Chapter 85: The Foe Retreats, Backlash
Bai Yunfei drew back his Firetipped Spear and moved to use his bracer to protect himself from Zhang Zhengshan’s Glacial Palm. Before he could even stabilize his footing, another strike was already coming close!
Zhang Zhengshan’s eyes had gone scarlet as if he had gone berserk. In this moment’s assault, he had seemingly given up all sorts of defense in order to attack crazily. The images of his palm had practically blurred together. Even the injuries on his left hand had been forcibly frozen over before moving to attack.
Retreating one step after another, Bai Yunfei’s continued to dance as he fended off his opponent’s strikes in a continuous manner. Although it seemed as if he had been suppressed by Zhang Zhengshan, his eyes didn’t show any panic in them–instead, in the midst of dodging and weaving around the palms, his eyes flickered with a light as if he was thinking about something….
In terms of close combat ability, Bai Yunfei was clearly not of the same level as his opponent. Although he wasn’t slow in speed and was quite nimble in movement, he had revealed several holes in his defense after several minutes of combat. His opponent had struck out at his left shoulder, and despite the Goldsilk Soul Armor providing defense, Bai Yunfei had still been sent staggering back two steps in pain. Simultaneously, the glacial qi had already greedily entered his body.
Circulating his soulforce, the essence fireseed in Bai Yunfei’s body expanded and contracted for a moment before a part of the elemental fire had migrated over to his left shoulder area, causing the glacial qi to disappear instantaneously.
A chilling breeze had then slammed against his face. Opening his eyes just a little bit, Bai Yunfei then saw a mangled palm with the glacial qi swirling around it come flying to meet him! Without any time to dodge, Bai Yunfei had only managed to bring both arms up in a cross to protect his face. One muffled echo later, Bai Yunfei had been forced back half a step again. But because of the protective defense of his bracer, he had barely suffered any sort of damage besides a small portion of the blow.
After one palm, the other palm came to attack with even more power behind it. Remaining in the same position, Bai Yunfei allowed for his bracer to take the hit. After several palm strikes, Zheng Shanming had realized that he was unable to strike the head with just his palms alone and had then diverted his palms to attack Bai Yunfei’s shoulder.
After a misstep from Bai Yunfei, he brought his right arm up in a horizontal fashion while trying to dodge. This had opened him up to another of Zhang Zhengshan’s palm before he unleashed yet another barrage of strikes. The position of the two men had been reversed. Now it was Zhang Zhengshan who was attacking frantically while Bai Yunfei remained calm with his all out defense.
But, with a closer observation, one would be able to see that there was something strange–Bai Yunfei looked like he had given up several chances to strike back and was instead blindly defending himself from Zhang Zhengshan as if waiting for something….
Finally, after being struck by a palm in the abdomen again, Bai Yunfei used his bracer to defend himself from the second strike. His eyes flashed furiously with an explosion of light as if the moment he was waiting for had finally approached. After defending himself from one more powerful palm, his entire body had suddenly shifted. His right fist had retreated to his waist instead of being held up to defend himself from the palm of Zhang Zhengshan that was aimed at his stomach. Foregoing any type of defensive maneuver, Bai Yunfei’s right leg stepped forward half a step. With his right hand forming a fist, he let loose a single punch without hesitation!
“Bang!” Zhang Zhengshan’s Glacial Palm struck against Bai Yunfei’s stomach at the same time as Bai Yunfei’s fist struck against Zhang Zhengshan’s chest!
Ninefold Fist Force!
“Bang!”
“Crack!”
With a bone-cracking sound, Zhang Zhengshan’s body had flown away like a bullet with a mouthful of blood spraying out from his mouth! Bai Yunfei had staggered several steps back with blood spilling from his lips as well.
This was the very first counterattack from Bai Yunfei after he had put away his spear. And so when his opponent had rained down on his body with palm after palm, a predicament where a gap like so had taken result!
