Chapter 254 – Digging for Talent?

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If Lin Ming had released a supremely formidable martial skill that was able to shatter her defense, she would not have been surprised. But it had only been a punch; it was simply impossible to condense enough energy onto that fist. That casual blow he sent out wasn’t even with a weapon!

Or maybe he had always been a fist fighting martial artist?

The current situation had already gone beyond any of Jing Chanyu’s calculations, she was extremely startled. After Lin Ming broke apart her absolute defense, he grasped towards her jade-like neck!

Jing Chanyu shook as if an earthquake passed through her, and her face turned incomparably white. At such a close range, it was impossible to use any martial skills, but could she use speed to dodge him? Jing Chanyu had never excelled at speed, but even if she did, could she compare to someone like Lin Ming? He was some abnormal freak that had managed to continuously avoid her Halcyon Reflection 1000 Shaded Hands; Jing Chanyu did not believe for a second that she could accomplish something similar.

At this critical juncture, Jing Chanyu formed her hand into a saber, and chopped down at Lin Ming’s wrist.

Although Jing Chanyu seemed like a delicate and gossamer lady, anyone who assumed she would be weak because of her physical charms was sorely mistaken. Jing Chanyu had reached a medium sixth-grade fusion with her Earth-attribute true essence; she had already achieved the stage of using her elemental origin energy to temper her body. Usually if she didn’t use true essence, her body would seem soft and liquid-like, but once she imbued her body with true essence, her body would be as strong as a treasure weapon!

Therefore Jing Chanyu didn’t need to use a weapon, because her body was in itself a marvelous natural weapon!

Jing Chanyu had wanted to force Lin Ming to retreat with her hand saber, but hadn’t thought that not only would Lin Ming not react, he would keep rushing towards her.

This fellow!

Jing Chanyu was finally angry. She clenched her beautiful jade teeth tight, and her left hand chopped down. If a normal martial artist were struck by this, they would suffer the fate of having their bones fractured.

Peng!

Her hand cut down on Lin Ming’s wrist, but Jing Chanyu’s face drained of blood right after. She felt as if her hand saber had cut down on darksteel. Not only was Lin Ming’s hand not affected in the least, but she felt her own arm lose feeling from the backlash reverberations.

Was his body made of iron or something?

She only had enough time to think this single thought. In the next moment, Lin Ming’s hand already wrapped around her tender neck and his five fingers gripped tightly against her throat and carotid artery. As long as Lin Ming put in just a bit of strength, he could have immediately killed Jing Chanyu!

Jing Chanyu’s veil had originally covered down to her neck, but in that fierce impact when Lin Ming had grabbed onto her, the veil that was the symbol of her tranquility was pulled down, revealing Jing Chanyu’s beautiful and mysterious face.

“You…!” Jing Chanyu’s eyes flashed with a sullen anger.

“Well fought!” Lin Ming withdrew his hand, bowed in a gesture of respect and then turned to leave the stage. If it hadn’t been his hand a moment ago but instead his spear, then Jing Chanyu’s throat would have been nothing but a bloody hole. The outcome of this battle had already been decided.

“Lin Ming, victory!”

As the referee announced the victor, the audience was stunned by the sudden turn in events.

What had just happened a moment ago? Lin Ming used his fist?”

And he had shattered Jing Chanyu’s absolute defense with a single punch! There wasn’t even true essence condensed onto his fist!

This match between Lin Ming and Jing Chanyu had already undergone all sorts of analysis in the minds of the audience, still, no one thought that the end result would turn out like this. It was just as when Jing Chanyu had defeated Zi Ling: it only took several breaths of time for Lin Ming to defeat Jing Chanyu.

Not only that, but he didn’t use the soul force attacks that he was known for. Instead, he had used his fist.

“Isn’t Lin Ming a soul force attack expert? How come he used his fist?”

The path of martial arts was limitless and profound. For someone so young like Lin Ming, it was already excellent that they were skilled in a single aspect. A soul force attack was already an extremely obscure and esoteric method of fighting. To be able to achieve good success in this ability, one had to invest a great amount of time within it. Naturally, other aspects of their training would lag behind.

