68: Chapter 68 One Slap at a Time

"Flashy and useless."

These four words echoed across the venue of 100,000 people through the Arena's sound-reception Formation.

On the ruined street.

The five noble scions, having just finished unleashing a round of spiritual energy firepower, looked at Su Chen, who was completely unscathed, their faces turning pale and then red.

"Impossible... This is absolutely impossible!"

A Martial Apprentice of the fire element stared at his own still-smoking hands, then looked at Su Chen, who didn't even have a wrinkle on his clothes, his voice trembling, "The five of us joined forces to seal off every blind spot; how could he possibly have walked out of that!"

The Crew-cut Boy gritted his teeth, staring fixedly at Su Chen: "Don't panic! There's absolutely no Qi and blood fluctuation on him! He must be carrying some high-level illusion prop capable of creating visual distortion! What we hit just now was only an afterimage!"

"Using a prop to cheat in the exam? Do you really think we have no way to deal with you?"

A tall, thin boy standing on the far left stepped forward abruptly.

He was the only agility-type Prodigy among the five who had awakened the A-Rank Talent [Gale Step].

"Since we can't lock onto him from a distance, we'll just get close and draw blood! Let's see how his illusion prop blocks a physical blade!"

The tall, thin boy snorted coldly, pulled a dagger with a faint blue luster from the outside of his thigh with a backhand motion, which was coated with a high-concentration paralytic toxin.

"Whoosh!"

He poured all the Qi and blood in his body into his legs without reservation.

Under the enhancement of his A-Rank Talent, his speed instantly broke the sound barrier.

In the eyes of the surrounding ordinary examinees, the tall, thin boy directly transformed into a blurry gray afterimage, almost hugging the ground, and with an extremely tricky arc, instantly circled behind Su Chen.

"Get down!"

The tall, thin boy appeared behind Su Chen, his eyes filled with the frenzy of success. He gripped the dagger tightly, aimed at Su Chen's undefended heart, and stabbed down fiercely!

At such a close distance and such high speed.

Let alone a piece of trash without spiritual energy, even a Tier 1 Martial Artist, without having raised a Protective Aura in advance, would definitely not be able to dodge this blade!

However.

Su Chen, with his back to him, didn't even turn his head.

Under the all-encompassing coverage of Observation Haki, every muscle contraction of the tall, thin boy, and even the sound of his blood flowing, were clearly imprinted in Su Chen's brain.

"Too slow."

Su Chen spat out these three words indifferently.

Just at the moment when the poisoned blade was only a few centimeters away from his heart.

Su Chen's right hand, which had been stuck in his pocket, was pulled out extremely casually.

He didn't turn around, didn't use Armament Haki: Hardening, and didn't use any exquisite Martial Skill.

Relying solely on the terrifying, pure Physical Body foundation that was like a humanoid Vicious Beast after just breaking through to the Tier 1 Martial Artist Realm.

He swung his hand backward, backhanded.

It was just a plain, simple slap.

"Snap!!!"

A crisp, loud sound, like a special whip lashing fiercely against the explosive air, instantly spread through the 100,000-person Arena via the exam hall's high-magnification sound-reception equipment!

Time seemed to freeze in that second.

The frenzy of success on the tall, thin boy's face froze completely.

He only felt a mountain-toppling, completely unreasonable, terrifying giant force slap fiercely onto his right cheek.

"Pfft—!"

Accompanied by a shrill scream, the tall, thin boy's pride and joy, the "Gale Step" speed, became a huge joke in the face of this slap.

His entire body was like a high-speed train colliding head-on with a solid iron mountain!

The dagger in his hand instantly flew out of his grip.

His body spun wildly in mid-air like an out-of-control spinning top, in an extremely distorted posture, for more than a dozen circles.

Blood mixed with broken teeth sprayed out in a spiral in mid-air, raining down as a blood rain.

"Boom!"

The tall, thin boy flew directly over tens of meters of ruined streets and smashed heavily into the translucent energy protective shield at the edge of Zone C.

The protective shield rippled violently.

He slid slowly down to the ground like a puddle of mud. His cheek was swollen high, his jawbone was completely shattered, and he passed out on the spot, not even having the strength to twitch.

A one-hit kill.

And in the most primitive, most humiliating way.

On the ruined street, the remaining four noble scions, who had been preparing to coordinate their attack, were completely dumbfounded.

The ferocity on the Crew-cut Boy's face disappeared without a trace, replaced by extreme horror.

"One... one slap?"

"Number Four is an A-Rank agility type! How could he possibly track Number Four's movements!"

The four people looked at their companion lying tens of meters away, then looked at Su Chen, who was slowly turning around.

"Monster... He's not a piece of trash at all!"

The Crew-cut Boy let out a distorted scream, his legs went soft, and he actually sat paralyzed on the ground. The other three were so scared that they retreated repeatedly, their weapons dropping to the ground.

Su Chen turned around, took steady steps, and walked toward the four people sitting paralyzed on the ground.

"You... don't come over here!"

