That head Senior Brother of the Nine Palace was called Hong Yinchuan. Hearing the unanimous answer from the Stargaze disciples, inwardly, he was rather in awe and could not help but feel a whole new level of respect for the Stargaze Palace.
When one wanted to determine how a sect performs, they would know the most by watching how their Core disciples interact with each other. If the disciples of the sect could not even fulfill the basic requirement by working together and only cared about their own benefits, this sect would not have any cohesiveness. Of course, they would also be excluded from being competitive.
A plate of loose sand sect would never be competitive.
Initially, when Hong Yinchuan learned their own elite warriors had suffered an almost total defeat at the Stargaze Palace, his shock was unimaginable.
If Zuo Tianci, the head of the Nine Palace Faction had not returned from a successful pilgrimage to the Xuan Yuan Mound and ascended into the Void Martial Stage, he would not have come to the Great Luo. Since those seniors had suffered a heavy loss at the hands of the Stargaze Palace, he knew how to judge situation.
However, everything had become completely different when their grandmaster had become an elite warrior at the Void Martial Stage. Hong Yinchuan was also the first disciple to Zuo Tianci. Of course, he was full of confidence after having received special instruction from his teacher.
With two cold chuckles, he sized Qin Wushuang up again and said: "Qin Wushuang, when you fight me, that spiritual beast on your shoulder will not participate, right? If he participates, then we don't need to do it. I am seeking a one on one challenge between you and me, not a fight to the death with a spiritual beast."
Hearing his words, Qin Wushuang deliberately showed some disdain from the corner of his mouth. He laughed coldly: "In the end, you are being reticent, so are you feeling guilty or scared? If you don't want to compete, I can let you out of this embarrassing situation and we can stop this bet. Why would I need help to deal with you?"
"Alright, you speak big words. Let me see just how much skill you have!"
Qin Wushuang nodded and cleared his throat: "Everyone, make space for us."
Naturally, the Stargaze disciples' power to rally their supporters was extraordinary. As soon as they spoke these words, everyone else made way and a giant open area appeared.
Qin Wushuang walked around in a circle. Wherever he walked, he would leave a deep imprint with his footsteps. Hong Yinchuan only laughed coldly and did not speak. He thought Qin Wushuang was doing a demonstration of force. However, he did not put this little display in his mind.
After one revolution, immediately, a circle at about thirty metre wide appeared around the open space. Appearing neither small nor big, it was suitable to battle and would not cause the spiritual Qi to fly out and injure the innocents.
Qin Wushuang spoke lightly: "This circle is the stage. Whoever goes out of this circle, they lose."
Naturally, he was doing this in consideration of the imperial capital. When two elite warriors at the Advanced Staged battled, they would unleash tremendous power. If they used their full power, most likely half of the city wall would be destroyed and a lot of the bystanders would also be injured. Thus, he drew this circle to restrain the other party and prevent him from getting innocent people involved by using the rules of competition.
Hong Yinchuan did not expose Qin Wushuang's intention despite knowing it: "Ok, I didn't know that you had a rather sophisticated mind. It will be as you say. Whoever steps out of this circle loses!"
In a flash, Qin Wushuang jumped into the circle. Both hands hugged his chest as he stood over there with a carefree expression while looking at Hong Yinchuan.
He knew that this Hong Yinchuan was at the Advanced Stage. However, so what? Currently, Qin Wushuang had almost finished walking the last part of the Advanced Stage. He was only one step away from the Perfect Stage.
Regardless of spiritual power or their own skills, he had confidence that he would suppress this Hong Yinchuan completely. Not to mention he also had a Void Martial Stage weapon—the Fury Dragon Soul!
When dealing with this Hong Yinchuan, he was not considering how to win against him, but in what way he could use it to inspire shock and awe. In a way, he would like to use this fight to thwart the Nine Palace's provocation.
Only, his own fellow disciples didn't know about his strength as they could not help but feel worried. Zhao Muzhi whispered beside Wei Yi's ears: "Senior Brother Wei, this guy from the Nine Palace is at the Advanced Stage! I can sense an extremely powerful presence that would not lose to our Palace Masters."
Wei Yi nodded carefully: "Indeed, this person is at the Advanced Stage. Although Junior Brother Qin's power has not been revealed, he is doubtlessly also at the Advanced Stage. This battle will go on."
Zhao Muzhi twisted his hands and felt concerned. In this battle, regardless of Qin Wushuang, the youths of the Stargaze Palace, the entire Stargaze, or even the entire Great Luo Empire, represented great importance.
Certainly, the Nine Palace had made their arrangements by acting without the slightest scruple. To defeat the Nine Palace, the success of this battle was enormously important.
As he was thinking, Zhao Muzhi looked at the centre of the circle with more personal gains and losses.
Currently, with the dust flying around, a whirlwind temperament had formed inside the circle carried by the two figures. The whirlwind only become more tangible as it continued to move along with these two's momentum.
The two elite warriors were already engaged in battle.
At this moment, these two did not use their weapon and only fought with their bare hand. Initially, at the level of the Advanced Stage, a fist fight was impossible. Even barehanded fights would occur with long distance attacks. The possibility of having close quarter combat was not possible.
