"His sword movement's poetic perspective seems to have reached a very high level, which is almost equivalent to a normal Astral Reaching Realm warrior." Once Ye Chen exposed all of his true power regarding the poetic perspective, it'd be easy for a powerful Astral Reaching Realm warrior - and even Clasping Yuan Realm warriors - to discern the strength of Ye Chen's poetic perspective.
After blowing away Yan Chihuo's long blade with one sword attack, Ye Chen lightly jumped into the air and landed back on the ground.
Ye Chen had found another route to learn his poetic perspective. The others had all learned theirs from Earth Realm martial arts while he had learned it from combining sword movements. Both of the ways had their advantages. Learning from the completed Earth Realm martial arts would be relatively easier to master; combining sword movements would not only be hard, but it would also be easy to just simply stay stuck at a stage. However, the benefit of combining sword movements would be that during the whole combining process, it would allow the trainer to see it clearer and understand it deeper.
Therefore, even though Yan Chihuo had trained very powerful martial arts, he had still lost to Ye Chen in poetic perspectives.
Awoooo!
After beating Yan Chihuo, the dragon-shaped shadow on Ye Chen's body circled around him once before jumping onto Yan Chihuo, devouring his dragon fountain Qi.
Twenty-five…twenty-six…twenty-six and a half!
Yan Chihuo's dragon fountain Qi was way too rich, which made Ye Chen's dragon-shaped shadow grow all the way to twenty-six and a half meters, which was just as powerful as Sikong Sheng. But of course, there would be another battle between Sikong Sheng and Yan Chihuo. Then, Sikong Sheng's dragon-shaped shadow would grow to literally one inch to twenty-seven meters.
"You are very powerful, but unfortunately, you will eventually lose to him." Yan Chihuo glanced at Sikong Sheng, who was standing right off the stage. He made a grabbing gesture and retrieved his long blade.
Ye Chen said: "You will not have to worry about that."
"There will be a battle between him and me… You will see the power gap then."
Actually, Yan Chihuo had been suspecting that Sikong Sheng had already reached that level now. And all the way until he saw Sikong Sheng battling Murong Qingcheng, when he threw out that limited punch which had almost broken through the light wall, Yan Chihuo had confirmed his theory.
Since the judges had placed Sikong Sheng, Yan Chihuo and Ye Chen in the last two rounds. It had led to the result that Yan Chihuo would not only have to battle with Ye Chen, but he would still have to battle with Shikong Sheng because he had lost to Ye Chen.
However, the judges had already been prepared for this. They let Yan Chihuo, who was not really wounded, rest for half an hour before placing him in the next battle.
On the battling platform…
Yan Chihuo, who had just lost to Ye Chen, held his long blade. Burning flame covered his whole body, his aura looking extremely powerful. He had undoubtedly pushed his Nine Twist Fire Spirit Art to its seventh twist - Red Flame Battle Body level.
"I know that you have already reached that level, but I will still try my best." With a swing of his long blade, the ground cracked up with a deep gap.
Sikong Sheng's brows flicked a little bit, "A lot of people should already figure it out by now. I did not expect you, a Clasping Yuan Realm warrior, to see it already."
Yan Chihuo said, "I am already not far away from that level. Otherwise, I would not be able to see it either."
"Oh yeah? Then we shall see."
"Fire Cloud Crack Earth Cut!"
Facing Sikong Sheng, Yan Chihuo did not dare to underestimate him even the slightest bit. One of his top two ace attacks - the Fire Cloud Crack Earth Cut - was thrown out towards his opponent.
"Fist Tyrant River!"
Sikong Sheng took out his right hand from his back. His fist had then been thrown out along with that creepy vibe.
Boom!
His fist power was like a dragon flying across the ocean. Its unstoppable power had broken right through that fire cloud blade light, attacking right at Yan Chihuo.
Among all of Yan Chihuo's ace attacks, the Second Golden Flame Cut was the fastest. After throwing out that blade attack, a golden light flashed once in the air, clashing with that fist power.
"Fist Froze River!"
Sikong Sheng took light steps, floating towards Yan Chihuo as he threw out another punch.
