Chapter 276: The No.1 Sword Artist (Part Two)
Translator: 3heryl Editor: AntiGod
On that humongous battling platform, the two human shadows stood one hundred meters apart from each other.
On the left side of the platform, Li Daoxuan wore a green robe and a long and narrow great sword around his waist. The scabbard of the sword was very ancient, gently carved with some patterns. On the right side, Ye Chen stood there in a blue robe, wearing a great sword as well. There were stars carved on his scabbard, light colored and majestic looking.
"Since you reached sixty percent sword intent, then I won't have to worry about winning unfairly."
The level of power was unrelated to being fair. If it were a normal sword artist, Li Daoxuan would not say to him "You haven’t learned the sword intent, so I will not use mine." It would just be stupid. However, Ye Chen was different. He had power sword arts which no one among the young generation could compete with, and Li Daoxuan did not want to use his higher sword intent to win against him because he wanted to compete with Ye Chen with his sword art realms.
It was the perfect condition for him that Ye Chen had also learned the sixty percent sword intent, which brought them at the same level. They would have to compete their sword arts only now.
Ye Chen said, "This is for the best. I also would like to know how powerful my sword art realm has gotten to." Up until now, Ye Chen had not revealed all of his accomplishments in his sword arts because either his opponents were too weak or were of a different kind, such as Tuo Baku. Therefore, without a rightful opponent, Ye Chen could not even tell how powerful he was.
Placing his right hand on the sword handle, Li Daoxuan stopped talking. His eyes locked on Ye Chen. Compared to Yan Chihuo, who was extremely reckless, Ye Chen had given him an even stronger pressure. It did not mean that Yan Chihuo could not compete with Ye Chen. In fact, Yan Chihuo’s shocking power was something even he could not see through, and Yan Chihuo was only a blade artist, which was different from the sword artists after all. Ye Chen was indeed a sword artist, one with sixty percent sword intent. This year’s Hidden Dragon Rank competition only needed one top sword artist.
"Kill!"
His body flashed as Li Daoxuan took his sword out of its scabbard when he was only ten meters away from Ye Chen. A cold light wrapped up with extremely powerful sword intent had been thrown out. The air looked like a patternless well of water. It was like the whole world had only him and the sword left, and nothing else.
Yan Chihuo, who was watching from off the stage, squeezed his eyes. This Ye Chen was indeed powerful. When facing him, Li Daoxuan’s sword art realm seemed to grow even more powerful. His spirit and mentality had finally started to come together, showing signs of unity.
Ye Chen did not change his expression. His right hand held the Star Scar Sword seemingly slowly but very fast. He gently pulled it out, as a dark colored sword light shot out and pointed at Li Daoxuan’s sword like a poisonous snake shooting out of its cave. That ancient-well-like poetic perspective did not seem to have an effect on him, and he was still moving without restraint.
The sword tips that had been enhanced with zhen Qi clashed together as sparks spilled everywhere, which was extremely bright.
"Why am I feeling a tingling sensation?" Over at the audience seating, a Clasping Yuan Realm warrior sudden was covered in goose bumps as he said with a shaky voice.
"Me too!"
"I heard that when powerful sword artists fought each other, it would bring chills to whoever was watching. And today has really proven it."
"There is a huge difference between a sword artist and a blade artist. The blade artist needs to have huge movements and a reckless blade aura, to be able to boil up his opponent’s Qi and blood. The sword artists are the completely the opposite. They seize to spend the minimal effort to beat their opponents, specializing in one kill attacks. They are experts in techniques, which was why they always leave a huge impression."
The speaker was an Astral Reaching Realm warrior.
Meanwhile, discussions carried on in the audience seating while the battle on the platform was already getting to the peak.
Ting! Ting! Ting! Ting! Ting...
The sword light was shooting out towards every direction, clashing with each other!
"Destroy!"
Dozens of sword attacks had been blocked by Ye Chen in a row. Li Daoxuan suddenly took three steps back. In the air, his wrist shook as a sword light shot out from his long sword. The sword light was surreal, and was not bound to any physics. It was like it had ignored the space and distance completely, attacking directly towards Ye Chen.
