This was the first time Cao Yun had met this man and he was already challenging him. But now that he had told him his name, Cao Yun did remember reading it on the fighting scroll. Since he knew that he had high chances of being challenged, Cao Yun had read the entire scroll very recently. This Yun Ping guy was indeed ranked 63th. Thus, he could not challenge Cao Yun who was still 195th.
Despite his current strength, Cao Yun's rank was kind of low. In fact, the only official challenge Cao Yun he had ever issued was against Luduo Bu. And his last fight had been a friendly duel with Long Jian. Even if he had won, there was no ranking on such a fight. And since he had his alchemy for his points and could fight to his heart's content thanks to Chief Elder Baishen, he had never needed to challenge anyone to climb in the fighting scroll.
"Senior Brother, you are way higher than me, you can't challenge me."
Smiling, Yun Ping replied with a small laugh.
"No. But you can! Challenge me!" Cao Yun was a bit taken aback. This was very sudden and he wasn't sure of what to do. Sensing his hesitation, Yun Ping tried to taunt him some more. "Unless you're scared..."
This taunt had no impact whatsoever on Cao Yun. Despite the poor attitude of Yun Ping, this duel would be a good chance for him to quickly climb the ranks. Right now, Cao Yun was convinced that he would be able to put up a fight against the top fifty, considering the experience he had had with Long Jian. Cao Yun was not a Mortal Warrior, so he couldn't feel the Qi inside someone else. But they were so close together that he was able to sense his Wei Qi that was overflowing, probably in an attempt to antagonize him further. That could only mean one thing. This Yun Ping was either a Mortal Warrior or extremely close to becoming one. Cao Yun had heard that no Mortal Warrior had exited the Ancient Ruins. Thus, either Yun Ping had broken through recently, or he was going to before or after the duel.
"Senior Brother, I have no conflict with you..."
Hearing this, Yun Ping was ready to add some insults in order to convince him. Even though he had been thrown off by Cao Yun's calm attitude, Yun Ping was determined to push him as far as necessary to force his hand. Indeed, Yun Ping had no way to really coerce him into a duel with him. However, he was hell-bent on showing to everyone else that either Cao Yun's reputation was exaggerated or, if that wasn't the case, that he was better than him. Yun Ping had to show his hard work. Even if he was not the most talented, in the last duel, he had reached the first rank among the fourth-years. And yet he still heard about Cao Yun all the time.
Now that he had broken through since his last duel, he wanted to flaunt it and show that his work had paid off. But as he was thinking about his next move, Cao Yun finished his sentence.
"That being said, it would be my pleasure to fight you fair and square during the upcoming duels."
"You think you can just cower like... Wait! You agreed?!"
Yun Ping's face went from arrogant and taunting to confused and dumbfounded.
"Yes, Senior Brother. From what I heard about you, you must be an excellent fighter and very hard-working at that. Since my convalescence, I haven't been able to fight an opponent who could really push me. Fighting you should be beneficial, and, must I add, quite fun and pleasant. Let's do our best and give a great show to every outer disciple."
"Uh... huh... Yeah... Sure."
Cao Yun stepped back to be able to cup his fists and bow to his senior. Instinctively, Yun Ping returned his salute with the same level of politeness. Then, he watched the young man walk away and out of the martial art pavilion.
"What just happened?!"
The preconceived ideas he had about Cao Yun were just annihilated. After hearing his name being brought up all the time, he had created a terrible image of the young man. For him, he was arrogant and always trying to boast. However, this was clearly not the case. And right now, Yun Ping's intentions were changing. From wanting to take him down a peg, he was starting to look forward to a good duel. Then, he realized that he had not told him his current cultivation.
If it was known that he had asked someone to challenge him without revealing that he was a Mortal Warrior, that could be seen as cowardly by many. Also, he ran after Cao Yun to try and warn him about this. Unfortunately, he didn't find him at all. Yun Ping spent the entire day looking for the young man, going to all the array formations where martial artists would train. In the end, he finally decided to go directly to his personal room. There, he met with Kang Cai and gave her the news. The young woman was not surprised at all.
