Chapter 0520 Ranked First

Chapter 0520 Number One Rank

Something very strange happened within the barrier arena!

The elders watching from outside were all startled, looking at each other in shock.

Qin Yun, Tian Ruoleng, and Yue Wulan were covered in wounds, about to be taken down.

Yet now, they seemed enveloped by a strange protective barrier that couldn’t be broken through!

"It's the Shockwave Martial Soul!" exclaimed a well-informed elder in shock. "That's the power of shockwaves!"

"Qin Yun actually possesses the Shockwave Martial Soul—and a legendary one, no less!"

"He kept this hidden all along!"

"I thought his martial soul was Thunder?"

"That can't be! Even with the Shockwave Martial Soul, it shouldn't be possible to achieve this level. Only Spirit Martial warriors could pull off such a powerful shockwave barrier!"

"Exactly! Qin Yun must be cheating!"

The elder from the Azure Thunder Sword Academy wore an ugly expression and angrily demanded, "Qin Yun, what have you done?"

"What I do is my own damn business!" Qin Yun retorted sharply.

With Tian Ruoleng and Yue Wulan continuously channeling their power into him, Qin Yun could sustain the barrier until time ran out.

Now, their Runes Equipment was healing their wounds too.

"Elders, punish him—he’s breaking the rules!"

The elder from the Azure Thunder Sword Academy glared at the golden-robed elders and spoke furiously.

"Then tell us, what dirty trick did they use?" Dao Fan asked coldly. "If you can’t prove it, you’re just making accusations!"

"I don’t care! Qin Yun cheated!" the elder roared in anger.

Xiong Dao, expressionless, said, "If you're dissatisfied, call the other four Hall Masters to verify whether Qin Yun has violated the rules!"

The Hall Masters of the Miraculous Patterns Hall, Alchemy Hall, Elders' Hall, and Sword Hall hardly ever showed up.

Especially the Hall Master of the Elders' Hall—he was the Manor Lord himself!

"You... you..." The elder from the Azure Thunder Sword Academy was speechless.

Xiong Dao, as the Hall Master of the Blade Hall, had authority.

This was his territory—even the elders had to watch what they said in his presence.

Qin Yun now understood the importance of numbers. With ten people, they wouldn’t have gotten this messed up.

Time dragged on.

The elder from the Azure Thunder Sword Academy watched, fuming with anger.

The ten white-robed middle-aged swordsmen kept hacking and thrusting with their swords.

But nothing worked against the powerful shockwave barrier!

Even Yue Wulan and Tian Ruoleng were utterly shocked.

They knew Qin Yun had the Thunderfire Martial Soul, but now he was unleashing such powerful tremor force—it seemed he must possess a Tremor Martial Soul as well.

With Qin Yun’s three Dao Pills (cultivation cores), plus Tian Ruoleng and Yue Wulan’s, they had the energy of five Dao Pills, enough to sustain them for a long time.

"Eldest Sister, Second Sister, take this chance to memorize the faces of these ten bastards. If we ever meet them outside, make sure they suffer the worst death possible!" Qin Yun’s cold voice was filled with fury.

"I’ve already memorized them! Their ugly faces are seared into my memory!" Tian Ruoleng’s voice carried a chilling, murderous aura, making even those outside the barrier feel uneasy.

"Only by killing them can we erase their hideous faces from our minds!"

Yue Wulan, recalling how the three of them had been pushed to the brink so viciously earlier, was boiling with fury.

No one doubted their words—after all, they dared to kill members of the Long and Yang families!

At this moment, fear gripped the hearts of the ten disciples from the Azure Thunder Sword Academy!

They had thought this assault would cripple Qin Yun and the others, wiping them out permanently.

Yet, they never expected these three could last this long!

Qin Yun, Tian Ruoleng, and Yue Wulan—each was a ruthless fighter.

If they survived this month, when it was their turn to attack, their counterattack would be brutal.

"Don’t let them intimidate you! Their Fandao Hall will face two assaults every day for the next month! They’ll surely be crippled in one of them!"

"In the Blade and Sword Offensive-Defensive Matches, no one has ever successfully defended consecutively!"

The elder from the Azure Thunder Sword Academy hurriedly encouraged his disciples, urging them to attack even harder.

Soon, time ran out (as the incense burned down).

"Stop!" Xiong Dao barked.

The disciples of the Azure Thunder Sword Academy wore faces twisted in frustration!

The three of them—Qin Yun, Tian Ruoleng, and Yue Wulan—stared down with lethal fury at the ten disciples who had assaulted them so fiercely.

"Get yourselves patched up fast. There’s a second battle this afternoon!" Dao Fan hurried over to check their injuries.

"Old Fan, we only have external injuries!" Qin Yun managed a weak grin.

"We’ll recover soon. We’re just running on empty." Tian Ruoleng felt a surge of gratitude seeing Dao Fan’s concern for them.

"Old Fan, we’ll return to rest and recover now." Yue Wulan sounded noticeably calmer.

"Fandao Hall scores eight points! Azure Thunder Sword Academy is docked eight points! Currently, Fandao Hall ranks first!"

Xiong Dao announced loudly with a smile.

Dao Fan grinned. "Your hardships have paid off big time!"

Fandao Hall was a low-tier academy. Successfully defending against a high-tier academy earned them eight points, making their first-place ranking hard-earned.

