Chapter 82 The Competition Shen Cangyu tapped his temple: "Use..."
The disciples' competition was held as scheduled in the Forest of All Beings.
The territory of Xiaoyaoyou was large, flat, open and sparsely populated, so the people of Kunlun took the opportunity to build a martial arts arena in the Forest of All Beings and arranged the disciples' competition, which was held there every few years.
The competition among Kunlun disciples has always been the standard for judging the strength of the disciples. The disciple who wins the top spot in the competition will be awarded the title of chief disciple.
Pei Wenjing thus became the senior disciple among Shen Cangyu's generation of disciples, and Qiu Sheng did the same.
The top disciples of Kunlun over the years have mostly been disciples of the "Return to the Heart of All Things" sect. One reason is their love of war and skill in battle. Another reason is that disciples of the "Return to the Heart of All Things" sect have a strong sense of collective honor. They believe that the "Return to the Heart of All Things" sect is the Daoist practice of the Kunlun sect leader. They claim to be the number one Daoist in Kunlun, both internally and externally, and they must have the strength to support this title.
Therefore, in every disciple competition, the disciples of the Ten Thousand Qi Gui Xin sect are the most reckless, even if it means fighting to the death, they will stand until the very end.
"I've never seen a disciple of your Xiaoyao You sect take the top spot on the leaderboard." Qiu Sheng sat on the stands, looking at the huge crowd in the distance, chatting with Lu Qianhe beside him.
“Nonsense,” Lu Qianhe said, taking a bite of the jujube cake in his hand. “If this disciple competition wasn’t linked to the class graduation assessment, do you think any Free and Unfettered disciple would be willing to participate? These competitions are just empty titles for Free and Unfettered, they’re useless.”
"You don't even care about the rewards for the competition?"
The rewards from this competition can be used by disciples of any sect. Perhaps they noticed that their disciples' enthusiasm for participating in competitions was not high enough, so they specially arranged this event.
“No matter how good the reward is, it’s still an external thing to us. We can’t use it or take it with us,” Lu Qianhe said. “It’s not as good as this jujube cake. Once we eat it, it goes into my stomach.”
"You guys from Xiaoyao You are really stubborn," Qiu Sheng muttered, then suddenly spotted a familiar figure in the crowd.
Shen Cangyu stood at the edge of the crowd with his arms crossed, listening to the heated discussion. Everyone was debating who was the strongest competitor among this year's disciples.
"Are you nervous?" Lu Yuan asked, standing beside her. Shen Cangyu saw several mixed wisps of energy floating around her and knew that she had brought all the signed demon beasts with her this time, ready to go all out.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve felt tense,” Shen Cangyu said. Her tone was casual and arrogant, which made Lu Yuan laugh out loud: “It seems that the people from your Mind Arts Hall have quite a few tricks up their sleeves.”
At this point, Lu Yuan teased Shen Cangyu, "In the past, the top spot in the disciple competition has always belonged to the disciple of Wanqi Guixin, but you are no longer a disciple of Wanqi Guixin. Let's see if you have the ability to break Wanqi Guixin's long-standing tradition and take the top spot."
Shui Linglong was determined to make Shen Cangyu the top student, and Shen Cangyu shared the same thought. In past classroom assessments, Shen Cangyu was trapped in her memories, missing the chance to be number one, which fell into Shen Qingyan's hands. This time, she was going all out; she wanted to see what he could use to beat her.
In her past memories, she seemed to have never won against Pei Wenjing; he always seemed to have the upper hand. In this life, she had no chance to fight Pei Wenjing; this was their first battle, and she wanted to see just how capable this male protagonist from the original story really was.
She had spent so many years in Kunlun, working tirelessly day and night, studying and cultivating. She wanted to see if she could defeat them without the help of a system or a cheat code.
"What's your advantage? Is it the mental techniques you've learned?" Lu Yuan suddenly asked. She felt that with so many talented people gathered in this disciple competition, to stand out from the crowd, one must possess skills that others don't have, such as their Daoist arts.
But Shen Cangyu is now in the Mind Arts Hall, so what kind of magic is mind arts? Lu Yuan admits that people who master multiple mind arts are very powerful, but she also feels that anyone can learn mind arts, and it is too simplistic to rely solely on mind arts as one's trump card.
After all, in her impression, Pei Wenjing also knew a lot of mental arts, and there were many disciples like Pei Wenjing who had mastered a lot of mental arts. If that was the case, then Shen Cangyu would not have any special features compared to them, so how could she win?
“Yes, it all comes down to mental techniques,” Shen Cangyu said. “Among the disciples in the same class, some learn mental techniques quickly, and some learn them slowly. That’s the difference. You don’t have to master skills that others don’t have to be considered powerful.”
The first principle of a satisfying novel is that the protagonist possesses something unique. Only something unique can evoke envy and bring a sense of satisfaction. The protagonist often wins over others by leveraging information asymmetry and having a cheat-like advantage.
Shen Cangyu wondered, is there not a protagonist who can be both ordinary and powerful?
Shen Cangyu wanted to win the match using moves that everyone knew.
Lu Yuan didn't understand her obsession. There were clearly many easier and simpler ways to win, but Shen Cangyu insisted on making things difficult for herself.
