“What's happening?”
The previously clear sky was suddenly blanketed in a layer of haze, and fierce winds howled loudly as even the trees on Mount Jinding swayed violently in the gale.
Although the formless, intangible Noble Righteous Qi was invisible to the eye, everyone present felt an overwhelming sense of pressure at the exact same time.
Even the Golden Tripod itself was no exception.
The golden scholar phantom materialized by the Golden Tripod suddenly raised the writing brush in its hand and wrote a large character for “Suppress” in midair.
The character for “Suppress” expanded rapidly. As streams of golden Confucian Qi merged into it, a majestic golden pagoda abruptly manifested in midair.
Legend had it that the golden scholar phantom's power originated from the righteous qi of Confucian Saints.
Facing any scholar from the academy, such majestic and mighty righteous qi possessed absolute, crushing power.
Even if the golden scholar phantom merely brandished its brush, no one could hold out under its hand for more than a few seconds.
No one had ever seen the golden scholar phantom act so seriously before.
“Could this guy have committed some heinous act that enraged the golden statue?”
“No, why does it feel like the statue isn't angry, but rather... wary?”
Right then, the golden pagoda slammed down with a thunderous roar.
Rumble!
Yet as it plummeted through midair, the golden pagoda ground to a sudden halt.
“Is that... Brother Chen's Noble Righteous Qi?”
A massive golden light barrier appeared, splitting the sky and the earth.
Outside that light barrier, which hummed softly like a flowing stream, the golden pagoda was unable to advance even a fraction of an inch!
One second, two seconds, three seconds...
Over twenty full seconds passed, effortlessly shattering Murong Yu's record long ago.
“No way...”
Murong Yu's eyes were filled with utter shock.
If not for Withered Wood Meets Spring, he would likely have been defeated in barely ten seconds.
Yet Chen Ning had casually and effortlessly surpassed the record Murong Yu took such pride in.
“No, that's not all!”
When the golden light barrier endured past forty seconds, Murong Yu finally realized just how severely his imagination had fallen short.
What did holding out for over forty seconds against the golden statue mean?
Even the Noble Righteous Qi possessed by many Grand Confucians could barely reach this level!
What Murong Yu did not know was that this tiny fraction of Noble Righteous Qi was merely an appetizer.
Chen Ning had only released a tiny fraction of his Noble Righteous Qi to test its strength.
As expected of a treasure of the Confucian school—it could actually withstand such immense Noble Righteous Qi and convert it into tangible power.
But what if he released all of it?
Boom!
As Chen Ning raised his head to look at the Golden Tripod in the sky, thousands of strands of Noble Qi stored within his body erupted all at once!
His white robes snapped violently in the gale.
In an instant, an incomparably dazzling golden radiance burst forth across the sky.
Golden light flooded the sky and poured down; at that moment, everyone was forced to squint, virtually unable to look directly at the sky.
“Strange... where is the phantom he summoned?”
Noble Righteous Qi converted by the Golden Tripod usually manifested in the form of a physical object.
Looking around, however, no one could see any phantom summoned by Chen Ning.
However, it was simply that they failed to see it.
Because that colossal phantom had already enveloped everyone completely within itself.
One cannot see the true face of Mount Lu simply because one is standing inside the mountain itself.
It was not that the phantom did not exist, but rather that because they were inside it, no one could glimpse its full form!
Upon Mount Jinding, a golden giant enveloping everyone within its bounds was continuing to swell without end.
Three zhang, five zhang, seven zhang...
Its colossal body seemed vast enough to hold up the sun, moon, and stars with its head while stepping on the mountains and rivers below.
The Noble Righteous Qi inside his body still did not seem to have reached its limit.
He had never released his Noble Righteous Qi so freely before.
Feeling far from satisfied, Chen Ning exerted a bit more strength once more.
But in the very next instant...
Crack... Crack...
Fissures began spreading across the Golden Tripod.
Serving as a converter, the Golden Tripod finally became completely overloaded, incapable of bearing such immense Noble Righteous Qi any longer.
At the same time, the golden giant formed from Chen Ning's Noble Righteous Qi lost control.
In the sky, a golden palm as colossal as Five Finger Mountain crashed down.
Right at the moment it was about to land on Mount Jinding—
Crack!
The Golden Tripod completely shattered into countless fragments, exploding with a loud bang.
“What happened just now?”
“I think I saw a giant palm just now, but it vanished in the next second.”
“Was that an illusion?”
“Brother Chen, what happened just now... did it have something to do with you?”
Murong Yu also looked at Chen Ning with a face full of astonishment.
Chen Ning shook his head and said with an innocent expression,
“I don't know either. I heard this Golden Tripod has been in use for over a century.
It was probably just used for too long, so it happened to break today.”
Right at that moment, the Noble Scholar Token hanging at Chen Ning's waist happened to flash with a holy purple light.
Purple!
This was the symbol of the highest rank of Noble Scholar in the Confucian school.
In a full century, Water Cloud Academy had not seen a Noble Scholar of this rank!
Murong Yu: “...”
Even if he were beaten to death, he would never believe that the Golden Tripod's shattering had nothing to do with Chen Ning.
But precisely because he was afraid of being beaten to death, he didn't dare ask any further...
...
Two shichen later.
Water Cloud Academy.
“It's finally repaired.”
Looking at the Confucian Stone that had finally been restored before his eyes, Grand Confucian Li exhaled a long breath, unable to help feeling an aching pain in his heart.
The Confucian Stone was not something man-made; only through the baptism of countless books and poems, soaked in Confucian Qi over endless years, could it slowly coalesce into being.
To repair this shattered Confucian Stone, he had taken a massive hit to his wallet, spending over a thousand taels of gold to hire master craftsmen from another academy to restore it.
Having poured in so much money, several of the academy's Grand Confucians would likely have to tighten their belts for quite a while.
Fortunately, Water Cloud Academy had gained an unfathomably powerful Noble Scholar as a result, so Grand Confucian Li felt at least a small sliver of comfort.
Right then, a young scholar rushed back to the academy:
“Master, Chen Ning went to Mount Jinding today.”
“Oh?”
Grand Confucian Li instantly grew intrigued.
“Quick, tell me! What rank did the Golden Tripod determine for him?”
The young scholar stammered awkwardly,
“Master, the good news is that Noble Scholar Chen's token turned purple—a rank unseen in the academy for a century!”
“Good news? Does that mean there's bad news too?”
Grand Confucian Li caught the implication, and an ominous premonition suddenly surged in his heart.
The young scholar hesitated and faltered for quite a while before finally speaking up awkwardly:
“The bad news is... the Golden Tripod broke, just like the Confucian Stone.”
Pfft!
Upon hearing this, Grand Confucian Li nearly spat out a mouthful of blood.
Rate on N.U.
