Chapter 128 - 121: Everyone Underestimated Ji Zhixing

Chapter 128: Chapter 121: Everyone Underestimated Ji Zhixing

"Is he planning to challenge every single arena?"

"Isn’t he tired?"

Below the stage, the crowd of students stared in dumbfounded silence. Nobody doubted Ji Zhixing’s strength anymore, but his endurance was simply unbelievable.

Ji Zhixing ignored the commotion. The eighth arena, the ninth... Soon, he had consecutively challenged ten arenas. As for the masters of the eleventh and twelfth arenas, they stepped down before he could even get up there, having no desire to ask for a beating. Thus, Ji Zhixing wasn’t able to complete the feat of sweeping all twelve arenas.

"Let’s go. We can head back now." After finishing his challenges, Ji Zhixing stepped off the stage and approached Xiao Mingyue.

"Tired?" Xiao Mingyue asked with a smile.

"I’m alright," Ji Zhixing replied.

None of these battles had taken very long. The longest had been his fight against Xu Cheng, and even then, he had only allowed Xu Cheng to attack freely because he wanted to absorb his lightning-attribute power. As for the other matches, it took no more than seven or eight strikes of his staff to end the fights.

Moreover, with both feet planted on the ground, he could continuously recover his genetic source energy. Any attacks from other Genetic Cultivators that landed on him were also absorbed and converted by his Five-Colored Spiritual Light, further restoring his reserves. Therefore, while his internal genetic source energy wasn’t at its absolute peak, he still had more than half of it left.

"Let’s go then. Let’s get something to eat." The smile never left Xiao Mingyue’s face. She was even happier than Ji Zhixing himself that he had proven his strength today.

Ji Zhixing nodded. The two walked out of the Martial Arts Hall together and headed toward the cafeteria.

"Du Zhan?"

Suddenly, just as they arrived at the cafeteria entrance, they saw a figure walking out. It was none other than Du Zhan, whom they had seen at the entrance of the Martial Arts Hall not long ago.

Du Zhan paused slightly upon seeing Ji Zhixing. However, he quickly gave a nod of acknowledgment and left without a word. Ji Zhixing shook his head and pulled Xiao Mingyue into the cafeteria.

Meanwhile, outside, Du Zhan had only taken a few steps before he heard excited discussions drifting over from nearby.

"Did you guys check the forum? The video of Ji Zhixing’s fight with Xu Cheng is going viral!"

"I saw it! It was incredible! Xu Cheng’s Purple Thunder-Attracting Technique blasted Ji Zhixing for several minutes, but Ji Zhixing wasn’t fazed at all. Xu Cheng ended up collapsing from exhaustion first."

"And Ji Zhixing’s staff technique is seriously strong. It’s a Tier-2 Five-Star Staff Technique! He actually mastered it in just a dozen days. That level of comprehension is terrifying."

"Plus that layer of five-colored light on him—who knows what kind of ability that is, but it can actually absorb lightning! Xu Cheng’s lightning hitting him was basically just charging his batteries."

Du Zhan stopped in his tracks.

Ji Zhixing fought Xu Cheng, and Xu Cheng lost? And lost miserably? What was going on? What had he missed?

Du Zhan frowned. He had spent the entire morning fighting in the arenas at the Martial Arts Hall, participating in over a dozen matches. Coming out for lunch, he had absolutely no idea what had happened in the hall afterward. He pulled out his phone and opened the forum. The top few posts on the front page were all about the battle between Ji Zhixing and Xu Cheng. Every single post included a video.

Du Zhan tapped on one of the clips. In the footage, Ji Zhixing stood on the arena stage, wielding a pale blue longstaff. Xu Cheng stood opposite him, lightning flashing from his hands as streaks of purple electricity blasted toward Ji Zhixing. Ji Zhixing spun his staff, shredding most of the lightning. The small portion that managed to land on him was absorbed by a layer of five-colored light on his body. Xu Cheng bombarded him for several full minutes, but Ji Zhixing didn’t budge an inch.

