…
Facing Gu Yingbing’s attack, Long Shiya’s expression remained impassive. He waved his hand towards Gu Yingbing in mid air. His reaction seemed slow even, but even if he struck second, his attack reached first. As Gu Yingbing’s cudgel came smashing down, six blades of light had already came to greet it. Not just one set, but an entire chain series of them!
Upon seeing that sight, even Xue AoTian at the side couldn’t help but reveal a hint of surprise. He could clearly sense that in terms of Heavenly Energy control, Long Shiya had improved from the last time they had fought.
Ever since Long Shiya’s cultivation level had reached the Max Level Heavenly Emperor Stage, it had stalled there. This was also his greatest regret. However, since his Heavenly Energy was unable to raise up, then the only way he could improve his fighting capabilities was to strengthen his control over Heavenly Energy, to better control how he used it, timing and explosive effect to deal stronger blows. Only then did it allow him to hold his own against the Heavenly God Tier Xue AoTian. Of course, his chances of winning were still extremely minimal.
A series of explosions rang out in the air in a chain, and Gu Yingbing was shocked to find that although this cudgel strike of his had been nigh perfect, no matter in terms of power or momentum, it was already at the maximum he could have possibly done, yet the strike had still failed to actually smash down.
Gu Yingbing’s body remained suspended in midair. He could clearly sense the six coloured blades of light did not seem to hold the power to block his God Tier Consolidated Cudgel filled with the his own Divine Attribute Heavenly Energy, and he did not sense any powerful impact blocking him. Yet, he was just unable to complete the blow!
What is going on!? Gu Yingbing’s heart was filled with shock, and he continued trying to circulate his Heavenly Energy at full power.
Upon seeing that sight, Xue AoTian’s face changed slightly. With a single look he had seen how Long Shiya had managed it.
The reason why Gu Yingbing had not been able to discern the reason was simple – he just had not reached that state yet. Although Long Shiya was only using the Heavenly Energy of the nine-Jeweled stage, but his state attained was already at the Heavenly Emperor stage, and his control over Heavenly Energy was also at that state, or even further. In that short instant, Long Shiya had set a trap for Gu Yingbing, making use of his own powerful offense against him to lead him into the cunning trap.
In fact, the attack that Long Shiya had activated looked to be a bunch of blades of light. However, each and every blade held their own myriad of changes and profound meanings behind.
For example, amongst the six blades of light, the Earth Attribute was focused on blocking, the Fire Attribute focused on exploding and causing momentum, the Wind Attribute to throw off the opponent’s body and movement. Etc etc. The Six Attributes each had their own small but important role to play, but it was as they came together that fit everything into a sum that was far greater than its parts. Although it wasn’t sufficient to break apart Gu Yingbing’s attack, it was able to stop him from actually landing the blow. In such a way, the succession of continued blades of light would have the similar effect, causing a final situation that had come into play – Attrition.
Indeed, it was Attrition. What Long Shiya was using was the simplest and most effective way to fight against Gu Yingbing.
Gu Yingbing’s body was already in midair, and he dared not change anything now. If he retreated, then Long Shiya’s blades of light would be able to chase up and attack him in a crazed flurry. When that happened, perhaps Gu Yingbing would no longer have any chance to retaliate anymore, and lose the fight directly. As such, he could only continue circulating all his Heavenly Energy into the cudgel, to smash down with all his might upon Long Shiya, hoping he could break free of the continuous stream of blades of light, to change a blow suddenly and gain advantage to continue fighting.
Alas, now that he was already locked in this state, how could Long Shiya possibly give him the chance to recover? With the aid of the Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Formation, Long Shiya did not even need to use any powerful or high rated Skills, just using the six Attribute blades of light to continuously drain Gu Yingbing. In this way, whoever’s Heavenly Energy ran out first would lose the fight.
Without question, for Long Shiya, this was considered a rather ‘stupid’ method. However, there was one benefit for this – stability.
With the power of the Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Formation, its terrifying recovery rate, as well as the advantage of being able to use Max Level Nine-Jeweled stage against a Low Level Nine-Jeweled Stage, using this method Long Shiya was able to guarantee victory in a stable method, and also almost at a time he could predict.
The reason why he did so was the truly intelligent part about Long Shiya. No matter what, Gu Yingbing was still Xue AoTian’s disciple, and his planned son-in-law. He knew Xue AoTian must have taught him everything, let alone the support from the Heavenly Divine Earth Spirit Lion Tribe. Long Shiya would never underestimate Xue AoTian, having a healthy respect for him. Who knew how many Skills or Secret Arts Gu Yingbing had? Long Shiya did not know. Although he still had absolute confidence he would not have the tables overturned against himself, but what if he had some secret arts that enabled him to escape? In that case, Long Shiya would not be able to defeat him in time. Instead of having all these unknown variables in the equation, he decided to just use the safest, stablest and most direct method, however stupid it might seem, to guarantee his victory, and hopefully Zhou Weiqing’s victory as well!
By the time Gu Yingbing could discover this plan, he should have already expended a huge amount of Heavenly Energy. Furthermore, even if he wanted to back out now, it would not be an easy task.
As Gu Yingbing strengthened the circulation of Heavenly Energy in an attempt to overwhelm his opponent, he started unleashing Spirit Attribute attacks to harrass Long Shiya at the same time. Alas, although the Spirit Attribute was a Saint Attribute, there was just too massive a gap between his own spiritual energy and Long Shiya’s.
