"Huangyun Town!"
Ye Hun instantly grasped the meaning!
"Yes, Huangyun Town, we are currently on our way to Huangyun Town."
Chen Yun said hastily!
"Good, I know. Stay right there and don't move, I'll come over myself," the old man said earnestly!
Immediately, with a flash, the old man's projection on the disc vanished.
Sensing Ye Hun's confusion, Chen Yun explained: "This is a Thousand-Mile Communication Disc. It's very precious and is generally only dispatched for urgent missions assigned by the academy. It's used for communication, but the range is limited to within a thousand miles!"
"I see," Ye Hun acknowledged with a nod!
After walking for some time longer, just as the sky was turning from night to dawn, they finally arrived at Huangyun Town.
Ye Hun led the group to a tavern and waited there for the instructor from Yunling Academy!
Just as Ye Hun was preparing to rest for a moment, two youths suddenly stepped out from among the group of examinees.
Both were dressed in fine robes and carried an air of arrogance—anyone could tell they came from wealthy and influential families.
They walked right up to Ye Hun and demanded without the slightest courtesy, "Brother, would you care to spar with us?"
Their tone was haughty, completely forgetting that Ye Hun had just saved their lives!
Instead of looking at them, Ye Hun gazed past them at Li Qing, who was sipping tea. The two of them had just been sitting right at Li Qing's table.
It was obvious that Li Qing had put them up to something. Ye Hun found it quite baffling; he had no enmity with Li Qing whatsoever and had even saved his life, yet all along the way Li Qing had flashed venomous looks at him more than once.
Originally, Ye Hun hadn't paid him any mind, but now that Li Qing was inciting others to pick a fight with him, Ye Hun naturally wasn't going to let him off the hook.
Ye Hun took a sip of tea, stood up, walked straight past the provocative pair, and stopped right in front of Li Qing.
Taken aback, Li Qing still managed to squeeze out a smile. "Is something the matter, Ye Hun?"
"Well, I heard that Brother Li is a gifted disciple of Yunling Academy. I'm feeling a bit restless and would like to spar with you. What do you say?"
As soon as Ye Hun spoke those words, he captured everyone's attention. Ye Hun wanted to spar with Li Qing?
"Why would he do that?"
Everyone was bewildered!
Chen Yun was not present, having gone out earlier to find a place to contact their instructor.
Only Chen Lingling was there, and far from trying to defuse the tension, she actually started clapping. "Wonderful, wonderful, this is great! Li Qing, you should accept! Ye Hun is even younger than you are!"
With a grim expression on his face, Li Qing forced a laugh. "Brother Ye Hun is joking. Those two brothers challenged you first—we ought to respect the order of things, shouldn't we?"
"Is that so?" Ye Hun smiled and turned back to the two youths. "Would the two of you be willing to wait for me a moment?"
The pair exchanged glances and nodded. "Fine, we can wait."
"This settles it then, Brother Li?"
Realizing he couldn't dodge the issue, Li Qing replied, "Very well, but since we're just sparring, let's leave our weapons out of it!"
"Of course. It's too cramped in here, let's go outside."
With that, Ye Hun took a step and headed out the door.
Hearing that Ye Hun wouldn't use a weapon, Li Qing relaxed completely. In his view, Ye Hun's success was entirely due to that silver spear, and moreover, he had never actually seen Ye Hun fight. Besides, Li Qing sensed that Ye Hun's cultivation was lower than his own.
He couldn't see through that weapon; perhaps it was a magical artifact, which would explain its immense power. Without it, Li Qing certainly had nothing to fear from Ye Hun.
Taking a few steps outside, he locked eyes with Ye Hun's silver gaze and couldn't help trembling slightly.
Yet he quickly steadied himself, muttering inwardly: "This punk's strength definitely isn't greater than mine, what do I have to be afraid of?
"So what if he killed a single fierce beast? Big deal!
"That bitch Chen Yun acts like she's dying to throw herself at him. I've been chasing her ever since I enrolled, thinking she was some kind of cold, aloof goddess. Turns out she's no different from the women in the courtyard—the moment she sees a pretty face, she glues herself to him faster than anyone.
"Just watch me teach this pretty boy a lesson and show him how things work around here."
Without wasting any breath, Li Qing sprang forward and hurled a punch at Ye Hun, spiritual energy surging around him. It was clear he was putting a lot of force into it.
The onlookers gasped. Did Li Qing have no shame? He claimed it was just a spar, yet he used his full strength right from the start!
"Have you no shame, Li Qing? You called it a spar, and you open with your full strength?" Chen Lingling shouted furiously!
But it was too late; Li Qing's fist was already right in front of Ye Hun.
Ye Hun neither dodged nor parried, nor did he release even a shred of spiritual energy. Just as everyone thought he hadn't even had time to react and the fight was already over—
Suddenly, a vastly formidable surge of spiritual energy burst from Ye Hun's body, and he struck back with a right hook of his own!
"Boom!"
The fists collided with a tremendous crash, and in the next instant, a figure was sent flying through the air like a kite with a snapped string.
With a heavy *thud*, the body slammed into the ground, eyes rolling back as it instantly passed out.
Silence!
A prolonged silence!
Everyone stared at the scene in disbelief, and Chen Lingling's jaw dropped open.
Ye Hun had defeated—no, knocked out Li Qing in a single blow!
Chen Lingling believed that Ye Hun could beat Li Qing, but she never imagined it would take just one strike!
"A single blow? Defeated a Spirit-Entering Stage 2 opponent? At age sixteen?"
Chen Lingling felt a pang of shame. She had been quite proud of getting into Yunling Academy, but compared to Ye Hun, what was she?
Across from them, Ye Hun reined in his spiritual energy. He felt no particular joy, as if he had just performed an utterly trivial task. He had only used thirty percent of his strength; if he had gone all out, Li Qing probably would have...
Ye Hun walked over to the two youths who had issued the challenge at the very beginning and said calmly, "Alright, it's your turn now."
By now, the pair were completely dumbstruck. Gazing into Ye Hun's demonic silver eyes, they shook their heads frantically like rattle-drums. "No, no, we yield, we yield."
They weren't fools; they had no desire to queue up for a beating. As the examinees with the highest cultivation among the group—having reached Spirit Awakening Stage 7—they hailed from a moderately sized town.
Accustomed to looking down on everyone since childhood, they had naturally grown envious upon seeing someone their own age outshine them.
Egged on by Li Qing's few words, they had harbored malicious thoughts. Li Qing had told them that Ye Hun's cultivation was mediocre at best, and that his ability to kill fierce beasts relied entirely on that weapon; without it, Ye Hun wouldn't stand a chance against them.
Having possessed higher cultivation than almost everyone else since setting out, they had grown used to the admiration of others and gotten a bit full of themselves, actually daring to challenge a monster like Ye Hun!
Now that Ye Hun had knocked down a Spirit-Entering Realm practitioner like Li Qing with a single punch, they wouldn't dare bring up sparring again even if you gave them ten times their courage.
Waving their hands frantically with panic written all over their faces, they caused Ye Hun to drop the matter and no longer press them.
He returned to the tavern to continue resting, and right at that moment, Chen Yun returned as well, followed by a large, bustling crowd of people.