“Damn it! I want you to die!”
Seeing that he was almost at a disadvantage when facing a Late Condensing Reality Realm martial artist, Hong Qianjun turned extremely angry. His face instantly turned blue, he launched another ‘Mountain-shattering Stamp’ as he yelled.
The ‘Mountain-shattering Stamp’ was a low-rank Earth Realm martial skill, only possessed by the Multiple Mountain Martial school. Once a martial artist launched this move, all the released power would immediately gather at one certain spot, to achieve an amazing destructiveness. This skill was way more powerful than many ordinary low-rank Earth Realm martial skills. When Hong Qianjun was still at the peak of Late Condensing Reality Realm, he once shattered the protective Qi of an early Clasping Yuan Realm martial artists with this skill. Just now, he launched the moved with all of his power, it sent the flowing water streams in front of him up into the air.
The water surrounding Ye Chen was stirred violently, fierce streams of water began striking Ye Chen’s body, they seemed to push him back, and even tried to send him to fly. The protective Qi released by Ye Chen surrounded him three feet away from his body, it was now being squeezed by those water streams and letting out a creaking noise.
Ye Chen suddenly showed a fierce gaze, he slightly shook his body that had previously been stabilised in the water like a mountain; followed by his move, the sword intent spread out along with his Qi and cut off those surging water streams. Instantly, those ferocious water streams quieted down like beheaded serpents, huge yet powerless.
“Highly Condensed Sword Qi!”
The series of changes all happened within a single moment. Ye Chen then trod on a water stream and stepped forwards. Being trod on by his feet, the water stream seemed as solid as an iron board. No one managed to see the way he launched the move, and the Hidden Cloud Sword was swung down already. Ye Chen gripped the sword and maintained the gesture, as if he suddenly paused.
A thick, huge roaring sword Qi split up the water, it ripped off a layer of the yellow light and bumped against the lutescent palm stamp.
Puff
The sword Qi didn’t directly shatter this time, instead, it shook in an intense manner and clashed against the power of the palm attack. The sword Qi inexhaustibly released waves of power which continuously struck against the palm silhouette one after another.
“What kind of sword skill is this?!”
Seeing this, Hong Qianjun’s heart sank. At that moment, he was even more eager to kill Ye Chen than before. He couldn’t live with the fact that he was unable to defeat a Condensing Reality Realm martial artist, even though that was someone who comprehended the sword intent. After all, he was a Hidden Dragon Ranking martial artist, it would have a bad effect on his reputation if the others come to know about this.
Puff!
Although that palm stamp was huge and powerful, it was only supported by a single stream of power. As it continuously got cut by the sword Qi, the palm stamp rapidly fell apart, and in the next moment, the sword Qi, that showed no signs of weakening, swished further towards the denser layer of the lutescent light surrounding Hong Qianjun’s body, while going right against the rapidly flowing water stream, like a dazzling lightning bolt.
“Enfeoffed and Conferred a rank of Nobility!”
As he activated all of his Zhen Qi, the layer of lutescent light instantly grew brighter around Hong Qianjun’s body, it seemed even more solid and touchable. After that, the thick and bright circle of light quickly condensed into a small-scale town, firmly shielding Hong Qianjun.
“What is this defensive skill? It is even more powerful than the combination of my Purple Qi and the Great Monument Suppression.” Luo Hanshan had always been good at defensive skills. Back then, even Ouyang Ming, who had mastered the Dragon-beheading Kick, couldn’t break through his defence. He could even fight evenly against two same-grade martial artists with his excellent defensive power, however, once he saw the small-scale town that was condensed from the light, and surrounded Hong Qianjun’s body, he realised that his own defensive power was far less powerful than Hong Qianjun’s defensive power, even if he managed to step into the Clasping Yuan Realm. Therefore, Luo Hanshan began worrying about Ye Chen.
In the meanwhile, both Ouyang Ming and Ouyang Lie had their eyes wide open in shock.
“How can this even happen?! Not long ago, Ye Chen was almost defeated by Shi Potian, how can he now fight against Hong Qianjun without showing any signs of loss? Where did he gain the extra power from? It’s impossible!” Ouyang Ming couldn’t believe what he saw, he gnashed his as he murmured.
Ouyang Lie said in a low voice, “It’s fortunate that we didn’t launch the attack ourselves, otherwise we would probably die in his hands. Nevertheless, since the god has spared us from this deadly danger, we can still find our chance and kill him. Let’s just watch for now, he won’t be able to hang on for too long. The ‘Enfeoff and Conferred a rank of Nobility’ of the Multiple Mountain Martial School is a mid-rank Earth Realm martial art, even though Hong Qianjun hasn't mastered it yet, he can definitely destroy Ye Chen with it.”