BOOOM!
All of the space around Yan Chihuo had been restricted, as if he was trapped in a cage. Even the fire element zhen Qi around him seemed to be running back into his body. He yelled as the Red Flame Battle Body exploded;, the flame then accumulated and solidified. It carried on burning and burning, and after it had burned out the air, it had burnt out the part that had been restrained. The second ace attack - the Fire Cloud Golden Flame Cut - had been thrown out as well.
Sikong Sheng's battling power was very stable. After throwing out that punch, the powerful fist power had not only broken down Yan Chihuo's blade light, it had also blown him away. The surprising power had made most of the people widen their eyes, since Yan Chihuo was ranked second in the last Hidden Dragon Rank after all. He would be ranked the third place again this year as well. However, he could not even handle two punches of Sikong Sheng. People could not help but wonder exactly how powerful Sikong Sheng was.
All of the Astral Reaching Realm warriors had a pretty good idea, but they were still shocked when they saw what had happened.
"He is way too powerful. He is also a young warrior, but how can he be so powerful?! There is no way that Ye Chen can be his opponent." Everyone from the Sky Cloud Martial School was looking at each other without knowing what to say.
The headmaster of the Sky Cloud Martial School forced a laugh as he said, "Ye Chen was able to be ranked the second, which has already reached way beyond our expectation. There is no need to wish for the champion place."
Luo Xinglie nodded, "I think Sikong Shang has reached the level of producing zhen yuan."
"Wha..." Everyone was shocked once again, and no one said another word.
Yan Chihuo tottered to land on the ground as an enlightened expression appeared on his face, "This should be really close to your real power, right?"
Sikong Sheng said lightly: "Unfortunately, you will not have the chance to see it."
"Yan, none of us will have a chance to see it. However, once I reach that level, then we will see who will win the battle."
Putting his long blade back in its scabbard, Yan Chihuo walked down the stage. After losing to both Ye Chen and Sikong Sheng, his ranking was already settled - No.3 of this year's Hidden Dragon Rank.
As he stepped off the stage, Yan Chihuo glanced at Ye Chen. It was like he was saying "You saw it now. Without reaching that level, you will never be his opponent."
Ye Chen looked still the same, ignoring it completely.
"Huh! I see you have saved something as well. But no matter how many ace attacks you have saved, it will be useless." Seeing Ye Chen's expression, Yan Chihuo had guessed that Ye Chen had probably left a little bit of power up his sleeve. Unfortunately, no matter how powerful his last attack was, it would still be useless if Ye Chen's power was not at Sikong Sheng's level. The battle between geniuses would not be easy, it would be almost impossible to win as the weaker one.
There had been nine young top warriors on that platform before for the seventieth round, and only Li Daoxuan had not gotten on that stage yet. After the battle between Yan Chihuo and Sikong Sheng, Lin Yun and Li Daoxuan, who had already battled before, started battling again. It would be the last battle for Lin Yun, and it was the eighth battle for Li Daoxuan. The reason that the arrangement of the competition was a bit messed up was because the judges purposely placed Sikong Sheng, Yan Chihuo and Ye Chen in the last two battles.
The two had exchanged hundreds of attacks, after which Li Daoxuan had beaten Lin Yun.
After resting for an hour, the seventy-first round had begun amidst everyone's excitement.
In the seventieth round, all the top young warriors had had six battles. Therefore, there would only be four battles in the seventy-first round; between Ye Chen and Sikong Sheng, Li Daoxuan and Bing Ling, Murong Qingcheng and Gu Youyun, Tuo Baku and Mo Yan. As for Yan Chihuo and Lin Yun, they had been through nine battles and fought against nine other top young warriors. Therefore, they would not be in this round of competition.
First, it was Murong Qingcheng beating Gu Youyun. Then, Tuo Baky had beaten Mo Yan once again, in the eliminating round where they had met before. After that, Li Daoxuan had also beaten Bing Ling.
Eventually, there was only one battle left. It was indeed the battle between Ye Chen and Sikong Sheng.
