When Lu Bang pressed down with both hands, the trial of the cloud skill immediately entered the second stage.
Most people didn’t even think about dealing with others because resisting Lu Bang’s cloud skill was already extremely difficult.
Everyone’s clouds fell rapidly in height under Lu Bang’s pressure.
Clouds below 100 meters would be eliminated.
No one dared to be distracted, and all of them used cloud skill to resist the pressure from the sky.
"Break through the thunder and soar to the Jiuxiao, rise up!"
In a corner of the east suburb, Yu Chunwu’s face turned red. He had just watched the battle between Li Feng and Zhao Xing and even wanted to personally question Zhao Xing about why he set them up.
But now, there was no such thought, as he was fully focused on resisting Lu Bang’s pressure.
Yu Chunwu wasn’t considered weak, but even when he was controlling the thunder cloud with all his might,
the cloud was still slowly descending towards the 100-meter mark.
Amidst the thunder cloud, wisps of cloud qi drifted away, floating towards Lu Bang’s thousand-meter-high cloud layer.
Although Lu Bang didn’t use the Swallowing Cloud Skill, his cloud qi had already formed a domain, slowly absorbing the cloud qi from the geniuses below.
This made the resistance even more difficult.
"Buzz~" The cloud layer finally couldn’t withstand it.
Yu Chunwu felt himself wrapped in a gust of wind, and in the next moment, his vision blurred.
The next thing he knew, he was outside the boundary marker.
"Test failed, report to another branch." A man in armor looked at Yu Chunwu indifferently, "There is still a chance to advance to the Four Great Academies in the future, do not be fixated on this result."
"Yes." Yu Chunwu nodded respectfully, though you could see some dissatisfaction, he knew the test was the test.
As time went on, the number of eliminated participants increased.
After two quarters, the original nine hundred and thirty-one people slowly dwindled down to less than eight hundred.
By this time, Lu Bang’s cloud layer had also pressed down from a thousand meters to seven hundred meters.
"Still pressing down, how many people does this old man need to eliminate to move to the next stage?"
Zhao Xing also felt the pressure.
His cloud layer was now maintained at six hundred meters.
Originally, after devouring Li Feng, his height had risen to nine hundred meters; at that height, only a few individuals were there.
But as Lu Bang’s pressure increased, he had to descend as well.
But he still maintained the standard of the first echelon.
"The number of eliminated participants is still increasing, it’s already less than eight hundred."
Zhao Xing glanced around; every person eliminated was directly teleported out of the boundary marker by Wind Skill.
Gradually, the people around him became sparse.
Lu Bang’s cloud layer pressed down further.
Suddenly, it dropped to five hundred meters!
Zhao Xing was startled.
"This old guy has no martial ethics, attacking by surprise."
"Dropping two hundred meters at once, this is going for a kill!"
Zhao Xing cursed in his heart.
His cloud layer almost collapsed from this old guy’s pressure.
Although it didn’t collapse, it scattered a lot, that was an all-round crushing, utterly irresistible.
After snapping out of it, he immediately controlled the cloud layer to descend to four hundred meters.
The cloud qi was reabsorbed and supplemented.
The others weren’t much better off either.
The top-ranked Shi Yong, Zhuang Ziqing, Hua Zhilin, Feng Qiu, and Guan Junyang, their cloud skills were also severely injured.
As for those lower down, it was miserable.
Those who barely maintained at the hundred-meter mark suffered heavy losses from such a fierce drop.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~"
Dozens of people disappeared from within the boundary marker at once.
"Test over! Please dispel your cloud layers and rest in place."
Zuo Zizhi’s voice came through.
The dark golden cloud qi domain in the sky disappeared immediately after.
The challengers let out a sigh of relief, with some even sitting on the ground.
The pressure was immense, even if many people resisted together, the pressure on each individual didn’t decrease.
"It’s finally over, wonder how many people are left?" Zhao Xing looked up into the sky.
"In the second test, seven hundred and twenty people passed. The rest can report to other branches and compete for the rankings there."
"Do not be discouraged if you are eliminated, as performing well in other branches could also give you a chance to advance to the Four Great Academies."
Zuo Zizhi’s voice echoed far and wide.
"Only seven hundred and twenty left?" Zhao Xing clicked his tongue.
Lu Bang suddenly attacked.
That wave eliminated at least sixty or seventy people.
In the second test, the first stage was supporting the cloud, fighting for control.
The second stage was gaining height, and the height of the cloud layer also determined the casting range.
The final stage tested the stability of the cloud layer.
Even though these nine hundred plus people were already the best, over two hundred were still eliminated after the second stage.
"The Military Minister of Agriculture’s selection is really strict."
In Zhao Xing’s view, the selection for the Ten Suns Cave Heaven for the Military Minister of Agriculture was also very rigorous.
"I wonder what the next test will be, only two out of eight tests are done."
Many people were also whispering.
"First test was wind, second test was cloud."
"The third test might be thunder or rain?"
Zhao Xing rested while silently pondering.
"The Four Heavenly Time Techniques, cloud skill and wind skill were tested, thunder skill and rain skill have no reason not to be tested either."
"Let’s see how they test them."
"It should be a comprehensive test."
The first test was relaying messages, the second test was cloud pressure.
Both combined actual combat.
The third test probably wouldn’t be as simple as comparing whose thunder skill was better.
"That’s about it." Lu Bang said on the flying boat, "Let the tower ship come over."
"Won’t you let them rest a bit more?" Zuo Zizhi asked, "It’s only been fifteen minutes."