Under normal circumstances, the stronger individuals would naturally seek higher rankings. As a result, comparatively weaker students were usually the ones defending the lower-ranked platforms.
Chen Chu’s display of absolute dominance, however, made it completely clear that he was not a part of the weaker category.
When the second challenger was cut down and removed from the stage, a sense of trepidation overcame the surrounding students. No one dared to step onto the stage in the aftermath.
On the platform, Chen Chu glanced around and inquired, "Is there no one willing to challenge?"
A male student carrying a gigantic sword resembling a door approached from a short distance. Seeing no one on the forty-ninth stage, he eagerly jumped up.
"Class One, Yuan Chenghuang."
"Class Three, Chen Chu."
With their class and names exchanged, Yuan Chenghuang pulled his massive sword, forty centimeters wide and over two meters long, off of his back.
"Brother, I cultivate the high-level Sky Palace Giant Sword. This sword art is vast, and relies on sheer strength to overpower opponents. Be cautious," Yuan Chenghuang warned.
The other party was unexpectedly straightforward, even mentioning the emphasis of his art first. Chen Chu paused slightly and then introduced himself. "I cultivate the low-level Dragon Elephant Art, which also focuses on strength. So my strength is relatively ‘vast’ as well."
"What... a low-level art?"
Yuan Chenghuang was initially surprised, then a relaxed smile appeared on his face. "Brother, I don't want to take advantage of you, but for the sake of the extra contribution points, I'll have to compete for your ranking."
Chen Chu's gaze turned peculiar. "No problem, losing would just mean my skills are not as good as yours."
"Let's begin, and may the best one win." As Yuan Chenghuang spoke, he pointed his long sword, and his entire demeanor suddenly changed. There was a faint but heavy sense of oppression, and a compelling aura enveloped the area around him.
This level of strength... Chen Chu narrowed his eyes, his gaze becoming slightly more serious. He sensed that Yuan Chenghuang might be no weaker than Li Meng.
Yuan Chenghuang stamped forcefully, causing the ground to tremble under the immense power. He immediately lunged at Chen Chu with both hands gripping his sword, slashing down with a single stroke.
Sparks flew in all directions as saber and sword collided. The impact sent ripples through the surrounding air, dispersing in invisible shockwaves.
"How is this possible?" Yuan Chenghuang looked slightly stunned as he stared at Chen Chu, who had blocked his sword strike. "Didn't you say you cultivate a low-level art?"
This time, Chen Chu was gripping his straight saber with both hands as a show of respect. After blocking Yuan Chenghuang's strike, he unleashed a violent surge of power through his arms, forcefully pushing the other boy away.
Following that, Chen Chu executed a diagonal slash with his saber...
Sparks scattered in all directions, and he followed up with another horizontal slash.
With both hands gripping the saber, he twisted his body and unleashed a full-force slash.
Under the onslaught of five consecutive ferocious slashes, Yuan Chenghuang was forced back to the edge of the stage. Chen Chu’s overwhelming power left him somewhat bewildered.
He spotted another slash, tearing through the air with a gust of wind. Unable to dodge in time, he instinctively placed his sword horizontally in front of him.
Under the immense force, Yuan Chenghuang was sent directly off the stage.
Chen Chu exhaled and sheathed his saber, standing tall. He looked down at the somewhat dazed Yuan Chenghuang and smiled. "It seems like the forty-ninth rank is still mine."
"I... Chen Chu, do you really cultivate a low-level art?" Yuan Chenghuang was still in shock.
Chen Chu nodded. "Yes."
Yuan Chenghuang's face instantly displayed a regretful expression. "Damn, if I had known, I wouldn't have challenged you. This is a big loss."
Originally, seeing that the students on the front-row stages were quite formidable, and he wasn’t completely sure if he could win against one of them, he had deliberately moved to the back to challenge. His thought was that the students defending the back stages would be relatively weaker, making it easier for him to win. After all, the rewards for the top fifty ranks were the same, and he didn't care about the specific ranking.
Little did he know that when he randomly chose a stage to challenge, he would encounter someone practicing a low-level art, but also possessing a freakish ability to crush him in absolute strength.
And since each person only had one chance to challenge, he could only watch from now on.
With this in mind, Yuan Chenghuang felt even more regretful. But there was no way around it. Losing meant losing. He could only turn around and leave.
After the students around the stage witnessed Chen Chu's strength, no one dared to step up. After a short wait, however, a girl came from the front to challenge.