Pop!
The sword light had been shattered by an invisible sword light. After shattering the sword light, Ye Chen’s body extended, his blue clothes dancing in the air. He threw out a sword attack back at Li Daoxuan, its inhuman speed making its sword light invisible before it was able to flash once. Combined with that confusing sword art poetic perspective, it seemed to be unstoppable.
Sixty percent sword intent – Lone Peak Kill!
"I cannot block it out!"
Li Daoxuan was shocked. He closed his eyes and pushed his flying art to its peak while shooting towards the back. No one knew why he backed out so fast because they could not sense the Lone Peak Kill poetic perspective!
Shoo!
Blood dripped down the sword tip and spilled everywhere while Ye Chen stood still.
"The Lone Peak Attack enhanced with the sixty percent sword intent was not powerful enough after all. It would still be hard to be effective on a sword artist with similar cultivation."
Ye Chen looked over to Li Daoxuan who was standing ten meters away, who had already backed out from the coverage of his poetic perspective. A light sword mark appeared on his face.
"This is the sword art you used before." Li Daoxuan had finally got an answer to his question from a long time ago. In the eliminating and ranking competitions, Ye Chen had sometimes performed his Lone Peak Kill poetic perspective. Back then, he already started to wonder about the kind of poetic perspective he was using, and now he had finally figured it all out.
Ye Chen did not answer but said, "The battle between Yan Chihuo and you was very epic. Use all of those ace attacks you used on him now!"
The Lone Peak Kill had been exposed and avoided, but Ye Chen was not worried at all because the power of the movement was not about the movement itself but the people who used it. The same movement would have a different effect used by different warriors. That previous attack was only a test, testing the limitation of Li Daoxuan. Next time, the Lone Peak Kill would be performed at the most effective moment.
"Godly Punishment!"
Needless to say, Li Daoxuan naturally knew what exactly to do. He performed the sword attack that had beaten Mo Yan instantly. The sword light was very dim, but spread out on the whole platform while he took sharp steps, turning into a sharp sword himself and attacking towards Ye Chen.
"Break!" Ye Chen’s mind, Qi and mentality had all come together as he waved the Star Scar Sword in his hand at an inhuman speed.
Within a second, he had thrown out at least hundreds of sword attacks.
The surreal sword light formed a surreal sword attack net in front of his body. The extraordinary performance had attracted a lot of the female martial disciples’ attention from the audience seating.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Just as Ye Chen had expected, Li Daoxuan’s air sword attacks had indeed contained two contrasting forces, one being on the surface while the other hidden in the dark. The sword attack on the surface seemed to be a fake one as a disguise, but it should still be avoided, while the hidden attack would be fatal when hit. It was indeed where Li Daoxuan’s real body was. The two attacks worked perfectly together, and had the power to kill warriors with the same cultivation. Right then, the visible sword art had been broken and Li Daoxuan and the hidden attack followed, attacking directly towards Ye Chen’s throat.
Ting!
A sound of mental clashing rose as Li Daoxuan’s sword had been blocked out.
But there was another sword. The sword light twisted, tearing apart the air and chasing right back, following Li Daoxuan’s body and attacking all the way at his palm.
Li Daoxuan frowned. Ye Chen’s trickiness had made him feel powerless for the first time. When Ye Chen had just broken his sword attack and still hadn’t let out his Lone Peak Kill poetic perspective yet, he waited until he had broken half of the incoming sword attack before he let it all out, which completely messed up the rhythm of the battle and Li Daoxuan’s sword speed. Even though it was only half a second, it was already enough for Ye Chen to block out the attack and throw an attack back.
"Sword Step Moves!"
His feet were like swords, his body like a ghost. Li Daoxuan’s body avoided the fightback from Ye Chen.
"Minor Sky Shattering Cloud!"
Holding the sword with only one hand, Ye Chen’s sword art changed drastically. Suddenly, the platform was covered in thunder and lightning, with winds blowing intensely. An enormous power had exploded, almost as if it was not a sword that had attacked out but beams of lightning and seas of clouds, leaving Li Daoxuan no chance of taking a breather.
