Supernatural Insight Eyes
Chapter 322 - 0321 a stepping stone

Chapter 322: 0321 a stepping stone

Fourth-ranking Sun Ziyan is about to make a move!

No one anticipated that they would witness the prowess of a top four ranking marshal artist so soon. Ye Qiu really has some nerve, bypassing the tenth ranking after his sweep and directly challenging the fourth.

The surrounding crowd of martial artists was no longer quiet. If the previous martial artists were considered brash, then compared to Ye Qiu now, they seemed like minor players in the presence of a major player.

He’s challenging the fourth ranking directly, which is equivalent to someone who just learned to swim challenging a swimming champion. To put it bluntly, it’s simply a pipe dream.

If it were the sixth to tenth rankings, these rising stars might have a chance to fight for a position, but the top five spots are extremely difficult to secure in one move. Generally, it’s the martial artists who have accumulated experience over one or two martial arts competitions who have the courage to challenge the top five, but there’s never been someone like Ye Qiu, who could almost be said to have bypassed the latter five and directly challenged the top five.

If Ye Qiu hadn’t had the battle with Zuo Nan, there would already be cries from the crowd for Ye Qiu to step down, thinking that such behavior was completely overestimating his own abilities. However, after the recent battle, many were still quite eager to see Ye Qiu’s challenge against Sun Ziyan.

"This kid, he can’t wait to make his move," Chen Yifeng said, looking at Ye Qiu.

"His strength is not bad. Among the younger generation, he can be ranked. But bypassing five of the ten ranks and challenging the fourth is purely reckless!" Jin Lao sighed. He felt that Ye Qiu was acting on impulse and that such behavior was definitely the result of a hot-headed decision.

"Jin Lao, those words aren’t quite right. For a strong person, challenging whoever they want to challenge has nothing to do with being reckless. I think you’re just jealous that our Southern martial arts world has so many talented young martial artists this year." Chen Yifeng laughed out loud, and upon hearing this, the people from the Northern martial arts world all had ugly expressions on their faces.

In the past three years, it seemed that the Northern martial arts world hadn’t produced many remarkable talents. It was as if the last martial arts competition had spawned all the talents like bamboo shoots after a rainstorm, using up all the Northern martial arts world’s luck, with no young talents left to put on the stage.

As for whether this was truly due to luck, or if there were other reasons, perhaps only those chaps from the Northern martial arts world knew a bit more clearly.

The exchange between Ye Qiu and Sun Ziyan would likely be a hundred times more exciting than the recent one, because nobody knew the current extent of Sun Ziyan’s strength. Those affiliated with Sun Ziyan couldn’t help but watch the two figures closely, hoping to gauge Sun Ziyan’s true abilities through this encounter.

"I wonder if you’ll still be able to say the same thing in a while," Sun Ziyan said, adjusting his attitude slightly upon hearing Ye Qiu’s taunt. He was about to make his move and naturally wanted to maintain a certain composure. This was a detail that a martial artist must pay attention to when facing an opponent.

"We’ll find out soon enough," Ye Qiu replied with a serene smile, remaining unruffled despite facing the fourth-ranking individual.

The words between the two hadn’t amounted to many before already sparking an intense desire to battle, as if the astonishing exchange would happen in the next second.

"What do you guys think, who will win?" Feng Jian, who had recently praised Ye Qiu’s strength, looked around and threw out the question.

"From what I see, Sun Ziyan has the greatest possibility of winning. This Ye Qiu has only defeated the tenth rank and then has the audacity to challenge Sun Ziyan; he’s quite the boaster, seems to have forgotten his own name," said fifth-ranking Meng Pengxiao.

He was ranked just behind Sun Ziyan in standing, and their strengths were the closest among competitors. However, Ye Qiu choosing to skip him and challenge Sun Ziyan directly, in Meng Pengxiao’s view, was an underestimation of his own strength.

Although Sun Ziyan had stepped in and prompted Ye Qiu to challenge him by interrupting the beatdown of Zuo Nan, Meng Pengxiao conveniently ignored this factor. Regardless, Ye Qiu’s direct challenge to Sun Ziyan, to some extent, wounded Meng Pengxiao’s pride.

