Chapter 116: Only Those Who Can Fight Beyond Their Level Are Geniuses, Half-Human and Half-Beast

Bang!

Walking over, Chen Chu threw the body to the ground, glancing at the trial participants and fixing his gaze on Liu Feng. He chuckled lightly. "Everyone's here, huh?"

Xia Youhui hesitated. "Ah Chu, are you alright?"

Chen Chu looked quite battered, with severe damage to his torso and shoulder armor. Some parts were dented and deformed, revealing the inner steel wires. The worst damage was to his right arm, where the armor was almost completely torn apart, exposing the sturdy arm underneath, while only a tattered piece of his cloak was still hanging from one shoulder. His helmet was the least damaged, with only a few black burn marks from the fire.

Chen Chu replied casually, "I'm fine, just need to repair this armor."

Thanks to the Durability +10 enhancement, the armor had been the only thing to truly suffer from Carlos’ attacks. The worst Chen Chu’s dense flesh and gemstone-like skin had experienced was bouts of boiling vitality, which had been easily taken care of each time with a quick circulation of true power.

Under these circumstances, Carlos’ fate had been a foregone conclusion from the start. In the end, he had gotten blown away by Chen Chu’s liquid bomb, which provided the needed opening for Chen Chu to finally slay him with a single strike of his saber.

Unfortunately, the damage the armor had sustained had all but completely dissolved the Durability enhancement. The remaining pieces were now only slightly tougher than normal armor, looking to the undiscerning eye as if it had simply been tempered with true power.

A young man carrying a longsword took off his helmet, his handsome face exuding a hint of fighting spirit. "Your strength is impressive. I'm Chen Jianyi from Qinchuan Martial Arts High School."

Chen Chu paused for a moment, then nodded. "...Nantian Martial Arts High School, Chen Chu."

Chen Jianyi looked at Chen Chu with interest and suggested, "Chen Chu, let's have a sparring match after the trial ends, what do you say?"

"Maybe another time." Chen Chu felt a sharp and terrifying sword-like aura from this young man, but he hadn’t come here to spar with anyone.

Suddenly, a fire alarm started blaring in the distance, along with law enforcement vehicles rushing over. They were there to put out the fire and handle the aftermath.

Although Carlos had been killed, the collateral damage from the battle had been severe. Both the building the fight had originally started in and another two-story building now sported holes in their outer walls, half of the street was destroyed, the warehouse had pretty much burned down completely by this point, and a few civilians had gotten injured. This was all things for the local authorities to handle, though; Chen Chu had other priorities.

Unfortunately, the reward for killing a beginning and middle stage Fourth Heavenly Realm was the same: 30 contribution points. Both Carlos’ spear and his cloak had also been destroyed in the battle, rendering them worthless. It was unclear whether this hunt had been worth it or not.

Back in his room, Chen Chu had just taken a shower and was drying his hair when he heard a knock on his door. Lin Xue, Lin Yu, and Yi Rui came in, all still in shock from the news.

“Did you really kill that Blood Emissary!?” Looking at the resolute and handsome young man in front of her, Lin Xue's eyes were filled with disbelief.

That had been an elite Blood Emissary in the middle stage of the Fourth Heavenly Realm, not an ordinary cultist with weak vitality. Just the day before, he had been able to injure most of them with ease.

If it hadn’t been for Luo Fei temporarily driving him off with her secret treasure and shooting up the signal flare that had alerted the teachers, he very likely would have even killed one of them.

Some of the most talented individuals of this generation from East Xia were gathered here in Kyria, and there were quite a few people who could fight against Fourth Heavenly Realm cultists while only in the Third Realm. Li Hao and An Fuqing had both killed more than one Fourth Realm cultist during their time here.

Those, however, had only been beginning stage Fourth Heavenly Realm cultists. There had only been two middle stage Fourth Realm cultists killed by Third Realm students against the odds, one of whom was presumably the one killed tonight; Lin Xue and the others still thought that that Blood Emissary had only been at the middle stage of the Fourth Realm.

Of course, their astonishment mainly came from the fact that Chen Chu's talent had been completely average at first. He had already surpassed everyone's expectations by entering the top fifty in the ranking competition, and now, in the two months they hadn’t seen each other, his power level seemed to have surpassed everyone else by a mile.

Compared to the astonished Lin Xue, her sister Lin Yu, with blue-tipped hair, remained calm, wearing a faint smile as she watched the scene unfold.

Ahem!

Chen Chu cleared his throat. "Lin Xue, don't be so surprised. I'm not as amazing as you thought. I was just lucky to be able to kill that Blood Emissary this time. It looked like he had been injured by Luo Fei's secret treasure, and with old Xia and Li Meng distracting him, I could use a micro liquid bomb to catch him off guard and injure him further. Even with all of these factors combined, I barely won in the end."

The idea of him winning against someone an entire Realm higher was unbelievable, but with Chen Chu's explanation, it seemed more reasonable.

They were the most talented among the new generation of East Xia, after all. It would be embarrassing if they couldn't fight against these Blood Cultists.

What was a genius? It wasn’t just about fast cultivation speed, but also about having stronger combat power than those in the same Realm. Only by winning against higher level opponents could one be considered a genius.

Otherwise, spending so many resources just to have the same combat power as ordinary cultivators of the same level, it was no better than being mediocre.