She was expecting her new young master to want to fight. He had spent almost two months in a room without training his body at all. Of course, he had to be active now. She took note of what Yun Ping told her and swore to pass on this message.
-
In the meantime, Cao Yun was not in an array formation for martial artists. Instead, he had gone back to the Anvil of Marble. Against Chief Elder Baishen, he could not precisely measure his physical strength and he had not even used every card he had right now.
The Anvil of Marble could take twenty thousand dan of strength with no problem. That was the physical strength of an average early Mortal Warrior. With Qi Manifestation, they could sometimes more than double this number. Cao Yun was confident in his current body, but he still wanted to make sure that his confidence was based on something concrete.
When he went there, Cao Yun saw that there was nobody except for the instructor in charge of the facility. And the instructor immediately recognized the young man. Last year, he had seen him try out this facility and crush all common sense in terms of strength. Since then, the instructor had also seen Ren Chao who had been brought there by Chief Elder Tingyu. Although he was only a 5th-grade Mortal, Ren Chao had the physical strength of a 1st-grade Mortal Warrior, able to produce twenty-one thousand dan of raw strength. After this performance, his master had asked the instructor to stay quiet about that. And the instructor had understood. Ren Chao had probably what was called a Golden Silk Body. Such a secret should never be easily revealed. And the instructor, under the jurisdiction of the blacksmith pavilion, was not going to betray his chief elder.
The instructor was even ready for Cao Yun to produce a strength of more than twenty thousand dan with his 8th-grade Mortal cultivation.
However, he was not ready for what truly happened.
Cao Yun took the big hammer made of Silk God. First, he used his mind cultivation to quiet his thoughts and focus. Only the hammer and the anvil existed around him. He was feeling each part of his body, relaxing all useless muscles and ready to contract the others to their limit. Then, he sent the intent of the Drop of Wrath in his blood. The blood gorged his muscles. This blood of his contained more Qi than the average cultivator's blood. And, focused with the intent of the Drop of Wrath, it was even more concentrated. On the outside, his muscles started to bulge.
He still wasn't done preparing. Cao Yun then concentrated on the Heart Star. The Qi in his body began to accelerate and vibrate, more and more, until it reached the limit. With his intent and his powerful mind cultivation, Cao Yun was able to control and channel it without any problem now. This was the absolute limit of 'Dragon's Chest' which could reach an eightfold increase in strength.
Taking a deep breath, Cao Yun put every physical strength he had in this strike. The hammer hit the anvil with incredible speed. The Silk Gold that made up the hammer bent like crazy. That was the point of the Silk Gold. It was extremely resistant and yet incredibly supple and flexible, which allowed the force of the impact to not injure the wielder. On the other hand, the hammer sank into the anvil and left a dent in it. This dent wasn't very deep but the instructor could not believe it had happened at all.
Only a Mortal Warrior using Qi Manifestation could leave a dent in this Anvil of Marble. This stone was made of Ageless Marble after all, the most resistant stone of all. The poor instructor didn't know how he was going to explain that to his master. It was his role to protect the facility after all. Thankfully, the dent was very shallow, but it was still clearly visible considering how perfect the surface of the anvil was, or rather, used to be.
"Could he also have a Golden Silk Body?" was the first thought that popped up in the instructor's head. Since he was a middle Mortal Warrior, the instructor could easily determine that the Qi emanating from Cao Yun was indeed from a Mortal. In this attack he had not projected Qi either. So this strike was the result of his pure physical strength. But then, he thought back to the first time Cao Yun had come here. His strength back then was impressive but it wasn't on the level of a Golden Silk Body given the cultivation he had. The only conclusion was that this strength had come from his training, not from a special physique.
