Chapter 11684 — This Time, They Saw a Hint of Urgency in the Sovereign of Song

Looking at the ten layers of True Mandate standing firm as Mount Tai upon him, not to mention Liu Han, the man himself, even the rest of the crowd could not help but feel a stab of despair.

Such a perfect opportunity, by any reckoning it should have landed—and yet this was the outcome. Whoever it had been on the receiving end, their heart would have gone cold!

Liu Han narrowed his eyes and once more opened the way with bone swords, going all out.

This time, the crowd finally witnessed the man's true strength.

Soon, no one made another sound.

With explosive offensive power like his, every last person present—to say nothing of standing against him head-on—would likely find few among them confident of lasting even ten exchanges.

And yet a savage of this caliber had been toyed with from first to last in single combat by the Sovereign of Song—toyed with in the purest, most one-sided fashion.

Even when Liu Han's tempo of attack was wound to the very limit, the Sovereign of Song still handled it as though at play, casually and without effort.

At this rate, forget a single day—even a whole year of fighting, and the Sovereign of Song likely would not suffer so much as a scraped patch of skin, let alone lose a layer of True Mandate.

"How do we even deal with this?"

The crowd exchanged glances.

But just as they concluded that Liu Han had exhausted every trick and had nothing left, he suddenly closed the distance once more.

The next second, an entire skeleton wrenched itself free from his body and became a volley of bone bombs, all of them screaming toward the Sovereign of Song.

It came utterly without warning—and crucially, there were enough bone bombs, spread wide enough, an all-out, all-directions assault the Sovereign of Song had no way to evade.

Fearing they might be caught in it, the crowd hurriedly pulled back in unison.

When the dust and smoke cleared and they saw the Sovereign of Song still standing where he had been, perfectly at ease, their hearts went cold all over again.

But soon, someone caught on.

"Nine layers of True Mandate! He knocked one off!"

All at once, the way everyone looked at Liu Han changed. It meant he had been the first to pass the second round of the trial selection!

Still, on reflection, given that terrifying display just now, it was hardly unreasonable that the Sovereign of Song should have lost a layer of True Mandate.

In fact, that he had lost only a single layer already struck the crowd as a little absurd.

Had it been anyone else, that one blow would have cost at least two layers, if not more!

Only Wei Zhao's gaze carried a trace of amusement.

The others could not see clearly, but with the World Will as his cheat of a vantage point, he had seen it plain from beginning to end.

The Sovereign of Song had gone easy.

Granted, Liu Han's final bone-bomb volley had truly been ferocious, but if the Sovereign of Song had meant to dodge it, he still had had his chance.

Even had he not dodged, Wei Zhao seriously suspected he could have taken it head-on without spending a single layer of True Mandate. He simply had not done so.

When all was said and done, this was only a trial selection; as the instructor, the Sovereign of Song was bound to go easy.

For the crowd, the key question was how far this instructor would actually go.

Though the others could not see as clearly as Wei Zhao, one thing they had grasped: the Sovereign of Song only dodged; he never struck back.

That meant they could attack with full force, boldly and without worry, with no fear of anything behind them.

For the crowd, this was undoubtedly a tremendous boon.

Di Liankong at once gathered the others, raised a barrier of divine sense, and began to deliberate.

Elsewhere, Liu Han walked over, his face somewhat ashen.

His ability let his bones regenerate at will; even if he flung out his entire skeleton, growing it back was a matter of seconds.

Still, over the short term it did sap a fair bit of vitality.

As he passed Wei Zhao, Liu Han suddenly halted his steps. "Aren't you going up?"

Wei Zhao smiled. "In a moment."

With that, he threw a glance at Ye Yinxiao beside him and strode toward the Sovereign of Song.

Seeing this, Di Liankong and the others all lit up at once.

Liu Han had already tested the waters for them; now let Wei Zhao test them again, and by then the intelligence they needed would be complete—they could simply sit back and reap the benefits.

Di Liankong chuckled low. "Brother Lin, it seems you're letting us take advantage."

Wei Zhao, without turning his head, said mildly, "It may not be an advantage."

The crowd blinked, but did not take it to heart.

In the present situation, who was taking advantage and who was at a disadvantage was plain at a glance—no amount of stubborn talk could make up for it.

Reaching the Sovereign of Song, Wei Zhao cupped his hands in salute.

Beneath the painted mask, the Sovereign of Song wore an amused expression. "Three terms as instructor, and I've never yet tested the mettle of ten layers of True Mandate. Don't disappoint me."

Wei Zhao's mouth curved. "I'll do my best."

And with that, he launched straight into a lunge strike.

The tempo of his attack went from zero to full in an instant—so vast and sudden a leap that Di Liankong and the others all felt their eyelids jump in unison.

Yet the Sovereign of Song still turned aside and evaded it with ease.

Wei Zhao flowed into a spinning elbow.

At this level, such a martial technique was nothing if not plain, but it stood out for being clean and efficient; that ferocious, ruthless momentum set even onlookers like Di Liankong's hearts pounding.

Not only them—Liu Han, off to the side, was frowning to himself as well.

In a single exchange, Wei Zhao had not even revealed the trump card of his ability, and already he had brought Liu Han no small pressure.

And this was merely the tip of the iceberg of Wei Zhao's full strength.

Still, the spinning elbow was easily evaded by the Sovereign of Song.

What followed was a string of Wei Zhao's vicious, close-quarters strikes, and watching them set the hearts of not only those present but even the top brass at the academic headquarters pounding.

In absolute strength, they naturally stood above Wei Zhao.

But if they were made to suppress their strength to the corresponding level, as the Sovereign of Song had, most of them likely could not have taken it!

Xiao Tiao observed the scene with great interest and turned to Shi Wushuang. "Truly a fine prospect."

Shi Wushuang's heart leaped with joy.

Not only did his own mentor, Chu Yunfan, think highly of Wei Zhao—now even Xiao Tiao, widely acknowledged as having the most boundless future, thought highly of him as well. That was proof enough that his judgment had not been wrong.

Di Xuanwang put in, darkly, "Isn't it a bit early to be drawing conclusions? What if he can't even get through the second round? Wouldn't that be a joke?"

Shi Wushuang, far from taking offense, laughed instead. "Why does Senior Brother Di's tone sound a little sour?"

Di Xuanwang snorted. "Him? Worthy?"

Shi Wushuang paid it no mind.

Compared with Di Xuanwang's sneering, Xiao Tiao's assessment plainly carried more weight. Whatever Di Xuanwang said now would mean nothing beyond making his own pettiness plain.

The crowd watched, dumbstruck.

The most obvious sign was this: the Sovereign of Song had begun raising his hands to block.