"Explode!"
At that critical moment, Yan Chihuo bit his tongue. The zhen Qi inside his body was like an explosion of a volcano. He shot out while carrying that intense blade intent. It was like he was trying to block out Ye Chen"s fatal sword attack with his zhen Qi"s exploding power.
Shoo!
The Star Scar Sword was slowed down a bit, but it still stabbed in. The sword light pointed right at the chest of Yan Chihuo.
"Break it for me!"
After gaining a bit of time, Yan Chihuo did not have the time to think and threw out lava-like burning iron fist onto that sword light.
The gold and iron cras.h.i.+ng sound were heard as the Star Scar Sword in Ye Chen"s hand was bent by that fist power, then bounced back suddenly while his body gently flew up into the sky and backed out. On the contrary, Yan Chihuo did not have it easy. Blood covered his left fist as a bone deep sword mark appeared. If it was not for his powerful cultivation and his top rank Earth Realm martial art Nine Twist Fire Spirit Art from the Fire Spirit Martial School, that sword attack would have cut off his left arm.
Looking at what was happening on the battling platform, the crowd could not believe their eyes.
"What was happening? This is way too crazy! One sword could wound Yan Chihuo this badly?"
"Perhaps Ye Chen had not even used all of his power yet?! Just playing around?"
In all of their minds, Ye Chen"s flying art and techniques were way higher than Yan Chihuo, but his general power was definitely similar to Yan Chihuo. In some ways, Ye Chen might actually be weaker than Yan Chihuo. However, just during the start of this battle, Ye Chen had thrown everyone"s idea on him away, using that inhuman sword attack to wound Yan Chihuo badly.
There was almost fire shooting out of both of his eyes, "You have successfully aggravated me… Be prepared for my rage!"
After a loud roar, Yan Chihuo pushed his zhen Qi to the seventh twist"s realm, that burning red long blade covered in flame. It suddenly turned into a roaring fire dragon, attacking towards Ye Chen with the power capable of destroying the world.
Right at this moment, Yan Chihuo had used up all of his attacking power, which was thirty percent more power than when he was facing Li Daoxuan and Lin Yun. He had pushed up even his mentality, mind and Qi.
Seeing Yan Chihuo"s new movement, Ye Chen did not look surprised. His body kept flas.h.i.+ng and s.h.i.+fting and easily avoided that burning attack. His Star Scar Sword then shook, and a bright sword light spread towards Yan Chihuo, who was not far away, like a wave of rain.
Yan Chihuo sneered, "You thought that you could wound me. What a joke! I, Yan Chihuo, would never make the same mistake twice." After he had finished talking, a dark red fire wave shot out from his back, pus.h.i.+ng his body forward at an extremely fast speed while he threw out a blade attack.
"Second Kill Gold Flame Cut!"
The gold red blade light tore apart the air, turning one side of the battling platform into a complete vacuum s.p.a.ce.
Ye Chen still looked like he was a bit of out of the world. His middle and index finger rested on the top of his sword. After a light popping sound, the blade light suddenly had been shattered. It broke from within, like a piece of cloth tearing up.
"Why do I feel like there was a hint of the Silence Ace Attack in there?"
Li Daoxuan looked very surprised. Judging from what Ye Chen had thrown out, it had nothing to do with his Silence Ace Attack. But in his eyes, there definitely was the technique of acc.u.mulating sword light. It was full of leeway for bending, and had the power to break through things.
He actually had made a great guess; Ye Chen indeed had added the art of the Silence Ace Attack, but he was still not able to do it as well as Li Daoxuan. But along with the Sky Shattering Clouds sword movement and poetic perspective, this sword was not only full of leeway, but also had the power of tearing and shattering s.p.a.ce, which made it an upgraded version of the Sky Shattering Clouds.
Yan Chihuo froze a little. He had never fought against Ye Chen before, so he did not know about his power. Now that they had finally fought, he knew that Ye Chen"s maturity in combat and his battling experience was something that no one could compete with. Ye Chen seemed to be able to always cause the most damage with minimal effort and cost.
Listing Ye Chen as the biggest contestant, Yan Chihuo looked extremely serious. He pushed his Nine Twist Fire Spirit Art to its extreme, "Fire Spirit Seven Twist, Fire Battle Body!"
