“Roar!” The two Boulder Boars were like a pair of lovers who hadn’t seen each other for a long time. The earth shook as they charged toward each other. Only a lone human stood between them as if he was preventing their meeting.

But they knew that a single human couldn’t possibly stop them, and when they met, a single red rose would blossom on the battlefield.

Xiang Ning’s heart spiked as adrenaline coursed through his veins. His mind went into hyperdrive as he tried coming up with a way to escape. In another four seconds, he would be splattered.

He steeled himself as he finally came to a decision. He wasn’t someone who would sit down and wait for death. Xiang Xiaoyu was still waiting for him! How could he go back in a coffin?

“Quick! Liu Ruoxue attack now!” Li Zimo feverishly shouted. He ran as fast as he could, but his speed was much slower than the Boulder Boars.

Just as everyone despaired, Xiang Ning smiled. He really wanted to kiss Lei Zhongyuan right now, because if he still only had a sword, he would be mincemeat today. But now he had the scornful shield, which was capable of blocking an attack from a tier three ferocious beast.

The class two flying knives flew from his waist as a monstrous strength gushed forward from his body. Everyone immediately felt that the air had turned heavy.

Li Zimo couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “This! His mastery of the martial technique!”

“HUAH!” Xiang Ning roared, his cry rivaling even the two Boulder Boars. He bashed the scornful shield toward the first Boulder Boar and his arm immediately flared up in pain as tears welled in his eyes, but he held on. Without missing a beat, he brought down his sword.

“Mountain-Splitting Slash!”

Time slowed down, and Fang Rou witnessed a strength capable of dividing mountains and severing rivers. It was on a completely different level than what she had previously seen. With a single cleaving swing, the tier one, eight-star Boulder Boar was no stronger than paper as it was cut in half. Though it wasn’t time to relax yet, as the other boar was just inches away from him. The sharp tusk was merely a foot away and everyone felt their heart stop.

At the final moment, two shrieks pierced the air followed by the sound of an explosion.

The head of the second Boulder Boar exploded in a slurry of blood and brain matter.

“Yikes! I don’t think we should be messing with them!” The five people hiding in the shadows were badly shocked by the outcome.

A single slash from Xiang Ning was all it had taken to defeat a tier one, eight-star ferocious beast that specialized in defense, while the other tier one, seven-star beast had its head explode like a balloon from Lu Shiyu’s hot weaponry. Even the tree behind the Boulder Boar had been shot through!

“Let’s just stay low and watch how everything unfolds.” Zhang Hongyu was afraid, too. He couldn’t believe that Xiang Ning had survived such an encounter.

On the other side of the field, Xiang Ning slumped onto the ground, his arms hanging weakly on the sides of his body.

Fang Rou was the first to arrive beside him. She inspected his wounds; his sword hand was torn and bloody, while his shield hand was dislocated. Even though he had blocked the attack, the impact wasn’t something his physical body could withstand.

“Xiang Ning! Are you alright?!” Fang Rou dug into her medicine pouch to heal him. Wounds often proved fatal to martial artists in the wilderness.

“Why don’t… why don’t we—” Fang Rou almost choked while tears streamed down her face. She couldn’t bear to see Xiang Ning’s bloody and twisted arms.

Xiang Ning interrupted before she could even finish. “No worries! It's just a dislocation and some superficial wounds, no problem at all!” he comforted Fang Rou.

“Here, let me.” Li Zimo came to his side and gently placed both hands on his shoulders.

“Wait!” Xiang Ning shouted.

“What’s wrong?” Li Zimo thought he had hurt him even further.

“Be gentle.”

Li Zimo was speechless.

Lu Shiyu finally caught up to the others. She was very worried, too, but Xiang Ning reassured her with a warm smile. “Thanks for your assistance. If you hadn’t taken that shot in time I’d already be lying in the fortress.”

“That’s because you’re too reckless!” She hit his wrist and Xiang Ning almost died from the pain. Even Fang Rou could feel how painful it was. Still, no one reprimanded her, not even Xiang Ning. He even goofily smiled. “Hey, even I didn’t know they would attack me at the same tim—ow ow ow!”

Li Zimo saw his chance and took it as he fixed the dislocated wrist. Even Xiang Ning was surprised by how fast and smooth he was.

On the other side, within the iron fortress, Lei Zhongyuan finally sighed in relief.

“Headmaster Qi, what do you think of him? He’s the one I mentioned.” Lei Zhongyuan was laughing.

“Lei, no need to be so formal with me, just call me Qi. As for Xiang Ning, I’m really impressed by him. But didn’t you say his Mountain-Splitting Slash is only at the Awakened level? That doesn’t look right.” 

Qi Jiuming had suddenly appeared one day as the headmaster of Qiling High School. He was a somewhat mysterious figure that rarely attended any events and only regularly appeared for meetings. He was a young man, or at the very least a few years younger than Lei Zhongyuan and was somewhat handsome, even though his face was pale.

“Your eyesight must’ve degraded. Didn’t you see how the Boulder Boar was sliced like paper? He couldn’t achieve that if his mastery of the Mountain-Splitting Slash was only at the Assimilated level.”

“No, you misunderstood. From the way he held his sword and his stance, it was eerily similar to my master,” Qi Jiuming said.

“What? Like your master? But didn’t he attain Peak Mastery for his Mountain-Splitting Slash?” Lei Zhongyuan’s voice grew softer the more he talked.

“Yeah. How could someone as monstrous as him appear? Lei, did you properly check his background?” Qi Jiuming knew that while he was somewhat stronger than his peers, he didn’t have any martial skills at the Peak Mastery level.

To attain Peak Mastery, one must truly understand how the technique interacted with the world instead of mindlessly training and grasping every single detail. Even his master almost lost his life and had only managed to attain Peak Mastery of the Mountain-Splitting Slash in the final moments of a life-threatening situation.