Chapter 267: The Last Nine Rounds of Competitions
Translator: 3heryl Editor: AntiGod
The twenty-one-meters dragon-shaped shadow was humongous. It looked extremely majestic as it danced around Ye Chen. It then roared into the sky, its loud roar made Sikong Sheng and the other nine people’s dragon-shaped shadows start to roar as well, as if they were competing.
“This feeling is so amazing. My spirit and Qi was not damaged at all, and somehow has gotten stronger. My condition seems to have reached a new level.”
Before, in order for Ye Chen to stay at his prime condition, he would have to use his sword intent to cut away negative thoughts and emotions. But now that he had this powerful dragon fountain Qi, there would not be a problem of his condition slipping. He would be able to stay at his prime all the time and maybe even improve.
“I wonder what would happen when the dragon-shaped shadow reaches twenty-seven meters.”
The number nine in Chinese was the largest number. Before, it was very unlikely for warriors to reach twenty-seven meters, but this year’s Hidden Dragon Rank competition was the most intense one since one thousand years. Thus, it would not be impossible to reach twenty-seven meters.
“The ninth battle of the fortieth round, Xu Jing versus Wei Renjie.”
Three battles after Ye Chen was Xu Jing’s turn. Her opponent was Wei Renjie, who had learned the entry-level blade intent. He was ranked thirty-seven in the last Hidden Dragon Rank. According to Ye Chen’s calculation, Wei Renjie should be able to make it into the top twenty-five this year, and would be a powerful opponent for Xu Jing.
The dragon-shaped shadow outside Wei Renjie’s body was also around fifteen meters. With his muscular body and the long blade in his hand, he looked like a powerful blade artist.
Chin!
He took out his long blade out of its scabbard, the blade light seeming like water. Wei Renjie said to Xu Jing, “You deserve me using all my power.”
Not many people could make Wei Renjie use all his power – those top young warriors would be way too powerful for him to handle while the weak ones were too weak for him to even fight against. Although Xu Jing was not as powerful as Ye Chen and Tuo Baku, she was still one of the top warriors among the young generation. Without using all his power, Wei Renjie might lose, and even if he used all of his power, he still did not have the confidence that he would win for sure.
Xu Jing said lightly, “You too.”
The two stopped talking, staring at each other with full focus.
He!
Wei Renjie attacked first. With the enhancement of his entry-level blade intent, his sharp blade qi turned into a brutal dragon, roaring and attacking heavily towards Xu Jing, who was dozens of meters away. The blade Qi had not arrived yet, but the air around Xu Jing had already started to break down. Her soft long hair started to dance in the wind along with her white robe.
“Mysterious Godly Fist!”
Xu Jing took a step forward. The air started to vibrate, as her jade like fists shot out of her sleeves. Her attacks landed on the incoming blade qi.
Crack!
The blade qi twisted and shattered in the air, turning into dots of white light.
“Great! Shocking Waves!”
Wei Renjie took big steps, running towards Xu Jing with his golden blade in his hand. He threw out a blade attack, bringing up waves of blade light. It was immensely powerful and unstoppable, and looked like it had the power to destroy anything it touched. That kind of poetic perspective was of water, or river and oceans. It was unpredictable.
“This Wei Renjie is indeed powerful. Although he is not as powerful as those top young warriors, not many people would be able to win against him in blade arts.”
“Indeed. Besides the ‘Fire Spirit Prince’ Yan Chihuo, not many people could say they are as good as him in blade arts.”
“I wonder between he and Xu Jing, who would be stronger.”
Over at the audience seating, warriors continued to discuss the battle.
Facing this blade attack, Xu Jing looked extra serious. Her right hand made a grabbing gesture, as a golden light started circling in it. It was like she was holding a pile of golden flames. She then threw a punch towards that ocean like blade light.
Boom!
This fist was extremely powerful, puncturing a hole through that ocean like blade light. The blade art poetic perspective revealed a flaw, which failed to form a complete attacking pattern.
Shoo! Shoo!
Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!
