Slander

After a series of skirmishes, it was Jing Mengyi's turn to battle. There were no exciting fights like what happened with Mo Jidong's battle. While the cultivation stages were slightly higher, the battles paled in comparison.

Jing Mengyi now had the chance to prove her worth. After all, she had been invited as an Inner disciple of the Divine Dao Mountain months ago. Now, her cultivation base should be quite profound for her age, allowing her to surpass her peers.

With a Divine Rune of the Spirit grade, it was natural for her to be invited. Not only that, but it was also revealed that same day that Jing Mengyi was actually an inborn Bishop Piece, which further improved her status once she joined the sect.

With a little bit more, she may have what it takes to become a Core disciple one day. Standing on the stage, her opponent was someone in the Mu family. He was twenty years old, reaching the limit of the threshold to join the Divine Dao Mountain.

His cultivation base was at the Seventh stage of the Awakening Realm, making him amongst one of the most powerful amongst the sixty-four contestants.

Jing Mengyi stood on one side of the stage. Her beautiful appearance attracted many watching. Her cultivation base was released, as an icy aura was emitted from her very being.

As a member of the Jing family, Jing Mengyi cultivated the way of Ice, which is one of the two paths in her family. Most men would practice the way of Fire since it was more suitable for them, while the women practiced the way of Ice due to their natural affinity with Yin energy.

As a layer of ice enveloped the entire stage, her opponent held an iron sword. Those of the Mu family practiced the way of the Sword, forming the Concept of Swords. Only Mo Jidong was an exception, using purely his physique to fight.

Swish!

A flash of extremely fast Sword Qi tore apart the air and cut out towards Jing Mengyi. With a single wave of his sword, her opponent had sent out dozens of attacks all at once.

His sword came close to his face as he turned it sideways, before stabbing forward. An extremely powerful and fast wave of Sword Qi pierced the air, shattering all air resistance as it made its way towards Jing Mengyi.

Those watching were horrified for Jing Mengyi, just by watching, they could tell that the attacks were horrifying, showing no mercy nor hesitation while trying to cut her down.

As the Sword Qi came close, an invisible force protruded the atmosphere, as the Sword Qi suddenly started slowing down, before being completely frozen in place just dozens of centimetres away from Jing Mengyi.

Looking at the Sword Qi, a thin icy-blue layer of ice could be seen. It was obvious that Jing Meghi had stopped his attack midway using her powerful Concept of Ice, which was also superior to her opponent's Concept of Sword.

Don't be mistaken, all Concepts have strengths and weaknesses and are all equal. Only a few extraordinarily rare Concepts such as Space are more powerful than the others. It all depended on the person wielding the Concept, if the person was weak, even if they had comprehended a powerful one, their attacks would naturally be weaker.

This meant that the young man of the Mu family was not great in the Concept of Sword. While he most likely had a more powerful cultivation base, it would seem to be hard for him to win if he could break through her ice.

With his attacks stopped, the young man held his sword with two hands and lifted it above his head. Using both hands, he did a simple swing downward, using all of his strength in that single attack.

Whoosh!

A ferocious Sword Qi swept through the air, aiming for Jing Mengyi, who was standing there enveloped in a world of ice, appearing like a goddess of ice. She lifted her palm up, as a terrible blizzard was kicked up within seconds.

The blizzard came forward, making its way to clash with the Sword Qi. Two powerful Concepts clashed at this moment. When they met, a loud explosion was both seen and heard at the same time.

Within seconds, the blizzard seemed to be split apart by the Sword Qi. Suddenly, Jing Mengyi released her cultivation base at the Sixth stage of the Awakening realm. The crowd including those of the Four Great families, as well as the two envoys were shocked.

One had to know that it had only been a few months since her Divine Rune had awakened. Even with a Spirit Grade Divine Rune, it was still hard to reach such a stage within such a short time frame.

The eyes of the two envoys gleamed when they sensed this. Immediately, the blizzard roared and overwhelmed the Sword Qi in an instant.

Seeing that he had lost, Jing Mengyi's opponent bowed and hopped off the stage without saying anything. Just like that, Jing Mengyi had won easily, using her inferior cultivation base to beat someone four years older than her.

While age didn't mean much since everyone had long lifespans, those that were younger naturally had less training time. The higher their cultivation base, or the stronger their Concepts are, the more talented they were, which meant they could reach further heights than others.

Jing Mengyi was such a case. Unfortunately for her, her great talents were stolen from Yan Lenglei which boosted her own original talent to this stage. Since Jing Mengyi had won, she left the stage for the next battle to start.

The crowd was still excited from her battle, as Jing Mengyi had just displayed her dazzling talents in front of them. Soon, a few more battles went by, as it was now Yan Lenglei's turn.