But now it looked like Lin Ming didn’t know just soul attacks. If Lin Ming knew some swordsmanship, then the audience wouldn’t have been too surprised. But a fist…

This sort of attack method was simply too different from a soul attack, it was just too difficult to link the two together.

“You’ve done well.” Qin Ziya praised as Lin Ming walked off stage.

Although Qin Ziya sounded calm, his mind was actually surging with an overwhelming tide of feelings and emotions. At first, he had estimated that Lin Ming had high hopes of entering the top 20 ranks, but after he had arrived at the Seven Profound Valleys’ Total Faction and seen such geniuses like Zhang Yanzhao, the Jingchan Duo, and others emerge from the shadows one at a time, Qin Ziya’s confidence had been somewhat shaken.

But now it seemed as if he had underestimated Lin Ming by far. Lin Ming reached the first tier, which also meant he had entered into the top 30 ranks. And yet he still hadn’t used his spear!

Did this mean that there was a chance Lin Ming would enter into the top 10 ranks during his first Total Faction Martial Meeting?

Thinking this, Qin Ziya felt a giddiness surge within him. Although the top 10 and top 20 sounded close, the truth was, there was a massive difference between them!

The top 10 rankings were nearly completely dominated by direct disciples! There were some large factions like the Sword Faction and the Acacia Faction that had bountiful resources and numerous disciples. The resources that the second ranked disciple received wouldn’t be that much different from the direct disciple.

In other words, these top-level direct disciples already filled the top 10. If a disciple wished to enter into the top 10, then they would have to struggle against these direct disciples!

Ever since the Seven Profound Valleys Total Faction Martial Meeting had begun, the 36 countries and 16 martial families had produced a number of amazing talents that were able to enter into the top 20 rankings, such as Zhang Yanzhao.

There were many talents that had entered into the top 20. But to enter into the top 10? There had only been a few!

If Lin Ming was able to enter the top 10 of the Total Faction Meeting during his first time, then what about his second time? Or third time? Lin Ming had only just reached 16 years of age – he still had two more Total Faction Martial Meetings he could attend!

Qin Ziya didn’t dare to imagine what could happen. Lin Ming’s growth was simply too terrifying. He guessed that after this Martial Meeting, Lin Ming might even be selected to enter the Total Faction ahead of time!

With the support of the Total Faction’s resources and cultivation methods, then Lin Ming might even become the champion of the next Martial Meeting! Compared to his own hopes, that would have been three years early!

Of course, even if Lin Ming entered into the Total Faction, his achievements would partially be attributed to Qin Ziya. But thinking that just as his Sky Fortune Kingdom’s Seven Profound Martial House had raised a genius like this with so much difficulty, they had to instantly send him away, Qin Ziya felt a bit melancholic.

……………………………………

In the Grand Hall of the Seven Profound Valleys, Mu Qinghong had been following Lin Ming’s match from beginning to end.

“Haha, Fairy Maiden Qinghong seems to have some interest in that young boy. This is a talent that my Seven Profound Valleys has cultivated with care; he is a good seedling!”

At the side of Mu Qinghong, Seven Profound Valley Master Shi Zongtian was laughing with a big smile as he spoke.

Mu Qinghong was still quietly observing Lin Ming with her soul force, looking indifferent to the situation. Shi Zongtian had no idea what sort of thoughts Mu Qinghong was thinking, he only thought that maybe she had been drawn in by Lin Ming’s exemplary performance.

Lin Ming had also caught Shi Zongtian’s attention. To have such strength at the peak Bone Forging stage was just too eye-catching, it was hard not to notice.

However, although Shi Zongtian kept note of Lin Ming, he hadn’t investigated any information on Lin Ming’s background.

Lin Ming had been revealed to be a soul talent genius, but, soul attacks just weren’t the right way to do things. Once he tried to attack the Xiantian realm, he would experience an insurmountable bottleneck. To Shi Zongtian, this meant that Lin Ming wasn’t worth caring about. But now it seemed that Lin Ming wasn’t just a simple soul force master after all!