Crack! Crack! Crack…
The sword Qi had left a couple of cracks on the ground. Li Daoxuan did not expect Ye Chen’s sudden change in fighting style, which had completely messed up his pace. He continued performing his Sword Step Move.
"Earth Explosion!"
Discovering the pattern of Li Daoxuan’s escaping route, Ye Chen suddenly stamped on the ground. It was a secret martial art that he had retrieved from the Bloody Butcher a long time ago. Although it was not a very high ranked martial art and could barely cause any real damage, its enhancement could not be ignored. After pouring the zhen Qi deep into the ground, Li Daoxuan’s landing spot started to crack open like a spider web. The Qi then exploded.
"Not good!"
Without any other options, Li Daoxuan took a deep breath midair, forcing himself from falling. His zhen Qi then exploded, avoiding the exploding range of the Earth Explosion attack dangerously.
Shoo!
Ye Chen would not let go of this opportunity. He performed his Separating Shadow Flying Art. His figure slowly turned into a blur, and he appeared right in front of Li Daoxuan, throwing a sword attack at him.
Li Daoxuan blocked out the incoming sword attack in an extremely uncomfortable pose. His left hand’s five fingers had been extended all the way as a sucking power appeared out of nowhere, grabbing Ye Chen’s body through the distance.
"Separate!"
All Li Daoxuan got was Ye Chen’s zhen Qi shadow, which had shattered completely by the twisted sucking power.
Booom!
After losing the upper hand for so many times in a row, Li Daoxuan could no longer block out Ye Chen’s sword attacks. His whole body was blown away by a dark beam of sword light, and his protective zhen Qi cracked open.
Blood dripped out from the corner of his mouth as Li Daoxuan looked extremely serious. While he was in midair, he pushed his zhen Qi again and performed his Sword Step Move, changing his original backing out route, which helped him avoid Ye Chen’s another sword attack. Dozens of meters away, Li Daoxuan gently landed on the ground before shooting out a long sword attack.
"This is my famous deadly attack. If you can block this, then you win."
After he had thrown out that sword attack, the air became extra quiet. The sword light was even faster than what the human eyes could handle. If this were it, then it would not be the last ace attack of Li Daoxuan. This sword seemed to have blocked out all of the sounds from off the stage, and the whole world seemed to be on mute.
Indeed, this sword attack was called Silence.
It was the only ace attacks from the Heartless Sword Art.
During the battle with Yan Chihuo, Li Daoxuan was able to cut off a little bit Yan Chihuo’s hair because of this attack. If it was not for the fact that he was still unable to fully perform the attack, even Yan Chihuo might not have been able to win against him. But because they were having such an intense battle, no one really had truly noticed what had happened. No more than five people among the young generation had noticed, maybe even less.
The loud noises disappeared all of a sudden. There was not a single trace in the air, and it was like the sword light was no longer sword light. Instead, it was a part of the air itself.
"What an impressive attack. The Silence... it is even slightly improved from the one in the battle with me." Yan Chihuo was still a bit concerned about that past battle. Besides the Silence attack, Li Daoxuan was at least twenty percent weaker than him, which should have made it an easy fight. But once the Silence attack was performed, even he could barely react in time. He was only able to react according to his instincts. Besides the achievements, there was a lot of luck involved in his victory. Otherwise, it would not only be a small amount of hair that had been cut off. It would be an ear, or even worse – his head.
The leader of the Heartless Martial School let out a breath. The Heartless Sword Intent combined with the Heartless Sword Arts, its power would be way stronger than the separated sword intent and sword arts. With this Silence attack, the outcome of the battle seemed to be predictable.
"Silence, what a descriptive name."
Ye Chen stood where he was and relaxed his body. He did not miss the scene where Li Daoxuan cut a small amount of hair off Yan Chihuo. He had purposely repressed his sword intent just to witness the power of this attack, hoping to bring his sword art to the next realm.