Chapter 1659: A Fair Way

The Second Princess observed that no one had an opinion and she smiled and said, “I have long thought of a way to trial fight. Everyone hear my suggestion.”

Everyone turned their attention to the Second Princess Gu Feifei and waited for her explanation.

Su Mo’s interest was also piqued. Although he did not want to participate in the trial fight, he could examine the strengths of the other geniuses. It was a good opportunity for him.

After all, most of the people who attended the banquet would also participate in the Sky Dragon Contest.

Understanding one’s own strength and one’s enemies could allow one to emerge unscathed from 100 battles.

The Second Princess’ voice deepened as she said, “Going to the starry sky is too much, we will just have our trial fight here!”

Everyone silently nodded their heads. Since the Second Princess set the trail test to take place at the garden, she must have a plan.

With that, the Second Princess flipped over her palm and a palm-sized paper seal appeared in it.

The paper seal was pale white and there were a large number of complicated markings on it.

The Second Princess suddenly threw the paper seal out into the air.

Then, she stuck a finger out and a sharp ray of light pierced the paper seal.

The ray of light did not break the paper ray but it instead merged into the seal. Fierce winds suddenly blew and the paper seal instantaneously expanded.

As the paper seal grew bigger and bigger, it became more transparent and mystifying.

In the span of a breath, the paper seal had grown to a size of about 10,000 feet wide. It was as though a ginormous invisible figure had enveloped the garden.

Right at that moment, everyone felt the air around them harden into a texture as hard as steel. Their bodies also felt bound together.

“Space Condensing Seal?”

Everyone was shocked as they had not expected that the Second Princess would have such a seal. This seal was incredibly valuable as it could solidify the empty space and turn it into steel. As such, this would greatly reduce the damage of a martial artist’s attack.

“Hm?” Su Mo was also surprised as he found that the space around him had hardened.

With such a hard space, an all-out strike by him might not even break the space.

A battle within such a space would not only limit the speed of movement and attacks, the fighting strength would also be reduced.

“Everyone, the space in here has been solidified and strengthened to be a thousand times stronger than what it was before. A battle inside here will not destroy the area in it.” The Second Princess informed the crowd.

“That is great!”

“If that is the case, we don’t need to worry about attacking!”

“Hehe, I didn’t expect that Second Princess would have such a good treasure!”

Many people sang their praises of the situation. They were only having a trial fight and there was no need for a normal battle.

“This is just the first step!”

The Second Princess smiled as she had been prepared. She flipped her palm around and two jade bangles appeared in it.

These egg-sized jade bangles were identical. Bright, mesmerizing light reflected from it, giving it a grand aura.

“These two jade bangles have a seal that suppresses one’s cultivation. If they are worn, they can suppress the cultivation of a martial artist!”

The Second Princess glanced at the crowd and explained, “The cultivation ranks of everyone here is not equal. Trial fighting in our original conditions is unfair. Hence, it is only fair if everyone battling with each other is of the same cultivation rank, right? What do you all think?”

“I agree, such a trial fight will be more meaningful!”

“That is great. We won’t have to consider the differences between cultivation ranks anymore!”

“Haha, I like this suggestion!”

The moment the Second Princess raised her suggestion, many people agreed and praised her. After all, there were many martial artists at the scene whose cultivation ranks were not incredibly high.

Those like the First Prince, Second Princess and Taishi Yuan who were Rank 9 Martial Honorables would not be able to trial fight if their cultivation ranks were not suppressed.

“Second Princess, what cultivation rank will these jade bangles suppress our cultivation ranks to?” Taishi Xiang Yue of the Taishi Family asked.

“Rank 1 Martial Honorable Realm!” The Second Princess said.

Everyone nodded their heads silently. They would be able to fight on fair ground if everyone was a Rank 1 Martial Honorable. In addition to the hardening of the empty space, there would not be much damage to the area.

“Since everyone is okay with this arrangement, then let’s begin. We can trial fight while we continue drinking!” The First Prince couldn’t wait to start.

“Which two people will volunteer to start first and entertain everyone?” The Third Prince, Gu Yuanji said.

Gu Tianyi squinted towards the First and Third Prince as a cold glare passed through his eyes.

Their excitement and impatience must mean that they wanted to play a trick on him. They probably wanted to crush him in the trial fight.

Gu Tianyi scoffed. His power would not be any lower than his brothers in the same rank of fight.

Thereafter, his gaze shifted and he spotted Su Mo drinking by himself in a corner. Just like that, his confidence was boosted again.

“Ha ha, let’s have Yu Mou start the fight!”

