Chapter 201: Chapter 191: Spotted Tail Bee
"Don’t hold back. Give it your all!" Yang Lin added.
Zhao Lin calmly walked up to the Eight-legged Tripod. He suddenly lunged forward, executing the Stone Roar Fist and landing a heavy blow on the target.
The Eight-legged Tripod let out a deep HUMMM. The mercury inside the Crystal Pillar shot up, splashing high and stopping directly at the 390 mark.
A moment of silence.
The instructors exchanged glances, their eyes filled with unconcealed astonishment. Even Yang Lin was taken aback for a moment.
"With that kind of strength, I’m afraid only Xiao Jin in the inner courtyard could compete with him," one instructor muttered.
"Even Xiao Jin couldn’t. He only hit three hundred twenty last month. That’s a huge gap!" another instructor chimed in.
"And look, he didn’t even charge up his power. With a little more training, he could probably break four hundred," the first instructor sighed.
"Excellent!"
Yang Lin clapped and laughed heartily, the whiskers at the corners of his mouth twitching. "To generate such power with a standard Stone Roar Fist... you have truly surprised me!"
He chuckled for a moment before composing himself. "Do you know what the marks on the target represent?"
Zhao Lin had a good idea, but he ventured a guess. "Does each mark represent ten pounds?"
Yang Lin nodded slightly. "Correct. That punch of yours had a force of three thousand nine hundred pounds. In the tournament, that would put you in the highest tier."
"Now, I wonder about your speed and Body Technique. Let’s move to another area and find out."
’Another test?’
Zhao Lin froze for a second, but he was quite confident in his speed. "Whatever the Headmaster arranges," he said calmly.
Yang Lin led the group to a courtyard in the northeast corner of the inner grounds.
The courtyard was enclosed by high walls, with a wide-open space and a large tree in the very center.
An oval object that looked like a gray cloth sack hung from one of the branches.
Zhao Lin’s vision was sharp. He could see wasps crawling all over the gray sack—they had brown heads, black backs, and a white spot on their abdomens.
’Spotted Tail Bees?’
Zhao Lin’s brow twitched. A sense of unease crept over him.
Spotted Tail Bees were a mutated species of wild bee. They were fast, highly venomous, and extremely vindictive.
Whoever provoked them would be stung half to death before they were satisfied.
Yang Lin waved to someone in the distance, and a disciple came running over.
"Your orders, Headmaster?"
"Fetch a Triangular Sword."
"Yes, sir."
The disciple hurried away and returned a moment later with a slender sword.
Yang Lin took the Triangular Sword, handed it to Zhao Lin, and pointed to the nest in the tree. "Use this sword to poke the nest. When the Spotted Tail Bees swarm out, kill as many as you can."
He held up two fingers, his expression turning serious. "There are two rules. First, you are not allowed to leave this courtyard."
"Second, you cannot use any Cultivation Techniques. You must only use this sword to cut down the Spotted Tail Bees until you can no longer continue."
"This is a test of your coordination, Body Technique, and footwork. Understand?"
Zhao Lin took a deep breath. "I understand."
With that, Yang Lin led the others out of the courtyard, leaving Zhao Lin to stand there alone.
Zhao Lin glanced at the Triangular Sword in his hand. The blade was extremely thin, a little over three feet long, and had a handguard. It greatly resembled a fencing foil.
’I may be fast, but not faster than these winged Spotted Tail Bees.’
’Still, the Spirit Beast Scroll can absorb poison, so there’s nothing to fear. The worst that can happen is I get stung a few times.’
With that thought, he walked under the tree, raised his sword, and jabbed the nest.
BUZZ...
The nest exploded into activity. The Spotted Tail Bees clinging to it took flight, shooting toward Zhao Lin like a shower of raindrops, the stingers on their tails glinting coldly.
At the same time, a continuous stream of Spotted Tail Bees poured out from the nest.
SWISH!
