AST 1614 - The showdown between the new generation of the Qing Clan and the Nalan Clan (1)
Since the announcement of the start of the competition, no one had gone up to the stage. Even though the Nalan Clan was the one who challenged the Qing Clan and it might only be a challenge between the younger generations, the younger ones still represented their own clan. This might lead to a series of problems; they might even drag the two entire clans into a war as a result.
Seeing that no one went up, Qing Changfeng took the initiative to do so. He remained silent as he stood on the stage. Qing Changfeng shared a bit of resemblance to Qing Zi. They both possessed tall and lofty figures. He had a very honest look. Compared to Qing Zi, he was a lot more good-looking.
As the opposing team spotted Qing Changfeng going up to the arena, very quickly, a handsome, young teenager also followed along and went up. On the young man’s face, there were still a few bruises. Though they might be faint, they still looked obvious. Qing Shui reckoned that he was the Nalan Clan’s disciple who was hurt by Qing Ming.
The young man’s name was Nalan Lianheng. He was the fifth son of Nalan Clan clan’s head. However, he was a perfect hedonistic son of rich parents. Though he might possess decent strength, he wasn’t able to make it to the top list of the strongest disciples in the Nalan Clan. The potential he drew out of himself was minor. Despite that, he was still a member of Nalan Clan. His losing face would just mean the Nalan Clan losing face.
A lot of aristocratic clans were like this. When the children relied on their family background to bully others, they weren’t able to feel and experience humility for themselves. But once they got hit, they would feel as if their clan was insulted and that it had lost its face. From then on, they would get even cockier in terms of the things they said. For example, their excuses were usually like “Even if my clan member had been wrong, no outsider should be able to get involved. A mistake is a mistake, what can we do about it?”
Nalan Lianheng wasn’t a match for Qing Ming , but he had once crossed fists with Qing Changfeng before. Though they only crossed fists for a few times, he was confident that it would be no problem for him to defeat Qing Changfeng. Hence, he wanted to look for a disciple of Qing Clan to release his anger and gain some face back for himself.
Seeing that Nalan Lianheng came up, Qing Changfeng didn’t seem nervous. He smiled and said, “Are you alright? Don’t regret coming to battle with injuries once you lose a little bit later.”
“Since when was I injured? You don’t yet have the qualification to do that. Know your limit and give up and go down. Otherwise, you might have to give up halfway when you’re being beaten up.” Just how embarrassing could this be? To think that he could still have so much confidence even in front of Qing Changfeng.
“You aren’t injured? That’s great then. I thought you were.” Qing Changfeng chuckled.
Looking at the honest Qing Changfeng, Qing Shui smiled. That brat resembled his uncle. Not only did he have an honest look, he was also quite quick-witted. It’s just surprising for him to have such an honest nature.
As soon as Qing Changfeng raised the aura across his body, he immediately charged towards Nalan Lianheng. He thrusted out the Arhat Fist in his hands. This was also a boxing technique Qing Shui passed onto him. Qing Changfeng leaned more towards the the path of cultivating his body.
Nalan Lianheng looked at the approaching Qing Changfeng with a look of disdain. He immediately thrust out his punch.
Qing Changfeng smiled. Though it wasn’t long since the last time they fought, he never expected for his own strength to increase by so many times. Since the opponent was so arrogant, he might as well make him cry and leave the stage.
At the instant when Qing Changfeng crossed fists with his opponent, he immediately turned his fist into a bear’s palm.
Bear Slap!
At that instant, Qing Changfeng abruptly increased his strength by a huge chunk and immediately slapped him with his palm. Nalan Lianheng never expected for Qing Changfeng’s strength to increase so dramatically in only a few days. The feeling was similar to getting pressed down by a mountain.
His expression changed dramatically. Though he intended to dodge, it was already too late for him to do so.
Peng!
One move… one move was all it took for Nalan Lianheng to fall off the stage like a kite that was cut off. With their current strength, there was no problem for the children to battle on the stage. After all, they were still quite weak in the overall scheme of things.
