[A/N: This chapter is from Jiang Mei's perspective]
It was Jiang Mei's turn to test her strength, she had to do her best here.
If someone didn't want to unleash their full strength in this kind of setting he or she would be labelled as mentally unwell, after all your performance during the test would decide which rank you would start at and which missions you could take.
Jiang Mei left the line and walked towards the rock, but before that she bowed to the elder showing her respect. However the onlookers thought that with her looks she was trying to make the old man give her an exaggerated mark.
She then turned to the rock and entered a stance; she bent her knees lightly and dropped her left hand making it look limp, she took her right hand and positioned it ready to punch.
This was the broken-arm stance, a very unpopular and common stance: this stance was used when one resorted to a gamble – putting all power into a single fist. The method of making one arm limp was meant to inspire a sense of despair into the user, making it seemed like it was one shot remaining.
It was useless in a fight as an opponent could easily dodge and counterattack.
It was however ideal for situations like this.
Only her fist emanated Qi as she got ready, then.
In a burst of speed she lunged towards the rock, delivering a powerful punch right in the center of the rock causing it to crumble.
The power behind her fist had been just right, enough to destroy the large rock in one punch, and enough to protect her fist from the aftermath of putting all her strength into her fist.
She had practiced her all-round abilities since she was a child, her strength should be unparalleled compared to her peers.
With that she bowed to her audience as the old man predicted her score.
"It's nine hundred kg!" He declared, his words felt too far-fetched despite the rock breaking that people began to think that he was truly a pervert.
Jiang Mei smiled, this was the best she had been to muster and she had only managed to achieve it today, it was a whole 500 kg from the rest of her peers.
People felt like screaming that even though the rock broke it shouldn't be enough to have the power of 900 kg, however they could not say their opinions.
Next up was a girl, she was visibly trembling after watching Jiang Mei and had already lost confidence in herself.
She got into her stance and channeled Qi into her entire body, striking the rock delicately as if she was patting it rather than aiming to destroy it.
" 390 kg." The old man said.
The girl fell onto the ground weeping, she had trained her whole life but she wasn't even able to get into the 400's?
"Get up, if you want to cry go home." The old man said silently.
The girl on the other hand felt the presence of a senior cultivator, compared to her who hadn't even started cultivating his aura made her legs go weak.
"Move." He said finally releasing his aura.
The girl scrambled onto her feet and ran to the crowd of other people who were waiting to be tested on their speed.
Jiang Mei however only found delight when the person right after her embarrassed herself. She could tell that the girl was strong enough to land a punch with the power of 400 kg, but the girl after watching Jiang Mei started to doubt herself so her result was poor.
She found no interest in watching the other people, they brimmed with confidence and landed on average 380 kg.
For example, someone came up and landed a punch on a rock, as if he was trying to toss it aside, It was obvious he had modified a throwing technique and expected it to do serious damage.
The more people joined the more she expected some action, the people here were just fodder anyway. There was nothing interesting about fodder trying to unlock potential that they didn't have.
SIGH
"I hope those two decide to come early." She muttered to herself.
The two people she was talking about about – Su Lie and Li Chen, were the first people she had talked to out of her family. Though it stemmed from here trying to get a little pocket change while familiarizing herself with the ice element.
As another girl hit the rock and managed to score a 400 kg hit came over Jiang Mei caught sight of someone.
He had deep red hair, clearly giving away his element and a striking, handsome face.
He was a commoner by all standards as all he wore was a brown shirt and blue trousers, but the expression he had was priceless.
Boredom.
Not many people were bored from this event, if a normal person saw his peer hitting at the 400 kg mark he would grow with jealously.
However, this youth looked like he was unimpressed.
The old man signified that he should start.
The young man nodded, and without getting into a stance lunged at the rock.
Crack!
As soon as he jumped back after landing that attack the rock started cracking, a few seconds after it crumbled as if the young man with deep red hair had stolen its support rather than punch it.
Right before the second of impact the youth's hand showed a spark of fire, he had reinforced his attack with his element.
There was no rule that you couldn't use your element, however no one wanted to use it.
But everyone knew that the hotter a rock is, the harder it became so why did he use his fire.
"900 kg!" The old man shouted.
Jiang Mei's eyes furrowed and the expression of the young man's face changed to that of shock.
[A/N: All of them are from the same generation so the average is 17, 18, 19]
How could they have the same strength!
They both had used their strongest punches but their strength was still equal, how was this possible?!
The young man's expression changed once again to one of annoyance as he went to where the people who had tested their strength went – the edge of the room.
The minutes flew by as the other fodders got their four hundreds, seemingly undaunted by the two experts who had hit the mark of 900 kg.
The two of them did not engage in chatter, but that didn't stop others from doing so, there were so many people whining about how they failed that it became annoying.
And the worst part was that the line didn't seem to be getting smaller, anytime someone left the line someone joined the line. The youths were beginning to think that they would wait for everyone to come today before they would be able to enter the next test phase.
A young man came into view, he had normal black hair with a hint of red and a handsome face, this man was Su Lie.
'Alright, I'll have to make sure that I don't embarrass myself, should I use Heaven-Defying Fist or Primary Kidney Breaker.' Su Lie thought. 'No, primary kidney breaker is for breaking kidney's not rocks.'
While those thoughts were going on everyone looked at this young man like he was crazy, what was his problem
'I guess I'll have to use Heaven-Defying Fist.' He sighed internally as he got into a stance.
He put one leg forward and took the other a bit back while raising his right hand up as if forming a semi-circle ending just at his head and the other one was straight.
He stood in that stance gathering all the energy into his right hand and readying his legs to propel himself.
"You may begin." The voice of old man cut his concentration.
"Alright." Su Lie nodded.
With a burst of speed he propelled himself towards the rock, one noticeable thing was that he had not willed Qi into his hands, only his legs.
His legs also seemed to be a bit faster.
BOOM!
His fist landed on the rock transferring all his momentum to it, now not only did the rock break but it was also pushed back.
It broke into several pieces on impact, as if the force was something it couldn't take.
"900 kg!"
"Even when I didn't will Qi to my fist the result was outstanding, I guess I really used...
A Heaven-Defying Fist!"
[A/N: There is still sometime before today expires so if we manage to reach 30 collections the deal is still on.]