Chapter 14

– Ruling the Ranking
During the first round, the outer disciples were tested twenty people at a time. The ones who made it through would be sent to the right to wait for the actual challenge of Mu Ren Gang; and the ones that failed would be sent off to the left to leave the competition.
Last time, Ye Chen had only lasted ten seconds until he was beaten into submission, even to the point of vomiting blood.
Donnng! The challenge had started!
Surprisingly, Wang Gang was one of the first twenty people. With his Peak Stage 7 of the Mortal Realm cultivation, it was fairly easy for him to beat the wooden guardians. Getting knocked out would be a humiliation.
The wooden guardian sensed the incoming disciples and activated its heavy body. It rose up and threw a punch towards Wang Gang suddenly. The punch was so fast that the wind generated made Wang Gang’s hair fly up.
Wang Gang did not specialized in speed and had to immediately cross his arms in front of himself to block the strong punch which pushed him three steps backwards.

Breaking Stone Palm!

After dispersing the force from the punch, Wang Gang jumped up and hacked towards the wooden guardian’s head with his right palm.
Boom!
The wooden guardian actually had a sharp sensitivity, and raised up its right arm and blocked that deadly attack of Wang Gang’s. Then it immediately threw another attack with his left hand, which was so fast that it was almost impossible for most people to react in time.

Damn, that wooden guardian is killing it!
Some of the fresh junior apprentices couldn’t help but exclaim. Even Ye Chen was amazed by these wooden guardians. They were not living creatures yet their arts and skills were strong and steady, perfect textbook display of martial arts.
Suddenly, Wang Gang’s left leg bent as he threw his knee towards the wooden guardian and attacked for the second time, then with the counterforce, he bounced back and landed safely five steps away.
After putting himself in a distance, Wang Gang realized that he could not defeat the opponent with only brute force.

Twin Dragon!

Seeing the wooden guardian rushing forward, Wang Gang decided to give up on his Breaking Stone Palm and chose to use the Twisting Snake Fist which he rarely used before. He twisted his arms like two fierce snakes and attacked the wooden guardian.
Crack!
The wooden guardian’s fist was blocked.
Wang Gang grunted, with both of his arms occupied, he kicked out his leg.

Falling Star Kick!

Hoom!
The wooden guardian was kicked over by that powerful heavy kick, as the supervising elders on the side yelled out,
Pass!

Unlike Wang Gang, you could continuously hear people yelling
Failed
all over the place.
Soon, the first twenty people finished their entry test. Only four of them passed, and the rest had failed and had to leave the plaza in disappointment.
Despite the numerous attacks given from each disciple, the wooden guardians were surprisingly not damaged at all. Thankfully, people could pass once they knocked down the wooden guardian, otherwise they would probably die of exhaustion if they were to damage the wooden guardian.
Shortly after, the second group was finished their test, shockingly only one man had passed.
The third group, five people had passed.
The fourth group, three people had passed.
The fifth group, none of them had passed.
…
The one hundred twentieth group had both Wu Zongming and Zhang Haoran in it. They glanced at each other as they walked up to those wooden guardians emotionlessly.
Facing those wooden guardians, they attacked almost at the same time.
Wu Zongming’s figure suddenly disappeared from sight and reappeared in front of the wooden guardian like a ghost. At the same time, he put his right palm over that wooden guardian’s chest, as a sudden huge force went through his palm to attack the guardian. The wooden guardian was blown away instantly like a pile of straws, its chest branded with an obvious palm mark.
However, Zhang Haoran’s attack was even scarier. As his body relaxed, he instantly appeared in front of the guardian, despite the ten-meter distance between them, and locked onto the guardian’s head in his extended hand, then suddenly went still as he threw his hand out.
The wooden guardian was thrown out about ten meters.

Damn, an instant-kill!

The crowd stood there with their eyes wide open, completely shocked by what they had just witnessed. Wu Zongming were already quite impressive, with one palm up close and one palm extended, he knocked out the wooden guardian. But Zhang Haoran…Zhang Haoran was even more impressive, the wooden guardian was like a vulnerable toddler in front of him.
The one hundred and twenty-third group, Ye Chen finally entered.
Unlike the fast speed of Wu Zongming and Zhang Haoran, Ye Chen started out with a simple yet smart approach, and with only few attack, he successfully beaten the wooden guardian and passed.
When the first round of the challenge had finished, Elder Lin stood up and said,
A total of three hundred and sixty-five people had passed. Now for the second round, all contestants please enter the Mu Ren Gang.


Haoran, you said you were going to help me to get the third place, right?
There was a tall teenager standing right next to Zhang Haoran, he was about fifteen years old. He couldn’t help but ask nervously.
Zhang Haoran didn’t mind, he said:
Cousin, relax. With your power level, it won’t be too hard to pass the challenge. To reach the top ten would be a little bit difficult, but I will help you by blocking the other apprentices at the right moment.


Great!
It turned out that that teenager was Zhang Haoran’s cousin, he joined the Sky Cloud Martial School a bit earlier than Zhang Haoran, and attended the challenge of Mu Ren Gang before. But he only reached rank thirty something which was far away from the top ten not to mention the top three. If he could make it to the top ten, he could not only get a manual of a High Ranked Mortal Realm Art, plus a High Rank Mortal Realm Skill of their choice and three Windy Dew pellet which would be more than enough for him to reach the Condensing Reality Realm.
Suddenly, the tone of Zhang Haoran’s voice changed,
However, I had to do it covertly, you know the rules.


I know, don’t worry, I am confident to be in the top ten even without your help.


Good, let’s go!

The Mu Ren Gang was shaped like a gourd and had a narrow entrance which could only fit five people at a time. Once you walked pass the entrance, there were ten different-sized lanes, and the space inside each was massive.
The three hundred and sixty-five people were divided into ten groups and entered different lanes.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The walls and the floor of the lane that Ye Chen chose suddenly cracked open, and out jumped a group of wooden guardians and wooden sword artists equipped with wooden swords. They knocked out five to six people in the blink of an eye like a violent summer storm, causing the place was to be full of moaning sounds.
Ye Chen tilted his body and dodged an attack from the wooden sword artist as he took out his great steel sword out of its scabbard and sliced the opponent’s wooden sword in half. Ye Chen followed up by ducking his body and passing the wooden sword artist smoothly.
Wow, that was close. Luckily I wasn’t stuck in the crowd, otherwise I would not have had any space to dodge.
As he moved forward, contestants were being eliminated left and right, among the forty people from the beginning, there were only twenty people left. As they passed through, five more different narrow lanes appeared in front of them. The group of twenty looked at each other as they were once again divided into a group of four to five people and entered a lane.
In another lane, Zhang Haoran took sudden large steps, his feet moved inhumanly fast, keeping his robe up in the air. All of the wooden guardians and wooden sword artists tried to locate him but failed, and the ones that tried to block in front of him were slapped away casually like dolls.
As Zhang Haoran moved forward, the space in Mu Ren Gang changed from wild to narrow. Zhang Haoran stopped and thought, The upcoming place is filled with wooden guardians, if wait for the right moment, I could create troubles for the other contestants to help my cousin easily obtain third place.
As for the first place, Zhang Haoran thought it was already in the bag, Wu Zongming was no where near his power level and definitely not a threat which was also why he could help his cousin. Plus, this was the only path that led to the finish line, so even if there was someone that could be a threat to the number one position, he would still have plenty of opportunities to fix it.