Chapter 25: Teal, Green

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“Young Master Liu, all parties are here.”

On the high platform, Zhao Yuan pointed at Zhou Heng and Shopkeeper Qian who were walking behind Practitioner Chen.

Yu He beside them was totally being ignored.

Regardless of him or Liu Changsheng, what they cared about was actually Zhou Heng, an unranked apprentice who had defeated a ninth-class martial artist.

“His pace is slightly flimsy, his stance technique has yet to be fully completed. How could he actually defeat a ninth-class martial artist?” Liu Changsheng had sharp eyes, he could weigh up Zhou Heng’s level of martial arts in just one glance. He could not help but feel a bit skeptical.

“Young Master, if you look carefully on him, he walks with strong shoulders and elbows, and he’s got agile wrists,” Butler Wang lowered his voice to remind him, “I’m afraid this young man is good at the saber and sword, he should have reach perfection for at least one of the ninth-class saber techniques and one of the ninth-class sword techniques.”

“An unranked martial artist who has perfected two techniques at the level of ninth-class?” Liu Changsheng was slightly puzzled as he heard those words. He took a second look at Zhou Heng and smiled. “I’m getting more excited and looking forward to it.”

Zhou Heng and Yu He came to the morning class square of Five Auspicious Martial Arts School together with Practitioner Chen. Seeing thousands of people lined up neatly and the crowd on the high platform, he was in a trance and for a moment, he thought that he had returned to the school on Earth.

The Five Auspicious Martial Arts School was equipped with various kinds of facilities. It almost looked like the prototype of a university. Comparatively, Prosperity Martial Arts School was like a small-scale training institution by the roadside.

“The masters of martial arts schools are at the high platform, along with Young Master Liu Changsheng and his Butler Wang.” Practitioner Chen lowered his voice and introduced them to Zhou Heng and the rest.

Zhou Heng sniffed and looked at the high platform. The first thing he noticed was Liu Changsheng’s green color hair crown.

This made him freeze on the spot.

‘There’s actually someone who still prefers this color for a hair crown?’

‘It’s teal color!

‘That means it’s green!

‘Come on, that symbolizes a cuckold!

‘Unless Little Greenwood Sword has some unknown bleak past?

‘That’s too tragic!’

The expression of Yu He looking at Liu Changsheng was a bit strange too.

Meanwhile, Shopkeeper Qian was the only one who walked forward in a serious manner.

He saluted respectfully and bowed to Liu Changsheng and others, then he said, “Gentlemen, I’m the owner of Heavenly Lavish Mansion, the most famous restaurant in Yellow Wood City, and I heard that Young Master Liu is here…”

‘So, he even prepared a script on the way here!’

However, just as Shopkeeper Qian is going to flaunt his eloquence of speech to flatter and convince Liu Changsheng and the rest of the people in order to nail the big business deal…

“Wait! Wait! Wait!”

Liu Changsheng’s voice was heard. He stood at the high platform and waved Shopkeeper Qian’s words off and said, “There’s no need for that, after all, regardless of Heavenly Lavish Mansion or Heavenly Poor Mansion or whatever name it has, I only hear words, I don’t know the story behind it.”

As he was speaking, he simply jumped from the high platform and smiled excitedly as he said, “How about we go with the rules of the world of martial arts. We’ll let our martial arts do the talking. Whichever of you can prevail against me, I’ll go to the winner’s restaurant.”

“Young Master, this isn’t quite right.”

Butler Wang was dumbfounded. He had never expected Liu Changsheng to suddenly make such a move.

Initially, he thought that Liu Changsheng just wanted to watch the competition between Zhou Heng and Shopkeeper Qian.

Little did he expect that Liu Changsheng actually wanted to do it himself.

‘Young Master, you’re a seventh-class martial artist. Why do you want to compete with unranked martial artists and a ninth-class martial artist?’