Every twist of the Nine Twist Fire Spirit Art would enhance the warrior"s power by a lot. The normal seventh twist"s power could help him beat Li Daoxuan. Pus.h.i.+ng the seventh twist to the high rank - Fire Battle Body, which literally burnt all of his zhen Qi, his aura had further increased, soon reaching beyond its limit.
Crack!
The battling platform under his feet could not handle the burning heat. It cracked open with countless gaps as the burning Qi rose up in the air.
Less than half of a blink later, Yan Chihuo"s aura and attacking power had reached a whole different level. He roared into the sky, his whole body shooting out. The burning red long blade sliced through the air, dragging out a light black light mark behind it. That light mark was not bound by gravity. It had increased the blade light"s speed drastically, reaching closer to light speed.
"Fire Cloud Crack Earth Cut!"
Under the stage, one could see the young generation who had just seen Yan Chihuo"s power start to look very depressed for some reason. They had never expected Yan Chihuo would be this horrifying with his true power; it was like he was a fire demon. Lin Yun, who also had trained fire element zhen Qi, looked like a child in front of him.
Slightly focusing himself, Ye Chen"s body became blurry, turning into countless layers of shadows and spreading out on the platform. It made it seem like frightened moths. In front of him, Yan Chihuo laughed arrogantly, "Do not even bother to try. Once the Fire Cloud Crack Earth Cut had been thrown out, even G.o.ds would be destroyed!"
As his voice was being heard, the blade light had spread out on the whole battling platform. It was just like the burning clouds in the sky, dying the whole sky red.
Shoo! Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!
Shadows after shadows had been burnt into smoke, then disappearing completely in the air.
Everyone in the crowd could not help but gasp; the battle between Ye Chen and Yan Chihuo kept bring new surprises. In the beginning, Ye Chen had gotten the upper hand of this battle, but now it had become Yan Chihuo who had the advantageous position in this battle. It now seemed that Yan Chihuo was obviously winning the battle.
People from the Sky Cloud Martial School looked very worried. Reaching this stage of the compet.i.tion, it would be a lie that they did not wish Ye Chen to be the first in the Hidden Dragon Rank. Once he beat Yan Chihuo, he would be able to take on Sikong Sheng. Then no matter winning or losing, it would be powerful enough news to shake the whole South Rudra Region, and bring endless luck for the Sky Cloud Martial School. However, Yan Chihuo was way too powerful. He had only started to use his true power now, which was a surprise for everyone here.
Only Xu Jing still looked the same. Ye Chen"s true power was way much more powerful than everyone"s expectation - this was how she always thought about Ye Chen.
The Separating Shadow Art that had been limited to only high-rank Earth Realm by Ye Chen had been shattered, which surprised Ye Chen a little. The Separating Shadow Flying Art was different from normal flying arts, it had reached a high realm now with the help of Flo Three Mysterious Spell Art, which kept its original effect but increased its speed, making it slightly more powerful than the other flying arts with similar cultivations.
Of course, it was still not enough for him to be shocked senseless. He backed out his body a little bit while his Sky Shattering Clouds that was pushed by the sixty percent sword intent was ready to be thrown out. He then stabbed his sword at that aggressive fire cloud.
Whoos.h.!.+
The Fire Cloud backed out.
Yan Chihuo"s Fire Cloud Crack Earth Cut contained the poetic perspective of Clouds and Fire while Ye Chen"s Sky Shattering Cloud contained the poetic perspective of clouds and thunders, which overlapped a little bit. Showing off the poetic perspective of clouds in front of Ye Chen was basically looking for trouble.
"What?!"
Yan Chihuo took few steps to back out instantly, avoiding his own fire cloud attack from backfiring at him.
The leader of the Fire Spirit Martial School"s expression changed completely. He stared at Ye Chen with all of his focus. He was very familiar with Yan Chihuo"s Fire Cloud Crack Earth Cut. Its poetic perspective of clouds had reached a very high level. Adding the fire poetic perspective, they worked perfectly together, which made it even stronger than the two perspectives alone. However, after Ye Chen"s one sword, Yan Chihuo"s cloud poetic perspective somehow had been used by him, then attacked back at Yan Chihuo - the original attacker. How could this not shock him?
