Chapter 658 Fight in the Ring (3)
Li Mu’s hand felt the cold and hard steel of the hilt of his weapon.
This was a habit of his every time before he attacked.
The movement was executed with indescribable grace and coolness.
As his fingers wrapped around his hilt, the golden talons of the junior were but a hair’s breadth away from reaching Li Mu’s head.
Right at that moment came the deadly glint of steel.
Quick as lightning.
Anyone would have thought they imagined seeing him attack.
Swift and sure, the white and unrelenting gleam of steel easily overshadowed the rich radiation of gold spreading into the air.
Everything happened in just one short split-second.
Both men threw themselves apart from each other.
The junior chieftain stared at Li Mu, his face aghast with horror.
“You…” he staggered backward.
The audience watched quietly, antic.i.p.ating something dramatic.
A thin red line appeared on the wrist of the junior chieftain – at the point where, after his forearm, his hand ceased to be human, replaced by the set of golden talons. Then it fell off. The golden talons that could have ripped even metal and iron into strips fell off the wrists and clanked dully on the ceramic tiles of the arena.
It was broken. The golden talons have been sheared off his wrists.
His single most important weapon has been deprived.
What an incredible skill.
What a terrifying skill.
As before, no one understood, no one saw, and no one fathomed what actually took place until it ended.
All they saw was Li Yidao reaching for his saber, then a bright flash of light burst forth.
Was it the saber?
Was it a weapon of divine powers?
A sonorous peal of shock and amazement erupted from the stands around the arena.
From afar, the envoy of the Heavenly Fox CLan who has been watching the fight, nodded his head in deep thought.
Bi Yan’s eyes went wide with disbelief. Her hands were clutching tightly at her chest and witnessing Li Mu’s triumph restored the dainty little maiden’s breath as she finally heaved with relief.
In the arena.
Li Mu withdrew his hand from the handle of his saber hanging off his left shoulder.
Wordlessly, he swiveled around and headed for the steps.
“I’ve not lost yet! I can still fight!”
The junior chieftain screamed with rage. He channeled his magic – a form of bloodline sorcery unique only to members of the Golden Condor Clan – to regenerate his severed hands.
If Li Mu had heard his calls, he certainly made no sign of it. He maintained his pace and strode towards the steps.
The Saint of the Blood Sea speaking just below the arena said loudly with a sneer, “The rules of this tournament dictates that the fight must go on so long as one side refuses to yield, no matter how grave are his injuries.”
As he spoke, Li Mu’s footsteps hardly stopped. Until Li Mu’s foot finally stepped off the final step and onto the ground, the Saint added for the benefit of everyone around, “And since the fight is still continuing because of the persistence of the fighter who has not yet surrender, Li Yidao? Are you forfeiting your victory instead?”
Li Mu shot the Saint a scathing glare.
“Fool.”
Then he strode towards his chair.
The Saint furrowed his brows as if to say something mocking when the crowds exclaimed suddenly.
Then a most strange and peculiar thing happened.
The junior chieftain, who had never stopped hurling insults at Li Mu’s retreating back, spasmed all of a sudden, his backbone shot up straight with a jolt of shock and pain. He went stiff with a long red line appearing on his throat as if an invisible hand was tracing a circle of red all around his throat. The junior chieftain realized finally what was going on as his face began to squirm with terror. But it was too late. As if a gust of wind was blowing, his head rolled off his throat and fell onto the floor.
Plop!
The headless carca.s.s crashed into a heap on the ground.
He was dead.
The expression on the Saint’s froze before it contorted into one of shock and fear.
“So that’s why Li Yidao stepped off the arena!?”
That one blow he unleashed not only severed off the junior chieftain’s hands, but even his head too!
What an incredible and quick blow!
So quick that not even the junior chieftain himself was aware of how Li Yidao’s blow had left enough spiritual energy inside him to erupt when he least expected it to kill him.
The audience watching the contest erupted all at once.
Even a great number of the Heavenly Legend contestants sprang to their feet with disbelief.
What skill with the saber is this?!
So incredible.
With such skill the opponent was killed without he himself knowing it?!
No. This is not just about speed.
