Chapter 256 – The Final Competition Begins … … … “Are you not convinced by what I’m saying?” Fang Qi faintly smiled as he noticed Lin Ming’s somewhat disinterested expression. “It’s already a fantastic result for a disciple of the 36 countries to have the qualifications to reach the top 10 ranks in their first Total Faction Martial Meeting. Although your natural talent is shocking, it’s a pity that your cultivation is too low.” Fang Qi waggled his fingers as he shook his head, “Wait until your strength reaches the middle Pulse Condensation period and maintain your ability to fight above your cultivation. If you can do so, then you will have the qualifications that make you worthy to be my match. But as for some other people, that might not be enough!” Lin Ming was stunned. The core disciples of the Seven Profound Valleys were just too arrogant. Fang Qi was naturally a proud person, but from his words it seemed that even he admitted he was inferior to some others. This ‘other people’ that he mentioned could only be extremely abnormal. Fang Qi didn’t intend to speak anymore, and he jumped onstage, stretching out his fingers as he faced Jing Chanyu. “This match will be decided in five breaths of time!” Lin Ming had used 15 breaths of time in order to defeat Jing Chanyu; Fang Qi would settle this in five, which was one third of Lin Ming’s time. This was to deliberately show those young geniuses of the Seven Profound Valleys that the martial artists from the 36 countries were inferior to them. “Fang Qi, you can do it!” “Destroy her in one second, destroy her!” As Fang Qi’s voice fell, the audience burst into cheers. This was the home of the Seven Profound Valleys, and there were also many Array Faction disciples in the audience, and they had a good impression of their faction’s direct disciple, Fang Qi. Naturally, he also had an extremely high popularity. In particular, there were many people that had lost a great deal of money because of Lin Ming and Jing Chanyu, and they wanted to vent their feelings. At this time, Jing Chanyu was using a new veil. She didn’t have any reaction, even seeing the overwhelming one-sided support towards her opponent. She had the same absolute defense that surrounded her when she fought Lin Ming, except this time it was much thicker. She intended to thoroughly frustrate Fang Qi for looking down on her so much. She knew that she was inferior to Fang Qi, but she wouldn’t let him easily end this match in five breaths of time. “Match, begin!” As the referee announced the beginning of the match, Fang Qi’s ten fingers quickly linked together at a terrifying speed as he formed golden symbol after golden symbol. The speed at which he formed his seals was a blur, and in just a breath of time, 100 symbols flew out of Fang Qi’s hand and soared towards Jing Chanyu. In the second breath of time, all of these golden symbols completely surrounded Jing Chanyu. In the midst of this dangerous energy, Jing Chanyu could only grit her teeth and supplement the shield that was guarding her with everything she had. She was a martial artist of the 36 countries. Facing a disciple of the Seven Profound Valleys who looked down on her with nothing but contempt, she could only suppress the anger in her heart. At this time, Jing Chanyu only had one thought on her mind, and that was to never let Fang Qi easily win. She would fight for the honor of the 36 countries! “Golden Octagon Lock!” Fang Qi clasped his hands together, and those hundreds of golden symbols that surrounded Jing Chanyu congealed together into eight formation arrays that struck Jing Chanyu’s protection! Kacha! That protective eggshell was tightened by an invisible chain, severely distorting! Jing Chanyu paled, and true essence surged within her body. In that split second, her protection had almost burst open! “Mm?” Fang Qi lightly sneered. It seemed that his opponent’s protective barrier had exceeded his imagination. “Heaven and Earth Sword Formation!” Fang Qi thrust out his hand! 36 blades of light flew out from his body and landed near Jing Chanyu. The sword light seemed to undulate, as if the air itself was being cut apart by the swords. The sharp sword energy pierced Jing Chanyu’s protective defense! Chi chi chi chi chi chi! In that moment, the 36 blades of light had punctured Jing Chanyu’s protection like a porcupine! It had only been three breaths of time! Jing Chanyu clenched her teeth; she didn’t think of attack, everything she had was placed into her defense. She galvanized the true essence within her body to the extreme! Her determination would not waver, she would bet everything she had to last past the fifth breath! The protective eggshell severely deformed, and the sword energy seemed to slow down. Still, in the blink of an eye, Jing Chanyu had already been pressed to her limit. When Zi Ling had used the 36 light blades to strike her, her move had been melted away by Jing Chanyu’s protection. But now, it was the opposite! Fang Qi’s sword energy was too strong, in just a breath of time his swords had pierced through her protection! Pah pah pah! Although the protective eggshell shield hadn’t broken, the 36 light blades had already pierced through, pointing at Jing Chanyu from all directions. With just a thought from Fang Qi, Jing Chanyu would be cut to pieces! “Fang Qi, victory!” With the referee’s announcement, just five breaths of time had passed. “Only five breaths!” “Haha, he truly is the direct disciple of the Array Faction. Senior-apprentice Brother Fang is too amazing!” The audience resounded with thunderous cheers, especially from those disciples of the array faction. Many of the female disciples of the Seven Profound Valleys even dropped their modesty and let out clear screams. Obviously, they had long held a liking towards Fang Qi. In fact, of the Seven Profound Valleys’ seven direct disciples, except for the strange and weird Puppet Faction direct disciple, all the other six direct disciples were greatly welcomed and popular among girls. Even Ouyang Ming of the Acacia Faction who was known as a player was no different. There were many girls that dreamed of one day being able to marry them; even being a concubine would be nice, as that would greatly increase the resources they would have. Jing Changyu removed her protective shield and walked down the stage. Under the barrage of endless boos from the enemy audience, her sense of desolation and disorientation was indescribable. As a proud woman who had grown up under the halo of being a heavenly