His match was the very last one of the preliminaries. The citizens were most excited for this battle. After all, since childhood, Yan Lenglei was known as Blackcloud City's number one genius.

Even after all this time, this title didn't change ever so slightly within the hearts of the citizens. While he was cold and never changed his expression, they knew that he actually helped them all at some point during their lives.

Whether it was helping them to lower taxes, or finding ways to help their businesses grow, the citizens were all happy with this young master of the Yan family. Now that this young man had awakened his Divine Rune, they all wanted to see what he could do.

******

When it was his turn, Yan Lenglei opened his eyes. As he was about to walk up the stage, Lin Hao opened his mouth to speak.

"There's no need for you to participate." he said, directing it towards Yan Lenglei. Hearing this, everyone was confused, what did this young man mean when he said that?

"You must be wondering why? Mengyi, explain it to them." he said. Jing Mengyi nodded. "As Yan Lenglei's fiancee who had grown up with him since childhood, I know an extremely grave secret about him."

"Mengyi, quickly tell us what you mean." Jing Mengyi's grandfather asked in wonder. Those in the crowd wanted to know too. Mo Jidong who heard this frowned even harder than normal, knowing what she wanted to say.

He didn't move, but his eyes turned to face Lin Hao and Jing Mengyi directly.

"Please tell us, Ms Mengyi." the envoys told her. Everyone agreed, wanting to know what she wanted to say.

"You all must think that Yan Lenglei is the number one genius of Blackcloud City correct? Wrong, the man who you all have thought to be a genius is nothing more than a common person. His Divine Rune is neither the Spirit Grade, nor is it a Top Tier Human Grade."

"In fact, it's just a lowly Low Tier Divine Rune. Even if he participates, his cultivation will at most be at the Second stage. His opponent is someone at the Fourth stage, there's no need for the battle to even begin." she explained, with her voice intentionally loud and sounding venomous.

Hearing this, many people gasped. While a majority of them didn't believe her, they didn't think she would lie, considering her previous status as his fiancee. But at the same time, they were angry because she reacted to the engagement and found a new fiance very quickly.

Those who were supported by Yan Lenglei since he was a child protested. "Nonsense! How can Young Master Yan be a common person, he has been a genius at everything since birth! Even if you were his fiancee, we won't allow you to slander him like that!" the citizens were angry.

Yan Lenglei's family were also angry at Jing Mengyi's words. Even her grandfather felt the same as the Yan family did, not believing her words.

"Since you don't believe me, why not ask our dear Young Master Yan to show us, if he really isn't as I had said, then I will apologise sincerely, if not, then it means my words are true." Jing Mengyi replied softly.

"Who are you to question Young Master Yan?! Is he someone you can test just with a few words?!"

"Young Master Yan, show us your brilliance and prove her wrong!" the citizens were rowdy, with everyone supporting him. The two envoys were speechless. They didn't think that every single citizen would support Yan Lenglei as such.

Looking at him, they immediately appreciated his character, who was loved by the citizens.

Standing there, Yan Lenglei's expression didn't change at all. No matter what was said, his expression was frozen, and not even a millimeter different. While his arms were behind his back, he slowly released his cultivation base.

First stage Awakening realm. Everyone could feel this at once. Jing Mengyi smiled, "Young Master Yan, as you can see, your cultivation base is only at the First stage, there's no need for you to endanger yourself. That is, unless you think you can defeat someone at the Mid Tier of the Awakening realm."

While she said this, she was surprised within her heart. "We have stripped him of his Divine Rune, how is it possible for him to cultivate? Unless… he was extremely lucky and experienced the legendary Divine Rune Rebirth of legends. It can't be, how can he be so lucky, but if he didn't then it wouldn't be possible for him to cultivate."

As she mocked him, a more powerful pressure was released from his body. Second stage Awakening realm. Finally, another surge of energy was unleashed within seconds. Third stage Awakening realm.

"That's the Third stage of the Awakening realm, considering his age, this is quite talented, how can you call Young Master Yan a waste?!"

"That's right, even if you are the new number one genius, you cannot slander him like this!" the citizens were even more angry, after he revealed his cultivation base.

Seeing this, Jing Mengyi's expression stiffened. "How is it possible? Even if he experienced the legendary Divine Rune Rebirth, it would take some time to recover, and wouldn't be as great as his previous Divine Rune. For him to already be at this stage, shouldn't be possible!"

As for Lin Hao, he bowed and brought Jing Mengyi back. "Young Master Yan, I apologize on my fiancee's behalf." Pulling her back, he whispered only enough for her to hear, "This wasn't what you told me."

Before she could reply, Lin Hao looked away, while Yan Lenglei walked up the stage, preparing to face his opponent who was a stage higher than him.