(+10 Additional Effect: When blocking, there is a 9% chance of absorbing and converting the attack power into personal attack power, releasing it with your next attack. It can be held for 3 seconds. The amount of converted attack power cannot exceed the defensive strength of this item.)
Bai Yunfei had endured for so long to finally wait for this effect to be triggered to attack with the combined strength of the palm strength he had absorbed and converted along with his own Ninefold Fist Force!
This change had been far too sudden to the point of stunning every single one of the spectators watching the battle. Naturally, for the extremely strong individuals like Hong Yin, Yan Xi and the others, their eyes flashed with a pensive light as if they had seen something….
Seeing Zhang Zhengshan being hurtled away, Bai Yunfei’s eyes flashed dangerously. He couldn’t be sure if this one fist would be enough to determine victory, so without any hesitation, his feet pushed off from the ground to quickly give chase–he couldn’t give his opponent any time to even breathe!
After spitting out a mouthful of blood, Zhang Zhengshan had made no movement. At a look, he was not stunned, but he had been heavily injured and could not move for the time-being. The Wave Treading Steps had been faster than Zhang Zhengshan’s speed from being thrown away. Before Zhang Zhengshan could even fall to the ground, Bai Yunfei had already caught up to him with his right hand flying forth to grab hold of his opponent.
“Stop! We admit defeat!”
Just at that moment, a voice exploded from the left side before a figure came jetting out. With one hand grabbing onto Zhang Zhengshan, the other hand circulated with glacial qi before striking at Bai Yunfei’s chest!
It was Liu Cheng that had come forth. Bai Yunfei’s fist had astounded everyone from the Glacial School after Zhang Zhengshan had been sent flying away. Liu Cheng had seen the heavily injured state of Zhang Zhengshan and was afraid that Bai Yunfei would kill him. So for that reason, he had no other choice but to make his move to save Zhang Zhengshan.
Bai Yunfei’s fist had stopped Liu Cheng’s palm, but he did not continue after that. Instead, his body had halted while he looked at the palm that Liu Cheng had lashed out with in shock. Just when his opponent had attacked, Bai Yunfei could see in his sleeves a faint blue-colored bracelet–there was no mistaking it. Just like Bai Yunfei, Liu Cheng was wearing a rather uncoordinated looking bracelet, but Bai Yunfei knew the reason why Liu Cheng was wearing it, for this bracelet would allow for the wearer’s speed to become even faster….
In an instant, a furious sensation had welled up within his heart and flooded out into his chest. This fury had carried an indescribable amount of stimulus….with this surging fury, Bai Yunfei’s eyes had gone bloodshot. Bringing up his right hand into a fist, he proceeded to strike at Liu Cheng right in front of him!
Liu Cheng looked behind to where he was protecting Zhang Zhengshan only to see that his face was contorted in pain. His mouth continued to stream with blood, but he was able to stand for the moment albeit with difficulty. Clearly, he was in no condition to continue fighting, but when Liu Cheng turned around to say something, he saw that Bai Yunfei had launched himself in silent towards him with an outstretched fist!
Alarmed, Liu Cheng knew that he was unable to dodge with Zhang Zhengshan right behind him and had instead put up his arms helplessly. Circulating his soulforce, Liu Cheng prepared himself to receive the fist.
Overlapping Waves Art, Eighty One Fold Fist Force!!
This one strike was something that Bai Yunfei had never used before even in this last battle of his. The strongest of strikes from the Overlapping Waves Art!
“Bang!”
“Crack!”
Just like Zhang Zhengshan, Liu Cheng’s bones had let loose a cracking sound before he too was sent flying away like Zhang Zhengshan had.
As he flew through the sky, several bits and pieces of his broken bracelet came falling down to the ground from his sleeve.