The Crew-cut Boy desperately used his hands to support himself on the ground to retreat, his voice filled with a crying tone, "I warn you, I am..."

"Noisy."

Su Chen had no interest in listening to his nonsense at all.

He walked in front of the Crew-cut Boy, raised his right hand, and swung it seemingly casually.

"Slap!"

Another loud slap.

The Crew-cut Boy didn't even manage to scream; his whole body was lifted straight up, spun three and a half times in the air, followed in the footsteps of the previous person, and smashed heavily into a pile of scrap metal.

"Slap!"

"Slap!"

"Slap!"

Su Chen walked forward unhurriedly, as if he were cleaning up a few bags of trash on the side of the road.

One big slap for each person.

No favoritism, everyone got an equal share.

Accompanied by the continuous crisp slapping sounds, the remaining three noble scions were like baseballs being hit away, spitting blood and teeth, flying tens of meters away one after another, losing consciousness on the spot.

The whole process was smooth and flowing, crushing everything in its path.

After cleaning up these five small fries who tried to surround and kill him, Su Chen's breathing rhythm didn't even change.

He casually flicked his palm and stuck his hand back into the pocket of his black combat suit.

"This doesn't even count as a warm-up."

Su Chen didn't even look at the noble scions who had passed out, continuing to walk toward the center of the ruins in Zone C.

...

At this moment.

Outside, the giant holographic Arena of 100,000 people fell into a strange, deathly silence.

The students and citizens in the audience looked at each other, their brains unable to process the scene they had just witnessed.

"Holy crap... Am I blind? What just happened?"

"An F-Rank piece of trash without spiritual energy slapped an A-Rank Talent Martial Apprentice away?"

"Those people flew tens of meters away! How much strength must that be?!"

On the podium.

The admissions teachers from various colleges and universities in Jiangnan City were also full of confusion and astonishment.

"This Su Chen... really doesn't have any spiritual energy fluctuations on him."

A principal of a key high school wiped the sweat from his forehead and turned to look at the exam staff next to him in confusion, "Is there a malfunction in the gravity simulation System of Zone C? Otherwise, how could a normal person's Physical Body erupt with this kind of power?"

"Right, right, right, it must be a fixed match!"

Patriarch Zhao Batian sat on the other side, his face livid as he echoed, "These students must have been bribed to act in a play with this piece of trash!"

Amidst the questioning and speculation about System failure.

Major General Lei Wuji of the Zhenyuan Army, who was sitting in the very center of the podium, suddenly moved.

His body, which had been leaning casually against the back of the chair, suddenly sat upright.

Major General Lei Wuji's right hand gripped the armrest of the pure alloy chair tightly. Under extreme excitement and unconscious leakage of power, that sturdy alloy armrest was actually crushed into a piece of twisted scrap metal by him!

The surrounding principals and admissions directors were startled and turned to look at this powerful military figure.

"General Lei, what are you..."

The principal of Third Middle School spoke cautiously.

"Bullshit!"

Major General Lei Wuji's eagle eyes, which had been baptized by countless seas of corpses and mountains of blood, stared fixedly at Su Chen's black back on the big screen, and suddenly let out a curse.

He turned his head and looked at the "academic" old men around him who were still questioning the System failure, his chest heaving violently, his breathing becoming extremely heavy.

"System failure? Fixed match?"

Major General Lei Wuji suppressed the fanaticism in his heart, his voice low but exploding on the podium like muffled thunder: "You bunch of idiots who only know how to look at Talent ratings and talk on paper in the office! Open your eyes wide and take a good look at the replay!"

Major General Lei Wuji pointed at the big screen.

On the holographic screen, the scene of Su Chen dodging the spiritual energy bombardment and backhanding the assassin was being replayed at ten times slow motion.

"Look at his dodging!"

Major General Lei Wuji's voice was trembling slightly: "Not a single unnecessary movement! The fireball grazed his clothes, the Wind Blade grazed his scalp! This isn't luck; this is fighting instinct and crisis prediction carved into his bone marrow! This kind of ultimate evasion, even the elite veterans under my command who have been killing in the wilderness for decades absolutely couldn't do it!"

Everyone looked at Su Chen's incredible micro-manipulation dodging in the slow-motion footage and all gasped.

"Now look at this strike."

Major General Lei Wuji pointed to Su Chen's backhand slap.

"So what if there's no spiritual energy? Are you blind? Can't you see the Qi and blood density and muscle control he erupted with in that instant?"

Major General Lei Wuji took a deep breath, the light in his eyes frighteningly bright: "No need for any flashy spiritual energy buildup, no need for the pre-swing of a Martial Skill. Relying purely on his Physical Body foundation, he erupted with the power to slap someone dozens of meters away in 0.1 seconds!"

"His Physical Body reaction speed, his muscle density, have completely surpassed your so-called 'High Martial Arts' theoretical common sense!"

Major General Lei Wuji stood up abruptly, his hands supporting the table, like a tiger that had discovered a peerless prey.

"This isn't some bullshit System failure."

"This is a one-in-a-million... absolute Taijutsu Genius!"