"Nine Elements Sect, Han Nuo, I ask for your guidance."
After taking a deep breath, Han Nuo, a disciple of the sect master, stepped into the arena.
Looking at him, Shi Yu couldn’t help trembling inside, and he thought of the teachings his master had imparted over the past few days.
"Little Shitou, your martial arts realm is still too lowly, so for now I won’t discuss with you high-level insights like understanding the Heavenly Dao or the Mixed Element Eight Diagrams. You should know, at your level, mentioning things like Mixed Element Eight Diagrams, geomancy of earth, wind, and water, or the six energies of heaven and earth, including the Yin Yang Five Elements, is all nonsense!"
"Martial artists at a low level should have the awakening of a low-level martial artist. For you, at this stage, you only need to look at the strength of inner strength and the quickness of movements, or even whether one has a divine weapon in hand, to decide the victory of a martial arts competition..."
"Even, if one can take a beating a little better and outlast others, that too is an advantage."
At this moment, in Shi Yu’s heart, the opposing Han Nuo possessed strong inner strength, and as a disciple of the Nine Elements Sect Master, he practiced the profound cultivation techniques of the Nine Elements Sect. No matter how mediocre, it was surely better than any secret manual from the Shanyao Gang.
Fortunately, these past few days, his master had revised his Medicine Sand Palm Technique, making it more refined; perhaps there was still a fighting chance.
As for inner strength, experience in facing opponents, and other aspects... he truly was inferior. To win, he must catch them off guard, seize the initiative, and win by surprise!
With this thought, Shi Yu made up his mind and let out a furious roar, "Ha!"
He misstepped, and his Medicine Sand Palm was fully executed!
Like a silver vase shattering and water splashing, or like cavalry bursting forth, weapons clanging!
Shi Yu released both palms, no longer caring about the depletion of inner strength, nor life or death, he even forgot that he was in a martial contest, only remembering to gather all his inner strength into his palms and strike out wildly.
The opposing Han Nuo, seeing such an attack, was immediately startled.
Or perhaps, he, the martial artist, had calculated from the start how to use complex maneuvers to whittle down his opponent’s physical and inner strength, to easily defeat him with even more sophisticated techniques, yet he hadn’t expected this move at all.
Shi Yu put on a desperate stance right from the start, wanting to overpower him with sheer force!
At this moment, one miscalculation led to another, and Han Nuo could only hastily draw circles with his hands to defend forward.
Four palms, carrying unrivaled power, met in mid-air.
There was a loud bang, and a figure was sent flying.
It wasn’t Shi Yu—it was Han Nuo!
"Senior brother... how could this be?"
Little Zi ran over to help him up, her face filled with disbelief. Had the Nine Elements Sect Master disciple really been defeated just like that?
Even Shi Yu stood in place, baffled and incredulous, staring at his own palms.
Not just him, even the others from the Shanyao Gang were stunned.
Wei Baizhu looked at Zhong Shenxiu in amazement, almost wanting to grab his collar and ask if he had gotten his hands on some spirit-enhancing Spirit Pills outside and given them to Little Shitou, questioning how wasteful that was! Wouldn’t it be better to honor him as an elder?
Zhong Shenxiu just laughed heartily.
The sudden increase in Shi Yu’s inner strength was indeed somewhat related to him, but not due to Spirit Pills; it was the power of the Yin Yang Five Elements.
During this training period, he had constantly used various methods to boost the Yin Yang and Five Elements energy within Shi Yu’s body.
This practice was actually quite dangerous, as one could easily become severely injured, with symptoms worse than those caused by the Liangyi Huaji Hand and the Five Elements Thief Palm strikes.
However, Little Shitou, being fearless due to his ignorance, managed to endure.
In secret, Zhong Shenxiu would have preferred to use the easy and convenient method of small Gu tricks. If Shi Yu had allowed him to perform the initiation, his inner strength by now could likely have matched those at the tail end of the Heavenly List.
Of course, for Shi Yu at this stage, it was already quite an achievement.
At the very least, placed in Jianghu, he could rise above many.
Han Nuo’s voice of defeat only came at this time.
He spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, his facial expression a mix of shock and bewilderment, followed immediately by admiration, "The cultivation technique of the Yin Yang Hand is remarkable; I lost fairly."
Zhong Shenxiu nodded in satisfaction, but suddenly seemed to think of something and asked, "What did you say? Yin Yang Hand?"
"Could it be that Hero Xun is not aware?"
Han Nuo explained, "In the latest ranking of the Heavenly List of Martial Artists, you have been moved up to the fifth position... and given the new title ’Yin Yang Hand’!"
It wasn’t the eighth position anymore; he had advanced three ranks due to his outstanding combat achievements.
After all, a young swordsman who could escape from the hands of a top expert from the Earth List and felt inferior to Hidden Dragon must certainly have extraordinary martial arts skills.
The reason he wasn’t first was that Li Qinghe merely felt inferior and had not actually crossed hands with him.
For these rankings, Zhong Shenxiu wasn’t too concerned; after all, being anything but first didn’t mean much to him.
What he cared about was the nickname, "Yin Yang Hand? That sounds terrible... Why not simply call it ’Yin Yang Person’? ... Even something like ’Dual Polarity Hand’ or ’Sky Covering Hand’ would sound better than ’Yin Yang Hand’!"
Han Nuo had no idea what he was silently complaining about, and continued to drone on, "The Heavenly List says that Hero Xun started with the Five Elements and then switched to the Yin Yang Palm Technique, harmonizing with the Heavenly Dao above and nature below, with prospects of becoming a grandmaster...the evaluation is extremely high."
The more Zhong Shenxiu listened, the more he felt something was amiss.
’This label of Yin Yang Hand was originally intended just to deceive the Black Widow; has it now been released by the authorities because the Divine Fortune Teller believes that the Five Poison Sect won’t just let things be?’
He had initially thought that Hua Miao had taken a fancy to him and wanted to harvest a bit of that ’something’ to replenish.
Now, it looked wrong.
It was likely not just Hua Miao who had designs on him, but the entire will of the Five Poison Sect.
This made Zhong Shenxiu feel a greater sense of urgency.
"Alright, you’ve come all this way, and I’ve seen your martial arts skills, so let me just give a few comments..."
He temporarily suppressed his thoughts and began to evaluate the martial skills of Han Nuo and Little Zi, both of whom started out skeptic but gradually became engrossed, almost forgetting the passage of time.
When it ended, they were extremely grateful, thanking him profusely before finally taking their leave from the gate of the Shanyao Gang.
’How much longer can these peaceful days last?’
Watching their retreating figures, Zhong Shenxiu murmured to himself.
"Master... what are you thinking about?"
Having been specially trained by Zhong Shenxiu for some days, he felt he held some respect in his presence.
Certainly, better than Lu Yang, who didn’t even dare to meet him!
"Nothing much, just that the New Year is approaching fast..."
Zhong Shenxiu looked at the snow accumulated in the corner of the courtyard, sighing.
If no other surprises occurred, his original intention was to stay within the Shanyao Gang, quietly practicing his martial skills to enhance his strength.
He wanted to remain until he broke through to the divine phase and then challenge the Heavenly List Martial Artists.
But now, that seemed somewhat wishful.
"But regardless, we must first get past the New Year... As for the Five Poison Sect, we can only block the incoming soldiers and cover the earth with floodwaters..."
Zhong Shenxiu sighed inwardly, joining in with the festive spirits of the other members of the Shanyao Gang, appearing indeed joyful...