Even Zhao Yuan and the other three were stunned. They had never expected things would progress in such a way. Nonetheless, they dared not persuade Liu Changsheng and could only stand aside silently.

Even Shopkeeper Qian was dumbfounded.

The words in his mouth were suddenly stuck, the script prepared earlier rendered all useless.

What was the point of being eloquent?

After all, he was seen as a babbling monkey. No one wanted to listen to him at all!

On the other hand, Zhou Heng was full of joy. He was here to observe the martial arts which contained the principles of five elements.

How could it work without a spar?

He had been worried about this and was wondering how to broach the topic.

Never had he expected that Liu Changsheng would simply stand up and settle the problem for him.

“Which one of you will come first?”

Liu Changsheng looked at Shopkeeper Qian and Zhou Heng, then he smiled as he said, “Actually, both of you don’t have to be overly worried about yourselves. I won’t use my full strength, and you don’t really need to defeat me.

“I’ll just stand here. I won’t use my strength nor internal qi, and I will try to keep my qi and blood circulation levels as low as possible. I’ll just use the ninth-class basic stance technique. Whoever makes my foot budge will be considered the winner.”

“Good idea, Young Master Liu!” Shopkeeper Qian’s eyes glowed. He smiled and said, “If that’s the case, let me go first.”

He felt that he stood a good chance of winning.

After all, the scheme proposed by Liu Changsheng was more advantageous to an experienced ninth-class martial artist like him.

An unranked apprentice like Zhou Heng could not possibly beat him.

He was definitely winning this one!

How could he possibly lose?!

“You’re very decisive.” Liu Changsheng nodded in satisfaction. Then, he simply stood casually in his original position and smiled lightly. “Come on!”

“Please be careful, Young Master!” Shopkeeper Qian lowered his voice and said.

Just as his words fell, he shifted his body and the pace under his footsteps, turning as swift as lightning!

He came before Liu Changsheng with great speed. At the same time, he turned both of his palms over and over again, combining the power of rigidity and soft fluid to enable the power within his palm to flow with an explosive convergence.

Thump! Thump!

The sound from the inner body of Shopkeeper Qian sounded like thunder, like the roars of tigers and leopards. His power instantly ripped through his surroundings and sent forth a shockwave!

It was the sound of muscles and bones humming together and producing the thunder of tigers and leopards!

It was a horrifying aura!

Despite this, Liu Changsheng did not panic. He remained standing casually, not even shifting stances.

Just then, Zhou Heng heard a series of notifications.

“You’re watching Qian Buduo apply Ninth-Class Five Elements Rotation Palm to deliver an attack. The level of proficiency increased by 0.01.”

“You’re watching Qian Budio apply Ninth-Class Five Elements Cloud Rocket Steps to deliver an attack. The level of proficiency increased by 0.01.”

All these martial arts were being performed by Shopkeeper Qian!

His was strong, and his Five Elements Rotation Palm was unusually brutal.

It was like a tsunami.

However, none of his palm attacks could hit Liu Changsheng!

Although Liu Changsheng did not move his feet nor hands, his body only shifted and swayed a little, avoiding all Shopkeeper Qian’s attacks with paper-thin margins of error!

Shopkeeper Qian’s forehead became sweaty. He had never expected Liu Changsheng to be so skilled that even after handicapping himself to such a degree, would still be able to dodge his attacks effortlessly.

Suddenly, he felt the power of his palms being drawn out. His arms felt as if they were in quicksand. His body jerked into a halt.

“That’s not good!”

Shopkeeper Qian’s heart got a shock!

Bang!

With the sound of a door slam, Shopkeeper Qian felt a pain in his heart. He was thrown backward, falling more than thirty feet away to the floor.

The corner of Zhou Heng’s mouth twitched, showing a faint smile.

It was not merely because Shopkeeper Qian had been defeated.

“You’re watching Liu Changsheng apply Ninth-Class Unification of the Five Elements Stance for a counterattack. The level of proficiency increased by 0.01.”

