Chapter 232: Surpassing Sound

Chapter 232: Beyond Sound

Ever since the first two rounds of the Foundation Establishment exam, when she witnessed Yun Jing's power and understood the gap between them in both strength and wealth, Bai Zhenzhen quickly realized one thing.

"If I just improve my strength step by step, even if I give it my all and eventually reach a level comparable to my opponent, the odds of winning in a fight would only be fifty-fifty."

"So to get the Foundation Establishment qualification, just training hard in silence isn't enough."

"But I'm not without advantages... My advantage is that in the first two rounds, I was weak enough—so weak that he wouldn't even bother to notice me."

And from the moment the groups were assigned, she had regarded Yun Jing as her greatest rival, constantly observing him, learning about him, gathering intelligence.

"I know about his Dharma remains, his techniques, his dual-dantian skill... but he doesn't know much about me."

This information gap, born from her weakness, became Bai Zhenzhen's edge.

"To make the most of this information gap, I need to grow stronger with a specific purpose."

"My goal isn't to surpass my opponent, but to defeat him on the arena."

"These are actually two different directions."

It's like needing to train day and night to surpass a student from Songyang High School.

But to defeat a student from Songyang High School, you might just need a dump truck, or slip a pirated manual into their desk drawer.

It was when she grasped this that Bai Zhenzhen began to gradually adjust her training direction.

Choosing new techniques, steering the True Spirit Root's deduction of those techniques, changing her combat style—all aimed at arena combat, with Yun Jing as the ultimate target.

Bai Zhenzhen wanted to specialize herself into the state most suited to defeating Yun Jing on the arena.

Even if it meant sacrificing improvements in other areas, she would do it—just to get that Foundation Establishment certificate.

And now, at the start of the third round of the arena, when Yun Jing heard Bai Zhenzhen's words, he once again activated his dual dantian, turning streams of mana into a sea of fire that bombarded Bai Zhenzhen relentlessly.

Watching her dodge and weave through his barrage, Yun Jing sneered inwardly: "Talking about defeating me with one sword? First, get close to me."

But soon, he sensed something off—Bai Zhenzhen wasn't trying to approach him at all. Instead, she kept slashing through the flames with her sword, as if the fire itself were her true enemy.

"What is this woman trying to do?"

"No matter what she's planning, I have to stop her."

"I can't fall here. The Yun family is counting on me to revive it."

"If the family company collapses, all I'll have left is myself and this Foundation Establishment certificate."

A bad feeling surged in his heart. Yun Jing let out a low roar, pushing his mana to its limit. His dual dantian roared like furious dragons, spewing lava-like mana that turned into fiery dragons hurtling toward Bai Zhenzhen.

The slightest touch from these dragons caused explosions; dodging was the only option, as a direct block would surely injure her.

But Bai Zhenzhen's face was calm. Facing the roaring dragons, she neither dodged nor retreated. Her sword met them with the Ten Thousand Swords Without End technique.

With a thunderous crash, she cleaved through one dragon, her body covered in burn marks, yet she didn't stop—she charged toward the next.

One sword... another... and another... The lightning on her blade grew brighter, her strikes faster.

This was the effect of the Level 10 Ten Thousand Swords Without End technique after deduction by the True Spirit Root: the sword moves accelerated under the infusion of lightning mana, each strike faster than the last, reaching the limit at the fifteenth strike, breaking the sound barrier.

In the blink of an eye, she had already executed the fourteenth strike.

At that moment, Bai Zhenzhen's aura shifted dramatically. Her eyes sharpened, locking onto Yun Jing on the other side of the sea of fire.

Then she activated the martial art she had cultivated over the past three months—the Nine Heavens Thunder Step.

This technique, besides accelerating her movement with lightning mana, had a unique feature: it left residual lightning mana on the ground, creating an electric field that continuously boosted the user's speed.

The longer the fight in a fixed area, the stronger the field, and the greater the acceleration.

After deduction by the True Spirit Root, the duration of the residual lightning mana was greatly extended.

This was the technique she had chosen, trained, and refined specifically for arena combat—to further enhance her speed advantage on the stage.

And today's two-out-of-three rule suited her even better than she had anticipated.

In the just-concluded second round, she had deliberately stalled, seeking no victory, just to leave enough lightning mana on the arena floor, maximizing the Nine Heavens Thunder Step's effect for the third round.

Now, bolts of electricity burst from the ground, forming an invisible electric field that enveloped the arena.

Bai Zhenzhen felt the field resonate with the lightning mana coursing through her body, like layers of springs coiling behind her, ready to launch her like an electromagnetic cannon at her command.

"Not enough yet..."

She knew she had only one chance with this strike, so she had to make it perfect.

She then activated another martial art she had never shown Yun Jing—the Thunder God's Purging Strike.