The Qing Clan was very happy. All of them could be seen having a confident yet calm smile on their faces. A lot of people started cheering for Changfeng. The majority of the people here all hoped for the Qing Clan to emerge victorious.
The Nalan Clan, on the other hand, were still calm both physically and mentally. They were just a bit bothered. After all, the Qing Clan was the one to send their candidate onto the stage first. But even with this advantage, the Nalan Clan still lost. This somehow made it seem like the Nalan Clan was stupid. The first match was very important. It was the match which helped increase a team’s morale.
Qing Changfeng had yet to reveal all of his strength. Also very quickly, the next person who came up was a young teenager with a long sword. He didn’t look as strong as Qing Changfeng, but he also had quite a tough build. Standing there, he exerted an imposing manner.
The moment when Qing Changfeng saw the young man, he also became really serious. In his hand, he held a hammer. It was quite a huge hammer which was given by Qing Shui from the realm. They were all from his rewards. He had many kinds of weapons. They included guns, spears, blades, swords and more.
“Who would have expected that you, Qing Changfeng, were this strong? You were such a patient person normally.” The teenager said in an indifferent tone.
“Nalan Wei, can you stop being so talkative?”
The disciples from Qing Clan had interacted many times with Nalan Clan. Hence, they were familiar with each other. Despite that being the case, they still didn’t fully understand each other as they weren’t aware of each other’s actual strength.
“Since you are so looking forward to going down the stage, I will help you realize your wish.” Nalan Wei charged towards Qing Changfeng as soon as he finished speaking.
Nalan Wei walked the easy and quick path. Qing Changfeng watched as the enemy approached him. It seemed he was already familiar with the opponent’s attack. He immediately swung his hammer horizontally and thrusted it out abruptly.
Iron Smelting Hammer Technique!
This was Qing Shui’s Thousand Hammer Technique. Qing Zi, Qing You, and Qing Changfeng had learnt this technique before. This was the technique which Qing Changfeng was the most skillful at.
Back then, Qing Shui had only told him that once he mastered his hammer techniques, he would be able to defeat a peak Martial Saint or even some stronger people. Merely those words had caused him to believe firmly in the hammer techniques. Furthermore, once he was skillful enough with this, he would be able to forge decent weapons.
Though the Thousand Hammer Technique might seem easy, it actually required prior cultivation in the Basic Sword Technique. He needed to achieve the state where he could convert it into something magical. Qing Changfeng was yet to be able to reach this state but despite that, he still felt a bit accomplished.
The Thousand Hammer Technique didn’t look great visually. At most, there were only a few techniques that would look bold and powerful. This hammer move, Horizontal Slash, was just a horizontal sweep with a hammer to block attacks horizontally, despite its imposing name. Almost at the same time, he also hammered it down the arena causing it to abruptly land. He managed to coordinate his Qi, body and mind together. That mere hammer strike had enabled him to achieve an aura enough to split heaven and earth apart.
Beng!
A loud noise came through. This time, Qing Changfeng went all out. He stopped reserving any of his strength. Nalan Wei used to be a lot more powerful than him. Even now, he wasn’t confident that he would be able to beat him. However, he felt that he must work hard and fight for his improvement. It was from constantly challenging warriors stronger than oneself that a warrior would get to improve.
Qing Changfeng shook a little from the impact. He immediately raised the hammer in his hand. At that instant, Qing Changfeng’s body also followed along and curved upwards. It was as if he stooped and stood up abruptly. That movement of his was very explosive.
At the moment, Nalan Wei’s strength was almost Qing Changfeng’s equal. However, he possessed greater speed. Hence, Qing Changfeng was in a slight disadvantage. But through this battle, Qing Changfeng had come to realize that with greater speed, one would claim total advantage over a battle. Basically, Nalan Wei was the one on the offensive while Qing Changfeng constantly defended against his attack. Occasionally, he would break out of his defense and attack.
Pu!
Qing Changfeng received a wound on his shoulder. Luckily, it wasn’t that deep. At the moment when his opponent approached him, Qing Changfeng maintained a very calm expression. He didn’t get anxious just because he had suffered an injury. Like usual, he continued to defend. He knew that he would still stand a chance if he continued to do so. At the very least, Nalan Wei was unlikely to beat him within a short period of time. Given enough time, he might have hope to turn defeat into victory.