Finally, his wish was granted and he had managed to acquire one of the ninth-class stance techniques with the principles of five elements!

Moreover, this was an authentic inheritance from the Five Elements Clan!

The teaching quality of this martial arts school was so much better!

“Actually, you’re not bad. Maybe a little lacking in your stance technique.”

Liu Changsheng looked at the prone Shopkeeper Qian, smiled and said, “If you let go of your businesses on hand and focus on practicing martial arts, you may still be able to advance to the level of eighth-class in your lifetime.”

Just now, he had taken the advantage of the gap when Shopkeeper Qian’s strength was exhausted in one of his moves and purely utilized his physical skills to draw in his opponent’s strength so that he would lose his balance and then hit him with his shoulder.

From the beginning to the end, his feet had not moved.

Hiss!

Given such a scene, the crowd on the spot could not help but draw in a cold breath. The strength of Liu Changsheng was really beyond everyone’s expectations!

Even after so many handicaps, he actually trounced Shopkeeper Qian, an experienced ninth-class martial artist so effortlessly!

Was this the heavenly pride of being ranked on the People Ranking Board?

That was incredibly powerful!

“Young Master, your proficiency in martial arts is far beyond my reach, it’s me who is out of my depth.” Shopkeeper Qian reluctantly stood up, lowering his head and sighing as he gave the compliments.

He dared not lift his head for fear that Young Master Liu would notice his unwilling expression.

Seeing that Liu Changsheng was actually that powerful, Yu He lowered his voice and said, “Zhou Heng, how about we forget about this. After all, it’s me who insisted on doing business. I can’t let you bear the risk.”

“This can’t be the way. How can you run away from the battle when we’ve already agreed to compete?” The moment Liu Changsheng heard his words, he was not happy and he said, “This is against the rules of the world of martial arts.”

“Don’t worry. I have my own plan.” Zhou Heng patted Yu He’s shoulder, then he walked over to Liu Changsheng.

When he passed by Shopkeeper Qian, he heard voices as soft as mosquitoes and flies, yet it happened to be audible at a close distance.

It was actually Shopkeeper Qian saying, “Kid, I’m waiting to see you get beaten up and eat dirt!”

Zhou Heng paused mid-stride, then he sneered. “Shopkeeper Qian, does the dirt taste good?”

He just had a full meal of it.

Shopkeeper Qian’s face instantly turned into pig liver color again. He said in a cold voice, “You’re stubborn! You don’t stand a chance against him!”

“Is that so?”

A smile arched across Zhou Heng’s face. He walked slowly toward Liu Changsheng and said, “Young Master, are you ready?”

“Huh?” Liu Changsheng raised his eyebrows. He smiled and said, “You look very confident. Good, this is interesting. Make your move!”

“Then I shall respectfully do so!” Zhou Heng narrowed his eyes and took his stance.

At the same time, he distributed one distributable point to the level of proficiency for Ninth-Class Unification of the Five Elements Stance!

Time seemed to freeze. A phantom image that only Zhou Heng could see appeared and began a sparring session and explanation about the stance techniques, one after another.

“Congratulations! The level of proficiency for Unification of the Five Elements Stance reached 1 and you have officially acquired the martial arts!”

“Just because you’ve reached a high level for Prosperity Inner Strength Stance Technique, there’s also an increase in similar martial arts. As such, the level of proficiency for Ninth-Class Unification of the Five Elements Stance increased by 2500.”

The series of changes completed within a blink.

The time of the outside world had not passed!

But Zhou Heng had been instantaneously transformed!

Within an instant, he had acquired the stance technique delivered by Liu Changsheng and had grasped the skills contained therein!

Moreover, the basic martial arts of the lower third class were mostly interchangeable, all credited to his previous cultivation on the Prosperity Inner Strength Stance Technique which had led him to advance in the level of proficiency for the Unification of the Five Elements Stance!

Ninth-Class Unification of the Five Elements Stance. High Level: 500/3000.