Chapter 18 - Strength

Chapter 18

Dale and Feng glanced at each other. Then, with a sparkle in their eyes, they burst out in to laughter.

“Ahahahahaha.”

“Bahahahahha”

Feng started to flop around on the ground, laughing as hard as he was. Dale, seeing him rolling on the floor, couldn’t help but laugh again, uncontrollably. Their laugh was so contagious, and Fengs worm like rolling so ridiculous, a couple of the onlookers began to laugh as well, with confused looks on their faces, as if they weren’t quite sure why they were laughing.

Devin and Jonah stared at the duo furiously. From their perspective, the two newcomers were ridiculing them.

Devin yelled, “Fine. Morons, get out of my sight before I end you.” Jonah glared at them furiously.

Feng however, upon hearing Devin’s high pitched tone matched with his ridiculous threat, rolled back into his realistic earthworm like roll of laughter twice as strongly. A few more of the onlookers joined in laughing and suddenly everyone in the general vicinity was crying tears of joy, laughing their hearts out. The majority of them were simply laughing at Fengs flopping around antics, but quite a few joined in when they heard Devin’s squeaky rage.

Dale choked back his laughing enough to say “Sorry, ho-honored seniors. It wasn’t our intention to interrupt you, but it’s also our intention to test our strength with the Field Strength Testing Crystal. Feng continued flopping.

Jonah looked a bit annoyed as well, though if you looked closely, you could see he was holding back his own laughter. It was quite an awkward situation for poor Devin.

Devin’s face turned a tomato color red, his eyes physically bulging in his rage. Most of his anger was directed at Feng, who had almost finished his dying fish impression, and was wobbling up. “I challenge you to a fight of strength!” declared Devin, with rage in his eyes.

“If you beat me, I will crawl on my knees whenever I see you,” he declared, “but if I beat you, you have to crawl on your own knees anytime you see me, and call me your father.” Devin gave off a (rather squeaky) confident aura.

Feng, after a moment to regain his balance, said with a carefree tone “Sure! I accept!” he glanced around at the onlookers, “Everyone here heard this right? When this guy loses, whenever he sees me, he will crawl away on his knees.”

The onlookers stared at Feng. No matter how strong Feng was, you couldn’t change the fact that he was merely a 10 year old child. Even if he was a genius at the Coal Metal level, he could be, at the earliest, the early stage of the Coal level. Devin was a late stage Coal level expert. The difference between them was huge. On average, an early stage Coal Metal Core expert could punch between 1200 and 1400 pounds. A late stage Coal Metal Core expert averaged 1700 to 2000 lbs. While devin might not be at the peak of the Coal level, he was still hundreds of pounds stronger then an early stage brat.

What the crowd thought and what Devin thought were both very logical. Normally, they would be correct, in this type of situation. However, Feng is, in simple terms, a freak. Born with an innate Fire Lords Bloodline, his cultivation and strength is much more powerful then the average early stage Coal Core cultivator. Feng looked around confidently, ignoring the ridicule of others.

Dale gave him a thumbs up. Feng nodded, stepping up next to the gargantuan crystal. “All I have to do is beat your score, right?” he said.

Devin laughed, “HAH! A brat like you is actually accepting my challenge? Don’t regret it!” he said, with a glint in his eye. Devin stepped up to the crystal as well. Suddenly, a powerful energy source could be felt, flowing out from the young man. Energy began to slowly accumulate in his palm. The energy forming there gave off a faint earthy feel, like that of freshly cut grass or moss on a tree.

Suddenly, he struck out, yelling “Earthen Palm: Rock Strike!” His arm smashed into the large crystal, emitting an intense wave of green light. The ground near the crystal shook for a moment, and the onlookers watching cried out. Several flashes of light played forth, and suddenly, the screen to the left rattled off some numbers.

“1600..1800.1850..1900..1920!” Jonah exclaimed, staring at Devin in astonishment! “That’s almost at the peak of the Coal level!” Jonah was quite surprised. His most powerful attack could only raise 1850 lbs of force. For Devin to be able to leverage such a powerful blow, he felt that he had fallen behind in cultivation power and skill. If there existed too big a gap between fighters, there would be no way for them to compete, in any tournament like setting.

Dale simply watched, laughing in his head. Feng swaggered up to the center of the crystal. He concentrated for a few seconds, causing a flame to rise off of his knuckles. Then, with a fiery blast, his fist shot forth. Right as it was about to impact the great rock, an explosion occurred around his elbow. Feng had, in order to gain a maximum speed impact, detonated the energy flowing at the edge of his elbow. His fist, giving off a burning heat, smashed into the rock crystal, causing waves of fire to spread along it’s surface. The fire interacted with the faint misty light the crystal gave off, slowly being devoured by the mist. The rock turned a very faint shade of pink, for a moment.

The screen on the side suddenly started to rattle of numbers as well, as the large crystal began flashing.

“1800..1900..2000?!..2100..2180!” Jonah gaped at Feng in astonishment. He stared back at the crystal, then back at Feng. “Is..is it broken?!” He could not believe that a kid several years younger then him would have a strength past that of the Coal Core level.

The Coal Metal Core level officially reaches its peak at 2000 lbs of strength. After that, normal cultivators would successfully form their next metal layer on their core, and move on to copper. However, Feng was clearly giving off the aura of a coal core cultivator, and an early stage one at that. For him to have landed such a massive blow should be impossible.

There was dead silence in the crowd. All of those who had been shouting insults and ridiculing the boys suddenly began to regret their actions.

Devin began to turn a pasty shade of green and red, as panic and rage set in.

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