Chapter 121: Armor-Piercing Awl

Su Chen grabbed the person who had injured him and pulled away the head covering, only to find himself face-to-face with a youth he had never seen before. He should be a student from the Hidden Dragon Institute, but Su Chen didn't recognize him.

A thought surfaced in Su Chen’s heart. He grabbed the assassin’s arm and saw an imprint on the back of his hand. Understanding dawned on Su Chen: “He was commissioned to assassinate me?”

That student stared at Su Chen with fear. “I......”

Su Chen cut him off. “You don’t need to tell me who entrusted you with this task. I have no desire to know.”

He grabbed the student and the black cat and returned to the Origin Tower.

When Su Chen entered the Origin Energy Tower, Iron Cliff came to greet him. He glanced at the cat and the person in Su Chen’s hands and asked, “Who is this?”

“A new research subject,” Su Chen replied.

Upon hearing this, Iron Cliff cracked a smile.

The previous research subject, Hong Ming, hadn’t lasted for long. He had died after three years. After that, Su Chen didn’t have anyone to test his skills on. Even though Su Chen could have bought many slaves, he continued to follow his principle of only making those who had attempted to kill him his research subjects. This could be considered his bottom line.

Unfortunately, in the past few years, not many people had come looking for trouble, so he hadn’t found an appropriate research subject.

Today, someone had finally emerged. Both Su Chen and Iron Cliff felt immediate happiness.

The experiments that had been put on hold could finally resume.

The assassin didn’t know what kind of fate was awaiting him. He was still hoping that Su Chen would show mercy on him.

Unfortunately, Su Chen wasn’t interested in who had instigated the assassination attempt and didn’t care about the price on his head - all Su Chen needed was another physical body.

He didn’t even want to know what the assassin’s name was.

After carrying the assassin back into his research station and forcing him to drink a large vial of medicine, Su Chen tossed him into a pit filled with black mud and returned to his room.

He then pulled out a vial of jade-green medicine and took a small sip. His originally pale skin began to flush with color again.

“Master used Armor-Piercing Awl?” Iron Cliff asked upon seeing Su Chen’s complexion.

Armor-Piercing Awl was the Origin Skill that Ma Renze had used before.

It was incredibly strong for an Origin Skill that didn’t require a bloodline. It could penetrate fleshly defenses and was also quite effective against heavy armor, which was why it was named Armor-Piercing Awl.

This Origin Skill should only have been able to be cultivated after the Yang Opening Realm, and the skill’s energy consumption was enormous. However, Su Chen broke through that restriction, allowing him to use it even at the Qi Drawing Realm.

Su Chen’s biggest deficiency was that he had no bloodline. As a result, the power of his Origin Skills was extremely limited.

Even though he had developed the Erupting Firehawk, its strength only put him equal with merely a few members from the Bloodline Nobility Clans. If he wanted to really surpass an expert, that would still be difficult for him.

If Su Chen wanted to break through the bloodline restrictions, he absolutely needed to make a breakthrough at the Origin Skill level as well. He needed a killing technique that he could call his own rather than simply winning by using various combinations of Origin Skills. Thus, during these past few years, he had been trying to lower the requirements for Armor-Piercing Awl’s use.

In the end, he actually succeeded.

If the Erupting Firehawk was compared to the strength of a bear, the Erupting Firebird was roughly equivalent to the strength of 12 bears; the strengthened Erupting Firebird, 18 bears; the Erupting Firehawk, 26 bears; and the strengthened Erupting Firehawk, 36 bears. Armor-Piercing Awl could reach the strength of 72 bears, double that of the strengthened Firehawk. When factoring in its penetrating ability, it really was a frighteningly powerful technique. If that wasn’t the case, there would have been no way for him to have been strong enough to destroy an Origin Tool in a single blow.

But the price he paid was the heavy burden be placed on his physical body every time he used Armor-Piercing Awl.

In fact, Su Chen activated this Origin Skill by expending his life force.

Thankfully, as long as he didn’t use it too much, he could recover simply by drinking Vitality Medicine.

“Mmm, that guy was not very strong, but he set up quite a good trap. My moment of overconfidence almost caused me to fall right into it. Setting up traps for others is quite fun, but being set up is not fun at all. Right, how did Cloud Leopard do today?”

Iron Cliff shook his head. “He won four battles and lost five, so his ranking sits at 37th place. He is currently sulking in his room.”

“Give me the current ranking list.

Iron Cliff handed a piece of paper to Su Chen.

As he scanned the names, familiar faces popped into Su Chen’s head.

After a long time, he said, “It seems like that’s all we can do now......”

On the morning of the seventh day, the end-of-year competition resumed.

Just like before, Su Chen challenged the 40th ranked student. After easily defeating him, he did not challenge the 30th ranked student; rather, he challenged the 34th ranked student.

That person’s name was Long Huan, and he was one of the students who had defeated Cloud Leopard yesterday.

As Su Chen stepped on the stage, he didn’t waste any words. He directly launched a strengthened Erupting Firehawk.

After making many improvements to it throughout the years, his strengthened Erupting Firehawk no longer required a Flame Crystal to activate anymore.

The massive Firehawk surged forwards. When faced with this powerful attack, Long Huan was forced to treat it seriously. The blade in his hand sliced through the air, slamming into Su Chen’s Erupting Firehawk and releasing a brilliant light.

Anyone who could enter the top 40 were all true Heaven’s Chosen. Their instinct, strength, and battle experience were all far superior to their classmates’.

Thus, Long Huan was not particularly weak. His moves were stable, and every blade strike caused the surrounding wind to churn, giving him an incredibly forceful aura. Even though he was just a Qi Drawing Realm cultivator, his movements gave him quite the imposing manner.

Unfortunately, his opponent was Su Chen. When faced with this calm, steady style, Su Chen sighed, “I apologize.”

An instant later, one Erupting Firehawk after another began emerging from Su Chen’s hands.

“This is......” Shock appeared in Long Huan’s eyes.

He had expended quite a bit of energy earlier just to block a single Firehawk. Now, Su Chen was sending out a steady stream of Erupting Firehawks.

Although these Firehawks were not the strengthened variant, there was no way he could resist them all.

In just a brief moment, numerous Firehawks had appeared in Su Chen’s hand, and even more continued to charge forward.

Long Huan knew the situation was not good. He couldn’t let Su Chen continue to form so many Erupting Firehawks. His blade moved through the air, sending a wild, untamed wave of energy at Su Chen.

Warriors should always be advancing when battling mages.

Even so, at the same time he struck, Su Chen’s eyes flashed with light. As if something were restraining his movements, Long Huan paused for just a moment. In that instant, Su Chen waved his arm. “Go! Hawk Flock, attack!”

Whoosh! A large group of Firehawks swooped forward simultaneously, swallowing Long Huan up.

The massive momentum of the combined attack sent Long Huan flying.

As he passed out, a thought appeared in Long Huan’s mind: What a terrifying attack. Things are going to get complicated now.