Chapter 5180 — A Curious Challenge
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
A challenge across ranks had never been a trifling matter, and all the more so since the tall poppy is always the first to be cut down. In a situation like this, whoever stepped forward first to issue such a challenge would bask in the limelight, but would just as surely come under crushing pressure — especially since the higher-ranked disciple being challenged would hold nothing back, for if he were truly to be beaten by a lower rank in full view of everyone, he would never be able to show his face again.
Wei Zhao was a master at the great consummation of the Foundation Establishment stage, already standing at the very highest rank permitted in the Trial Grand Tournament, so there was naturally no question of his challenging above his level. As for Qiu Lingshan and the others, they had all only recently entered Foundation Establishment, so of course none of them entertained the wild notion of a cross-rank challenge, and all waited quietly for the drawing of lots.
Half an incense stick's worth of time passed, and still no one came forward to issue a cross-rank challenge. Xin Yi'an gave a dry cough and was just about to announce the drawing when at last someone spoke: "Uncle-Master Xin, why not let me give it a try?"
At these words the crowd broke into an uproar, every gaze fixing upon a young man. He had a fine, clear-featured countenance, and there was about him a gentle, placid air, so that at first glance he seemed altogether aloof from worldly contention. Yet on closer inspection, one could clearly perceive that beneath that placidity lurked an indescribable, vast and surging presence.
Even Wei Zhao could not help but sigh inwardly at the sight. This young man was no ordinary figure!
"Ling Tianyou of the Thousand Blades Sect. Whom do you intend to challenge?" Xin Yi'an inquired. Faced with this Ling Tianyou, even he, the elder leading the expedition, did not dare to be the least bit careless.
One had to understand that this young man was the junior sect master of the Thousand Blades Sect — and that was far more than merely being a cultivator of noble birth. Ever since the previous sect master of the Thousand Blades Sect had died at the hands of a demonic cultivator, Ling Tianyou, young as he was, had already taken the seat of sect master, and though his strength now stood only at the peak of the late Foundation Establishment stage, he nonetheless enjoyed the unanimous support of every man in the Thousand Blades Sect, high and low.
And this was not merely because he carried the bloodline of the former sect master. The太古小江湖 — the Little World of the Primordial Age — was a world where strength commanded respect; without formidable power, a bloodline inheritance was nothing but a joke. That Ling Tianyou could win the recognition of the entire Thousand Blades Sect with nothing but the peak of the late Foundation Establishment stage came, naturally, not from absolute strength, but from an incomparable, transcendent talent.
Rumor had it in the byways that though the foremost Foundation Establishment cultivator of the Primordial Alliance was Xue Jianming of the Snow Sword Sect, this was only because Xue Jianming was loud and ostentatious, whereas Ling Tianyou, for all that he was junior sect master of the Thousand Blades Sect, kept an exceedingly low profile and very rarely crossed blades with anyone. Only the disciples within the Thousand Blades Sect knew a thing or two about him. If the two of them ever truly had the chance to fight, who would win and who would lose was very much open to question — indeed, more people might well favor Ling Tianyou. He was the uncrowned king.