Mu Qinghong looked at Shi Zongtian and chuckled in her heart. According to the data she had obtained from Mu Qianyu, although Lin Ming was technically a disciple of the Seven Profound Valleys, he hadn’t been ‘cultivated with care’ as Shi Zongtian had claimed. He wasn’t even a disciple of the Seven Profound Valleys Total Faction, but just someone who had been hanging around at a Seven Profound Martial House.

She smiled and said, “He truly is a good seedling. With such strength at his age, his future will be bright and limitless. Valley Master Shi’s ability to find talents like this is praiseworthy.”

Hearing such high appraisal coming from the lofty Mu Qinghong, Shi Zongtian felt his own mood soar to the sky. Before a top-tier fourth-grade sect, Shi Zongtian was naturally happy to show off the strength of his sect. “I didn’t really think that such a genius would emerge at this Total Faction Martial Meeting… it looks like I need to recruit him into the Martial House ahead of time. Such a good seedling is just wasted within the 36 countries… mm? 36 countries?”

Shi Zongtian suddenly realized something. He send out a true essence sound transmission to a servant and said, “Look up which country Lin Ming from the seventh group came from.”

Shi Zongtian suddenly felt a foreboding omen creeping up. This Lin Ming couldn’t possibly come from Sky Fortune Kingdom…

An answer soon arrived back, and that unlucky feeling in Shi Zongtian’s heart came true. Lin Ming really was from Sky Fortune Kingdom!

He turned his head to glance at Mu Qinghong, and his expression became somewhat ugly. He remembered that just when the Martial Meeting had started, Mu Qinghong had asked which stage the participants of Sky Fortune Kingdom were at.

At first, Shi Zongtian had thought it was strange that Mu Qinghong of all people would ask something like this. But now, it seemed as if the reason was because of Lin Ming!

If he hadn’t guessed wrong, then the reason Mu Qinghong came to the Seven Profound Valleys to specifically observe the Total Faction Martial Meeting was to look for Lin Ming!

A dignified and haughty Fairy Maiden of Divine Phoenix Island with an extreme Xiantian cultivation would actually travel all this way to look for a little boy from Sky Fortune Kingdom with a peak Bone Forging stage cultivation. This was just too ridiculous!

“How old is Lin Ming?” Shi Zongtian asked a servant again with true essence sound transmission.

“Reporting to the Valley Master, Lin Ming has just reached 16 years of age!”

To have reached a cultivation at the peak Bone Forging stage at only 16 years of age, he must have at least a sixth-grade martial talent!

Within the Seven Profound Valleys, a sixth-grade talent was already at the top. But placed within Divine Phoenix Island, a sixth-grade talent was only so-so. It wasn’t a reason for someone like Mu Qinghong to personally come to the Seven Profound Valleys.

That meant that there were other aspects of Lin Ming that were worth Mu Qinghong’s attention, but he still didn’t know what these were!

Realizing this point, Shi Zongtian’s complexion became increasingly ugly. The fourth-grade sect Divine Phoenix Island would actually come to his little corner of land in order to search for talent? Although they were a fourth-grade sect and the Seven Profound Valleys was only a third-grade sect, and the difference in their strength was too great, they still couldn’t bully them like such!

“Is there a problem, Valley Master Shi?” Mu Qinghong saw that Shi Zongtian was looking awful at the moment, so she smiled as she asked him. She noticed that Shi Zongtian’s servant had left for a bit a moment ago, and was able to vaguely guess what had just happened.

Shi Zongtian forced a smile and said with a low voice, “Is Fairy Maiden Qinghong old acquaintances with my sect’s disciple Lin Ming?”

“No. It’s just because of some coincidence that Little Brother Lin knows my family’s Young Mistress.”

Young Mistress!

Shi Zongtian almost wanted to jump out of his seat. The ‘Young Mistress’ of Mu Qinghong could only be a single person – the Saintess of Divine Phoenix Island, Mu Qianyu!

Lin Ming actually was personally acquainted with Mu Qianyu?

What was happening? How could Lin Ming possibly know the Saintess of Divine Phoenix Island? An existence like her would have a high status even if placed in the entire South Horizon Region of Sky Spill Continent! Even he had to bow if he saw her!