“Brat, you’re looking to die!” Yu Fei had gone up with Liu Cheng to interrupt the fight, but he had hesitated on interfering with it. But when he saw that Liu Cheng had been injured as well, indignation had filled his heart. At the same time, the surrounding air around him seemed to froze as frost began to appear and gather around Yu Fei’s right fist before slamming down onto Bai Yunfei.
A squall had engulfed the area without warning before Yu fei’s palm could even touch Bai Yunfei. This gale of wind had immediately blew back against Yu Fei, sending him flying backwards. After tumbling to the ground several steps, Yu Fei picked himself up from the ground with his left hand holding his chest while blood came forth from his mouth. His face looked towards Hong Yin who was right besides Bai Yunfei with shock.
“This was to be a fair duel. For headmaster Yu Fei and elder Liu Cheng to interfere, what is the meaning of this?!” A light voice could be heard as Mu Wanqing and You Qingfeng hurried to Bai Yunfeng’s side.
Seeing the group of people gradually coming forward, Yu Fei’s face had darkened and his eyes flashed several times as if he was thinking of a plan.
Bai Yunfei suppressed a mouthful of blood and stared down Yu Fei, “I’ve won, so return the Glacial Pricker to me!” he spoke coldly.
After speaking, he looked to Hong Yin by his side. Understanding Bai Yunfei’s intentions, Hong Yin’s body flickered away from sight only to reappear right in front of Yu Fei with an icy expression, “I won’t press you about your treacherous conduct just now. Leave the Glacial Pricker here and scram!”
With Hong Yin staring so closely and his soulforce pressing down onto him, Yu Fei couldn’t help but step back half a step. He knew that with the entire Glacial School combined, they would not be a matched for this person in front of him. His face flushed with a green and white color before finally taking out the Glacial Pricker and handing it over to Hong Yin unwillingly. Then turning around, he gave a signal to the disciples behind him to pick up Zhang Zhengshan and Liu Cheng before making a quick departure.
Yan Xi had also given a deep look towards Bai Yunfei before turning around without another word to leave as well.
Bai Yunfei remained motionless from where he stood. His right had involuntarily begun to tremble a little bit with blood dripping down his arm. The outburst from the Eighty One Fold Fist Force had caused his entire right arm to tear up, his muscles and bones suffering from the tearing.
But he didn’t seemed to have noticed this nor did he spare a glance at his enemies leaving. Instead, his perplexed eyes seemed to have stared at the small pile of blue fragments with a complex expression..
After some time, he suddenly broke out into laughter that contained sarcasm and self-deprecation, “Ah, this is your “treasured” bracelet….”
Lifting his left hand, he gave his right arm a gentle nudge before a golden straw hat appeared in his hand.
“I gave it to you, but you didn’t want it….so what you sent me, why should I keep it?”
“Bang….” One crisp echo later, a ball of fire appeared in his palm before engulfing the straw hat and quickly transformed it into specks of ash that scattered and blew away into the sky….
“Yunfei….are you alright?” Hong Yin asked in concern from the side. Bai Yunfei closed his eyes and sucked in his breath before slowly exhaling. Opening his eyes, there was a look of absolved calmness to him. Tilting his head up to give everyone a smile, he nodded.
“Don’t worry, I’m fi-….”
Before he could even finish, the expression on his face suddenly went rigid and cut off his words before falling to the ground without a warning.
Startled, Hong Yin hastily held Bai Yunfei up. Looking down, he could see that Bai Yunfei’s eyes were shut with his face contorted with pain. His body continued to spasm as if he was undergoing some sort of gigantic pain.
This sudden development had caused everyone around them to panic. The girl Chu Yuhe herself was on the verge of crying while Mu Wanqing gently patted her shoulder to console her. Turning to look at Hong Yin who was inspecting Bai Yunfei, Mu Wanqing whispered, “Hong Yin, Yunfei must be….”
Hong Yin’s face nodded his head heavily, “It is the anticipated backlash. We’ll have to return to the school and think of a plan right away…”