Chapter 30: Trampling Yan Yiming Again

The next day, Princess Gouyu personally came to the Marquis Jianghan's residence, bringing an imperial decree and a large quantity of rewards to honor the Marquis Jianghan and his father and son.

The reason was that the Jiang father and son had rendered meritorious service in diagnosing and treating Princess Zhiruo.

This reason was somewhat unclear. Apart from a few witnesses who knew the inside story, no one could figure out exactly how the Jiang father and son had contributed to treating Princess Zhiruo's condition.

But everyone who had attended the banquet at the Dragon Ascension Marquis's manor noticed that Princess Zhiruo had been lively and in excellent spirits at the feast, her complexion looking vastly improved — a completely different state from her previous sickly appearance.

Could it be that the Jiang father and son had truly made some contribution to Princess Zhiruo's condition?

Speculation ran wild outside, rumors flying in every direction.

One thing was certain: the Jiang father and son were destined to become the focal figures of the Royal Capital in the near future.

And the protagonist of the matter, Jiang Chen, never cared about external reactions. What he cared about more was the improvement of his own strength.

As time passed, the deadline for the end-of-month preliminary assessment was fast approaching.

Jiang Chen had no reason to be nervous. The content of those three basic assessments was a piece of cake for him at this stage.

Soon, three more days had passed.

During those three days, Jiang Chen had been devoted to tempering his fifth meridian. After three days of tempering, the resilience of this fifth meridian had basically caught up to the level of the previous four meridians.

This way, all five meridians were advancing together, aligned at the same level.

That day at the Dragon Ascension Marquis's manor, Jiang Chen had only used the strength of three meridians' True Qi, and hadn't even tapped into his true cultivation of five meridians' True Qi.

Of course, he was also very clear that his ability to suppress Bai Zhanyun of eight meridians' True Qi at every turn involved quite a few lucky factors.

First, his level of martial comprehension was simply leagues ahead of any expert in the True Qi Realm — by how many levels, he couldn't even say.

Second, during their exchange, they had agreed to compete using the Eastern King Finger, and in something as ordinary as the Eastern King Finger, Jiang Chen had truly reached the legendary tier, naturally able to crush Bai Zhanyun's flawless tier.

Third, and most importantly, Bai Zhanyun had demonstrated the Eastern King Finger once beforehand, and his mastery of the technique had been completely laid bare to Jiang Chen.

This meant that Bai Zhanyun had essentially lost all initiative before the fight even began. Being suppressed at every turn was only natural.

Of course, Bai Zhanyun was also unfortunate. How could he have known that his opponent was a monstrous existence whose martial comprehension far surpassed anyone in this world?

If they had gone head-to-head in a real battle, both going all out and using their strongest techniques, pitting Jiang Chen against Bai Zhanyun's full combat power, the outcome was genuinely hard to predict.

After all, Jiang Chen's true cultivation was five meridians' True Qi, while Bai Zhanyun's was eight meridians' True Qi. The three-tier gap between them amounted to a full major realm.

However, Jiang Chen also believed that if he could survive the first thirty moves against Bai Zhanyun, he would ultimately be the one to emerge victorious.

Replaying that battle in his mind, Jiang Chen gained a deeper understanding of the true combat strength of True Qi Realm martial artists.

"At the end of the day, all the talk is meaningless. Martial combat is endlessly variable. I can sit here analyzing and theorizing, but during an actual battle, many sudden situations arise that no amount of analysis can anticipate. Ultimately, I must keep improving my own strength. Fortunately, my fifth meridian has been initially tempered. The next step would be to use True Acupoint Resonance to locate the sixth vital acupoint."

Since arriving in this world, in roughly half a month's time, he had progressed from three meridians' True Qi to five meridians' True Qi. Even a top-tier genius would probably need three to five months to achieve such progress.

Yet Jiang Chen had accomplished it in a mere half month.

But this was far from enough. Five meridians' True Qi was still a bit weak. Setting aside confrontation with the kingdom's top powerhouses, even among the heirs of the marquises, five meridians' True Qi combat strength would likely leave Jiang Chen at a considerable disadvantage in actual combat.

"The ultimate assessment of the Hidden Dragon Trials is approaching. Looking at the atmosphere in the Royal Capital, there's a sense of rising storms and gathering clouds. It seems that even in a minor kingdom like this, once the winds shift and the clouds churn, it's likely to form a great maelstrom. With my current strength, to navigate that maelstrom with ease is still far from sufficient."

……

Soon, the end of the month arrived.

On this day, Jiang Chen brought along Jiang Zheng and strolled leisurely to the Hidden Dragon venue.

If one didn't know the inside story, seeing Jiang Chen so relaxed and carefree, who would have guessed that this person hadn't even passed the three basic assessments?

Thanks to his performance at the Dragon Ascension Marquis's manor that night, Jiang Chen's appearance drew considerably more attention. Unlike the time he showed up at the Elixir Pavilion, when the pointing and whispering had been brazen and unrestrained, today those gazes held noticeably less presumption and considerably more wariness.

Jiang Chen naturally didn't care what the outside world thought of him. He walked straight into the venue's interior.

The moment he stepped inside, he saw someone coming out — it was Yan Yiming, heir to the Marquis of Yanmen.

"Jiang Chen!" Yan Yiming's eyes blazed with fury at the sight of Jiang Chen.

Being defeated by a single finger from Jiang Chen at the Dragon Ascension Marquis's manor last time had been a lifelong humiliation for Yan Yiming. Not only had he lost all face before his peers, more importantly, he had made such a fool of himself in front of Long Juxue that she was now completely cold toward him.

Yan Yiming felt that all of this was Jiang Chen's fault. Without that bastard Jiang Chen, how could he, Yan Yiming, have become the laughingstock of the Royal Capital?

"You're that monkey Yan who stole a seat?" Jiang Chen blinked, then recalled who the person before him was.

But this look of sudden realization only registered in Yan Yiming's eyes as an even greater insult.

"Jiang Chen, don't get cocky! Last time, if you hadn't ambushed me, do you really think with your measly three meridians of True Qi you could have beaten me?"

Yan Yiming completely disregarded where they were, screaming hoarsely.

"So you're quite unconvinced?" Jiang Chen smiled faintly.