C12

With a crisp ring, the referee loudly announced the end of the first round.

In the first round, which lasted five minutes, Shi Xiaoling was domineering like a rainbow. He occupied the majority of the offense and unexpectedly held the upper hand.

If the match had only lasted one round, then Shi Xiaoling would have won without a doubt. Unfortunately, the martial arts exam in the training base used the same ten round competition system as the fighting competition. As long as one side was not beaten down or voluntarily admitted defeat, the competition would last for ten rounds, with only one minute of rest between each round.

In the previous contest between the twenty-nine students and the instructor, there had not been a single student who had lasted five rounds. Most of them had either been defeated or conceded in one or two rounds, and there had never been a student who had been able to gain an obvious advantage in a single round.

No one had expected Shi Xiaoling to perform so well in the first round. Although the students were all competitors, most of them couldn't help but applaud and cheer for Shi Xiaoling's brilliant performance.

Zhou Jie was extremely depressed in his heart. If not for the fact that he had underestimated his opponent and lost the upper hand, he would not have been at a disadvantage in the first round.

Shi Xiaoling's strength had indeed greatly exceeded his expectations. But, whether it was true essence cultivation, sports talent, or fighting skills, Zhou Jie was still confident that he would be able to defeat his opponent. In his opinion, the first round should be reversed.

During the one minute break, Zhou Jie sat in a corner of the martial arts arena and glared fiercely at Shi Xiaoling who was diagonally facing him. The raging anger in his eyes sent chills down one's spine.

In the second round, before the referee could say the word "start", Zhou Jie's heavy punch had already been thrown out.

At the same time, Shi Xiaoling's figure flashed as she jumped away with a beautiful gliding step. Not only did she dodge Zhou Jie's punch, but she also used her left hand to slash at Zhou Jie's neck.

The timing of this slide into Zhou Jie's palm strike was extremely ingenious. It was as if Shi Xiaoling had already predicted Zhou Jie's first strike, and just as he was dodging Zhou Jie's punch, he found the gap in Zhou Jie's neck and launched the attack.

Although Zhou Jie wanted to rely on his continuous punches to suppress Shi Xiaoling, he didn't expect his opponent to find an opening after only one punch.

Seeing Shi Xiaoling's hand chop towards his neck, Zhou Jie knew that if he was hit by it, he would definitely fall to the ground. Helpless, he could only forcefully stop his attack, first raising his elbow to strike at Shi Xiaoling's hand.

After getting the upper hand, Shi Xiaoling immediately launched an all-out attack. He pushed his Quintessential Essence to expand the set of "Rushing Thunder Palm" from the ancient martial arts technique. He then combined it with a flexible footwork to launch a fierce attack at Zhou Jie.

Because Zhou Jie had rushed forward and lost the initiative, he had no choice but to do the same as he did in the first round. Although he was incomparably anxious, the more anxious he was, the more passive the situation became. Shi Xiaoling's true essence strength was only slightly weaker than his, and the degree of familiarity in circulating his true essence was even higher than he imagined. Having lost the advantage, Zhou Jie felt that although he was stronger, he was still unable to reverse the situation.

The five minutes of competition quickly passed. After the second round of battles ended, Shi Xiaoling still held the upper hand.

The students in the audience became more and more excited as they watched. Many of them couldn't help but cheer for Shi Xiaoling. Even many of the instructors couldn't help but applaud. No one would have thought that the strongest special forces instructor in the training base, Zhou Jie, would be at a disadvantage after two rounds.

Cai Haohua sat in his office, staring at the monitor screen. Regarding Shi Xiaoling's performance in these two rounds, Cai Haohua couldn't help but nod. If one were to say that Shi Xiaoling had won in the first round because his opponent had underestimated him, then in the second round, he had won in the wisdom of anticipating an opponent's first move.

Shi Xiaoling had clearly anticipated that Zhou Jie would retaliate in the second round, so he was prepared for it. The second round, combined all of them together, he cleverly seized an opening after Zhou Jie's fierce attack to counterattack, and once again seized the initiative. Adding on the fact that he had switched to a different move in the second round, Zhou Jie clearly wasn't used to it, so it looked like he had a better advantage than the first round.

Fortunately, Zhou Jie's strength was better than Shi Xiaoling's. Although the situation was always at a disadvantage, he had managed to withstand it with his outstanding physical talent and deep true essence reserves. This did not allow Shi Xiaoling to take advantage of him.

Cai Haohua knew that after two consecutive rounds, Shi Xiaoling's confidence and momentum would be further strengthened, and Zhou Jie would become more cautious after two setbacks.

"It seems like this match will very likely end in a protracted one. I just wonder if Shi Xiaoling's true essence reserves will be enough to last as long as he does." Cai Haohua still had some doubts in his heart.

After being defeated for two rounds in a row, Zhou Jie finally stopped looking down on Shi Xiaoling. He knew that his opponent might not have the advantage in strength, but he was definitely a difficult opponent to deal with. If he were to use the same criteria as three years ago, Shi Xiaoling would definitely suffer a lot.

From the third round onwards, Zhou Jie adopted a steady strategy. He no longer sought to defeat Shi Xiaoling in one fell swoop. Instead, he used his own true essence thickness and talent in sports to steadily exert pressure on Shi Xiaoling.

Shi Xiaoling also understood that once Zhou Jie made up his mind and changed his strategy, it would be very difficult for him to gain the upper hand like he did in the previous two rounds. Fortunately, he knew a lot of ancient martial arts techniques and many mental cultivation methods. Moreover, he was very skilled in using them. Zhou Jie did not dare to use too much strength until he had fully adapted to Shi Xiaoling's moves. The two were evenly matched.

