Chapter 9

"Come on!" Meng Chuan looked down at the audience, his eyes burning with passion.

Wu Qi was taken aback by the dean's command, but his eyes gradually brightened as he looked at Meng Chuan on the stage and grinned, "Alright, let's have a match."

Whoosh.

With a single step, he was on the stage, much faster than Bai Guan had been.

"Clang." He held the shield he had been carrying on his back and drew a thick-bladed greatsword from inside the shield. The greatsword was entirely black, with a faint red glow.

Holding the shield in one hand and the thick-bladed greatsword in the other, Wu Qi stood there like an immovable mountain, emitting an intangible aura that made the many junior disciples watching from a distance tremble.

"Wu Qi Senior, you are cultivating the Dark Cloud Demon Body, right?" Meng Chuan said. The aura that made even him feel a bit startled was clearly the aura of the Divine Demon Body.

"Exactly, the Dark Cloud Demon Body!" After saying this, Wu Qi suddenly charged at Meng Chuan. The impact of a single person felt like an army advancing! There were no fancy moves, just pure speed and power.

"Boom."

Wu Qi, holding the shield, approached with the speed of a phantom and struck Meng Chuan with the shield. The force was enough to collapse a house.

But with a slight movement of his feet, Meng Chuan avoided the shield and moved to Wu Qi's side, his blade flashing as it slashed at Wu Qi.

"Kill." At the moment the shield missed, Wu Qi skillfully swung the thick-bladed greatsword, colliding with Meng Chuan's blade.

Bang—

The two blades collided, sparks flying.

Wu Qi took a step back and steadied himself, while Meng Chuan leaped back several yards with a single step.

"Using a secret technique, you can burst with such strength?" Wu Qi's pupils contracted.

Mundane cultivation: Foundation Building, Internal Training, Bone Washing, Soul Transformation, Perfection.

The first three stages of cultivation are still relatively ordinary, allowing the cultivation of true qi and gradually strengthening the mundane body, with not much difference between practitioners.

However, the fourth stage, 'Soul Transformation,' means shedding the mundane body! At this stage, one begins to cultivate the Divine Demon Body, granting mortals partial divine and demonic powers, which is a significant enhancement. Wu Qi cultivated the Dark Cloud Demon Body and reached the perfected stage of Soul Transformation. His strength and speed were incredibly terrifying, far surpassing the perfected stage of Bone Washing.

If he were to face a normal Bone Washing practitioner, a single slash of his greatsword would be enough to kill them.

Even if the Bone Washing practitioner held a shield, they would still be forced to spit blood from the impact.

The difference in strength was simply too great!

"The strength he burst with just now was close to seventy percent of mine, equivalent to my strength in the later stage of Soul Transformation." Wu Qi was very surprised, "Is this the power of a secret technique?"

He had long known the terror of secret techniques.

Even in this battle, his chances of winning were very small.

"I still have a chance to win." Wu Qi gritted his teeth and charged again, like a cavalryman, crashing forward.

"My burst strength using the secret technique is still slightly less than his, as the Three Autumn Leaves technique is ultimately a speed-oriented secret technique." Meng Chuan thought, and with a movement, another 'Meng Chuan' appeared over ten yards away.

"Over here!" Wu Qi, who cultivated the Dark Cloud Demon Body, was skilled at sensing his surroundings and could feel the approaching figure.

Compared to Bai Guan, who was completely helpless.

Wu Qi could even sense and respond to the speed of the Three Autumn Leaves, the secret technique Meng Chuan was using.

"Boom." His thick-bladed greatsword swung out.

"Clang!!!"

He swung and missed, but his shield blocked Meng Chuan's unpredictable strike.

"Too fast, I still missed." Wu Qi felt tense, but fortunately, he was cautious and used his shield to protect himself. Holding the shield in one hand and the greatsword in the other, he was using the Mirror Lake Dao Academy's top technique, the Two Instruments Shield and Sword Technique. This advanced technique greatly increased the chances of survival on the battlefield, so Wu Qi chose the Dark Cloud Demon Body, which was suitable for this technique.

The Dark Cloud Demon Body, combined with the Two Instruments Shield and Sword Technique.

Defensive as a drop of water, and fiercely offensive, he relied on this to be the top disciple of the Mirror Lake Dao Academy at the Soul Transformation stage.

"The Two Instruments Shield and Sword Technique, one Yin, one Yang, is indeed powerful. However, I wonder how many moves it can withstand." Meng Chuan's voice echoed as he pounced.

"It's useless, you can't hurt me." Wu Qi stood there, his shield and sword blocking Meng Chuan's unpredictable strike.