Victory was very important to a warrior. It would help increase his confidence and lift his spirit to cultivate. There were very few people who could manage to achieve even greater heights following the failures they experienced. A majority of people would only build up their confidence through continuous victories. By enjoying the pleasure of winning and its benefits, a person would work even harder to cultivate his martial arts. It might even help increase his insight towards it and break through more easily.
Nalan Wei looked at Qing Changfeng, “If you keep dragging on the fight, you will start bleeding more and eventually lose.”
“This extent of injury is nothing. See? It has already stopped bleeding.” Qing Changfeng said with a smile.
Qing Shui observed the eldest grandson of the Qing Clan. Qing Zun was Qing Shui’s eldest son, but Qing Changfeng was the Qing Clan’s eldest grandson. Furthermore, his name was also given by Qing Shui. It meant “To ride the wind and crest the waves”.
Qing Changfeng greatly admired his uncle, Qing Shui. He would do whatever he told him to. From a young age, Qing Shui had also showed deep concern for him. He saw him as an equal to Qing Zun and the others. All of his cultivation was basically modeled after Qing Shui.
Qing Shui was also quite satisfied with Changfeng’s nature. His attitude should be one of his biggest merits. He might be able to accomplish things in the martial arts world in the future. He had decent talent. After all, Qing Shui had used medicines as well as Divine Force to help raise his strength before.
Nalan Wei intended to let Qing Changfeng mess himself up. This way, he would be able to claim victory within a short period of time. It’s just that when he realized that this method wouldn’t work, he found no other choice but to go on the offensive and attack. If he continued battling and pressing his advantage, he would cause the opponent's wounds to continue bleeding. Qing Changfeng tried to endure all of it but Nalan Wei didn’t want to continue waiting. From his knowledge, QIng Changfeng wasn’t his opponent.
Nalan Wei acted! He started landing his attacks continuously like water moving across the great rivers. Qing Changfeng stopped breathing and calmed himself down. He began to continuously block against his opponent’s attacks with his enormous hammer, following the movement of his body. Qing Shui’s eyes turned bright at the moment he saw this.
Who would have thought that this brat had such a decent ability to comprehend certain skills? While observing his body movement and the footwork he was taking, Qing Shui was surprised to find out that he had managed to figure out how to coordinate the strength of his waist with the strength of his legs. Though it might seem like he was swinging a huge hammer, Qing Changfeng actually wasn’t exhausting too much of his strength. He was using a technique where he borrowed the force produced from the momentum of his body to exert a greater power.
Normally, Qing Shui would also let him practice the Taichi Fist. However, he was never able to grasp the essentials of it. Though he might look very skillful practicing it, he was never able to accomplish the stage of “leveraging his opponent’s strength and countering it back towards him”.
But now, he was suddenly able to barely grasp of this kind of strength. Deep down, he was in joy. The more he used it, the more he became used to it. Following the clash against Nalan Wei’s long sword, he felt more and more conserved with his strength. He was slowly becoming more and more skillful at it. Furthermore, the forces of his attacks were very powerful.
Nalan Wei had gotten anxious. He was in disbelief as he looked at the increasing pressure caused by his opponent’s hammer. He was supposed to have been injured, so how could he possibly get stronger and stronger as the battle went on?
With this thought in his mind, he became distracted and his shoulder was hammered by Qing Changfeng’s hammer. Nalan Wei wasn’t as strong as Qing Changfeng in terms of his body physique. Qing Changfeng’s hit was quite heavy, and Nalan Wei immediately was hit out of the arena.
The Qing Clan was in joy. Qing Shui and many others were able to tell that Qing Changfeng’s passion for battles had caused him to reach a new understanding in his strength and significantly increase it. Nalan Wei could only be considered to be unlucky for this kind of outcome. He was supposed to have won the match, but he lost instead. Losing two matches back to back had caused the Nalan Clan to lose a lot of face. A middle-aged man from Nalan Clan said in an upset tone, “Jian`Er, go!”