Although the blade aura had been damaged, Wei Renjie was not mad or upset. He turned his body and flew toward Xu Jing like a floating dragon. It was quite a unique step art, which contained a snake shape pattern in the steps. The dragon steps were slower but faster while the snake shape was rather unpredictable. Combining the two, it was self-conflicting, which made it extremely unpredictable.
Mid-rank Earth Realm flying art, the Dragon Snake Step Art!
Xu Jing could sense the trickiness of this step art. She kept backing out, trying to avoid the rhythm of the Dragon Snake Step, leaving Wei Renjie no chance of throwing attacks.
“Flying Dragon on Clouds!”
Seeing that there was no way of throwing attacks, Wei Renjie changed his steps. He got rid of the tricky snake steps and changed to the faster dragon steps. It took him one step to get above Xu Jing, then he threw three blade attacks at her.
Xu Jing was prepared for it. After seeing her opponent change his steps, she had changed her attacking style as well. The tip of her feet touched the ground as she shoot out into the sky, her right fist’s power exploding brutally.
Dang!
The fist and the blade clashed together, making sparks fly everywhere.
“What a powerful strength!” Wei Renjie’s arm was shocked to numbness. He almost could not hold the great blade anymore. He could not help but feel frightened, so he formed a fist with his left hand and threw out towards Xu Jing.
Xu Jing was very smooth with her movement. Her right arm casually formed a defense, blocking out Wei Renjie’s incoming fist attack.
Boom!
The second the two touched they separated from each other. No one could really hurt the other.
“This is my self-designed Floating Dragon Blade attack, I hope you can block it.” His feet had just landed on the ground when Wei Renjie seemed to have combined together with his blade. His body moved like a dragon along with his blade. He threw a blade attack towards Xu Jing; it had no poetic perspective, no light or sound. All it had was that indescribable smoothness.
“What?! Wei Renjie could already invent his own blade attacks?”
“He is only at Clasping Yuan Realm. Normally, even Astral Reaching Realm warriors would not choose to create their own movements, because not only does it cost a lot of time and effort, but also takes even longer time to improve it. This is definitely not worth it unless he could make sure that the movement he created is already almost completed.”
As everyone was talking, Wei Renjie’s attack had already arrived. What all one could hear was a sound of metal clashing. A bright spark appeared on Xu Jing’s fist gloves as she backed out dozens of steps, she could barely maintain her balance.
“Haha, take another of my blade attack.”
Wei Renjie carried on his attack and kept performing his Float Dragon Blade Attack. Each one of his attacks could blow Xu Jing back by dozens of steps. His blade aura was bright and colorful like a rainbow.
Off the stage, Ye Chen carefully studied Wei Renjie’s Floating Dragon Blade Art, then he eventually discovered that it was not a complete set of blade movements. A full set of blade movement would have a special zhen Qi map and poetic perspective. His Float Dragon Blade Art was not only lacking a poetic perspective, but the zhen Qi mapping had not reached its maximum effect either. Even so, for Wei Renjie to be able to create his own blade movement was already something to be proud of.
Of course, Ye Chen was also capable of creating some martial movements. In fact, if he wanted to create a sword movement, it would definitely be more powerful than Float Dragon Blade attack. But currently, no matter how powerful the sword movement Ye Chen could create, it would not be as powerful as the Lone Peak Kill and Sky Shattering Clouds. Wei Renjie was Wei Renjie and Ye Chen was Ye Chen. The Float Dragon Blade attack was powerful for Wei Renjie, but it seemed loose and normal for Ye Chen. If it were him on the stage instead of Xu Jing, he would be able to find his flaws with only one look and beat Wei Renjie in a short time.
Therefore, one should either not create a movement on one’s own, or create something that’s actually useful for them. Ye Chen would not do anything that was not efficient. For him, time was very valuable, and he did not have much time to waste on things that could not increase his attacking power.
Xu Jing carried on backing out all the way until she reached the dark blue light wall and could not back out anymore.
“Lose!”
Wei Renjie yelled as he threw a smooth blade attack towards Xu Jing.
“Mysterious Kill Punch!”
