Chapter 133: Everyone Has Secrets

Fang Jie didn’t know that a few insanely powerful figures were doing something shocking on Godly Spring Mountain that was about 15 kilometers away.

Although this incident’s effect on the world wasn’t as far and deep as the incident about 11 years ago, it would still cause huge upheavals once the news got out.

Of course, Fang Jie didn’t know anything about that incident 11 years ago, and most people in the world didn’t know anything.

The huge effect of what happened 11 years ago led to the peace that Great Sui was experiencing right now. If those people didn’t participate in that fearless operation and sacrifice their lives, Great Sui wouldn’t be this prosperous.

Those people were leaders in the martial arts circle and had insane cultivation strength. They went on an expedition for Great Sui about 11 years ago, and blood stained the land. However, their names couldn’t appear on the history books, and they wouldn’t be praised by others.

Even many influential figures didn’t know about this, let alone ordinary people.

Although what was happening on Godly Spring Mountain couldn’t be compared to that incident 11 years ago, they represented the same thing in essence.

…

Fang Jie was focusing on competing with his opponents. This was the last test in the entrance exam, and his performance so far was stunning. He didn’t want to mess up in the last second and become someone else’s steppingstone.

Even if he knew that something big was happening on Godly Spring Mountain, he would ignore it and focus on doing well in this test unless it endangered him.

After four rounds of battles, not many people were left standing. Except for those who had been defeated, many people who didn’t think that they had the strength and energy to continue also exited the test wisely.

People thought that this test would last a while, but it was coming to an end after less than two hours.

The big figures who were viewing the exam heaved a sigh of relief. Although the fights were fascinating, many of the big figures weren’t interested in these things, especially those few grand scholars who were sitting here patiently.

Now, less than 20 people were standing.

After one more round, the top ten participants would receive excellent ratings.

Fang Jie received excellent ratings for his five written tests, and he probably got excellent ratings for the first two martial tests. The rating for the third martial test wasn’t announced, but Fang Jie only needed to get through this last round to obtain an excellent rating for the last martial test.

At this moment, Fang Jie wasn’t going to let anyone stand in his way.

The person in his way was named Cui Pingzhou.

Boling Cui Family was a first-tier family in Great Sui. Since Cui Pingzhou wasn’t the elder son nor the elder grandson of the family leader, his position in the family wasn’t too high.

Since the young generation of the Cui Family hadn’t matured yet, Cui Pingzhou got the chance to represent Boling Cui Family this time.

To many people, the entrance exam of the Martial Arts Academy was only an exam, but it was war in the eyes of big families of Great Sui. This was the chance that big families of Great Sui had to compete; they could show off their strength to their opponents and allies.

Cui Pingzhou wasn’t the top talent of the Cui Family, so he wanted to use this opportunity to increase his status in his family.

Therefore, he chose Fang Jie as his opponent.

Fang Jie’s stunning performance so far was one of the reasons why Cui Pingzhou picked him. Another reason was key to him making this decision.

When he walked over to Fang Jie, he looked calm and confident, even though many people didn’t know where his confidence came from. After all, Fang Jie’s strength was enough for many people to be concerned about.

“Are you curious about why I chose you?” Cui Pingzhou asked.

After a moment of silence, Fang Jie shook his head and replied with a smile, “Many people would choose me. You are the one who made the fastest decision.”

Cui Pingzhou smiled and said, “You are smart, extremely smart.”

Fang Jie didn’t act humble. He looked toward other participants who were looking his way and answered, “Perhaps many of them are angry that you got ahead of them.”

“It is because they hesitated, just like me,” Cui Pingzhou said honestly, “Although we are from different backgrounds, I truly admire you. I know that someone from a poor background needs to put in several times the work just to reach this level. Of course, no one could doubt your talent. I chose you not only because of your great performance so far. More importantly, I still feel that you are the weakest among everyone who is still in the test.”

He shrugged and said, “Sorry, I’m too direct. Although you just knocked down Xie Fuyao earlier, I thought about it and feel like he is still scarier than you. You already gave it your all, but he wouldn’t show all his strength in this test. You are smart, so you know that I’m not trying to mock you and praise Xie Fuyao. He is also a smart man, so he knows what he needs to show.”

Fang Jie nodded and replied, “Yeah, I know.”

After he knocked away Xie Fuyao, a professor said that it was intense, but Zhuo Banchuan said that one person won just right while the other lost just right; what was intense about it?

Principal Zhuo already saw through the essence of everything.

Xie Fuyao was powerful; he only lost to Fang Jie because he wanted to lose.

Regardless of how famous Xie Fuyao was, he was from a big family that was on the decline. After Great Sui was established, his family’s influence continued to decrease. In his father’s generation, no one even became an official above rank 4.

This was a sad situation for the big family that was extremely influential in the previous empire on this land.

Therefore, a ton of hope was placed in Xie Fuyao.

From this perspective, it seemed like Xie Fuyao should try to rank higher in the Martial Arts Academy. However, if he did that, he would be a fool.

…

Now, Great Sui was influenced by the new big families that rose to power in the last 100 years and not those families that were already in power in the previous empire.

The new families wouldn’t allow these old families to come back into power and threaten them.

For the Emperor to stabilize Great Sui, he wouldn’t greatly weaken these old families on purpose. However, he would slowly marginalize these old families until they exited the stage.