"Mortal Realm martial arts require understanding on auras but not poetic perspectives; Earth Realm martial arts require the poetic perspective to reach the peak. How could this child"s poetic perspective of cloud be even more powerful than our Chihuo? How did he train it?" There were countless powerful warriors in the Fire Spirit Martial School, and many had reached completion on the poetic perspectives on Earth Realm martial arts. After learning from them, Yan Chihuo used his potential and talent and reached just below Sikong Sheng among the young generation. He did not really believe that someone mastered the poetic perspective better than his head disciple - Yan Chihuo.
Yan Chihuo refused to believe what just happened. He yelled: "That attack of mine was too scattered. Let"s see how you are going to break this attack - Fire Cloud Golden Flame Cut!"
It also contained the poetic perspective of cloud and fire. The difference was that the Fire Cloud Golden Flame Cut was more focused. It carried the peak of sixty percent blade intent, attacking towards Ye Chen.
"So stubborn… so full of yourself."
His body was straight as his sword, as Ye Chen held his Star Scar Sword with both of his hands. The air around the sword started to twist and break down rapidly. It was like a cloud wave scrambling, and then a beam of electricity appeared, bouncing from cloud to cloud.
Pi-pop!
A one-meter-thick thunder light started to s.h.i.+ne out of nowhere. It was made of sword Qi as well somehow.
The Sky Shattering Cloud contained mainly the poetic perspective of cloud and the poetic perspective of thunder as sides. But it looked like it was led by the thunder poetic perspective. Therefore, with only a glance, it looked like it was made of solely thunder poetic perspective. But it was indeed a poetic perspective of clouds and thunder.
The thunder shot out aggressively right at that golden red blade light. The countless arm-thick electrical lights appeared, like unbearably bright snakes or spears.
Crack!
The blade light had been shattered. Blood dripped out from the corner of Yan Chihuo"s mouth as he backed out few steps. He could not believe that his ace attack was completely useless and suppressed in front of Ye Chen. He could not accept it at all.
After breaking Yan Chihuo"s ace attack with only one sword attack, Ye Chen secretly shook his head. If it were another warrior, Yan Chihuo would probably beat him. Unfortunately, his poetic perspective of cloud was not as powerful as the realm Ye Chen had reached. It was doomed to be controlled by him, that was why his fire poetic Perspective"s power had been drastically decreased.
The warriors" world was full of complications; the power would only be a foundation. The more important thing was to make the flaws into advantages, preventing oneself from being controlled because of them.
According to things Ye Chen knew now, the Clasping Yuan Realm warriors could only have very limited understanding of the poetic perspectives. Once one reached the Astral Reaching Realm, it would be solely focused on the poetic perspective. Without the essential poetic perspective, the warriors" power would have been affected very largely, unless the warrior had an excessively powerful foundation of martial arts which allowed him or her ignore the others" poetic perspectives such as the Minor Blood Demon Separating Art. It was a very special case in the Earth Realm martial arts, which had no requirement in poetic perspectives and only sought to increase the warrior"s power.
Therefore, for warriors" with a high realm, the foundation of their power was very important; the comprehension ability was also very important as well. The former could help the warrior gain a bigger potential while the latter could cancel out the flaws, which eventually increased the chance of the warriors winning against opponents that were more powerful than themselves.
With both, it would make one a very powerful warrior.
"I have not lost yet! Fire Cut!"
After learning the peak of the sixty percent blade intent, Yan Chihuo had a stronger mentality, which allowed him to stay focused instead of being influenced easily. Right then, after knowing that his poetic perspective of clouds was useless against Ye Chen, he decided to use only the poetic perspective of fire combined with his ace attacks. He attacked aggressively without holding back, bringing up endless fire waves spreading out on the whole battling platform.
"The individual poetic perspective is the hardest to learn. Your poetic perspective of fire is barely anything." The thunder explosions increased suddenly as Ye Chen threw out a sword attack, cutting open the fire wave while his body backed out, performing the Separating Shadow Art. Layer after layer, his shadows had also covered the whole platform.
Ting!
Without being able to see the sword light, the burning red long blade inside Yan Chihuo"s hand had been blown away.