"Puff."

"Puff."

"Whoosh."

Meng Chuan's movements were extremely fast, his blade flashing as he used the Falling Leaf Blade Technique.

At first, Wu Qi felt confident in his defense, but as Meng Chuan's strikes continued in a seamless flow, his defense became increasingly strained. Each block deformed his defense, and Meng Chuan's continuous blade technique widened the gaps in his defense.

After just six strikes, Wu Qi was forced to stagger, barely blocking.

"Whist."

An extremely fast thrust.

Wu Qi didn't have time to raise his shield to block, and the tip of the blade was already at his throat.

"This..." Wu Qi looked at the blade at his throat and at Meng Chuan in front of him.

This was his first time facing a Bone Washing practitioner who mastered a secret technique, and he lost badly.

"I lost." Wu Qi said in a low voice, "The secret technique is more terrifying than I thought. Not only does it allow you to burst with more terrifying strength and speed, but your blade technique is also much more refined."

Meng Chuan nodded.

Yes.

A secret technique is a combination of body, mind, and technique, naturally allowing one to burst with terrifying strength and speed.

An ancient divine and demonic being once said that the potential of the human body is very great. An ordinary person who has never cultivated would find it difficult to lift a hundred pounds. But if they could perfectly mobilize their potential, using every bone and muscle, they could burst with over ten thousand pounds of strength! Of course, this is purely an ideal scenario of perfect mobilization of all potential.

In reality, the higher the level of blade or sword techniques, the more astonishing the mobilization of potential.

The First Stage of Unity is the first major realm of blade technique.

The secret technique Three Autumn Leaves, with a significant increase in strength and an even more astonishing increase in speed! It allowed Meng Chuan's strength to reach about seventy percent of Wu Qi's (perfected stage of Soul Transformation), and his speed far surpassed Wu Qi. Moreover, his blade control was more precise, and his blade techniques were more perfectly coordinated. With just seven consecutive strikes, he broke through Wu Qi's defense, which relied on the Two Instruments Shield and Sword Technique.

"From today, you are the strongest among the thousands of disciples of the Mirror Lake Dao Academy." Wu Qi looked at Meng Chuan and said, "You are the current senior brother of the Mirror Lake Dao Academy."

The Mirror Lake Dao Academy values the strongest.

The senior brother of the academy... is the strongest among all the disciples. After defeating Wu Qi, Meng Chuan naturally became the senior brother of the Mirror Lake Dao Academy.

After saying this, Wu Qi directly walked off the stage.

"Senior Brother Meng Chuan!" Suddenly, a chorus of shouts came from the many junior disciples.

"Senior Brother!"

"Senior Brother!"

A senior brother must have authority.

In the past, the senior brothers of the Mirror Lake Dao Academy had little authority because their strength advantage was not significant. None of them had mastered a secret technique! There was not much difference in their techniques, so they might be defeated by other junior disciples in a match.

But Meng Chuan was different!

He mastered a secret technique and defeated Wu Qi, who was at the perfected stage of Soul Transformation, while still at the Bone Washing stage. And Meng Chuan would soon enter the Soul Transformation stage, at which point the gap between him and his fellow disciples would become even more exaggerated... even Soul Transformation practitioners would not be able to withstand his single strike!

Only an absolutely invincible senior brother could make all the junior disciples completely convinced.

"Ha ha ha... Alright, come down." Dean Ge Yu laughed heartily, unusually amiable, "Let the other Bone Washing junior disciples decide the other two spots."

"Yes." Meng Chuan immediately walked down.

"Met Senior Brother Meng." Wan Mang bowed and smiled.

"Met Senior Brother Meng." The disciples of the Mountain and Water Pavilion all smiled and bowed, some with a hint of flattery. They all knew that Meng Chuan was no longer the same as them, but one of the top geniuses in all of Dongning Prefecture, with the potential to become a divine or demonic being in the future.

...

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!!!

Several Meng family members were using lightness techniques, sprinting towards the ancestral home.

"What are you little brats running so fast for?" The main gate of the Meng family ancestral home was large, and naturally, there were clan members guarding it. They recognized these young clan members.

"Meng Chuan has mastered a secret technique." The first Meng family youth to arrive shouted loudly, making the clan members guarding the gate somewhat taken aback. In their surprise, the youth rushed into the ancestral home and continued shouting, "Meng Chuan has mastered a secret technique!"

Other Meng family members followed one after another.

Each of them was shouting.

"Meng Chuan has mastered a secret technique."

"Senior Brother Meng has mastered a secret technique."

"Meng Chuan has mastered a secret technique at the Mirror Lake Dao Academy!"