On the second day, the gloomy sky started to rain, sprinkling water on this land. That slightly darkened environment seemed to be more suitable for the ancient vibe from the Hidden Dragon Ancient Town.
On the battling platform, it was already crowded with people and all kind of noises. This kind of rain would not put off those Clasping Yuan Realm warriors since it had not effect on them at all.
"In the first four or five rounds, it was still okay, but do you think that ever since the sixty-seventh round, the judges started to deliberately place the three separately? It was like that they were saving them for the end."
"What do you think the judges are there for? They always look at the bigger picture. They obviously see it more clearly, otherwise, if the three faced each other already in the beginning, then the Hidden Dragon Rank compet.i.tion would not finish perfectly."
"Yah, indeed. Even for the past few Hidden Dragon Ranks as well, they have always been saving the epic battles for the last round."
The warriors watching the compet.i.tion were a bit confused about the arrangement of the compet.i.tion, but these questions were soon forgotten. Under the condition of not breaking the rules of the compet.i.tion, the judges still had quite a lot of powers. They had the right to arrange the opponents, and even the leaders of the rank 6 martial schools could not say a thing about it. If their disciples were powerful enough, then there would be no concern on how they were arranged. Also, if they were relatively not as powerful, then there would be no point in manipulating the opponents.
Only true power mattered.
The sixty-ninth round of battle had officially begun.
The first pair of top young warriors on stage were Li Daoxuan and Tuo Baku.
Compared to Yan Chihuo, Li Daoxuan had a better flying art. Because Sikong Sheng had never used flying art so far, he was right below Ye Chen. Therefore, Tuo Baku"s uppercut punch could not get to Li Daoxuan as he wanted, and he had been hit a couple of times instead. He had eventually lost to the Silent Ace Attack.
The second pair was Lin Yun and Mo Yan.
Although this time also Mo Yan had lost the battle, he had finally redeemed himself a little. Judging on power, Lin Yun was not as powerful as Yan Chihuo; comparing the battling techniques, he was not as powerful as Li Daoxuan or Ye Chen. Therefore, he had finally gotten the upper hand with his demon eyes since that heavy and thick Fire Yuan s.h.i.+eld still had a lot of weaknesses in his eyes.
Unfortunately, Lin Yun had absolutely more power than him, and he definitely belonged to the group of powerful warriors like Tuo Baku. If it were not for the trauma from before which had affected his condition, it would still be unknown if Mo Yan could have gotten the advantageous position in this battle at all. After being aggravated, Lin Yun had performed his most brutal attacks. The burning flame was like a dragon playing with water, bringing up endless waves made of fire which had completely compressed Mo Yan. The situation lasted all the way until Mo Yan had been beaten.
After that, Sikong Sheng met Murong Qingcheng.
Among the young generation, the two were literally the most famous people. Sikong Sheng, the king warrior leading the young generation and No.1 warrior in the last Hidden Dragon Rank, he had earned every single bit of his reputation. Although Murong Qingcheng was not as powerful as Sikong Sheng, women sometimes did not need the power to gain popularity, their appearance and style could be counted as a part of their powers since the majority of the audience was male.
"You are very powerful, interested in traveling with me to other regions?" Murong Qingcheng was about the same age as Sikong Sheng, both around twenty years old. However, in Sikong Sheng"s eyes, Murong Qingcheng was only a woman, simple as that.
Murong Qingcheng slightly shook her head, "Sorry, I will go travel but those will be personal plans. I do not want to involve other people."
"What a shame."
Sikong Sheng was not really bothered. As a beauty with both power and style, Murong Qingcheng was easily a target of the pursuit of many, which included Sikong Sheng. However, for him, nothing mattered besides training, so only a slight pity rose in his heart in the end.
"Let"s start!" Straightening his expression, Sikong Sheng signaled to Murong Qingcheng.
"Sky Demon Catch!"
Without performing the actual attack movement, Murong Qingcheng had acc.u.mulated a huge amount of Sky Demon Power Field with both of her hands. After she had released the power, it had made an impact where Sikong Sheng was.
Crack!
The ground three-step behind Sikong Sheng had been cracked open.