Ye Chen, the largest dark horse in this year's Hidden Dragon Rank competition, he had won against every single opponent he had encountered so far without exception. The most attention attracting part was that his power had continued to increase, and it seemed like he was still hiding some power. In the last battle, he had even beaten the "Fire Spirit Prince" Yan Chihuo, against everyone's expectations.
Sikong Sheng, ranked second in his first Hidden Dragon Rank and the champion of the last Hidden Dragon rank, the king-level warrior among the young generation in the South Rudra Region, had beaten Yan Chihuo with only two attacks. A lot of people had suspected that Sikong Sheng's real power was way more than that. No one really knew what his last ace attack would be.
This battle would not only be the last battle between the top young warriors, but it would also be the last battle in the seventy-first round of competition. All eyes were on them, and even the air seemed to have been frozen.
Shoo!
Ye Chen got onto the platform first, the long sword tied around his waist.
Sikong Sheng sneered a little and took a step, appearing right in front of Ye Chen. His horrifyingly powerful flying art had caused a lot of people gasping.
"Your power is quite impressive, and even Yan Chihuo had lost to you. But, the second place will always be the second place… It will not change." Sikong Sheng stood there with his hands behind his back. There was a look on his face like he was looking down on the world, along with a similar aura spreading out through the light wall.
"What a powerful aura?! Is Sikong Sheng ready to use his real power now?" Everyone was shocked once again.
Taking on the attack of that powerful aura, Ye Chen's blue robe danced in the air, and so did his long black hair. His dark star-like eyes had a calm out-of-the-world look. He was so pure and calm, like a top sword artist standing on the cliff… Nothing seemed to be able to influence him.
He said lightly, "Until the very last second, no one would be able to tell the result."
"Do you still think that now?"
Sikong Sheng did not argue. He took both of his hands from his back and his body shook. That horrifying zhen Qi shot out into the sky, visibly spreading out the whole stadium. Dots of broken light had also appeared out of nowhere around Sikong Sheng. They were like diamonds and crystals, extremely condensed and pure.
"This is … zhen yuan!"
"No, it is half-step zhen yuan. Sikong Sheng has already started to extract zhen yuan. No wonder he was so powerful. Once using the half-step zhen yuan, no one below the Astral Realm could compete with him."
"I have finally figured it out. Before, Sikong Sheng had liquefied his half-step zhen yuan into zhen Qi when he was battling. That was why no one knew about his true power."
"Indeed. Zhen yuan is unable to be liquefied, but half-step zhen yuan can. Sikong Sheng had tried to hide his power so hard. Ye Chen is definitely not his rightful opponent. No, even ten Ye Chen would not be enough. The top warrior among the young generation has mastered half-step zhen yuan, he could probably take on an Early Astral Reaching Realm warrior. He might even be able to kill one."
Once Sikong Sheng had performed his half-step zhen yuan, everyone thought Ye Chen would have no chance of winning, including everyone from the Sky Cloud Martial School and the leader of the South Rudra Martial School Long Biyun. People from the Purple Sun Martial School even looked extra happy about it. Ye Chen winning against Yan Chihuo had pissed them off quite badly, and it would be unacceptable for Ye Chen to take the champion place. The good thing was that Sikong Sheng was still there, and now there was zero chance for Ye Chen to be the winner of this year's Hidden Dragon Rank.
"Do you think you can win against me now?" All the half-step zhen yuan boiled up inside his body as Sikong Sheng's aura kept increasing. It was like there would be no end. It attacked towards Ye Chen aggressively, wave after wave without an end.
Ye Chen lifted up his eyelids as a shockingly bright light appeared from his eyes. He said word by word, "I have said, until the last minute, no one can tell the true result."
The second Ye Chen finished talking, the air around his ears started to make a buzzing sound; it was like the air had been stabbed through. People could sense that a great sword was about to shoot out of the scabbard and slay the whole world. The next second, an extremely horrifying sword intent appeared out of nowhere, melting through the air. The sealing light wall seemed to be shaking; it was an existence that was more powerful than the sixty percent sword intent.
The seventy percent sword intent exploded, metaphorically blowing away the minds of everyone who was present.