Amongst all Elemental Jewels, even compared to other Saint Attributes, perhaps the Spirit Attribute was the most unique. If at the same level, when one compared the Spirit Attribute to any other single Attribute, it was considered practically invincible. Suppression of the spirit could cause one’s opponent to be confused or mess up, or it could even become an actual attack.
Unless one had unique methods to defend oneself from such spiritual attacks, or perhaps using other Saint Attributes to weaken the power of the Spirit Attribute, otherwise in a fight it was already a major disadvantage.
At the same time, the Spirit Attribute also had one weak point. Strangely, its strongest point could also be its weakest point – spiritual energy. If an opponent’s spiritual energy was more than three times that of the Spirit Attribute’s user, then they were practically immune to all of those spiritual attacks.
Unfortunately for Gu Yingbing, Long Shiya’s spiritual energy… how could it be as easy as merely three times that of Gu Yingbing’s! Having trained so much in the Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Formation, although Long Shiya did not have the Spirit Attribute of his own, it could be said that of those present here, besides Xue AoTian, no one else could compare to him… not even the Lion King.
As such, when Gu Yingbing continued trying to harrass Long Shiya with his spiritual attacks, it was a totally futile attempt. As for his Fire Attribute… nothing more need to be said for that. Even his Saint Attributes had failed, adding a Fire Attribute to the mix, an Attribute which Long Shiya also had himself, was merely just a further waste of energy.
Gu Yingbing was so vexed by his continued failure that he was almost speechless. He had so many powerful Skills, but at this point, Long Shiya would not give him a chance to use anymore of them. On the surface it seemed like Gu Yingbing was the one attacking, but by now he was being fully suppressed on all fronts by Long Shiya. Control over the entire fight was totally in Long Shiya’s hands, and having a fight go like this, how could one not be vexed? Yet, Gu Yingbing had no other choice in the matter, and could only continue in this stalemate.
Even though Xue AoTian could easily see through this with a single glance, there was nothing he could do or say. After all, before the fights, he had not set any rules about how they would go about fighting. Furthermore, Gu Yingbing had been the one who attacked first, and he could not comment on Long Shiya’s strategy on meeting that attack. He could only stand at the side and watch helplessly as Gu Yingbing’s Heavenly Energy continued being eroded away.
Of course, Gu Yingbing was no pushover either. As soon as he realised that he was stuck in this stalemate, he began to start exerting finer control over his Heavenly Energy.
Naturally, his control over Heavenly Energy was no match for Long Shiya, definitely not as fine as the Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Formation. Still, he had the Spirit Attribute, and being so well trained, he was definitely much more skilled and had finer control over his Heavenly Energy than any ordinary Heavenly Jewel Master. As he focused on that, he was able to slowly bring down his expenditure, turning some of his offense into defense to form a more equilibrium state in midair. In this way, he would not waste as much energy as previously. At the same time, Gu Yingbing also turned into his Heavenly Divine Earth Spirit Lion form, allowing his rate of absorption of atmospheric energy to grow. Even if that was still affected by the Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Formation, he was at least able to stem the tide slightly.
At least, he would not lose to Long Shiya too quickly in the near future.
Now that both Long Shiya and Gu Yingbing had gone through the series of clashes and adaptations, both sides were pretty much in a forced stalemate. Gu Yingbing had no way to break out of it, but Long Shiya also did not have a good way to end things quickly. Instead of risking things, he might as well continue on the guaranteed route to success, as it was only a matter of time, no matter how much Gu Yingbing had delayed the inevitable.
As they had achieved a temporary equilibrium, both of their gazes turned to the other side. Naturally, Long Shiya hoped that Zhou Weiqing could hold off the Lion King, at least until he defeated Gu Yingbing. As for Gu Yingbing, he could only pray that his father could quickly finish off Zhou Weiqing before his own Heavenly Energy was drained. Both sides held such similar yet opposite thoughts as they turned their attention to the other pair of fighters on the battlefield. Even the judge for their side was no exception, as Xue AoTian also turned his attention to Zhou Weiqing and Gu Site.
While Long Shiya and Gu Yingbing’s fight was pretty much settled, it had not influenced the other side at all.
The reason Long Shiya had chosen this route was also in a sense because he did not have much choice. Long Shiya had very good judgement over such fine details, and after all Gu Yingbing had already used nine Consolidated Equipment, with six pieces being a Legendary Set as well. With the cultivation level gap not being much, the risk of having any unforeseen circumstances and variables happening was just too great to take.
…
On the other side, the Lion King Gu Site was far more confident than Long Shiya. He did not use the same strategy and Long Shiya did, nor did he have the insane recovery speed that the Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Formation gave. As such, as soon as their fight started, it was far more violent and intense than Gu Yingbing’s side.
As soon as Xue AoTian’s order came out, both Zhou Weiqing and Gu Site sprang into action.
Zhou Weiqing did not summon his Consolidated Equipment at first notice, instead his right foot springboarding onto the ground lightly, his entire body flying back rapidly in a retreat.
Gu Site was originally about to launch an attack when he saw that Zhou Weiqing did not have the courage to face him directly and was flying back in a retreat. Immediately, he made the judgement call that Zhou Weiqing was about to use guerilla tactics.