Chapter 3729 — Eyes of Awe
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
But when it came down to it, even if the Bitter Senior Brother had sensed something was wrong, it was already too late—for the examiner, with a savage grin, had already struck Wei Zhao with a killing palm blow far beyond the peak of the early Foundation Establishment stage.
"Rest easy and die, you posturing little upstart."
Xu Lingchong, Meng Jueming, and the rest of their group all wore smug smiles at once. This newcomer Wei Zhao, who had come up from the mortal world, had pulled off one miraculous feat after another, but in the end his overreaching ambition could only carry him this far.
Though they were his opponents, even they had to admit that this Wei Zhao was truly a genius—given time to grow, he might well have become a real **thorn in their side**.
Unfortunately, the cultivation world had never lacked for geniuses, and the feeling of strangling one with your own hands—it was truly exquisite!
Yet in the very next instant, the smiles on those faces froze.
Bang! The examiner's palm crashed into Wei Zhao's chest with twice the force of before. He had expected Wei Zhao to fly farther and land harder than Meng Zhou had, but to everyone's astonishment, Wei Zhao merely gave a muffled grunt and took a single step back—and that was all.
At the same moment, the examiner himself, just as his momentum spent itself, suddenly felt a powerful backlash of true qi; instinctively he gave a muffled grunt and likewise retreated a step!
This was Wei Zhao's counterattack, launched in the midst of passively blocking and defending, using the formidable true qi within his body—the so-called offensive defense. Compared to purely passive true qi defense, it could offset the damage to a far greater degree!
Though the effect could not match a dedicated defensive martial skill, with sufficient mastery it could at least come close. This was a method Wei Zhao had hit upon on the spur of the moment, and he had never expected it to actually work!
The whole hall was instantly stunned into stillness—every last person, even Elder Zhao Hongbo and Xu Lingchong, Meng Jueming, and the others.
What on earth was going on?
The scene gave the impression that two experts of the same level had traded a palm blow head-on and each been forced back a step, evenly matched—but the problem was, this was no exchange between two experts of the same level! The examiner had simply struck Wei Zhao with a single palm, nothing more!
A full-force blow at triple the power of the early Foundation Establishment peak, delivered to an expert of the early Foundation Establishment stage—not only did it fail to kill the man outright, it had instead rebounded and knocked the striker back a step. This—this defied all reason!
"Many thanks for the instruction." Not only did Wei Zhao fail to die with every meridian shattered as everyone had expected, he said this without so much as a change of expression, then let out a long breath of foul air and sat down where he was to begin recovering from his injuries!
Heavens! The examiner stared at Wei Zhao in disbelief, then turned to look at Xu Lingchong and the others, who were likewise gaping. Every face wore the look of someone who had seen a ghost, mouths hanging open wide enough to hold a basket of eggs!
Xu Lingchong exchanged a dumbstruck look with Meng Jueming, and seeing the old man's ancient face flushed crimson with rage, he cried out in fury, "Impossible! Impossible! The boy must have taken a fatal internal injury—every meridian in his chest shattered—he's just holding on by his last breath!"
With all the scheming beforehand, with Young Master Xu clearing every obstacle, and with a fourth-grade Great Return Pill thrown in as capital, Meng Jueming simply refused to believe such a perfect plan could possibly fail!
If Wei Zhao had backed down in advance and forfeited the points for this match, that would have been regrettable but at least understandable. But the situation before his eyes was utterly incomprehensible!