The Xie Family and Wang Family in Yangtze-South could still be somewhat influential when Great Sui was first established, but these families slowly became third-tier families after about 100 years. After a few dozen years, they might completely disappear.

Now, Xie Fuyao had to change this and bring his family back up. He needed to show himself to the Emperor, but he couldn’t challenge the new families.

Therefore, he chose Fang Jie as his opponent. Although he attacked many people before the training field, pulling many people into the battle, including Yu Xiao, Pei Chuxing, and Cui Pingzhou who were all from big families that were on the rise, and he even challenged a professor of the Martial Arts Academy, his target was Fang Jie.

He pulled that many people into the battle because he wanted to show himself. Also, he lost to Fang Jie on purpose.

When you want to show-off, you need to stop at a certain limit. This limit is always hard to grasp.

Xie Fuyao did well in this aspect. If he was in the very front during the entrance exam, he would attract Principal Zhou and even the Emperor’s attention, but the new families would also pay attention to him.

If he showed enough power to suppress everyone, how could those big families allow him to prosper? Those new families finally suppressed the old families; how could they let their opponents rise again?

If Xie Fuyao truly suppressed everyone, perhaps he would disappear in less than three years.

Therefore, Principal Zhou said that he lost just right.

Xie Fuyao garnished attention as a loser; what was a better way to show off his strength?

Although it seemed like he was disrespectful by challenging a professor, it showed his pride. Perhaps everyone who Xie Fuyao pulled into the battle was in his plan, but Professor Mo Wanwu wasn’t.

Xie Fuyao only challenged Mo Wanwu since his third senior brother defeated this professor years ago, and he didn’t want to bring shame to his third senior brother.

Cui Pingzhou thought this through. He was sure that Xie Fuyao didn’t use his full strength when he got knocked away, and he felt like Fang Jie had used everything that he got. Regardless of how powerful one seemed; this person wouldn’t be the scariest after showing all his strength.

Therefore, when others were still hesitating, Cui Pingzhou walked to Fang Jie.

“I did what you did.” Cui Pingzhou smiled, “I didn’t fight with anyone overly powerful. Therefore, we each have enough stamina; no one is in a real disadvantage.”

Fang Jie slowly reached out his hand and gestured while saying, “Please.”

Cui Pingzhou returned the gesture and said, “You will be surprised.”

Fang Jie was surprised but didn’t understand what Cui Pingzhou meant.

However, Cui Pingzhou didn’t give him time and charged over.

Fang Jie stood with his legs apart, going into the horse stance. His two arms were positioned in front of his chest and blocked Cui Pingzhou’s sidekick.

As soon as Cui Pingzhou landed, his body tilted backward as he punched toward Fang Jie’s face from the side. However, Fang Jie blocked it again.

Using this split-second, Cui Pingzhou adjusted his body and faced Fang Jie while throwing fast punches.

Cui Pingzhou’s fist technique could be described by one word – speed.

In a few seconds, Cui Pingzhou had punched out about 60 times. He was so fast that afterimages could be seen, and it was hard to tell which was the real attack.

Before the afterimage of the previous punch could disappear, the second punch already came.

Each punch carried internal force, turning more forces of nature in the area into his fist force. It was easy to imagine the power.

Fang Jie had been on the defense. When he took 90 punches, he finally started to move back.

As Cui Pingzhuo’s punches got faster, Fang Jie’s retreating steps also became faster.

It seemed like Fang Jie had no time to counterattack. He continued to back off.

Although he had blocked all of Cui Pingzhou’s attacks so far, no one knew if he might make a mistake and get knocked out in the next second.

Cui Pingzhou’s punches were too fast for ordinary people to see; this was what cultivation strength could do to the human body.

At this moment, all the people on the viewing platform opened their eyes wide, and Royal King Yi even opened his mouth and gasped a little.

Professor Qiu Yu who had a pair of beautiful white eyes seemed to have faster reflexes. Before Royal King Yi gasped, her expression changed a little and quickly went back to normal.

Zhou Banchuan’s eyes were squinted, and he smiled as he watched Cui Pingzhou’s aggressive attacks and Fang Jie’s continuous retreat. It was hard to tell whose performance pleased him more.

…

There was a limit to how much Fang Jie could retreat.

Not far away behind his back, the ground gradually changed.

A big pile of dirt flew up and suddenly changed its shape in mid-air, turning into a stick.

Without a doubt, while the shape changed, the dirt also became extremely firm.

After turning into a stick, it floated in mid-air and pointed at Fang Jie’s back.

Runemaster! No one expected Cui Pingzhou to be a good runemaster!

People were surprised not because he was a runemaster; it was because Cui Pingzhou’s close-range combat strength was great!

It had to be noted that runemasters weren’t suitable for close-range combat. They had insane spiritual power and could turn the forces of nature into weapons. Compared to the internal forces of warriors, runemasters’ attacks were harder to predict and defend against.

Since runemasters typically could only control the forces of nature around them, it would be a nightmare if their opponents got close to them.

However, Cui Pingzhou’s performance told others that he wasn’t afraid of close-range combat even though he was a runemaster!

Fang Jie took three steps backward, and he was less than two meters away from that dirt stick.

Cui Pingzhou smiled while his eyes concentrated!

The dirt staff suddenly moved and struck toward Fang Jie’s back with force!