"Second Move!" Murong Qingcheng"s pupil shrank. She had thrown out the attack first way before Sikong Sheng had moved his body. But because of his inhuman speed which was way faster for the human eyes to see, it was like the Sky Demon Catch had gone right through his body and only landed on the ground behind him.
This was the first time Sikong Sheng had performed his flying step art, which was obviously more powerful than Li Daoxuan"s, and maybe even Ye Chen"s.
Off the stage...
Ye Chen squeezed his eyes. The step art Sikong Sheng had just performed was a top rank Earth Realm step art if nothing else. It was even rare for rank 6 martial inst.i.tutions to possess it, since it would be rare for them to have even four or five top rank Earth Realm martial art manuals. It would be impossible for martial inst.i.tutions to have top rank Earth Realm manuals in each area, which was why Li Daoxuan"s Sword Step Art was only high-rank Earth Realm martial art. Although obviously, the Sword Step Art was one of the most powerful ones among the high-rank Earth Realm flying arts.
"The good thing is that my Separating Shadow Flying Art is also top rank Earth Realm. Otherwise, I would have been in great danger." Fortunately, Ye Chen had already trained his Flo Three Mysterious Spell to its third realm when he was at the Snake Island, which had boosted up his Separating Shadow Art all the way to the top rank Earth Realm. However, ever since the beginning of the compet.i.tion, he had not only limited his sword intent but also his flying art, which was also one of his ace attacks.
"Power Field Cut!"
Murong Qingcheng acc.u.mulated both positive and negative Sky Demon Power Field with both of her hands. The two forces rubbed on each other, forming a huge cutting power, attacking towards Sikong Sheng.
Sikong Sheng stood still and threw out the ace attack "Fist World" from the Mysterious Tyrant Fist Art, facing Murong Qingcheng"s ace attack head on.
Boom!
The Power Field Cut attack had been shattered.
"Fist Tyrant River!"
After shattering the Power Field Cut with one punch, Sikong Sheng threw out another punch. It had surprisingly broken open Murong Qingcheng"s Sky Demon Power Field, which had never happened in the whole compet.i.tion.
Sikong Sheng stood still, and then threw out the ace attack "Fist Froze River" from his Mysterious Tyrant Punch Art, facing Murong Qingcheng"s incoming ace attack.
Boom!
Naturally, Murong Qingcheng had lost the battle.
After devouring Murong Qingcheng"s dragon fountain Qi, Sikong Sheng"s dragon-shaped shadow had grown to twenty-six and a half meters, which was only half a meter away from twenty-seven meters.
"I am afraid that no one can beat Sikong Sheng. No, no one can even make him use all of his power. Even Murong Qingchen"s Sky Demon Great Art had been shattered with only one punch."
"In the last Hidden Dragon Rank, Yan Chihuo could still battle against Sikong Sheng for a while. But in this year"s Hidden Dragon Rank, Sikong Sheng has become way too powerful. He is already standing so high up there looking down at all the rest of the young generation, who don"t even have the right to challenge him."
"Yah, Ye Chen has similar power to Yan Chihuo, so he would not make a rightful opponent either."
As the crowd carried on with their discussion, the compet.i.tion continued, until Ye Chen had beaten Gu Youyun, Yan Chihuo had beaten Bing Ling, and the sixty-ninth round of compet.i.tion had finally reached an end.
After one hour, the seventieth round had finally begun, and the next round would be the last round.
The battle had not begun yet, but the audience had already boiled up. It was not about the others because in this round of battles, Ye Chen would have to face either Yan Chihuo or Sikong Sheng. No matter how the judges tried to arrange it, it would still be inevitable.
Under that great expectation, Mo Yan had beaten Bing Ling, Lin Yun had beaten Gu Youyun. And now, it was the battle between Tuo Baku and Murong Qingcheng.