With a hearty laugh, a yellow-robed young man sat up from his seat and took big steps towards the middle of the grounds.

The aura around the man was thick and he was a peak Rank 6 Martial Honorable.

“I will fight against you!” Another black-shirted young man immediately stood and entered the grounds.

This black-shirted young man had a cultivation rank much weaker than the yellow-robed young man. He was a Rank 4 Martial Honorable.

“Take the jade bangles, both of you!” The Second Princess threw the jade bangles and they flew towards the two men.

The two men grabbed the jade bangles and the moment they put the jade bangles on, their auras were instantly crushed to become Rank 1 Martial Honorables.

With that, the two did not speak further as they took out their own weapons. Exchanging a look, the aura on both their bodies surged.

Su Mo glanced and silently shook his head. The two were not equally matched.

Before their cultivation ranks were suppressed, the yellow-robed young man was obviously a few times stronger than his opponent due to his higher cultivation rank.

However, once both their auras were suppressed to the Rank 1 Martial Honorable Realm, the black-shirted young man had a thicker aura.

This meant that the black-shirted young man’s powers were much stronger than the yellow-robed young man’s when they were the same cultivation ranks.

In actual fact, this sort of method that suppressed cultivation ranks was not particularly fair. Those who were of a higher cultivation level still had a greater advantage.

Afterall, at a higher cultivation rank, one’s physical body, comprehension of martail skills and mental strength were stronger.

Under the eyes of everyone, the black-shirted young man attacked first. With one slash of his sabre, sharp Sabre Qi like a fierce gush of wind sliced through the air and angrily struck out.

The yellow-robed young man was not weak and he waved his sword to block the slash. The Sword Qi from his sword was like a dragon.

Boom!

The Sabre Qi and Sword Qi collided. While the Sword Qi immediately crumbled apart, the Sabre Qi was only slightly affected. After it tore through the Sword Qi, it continued on its path towards the yellow-robed young man.

“What?” The yellow-robed young man was instantly frightened and he immediately raised his sword to block the attack.

Clang!

A metallic sound rang through the air as the Sabre Qi clashed against the longsword. A wave of force crashed out and caused the yellow-robed young man’s body to immediately shiver as he was thrown a thousand feet back, into the stands.

Although the two were both Martial Honorables, the empty space solidification had affected them and the shockwaves of the attack had been affected. Hence, the yellow-robed man was not flung a far distance out.

One strike!

In only one strike, the Rank 6 Marital Honorable, the yellow robed young man was utterly defeated.

“Give in!” Before the black-shirted young man attacked again, he kept his weapon and cupped his fists towards the other party.

“Alright!” The yellow-robed young man’s face darkened and he glowered through gritted teeth. He wanted to continue fighting, but since his opponent had kept his sword, he would appear to be a sore loser if he wanted to continue fighting.

With that, the yellow-robed man went back to his own seat.

“Anyone else willing to come up?” The black-shirted young man did not back down and invited others up to challenge him.

Very quickly, another person went up and battled with the black-shirted young man. However he similarly lost to the black-shirted young man.

In the following moments, man after man went up to battle the black-shirted young man, but they all lost.

The black-shirted young man continuously battled three people and his strength was evidently unordinary. Many people started to talk about him. His identity was discussed and it was revealed among the crowd that he was a man from the Zhang Family of the Imperial Ancestor Court Faction’s three great families.

Su Mo had a rough understanding of the three great families of the Imperial Ancestor Court Faction. They were the Zhu Family, Jin Family and Zhang Family respectively.

Finally, after three consecutive battles, the black-shirted young man was defeated by another person.

In the next few moments, the trial fight continued. Many geniuses of the Imperial Ancestor Court went up onto the grounds. Numerous fights flashed through the crowd’s eyes one by one.

Yet, the geniuses of the Taishi Family, Chixia Caves and the other geniuses of the 12 superpowers did not step up yet.

Only 1 to 2 geniuses came from the other superpowers and they were all top talents. With their statuses, they wouldn’t fight against other typical geniuses.

Taishi Yuan of the Taishi Family and Lady Xiang Yue would occasionally glance at Su Mo with malicious eyes.

Time passed by and the crowd sipped their wines as they discussed the geniuses that fought in the trial tests.

Su Mo was also attentively watching the battle. Although those who fought were too weak, there were some martial skills they used that piqued his interest.

Very quickly, afternoon came. At that point, the First Prince Gu Cangtian glanced at Gu Tianyi and the Third Prince, Gu Yuanji, as his lips curled up into a mysterious smile.

Why not crush his two little brothers on such an occasion?

With that, the First Prince turned around and locked eyes with a cold-faced, skinny young man and nodded.