“You’re right, Ye Chen is going to die anyway, he can never break that defence.”
A series of earth-shaking ‘clangs’ rose into the air.
The sword Qi sent up huge amounts of fire sparks as it struck against the small-scale town, those fire sparks didn’t die out even in the water, instead, large groups of cannibal fish were killed by the great heat.
However, no matter how heavily and swiftly the sword Qi hacked against the small town condensed from Zhen Qi, it stayed perfectly still, just like a great mountain. The sword Qi caused a few slight cracks on the small town, yet, that was far from even shaking it, not to mention killing Hong Qianjun, who was firmly shielded by the town.
“Ha, my ‘Enfeoff and Conferred a rank of Nobility’ is a mid-rank Earth Realm martial art, you can only break it in your dreams!” Hong Qianjun laughed out loud and yelled. As a rank 7 institution of the White Mystery Nation, the Multiple Mountain Martial institution didn’t have too many mid-rank Earth Realm martial arts; half a year ago, Hong Qianjun stepped into the Clasping Yuan Realm, and as a reward, the leader gifted him the ‘Enfeoff and Conferred a rank of Nobility’. This art had eleven levels in total, Hong Qianjun concentrated and practised for half a year, while being guided by an inner elder who majored in this art, and now reached the eighth-level already, it was even more powerful than the peak-level of all kinds of low-ranked Earth Realm defensive arts. Without a doubt, this was Hong Qianjun’s greatest defence.
Ye Chen remained expressionless, and abruptly let out a great shout.
“Go!”
Boom!
The huge stream of sword Qi tightly coiled around the small town and suddenly exploded; after the explosion, countless thin and fierce streams of sword Qi ‘clang’ed against the small town from all directions, forcing Hong Qianjun to take a step back.
Hong Qianjun wasn’t infuriated by this, instead, he once again laughed out loud, and threw out another two moves of the ‘Mountain-shattering Stamp’ in a row.
Tremendous waves of palm power rushed towards Ye Chen, everywhere these palm power streams swept across, the water would be detonated, surging into the sky like a tsunami, and then roared towards Ye Chen.
“Clear the Sky!”
Facing a pair of huge palm stamps that were rushing over from both sides, Ye Chen let out a resonant growl, and launched ‘Clear the Sky’, that had the widest attacking range among all of his sword skills.
Puff! Boom! Puff! Boom!
The thunderous booms caused by the Mountain-shattering Stamps and the shrill swishing sounds of the sword Qi clashed against each other, the impact was so great that it even shook the sky. All cannibal fishes that drew slightly close were either crushed or pierced through. As for Luo Hanshan, Zhu Mei and Xu Jing, they had already moved eight-meter away from the battlefield, and could only see two human silhouettes fighting against each other in the surging waves of water.
“Junior Brother Ye is indeed marvellous, fighting against Hong Qianjun, a Hudden Dragon Ranked martial artist, for so long, and the winner is not yet determined. He is still only in the Late Condensing Reality Realm, and hasn’t even reached the peak-level.” Luo Hanshan was quite surprised on one side, and felt that this was to be expected on the other side, but all in all, he was extremely happy for Ye Chen’s improvement.
Unlike him, Zhu Mei furrowed her brows and said, “Luo Hanshan, Brother Ye is in danger.”
“How come?” asked Luo Hanshan.
Before Zhu Mei responded, Xu Jing explained in a bland tone, “Junior Brother Ye’s martial art is a peal-rank Mortal Realm art, and he doesn’t have enough amount of Zhen Qi, and is limited by his cultivation level, therefore, he is roughly weaker than Hong Qianjun by at least three times. Hong Qianjun is now trying to make Brother Ye consume as much Zhen Qi as possible, and when Brother Ye’s Zhen Qi is used up, he would immediately launch a deadly attack.”
“You’re right! I didn’t think about this before!”
Earlier, Luo Hanshan was way too excited about Ye Chen’s improvement, and it made him ignore some essential details, but after being reminded by the two female disciples, he instantly realised the facts and began worrying again.
“But I believe that Brother Ye has his own solution, he doesn’t seem like a thoughtless person at all.” After her explanation to Luo Hanshan, Xu Jing added.
On the east side, eight-hundred meters away from the battlefield.
Ouyang Lie sneered and said, “Ye Chen will absolutely die in a few minutes.”
