Chapter 963: Switching Between Attack and Defense
Yang Shen had run out of new tricks with his Yin Yang Whip. The execution of his attacks today had been perfect. Some might even say that he’d gone beyond his limits. Despite all that, he still wasn’t able to penetrate the momentum created by his opponent’s sword. Yang Shen was feeling quite aggrieved. He’d always been incredibly confident in his whip. Even though it wasn’t sufficient to defeat the strongest of foremost geniuses, he was certain that he could at least put up a decent fight. It seemed that all this had been his own wishful thinking. How could he aim to challenge the unrivaled geniuses in the Ranking of Young Lords when he couldn’t even handle a mere cultivator that had come from the secular world? He’d been too naive.
The audience could easily tell that Yang Shen was only hanging by a thread. The disapproving jeers were getting louder by the minute. The Veluriyam Capital audience was actually quite fair. The fact that he was a true disciple of Saint Peafowl Mountain didn’t mean that he was going to be spared from the jeers. One’s identity didn’t matter. The crowd was willing to jeer at anyone that they disapproved of. However, those who had made great contributions to Veluriyam Capital would be spared from such treatment. A good example of this was Emperor Peafowl. He’d been protecting Veluriyam Capital for thousands of years. All the citizens revered him greatly. They were even willing to get into a dispute if somebody spoke badly about the emperor. Sometimes, it would even escalate into a fight. This was out of pure reverence towards the emperor, which he duly deserved.
Young lord Fan had also received such treatment when he was alive. Pill King Zhen was the next person to receive such treatment. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for Yang Shen. Many in Veluriyam Capital actually knew who he was, but there wasn’t much to say about his contribution to the capital. He was someone who rarely showed his face to the world. His time was simply too precious to be used on anything other than cultivation. It was only natural that the citizens would feel distanced towards him, as he wasn’t willing to improve his own public persona.
Jiang Chen had done the exact opposite of that. He had contributed to Veluriyam Capital by giving out all sorts of lectures on various topics. He’d also defeated Pillfire City on behalf of Veluriyam Capital and made an incredible contribution by founding Taiyuan Tower. House Wei couldn’t take the credit for that. It was the pill king who’d changed the pill dao situation in Veluriyam Capital. Suddenly, it seemed like the entire city was shouting at Yang Shen.
This further enraged Yang Shen, and his whip became fiercer and stronger than ever. He’d been trying to maintain his poise and composure, but he could no longer care less after the crowd started to jeer at him. All he wanted to do was expel Jiang Chen from the stage in one breath. Unfortunately, one couldn’t win a martial dao bout with just anger and fury alone. Strength was still the deciding factor in the end.
Yang Shen was definitely a formidable foe, as he was ranked 17th. He was stronger than Fang Yuan and Zhuang Jie by a notch. And yet, Jiang Chen was also someone could adapt to the strength of his foe. The Yin Yang Whip relied on the power of force fields to control the flow of the battle, but Jiang Chen’s Reverse Heaven and Earth was a sword technique that destroyed all force fields and reversed the flow of battle. The sword technique was the bane of the Yin Yang Whip. Jiang Chen’s technique wasn’t just effective against the Yin Yang Whip. It was actually effective against all techniques that attempted to control the flow of battle.
Yang Shen refused to give up. “Pill King Zhen! You’ve been using the same technique the whole time! Don’t you find that meaningless in an exchange of martial dao?” he said while gritting his teeth.
Jiang Chen laughed when he noticed the expression on his opponent’s face. “You say that it’s the same technique, yet you’ve failed to notice its ever-changing nature. Come at me with everything you’ve got. I’ll take you down with just one technique!” Jiang Chen had begun to feel a little annoyed. He had tried giving Yang Shen some leeway, but said person was too conceited to notice it.
Yang Shen cracked his whip and turned it into a long and erect spear. “Yin Yang Void Piercing Spear! Destroy!” He had finally switched up his moves. A spear was a completely different weapon compared to a whip. A whip was meant for constricting and inhibiting movements, but a spear was purely meant for piercing and destroying its target. As the name would suggest, the Void Piercing Spear contained an incredible piercing power.