Du Zhan watched the video in silence, his expression shifting as it played. Once it finished, he turned his head and looked in the direction Ji Zhixing had left. By now, Ji Zhixing and Xiao Mingyue had already gone inside the cafeteria.

"A Tier-2 Five-Star Staff Technique... and that layer of Five-Colored Spiritual Light..." Du Zhan muttered.

He hadn’t paid much attention to Ji Zhixing before. A Cultivator who had fused with Tier-2 genes—even if he had two of them—how strong could he really be? But now...

He knew exactly how strong Xu Cheng was. Even he didn’t dare take Xu Cheng’s Purple Thunder-Attracting Technique head-on; he had to rely on dodging or intercepting it with his hammer. Yet Ji Zhixing had just stood there, letting Xu Cheng blast him for several minutes, completely unscathed.

Du Zhan took a deep breath and turned to leave. His estimation of Ji Zhixing shot up several levels in an instant. He knew he had to take his upcoming battle against Ji Zhixing seriously. When he had challenged Ji Zhixing earlier, he had done so with a hint of disdain, thinking Ji Zhixing was merely lucky. But now, he had to admit that Ji Zhixing possessed real skill.

Meanwhile, inside the cafeteria.

Ji Zhixing and Xiao Mingyue were eating at a window seat. Xiao Mingyue scrolled through her phone as she ate, a smile lingering on her lips.

"Is it really that interesting? You’re not even putting your phone down to eat," Ji Zhixing asked with a smile, glancing at her.

"Of course it’s interesting," Xiao Mingyue said, looking up and turning her screen to show him. "The forum is completely buzzing about you right now. Everyone’s saying they underestimated you and that your strength easily places you at the very top of the elite class."

"That’s still just the elite class," Ji Zhixing said, shaking his head as he picked up a bite of food.

"That’s already very impressive." Xiao Mingyue put away her phone. "After all, both of the genes you’ve fused with are only Tier-2. It wasn’t easy to get this far. If you want to compare yourself to the people in the genius class, you’ll have to wait until at least one of your genes evolves to Tier-3."

Ji Zhixing nodded, knowing she was right. The students in the genius class had all fused with Tier-4 Morning Star-grade genes, or even a Tier-5 Radiant Moon-grade gene like Cao Zhenxing’s. The intrinsic abilities and potential within those genes were simply incomparable to Tier-2 genes. He could overpower the vast majority of the elite class right now, but if he were to face off against those in the genius class, he most likely wouldn’t stand a chance.

Ji Zhixing looked inward at his gene aperture. After today’s battles, the phantom of the Staff Soldier Stone Monkey gene within his aperture was visibly brighter, the light swirling around it a shade denser than before. Clearly, these exhilarating fights had significantly accelerated the metamorphosis of his gene.

He thought, "It’s close. If I do this again tomorrow, it should just about do it," and took another bite of his food.

Just then, his phone suddenly rang. He pulled it out and saw the name Zhou Han on the screen.

"Hello?" he answered.

"Zhixing!" Zhou Han’s excited voice came through the receiver. "Did you really defeat Xu Cheng?"

"You saw the video?" Ji Zhixing chuckled.

"I saw it! Tie Shan, Su Qing, and the rest of us all saw it!" Zhou Han’s voice was full of disbelief. "That was so fierce! And you actually mastered the Nine-layered Tide Staff Technique!"

Zhou Han continued to marvel; he truly admired Ji Zhixing. When Ji Zhixing initially chose the Nine-Tiered Tide Rod, no one had believed he could do it. Yet, he had actually mastered it, and in merely a dozen days, no less.

Ji Zhixing smiled, listening to Zhou Han’s ceaseless exclamations and replying occasionally. About two or three minutes later, he finally hung up and set his phone aside, feeling a bit emotional.

Fortunately, he didn’t have many friends. Otherwise, with the news of his battle against Xu Cheng spreading, he’d probably be taking calls until his hands cramped.