The last stroke was like the final brushstroke of a picture scroll. Within the Yin Yang sword formation, the messy sword rays formed a complete ring.
The roving Yin Yang grass swords slowed down and time seemed to stop at this moment.
The ring, made up of disarrayed sword rays, was like a nest built of tree branches picked by a bird. It emitted a delicate light ray that shone on the stationary Yin Yang grass swords, making them appear like a flock of motionless birds.
The fine and drawn-out whistle burst forth from deep underground, as if a monster had been awakened.
The next moment, the Yin Yang sword formation seemed to have sensed danger and started spinning wildly. The Yin Yang grass swords brought wave after wave of turbulent flows. The black and white, criss-crossed flows were like black and white fishes, advancing dauntlessly toward the disordered sword ring.
At the same time, the surging metal wind sprayed out from within the messy sword rays.
The metal wind collided head on with the black and white, crisscrossed Yin Yang turbulent flows.
Ai Hui was almost completely exhausted from the metal wind sword ring, which was emptying out all his elemental energy. It was getting so difficult for him to even move his fingers that he could only watch on helplessly.
He saw an unforgettable sight.
The chaotic rumbling of the turbulent flows came endlessly, wave after wave. The simplest black and white.. no, the simplest Yin and Yang grew and multiplied without end in this simple criss-cross pattern.
The metal wind that was swept into these black and white, crisscrossed flows disappeared rapidly. The flows that swallowed the wind constantly tangled with one another and fused into each other, eventually extinguishing completely.
Ai Hui, who had his eyes wide open, witnessed the whole process, from the birth of the turbulent flows, to how they got tangled with each other, and how they finally welded together and were destroyed.
All was so simple, yet so profound that Ai Hui was deeply attracted to what he’d seen unfolding before his eyes. He made sure to keep his eyes open in fear of missing any detail. He stared on with undivided attention.
The metal wind from underground surged violently and unendingly. The Yin Yang turbulent flows thrived under the continuous agitation of the metal wind.
But Ai Hui quickly realized that along with the incessant interweaving motions, the Yin and Yang of the grass swords started to converge unceasingly.
It seemed as if Ai Hui had started to understand something.
Ai Hui was so engrossed in the mysticality of it all he did not feel that anything was amiss.
The onlookers outside the sword formation, however, saw a different scenario. The silver wind pillar, that carried an ear-piercing whistle, soared into the sky, drowning Ai Hui completely. The Yin Yang sword formation released a rumble that shook the sky as it spun so wildly and quickly that it was difficult for the naked eye to process.
The sword formation was like a cup attached to the ground, sucking and locking the metal wind in.
The metal wind hit against the sword formation ferociously.
The whistling of the wind and the rumbling of the sword formation blended together, but one could clearly feel the two thoroughly different elemental energy waves surging within. It was like two huge monsters tearing at each other.
Sparks flew and electricity flowed like a silver snake. The colorful splendor was like an overturned paint bottle.They were like fireworks, some appearing while others faded away, magnificent and dazzling.
A mysterious sense of fear arose in everyone’s mind.
Blended into the crowd, the big man reacted the quickest. His face changed greatly as the fear within his eyes could no longer be concealed.
He felt as if he was stuck in a pile of quagmire and unable to move, or as if he was underwater, suffocating. He knew that this was a sensory illusion that was caused by a reduction in the concentration of the surrounding elemental energy.
Reduction in concentration of elemental energy…
He stared deadly at the main culprit – sword formation!
It was like a vacuum, frantically sucking in the surrounding elemental energy.
Not only him but Qin Xian and the gang were unable to keep a straight face as they too could feel the elemental energy being emptied out.
Many students were unaware of this. Their mouths were wide open as they looked on at the changing colors and the deafening sword formation.
Elementalists that had achieved elemental externalization were no longer obstructed by the invisible wall between their bodies and Nature’s elemental energies. And because of this, they became more sensitive toward external elemental energies. They would more or less absorb some heaven and earth elemental energy even as they breathed. The absorption became more apparent when they were executing their Circulatory Cycle Revolution.
Elementalists that had achieved elemental externalization were like fishes while Nature’s elemental energies were like water.
Once the surrounding elemental energies thinned, elemental-externalized elementalists would feel discomfort, but not to the point where they really suffocated.
There was a specific terminology for this sensory suffocation –"elemental energy suffocation".
Elemental energy suffocation would appear in battles at times.
The nature of battles between elemental-externalized elementalists was to fight for control over Nature’s elemental energies. Such a contest was extremely intense. The mysterious interaction between the five elements would complicate the fight, making it difficult to gain an absolute advantage.
Other than that, an elementalist must be able to extract his or her surrounding elemental energies at an insane speed in order to create elemental energy suffocation.
As such, elemental energy suffocation was often seen as an art executed by Masters.
The elemental-externalized elementalists felt increasingly uncomfortable. Their eardrums were about to burst and the sky was spinning around in their heads. There were even some who started to hallucinate.
While the elemental energy surged within his body, Qin Xuan responded by calling out swiftly, "Retreat! Move back, everybody!"
As if awoken from a dream, people started retreating.
Only after withdrawing about a hundred feet did everybody start to loosen their tensed bodies.
