"Take my spear!"

Liu Xing wasted no words. Knowing there was no need for courtesy with Tang Yan, he opened with the Liu Family's supreme art, the Overlord Spear Art, from the very first move.

Sensing an aura at the peak of Yellow Rank First Grade, Tang Yan sneered inwardly. Not bad strength, but a far cry from his own.

Tang Yan let his internal force flow lightly, raised his long sword, and met the spear head-on.

When they saw Tang Yan actually advancing to meet that spear, the onlookers' eyes went wide as one. Barring surprises, a single exchange would decide it.

Clang! Metal struck metal. The whole crowd craned their necks, unable to believe what they were seeing.

Tang Yan had caught it!

The strength of Origin Rank Eighth Grade had blocked a full-power strike from Yellow Rank First Grade?

Before anyone could make sense of it, Tang Yan had already turned defense into attack, his long sword stabbing straight for Liu Xing's throat.

Feeling the surging Qi coiled around Tang Yan's blade, Liu Xing's face changed in an instant.

Damn it, how was this Origin Rank Eighth Grade? This was clearly Yellow Rank First Grade!

But before he could respond, Tang Yan's sword was upon him.

The Drifting Cloud Sword, graceful as clouds adrift across the sky, flowing like water, slipping through every gap. The sword-shadows that filled the air looked slow, yet within them lay endless transformation and danger at every turn.

Old Master Tang could not help rubbing his eyes, his shock no less than anyone's.

What stunned him was not Tang Yan's internal force, but the sword art itself. Was that not the Tang Family's supreme technique, the Drifting Cloud Sword?

So how did the power this boy wielded look a few shades stronger?

Under Tang Yan's ceaseless assault, Old Master Tang finally understood. It was indeed the Drifting Cloud Sword, but some of the forms had been altered.

Seeing the truth of it, the old man burned with indignation. This little brat had learned an enhanced Drifting Cloud Sword and never breathed a word to his grandfather?

Both stood at Yellow Rank First Grade, yet in technique and martial insight Tang Yan towered at a height the other could not touch.

Under the relentless flurry, Liu Xing fell back step by step.

It seemed to drag on, yet every shift passed in the space of a few breaths.

"Yellow Rank First Grade! Tang Yan is Yellow Rank First Grade too!" Watching Liu Xing retreat without pause, several keen-eyed experts grasped the reason at once.

Liu Xing flailed in graceless disarray, and before long his guard split wide open. Tang Yan's eyes narrowed. Seizing the gap, he drove a kick straight at Liu Xing's dantian.

Thud! Defenseless, Liu Xing took the kick square on. His body flew backward and crashed hard against the ground.

The corner of Tang Yan's mouth curved up. Another Liu Family man with a crippled dantian!

"Xing'er!" Seeing Liu Xing sprawled unconscious on the ground, Liu He cried out and bounded across in a few leaps to his side.

He pressed a pill into Liu Xing's mouth, seized his wrist to check the pulse, and his face turned a deeper shade of livid. Fixing a cold glare on Tang Yan, he said icily, "If anything happens to Liu Xing, you'll answer for it!"

"I said from the start that fists and blades have no eyes. As long as no one yields, the fight goes on. Liu Xing never called surrender, so the fact that I didn't rush in to add a few more cuts is already boundless mercy. Head Liu, three third-rank Beast Cores. Remember to send someone to deliver them to the Tang Family tonight." Unmoved by the threat, Tang Yan sheathed his sword and returned to the Tang Family's seats.

"You're already Yellow Rank First Grade?" Wu Xuan exclaimed as Tang Yan came over. The last time he had sparred with Lin Dongxue he was still Origin Rank Eighth Grade, and in these few short days the fellow had climbed this fast?

"Heh heh, just a stroke of luck." Tang Yan said modestly.

Lin Xiao was left speechless. No wonder this slippery rascal had dared to face Liu Xing; the boy's strength had reached Yellow Rank First Grade all along.