No. It’s about how deep and rich an understanding Li Yidao possessed in the skills of wielding the saber.
That made Li Yidao very extraordinary.
The Saint’s face looked so horrid as if there was dung under his nose.
He had failed to realize that not only the junior chieftain of the Golden Condor Clan was dead, and he made himself looked even more like a fool by mocking Li Yidao.
The Little Heavenly Devil snorted coldly.
“Hmph, lousy skills.”
He shot a glance at Li Mu and trace a finger across his throat – the cutthroat gesture.
Taunting. Open taunting.
But Li Mu paid him no heed at all.
At least right now, at this moment, no one believed that Li Yidao was backing down from the fight.
Li Mu’s demonstration had put to rest many questions about him.
His execution-styled defeat of the junior chieftain has proved that he has yet to display the full extent of his true strength, despite his ranking at the twenty-first place. Li Mu was beyond any doubt one of the strongest fighters in the tournament.
What a formidable opponent.
The finalists of the tournament all reeled with trepidation.
The rest of the battles remained just as every bit as b.l.o.o.d.y and savage.
So ended the next round of elimination quickly.
With six contestants giving up with another nine as dead as a doornail.
Li Mu smoothly advanced into the next round, joining fourteen other contestants in another elimination that would see the best eight advance.
Three days later, another news shocked the tournament.
Li Mu was not chosen at all.
Fifteen Heavenly Legend contestants and seven battles in the group. One of the contestants was awarded a chance to advance without fighting.
And it was Li Yidao.
Otherwise known, to no knowledge of people outside, as Li Mu.
Even the Little Heavenly Devil was stunned himself.
“Some people just have all the luck,” he spat
“I’ll be sure to enjoy tearing you to shreds with my own bare hands once your luck runs out. Then I’ll snap your saber into two. Let no one dare to boast themselves as masters of saber combat before the might of the Heavenly Devil Sect!”
The Sect not only has a set of disciplines that specializes in the Cultivation of demonic powers, but it was also the few schools of Cultivators across all of the Star Region that prided itself in its unique disciplines in the study of saber combat. Most if not all of its students and acolytes were skilfully trained in the fighting with a saber.
In fact, Zhangsun Changkong, whom Li Mu had slain when he first stepped foot here on this Heavenly Land, was one such student from the Heavenly Devil Sect. The warrior, who earned the moniker of “Demon Broadsword”, too was an adeptly skilled user of the saber in his own right and it was after killing him, Li Mu found in the dead man’s possession several ma.n.u.scripts about the study of saber combat that provided him with the theory and knowledge that helped paved his way to his present strength.
One could almost argue that the Heavenly Devil Sect was the Star Region’s premier school of saber combat.
Hence, from this belief came the Little Heavenly Devil’s confidence and hubris that “no man should boast themselves as masters of saber combat before the might of the Heavenly Devil Sect.”
But to Li Mu, those words carried as much significance as a harmless joke.
For Li Mu had made quite a study on the style of combat of the Heavenly Devil Sect after finding Zhangsun Changkong’s ma.n.u.script.
Li Mu had found the weakness in their style and no warrior claiming roots from the Heavenly Devil Sect could ever hope to compete with him.
And since the tournament’s beginning, the Little Heavenly Devil had never disguised his loathing of Li Mu by mocking and insulting him whenever he could. Li Mu long had a mind to stop this once and for all.
His patience was wearing thin.
Especially when he had never been a really patient person to begin with.
As far as he was concerned, the Little Heavenly Devil was nothing but a dead man.
But rules of the tournament forbid fights stemming from personal vendetta, and hence, if Li Mu wished to deal with Little Heavenly Devil, he could only do it in the arena.
He was even more eager for a fight to put this rivalry to rest than the Little Heavenly Devil himself.
Even though he had never once voiced out his desire before.
No point speaking or responding to a dead man, he thought.
The tournament went on, culminating in the birth of the eight Heavenly Legend quarter-finalists.
The Little Heavenly Devil, the Sacred Acolyte, the Saint of Blood Sea, the youth in black robes, and the young girl with the machete were all part of the top-eight lineup.