The big man was bewildered. Just then, someone from beside him called in a suppressed voice, "Boss!"
He turned around.
Fear was written all over the petite man’s face and bloodstains could be seen below his nose.
He looked at the other subordinates and they were all in fear, but he felt unwilling to leave just like that. He clenched his teeth, saying, "Let’s look around a little more. We will leave if we’re no match."
The others simultaneously heaved a sigh of relief.
Seeing this, the big man felt somewhat displeased, but on second thought, he felt relieved too. These people had been following him for many years. They were brave and good at fighting since the weaker ones had already been eliminated. They acted this way simply because the scene before them was really pretty scary.
Elemental energy suffocation was a rare phenomenon that went far beyond their expectations.
Ai Hui wasn’t aware of the situation outside. He was standing in the eye of the tornado, where no metal winds were present.
He took in all details before his eyes.
The Yin Yang turbulent flows formed an endless cycle of engendered existence.
The metal wind opened his eyes to a whole new world. He saw even more clearly this time, that the unprecedented power of the wind was due to the metal elemental energy within. It wasn’t wispy and strand-like, like in ordinary wind, but rather a whole unique kind of sword ray.
This type of sword ray was special because it was made up of many scattered and fragmentary sword rays.
Each crack on the sword ring released a sword ray that took a different shape. They looked like pieces of broken porcelain.
The amazing thing was that, together, these seemingly irregular shapes formed a complete sword ray.
It looked like a mosaic sword ray, made from joining fragmented porcelain pieces.
The fragmentary porcelain sword ray was astonishingly mighty. It resisted the Yin Yang turbulent flows well, despite the fact that the turbulent flows were extremely mutable. The fragmentary porcelain sword ray hit the hardest on its first strike, and after, the ray would shatter but not fall apart. The pieces became countless small blades that formed a powerful current, endlessly twisting and breaking the Yin Yang turbulent flows.
What a powerful sword ray!
Yin Yang turbulent flows and the fragmentary sword ray were both so exquisite. Ai Hui imitated the Yin Yang grass swords at times and the fragmentary porcelain sword ray at times, as if intoxicated.
He had forgotten about victory. The marvelous changings around him were so captivating that he wanted so bad for time to stop.
But Ai Hui’s hope was shattered quickly. He noticed that the Yin Yang turbulent flows were starting to wane. Shortly, he realized that the sword formation was vacuuming the nearby elemental energy. The surrounding elemental energies had been emptied out, but the sword formation’s consumption of it was still high and rapid. Without the necessary replenishment, the sword formation started to display signs of collapsing.
Ai Hui felt somewhat regretful. Was it going to end like this? He had yet to understand the turbulent flows and fragmentary porcelain sword ray fully…
All of a sudden, a bold idea came to him. Was it possible for him to assist the sword formation to regain a new equilibrium between both sides? That way, wouldn’t he gain more time to observe and emulate it?
Immediately he became excited. He started thinking carefully about how he was going to help strengthen the sword formation.
He knew the root cause of the weakened structure. It was because the materials used were of a very low grade. Yin Yang grass sword swallowed the surrounding elemental energies to sustain its Yin and Yang essence, but when the elemental energies couldn’t catch up, the essences would gradually disappear during the developmental process of the turbulent flows. Eventually, the Yin Yang grass swords would all turn into ordinary grass swords. Essentially, the core problem was the grass swords’ limited ability in absorbing the surrounding elemental energy.
Since it wasn’t possible to alter the grass swords’ nature, what else could he do?
Ai Hui thought of something suddenly. What if he could supply the sword formation with Yin Yang sword rays? Would that increase its ability to absorb elemental energy?
At this point his body had already recovered, more or less. Without hesitation, he thrusted the grass sword in his hand and two sword rays, one Yin and one Yang, flew simultaneously into the sword formation and toward the dancing grass swords.
Ai Hui could feel the sword formation stabilizing a little. Feeling pleased, he struck unceasingly, imitating the Yin Yang sword rays.
The sword formation started to gain strength. Yes! It started to take in the surrounding elemental energy once again.
The big man could only stare blankly as the terrifying elemental energy suffocation occurred yet again!
The faces around him changed too.
Qin Xian fell into a daze and only regained his senses after some time. He found it hard to believe that they were experiencing the suffocation again, when they were already more than a hundred feet away. Did this not mean that the scope of absorption had increased…?
"Retreat further!" he shouted.
What exactly was going on?
Fifty feet!
Everyone withdrew another fifty feet, freeing themselves from the discomfort. However, they were still feeling bewildered and uncertain.
Coming to a stop, the audience started discussing in low voices and with faces of disbelief.
"What just happened? Is his elemental energy suffocation becoming stronger?"
"What a scary sight."
"Where did Chu Zhaoyang come from? Why is he so formidable?"
"He seems stronger than rumored."
"Boss!" The petite man’s voice trembled a little as he called out with a pleading look.
If elemental energy suffocation was a Master-level move, then whose move was that? The move that increased the range of elemental energy suffocation?
The big man was also considering leaving, but then he thought about the importance of their mission. With an unpredictable expression, he squeezed four words out from the gaps of his tightly clenched teeth. "Wait a while more!"
Just then, the sword formation changed again.