The crowd's gaze immediately turned towards the Combat Power Ranking Stele. There, Zhao Letian had chosen to challenge Zhao Zihao, ranked fourth, who was also the younger son of Second Master Zhao Jianping.
"Zhao Zihao, Primordial Martial Eighth Realm fully accomplished!"
"Has Zhao Letian lost his mind? A rank-last challenging the fourth?"
"Does he still think he's the prodigy of the Zhao Family from before?"
The crowd discussed incredulously.
Zhao Letian did not just refrain from giving up the challenge, but he even directly challenged the fourth-ranked, which was totally unexpected.
At this moment, whether it was the people on the chairman's stage, the fourth Lord Liu and second Lord Sun who came to seek justice, or Zhao Lingshan and others, all were greatly surprised and secretly speculated whether Zhao Letian really possessed such strength, or was simply bluffing.
"Yesterday when Tian returned, he indeed only had the cultivation of Primordial Martial Sixth Realm. Even if he painstakingly broke through to the Primordial Martial Seventh Realm overnight, challenging a person at the fully accomplished Primordial Martial Eighth Realm is still too risky," Zhao Yixin thought worriedly as she watched her son walking straight to the arena.
"Aren't you coming up?" Standing on the bluestone stage that spanned dozens of meters, Zhao Letian, with his hands clasped behind his back, his white robe fluttering in the wind, looked calmly at Zhao Zihao below who was full of astonishment.
"You, you want to challenge me?" Zhao Zihao, unable to believe that Zhao Letian, now considered a cripple, dared challenge him, his face gloomy as if greatly insulted, spoke coldly.
"You can see for yourself on the Combat Power Ranking Stele. You should be very clear about the basic rules of the family's mid-year assessment," Zhao Letian said nonchalantly.
Zhao Zihao instinctively turned to look, only to see his name lit up especially bright and huge because of Zhao Letian's Primordial Energy. According to the assessment rules, this means he had become the challenged party; he must either respond to the challenge or give up. Giving up would mean falling to the last rank, and the same would occur if defeated.
Such rules seemed unfair, but the high levels of the Zhao Family were very clear that in the Martial Arts World, there was never absolute fairness. Their goal was only to use the assessment as an opportunity to encourage the juniors to practice diligently. Whether the assessment rules were fair didn't matter in achieving this goal.
This logic was also clear to everyone present, and thus no one had any objections to the assessment rules.
"Still hesitating? If you're scared to respond, you might as well give up now." Seeing Zhao Zihao still not recovered from the shock, Zhao Letian was already growing impatient.
"Have me give up? You trash, dare to say I should quit?" Zhao Zihao was more incredulous than ever, his face showing both shock and anger, looking up at Zhao Letian on the platform, his eyes filled with fury, "Fine! Very well! Initially, I had no intention like the others to humiliate you during the assessment, but since you're courting death, don't blame me for being ruthless!"
"Whoosh!"
As he finished speaking, Zhao Zihao leaped, suddenly shooting up from the crowd onto the center of the Martial Arts Arena, coldly staring at the calm Zhao Letian opposite him, spoke indifferently, "Don't think that just because you lucked out defeating Zhao Kang, you're qualified to challenge me. You should know how big the gap between Zhao Kang and me is. Tell me, how do you want to die?"
"You don't have the ability to decide my life or death," said Zhao Letian nonchalantly, "I don't have time to chitchat with you. Make your move."
At this, the crowd's excitement suddenly surged as they really wanted to know why Zhao Letian was so confident. Did he truly have strong backing or was he just putting on airs, enduring the agony just to save face? The answer to this mystery would likely be revealed soon.
"Before we start fighting, I must emphasize again, the mid-year assessment is just a means for the family to encourage diligent practice. Therefore, the fight should stop when a point is made; you must not deliberately endanger each other's lives," the presiding Elder looked deeply at Zhao Letian, surprised by his courage to challenge Zhao Zihao and worried he might get beaten to death, hence he specifically emphasized the importance of self-control.
"I know, as family brothers, I naturally won't intend to take his life, but, in a fight, accidents can happen, and I can't guarantee no mishaps will occur during the fight," Zhao Zihao assumed the Elder's admonition was directed at him, and a cruel sneer appeared on his lips. In his view, Zhao Letian challenging him was an insult, and he would not be merciful in the fight. Whether Zhao Letian could survive this fight without dying was up to his own luck.
"Just be careful as much as you can. If any accident really happens, I will intervene in time," said the presiding Elder, frowning. He also knew that Zhao Zihao was unlikely to let Zhao Letian off easily, but there was nothing he could do about it, so he simply turned around and stepped down from the platform.
"Since we're about to fight, let me see how much cultivation you trash still have," the moment the presiding Elder left, Zhao Zihao immediately generated immense fluctuations of Primordial Energy from Primordial Martial Eighth Realm, creating an invisible wave, like raging tide waves, forcefully impacting Zhao Letian, clearly intending to overpower him in morale first.
"Enough talk, let's fight," Zhao Letian frowned, showing impatience, then with a flash, he charged towards Zhao Zihao with a punch.
"Hehe, your movement technique is not slow, but the Primordial Energy fluctuation in your punch seems to be only at the Primordial Martial Seventh Realm. With such a trivial level of cultivation, you dare challenge me? You really don't think much of me, Zhao Zihao!" Seeing the level of cultivation Zhao Letian displayed, Zhao Zihao laughed angrily, raising his fist wrapped in powerful Primordial Energy Waves of Primordial Martial Eighth Realm, intending to meet Zhao Letian head-on. He wanted to teach Zhao Letian a lesson that if he had become trash, he should learn to keep a low profile and not provoke him.
"A First Rank Force!"
Unexpectedly, just as their fists were about to collide, Zhao Letian suddenly shouted, and immediately a layer of fine Black Scale Armor appeared on his fist, beast-like, seemingly containing terrifying Brute Force.
"Boom!"
As a result, when the fists collided, a horrifying wave of energy suddenly spread out, both men recoiled, ending in a draw, neither gaining the upper hand.