Under normal circumstances, high-tier academies rarely attacked low-tier ones, and even if they did, the low-tier academies had little chance of winning.

The members of the Azure Thunder Sword Academy left Fandao Hall with sour frustration in their hearts.

The Azure Thunder Sword Academy went for wool and came home shorn—they spent 13 million to secure the selection right, yet failed in their attack and lost eight points, now ranking last!

Qin Yun and the other two quickly returned to the secret chamber to rest.

He took out two jade vats and had Yue Wulan and Tian Ruoleng soak in them.

With his Tree Totem and Sky Lion bloodline, Qin Yun could recover quickly even from external injuries.

Inside the secret chamber, he busily worked on his preparations.

He took out dragon sinews, burned them with beast oil, then hammered them with the Nine Yang Divine Hammer until they became thin, pliable sheets.

He then tested them by piercing the sheets with a sharp mystical weapon.

While the weapon could pierce it, it was hard to fully puncture—the material was remarkably resilient.

If layered slightly thicker and wrapped around the body, even a slash from a sharp sword wouldn’t cause injury.

This would provide excellent defensive effects.

If he were to craft actual armor, he would need to engrave arcane engravings, which would take much more time.

Qin Yun worked swiftly on the sinews, refining them into fabric-thin layers, then wrapped them around critical points to protect against fatal attacks.

Other parts of the body could take hits—the key was to prevent the heart and *Dantian* from being pierced.

By the afternoon, Qin Yun had crafted numerous sinew patches, wrapping them around several parts of his body.

Yue Wulan and Tian Ruoleng didn’t know what they were, but seeing that Qin Yun had crafted them, they thought they looked like flour wrappers.

They wrapped these patches around their own critical areas.

The second battle of the afternoon was about to begin!

The attacking side was yet another elite sword academy—the Sharp Edge Sword Academy.

There were eleven of them, all middle-aged men dressed in white robes.

They had also spent over ten million Purple Crystal Coins in the afternoon to purchase the selection right, allowing them to choose Fandao Hall.

Before each round of attacks, the selection right was auctioned once!

If one had enough Purple Crystal Coins, they could continuously buy the selection right and attack the same hall repeatedly!

Fandao Hall buzzed with even more excitement!

It was precisely because Qin Yun and the others had successfully defended against an upper-tier sword academy that they had gained such fame.

Some elders and disciples from the Royal Institute even came to watch.

The Sharp Edge Sword Academy was a prestigious upper-tier academy, and with their greater numbers, they were slightly stronger than the previous Azure Thunder Sword Academy.

“I am the captain of the Sharp Edge Sword Academy! I heard you’ve got some nerve, so I’ve come to teach you a lesson!”

A round-faced middle-aged man, his thin mustache trembling, snapped with disdain.

“There are only three of us, and we’re from a low-rank hall! For eleven of you to come 'teach us a lesson,' you must really think highly of us!” Tian Ruoleng’s tone was dripping with sarcasm.

“Are all top-tier sword academies as pathetic as your lot? That’s great—when it’s our turn to attack, we’re coming straight for the upper-tier halls!” Qin Yun sneered.

The eleven middle-aged men from the Sharp Edge Sword Academy erupted in laughter.

"It's your turn to attack? You mean next month? Way too cocky! Today, we'll wreck you!" The captain of the Sharp Edge squad bellowed with manic laughter.

"I really can't understand how a group of middle-aged men like you can bully three young people and still feel superior! If it were me, I wouldn’t dare spread this around—it’s just too shameful!"

"With egos that thick, you’ll surely be invincible when it’s your turn to defend!"

Yue Wulan’s mocking words set off a round of jeering laughs from some disciples of the Royal Institute!

Dao Fan also laughed loudly. "You’re all at least fifty years old—combined, that’s over five hundred years! Yet you have the nerve to puff yourselves up so shamelessly in front of three little devils!"

The Hall Master of the Blade Hall, Xiong Dao, snorted. "If only all Sword Halls were filled with such trash!"

Being ridiculed so openly by the Hall Master of the Blade Hall, the dozen or so middle-aged men from the Sharp Edge Sword Academy seethed with rage.

"Begin!" Xiong Dao shouted.

Earlier in the morning, Xiong Dao and Dao Fan had seen Qin Yun’s insane shock shield, which put their minds at ease.

The members of the Sharp Edge Sword Academy assumed that Tian Ruoleng and the other two, having been severely injured in the morning, would be pushovers.

Once the match started, the eleven white-robed middle-aged men went in for the kill!

Like a pack of wolves, they surrounded and charged, thrusting their Royal-grade spirit swords with brutal force.

They aimed for lethal spots—eyes, mouths, ears, crotches…

To inflict serious injuries, they held nothing back, fighting dirty, stabbing like mad!

Thanks to the dragon-tendon hide protecting them, Tian Ruoleng and Yue Wulan only needed to guard their heads and certain soft spots.

Eleven men stabbed from all directions—anyone else would have been turned into swiss cheese by now!

Tian Ruoleng’s body was pierced dozens of times, and though the sword tips stung like hell, none penetrated her flesh!

When the blades struck the resilient dragon-tendon hide, they just bounced right off. With an extra push of Dao Force, the tips could even be repelled.