Ouyang Ming clearly understood him, and responded with a malicious grin, “As it is said, aged ginger is more pungent. Hong Qianjun is an experienced martial artist, and would have encountered all kinds of opponents. This kid, Ye Chen can’t even compare with him. Once he uses up his Zhen Qi, he will certainly be crushed by Hong Qianjun.”
“Actually, the best result of this fight would be that, Hong Qianjun will be wounded severely while Ye Chen is killed. Then, Luo Hanshan and the two girls will definitely lose their minds in rage, they would rush up and attack Hong Qianhun as a group. However, as a powerful Hidden Dragon Ranked martial artist, Hong Qianjun can still kill all three of them, even with serious injuries; but after that, his injuries will only worsen further.”
Ouyang Ming’s eyes began shining, and said, “Are you saying that we can just let Hong Qianjun kill Ye Chen for us, and then conveniently kill him as well.”
Ouyang Lie didn’t respond, and only showed a malicious look.
As he easily shattered a thick swooshing stream of water brought up by Ye Chen’s sword Qi, Hong Qianjun proudly laughed and said, “You know, there is a huge gap between the Condensing Reality Realm and the Clasping Yuan Realm, no matter now talented you are, you can not go beyond this gap. How much Zhen Qi do you still have left by now? I suppose less than twenty percent, Am I right?”
“More than enough to kill you.”
Even though Ye Chen had been maintaining an expressionless look all this time, his gaze continued to become more and more fierce with time, it was as if he could see through everything in this world, even the whole universe, and the reality.
Seeing Ye Chen’s cold and bland face, Hong Qianjun was once again enraged. He swore to himself that he would entirely crush Ye Chen’s confidence, and would tread on Ye Chen’s face, and torture him as hard as possible. Then, he would find out if Ye Chen could still maintain this arrogant and careless face, and not beg for mercy.
“Die! Mountain-shattering Stamp!”
Hong Qianjun swiftly launched another wave of lutescent palm stamps, which were extremely condensed, it seemed as if each palm stamp had a small hill sealed in it.
Surprisingly, Ye Chen didn’t try to take this wave of attack, instead, he turned around, lowered his body and darted away, as flexibly and nimbly as a fish. It was hard to imagine that someone could actually move so fast underwater.
The protective Qi condensed into a sword-shaped shield, and wrapped around Ye Chen. Stimulated by the sword intent, Ye Chen moved extremely fast under water, it was as if the water had lost all of its capability to impede his movement, and was easily split up by the sword-shaped Qi shield. At this moment, Ye Chen moved even faster than those ancient cannibal fishes, and was rapidly gathering his power.
“Don’t even try!”
Hong Qianjun saw that his palm stamps missed the target, and hurriedly chased up.
The water pressure was enormous, and also physical skills weren't one of Hong Qianjun’s specialities. Therefore, Ye Chen darted farther and farther away from him at lightning speed. Hong Qianjun activated his Zhen Qi to its limit, it was so much that his Zhen Qi streams even began boiling water behind his body, generating a great amount of power, and raising his speed.
Finally, Hong Qianjun fixed his eyes on Ye Chen from a great distance, he once again launched an attack. Waves of palm stamps madly roared out, they seemed capable of destroying the entire world.
The chase continued for a short while when Ye Chen suddenly stopped, he turned around while swinging his sword towards Hong Qianjun.
“Highly Condensed Sword Qi!”
Hong Qianjun grinned scornfully, and thought Ye Chen was probably frightened dumb. He instantly activated the small-scale Zhen Qi town and surrounded his body with it, to defend against Ye Chen’s sword Qi. However, when he activated the defensive Zhen Qi town, his Zhen Qi streams paused briefly; but he neglected it, because his only thought at this moment was to kill Ye Chen, and to tread with Ye Chen’s face under his feet.
Fire sparks burst out in all directions, boiling the surrounding water.
In the middle of these fire sparks, a stream of sword Qi ceaselessly hacked at the defensive Zhen Qi town. This sword Qi moved unimaginably fast and one couldn’t even possibly trace its movements, even the surrounding water began vibrating along with its movement.
Crack!
Abruptly, a cracking noise came from the small town, and followed by that, the sword Qi hacked even harder than before. Compared to a while ago, Ye Chen’s Zhen Qi didn’t show any signs of being used up, and on the contrary, it had now grown even stronger; it was as if his Zhen Qi would never exhaust, and what had happened before were all unreal.
A huge crack soon appeared in the small town condensed from Zhen Qi, it seemed like it was about to be chopped into two. Hong Qianjun yelled out in shock, “This is impossible! How can you still have that much Zhen Qi?! How?!”
Edited by: Jaggerjakk