Fortunately, Jiang Chen was using a sword technique that was destructive first and controlled the flow of battle second. They were now both using using destructive attacks, which made the match a lot more captivating. Yang Shen had thoroughly angered Jiang Chen. Fury was slowly building up inside the pill king. He’d wanted to save Yang Shen some face, as he was a true disciple of Emperor Peafowl. However, Yang Shen only cared about winning. He didn’t seem to care about his own dignity at all. Moreover, Jiang Chen could sense some hostility from his opponent. This too, angered him greatly.
How dare you bear such fierce hostility towards me when I’ve given you so much face? If I don’t take you down a notch, how will I make people submit to me when I become the successor to Sacred Peafowl Mountain one day? He no longer held himself back after such thoughts.
Even a young lord would feel intense pressure when Jiang Chen went all out. The Divine Five Thunderclap Sword Technique was as ever-changing as it was unstoppable. Celestial radiance from rainbows appeared in the skies when he deployed it. Thunder rumbled, and the crowd was stunned by the countless profound meanings of the sword contained within.
“Remember this move. Moving Heaven and Earth!
“And this! Yin Yang Divide!
“And also this! Sword of the Allking!” Jiang Chen revealed multiple sword techniques from his toolbox in one go. These were his most powerful attacks, if one were to ignore the equipment and heaven-defying items in his possession.
The arena was instantly flooded by a sea of sword dao, turning it into a sword dao realm. Yang Shen was poking left and right, trying to find a way out of the sea. Unfortunately, he soon realized that it was a futile attempt, as his Void Piercing Spear wasn’t able to locate a weak point at all. The audience broke into rapturous applause when they saw what had happened. They were clearly enthralled by the flashy yet dangerous sword technique.
The geniuses at the top of the Ranking of Young Lords were all in a somber mood. They were feeling intense pressure. However, their hearts were also filled with awe. Not because of Jiang Chen’s flashy sword technique, but because of his ability to control the fight. The battle had begun to feel like a one-person show due to how great he was at it. The pitiful Yang Shen was now forgotten in the background after such an intense showing.
There was normally a lot of back and forth during a battle between two geniuses. It was always an intense conflict for superiority. It was rare to see one side fully dominate the other side in such battles. Battles like these were no longer battles between equals. It would be best described as a one-sided torture. This was precisely what Yang Shen was facing right now. Fortunately, he was quick to realize how futile the Void Piercing Spear was, and transformed it back into the Yin Yang Whip. He then formed a yin yang barrier to protect himself from the piercing sword aura. The whip was a gift from Emperor Peafowl himself. It was a treasure that could be switched into many forms. It could switch between a whip or a spear, but its biggest specialty was its frightening defensive power.
The Yin Yang Barrier was able to keep most of the sword aura at bay. The scene was now one of Yang Shen turtling in and stubbornly hanging onto his defense. He had originally planned to overwhelm the pill king with his whip, but the pill king was able to deflect his advances with a sword technique. The crowd was impressed that he was the first to go on the offensive against someone as powerful as Pill King Zhen. However, the situation had instantly turned against him. He’d become a turtle that had tucked his head in for dear life.
Jiang Chen noticed that the whip had turned into a barrier with tadpole-like runes squirming around the outer surface. He instantly knew that this wasn’t Yang Shen’s doing. It was the formidable whip. However, he refused to give up. He continued escalating the sword aura and condensed its slashing power. One after the other, he continued to bombard Yang Shen’s defenses with sword strokes.
The ‘Severing Sword’ was another move from from the Divine Five Thunderclap technique. It was a move that specialized in destroying all kinds of barriers. It was an incredibly powerful attack, formed by condensing and materializing sword aura into the shape of a sword.
Yang Shen was situated in the middle of the barrier and surrounded by numerous sword aura from all sides. He had become incredibly nervous, as the sword barrage continued to hammer away at his barrier. However, the defensive power of his whip had given him some inner solace.
“You won’t be able to hold out forever!” Jiang Chen was thoroughly enraged at this point. He was sending furious barrages of sword images at his opponent. Sword light upon sword light stacked on top of each other and sliced at the Yin Yang Barrier continuously.
A crack appeared in Yang Shen’s confidence when he noticed the monstrous power of the sword barrage. Emperor Peafowl had once warned him not to rely on the defensive capabilities of the whip too much, as the whip was only as powerful as its user. It was evident that Yang Shen had relied on it too much! Visible cracks had appeared in his dao heart when he noticed that Jiang Chen was about to break through the barrier. His mind was instantly flooded with a sense of dread.