Chapter 151: Zhao Xing Takes First Place — Shi Yong's Competitive Spirit!

As Liu Tianning's voice rang out, a great wind swept across the Law-Demonstration Plaza, sending countless materials flying over to pile up into a small mountain at the plaza's center.

"Use this pile of materials as the standard."

"Within a quarter of an hour, draft your straw men and enter the hall. The higher the realm and the greater the number, the higher the ranking."

"Begin now."

Whoosh~

The moment Liu Tianning's voice fell, the hundred people on the plaza immediately sprang into action.

The fourth trial is a single-spell test; the minimum standard is one Seven-Turn Straw Man!

Quantity and realm are the standards for measuring ranking.

At this moment, no one dared waste a single moment, racing against time to begin casting the Straw Man spell.

By the third trial, one couldn't yet see much of a gap.

The hundredth place and the two or three hundred ranks behind it weren't all that far apart.

Maybe a touch of luck, arriving early, and one slipped into the top hundred.

But by this fourth trial, it all comes down to true strength, and the gap between geniuses becomes plainly visible.

"Rise!"

Barely ten breaths had passed before a first batch of people had already raised Seven-Turn Straw Men.

Li Feng was among this first batch. He swept a glance across the plaza, saw that there was nothing in front of Zhao Xing, and smiled slightly. What he didn't know was that the first straw man Zhao Xing had raised was an Invisible Straw Man — completely unseen.

Zhao Xing had no time to spare for the others; out of habit, he immediately began "reading the question," scanning the entire plaza with his Five-Element Observation.

He found that although the materials were plentiful, certain types were limited.

If he wanted to maximize the effect of the Straw Man spell, he had to claim these limited good materials first.

"Rise!"

Zhao Xing's fingers shot out a streak of Jin Guang. With his Straw Man spell now at the mid-tier, he no longer needed to weave by hand; his control of the wind was strong enough that he used the wind itself to shape the straw man's formation.

During the opening motions of the casting, many spell-gleams of Jin Guang collided with one another.

"Bang bang bang bang bang!"

Immediately, fierce sounds of collision rang out.

Zhao Xing's spell-gleam of Jin Guang swept through the materials, knocking aside the casting of others.

Then a pile of fine materials drifted before him, rapidly forming into a straw man.

"Bang bang bang bang bang bang!"

With so many people casting at once, quite a few — whether intentionally or not — had spotted the "good materials" and all wanted to claim them for themselves.

But strength varied, and after two rounds of collision,

those who knew their own strength was lacking fell quiet.

Obediently, they went to pick inferior materials.

"The gap appears in an instant."

Liu Tianning stood inside the main hall of the Ten Thousand Laws Palace, watching the scene outside.

"In casting, the strong seize the better spell resources and space."

"Although everyone is only casting the Straw Man spell, the opening stance of the Straw Man spell also involves the application of the Five Elements' power." Beside him, Lu Bang had appeared in the Ten Thousand Laws Palace at some unknown moment. "The geniuses who were strong before are still more than strong enough now."

Top-tier geniuses like Zhao Xing, Zhuang Ziqing, Shi Yong, Cao Shuang, and Feng Qiu could all claim the good materials in the very first moment.

Others, unable to prevail in the spell collisions, had to settle for the next best thing and seek other materials.

"Divine Valor, Great Shield, Self-Detonation — rise!"

After raising the Invisible Straw Man in the first round, he had spotted the good materials.

For the second round's choice, Zhao Xing began casting higher-tier Straw Man spells.

Nine-Turn Divine Valor, Great Shield, and Self-Detonation — within half a quarter-hour, two straw men of each of these three types appeared.

By now, more than half the materials on the plaza were gone.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!"

Spell-gleams of Jin Guang plunged into the materials; Zhao Xing cast once more, and before the quarter-hour ended, he had raised another twelve straw men.

However, these latter twelve straw men, due to the rush of time and the materials available, were not without flaws; not all reached the Nine-Turn tier — half of them were only Seven-Turn straw men.

"Time's up!"

Liu Tianning's voice rang out, and then on the plaza, any scattered materials and any straw men not yet fully formed were blown away by a gust of forceful wind.

"Ah, time's already up?"

"No! Give me just ten more breaths and I could have finished!"

"Sigh, I only managed one Six-Turn Straw Man."

"Too nervous — normally when I practice on my own, I can clearly raise a Seven-Turn Straw Man, but now I made mistakes because of the tension."

"It's over, I'm stopped at the fourth trial."

Many on the field sighed one after another.

The time really was too rushed; moreover, from the third trial to the fourth, they had only been given seven days to study and comprehend.

Although studying in the Ten Thousand Laws Palace could indeed let one quickly master the Straw Man spell, each person's aptitude differed — fewer than half could learn a Seven-Turn Straw Man.

Yet where some were despondent, others were overjoyed.

"My Straw Man spell hadn't reached Seven-Turn before midnight, but just now in that scramble, watching others cast, I suddenly comprehended it and reached Seven-Turn! As expected, breakthroughs only come under pressure and competition!"