With a flick of his wrist, Zhao Lin’s sword fell, and a Spotted Tail Bee dropped to the ground.
But that did nothing to stop the bees’ charge. A dark, buzzing cloud swarmed toward him.
Zhao Lin’s figure blurred as he retreated, brandishing the Triangular Sword and cutting down several more Spotted Tail Bees.
"He’s calm under pressure and knows not to turn his back on the Spotted Tail Bees. His performance is better than any of the new disciples this year!"
Hu Xuancheng, who was observing the fight, murmured.
"He has speed, but no real footwork. A pity."
Yang Lin said, shaking his head.
By now, more and more Spotted Tail Bees were breaking through his sword defense, forming a black cloud directly above his head.
One Spotted Tail Bee suddenly dove, aiming its stinger at his shoulder.
Zhao Lin unleashed his ultrasound, locking onto the position of every single Spotted Tail Bee. Without even looking, he thrust his sword backward, slicing the would-be ambusher in two.
However, knowing the bees’ positions was one thing; being able to block them all was another entirely.
The sheer number of Spotted Tail Bees, their swift movements, and their erratic flight paths made it increasingly difficult for Zhao Lin to fend them off.
After a dozen seconds or so, he felt a sharp pain in his waist—a Spotted Tail Bee had stung him.
His footwork faltered, and several more bees landed stings on his neck, back, and thighs.
Zhao Lin felt a tingling numbness spread through his body as the venom coursed through his blood. His limbs began to feel sluggish and unresponsive.
But almost immediately, the Spirit Beast Scroll in his mind flashed, sucking in the poison, which had manifested as wisps of black smoke.
The Essence Souls in the seven compartments—the bear, the Golden Leopard, the Silver-Winged Bat, the Thunder Catfish, and others—all began to shimmer, releasing a white mist that consumed the black smoke.
In just a few moments, the black smoke vanished without a trace.
Seeing Zhao Lin get stung seven or eight times, Hu Xuancheng turned to Yang Lin. "Headmaster, should we step in and help him?"
Yang Lin didn’t reply. He raised his right hand but hesitated to act. "Let’s wait..."
Before the words had even left his mouth, Zhao Lin’s movements returned to normal. He was back to swiftly dodging and killing Spotted Tail Bees as if nothing had ever happened.
Everyone stared, dumbfounded.
"Headmaster, how is he fine after being stung by Spotted Tail Bees?" asked Liu Shengnian, the eldest instructor.
A Blood Realm warrior might be able to neutralize the venom, but the Spotted Tail Bee’s poison is exceptionally potent. There’s no way he could recover this fast.
Yang Lin pondered for a moment. "As far as I know, there are some people in this world born with a poison-resistant constitution, who fear no venom. Zhao Lin might be one of them."
"A poison-resistant constitution?"
"That’s right. It’s like drinking alcohol. Some people are dead drunk after a single sip, while others can drink it like water and feel nothing, no matter how much they consume."
"However, such a constitution is exceedingly rare. Not even one in a million people has it."
Zhao Lin, who was using his ultrasound, happened to overhear their conversation. He breathed an inward sigh of relief. ’Perfect. I don’t even have to explain myself; they’ve already come up with a reason for me.’
With the Spirit Beast Scroll absorbing the venom, Zhao Lin had the energy and focus to deal with the Spotted Tail Bees, and he gradually began to get the hang of it.
He kept his body in constant motion, so even if a bee managed to touch him, it was likely to be shaken off. The Triangular Sword in his hand moved with increasing ferocity, skewering bees until they were strung along the blade like beads.
In about the time it takes to eat a meal, the last of the Spotted Tail Bees was dead.
Zhao Lin looked around and saw dozens, even hundreds, of tiny Essence Souls rising into the air.
The ground was carpeted with the dense bodies of the dead bees. Some, with only half their bodies remaining, still struggled to crawl toward Zhao Lin, seemingly unwilling to give up even in death.
