of a spell's full power can be brought to bear.

It's also possible that when danger strikes, one panics and uses a different spell, leading to elimination.

"Ground-Rolling Thunder!"

Zhao Xing pointed, and Jin Guang sank into the ground.

He quickly drew forth the power of thunder movement from the earth veins.

Over twenty translucent blue orbs of light floated around Zhao Xing.

"Scatter!"

Zhao Xing waved his hand, and the Ground-Rolling Thunder began spreading outward along the ground at a height of half a meter to one meter.

"Awoo!"

"Hah!"

Once the Ground-Rolling Thunder hit a target, it detonated, with a fairly large blast radius—anyone caught in it would feel numbness instantly spread through their whole body.

Under the influence of the Ground-Rolling Thunder, the strange beasts in the darkness sharply slowed down.

Now when Zhao Xing used the Thunder Summoning art again, efficiency greatly improved.

If any fish slipped through the net and came close,

he'd bind them with thunder chains until they were trapped, then slap them with a Thunder Palm—basically none survived.

"Let's go, next spot."

After clearing out this patch of strange beasts, Zhao Xing quickly departed.

Just as Zhao Xing began fighting the strange beasts, aboard the tower ship—

In a pavilion, a figure was watching the performance of those below through an Earth Mirror Instrument.

"The branch academy has eight trials; the first four were set by our Celestial Timing Academy."

"Anyone who passes four trials may enter our Celestial Timing Academy, and we may pick people first."

"Have you all drafted your candidates in mind?"

The four figures all held important positions in the Celestial Timing Academy, and were the main figures responsible for training new recruits of the Celestial Timing Academy after the branch division.

"Shi Yong's wind, cloud, and thunder arts are all excellent—he should enter our Celestial Timing Academy."

"Mm, his three arts are all top-tier, and he's very young. It's been a long time since we've seen such a good seedling."

"We can give him Grade A-Plus resources for cultivation."

"Agreed."

"Agreed." "Seconded."

All four nodded, having no objections to choosing Shi Yong.

"Feng Qiu excels at wind, but in this test he had no chance to show it. His cloud art is first-rate, but his thunder art is merely so-so—efficiency is slow, he's already falling behind. Giving him Grade A-Minus resources for cultivation is about right."

"The highest we can give is Grade A-Middle. If he's willing to choose us, fine; if not, we won't force him."

"Mm."

After discussing Feng Qiu, the four looked at the next name.

"Zhuang Ziqing specializes in Dili Sect spells, so he's probably entering the Dili Academy, but his wind, cloud, and thunder arts are also good—all first-rate. Should we try to recruit him?"

"We can't compete with those fellows from the Dili Academy, and Zhuang Ziqing is Dream Marquis's direct grandson. He's long since spoken with Tian Hou of the Dili Academy, so he probably won't choose the Celestial Timing Academy."

"Skip him. Let's look at Hua Hua Zhilin and Guan Junyang of the Xuanjia Army."

"From what we see now, they can only get Grade A-Minus treatment—nothing particularly outstanding. We'll see if they can show something special in the next trial."

The four observers from the Celestial Timing Academy were evaluating the outstanding batch; in fact, for the branch academy assessment, the Celestial Timing Academy only looked at the results of the first four trials.

The Dili Academy looked at the middle two trials, while the Pinghuai Academy and Taicang Academy looked at the performance in the last two trials.

After challengers passed the fourth trial, there was no more elimination—everyone would have a chance to participate in the latter four trials, and based on performance, compete for different levels of resource cultivation!

Soon several gazes fell on the name Zhao Xing.

"His cloud art is first-rate, and his thunder art is also good—we've already seen he has three thunder arts all above the seventh revolution."

"But his wind art is only the fourth-revolution Minor Nine Heavens Gang Wind art. Based on current performance, we can only give him Grade B-Plus treatment." One person offered his opinion.

"That's not right. Lu Bang once told me that this Zhao Xing practices a Yin Wind technique, already at nine revolutions, possibly even perfected. That's how he trapped Li Feng, so his wind-technique talent is actually not weak," another person said.

"Oh? I didn't know that. Then give him a mid-grade A treatment?"

"He's a clerk who was converted to full status, still like a blank sheet of paper, with great room for improvement. I think we can give him top-grade A resource treatment."

"That's not right. Precisely because he has little work experience, a mid-grade A is about right."

The three people's opinions diverged, but soon a fourth person said: "Let's just see his performance in the fourth trial, it'll be soon enough."

"Mm."

Time flew by, and four hours passed in a flash.

When the time came to the Mao hour of the second day, the Myriad Beasts Garden trial ended, and everyone boarded the ship.