Thunderous mana condensed into a protective aura around her body, boosting her speed while resisting the pressure of high-speed movement.

The deduction effect of this technique allowed Bai Zhenzhen to unleash all her lightning mana in a single burst, delivering a strike faster than her own limits.

Whether it was Ten Thousand Swords Without End, Nine Heavens Thunder Step, or Thunder God's Purging Strike, Bai Zhenzhen had chosen and refined each technique with one goal in mind: to gain an edge over Yun Jing on the arena and increase her chances of victory.

As she fully activated Thunder God's Purging Strike, Bai Zhenzhen felt all her lightning mana surge out, leaving not a trace behind.

Under the operation of the Cold Soul Ice Heart Technique, in this perilous state of no retreat, she felt her flesh, strength, and aura grow more vibrant, empowered by the technique.

Boom!

The next moment, propelled by the layered electric field, Bai Zhenzhen stepped forward, charging headlong into the sea of fire, her sword aimed at Yun Jing.

The fifteenth strike of Ten Thousand Swords Without End shot forward like a rocket, producing a thunderous crack as it collided with the air.

Then, with the full force of Thunder God's Purging Strike, Bai Zhenzhen poured every ounce of her mana into that single sword.

"Go! Take all my mana, all my aura!" she roared inwardly, even channeling her protective thunder aura into the strike, just to make it faster, even faster.

Without the aura to shield her, Bai Zhenzhen's body began to tear under the immense pressure, flesh and blood blurring, cracks forming.

Amid the roaring explosions, Bai Zhenzhen had already outpaced sound itself, crossing the shattered sea of fire, torn apart by waves of pressure, and arrived before Yun Jing.

Her sword had been accelerating since the first round of the day, and now, in this moment of the third round, it reached its limit—surpassing sound!

With her technique at full power and her mind utterly focused, even though the strike had exceeded the speed of sound, Bai Zhenzhen felt the world slow down around her.

She watched her sword inch by inch pierce toward Yun Jing's shoulder, while his eyes were vacant, completely unresponsive.

"Just as I estimated—accelerating to this level should surpass the observation limit of Yun Jing's eye Dharma remains..."

She knew every parameter of his eye Dharma remains by heart, understanding that the safest way to break through it was to move faster than it could recognize.

"All three rounds today were to accelerate this sword to this point..."

"No..." A flood of memories washed over her—the past year of grueling training, countless life-or-death battles, the relentless pressure she had endured.

She even recalled more: the childhood struggle to hide her spirit root, the years of hard study to climb the path of immortality...

"For this sword, I've been building up for over a decade, accelerating for over a decade, chasing after you all for over a decade."

"Now... this sword has finally caught up."

Bang!

As the sword struck Yun Jing, his skin, muscles, and bones shattered layer by layer. A gaping hole tore through his upper body, and he was sent flying with a thunderous crash.

After that all-consuming strike, Bai Zhenzhen's body, having pushed beyond its limits and crossed the sound barrier, was a mess of blood and flesh, every muscle and tendon threatening to tear apart.

Feeling the divine power envelop her, Bai Zhenzhen opened her eyes wide and asked, "Did... did I win?"

Huang Zichou looked at Bai Zhenzhen before him, nodded, and said, "You win. One of today's four Foundation Establishment certificates is yours."

Bai Zhenzhen smiled faintly at this, thinking to herself, "Yu, your mom's got this side handled. The rest is up to you."

The next moment, Bai Zhenzhen had completely passed out.

In the audience, "Cry-Laugh Emoji" finished watching the replay of the three arena matches and said, "Interesting."

"This Bai Zhenzhen's raw strength isn't as strong as Yun Jing's, but clearly her combat talent and battle potential are superior."

"And now she has a Foundation Establishment certificate..."

"Cry-Laugh Emoji" immediately sensed that this Bai Zhenzhen had great investment value, and could also imagine that many universities were already negotiating what admissions conditions to offer her.

"Oh? Also from Songyang City?"

"Cry-Laugh Emoji" glanced at the examinee's information, smiled slightly, and said, "Same school as Zhang Yu? Then I might as well hire her too."

"Just in time for the year they start university, I'll probably be about done and ready to go back, right?"

This time, even the "Smile Emoji" beside him didn't veto the proposal, but said, "Although this Bai Zhenzhen is also an ultra-poor person, since she managed to obtain a Foundation Establishment certificate on her first try at the exam, she's indeed a talent. In the future, at university, she can help you..."

"But don't forget to give her proper new employee training and set rules for her, so she doesn't bring up the habits of the lower-class poor in the future..."

Just then, on the other side, Zhang Yu and Ye Lingxiao had already begun the final match, and the many spectators immediately focused their attention there.

Thanks to 'Aquila' for giving Bai Zhenzhen a pair of external spiritual root socks.

(End of chapter)