Verdant Heart Seed – A Reverend Insanity fan-fiction Chapter 20 – Dominating the young and old alike

Brilliance Lotus Academy, Tournant ground

The tournant was nearing its pinnacle, and the round of the finals was just about to start.

Teacher Tao: "The next match will mark the beginning of the finals." - He exclaid as he stood before the audience in his red robes with a golden teacher symbol embroidered on its back.

He raised his walking stick and motioned to the contestants: "Zhao Min and Bao Zhi, take the stage!"

The students we sitting on the edge of their seats with impatience.

"Too bad the Ye family's young master got eliminated in the previous round. I really wanted to see him fight with Zhao family's young master."

"I sll a conspiracy. I can't believe he was taken care of in just three hits by his opponent..."

Unknowingly the students' suspicions hit the nail on the head. That matchup was indeed tampered with by teacher Tao. He wanted to suppress Bao Zhi and directly promote the Ye clan's young master to the finals.

Hitting two birds with one stone!

It seed like a flawless plan, his experience told him that even talents needed ti to blossom. Overcoming the difference in background and techniques was not sothing anyone could do.

Too bad this plan of his backfired and now teacher Tao not only failed to suppress Bao Zhi, he even figuratively slapped the academy elder, Ye Xuegang in the face.

Bao Zhi used three strikes to obtain victory. This was three tis the length of his previous matches.

Teacher Tao couldn't find trouble with him, due to Bao Zhi's malicious compliance.

Teacher Tao knew he had to solve this conundrum sohow, so he decided to change the matchups again.

With Bao Zhi losing the next match, he wanted to break his indifferent and stubborn attitude. Then, with his head hung low in defeat, Bao Zhi would be more receptive to the academy's teachings.

He could not let go of nurturing a talent with A grade aptitude, even if he disliked that person.

The two contestants took their places in the arena.

Zhao Min's usual calm and nonchalant attitude were gone.

Zhao Min: "Bao Zhi! How much longer are you going to hold back? Or is this competition too mundane for you?"

Bao Zhi raised his eyebrows curiously, but he didn't reply.

Seeing Bao Zhi's reaction Zhao Min continued: "I feel the sa. There are no other opponents here that could fight to the end."

The match began with teacher Tao's instructions. He explicitly told them to use all their thods and don't hold back.

Teacher Tao was already rubbing his palms ntally.

"Bao Zhi has no chance to knock out Zhao Min directly as he did so far. Even the powerful Su Kang's charge was directly stopped by Zhao Min." - He thought.

Teacher Tao: "You may begin!"

Zhao Min did not stand on ceremony, he used his primitive killer move. Green roots sprouted and erged around him, like a living wall. Next, he used another portion of roots to lash out at Bao Zhi's direction.

Both defense and offense in one move!

Bao Zhi was still focusing on his aperture mostly. Failing to refine the Prival Elder Gu would be a huge setback currently. He would have to accumulate prival stones from zero and by that ti all his progress in refining the gu would also be gone. He didn't want to waste his ti and effort!

But that gu was two ranks higher than him!

Winning this tournant was secondary to him, only a contingency plan if he were to run out of prival stones.

Seeing the group of roots snaking their way towards him, Bao Zhi did not stand still either.

He did not attack as he did in his previous matches, he changed his tactic now. He wanted to stall for so ti.

Bao Zhi kept evading and dodging at seemingly impossible angles. The wooden snakes could not catch this slippery eel!

"Does he have an eye on his back? How is this possible?"

"Now I understand, he is a different kind of genius, too bad he's so poor at refining gu."

"Yeah, it is a pity. There is only so much you can do with martial arts. He will be left behind eventually."

"It's easy to look down on him. You haven't had to face him yourself!" - Exclaid one of Bao Zhi's previous opponents in dissatisfaction. Praising Bao Zhi would also make his loss seem more acceptable.

anwhile, back on the stage, Zhao Min was thinking hard: how to catch Bao Zhi?

Ti and ti again the seemingly cornered Bao Zhi slipped through the grasp of the roots.

Zhao Min thought: "If this continues on, it will be only a draw. Hmm, how about this?"

He split his forces again, now forming three sets of roots. Two chasing and pincer attacking Bao Zhi while still not abandoning his defense either.

Bao Zhi's ntal pressure has increased!

He was risking suffering a backlash if his refinent was forcefully interrupted. His fake aperture was only rank one now. Could it endure the backlash of a rank three gu?

Who would be so stupid to do such a thing during a fight?

Even though his moves beca less precise, no harm has reached Bao Zhi so far. He continued to take a passive stance.

"What's going on? Is this guy a monkey? How can he be so hard to hit?"

"I can't believe my eyes, this is impossible!"

"He must be cheating, there is no other explanation!"

Even teacher Tao's eye twitched as he was observing the match.

Zhao Min did not lose his composure so easily. He narrowed his eyes, then raised his arm in an upward grabbing motion. His fingers curled like claws.

"How about this?" - He called out in his mind.

Suddenly a group of roots attacked Bao Zhi from underground!

But unfortunately what Zhao Min could not know, was that Bao Zhi sensed these roots as clear as daylight. Even without the usage of gu worms.

How was this possible?

Normally it would not be, but Bao Zhi had great grandmaster attainnt in wood path!

Wood path moves contained wood path dao marks, he was highly sensitive to them. He could "see" them coming with his eyes closed.

This turn of events was a ntal blow to Zhao Min. He was getting increasingly nervous as the fight dragged on.

"We both have A grade aptitude, but my expenditure is definitely higher. He wants to win in a battle of attrition it seems like." - Zhao Min thought to himself in dissatisfaction.