Chen Chu also hadn’t lied about Luo Fei’s treasure. The Blood Emissary had indeed been injured, with a shallow scar on his shoulder that hadn’t healed yet, not that that had ultimately mattered.

Yi Rui shook his head slightly. "Even if it was the way you’re saying, it's still surprising."

At this point, Yi Rui's gaze became somewhat complicated.

At first, he had been the most determined among them, with a lofty goal of breaking through quickly with life-threatening battles and a large amount of resources to stand out among the new generation.

While his family wasn’t bad, they couldn't compare to Lin Xue and Lin Yu, whose parents were both high-level cultivators, or Xia Youhui, whose brother was a high-level cultivator, to say nothing of other talented cultivators from similar families in their school.

Now, after two months, he had rapidly advanced from the Second Heavenly Realm to the Third, accumulating plenty of experience from his life-and-death struggles, and even gaining more than what he had originally expected.

But who knew that Chen Chu would be the one to make the greatest progress this time? Being in the same stage of the Third Heavenly Realm, but possessing the strength to fight against a middle stage Fourth Realm cultivator, regardless of whether that cultist had been injured...

***

The next afternoon, on the hospital bed, Luo Fei chuckled lightly. "You really scared everyone last night. Lin Xue was stunned and dumbfounded for quite a while."

Chen Chu, sitting beside the bed in his military uniform, lowered his head slightly as he peeled an apple. He smiled at the words. "Did I? I just killed a Blood Emissary, that's all."

"Yeah,

just

a Blood Emissary." Mimicking Chen Chu's relaxed tone, Luo Fei couldn't help but laugh, the pallor fading slightly from her face.

Only Chen Chu was visiting today; Xia Youhui and Li Meng had followed Liu Feng for a mission in a small town fifty kilometers from Kyria. Residents there had reported suspected traces of cultists, but after Chen Chu had glanced at the mission briefing, he felt that they would come back empty-handed, so he had opted not to go with them.

Now that they were recovered, the Lin sisters had also been motivated by Chen Chu’s strength. They had taken a mission outside the city, wanting to earn more contribution points before the end of the trial.

Although the authorities in Kyria hadn't set a specific date yet, since yesterday, some trial students in the smaller cities had already begun to return. The classmates still in Leisteru City had received notices to pack up, and they were expected to take a plane back tomorrow or the day after.

With all of the high-ranking members of the demon cult killed and Kyria’s newly established government joining with the Federation, this trial was finally coming to an end.

After hearing from Li Hao that they hadn't caught any new cultists in two days, Chen Chu had lost interest in missions that had only uncertain information.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Chen Chu's fruit knife flashed, cutting the apple into eight slices and placing them on a plate before handing it over. "Luo Fei, did you bring any Taoist scriptures or Buddhist classics this time?"

Luo Fei blinked her beautiful eyes. "Are you interested in these scriptures too?"

Chen Chu shook his head slightly. "It's not really an interest. After these two months of trials and numerous battles, I feel like I need to clear my mind."

The girl tilted her head slightly, a hint of surprise appearing in her eyes. "Post-traumatic stress from killing?"

"Well, maybe a little." Chen Chu nodded. His ambiguous response led Luo Fei to believe that was truly the reason.

After all, they were just high school teenagers. One moment, they had been enjoying their carefree youth on campus, and then the next, they had suddenly found themselves in a battlefield filled with blood and fire. In such circumstances, anyone’s mind would be shocked, but most of the students had been suppressing it by distracting themselves with cultivation and missions.

"This time, I brought three scriptures with me. One is the Daoist Pure Heart Scripture, and the other two are Buddhist scriptures, the Li?ga-avatāra Sutra and the Heart Sutra. Which one do you want to read?"

As she spoke, Luo Fei pulled out three paperback books from under the pillow. After Chen Chu picked up the Pure Heart Scripture, she softly said, "Understanding these scriptures requires a calm mind and careful reading. At first, I couldn't get into it either. It took reading them several times for me to realize the profound philosophical insights and start cleansing my mind.

"I wonder what circumstances the authors wrote these under. The wisdom of our ancestors is no less than that of today. The only difference is the environment and the progress of civilization."

With that, Chen Chu stood up. "Rest well. I'll go outside and see if I can get into it."

This hospital used to be exclusively for royalty and the wealthy, so the single rooms were not only spacious, but also came with balconies that overlooked the surroundings.

Sitting in a chair with the Pure Heart Scripture in hand, Chen Chu began to flip through it with a slight bow of his head.

Rather than any actual post-traumatic stress, he just wanted to learn from Luo Fei and see if these scriptures could help him empty his mind and purify the violent tendencies within.

These recent battles and killings had sated the desire for destruction and slaughter that he had been suppressing within himself, but the Sword Armored Beast’s influence on his consciousness was still present.

𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Or rather, less influence on the consciousness and more the fact that he was inherently half human and half beast, with no distinction between his main body and the avatar.

When his consciousness was mainly focused on his main body, he was rational, gentle, and cautious, but when it was focused on his avatar, he became cold, ruthless, violent, and cruel.

He was both of these aspects, indistinguishable from each other. However, as the Sword Armored Beast became stronger, his inner desire for violence and destruction also grew.

At the very least, he needed to make sure he wouldn’t let it slip in society. He was still half "human," after all.

Watching the handsome young man sitting quietly outside on the balcony, Luo Fei pursed her lips slightly, her gaze filled with a gentle warmth, before closing her eyes and slowly drifting off to sleep.