Chapter 197: Chapter 185: One-Palm Destruction
’Have I entered the Heaven-Filling Map?’
The world spun around him.
One moment, he was still inside the Daoist School. The next, when he opened his eyes again, Chen Che found himself standing on a massive stone peak!
It was a stone peak thousands of feet high, sheer and without any steps, like a sharp sword thrust into the earth. The summit appeared to have been sliced perfectly flat. White clouds drifted ethereally around it, and looking out into the distance, he could see nine other similar peaks scattered across the landscape.
They stood in a silent, distant formation.
Besides him, there were over three hundred other examinees on the mountain.
"There are more than three hundred people on this mountain?"
"It must be a Discourse on the Dao! I can’t believe these are the rules for the exam. It’s over for me... There’s no room for any tricks!"
The other examinees also cried out in surprise.
Just then, a loud rumbling echoed from the mountaintop.
Before the shocked and awestruck eyes of the crowd, a massive arena, hundreds of feet wide, rose from the center of the stone peak. At the same time, a streak of light shot out from the arena, then scattered like fireflies, transforming into dozens of Wooden Tokens that flew directly toward the examinees.
Everyone caught one of the Wooden Tokens.
As soon as Chen Che caught his Wooden Token, a complex stream of information flooded his mind. With a sweep of his Divine Sense, he absorbed it all.
’So it really is a Discourse on the Dao!’
According to the information from the Wooden Token, all students entering the examination grounds were randomly assigned to one of ten mountain peaks. Each of them would have to face every other examinee on their peak until they had defeated everyone, or until no one dared to challenge them again. Only then would they be considered a victor.
’But how is this a ’discourse on the Dao’? It’s clearly a discourse on fists!’
The corner of Chen Che’s mouth twitched.
’Then again, it makes sense.’
Before the Calamity of Heaven’s Fall, it was common for True Masters and True Monarchs to engage in Discourses on the Dao to prove that their learning and their chosen immortal path were the correct ones.
However, the Dao itself has no hierarchy.
Words alone could never persuade an opponent. Thus, the simplest way to win a Discourse on the Dao was to prove it with strength!
"They’re all in our exam group!"
"!?"
"We’re done for, we’re done for! Seven Foundation Establishment students?"
"Four of the top ten are here! We’re in the group of death, no doubt about it!"
As he was thinking, cries of despair erupted from the surrounding crowd.
Chen Che looked up.
He saw several examinees standing off to one side, towering over the others like cranes among chickens. Not only was there Qiu Beixuan, who had greeted him earlier, but also Huang Min, ranked ninth on the Celestial Ranking; Zhuo Chaoyang, ranked forty-sixth; and Yan Wangchen, ranked fifty-first!
’Lei Qianfei, Yu Ziqing...’
Chen Che’s gaze swept over the group, finally landing on the last person, his eyes narrowing slightly.
’The Celestial Ranking’s number two, Hua Feng?’
...
The other nine groups of students were in the same situation as Chen Che, each on their own mountain peak.
Ye Zhihan was on one such peak, along with the three hundred or so examinees in his group.
’So these are the rules?’
’Fair enough!’
’A pity Chen Che isn’t here. I won’t get a chance to fight him.’
Ye Zhihan clutched his Wooden Token, his Divine Sense sweeping across the area. He saw no sign of Chen Che, and a hint of disappointment flickered in his eyes.
During their journey here, he had clearly sensed that his younger cousin’s old classmate was far stronger than the outside world believed.
"Damn it, I can’t beat a single one of them! What do I do? There’s nowhere to hide!" On another peak, Zong Yudao looked around at the other examinees who were slowly getting to their feet, their faces fierce. He felt like a lamb that had wandered into a den of tigers.
He couldn’t help but tremble.
At this moment, he had none of the poise of a provincial tournament qualifier, none of the swagger of a ’Child of Fortune’.
...
The drizzle turned into a heavy downpour.
Outside the Zhurong Daoist School, as the students entered the Heaven-Filling Map, ten enormous scrolls unfurled in mid-air, simultaneously shielding the area from the pouring rain.
"A Discourse on the Dao?"
Outside the examination grounds, Li Xiaoshuang’s expression changed slightly.
"Of the fifty-one Foundation Establishment cultivators, eight of them were assigned to Chen Che’s group, and three are in the top ten of the Celestial Ranking? This is big trouble... Hua Feng is on the same level as Ye Zhihan. With Ye Zhihan absent, there’s no one who can keep him in check!"
"I don’t know if Chen Che can handle it."
It wasn’t just him; the teachers and parents of the other students assigned to that group also looked pale.
Those two students were in a league of their own, and the Immortal Sects had always compared them. Unfortunately, one attended Zhurong Middle School and the other Rushou Middle School.
Separated by vast distances, they had never met, let alone fought.
If only.
If those two had been placed in the same group, they might have fought to mutual exhaustion, giving others a chance to slip through. But with each reigning supreme in their own arena, who could possibly stop them?
Furthermore, below Hua Feng, there were ’Gatekeepers’ like Lei Qianfei and Yu Ziqing.
’He’ll just have to adapt as the situation develops!’
Li Xiaoshuang thought to himself as he watched Chen Che.
’It’s a real, head-on fight with no room for tricks! And you can challenge anyone freely, but if you don’t accept a challenge, you’re eliminated. Seven full days... defeating over three hundred people is impossible. Even in a rotation battle, you could be worn down to death!’
Chen Che was also calculating his options.
Thanks to Old Li’s prior analysis, he had a good understanding of the rules for this ’Discourse on the Dao’.
But being the last one standing on the arena was not going to be so easy.
’Either I lie low until the very end, waiting for everyone else to be exhausted, or I display such overwhelming strength that I crush the other examinees’ will to fight! Make it so no one dares to challenge me again!’
Just as the thought crossed Chen Che’s mind, he heard a cry of excitement from the crowd.
"It’s changing!"
"The Wooden Token, it turned into a weapon!"
Looking up, he saw an examinee excitedly gripping his Wooden Token.
As light flowed over it, the Wooden Token gradually transformed into a long spear right before his eyes.