"Nevermind, I can't fall into his rhythm. I'll go all out!"

Zhao Min activated his rank one Root Sprout Gu and Wood Sensation Gu to their limits. The prival essence in his aperture declined steeply. Now only twenty percent was left.

"Wow! Look at that, the arena turned into a forest of roots!"

"Now Bao Zhi has nowhere to run. This match is finished."

"The Zhao family's inheritance is just too scary." - Shuddered a comnting student.

At a mont's notice, the myriad roots were upon Bao Zhi. He gritted his teeth as he pulled his limbs closer to himself.

"Almost done. Just a little bit more!" - He could feel it already, the breakthrough in his gu refinent was imminent.

A huge ball has ford in the anwhile. Zhao Min was panting heavily, controlling this many roots individually was impossible for him, he could only move them all at once. But his efforts were finally showing results.

Bao Zhi was captured!

Zhao Min looked at teacher Tao expectantly, he was waiting for him to end the match already.

"Quickly end it! My essence is running dry soon!" - Zhao Min thought.

But teacher Tao did not end the match just now. He activated his investigative thod to check on Bao Zhi's condition.

"Good, I'll let you suffer a bit more. There's still so ti left. Don't bla , this is for your own good as well." - Teacher Tao reassured himself about his thods.

At this mont!

The arena tremored. Loud cracking and tearing sounds could be heard.

"What is going on? Is Zhao Min going to grind him to death?"

"Why won't the match end already?"

The students were also looking at teacher Tao now with their questions.

The sounds were indeed coming from inside the huge wooden ball as it continued to squirm.

Bao Zhi: "Prival Elder Gu, you are finally mine!"

He imdiately put his mind solely on the fight now!

The strange sounds continued.

Zhao Min's face was taking on an ugly expression, contrary to the spectators, he could feel what was happening inside.

Bao Zhi was tearing the roots apart with his bare hands!

The ball of roots started to shake with increasing intensity.

Suddenly a hand poked out from the tangled ss.

Then another!

Bao Zhi held his palms facing away from each other. Next, his muscles bulged as he exerted his strength. The veins on his forearms protruded and had an eerie green color.

Seconds passed like minutes.

Now even the spectators have caught up to what was happening previously. They did not dare to divert their attention, afraid of missing the decisive mont. They held their breaths subconsciously.

CRACK!

The roots were torn in half before Bao Zhi. He jumped out in a flash, clearly intending to strike at Zhao Min.

Zhao Min scrambled in fright. He quickly let go of his control of the massive amount of vegetation. He gritted his teeth and desperately focused on his last line of defense.

The roots around Zhao Min regained their liveliness and fine motion, they struck out towards Bao Zhi.

Zhao Min wanted to stall for ti now, only seconds were left from the tir.

But Bao Zhi was done with running around, he directly grabbed onto the pieces of wood and uprooted them! Throwing them to the wayside.

Zhao Min's eyes widened in shock, he lost control of those roots imdiately because they no longer ford a continuous entity.

"Oh no! He has already figured out this technique's weakness!"

Just as he had this thought, Bao Zhi closed in on him with haste.

Zhao Min shouted: "I surrend-"

Bao Zhi's first stopped just inches away from Zhao Min's frightened face.

Bao Zhi couldn't help but evaluate Zhao Min again, he approved of Zhao Min's choice. He would have done the sa.

Those who can't yield will break eventually. A true expert is one that can tell apart which situation is which.

"..."

"The scene changed so quickly!"

"It was a totally winning position for Zhao Min... Just how?"

"This fight was already a battle of experts."

Now even the gu masters who underestimated Bao Zhi needed to readjust their opinion of him.

Jin Ju was also spectating from his window. He couldn't help but recall the scene where Bao Zhi fought the huge tiger, similarly bare-handed. This cented his impression of Bao Zhi as a fighting maniac.

Opposite of him, on the other side, teacher Tao was livid.

"Bao Zhi, co into my office! Now!" - He shouted.

Instead of announcing Bao Zhi as the winner, he was now in trouble?

"I see, now it makes sense. He clearly cheated!"

"Nobody could be so strong, right?"

"Yes. I couldn't even tell what gu worms he was using. Soone must have helped him from outside."

The students started murmuring and guessing wildly.

Teacher Tao was looking at Bao Zhi sternly as the youth presented himself respectfully.

"Co here! Let check your condition."

With that said teacher Tao reached out to sense Bao Zhi's aperture.

Bao Zhi showed a confused expression but complied without resistance.

"Wanting to play dirty? You should know the best about inspecting other's gu worms is a huge taboo." - Bao Zhi snickered in his mind.

When teacher Tao placed his hand on his fake aperture he could not sense anything but a small amount of prival essence.

"What is this? Does he really have no gu worms? But why is he missing essence then? None of this makes any sense."

Seeing his teacher's confusion, Bao Zhi looked him straight in the eyes. His eyes seed cold as ice, teacher Tao felt like a beast was eyeing its prey before him.

Rank three aura!

"Teacher should know, not to look into matters too deeply." - Bao Zhi said flatly as he released the Prival Elder Gu's rank three aura.

Teacher Tao fell back in horror, only his walking stick prevented him from falling over.

"Rank three? Rank three! How... This is..."

One had to know, rank three gu worms were only sothing rank three gu masters would possess.

What did this imply? At least a rank-three gu master was supporting Bao Zhi from the shadows! Rank three ant an elder status at the minimum!

"Curse you, Ye Xuegang! You dragged into your internal conflict!" - Teacher Tao grieved internally as he dismissed Bao Zhi.

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