To make up for the numbers, the envoy of the Heavenly Fox Clan chose two more warriors from the pool of defeated survivors as the last two of the Ten Heavenly Legends.
The final Ten Heavenly Legends were born.
The envoy then made a top-ten ranking of the Heavenly Legends. Each of them was placed either before or after each other through the envoy’s evaluation of their battle powers during their fights. Without any surprise, the Little Heavenly Devil came in first, followed by the Sacred Acolyte closely behind. Li Mu, who did not have to fight last round was placed fifth, just behind the Saint of Blood Sea and the black-robed youth.
“Feel free to challenge anyone for another reevaluation of your placings if you’re not happy with it.”
The envoy said with a wry smile.
Li Mu frowned.
Why did he feel as if the envoy was prodding them into fighting each other again?
But before anyone could speak, the Little Heavenly Devil was the first to step into the arena. “It’s time, Li Yidao. You’re a shame to the ten finalists of this tournament and let’s fight to see it!”
Eyes wandered back and forth between the Little Heavenly Devil and Li Mu.
The moment of reckoning has come.
Li Yidao might be a savant in the art of saber combat, but the Little Heavenly Devil’s powers and techniques have suffered no rival thus far. Who on earth among them was greater?
“But Young Master, y-you’re already one of the finalists. You don’t have to bother yourself with all this!” insisted Bi Yan, tugging at Li Mu’s sleeves.
She has seen enough in the past few days. The Little Heavenly Devil has proved himself to be the greatest of the Ten Heavenly Legend finalists, outstripping everyone by a mile. She would not have been so worried if it was anyone else; Li Mu’s recent incredible and amazing performance had given her enough faith that he would prevail against any other challenger but the Little Heavenly Devil and now, her heart was racing with knots tying in her gut.
Li Mu stroked the little fox girl’s hair affectionately, “Don’t worry.”
He rose up slowly and paced casually up the steps into the arena.
Bi Yan could hardly keep her eyes open.
The Little Heavenly Devil could have not been any more gleeful. “Courageous, I’ll give you that. Heh heh heh… Now tell me, how would you wish to die? I’ll try my best to accommodate you—”
He barely finished.
A gleaming wave of light scythed across the arena.
As white and glittering as snow, dazzling but deadly.
That was it. Li Mu’s hand lowered from the hilt of his saber and he wheeled around, sauntering down the steps.
“Y-you… W-wait…” the Little Heavenly Devil stuttered, visibly shaken. He could barely react at the speed and suddenness of that flash of light. But Li Mu ignored his cries and his steps continued. Feeling enraged and fl.u.s.tered, he yelled, “Stand right there, you! This fight’s not over yet—”
“It is,” Li Mu cut him off abruptly, pausing at the edge of the arena with not so much as a look back at him. “You’re already dead.”
That stunned the Little Heavenly Devil, who instantly recalled how did the junior chieftain of the Golden Condor Clan, one of Li Mu’s previous opponents, had died. He sneered, “What’s this? Are you taking me as a fool like that Golden Condor trash? I—”
He stopped short halfway, his eyes shooting wide as saucers.
A thin red line slowly spread across his throat. Just like before, an invisible hand tracing the red circle around his neck.
The Little Heavenly Devil desperately clawed at his throat in the futile attempt to cover the line or wipe it away.
But how could it even be possible?
Witnessed by more than several hundred pairs of disbelief and astounded glares, the Little Heavenly Devil, commonly hailed as the number one prodigy of the Star Region, died just like how the junior chieftain did before: with his head lopped off. The lifeless head fell to the ground in a loud clunk on the floor of the arena. So ended his life.
“Worthless,” remarked Li Mu contemptuously, “You’re worse than that Golden Condor boy.”
He strode back to his chair.
“Young Master… T-that… T-that was incredible…” squeaked Bi Yan, loss for words as she grimaced with shame for doubting him earlier.
Li Mu grinned. “I told you before: I would kill him in the ring. You can relax now. No one will ever force you to act against your own wishes now. Unless… unless he wishes a quick end.”
Bi Yan bobbed her head vigorously.
As for everyone else around them, they were all petrified beyond words.