"Hey, it's time to draw lots!" Lu Yuan saw the elders walking over from a distance and quickly pulled Shen Cangyu into the crowd.
Shen Cangyu reached into the box, touched the cold stone ball in her hand, and took it out. The stone ball had a number engraved on it, which corresponded to her opponent's number plate.
Shen Cangyu looked up and his gaze met that person's through the crowd. Coincidentally, that person was also a disciple of the Xingxiang Hall and the Zhuanxin Art Hall.
The disciple, upon meeting Shen Cangyu's gaze, began scratching his head in disbelief. When he first entered the Mind Arts Hall, he resented Shen Cangyu's position. He felt that someone who had attained the state of mind had no right to be the head of the Mind Arts Hall; he and Shui Linglong were both from the Incense Hall, so shouldn't Shui Linglong have given him this position more often…
In class, he tried to stump Shen Cangyu with tricky questions, but she just chuckled and effortlessly solved them, leaving behind the casual remark, "That's it?"
That's it?
The two words, though seemingly casual, carried a devastating force in his ears, causing him to blush and become speechless, unable to utter a rebuttal or explanation.
As he stood on the dueling platform, Shen Cangyu raised his hand to him: "Come."
Come? Come for what?
The disciple of the Mind Arts Hall closed his eyes in despair and unleashed a ground spike attack. The ground beneath the arena shook, and spikes shot out from the ground as if they were alive.
"Wow!" The spectators, drawn by the commotion on the dueling platform, couldn't help but look over. "What kind of magic is this?"
“It seems to be a mental technique. This mental technique and earth escape technique are from the same source, but earth techniques are always mainly for defense and fixation. I rarely see such an offensive earth technique,” the person sitting to the side pondered. “The disciples on this arena seem to be from that newly established mental technique hall. It seems that this mental technique hall is quite interesting.”
Shen Cangyu nimbly dodged the attacks from the disciples of the Mind Arts Hall, and amidst the booming sounds, he said, "Too slow."
The distance between them was instantly reduced, and the disciples of the Mind Arts Hall were startled. They quickly released layers of ground spikes to block in front of them. At this moment, the ground spikes were more like defense than close-range attacks.
The moment Shen Cangyu approached him, the fear of being dominated by Shen Cangyu in class instantly surged into his mind. He was terrified that Shen Cangyu would suddenly appear in front of him, punch him, and send him to his death.
"Is this how I teach you in class?" Suddenly, a voice came from behind him. He quickly dodged to the side, but the expected fist did not appear. Perhaps it was because they were in the middle of a formal disciple competition, and as fellow disciples of the Mind Arts Hall, Shen Cangyu was still giving him some face.
"Earth Shield!"
The spikes beside him merged upwards, forming a cocoon that enveloped him. It was pitch black all around, but at least he was able to catch his breath.
Shen Cangyu's movements were too agile; none of his ground spikes could hit her. Before she could even make a move, he was already wearing himself down.
Just as the disciple of the Mind Art Hall finished thinking about this, he suddenly felt the ground beneath his feet shake.
"Huh?"
Before he could react, the earthen shields surrounding him carried him straight into the sky.
"Wait!" he shouted. The earthen shields around him dissipated, and he felt as if he had been lifted into the air as if he had ridden a fish cart. Unfortunately, there was no fish cart under him. Seeing that he was about to be smashed into a pulp, he quickly made a hand seal and released the Wind Riding Technique. However, he found that he had consumed too much energy when he summoned the earth spikes. Now, the energy in his inner core was almost gone. When he was still some distance from the ground, the energy under him suddenly disappeared, and he fell down.
"It's all over," he thought, clutching his head.
But the next moment, instead of crashing to the ground, he fell into a patch of soft, cloud-like mud.
The clump of mud carried him slowly down, laying him flat on the ground. He looked up at the azure sky above and finally came to his senses.
"When using mental techniques, you must always pay attention to the qi in your body and plan each mental technique you use carefully. In battle, don't think about winning by the quantity of mental techniques. Give yourself more time to think and observe, to figure out your opponent's attack and defense habits, and to predict your opponent's movements before attacking," Shen Cangyu said, standing beside him.
She had taught so many mental techniques at the Mind Arts Hall, but this guy only used two of them. His final move, releasing an earth shield for defense, made her dizzy and utterly humiliated her.
This guy usually acts so smart in class, but when it comes to fighting, he seems to lose his mind. He can't remember any of the fighting techniques she's mentioned before.
It's hopeless, just release it.
"Hey! No!" The disciple from the Mind Arts Hall quickly sprang to his feet. "I forgot we're still in a competition!"
Shen Cangyu revealed an indescribable expression: "Get down quickly." Every second he spent standing on the dueling platform was an insult to their Mind Arts Hall.
The first battle of the Xinshu Hall ended in this way. Anyone who didn't know the situation would think that this disciple was giving Shen Cangyu points for free.
"Hey, you still haven't told me how to predict your opponent's movements!" A disciple from the Mind Arts Hall asked in a low voice, chasing after Shen Cangyu. "Tell me quietly, I won't tell anyone else."
Shen Cangyu tapped his temple: "Use your brain."
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