Volume Two: Travels in the State of Qi, Chapter 133: Mastering It at a Glance

“What are you doing?” Zhang Heng’s sudden movement startled Mu Wanqing. She hastily pushed his hand away and stepped back, looking at him with alarm.

“Miss Mu, your hair is messy. Let me fix it for you,” Zhang Heng said gently.

“Thank you… thank you,” Mu Wanqing’s cheeks flushed slightly. A strange feeling flickered in her heart, but she had no desire to probe further.

Zhang Heng’s action instantly enraged most of the male cultivators present in the martial arena—they all wished to tear him to pieces.

Only two kinds of cultivators remained calm: one, those like Yu Xiaochuan who had already become Zhang Heng’s fans; and two, those with questionable preferences.

“Brother Zhang is truly a divine being,” Yu Xiaochuan thought, seeing how he dared to tease even the icy goddess. Zhang Heng’s status in his heart rose another notch.

“This is too much! That damned brat actually dared to touch our goddess.”

“If I meet him at the imperial city tournament, he’s as good as dead.”

“Don’t drag me into this—I’m going up there to beat him senseless right now!” A genius was pulled back by a fellow cultivator but shouted furiously.

Mu Wanqing was the goddess in their hearts, their faith. Now Zhang Heng was standing so close to her. They all silently marked him in their minds, planning to cripple him if they met him at the imperial city tournament.

Zhang Heng noticed their expressions and reveled in it. “I’m just giving you a reason to compete seriously.”

To be honest, his actions might actually help a few young cultivators pass the preliminary rounds.

Before long, under the escort of Qi kingdom’s guards and under everyone’s gaze, Emperor Qi and Wu Hong arrived upstairs.

“Greetings, Emperor Qi! Greetings, Master Wu Dan!” everyone bowed respectfully in unison.

Emperor Qi still exuded an overwhelming presence, showing no sign of the illness that tormented him.

Today, Emperor Qi remained silent and sat there with dignity upon reaching the pavilion, entrusting all matters to Wu Hong.

Once everyone rose, Wu Hong spoke loudly inside the martial arena.

Seeing Wu Hong appear, all temporarily set aside their hatred for Zhang Heng and listened seriously.

“Young cultivators, I’m sure you can’t wait any longer. I won’t waste words. Today, we will hold the second and third rounds of the preliminary selection. Now, I announce the rules for the second round.”

Wu Hong took out a martial art manual from his spatial ring and began reading the rules.

“This manual in my hand is a martial technique recently researched by Emperor Qi. Aside from the Emperor himself, no one has seen it. Soon, this technique will be distributed to each of you geniuses. The second round will be to cultivate this technique. Whoever can successfully use it within one hour will advance; those who cannot will be eliminated. Any questions?”

Wu Hong’s words were simple but stirred a considerable commotion.

What? Cultivate a martial technique? And only one hour? That’s too difficult! Many ordinary geniuses complained.

Even the most common martial arts take several days from first learning to execution, and months or years to master fully.

Now, only an hour was given—undoubtedly requiring an exceptional talent for cultivation.

Though they knew the contest would be extremely tough, none voiced objections.

First, they were young prodigies with pride. To back down at difficulty—would they still be called geniuses? Second, raising objections might disqualify them immediately.

Seeing no opposition, Wu Hong ordered the technique manuals to be distributed among the thousand participating cultivators.

Once everyone had their copy, Wu Hong announced: “Let the competition begin.”

No time was granted to react.

All cultivators immediately sat cross-legged, beginning to comprehend the martial technique. Every second was precious.

Zhang Heng glanced at the manual. Its name was “Second Yang Finger.” He suspected it was a ripoff of the Dali Duan family’s “First Yang Finger,” but had no proof.

He didn’t bother to complain; he focused on cultivation. Since the system directly provided Zhang Heng’s martial arts, he wasn’t very clear on their level. He didn’t know if the Second Yang Finger was easy to cultivate or not, so he had to hurry. Being eliminated in round two would be embarrassing.

In no time, Zhang Heng had read through the manual several times. With his excellent memory, memorizing everything was no trouble.

He stood up, deciding to practice repeatedly. Even if he had memorized it, he wasn’t sure if he could actually perform it yet.

Zhang Heng’s movements drew everyone’s attention. All other geniuses were still immersed in reading. Why did he suddenly stand? Was he giving up?

Zhang Heng ignored their looks and began practicing on his own.

Though the Second Yang Finger was different in nature from his cultivated Gathering Spirit Finger, both were finger techniques with similar principles, so Zhang Heng was experienced.

He summoned spiritual energy and followed the method in the manual. Soon, he felt two streams of energy gathering in his fingers.

The energy was about to burst forth, and Zhang Heng hurriedly scanned the arena for a target—he couldn’t just unleash it randomly.

Finally, he spotted Liu Hai watching from the sidelines.

“You’re it. Go, Second Yang Finger.”

At that moment, two visible streams of energy shot out from his fingertips, rushing towards Liu Hai.

Liu Hai, who had been sneakily watching Mu Wanqing, suddenly noticed the energy rushing at him. He hurriedly defended himself.

The energy exploded in front of him, causing no real damage but leaving him covered in dust and dirt. His carefully styled hair was completely ruined.

“Zhang Heng!” Liu Hai ground his teeth in fury, obviously knowing where that energy came from.

The scene drew laughter from the crowd, but after laughing, they all gasped in disbelief.

The second round had just begun, not even fifteen minutes had passed. Others might not have even memorized the technique yet, and yet Zhang Heng had successfully executed it.

How was this possible?

A prodigy—an absolute prodigy!

Zhang Heng’s talent for martial arts was astonishing.

No one had ever heard of someone performing a technique after reading it only once. Though the Second Yang Finger was an ordinary technique, being able to use it so quickly revealed Zhang Heng’s immense talent.

Even geniuses like Qi Xuan and Mu Wanqing couldn’t achieve this in such a short time.

If they didn’t know Emperor Qi’s character, they might suspect the Emperor secretly showed Zhang Heng the technique beforehand.

All the other geniuses still studying the technique were stunned. Mu Wanqing and Qi Xuan knew Zhang Heng was on a different level; his rapid progress was understandable. But others refused to believe it—it was so difficult to cultivate a martial technique! How could Zhang Heng make it seem as easy as eating or drinking?

Upstairs on the second floor, Wu Hong was quite satisfied with Zhang Heng’s speed.

Even Emperor Qi was shocked. Seeing someone grasp it instantly? Despite his vast experience, he had never heard of such a genius.

Zhang Heng’s talent could easily overshadow every prodigy in the Qi kingdom.