Zuo Zizhi also used the Earth Mirror device to send all the trial-takers the hunting rankings for this Myriad Beasts Garden.

【First Place: Shi Yong】

【Second Place: Zhuang Ziqing】

【Third Place, Guan Junyang】

【Fourth Place, Lei Meng】

……

【Ninth Place: Zhao Xing】

【Tenth Place, Jiang Tianming】

……

【One Hundred and Eighty-Eighth Place, He Zheng】

The rankings had shifted greatly.

Many people let out exclamations upon seeing the results.

"I killed so many exotic beasts, and I'm only ranked three hundred and eighty-fifth? Damn, the people ahead are way too fierce!"

"Shi Yong is still first, how is he this strong?"

"Zhuang Ziqing is also impressive, holding steady at second. It seems the top two from the reporting trial are far ahead of the rest."

"Guan Junyang also climbed up to third place."

"Those three held steady, but the rest of the top ten has been completely reshuffled, everyone else dropped."

"Sigh, I'm at seven hundred, no chance with the four great academies now."

"So annoying, I practice two thunder techniques, each at seven revolutions, and I'm still only in the two hundreds."

"Too many geniuses. We're all Ninth Rank, how are others this strong…"

Zhao Xing also silently browsed the rankings.

"Ninth, better than expected."

He had four thunder techniques: 【Lightning Draw】, 【Lei Ting Chains】, 【Lei Ting Giant Palm】, and 【Rolling Ground Thunder】.

Among them, Rolling Ground Thunder was at four revolutions, Lightning Draw was perfected, Lei Ting Strangling Rope was at nine revolutions, and Lei Ting Giant Palm was at eight revolutions!

Knowing many thunder techniques meant his attack methods weren't singular, so naturally his monster-killing efficiency was high.

After all, the Myriad Beasts Garden had many types of exotic beasts; a single spell might not handle every situation.

Multiple thunder techniques, yang thunder and yin thunder working together, long-range, single-target, and area attacks used in combination meant he wouldn't waste too much time on any one beast species.

Therefore, Zhao Xing's monster-killing efficiency was extremely high.

He shot straight up to ninth place!

"Compared to the eight ahead of me, my gap is small. Only the gap with first and second is somewhat larger."

The Earth Mirror showed that Shi Yong had hunted 1,534 exotic beasts!

Zhuang Ziqing had hunted 1,325 exotic beasts!

Both of them broke a thousand. Starting from third-place Guan Junyang, it was only 921.

After that, going down, it reached Zhao Xing.

His kill count was 825.

"Different landing spots, different exotic beasts encountered — these factors can be chalked up to luck. Perhaps just a bit of luck difference led to the ranking gap."

"My luck couldn't have been bad, which means there's still some gap in strength between me and the people ahead. This gap should be that I haven't yet studied the classic secret treasuries of the three great sects, and my Qi Gathering is only at the fifteenth stage," Zhao Xing thought secretly.

Qi Gathering fifteenth stage was considered relatively low; most of the others were already at Qi Gathering nineteenth stage, just one stage away from the twentieth stage of Eighth Rank. In the ancient system, that would be Ninth Rank perfection; in the Great Zhou system, that would be official Ninth Rank upper.

Next were the classic secret treasuries of the three great sects — having studied them or not also made a difference.

For example, the *Yin-Yang Self Scripture* cultivated the inner five elements, greatly boosting qi recovery speed and total qi. In high-intensity combat, this difference would show.

Zhao Xing felt that reaching ninth place was entirely due to his good luck, encountering relatively easy-to-kill exotic beasts.

"He actually made it to ninth?" Jiang Hai and Jiang He looked at Zhao Xing's ranking with some surprise. The two brothers had both fallen outside the top twenty this time. "He's a formidable opponent!"

"Zhao Xing of the Divine Might Army — I didn't expect his thunder techniques to be this strong in actual combat." Zhuo Li also noticed Zhao Xing while checking the rankings. "I'm only fifty-ninth. I thought I could overtake him, but I didn't expect him to reach ninth."

"Interesting. Worthy of one who defeated Li Feng." Hua Zhilin glanced at Zhao Xing, a strange gleam in his eyes.

Just then, Zuo Zizhi walked out of the tower, interrupting everyone's discussion.

"Those eliminated from the top five hundred may choose to go to the other branch academies."

"The remaining five hundred will begin the fourth trial."

"The fourth trial will keep only two hundred people."

"However, once you pass the trial, the subsequent stages will no longer eliminate. You may choose your branch academy. And based on your performance, you will receive different training treatment…"