Chapter 178 - Provocation
A peak-level medium Clasping Yuan Realm martial artist?
Ye Chen’s pupils instantly shrunk. This girl with a veil was a peak-level medium Clasping Yuan Realm martial artist. With his sensible soul power, Ye Chen grasped the Zhen Qi vibration released from this girl’s body, which was as great and strong as a rapidly flowing river.
Lin Yue slightly paused, then turned around with great difficulty after he recognized the girl; he said to Ye Chen with a low voice, “Murong Qingcheng, the second-ranked disciple of the Black Dragon Empire’s rank 6 institution, Sky Flying Devil Martial School, Hidden Dragon Ranked 27, but it’s said that her real power is no weaker than the top 10.”
‘Sky Flying Devil Martial School?’ Ye Chen thought, ‘such a coincidence, back on the Wild Goose Falling River, I’ve met the Black Crow Taoist Priest, an elder of this Sky Flying Devil Martial School, now I meet their second-ranked disciple here in this Three River City!’
Lin Yue continued, “The Black Dragon Empire is not too far away from here, but usually, very few of martial artists in that empire would respond to Qi Shaoieng’s invitation. I have no idea why is she showing up this time, after all, all top 30 Hidden Dragon Ranked martial artists are so proud; they hardly ever even talk to lower ranked people.”
The appearance of Murong Qingcheng had immediately created a weird atmosphere in the backyard, that all the other young male martial artists simultaneously sorted their clothes and straightened their bodies, trying to show their best sides to this goddess-like girl. As for the other few young female martial artists, each let out a cold sniff, evidently feeling quite unpleasant. However, they had to admit that whether in terms of body shape or temperament, Murong Qingcheng was far better than all of them. As for facial features, everyone knew that Murong Qingcheng was one of the two legendarily beautiful girls in the entire Black Dragon Empire, that even multiple princes of the empire had been dreaming about her.
A vivid passion surged out of Qi Shaofeng’s eyes while he hurriedly walked up and said, “Ah, Miss Murong, please forgive me for not going out to welcome you!”
Murong Qingcheng gave a faint smile and responded, “Just call me Murong.”
“Good, Murong, please take a seat over here.” Qi Shaofeng raised his right arm and showed Murong her seat.
Sitting beside Qi Shaofeng’s seat, Murong Qingcheng held up a cup of tea that was served by a waitress just now; she took a slight sip then swept around the backyard with her pair of soul-taking beautiful eyes. She was slightly surprised when she saw Ye Chen, who was sitting in a corner, because she clearly remembered that Ye Chen was not in the last season Hidden Dragon Rank. ‘He might be a newly emerged talented young martial artist.’ she thought.
This party was held out of no special purpose, but serving as a platform that could allow all talented young martial artists to know each other and exchange their experiences. Without a doubt, as talented and passionate young martial artists from different institutions, martial arts and cultivations were their eternal main topics since the beginning of the time.
“Brother Zhang, I heard that you have already reached the ninth-level of your ‘Wind God Break’, just wondering how powerful you are now. You must be pretty amazing!”
“The ‘Wind God Break’ is the secret martial art of our Wind Steer Martial School, it surely is amazing. Brother He, even your Gold Steel defence art might not be able to hold off my move now.”
“Eh? Since you’ve said so, why don’t we gave a try to find out whether your Wind God Break is more powerful than my Gold Steel defence art?”
“As you wish!”
As martial art related topics went on, some of them couldn’t help but become irritated, making them start a competition.
To this situation, Qi Shaofeng was well prepared that he quickly cleared a large space empty for them, he then grinned and said, “The next season of Hidden Dragon Rank has not yet begun, you two should know when to stop in order to not affect our good friendships.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t hurt him.”
“I’ll be gentle as well.”
These two young martial artists ranked similarly in the last season Hidden Dragon Rank, therefore, they both wanted to find out which one of them was more powerful than the other; it was something that could be told even from their languages.
Qi Shaofeng gave a bitter smile then stepped back to beside Murong Qingcheng.
Boom!