"Hm? I actually raised a Seven-Turn Straw Man — these materials… I never thought to use them before, yet the effect turned out to be surprisingly good?"

"Materials also determine a straw man's power. By the standards of the Straw Man spell, strictly speaking I only know the Six-Turn method, but the straw men I raised this time far exceed Six-Turn in power — I wonder if it'll be enough to pass."

When Liu Tianning announced that time was up.

Everyone ordered their straw figures to walk into the palace.

Ouyang Song controlled the first invisible straw figure as it stepped onto the stairs, his heart full of hope.

But the moment the straw figure stepped onto the first stair before the main hall, it began to wobble unsteadily.

Upon stepping onto the second stair, the originally invisible straw figure revealed one leg.

Before it could even step onto the third stair, its true form was completely exposed.

"Boom!"

The invisible straw figure was blasted away, and in the process of flying out, it turned into a pile of scrap, scattering at his feet.

"Failed."

Ouyang Song's expression changed.

In the time it takes a quarter-hour, he had only managed to craft this one invisible straw figure.

He felt the straw figure's spell effect was somewhere between six-turn and seven-turn — it could be six, or it could be seven.

Now it seemed, it hadn't quite reached seven-turn.

"Sigh, looks like I can only get rewards in the fifty-to-one-hundred rank tier."

Fifty-to-one-hundred rank only gives a thousand points.

Ouyang Song was unwilling, but there was nothing he could do.

He could only step aside and watch.

"Boom boom boom!"

"Boom boom boom!"

"No!"

"Is this a mistake? I clearly learned the seven-turn method!"

"Ah, my fourth straw figure exploded too!"

Many straw figures, before they could even cross the palace threshold, were sent flying and burst apart.

In an instant, over a hundred straw figures exploded in the sky above the plaza, the five-element force scattering and flickering in the night sky, like a fireworks display.

"Go."

Zhao Xing pointed with his hand, ordering his nineteen straw figures to charge up the stairs.

Of the nineteen straw figures, there were 4 invisible straw figures, 3 illusion-form straw figures, and the remaining twelve were split evenly — four each of Brave, Great Shield, and Self-Detonation.

According to Zhao Xing's own estimate, the invisible and illusion-form ones were both seven-turn, and the other twelve were all nine-turn.

But there's still some difference between actual operation and theory — for the last straw figure crafted in the latter half-quarter-hour, Zhao Xing couldn't quite gauge whether it could count as seven-turn.

"Tap tap tap~"

The nineteen straw figures began to step onto the stairs.

The Brave straw figures and Great Shield straw figures bore enormous impact force right away.

But the nine-turn straw figures were completely unaffected, steadily walking up all the stairs.

The invisible straw figures bore relatively lighter pressure, because the impact force was mainly aimed at shattering their "invisibility" spell effect.

The illusion-form straw figures were the same — the pressure was even lighter, but the coverage was more comprehensive; the formation on the stairs was impacting and shattering the illusion-form straw figures' "illusion" effect.

Right now the illusion-form straw figures look exactly like a True Person; once they can't hold on, their true form will be revealed.

All the nine-turn straw figures successfully entered the palace.

The seven-turn straw figures — the invisible and illusion-form types — moved comparatively slowly.

The first one passed, the fourth one passed…

The last invisible straw figure, after walking past thirty stairs and about to enter the palace, suddenly revealed one finger.

"Boom!" The invisible straw figure's tracks were exposed, naturally counting as a failure; it was blown into the sky by a gust of wind and exploded.

"One failure, about what I estimated." Zhao Xing thought to himself. He had already guessed in his heart that the last straw figure was indeed crafted in too much of a hurry.

Even with the nine-turn straw figure method, if time is rushed and materials are lacking, the final result could still be a casting failure, or a massive drop in power.

Only now did Zhao Xing spare some attention to observe how others were doing.

But for the moment, he couldn't tell whose straw figures belonged to whom.

He could only quietly wait for Liu Tianning to announce the results.

"Boom boom boom!"

"Boom boom boom!"

The explosions continued.

Zhuang Ziqing, Han Bing, Cao Shuang and others walked over: "Zhao Xing, how many straw figures did you get inside?"

"Eighteen."

"?"

Cao Shuang's eyes went wide: "In a quarter-hour you crafted eighteen straw figures, and every single one reached seven-turn level?"

Zhuang Ziqing was also stunned: "Y-you're not joking, are you?"

Han Bing said expressionlessly: "He doesn't look like he's joking. From his expression, I think he's saying that all of you are too weak."

Zhao Xing glanced at Han Bing: "Brother Han, could you not draw aggro for me? What kind of expression can you read into that?"

The others didn't mind Han Bing's cold joke — that was just his personality. If Zhao Xing had Han Bing's deadpan face, then maybe it really would have the effect of drawing aggro.

"How many did you get inside?" Zhao Xing asked.

"Seven." Cao Shuang said, "Originally I had ten, but three invisible straw figures exploded."

"Nine." Zhuang Ziqing said, "I originally thought Cai Jin was already impressive, but I didn't expect you to have this many."

Zhao Xing couldn't help but look at Cai Jin: "Brother Cai, how many straw figures did you get inside?"

