Even many students, during combat, directly broke through their realms and advanced their ranks.
The instructor was here precisely for this reason. He wanted to ascertain just how strong Fang Ming's combat experience was, whether it was as formidable as the rumors claimed.
If it truly was that strong, then he was a promising talent worth nurturing.
After the instructor conveyed his intentions to Fang Ming, Fang Ming naturally could not refuse.
Displaying great potential in the academy only brought benefits, never drawbacks.
Combat experience was also a form of potential.
If he demonstrated this potential before the instructor, he would naturally receive more cultivation and attention.
"Instructor, please draw your sword," Fang Ming said, raising his head with confidence.
The young man's face, bathed in sunlight, appeared exceptionally radiant.
Upon hearing this, the instructor's face broke into a smile. "Very good. I like your confidence."
"Ordinary students, upon hearing that I will be their opponent and duel them, each and every one of them worries about being utterly thrashed by me and reluctantly comes out to fight."
"You, however, have courage."
Fang Ming and the instructor were not conversing in a secluded area. Although it was a rest period, nearly a hundred fellow students were also seated nearby.
Fang Ming and the instructor's conversation did not employ any secret transmission techniques. For students with initial cultivation from Qi Yuan fifth to ninth stage, at this distance, even if seated far away, they could still hear.
Nearly a hundred people simultaneously shifted their gazes, focusing their attention on Fang Ming.
Some students, upon hearing that Fang Ming wished to spar with the instructor as his opponent, felt admiration for Fang Ming in their hearts.
Sparring with the instructor, if it were a private matter, a personal guidance session, it would be one thing, as no one would witness it.
But this was a public occasion. If he were to be beaten soundly by the instructor later, wouldn't he lose face in front of everyone? Become a laughingstock?
His pride would be severely wounded.
This instructor, though only a tutor for the lower-tier class, frequently trained students' combat abilities and offered guidance.
Due to the need to delve into profound principles during his guidance, this instructor's methods were rather harsh. Injuries were commonplace. Many students, unless explicitly summoned by him, did not wish to voluntarily accept his challenge to spar.
Fang Ming's acceptance at this moment, coupled with the previous numerous rumors, naturally drew everyone's attention to Fang Ming.
Some students did not truly believe the rumors about Fang Ming. In their view, rumors often had a tendency to become more terrifying with each retelling and were not necessarily true. However, they had now at least witnessed Fang Ming's courage in challenging the instructor.
And after witnessing his courage, those students who had not personally seen Fang Ming fight were eager to see for themselves if Fang Ming possessed the strength rumored about him.
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd.
For ordinary students, this would likely induce stage fright.
But Fang Ming showed no sign of such apprehension.
These students, with their thirteen-star level strength, were only around thirteen or fourteen years old. It was normal for them to possess such anxieties about losing face in front of others.
However, Fang Ming had experienced far grander scenes. The attention of merely a hundred people was naturally insufficient to make him fear.
The instructor, observing Fang Ming's demeanor, saw that he showed no fear at all, which further increased his satisfaction with Fang Ming.
He said, "As your instructor, it is not appropriate for me to draw my sword first."
"Draw your wooden sword, infuse it with Qi Yuan, and attack me with all your might. There is no need to hold back."
"Yes," Fang Ming nodded, drawing his sword without hesitation.
He did not hold back.
And there was no need to hold back.
The instructor was a cultivator at the辟宫境 (Bi Gong Realm), while he was merely at the Qi Yuan fifth stage, a Qi Yuan Realm cultivator.
The gap between these two realms was akin to the difference between a four-layered box and a five-layered box, or the difference between a speck of dust and a vast universe.
Even in the Divine Realm, where such gaps were greatly minimized, the instructor was still someone he could not defeat through combat techniques at this moment.
This was a gap in raw power.
One force overcomes ten thousand tricks. When force reaches a certain level, it cannot be compensated for by mere combat techniques.
Fang Ming had no need to worry about injuring the instructor.
He drew his sword, channeling the Qi Yuan within his body into the wooden sword in his hand. The surface of the wooden sword began to emit a faint silver glow.
Fang Ming was like a sword in the palm, as vast and bright as the sun descending from the sky, and as swift as lightning in a thunderous sky.
This sword strike, executed by Fang Ming with his Qi Yuan fifth-stage cultivation, unleashed his full strength. Combined with the extraordinary knowledge he had learned, it formed this attack.
Although this sword strike, due to the limitations of the Divine Realm, did not reach the "artistic conception" of containing three thousand primordial great daos and encompassing various traditions like Buddhist, Taoist, demonic, immortal, ghost, and divine, as it could in the lower realm.
It was still a technique that ordinary students could never touch upon in their entire lives.
As the sword strike was unleashed.
Many discerning students were shocked.
A few students who had reached the ninth stage of Qi Yuan were even more aghast. They imagined themselves in Fang Ming's opponent's position and realized that even though their cultivation and strength far surpassed Fang Ming's, they would be unable to offer any resistance against this sword strike.
They would be defeated by this sword strike, defeated by Fang Ming, and it would be an undeniable defeat.
"How is this possible? Is that rumor true? Does Fang Ming really possess the strength to defeat a ninth-stage Qi Yuan cultivator with only fifth-stage Qi Yuan?"
"How can someone at the age of fourteen possess such terrifying combat techniques?"
These ninth-stage Qi Yuan students, who initially held a slight arrogance towards students of the lower-tier class, had hopes of breaking through to the tenth stage of Qi Yuan and advancing to the middle-tier class. Meanwhile, the students in the same lower-tier class seemed to have no hope of leaving the ranks of the lower-tier class.
But now, after witnessing Fang Ming's sword strike, their pride was shattered. What was the point of hoping to advance to the tenth stage of Qi Yuan? Looking at the terrifying technique of Fang Ming's sword strike, even students in the middle-tier class who had truly reached the tenth stage of Qi Yuan would be defeated by him.
With such strength, they were utterly convinced. How could they still harbor any pride? How could they possibly feel proud in front of Fang Ming?
"This Fang Ming..."
The instructor, as Fang Ming's opponent, was also internally shocked upon seeing this sword strike.
Compared to students with less experience, his knowledge was greater, and he also knew better the extent of the techniques contained within Fang Ming's sword strike.
How profound it was.
Let alone the students, even he, as an instructor, if placed in the same realm and with the same strength as Fang Ming, would undoubtedly be defeated by this single sword strike.
Fang Ming's combat techniques had surpassed the combat techniques of ordinary instructors at Purple Cloud Academy.
Among the many powerful individuals the instructor had encountered, it seemed only the Sword Saint of the Heavenly Origin Kingdom, that supreme transcendent being, the foundation of a nation, could compare to Fang Ming's sword strike in terms of swordsmanship.