In that critical moment, Xu Jing had finally found a weak spot of that Float Dragon Blade Attack and braced herself in advance. She threw out a brutal punch with a destructive poetic perspective, which landed on that blade light heavily.
Boom!
The blade light had been shattered. Blood dripped out the corner of Wei Renjie’s mouth as he flew backward.
The second Xu Jing beat Wei Renjie, the dragon-shaped shadow outside her body devoured her opponent’s dragon fountain Qi, then expanded to almost fifteen meters.
The fortieth round had finished, and the forty-first round had begun.
For this round, Ye Chen had encountered Qian Yun.
“Thunder Four Movement!” Without a thought of testing power, Qian Yun brought out his most powerful attack towards Ye Chen. Each attack was aimed at the weakest spots on Ye Chen’s protective zhen Qi layer.
“Although your movements are indeed powerful, it is a bit complicated… It is not pure enough!”
Shaking his head, Ye Chen took out his Star Scar Sword and hit Qian Yun’s weakest spot with one sword attack, which instantly shattered his Thunder Four Movement attacks. Without waiting for his opponent’s reaction, Ye Chen’s sword light burst, stabbing right through Qian Yun’s zhen Qi layer.
K.o.!
Qian Yun was not Bing Ling who had a crazily powerful zhen Qi layer, which was why he was knocked out within a second when he faced Ye Chen. Since his fast sword attacks were no longer secret, it would not hurt to use it a couple of times more. Plus, when facing opponents like Sikong Sheng, the effect of the fast sword attack would still be limited.
Not only did the young warriors gasp, but most of the warriors over at the audience seating were all shocked. It was like they had seen something crazy.
Qian Yun, who was almost a seeded warrior, could not even survive one sword attack of Ye Chen’s. If it were before, they would have thought it was only fake news and would not choose to believe it. But right now, it happened right in front of them so that they had to believe it was the truth.
“Exactly how powerful was Ye Chen?”
“Judging from his sword arts and observation skills, Wei Renjie, who created his own movement, is like a child in front of him. It was indeed a one-kill sword art.”
Gu Youyun’s eyes widened. Qian Yun, who she tried so hard to beat, could not even handle Ye Chen’s one sword attack. What a monster!
Ye Chen’s dragon-shaped shadow did not increase much after devouring Qian Yun’s dragon fountain Qi, it was only a five-centimeter difference, and Qian Yun’s shadow did not decrease much either. If Ye Chen wanted to increase his dragon-shaped shadow drastically, he would have to beat those top young warriors with rich dragon-shaped shadows, and the other three top rankers – the ones with luck.
…
Time flew. The second day flashed by within the blink of an eye. It was already the third day afternoon.
After beating those three top young warriors who had also had more than twenty-one meters huge dragon-shaped shadows, Ye Chen’s shadows had gotten way powerful than before; it was almost twenty-two meters now. But of course, all of the top young warriors from last time had also made some progress: Sikong Sheng had reached twenty-five meters, Yan Chihuo had reached twenty-four meters, Li Daoxuan had reached twenty-three and a half meters, just like Lin Yun. Bing Ling and Mo Yan were slightly weaker, both at twenty-two meters, which was not much different from Ye Chen.
Tuo Baku and Murong Qingcheng had also caught up. They were both at around twenty-one meters. Then there was Gu Youyun, who was at twenty meters. The others had lost a lot of battles, and none of them had a dragon-shaped shadow that was more than twenty-one meters. The dragon fountain Qi had basically been accumulated onto the top ten seeded contestants.
Coincidently, after the third day of competition, there happened to have been sixty-two rounds of battles, just nine rounds were indeed left.
In the last nine rounds of battles, the top ten seeded contestants would not meet the other contestants anymore. They would face each other one by one. Because in the early sixty-two rounds of battles, they had already beaten sixty-two contestants, and only nine seeded contestants besides them were left.
All of the warriors in the audience seating could barely control their excitement. Tomorrow morning, they would be able to see the ultimate battles between the top young warriors, one battle after another. It would be impossible for them not to get excited.