Cai Jin shook his head: "Fourteen is far inferior to Brother Zhao."

Zhao Xing waved his hand and said: "It's not just about quantity, Brother Cai is being too modest."

Cai Jin is from the Taicang Academy, and his main cultivation is the Benwo Sect; this straw-figure technique is also a Benwo method, so his performance is perfectly normal.

"Shi Yong also got nine straw figures in." Zhuang Ziqing said, "I just don't know what level his straw-figure technique has reached."

"Didn't pay attention." The others all shook their heads—time was too short, who still had the mind to pay attention to others?

"Just wait, the straw figures have pretty much all gone in, the fourth trial's ranking will be out soon."

…………

After another quarter-hour, there were no fully-formed straw figures left on the plaza.

Those that should go in had gone in, those that should explode had finished exploding.

Before long, everyone received the fourth trial's ranking from their earth mirrors.

【First Place: Divine Might Army, Zhao Xing】

【Second Place: Cangjue Army, Cai Jin】

【Third Place: Lieyang Army, Feng Qi】

【Fourth Place: Zhenhai Army, Wei Chen】

【Fifth Place: Tiger Jiao Army, Shi Yong】

【Sixth Place: Xuanjia Army, Guan Junyang】

【Seventh Place: Tiger Jiao Army, Li Feng】

【Eighth Place: Qingluan Army, Yu Hao】

【Ninth Place: Tiger Jiao Army, Zhuang Ziqing】

……

【Thirteenth Place: Tiger Jiao Army, Cao Shuang】

【Twenty-fifth Place: Divine Might Army, Han Bing】

【Thirty-seventh Place: Lieyang Army, Jiang Tianming】

【Fiftieth Place: Luman Army, Fang Yi】

Liu Tianning only ranked the top fifty.

The fifty-one to one hundred behind weren't even ranked, because the rewards in this tier are all the same—just one thousand points.

As for the top fifty, they can continue to participate in the fifth trial.

The moment the rankings came out, the plaza immediately burst into discussion.

"What? Divine Might Army's Zhao Xing is first? Isn't he from the Earth Advantage Academy? Why is his straw-figure technique so powerful too?"

"Damn, the Taicang Academy's selection trial, yet someone from the Earth Advantage Academy took first!"

"Cai Jin, Feng Qi, Wei Chen are all from the Taicang Academy, and none of them could beat Zhao Xing?"

"Zhao Xing got second in the last selection trial, isn't it normal for him to take first this time?"

"What do you know? The straw-figure technique is a Benwo Sect spell. Being strong in Heaven-Timing law or Earth-Advantage law doesn't necessarily mean being strong in Benwo law. Don't you know Shi Yong only made it to fifth, and Zhuang Ziqing only made it to ninth?"

"Could it be that Zhao Xing had already studied the straw-figure technique beforehand? But then why didn't he enter the Taicang Academy?"

"Who primarily cultivates the Benwo Sect? When Zhao Xing was assigned to his academy, he could get Grade-A superior resources at the Earth Advantage Academy, so naturally he wouldn't go to the Taicang Academy."

"Brother Zhao is awesome!"

"……"

The moment the rankings came out, the original Grade-A superior geniuses instantly became the center of heated discussion.

In the top ten, the Taicang Academy took five spots; in the top twenty, the Taicang Academy also had quite a few people, some of whom hadn't originally had Grade-A treatment, only Grade-B.

Geniuses who primarily cultivate the Benwo Sect ranking high in this selection trial is normal, but the fact that first place was snatched away by Divine Might Army's Zhao Xing is truly somewhat unexpected.

"H-he actually got first place?" Li Feng was utterly shocked. "How did he do it? How can his straw-figure technique be this strong too?"

Li Feng ranked seventh in the fourth trial; he had thought this time he could surpass Zhao Xing and properly vent his spite.

He never expected Zhao Xing to leap all the way to first!

"Even Shi Yong only made it to fifth, yet he actually made it to first." The hatred in Li Feng's heart! When would he ever be able to vent this spite?!

"Being strong in a single law doesn't mean being strong in combined laws—I still have a chance to surpass him!" Li Feng could only comfort himself like this, pinning his hopes on the later trials. "I already know the Three-Law Unity, and I'm seventh place too—there's still hope of surpassing him in this trial."

Many people compared Zhuang Ziqing, Zhao Xing, and Shi Yong.

At this moment, Shi Yong, who had been staying in the southeast corner of the plaza, couldn't help taking out his earth mirror to take a look.

"I'm ranked fifth, Zhuang Ziqing is ranked ninth."

"Zhao Xing, yet ranked first?"

Shi Yong looked at the name in first place on his earth mirror, a flash of competitive desire crossing his eyes.

"The essence of the straw-figure technique also involves the Dao of the Five Elements. I thought casually learning it would be enough to get 50,000 points—looks like I can't get by without putting in real effort."

Swish~ Shi Yong put away his earth mirror and flew toward the Taicang Academy's 'Primordial Dao Arena.'

Zhao Xing has finally dragged Shi Yong into it too! Brothers, cast a vote to support!