Chapter 11680 — Yet on Closer Inspection, the Crowd Found There Was Still Some Change

The outermost layer of True Mandate seemed a little thinner than before—though only a little.

Di Liankong's face darkened.

Judging by this pace, he would have to strike at least fifty times to wear away a single layer of True Mandate—and Wei Zhao had fully ten layers of it!

In other words, even if Wei Zhao did nothing at all and simply stood there letting himself be struck, it would still take five hundred blows to break through every layer of his True Mandate.

The mere thought of that number was enough to drive a person to despair.

But in the very next instant, Di Liankong caught himself.

If True Mandate was this monstrously, absurdly formidable when it resided in Wei Zhao, then naturally it was no different when it resided in him!

He could not break Wei Zhao's True Mandate in a short while—but then, was Wei Zhao any better off?

At last the crowd understood Instructor Song's intent.

Plainly, this instructor was using precisely this method to make them recognize just how formidable True Mandate truly was!

In an instant, every heart among them burned hot.

It was no exaggeration to say that this single display of True Mandate concretization alone was already worth the price of admission.

Even if they were eliminated on the spot, their overall strength would surge by leaps and bounds thanks to True Mandate concretization—their combat power would at minimum double!

Such was the foundation of the Heavenly Dao Academy.

And precisely because of this, the crowd grew all the more determined to remain in the academy.

True Mandate concretization was merely the entry-level technique of the Heavenly Dao Academy—and only the elementary form of it at that. There were surely yet deeper and mightier methods to follow.

If they could successfully enter the academy, the prospect alone set their hearts surging.

Instructor Song remarked idly, "Keep fighting."

Di Liankong steeled himself, snapped his fingers, and launched another assault on Wei Zhao.

The result was exactly as before.

The True Mandate seemed to have been worn down a little, yet also seemed not to have been worn down at all. It could only be called "as if worn."

As for Wei Zhao, he seemed to have gone dumb, letting Di Liankong attack one-sidedly without the slightest sign of striking back.

"What's he doing? Don't tell me his strength is so poor he can't even keep up with Di Liankong's rhythm of attack and defense?"

The crowd buzzed with discussion.

It was not an impossibility.

Though all of them were hand-picked candidates, unquestionably the top-tier overlords of their respective worlds, there were still gaps between overlords.

The overlord of some small backwater and the overlord of some great domain could well differ as vastly as heaven and earth.

Such cases had hardly been rare in the Heavenly Dao Academy's past trial trainings.

That Wei Zhao had been stunned senseless by Di Liankong was entirely possible.

Even Di Liankong himself thought so.

Until, without the slightest warning, Wei Zhao suddenly hurled out a punch—and Di Liankong, caught utterly off guard, was sent flying backward.

The whole arena erupted in an uproar.

Glancing at Di Liankong's condition, Instructor Song clicked his tongue slightly. "A real beast, all right."

At this moment, not a single one of Di Liankong's five layers of True Mandate had been knocked away—after all, True Mandate was True Mandate on both sides, with no essential difference.

Had Wei Zhao been able to punch away a whole layer of True Mandate with a single blow, that would truly have been a ghost sight.

But the problem was this: Wei Zhao had indeed not knocked away a full layer of Di Liankong's True Mandate outright, yet the outermost layer had been shaved thin by more than twenty percent in one go.

At this rate, five punches from Wei Zhao would suffice to knock away an entire layer of True Mandate!

The paltry results Di Liankong had accumulated could not be mentioned in the same breath at all.

"How is that possible?"

The same question burst at once from the mouths of both Di Liankong and Di Xuanwang.

Di Xuanwang instinctively turned to Shi Wushuang. "Don't tell me you gave him some private tutoring in advance?"

By the rules, when an elector came into contact with a candidate, the elector could only disclose some basic common-sense information. The moment cultivation systems were involved, it was a grave violation.

It was not that the Heavenly Dao Academy was hoarding its treasures out of some miserly pride. The core reason was that such a thing would gravely undermine the fairness of the trial selection.

After all, the Academy's core purpose was to single out the most promising newcomers—not to admit those who had come in through the back door on connections.

Shi Wushuang said gravely, "Does Senior Brother Di mean that seriously? If you do, I will request the Academy's intervention to investigate right now. But when that time comes, I hope you can bear the consequences of slandering a fellow disciple."

Meaningful gazes immediately converged on the pair.

Di Xuanwang fell silent at once.

He had only been speaking offhandedly; to truly escalate the matter was more than he dared do.

After all, he himself did not believe Shi Wushuang would be so foolish as to leave such an obvious handle for others to grasp.

But if all of this truly had been comprehended by Wei Zhao himself in such a short time, then the comprehension and potential this man possessed were genuinely a little terrifying.

At the trial grounds.

Instructor Song explained in turn, "True Mandate possesses extremely strong resistance to ordinary attacks. To pierce through True Mandate relying solely on the power of pure rules is exceedingly difficult. The only solution is power of the same root and origin—power from within your own bodies."

The crowd's eyes lit up, and their spirits rose as one.

Someone immediately asked, "Could it be that Wei Zhao's punch just now drew on some kind of power from within his body?"

But then the crowd exchanged glances. "Do we really have such power in our bodies?"

This inner power was plainly very different from anything in conventional understanding.

Instructor Song said casually, "To put it simply, your bodies are not merely a lump of flesh—they are a vast cosmos. The power of a cosmos is in theory infinite; it is simply that you do not know how to draw on it."

"Of course, that is only an analogy. At your present level, relying entirely on inward excavation is unrealistic."

"You can only cultivate both within and without."

The crowd was at a loss.

Instructor Song went on, "What you must do next is still to mobilize the power of rules—but you must find the corresponding power within your bodies. It will be the most readily available force multiplier you have."

Everyone present was a genius of exceedingly high comprehension. With the matter pointed out to this extent, though they could not yet fully grasp it, they had all begun to ponder and catch a glimmer of understanding.

Instructor Song then lazily sat back down on the ground and looked at Wei Zhao and Di Liankong. "Carry on, you two."

Di Liankong: "..."

He was truly in the mood to curse aloud. Wei Zhao's performance just now plainly showed that the man had already grasped a measure of the essence—but he himself had not.

Five layers of True Mandate against ten layers of True Mandate was already a massive disadvantage.

And now their destructive power was not even on the same level. If this continued, would he not be beaten to death by Wei Zhao?

Yet Di Liankong did not dare say no.

He knew very well that this was Instructor Song's punishment for him.

His little maneuvers earlier—though the man had not stopped them, he had still seen them perfectly clearly.

Had Wei Zhao been eliminated because of it, the man would likely have turned a blind eye. After all, when all is said and done, being weak is the original sin.