She had a similar mindset to Yuan Chenghuang. Thinking that the stages at the back might offer an easy win, she excitedly jumped onto the 49th stage when she saw no one there.
And then... she was directly sent flying with three slashes from Chen Chu.
With the fourth match won, Chen Chu firmly secured the forty-ninth rank.
On the fiftieth stage next to him, a boy named Liu Feng, who had just defeated a challenger, was catching his breath. He looked at Chen Chu, who was ten meters away, and exclaimed, "Bro, you're really amazing."
Compared to him, who felt exhausted after every victory, the expert across from him had been like a breeze sweeping fallen leaves. With just a few slashes, he had overwhelmed all challengers.
Chen Chu smiled modestly and said, "Oh, not at all. It's just a stroke of luck."
Liu Feng rolled his eyes. "Don't be so modest. We all saw how strong you are just now. Why didn’t you go to the front?"
Chen Chu shook his head. "The students at the front are too strong. I don't consider myself their match. It's good enough for me to secure a rank at the back."
"...Suddenly, I don't feel like talking to you anymore," Liu Feng muttered. He put down his weapon, sat cross-legged, and began to recover his breath.
Similar to the first round, there was some time for rest and recovery after each battle.
Standing on the stage, Chen Chu looked into the distance. The other stages were still witnessing intense battles, and it looked like it would take another half an hour for the second round of matches to conclude.
Starting to get a little bored, Chen Chu silently analyzed the matches he’d gone through. Although he easily dealt with most of these opponents, their reactions and responses during the battles provided him with insights that he could learn from when viewed from another perspective.
What stood out was the reason why he could handle them so easily. His Strength attribute had improved over the past few days, and was now at 68 points.
Currently, his arm strength was approximately around 450 kilograms, which meant his pure strength was equivalent to nine times that of an average person, rather than just six times as he had predicted.
It seemed that the higher the four major attributes, the greater the overall growth, increasing exponentially rather than linearly.
In the spectator stands, Xia Youhui was completely dumbfounded, looking at Chen Chu on the forty-ninth stage in disbelief. "What's going on? How did Ah Chu suddenly become so formidable?"
In the first week, over a hundred ordinary geniuses had broken through in the entire school. Except for a few with bad luck, like him, the others had all entered the top two hundred.
But just now, Chen Chu had easily defeated four challengers with just a few slashes, showcasing a crushing strength that would easily be enough to secure a spot in the top ten.
Was this still the same Chen Chu he knew? The friend who had taken almost half a month just to barely build his foundation, and who cultivated two low-level arts?
Or had Chen Chu been holding back during their sparring session a few days ago?
Luo Fei smiled faintly and whispered, "It's because of true martial art compatibility. He mentioned that when he was cultivating the Dragon Elephant Art these past few days, his strength strangely doubled."
"...True martial art compatibility? No wonder," Xia Youhui suddenly realized. "I remember when Ah Chu was building his foundation, his compatibility with physique and strength-enhancing arts was already quite high. I didn't expect..."
Speaking of this, Xia Youhui paused, and then a look of regret appeared on his face.
The Dragon Elephant art was only a low-level art, with limited potential. Even if Chen Chu could quickly break through the First and Second Heavenly Realms due to high compatibility, the gap between him and those who cultivated high-level arts would still be significant.
This wasn't just about the upper limits of the arts, but also the amplification of the explosive moves.
At the First Heavenly Realm, true power had not been cultivated yet, and the arts were focused merely on the increase of one’s strength. Therefore, the gap between low-level and high-level arts wasn't very pronounced; at this stage, the amplification of low-level arts was around one time, while high-level arts were around 1.5 times.
However, upon reaching the Second Heavenly Realm and starting to cultivate true power, despite everyone’s foundational strength hovering at around four hundred kilograms, the amplification of low-level arts would be two times, generating over two thousand kilograms of impact force.
High-level arts, on the other hand, benefited more greatly from the cultivation of true power, and would get a baseline amplification of three times. With a high enough compatibility, some could amplify the user’s strength four or even five times over, easily unleashing over three or even four thousand kilograms of force in a single strike.
And this was still just the foundational strength, without taking into account the explosive moves that came with high-level arts. After the Second Heavenly Realm, the gap between the two sides would quickly widen.
On top of that, breaking through to the Second Heavenly Realm with high-level arts would increase the speed of refining transcendent energy and the amount of true power cultivated, among other advantages.
Thinking of all of this, Xia Youhui wore a regretful expression.
If Chen Chu had just had slightly better initial talent and could have built his foundation within a week, he would have been able to cultivate high-level arts by now...ugh!