After all, that type of fighting would not be advantageous to performance and they could not unleash all their moves.
However, these two had been restrained by the size of the stage. The thirty metre circular stage was their entire performance space. Once one went outside of this space, they would lose.
Thus, these two's actions were not bold and decisive that unleashed great power. Instead, they changed it into small and exquisite wrestling. The technique requirements over this style had greatly surpassed the power.
Hong Yinchuan had a set of fist technique called "Nine Palace Linking." The passing from each move was extremely treacherous and required one to go after a strange irregular changes.
When Hong Yingchuan used his body power to initiate this technique, he had brought along natural power. indeed, the performance of a set of "Nine Palace Linking" was an imposing display. Especially when they were fighting in a smaller area, it seemed as if he had engulfed the entire martial space. The bystanders could not help but feel nervous for Qin Wushuang.
Regarding of the fist's speed, power, undercurrent, and composition, each aspect seemed close to perfection. As soon as he performed it, he had grasped the battle into his own rhythm.
Zhao Muzhi felt somewhat depressed as he watched this fight. Then he saw Qin Wushuang whose body swayed left and right like a lotus leaf in the wind. It was as if he could be forced out of the circle by the power of the enemy's fist attacks at any moment.
Zhao Muzhi was not the only one having such thoughts. The others all felt the same worry. However, Wei Yi was the only exception.
Since he had fought with Qin Wushuang in the past, he had some knowledge about Qin Wushuang's combat style. He knew that Qin Wushuang's actions was not showing that he feared the enemy or trying to be negligent. In fact, Qin Wushuang was extremely good at controlling the tempo.
One could even say that Qin Wushuang was an elite warrior at fighting in a chaotic war and a grandmaster at controlling tempo. Combined with his unpredictable footwork, Wei Yi refused to believe that this Hong Yinchuan could use a mere set of fist techniques to beat Qin Wushuang out of the circle.
"Senior Brother Wei, Junior Bro Qin's footsteps are strange. Do you think he is looking for a chance to counterattack?" Zhao Muzhi was worried as he asked the question.
Wei Yi was calm: "Junior Brother Zhao, the more Qin is like this, the more I think highly of him. If he started off by attacking directly, I would rather think he is not confident. To defeat an enemy, what kind of method do you think will suppress an opponent the most?"
"What method?" Zhao Muzhi thought for a moment, "To defeat him with his own best skill? It's kind of unrealistic."
"No, using his own best skill to defeat him is not the best method to beat him. The best way is to defeat him easily in the situation when he thinks that he would win for sure. The sudden whiplash to one's mental state will be most devastating!"
Wei Yi had a deep familiarity with this feeling. He himself had encountered the same situation when he fought with Qin Wushuang during the year-end competition. He had been certain of his victory, yet he still lost. Thus, he could understand such feelings of being forcefully brought down to earth.
It seemed that Qin Wushuang's current actions was leading to same outcome.
When Hong Yinchuan saw Qin Wushuang only dodging and not launching any attacks, he could not help but speak with a mocking tone: "Qin Wushuang, did the Stargaze Palace only teach you how to dodge? Don't you know anything else?"
Qin Wushuang laughed: "What new moves would you like to see?"
"The things that could defeat me would be new." Inwardly, Hong Yinchuan was believing firmly that Qin Wushuang's defensive abilities was stronger than his offensive ability. Hence, why Qin Wushuang had started with a defensive position in the beginning. If he could lure Qin Wushuang into attacking, he would have a greater chance of winning. Even during the process of attacking, it would be possible to find chance to defeat Qin Wushuang in one move!
As soon as he had finished speaking, Hong Yinchuan launched another three fist attacks. These three fists shot out continuously like rapid-fire arrows. Like lightning, it flew directly towards Qin Wushuang's face.
Qin Wushuang laughed coldly as he thought: "This guy is showing off with this set of fist techniques. He doesn't know that I have so many techniques that any one of it would not lose to his fist techniques. If I attacked him today with my "Coagulated Sword Technique," it would appear boring. Since he is so confident of his fist technique, I will defeat him with the fist technique he is most proud of."
When he thought here, a set of exceptional techniques emerged in his head—Answer a fool with his own folly. The official name was called Altering Star Position.
This method could use the force of the Altering Star Position by reversing the exceptional technique used by the opponent. It was equivalent to using their own skills to do the counterattack.
Seeing the arrival of three fists, in a flash, Qin Wushuang's body rolled out in an arc. With one push of his power, he rolled the force of those three fists with one move of the "Altering Star Position"!
To answer a fool with their own folly!
Regardless of his former or current world, this exceptional technique was extremely remarkable. Indeed, redirected by this technique, the power of those three fist attacks had flew back towards Hong Yinchuan with an even stronger force. In his entire life, Hong Yinchuan had never seen such demonic thing. Inwardly, he was shocked when he saw his own three attacks being reflected back. Without thinking, he dodged a few times and had finally evaded it in a rush. Yet, he was in the most embarrassing state. When he looked down, both feet was almost stepping on the border's edge!