While all that was going on in the instructor's head, Cao Yun was embarrassed. His strength had completely exceeded what the Anvil of Marble could calculate. The maximum strength the array formation connected to the anvil had marked on it was twenty thousand dan. In fact, the measurement could go a bit over that limit but it wasn't written on the wall. However, Cao Yun had completely maxed out the light on the array formation. Hence, there was no way for him to know his actual number. Then, he saw the dent in the anvil. Such an equipment was made from Ageless Marble and was clearly worth a small fortune. But, Cao Yun had gone and damaged it.
Cao Yun turned toward the instructor and immediately bowed down.
"Instructor, this lowly disciple is sorry. I didn't think that I would damage the anvil."
Due to the silence of the instructor, Cao Yun got worried. But the man was just transmitting a message to his blacksmith pavilion. Cao Yun was renown in the sect and he was even friend with Chief Elder Tingyu's disciple. Of course, an instructor would not admonish him for slightly damaging a facility that was honestly very rarely used. Only blacksmiths used it from time to time and they were not many. Sometimes, other cultivators came to give it a go and have a grasp on their strength but it was very sporadic as well. Moreover, he knew that Cao Yun hadn't done the damage intentionally. He was completely sincere and really sorry.
However, he had to transmit what he had witnessed right away.
"Chen Guo, do not worry about that. You've clearly done nothing wrong." Cao Yun had followed the rules and had done nothing unusual. It just turned out that he was simply too strong for the Anvil of marble.
Soon after, Chief Elder Tingyu arrived in person. Despite his muscular body, the man was a head shorter than Cao Yun.
"Chief Elder." Both Cao Yun and the instructor bowed. The Anvil of Marble was close to the blacksmith pavilion, so the chief elder was able to get there as soon as he heard the news. The idea that a second Golden Silk Body had appeared surprised him. But from what the instructor had told, it was unlikely.
The chief elder went to the anvil and checked on it.
"I can repair that." Then, he turned to Cao Yun. "Chen Guo, come with me."
"Yes, Chief Elder."
Before leaving, the chief elder threw a gaze to the instructor. He immediately understood that he had to stay absolutely silent on the matter. For now, he closed the facility, waiting for the repair. As an excuse, they pretexted that the array formation was in need of some repairs, not the anvil itself.
-
Chief Elder Tingyu brought Cao Yun with him into the blacksmith pavilion. Then, they went through a courtyard and reached another facility. In the middle of a stone podium, there was an obelisk standing tall. In the back, there was another wall very similar to the one from the Anvil of Marble.
"Chen Guo, take this and hit this obelisk with absolutely everything that you have. Do not hesitate at all!"
From the chief elder's spatial ring, a spear appeared. Cao Yun had left his weapon in his room after leaving the martial art pavilion and coming here. As he couldn't use a spatial ring yet, it was not very convenient to walk with his spear everywhere. The spear he received from the chief elder was almost on par with his 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear', but it didn't react to him in the same way. The weapon was lacking this link to the dragon that his actual spear had through the scale used in it.
"No need to worry. This obelisk can measure the strength of Mortal Warriors, even if they use Qi Manifestation. Use all your physical strength and strike it as hard as you can."
Looking forward to know his exact strength, Cao Yun complied and hit the obelisk. He repeated exactly the same thing as for the anvil. The fact that he was using a spear and not a hammer gave him even more strength as his martial art was designed for such a weapon.
Then, both men waited for the result. The obelisk itself shined as a blue light was slowly creeping its way to the top. When it finally stopped, Cao Yun didn't know what it meant so he turned to the chief elder. The old man was dumbfounded. After a while, he regained his composure and shook his head. He was sure that Cao Yun had no Golden Silk Body, not because the strike was too weak, but because it was too strong.
"Forty-five thousand dan."
Even Cao Yun was surprised. That was the strength of a Mortal Warrior using Qi Manifestation. And even then, not every Mortal Warrior would be able to generate that much strength. The eightfold increase of 'Dragon's Chest' was really insane!