Swiftly, each of the two young martial artists had already launched a move. The sturdy and muscular one released a golden, translucent shield, which had wrapped his entire body up; that shield seemed to be formed from golden air streams, yet it looked thicker and more solid than airstreams, which was more like a layer of golden water, firmly shielding every corner of the martial artist’s body.
In front of him was a tall and slim young man, whose hair was fluttering in the wind. A cyan whirlwind emerged behind his body, which was compressed into an oval shape. The core of the oval whirlwind was deep blue. As the tall and slim young man abruptly threw out a punch, a cyan stream of air immediately coiled around his arm, then swooshed out towards his opponent.
Lin Yue explained to Ye Chen, “The one with Golden Steel defence art is named Zhao Gang, Hidden Dragon Ranked 65, and the one with Wind God Break is named Cheng Feng, Hidden Dragon Ranked 60. Although their ranks are slightly different, their levels are nearly the same, therefore, no one knows who would win this fight.”
“Perhaps Zhao Gang.” Said Ye Chen.
“Why?” Asked Lin Yue confusedly.
Ye Chen grinned and said, “Although Cheng Feng’s moves were launched fiercely and violently like a thunderstorm, but he could never break Zhao Gang’s defence within a short time; but Zhao Gang has already started looking for the weaknesses of Cheng Feng while he’s defending himself. If I’m right, Zhao Gang will launch his effective counterattack once after Cheng Feng’s Zhen Qi begin running out.”
Hearing Ye Chen, Lin Yue turned his face back to the battlefield, but he failed to discover any clue that was mentioned by Ye Chen no matter how hard he tried. These two young martial artists had been moving way too swiftly, that it was quite difficult for the other same level martial artists to analyze their fight; even if they could, they couldn’t possibly forecast their later situations just like Ye Chen just did.
“Shameless big talker.” Said Gao Yuan after letting out a scornful sniff.
Lin Yue didn’t take Ye Chen’s forecast seriously either, but since Ye Chen was his friend, he would surely defend him from the others under the current situation.
“The conversation is between us and has nothing to do with you.” Said Lin Yue.
“Oy,” said Gao Yuan with a scornful tone, “Every single one in this space is much more powerful than both of you, the reason why brother Qi invited you is that he wanted to give you a chance to meet some truly talented martial artists and learn that there are always someone beyond you. Don’t think that coming to this party makes you equally powerful than us!”
Ye Chen did not show any change in expression, he only responded blandly, “Well, in terms of power, you’re only average among all these people here, you’re not qualified to say that to us either.”
Gao Yuan showed a frosty gaze, then said, “Among the ranks of all Hidden Dragon Ranked martial artists of your nine nations, the highest was only 54. If you think that you can domineer the world of younger generation martial artists only because you’ve defeated some of those lousy Hidden Dragon Ranked martial artists in your nine nations, you would certainly become such a huge joke. Seriously, don’t be so stupid, you’re not as powerful as you think.”
A few others, who had always been looking down upon the nine nations, including the Elephant Mountain Nation and Windy Nation, each showed a teasing look when they heard Gao Yuan.
“Where does this kid come from? He can’t really think that he’s a big deal, can he?”
“People from the nine nations have always been in the bottom of every single season of Hidden Dragon Rank.”
“The last time, that stupid thing named Wo Wuxie jumped out and messed around, yet we’ve thought him a good lesson. Now we have another arrogant dumb kid from the nine nations.”
Lin Yue’s face was darkened badly, he whispered to Ye Chen, “Ye Chen, can Zhao Gang truly win the fight?”
“Very likely.”
Ye Chen didn’t care what the others said, he predicted that Zhao Gang could win the fight only because that was the result of his analysis through his soul power.
Those sour words had already caught Qi Shaofeng and Murong Qingcheng’s attention.
Qi Shaofeng shook his head and said, “This kid is indeed a bit rash.”
A complicated look flashed across Murong Qingchen’s eyes, but she didn’t say anything.
Boom!
Dazzling Golden light clashed against dark cyan air streams, squeezing out huge amounts of raging fire sparkles.
“Zhao Gang, your turtle shell is indeed hard to break, but I bet you can’t take this coming move!” While shouting, Cheng Feng’s body rose into the air while he spread out his arms and threw a kick down below.