In fact, other martial artists ranked behind Sun Ziyan felt slighted. Although they didn’t voice their concerns, they mentally noted Ye Qiu, wondering why he didn’t challenge them first but instead overlooked them to take on higher-ranked opponents. Did he look down on their strengths?

If Ye Qiu knew that some of the martial artists from the ranks were holding a grudge because he didn’t challenge them first, he too would undoubtedly feel quite frustrated.

"Huangfu Jun, Luo Tie, who do you think will come out on top?" Feng Jian turned to the two men.

"Although I don’t completely agree with Brother Meng’s view, I still think Brother Sun will win," Luo Tie said first.

Feng Jian nodded, and then the four of them turned their gaze towards Huangfu Jun.

To everyone’s surprise, Huangfu Jun simply pointed a finger, and all eyes followed the direction of his finger to rest on Ye Qiu.

"Brother Huangfu, why would you choose Ye Qiu?" Not only was Feng Jian curious, but Luo Tie and Meng Pengxiao were also very keen to know the reason. Could it be that he had seen something, or did he know the full extent of Ye Qiu’s strength?

As everyone waited for Huangfu Jun to give his reason, they heard him say, "Since you all chose Sun Ziyan, I had no choice but to pick him."

Huangfu Jun’s reason truly left the three of them stunned. As the leader of the Ten Owls, such casualness seemed a bit too much.

The men felt frustrated internally, but none of it showed on their faces. They certainly didn’t want to displease Huangfu Jun and be used as his sparring partner; to exchange blows with him was simply worse than death.

Besides these top five Owls making guesses about who between Ye Qiu and Sun Ziyan would win, the surrounding crowd of Martial Artists also started to place bets.

The cold wind could not chill the bones of Martial Artists fortified with their skills.

Shangguan Mingyue sneezed, her cheeks tinged with red, her nose emitting warm breath.

She asked, "Is this Sun Ziyan really that strong?"

Shangguan Dao nodded solemnly and replied, "Among the Ten Owls, there’s a fundamental difference between the top five and the bottom five. I can only say that Ye Qiu has met his match, and it won’t be easy for him to win. Sun Ziyan is a formidable opponent."

Hearing this, Shangguan Mingyue’s brows furrowed with concern, fearing defeat at the opponent’s hands.

Ye Qiu was unaware of Shangguan Mingyue’s worries about him losing to Sun Ziyan. At the moment, there was a brief silence between him and Sun Ziyan, as if waiting for the right moment to make their move.

The reason Ye Qiu dared to challenge Sun Ziyan was not out of recklessness triggered by a comment or two from Sun Ziyan; he had his own plan.

His decision to confront Zuo Nan had been made a long time ago and dealing with Zuo Nan was also to give a clear statement to the members of the Dragon Group.

As for the challenge against Sun Ziyan, it was actually also related to Fang Lianping.

Ye Qiu had previously sparred with Fang Lianping, and being the sixth Owl, he had already roughly understood Fang Lianping’s strength after a brief exchange. Therefore, those ranked below Fang Lianping among the Ten Owls were likely to be slightly less terrifying in strength, except for Li Futu’s power, which had taken Ye Qiu by surprise.

According to Ye Qiu’s thinking, there was no need for him to fight with those ranked as the later Owls. Moreover, having heard about the difference between the top five and the bottom five Owls, he had originally planned to start with the fifth Owl, Meng Pengxiao.

What he did not expect was for Sun Ziyan to jump out. Since Sun Ziyan was ranked higher than Meng Pengxiao, Ye Qiu’s thoughts spun rapidly, feeling that it was worth a fight to test his skills. If Sun Ziyan was strong enough, beyond expectation, he might even help Ye Qiu break through the late stage of the True Qi realm and reach the pinnacle in one fell swoop.

For Ye Qiu at this time, Sun Ziyan was like a stepping stone to encourage him to break through his realm, and once he reached the peak of True Qi, this stepping stone would likely become useless.

"Come on, make your move!"

After a standoff of more than ten seconds, Ye Qiu’s voice broke the silence.