After all, Tang Yan had never claimed to be only Origin Rank Eighth Grade. Shameless conduct, yes, but no rule broken. Lin Xiao had no choice but to declare the result. "Tang Yan wins!"

The Liu Family's leaders choked on their fury. They had meant to strip the Tang Family of all face, and instead the Liu Family had become the laughingstock, failing to steal the chicken and losing the rice.

"Since when did the Tang Family turn so devious? Already Yellow Rank First Grade, yet hiding behind the guise of Origin Rank Eighth Grade to deceive people." Liu Changyu stepped out and rebuked him angrily.

"I never said I was Origin Rank Eighth Grade. You guessed wrong, so what has that to do with me?

"And you wanted Origin Rank Eighth Grade to fight Yellow Rank First Grade. What were you scheming there?

"Does the Tang Family exist only to take losses and be bullied?" Tang Yan said coldly.

"In Yun City my Tang Family has always held peace as precious. We provoke no one. But that does not mean the Tang Family fears anyone, nor that the Tang Family has no strength to contend!

"Today the Four Seas Gang was wiped out and Liu Xing was beaten. Examples ready at hand. If anyone thinks the Tang Family is easy to push around, you are welcome to come and challenge us!"

Hearing the warning, several families that leaned on the Tang Family felt their hearts stir, their resolve to follow firmer than ever. And some of Yun City's neutral families now counted the Tang Family among the houses worth pledging to.

Yet whether already aligned or merely considering it, every one of those families felt a flicker of regret. If only Tang Yan were a touch stronger, the risk of leaning on the Tang Family would fall away. For once Old Master Tang truly passed on, should Tang Yan still stand below the other great families, the Tang Family would walk the road of withering all the same.

And Tang Yan's appearance today at the Mid-Autumn Conference was meant precisely to lay those doubts to rest.

So long as he showed a hard enough edge, the Tang Family's standing would climb several rungs higher.

"Wasn't it said that anyone at Yellow Rank Third Grade may challenge the top eight from the last contest? Then I challenge your Liu Family's top eight!" Tang Yan called out.

What? Tang Yan wanted to challenge Yun City's top eight? Had he truly reached Yellow Rank Third Grade? Astonishment swept through the crowd.

"Tang Yan of the Tang Family challenges Liu Changyu of the Liu Family!" His voice rang through the night sky. Under the stunned gazes of all, his aura mounted step by step.

Yellow Rank Second Grade!

Yellow Rank Third Grade!

...

Layer upon layer, the aura kept rising, until at last it settled at Yellow Rank Sixth Grade.

The whole of Bright Moon Lake fell into dead silence.

A breath or two later, the uproar erupted.

The Tang heir, long branded Yun City's foremost wastrel, was a hidden master all along!

At Yellow Rank Sixth Grade, with a strong enough showing, breaking into Yun City's top eight would be no trouble at all.

The faces of the Liu Family group grew darker still. The sword art Tang Yan had shown earlier, their leaders recognized it well as the Tang Family's Drifting Cloud Sword.

Only someone had reworked it, lifting its power a full grade above its original form.

With such an edge in technique, the plan to cripple Tang Yan was likely beyond Liu Changyu now.

"Young Master Tang, why not challenge me directly instead? If you can last twenty moves in my hands, I'll count it as my loss. How does that sound?" Liu Zhi stepped out from the crowd, and the clamor fell silent once more.

As the acknowledged first among Yun City's younger generation, Liu Zhi was rumored to stand at Yellow Rank Eighth Grade, a full two grades above Tang Yan.

And between martial artists of high cultivation, even the slimmest gap could become the deciding cause of defeat.

Tang Yan kept his face calm while he weighed it swiftly within.

Even were Liu Zhi at Yellow Rank Ninth Grade, he would still have the means to fight.

His chief aim in entering this Martial Contest was never the championship or its Reward. It was to let the world see that the Tang Family was not without an heir, and, when the moment came, to gather hearts to its side.