Cyan whirlwind instantly wrapped his right leg up while madly spinning, generating a sharp and piercing cyan spiral under his foot as it was swiftly thrusted down.
Gao Yuan gave a sneer when he saw this as he firmly believed that Zhao Gang couldn’t take this move. Most of the others believed so as well.
Ye Chen remained perfectly calm, acting like nothing was happening at all.
Clang!
The golden shield went badly twisted and seemed to break in the next moment; Zhao Gang suddenly raised his left arm and launched a palm attack right onto Cheng Feng’s foot.
Cheng Feng leant his body aside, laughed out and said, “Haha, that is only a foreplay of my real attack! [Sudden Storm]!”
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Within only a moment, tens of sharp silhouettes ceaselessly pierced towards Zhao Gang; streams of fierce, awl-shaped power streams broke his golden shield bit by bit.
“Cheng Feng, you’re too impatient. Lose!”
Zhao Gang stood perfectly still and said, but right in the following moment, he swiftly flashed across the air while his thick and huge palm, which looked like a statue made of pure gold, struck on Cheng Feng’s protective Zhen Qi.
Boom!
Cheng Feng thought that he had suppressed Zhao Gang since the very beginning, but he had never thought that Zhao Gang had been looking for his weakness all this time. At this moment, Cheng Feng’s Zhen Qi was beginning to run out, but he had no time to stall. Therefore, he couldn’t help but slightly slow down, causing him to fail in dodging the sudden attack. His protective Zhen Qi was then shattered by Zhao Gang’s palm, and he was sent flying backwards as blood streams gushed out of his mouth.
“Thank you very much.”
Zhao Gang gave a grin, then stepped back into the crowd.
Many of the others were choked by the end of this fight, including Qi Shaofeng. In their eyes, Cheng Feng’s comprehensive power should be slightly more powerful than Zhao Gang.
Lin Yue popped up his eyes and glanced at Ye Chen in surprise. This was exactly what he said earlier. Shaking his head, he showed a big grin; Lin Yue felt a strong pleasure of being a winner. He hurriedly turned aside and yelled to Gao Yuan, “Oy, Brother Gao, you just said that Ye Chen is a shameless big talker? Are you sure that you weren’t talking about yourself?”
“You!” Gao Yuan growled back with a darkened face.
Lin Yue turned back and neglected the other party. He then murmured, “Well, some arrogant people just can’t stop overestimating themselves…”
“Was he just guessing blindly?”
“Surely! He is only an advanced Clasping Yuan Realm martial artist!”
“But I can’t stand watching their proud faces, someone wants to challenge them? Go teach them a good lesson!”
“Haha, don’t even bother, brother Gao Yuan will do it!”
While the others were talking, Gao Yuan took a step forward, pointed his finger at Lin Yue and Ye Chen and said, “Cut the crap, which one of you dares to fight against me? Or you can just fight together, as such, the others won’t call me a bully.”
Before Ye Chen responded, Lin Yue walked up and said, “Fight together? Don’t be ridiculous, who do you think you are? I’ll be the first one.”
Ye Chen stayed silent. Although he wished that Lin Yue would win, Ye Chen couldn’t tell which one of them was more powerful before the fight started.
Gao Yuan curved his lips upwards and said, “If I can’t defeat you within ten moves, I’ll give up and let you win.”
“I’d like to find out how you would make that happen.”
After the journey in the Heaven Dream Ancient Region, Lin Yue had already realized that he was not powerful enough, therefore, he had been training himself severely back in the Dragon and Tiger martial School all this time. If he didn’t improve in the slightest, he wouldn’t even come to this party to shame himself.
On the empty area, the two of them stood twenty meters apart while staring at each other.
Pop!
“Lin Yue, I’ll soon let you know the difference between us.” Gao Yuan took a long gasp, and at the same time, blue light streams poured out from his body; inside those blue light streams, electric bolts dazzlingly sparkled. The flagstone paved on the ground instantly cracked, it was charred black because of the electric bolts.
Lightning Zhen Qi!
Ye Chen was slightly surprised.