Murong Qingcheng might not have been as powerful as Lin Yun, and even if she were, she would not be that much more powerful than he was. However, Tuo Baku could not get the upper hand in this battle at all. With Murong Qingcheng"s Sky Demon Catch, Tuo Baku could barely maintain his own battle pace. The attacking power of Murong Qingcheng"s Power Field Cut could be ranked in the top three among the young generation, which was right below Sikong Sheng. It was even more powerful than Yan Chihuo and Li Daoxuan"s ace attacks. No wonder Tuo Baku"s defense could not handle it. However, even in that case, he was only wounded a little bit.
Once Tuo Baku had lost, the crowd looked even more excited. They could not wait for the next battle.
"The twenty-third battle, Ye Chen versus Yan Chihuo."
The head judge stood up and announced itself.
Booom!
The noises from the crowd shot out into the sky, and even the tiny rain drops in the air had been blown away. It had brought up slight waves of patterns in the air, spreading out across the whole battling field.
The ranking from the 4th place to the 10th place for this year"s Hidden Dragon Rank compet.i.tion was already pretty clear, which would probably have no big changes. Only the top three places were still unclear. To be more precisely, only the second and the third place were not decided yet, since the champion place had already been reserved by Sikong Sheng.
Without a doubt, the second and third place would be decided between Yan Chihuo and Ye Chen. Sikong Sheng was already out of the consideration, and the two were the only people who still kept an all-win record.
Yan Chihuo was very serious about this battle. He had taken out his long blade before he even stood on the stage. He wore his blade around his waist as the blade intent spread out the whole stadium. He then jumped up the stage.
A blue light flashed as Ye Chen flew onto the stage as well.
Facing Yan Chihuo"s aggressive blade intent and aura, Ye Chen did not change his expression at all. His blue clothes and his long sword around his waist made him look extra majestic, even a little bit out of the world.
"Before this battle, I have never expected to see you here at this stage of the compet.i.tion." The blade intent on Yan Chihuo"s body got stronger and stronger. There was only a very thin layer between him and the seventy percent blade intent, and it looked like it was about to burst any second. However, that thin layer was not that easy to be broken. It would take a lot of understanding of the blade arts, which would take more than three to five years. It would already be under the condition of having powerful warriors who had learned the complete blade intent in the Fire Spirt Palace giving him great guidance.
Ye Chen"s expression was very calm. Yan Chihuo"s blade intent had obviously reached the peak of the sixty percent, which would be way more mature than the sixty percent blade intent.
"Let"s fight!"
His sword intent was like a black horse with a broken leash. It poured out from Ye Chen"s body. It was indeed also sixty percent sword intent. However, Ye Chen"s sword intent was even purer than Li Daoxuan"s.
"Fire Dragon Cut!"
His blade Qi had turned into a dragon as Yan Chihuo pushed his zhen Qi, throwing a horrifying blade attack towards Ye Chen.
A dark and star like sword light flashed through in the sky. Before people had noticed, Ye Chen had already taken out his Star Scar Sword. Along with his sixty percent sword intent and Sky Shattering Cloud poetic perspective, it had landed precisely on the head of that fire dragon made of blade Qi. The fire sparks spilled everywhere, making it seem like a rain of fire.
Flas.h.i.+ng his body, Ye Chen ran through the fire rain and appeared in front of Yan Chihuo, stabbing his sword towards him.
This sword attack was both sharp and contained the relaxedness of traveling among nature. There was not a single impure Qi in it. It was stabbed out naturally like using his sword as a painting brush, adding a new stroke in the painting of nature.
A lot of mentalities had been combined into that sword attack, as if all those battles before were for nothing. Furthermore, this sword had still not been able to combine all of the new discoveries together because there was not enough time for him. But Ye Chen believed that there would be more than just him who had learned something more about the others and himself, but they would need even more time to figure it all out and add it to their own martial arts.
"What?"
Ever since the beginning of the Hidden Dragon Rank compet.i.tion, this was the first time for Yan Chihuo to be in a disadvantageous position. Ye Chen"s sword attack had given him the feeling of not able to stop it at all. That sword art poetic perspective was so smooth and flawless that even Yan Chihuo did not really know how to fight back; he was on the edge of freaking out. Until this second, he had finally realized the scariness of Ye Chen, and how well-trained his sword arts were. Comparing Li Daoxuan with him would make the former look like a child.