Just like this, the two of them demonstrated their abilities and fought for another five rounds. Although Shi Xiaoling was no longer able to gain the upper hand, he still relied on his ever-changing techniques and calmness to deal with it.

At the end of the seventh round, thunderous applause erupted from the side. Most of the students and instructors were standing by the side and applauding Shi Xiaoling's brilliant performance.

Shi Xiaoling, who had always been nothing out of the ordinary amongst the students, had managed to make it to the seventh round in a battle with Zhou Jie, the strongest special training instructor.

Shi Xiaoling had used different moves and methods to stimulate his Zhen Yuan in each round. However, he was quite adept at it and didn't show any signs of difficulty. Many instructors at the side didn't have a good grasp of the techniques and techniques of the ancient martial arts. They couldn't help but admire Shi Xiaoling's achievements.

Zhou Jie's face was ashen. He never thought that Shi Xiaoling would be so difficult to deal with. After seven rounds of fighting, Shi Xiaoling had used seven different ancient martial arts cultivation methods.

This caused Zhou Jie to be unable to fully adapt to Shi Xiaoling's style of fighting. Since he had suffered a loss when underestimating his opponent in the first two rounds, he did not dare to attack too aggressively, thus he was unable to fully display his advantage in strength.

Listening to the cheers of the students and instructors, Zhou Jie felt even worse. Originally, he wanted to let Chief Instructor Cai Haohua see how Shi Xiaoling would make a fool of himself, but now, everyone was laughing at the fact that he was the strongest special training instructor in the base.

There were still three rounds left. Zhou Jie could see that Shi Xiaoling seemed to still have some strength left, and he reckoned that he could still endure through the remaining three rounds. He thought that if he continued fighting like this, then it would become a problem whether he could win this match or not.

After some consideration, Zhou Jie made up his mind and decided to use his ultimate move.

After the eighth cycle began, Zhou Jie was not in a hurry to attack. Instead, he started to wander around Shi Xiaoling. The footwork he was using looked quite strange. It seemed like he had no pattern when he moved, but his movement speed was quite fast. It was obvious that he was very skilled in using this footwork.

Shi Xiaoling wanted to attack a few times, but as soon as he moved, Zhou Jie had already changed directions, causing him to have no choice but to stand still and defend against Zhou Jie's sudden attack.

After a few attempts, Shi Xiaoling found himself at a loss for words. Zhou Jie's footwork was also getting faster and faster. As he advanced, his palms were constantly changing positions, obviously silently operating his martial arts to prepare for an attack.

As Shi Xiaoling could not keep up with Zhou Jie's strange footwork rhythm, he could not attack even if he wanted to. Hence, he just stood at his original position, constantly moving to the side to guard against the changes in Zhou Jie's movement techniques.

The students and instructors watching from the sidelines were all baffled. They did not understand what Zhou Jie was up to. They only felt that his footwork was getting faster and faster, and that his figure was gradually becoming blurry.

Although no one could see the reason, they could sense that the atmosphere in the arena had become increasingly tense. Almost everyone had the feeling that Zhou Jie would not make a move this time. Once he did, it would definitely be an earth-shattering skill.

Cai Haohua, who was watching the fight in his office, couldn't help but frown. He could clearly see that Zhou Jie had used an ancient martial arts technique called the "Star Seizer Hand" secret technique. The "Seven Stars Steps" he stepped on was also an ancient martial arts' mysterious footwork, complementary to the "Star Seizer Hand" technique.

This kind of martial skill had very high requirements for a cultivator's physical qualities and also consumed a lot of true essence. It stressed on being able to hit or even kill in a single hit. It was a rather vicious trump card.

In the entire Ganquan Prefecture's training base, only a rather experienced special class instructor was qualified to learn such a powerful and ancient martial arts technique. Ordinary instructors didn't have the qualifications to learn such a technique, let alone the students who joined the training.

As for those who had truly mastered this move, it was even more rare. Zhou Jie, as the strongest special training instructor in the training base, was probably the only one other than Chief Instructor Cai Haohua who had mastered this move.

The "Star Plucking Hand" was a killing move that focused all of the true essence in the user's body in one strike. Its power was several times stronger than an ordinary move and could only be unleashed when used simultaneously with the Seven Stars Steps.

For those who had learned this move, this "Star Seizer Hand" was a life-saving technique. Unless it was a last resort, they could not use it lightly. They did not expect Zhou Jie to use it in the exam against Shi Xiaoling.

Even though Shi Xiaoling had already displayed a solid foundation, but in terms of absolute strength, he was still slightly inferior to Zhou Jie. In addition, with Zhou Jie's Seven Star Steps, once he was hit by Zhou Jie's "Star Seizer Hand", not only would he lose on the spot, but he might even lose his life on the spot.

At this point, Cai Haohua couldn't help but feel regret in his heart. He had originally arranged Zhou Jie to fight Shi Xiaoling, because he wanted to force Shi Xiaoling to his limits and see just how much potential he had in the ancient martial arts.

Seeing Zhou Jie's footwork getting faster and faster, with his palms up in the air, it seemed like he was about to use the "Star Plucking Hand" and Shi Xiaoling was still standing there in a daze, Cai Haohua couldn't help but feel anxious. He didn't want to see Shi Xiaoling die at the hands of Zhou Jie like this, but his office was very far away from the martial arts room, and it was already too late for him to immediately rush over.

Cai Haohua grabbed the lecturer beside him and shouted, "I am Chief Instructor Cai Haohua, please send someone from the security room to the competition room to stop immediately! Also, ask the medical room to send emergency personnel over. Quickly! "Fast!"