genius, she was representing the 36 countries on behalf of their honor. And yet, the outcome of this match was… the opponent had said he would end the match in five breaths, and he really had ended it in five breaths. No matter how hard she had tried, she was unable to change this. She hadn’t even been able to force him to use his full strength, was the difference in their power truly so great? As she inadvertently looked up, she saw Lin Ming standing on the side, his hands folded behind his back. His expression was someone plain and casual. Lin Ming… After seeing Fang Qi’s formidable strength with his own eyes, how could he maintain such a calm expression? What sort of cards did he have in his hands? Would he be able to defeat Fang Qi? Jing Chanyu couldn’t believe that was possible. Maybe Lin Ming was only a person who was unwilling to admit defeat. He might reach the top, but if he did, he would inevitably clash with the direct disciples of the Seven Profound Valleys! “Are you okay?” Lin Ming could imagine what Jing Chanyu was feeling at this time. She had desperately gone all out, and yet she had still suffered so miserably. As a proud woman of Grace Venerate Nation, the damage to Jing Chanyu’s self-esteem could be imagined. Jing Chanyu stubbornly nodded her head. Lin Ming smiled and turned to leave. He only came to express his polite condolences to someone who was once his opponent. At this moment, Jing Chanyu suddenly said, “Lin Ming!” “Mm? What’s the matter?” Lin Ming turned his head. To his surprise, he could hear that Jing Chanyu sounded somewhat excited. Jing Chanyu hesitated, nipped her red lips and asked, “You… can you win?” Lin Ming was slightly stunned. Suddenly, he brilliantly smiled and nodded, “I can!” He hadn’t even asked who he needed to win against. “I meant to ask if you could defeat Fang Qi.” “It’s all the same!” Jing Chanyu was shocked speechless. Even she didn’t expect such an absurd dialogue between them. If they were heard by the disciples of the Seven Profound Valleys, they would probably laugh until they were rolling on the ground. She had asked if Lin Ming could win, not if he could defeat Fang Qi. Yet Lin Ming hadn’t even asked any questions. Even after she pointed out Fang Qi, his reply had still been – “It’s all the same!” This answer was filled with a complete and absolute confidence. It implied that Fang Qi was merely one of the opponents that he would defeat, and that he would be ‘first’! What did Lin Ming want to do? Did he not want to struggle for the top five, but the top three? Thinking this, Jing Chanyu gasped. She didn’t know why, but she had a gut instinct that trusted in Lin Ming. Perhaps it was because of his confidence, or maybe it was because of Jing Chanyu’s own sentinel emotions, but regardless of whatever the reason was, Lin Ming was now the only contestant of the 36 countries who remained undefeated. Grace Venerate Nation could only come so far, Jing Chanyu’s older brother had also lost. Jing Chanyu guessed that she and her twin would end up in the final rankings between 20 and 40. The only one that could go on to represent the 36 countries was one person, Lin Ming! “Lin Ming, you have to win!” Jing Chanyu slowly said, stressing every syllable. “Mm. At the very least, I will defeat Fang Qi.” Lin Ming wasn’t blindly arrogant, rampant, or stupid. If even someone as proud as Fang Qi admitted that the other seven direct disciples were superior to him, that meant that the disparity between them was very big. Facing opponents like them, he feared that his matches would not be so easy! After he parted ways with Jing Chanyu, it was already time for lunch. Now that every other group stage match had been basically settled, the only ones to enter into the first tier from the 36 countries were Jing Chanyu and Lin Ming. Jing Chanyu’s older brother Jing Chanshi was off by one point, and barely missed making the first tier. As for Ling Sen, in his eight matches he had won two and lost six. He finally entered into the third tier. Besides Ling Sen, Huoluo Nation’s Wang Mu and Easter Sun Country’s Zhao Yang also entered the third tier. Thus, out of all the disciples of the 36 countries, six of them were able to enter into the top 100 rankings of the Total Faction Martial Meeting. Of those, Sky Fortune Kingdom had two disciples, and Lin Ming was ranked first among the 36 countries. This was an event that had never shown up in the history of Sky Fortune Kingdom. Qin Xingxuan was also thrilled to receive 120 true essence stones as a reward. She had bet 20 true essence stones on Lin Ming to win when his compensation rate had been 1:6. With Lin Ming’s victory, she had gained a net total of 100. 100 true essence stones was equal to 100,000 gold taels! This was a great sum of money even to someone like Qin Xingxuan. ………………………. The second round of the group matches had finished by the afternoon. At that time, all the contestants were able to rest for the night. On the next day, the final tournament would begin! The first tier had 30 people, of which 20 were still undefeated. Of these 20 people, seven of them were direct disciples. Before the final showdown, these seven disciples wouldn’t normally meet in a match. Besides the direct disciples, there were three or four top core disciples of the Seven Factions. These individuals were only inferior to the direct disciples. For instance, Jiang Lanjian was one of them. There were many disciples of the Seven Profound Valleys that had already subconsciously placed Jiang Lanjian as a master equal to the seven direct disciples. Of the remaining people, several of them were great figures within their factions. As long as they had enough resources, they were hopeful in breaking through to the Xiantian realm! There were seven direct disciples, three to four top core disciples, and several other influential core disciples. Altogether, this was 18 people in total. The 19th person was Zhang Yanzhao. He came from the Zhang Family, one of the 16 martial cultivation families. The Zhang Family had a staggering history that reached back 3000 years; it was said that the first Head of the Zhang Family who created his family foundation with his own hands was a Revolving Core master! But regardless of their past, the Zhang Family had greatly declined since their heydays. Still, they maintained their deep heritage and legacy. The Zhang Family had two Xiantian realm masters that led their family, even the Seven Profound Valleys had to give some respect to the Zhang Family.