Chapter 8 - Decisive Victory
The martial arts training ground was a wide stone stage. With the Lin family in dire straits, Lin Geng wasn"t able to afford anything more than the basic necessities.
At this moment, in the back of the Lin family courtyard, many people gathered. Under Lin Haoxue"s indication, the Lin family"s gate was opened widely which allowed outsiders to come and go freely. Therefore, besides the servants of the Lin family, a lot of people including the family heads of the three biggest families of Taixing town were watching.
Lin Geng stood at the front of the stage and looked at the small but stubborn figure on the stage full of worries not in the mood to greet the guests who had arrived. On the stage, two people were standing opposite each other.
Standing on the left side was Lin Haoxue who was young and had a small body. On the right side was He Long who was strong and had a huge body. Both their body shape and ages stood in sharp contrast.
Seeing this difference, the people who surrounded the stage took pity on Lin Haoxue, and also despised He Long"s behavior. They all secretly blamed this Profound Grand Master realm cultivator who was planning to bully this mere Profound Pract.i.tioner whose profound veins had just awoken.
But they only dared do so in their hearts because, after all, the He family was such a ma.s.sive family and not people they could afford to offend. At the same time, they were curious about Lin Haoxue"s actions, therefore they were whispering with soft voices about what was occurring.
"Lin Haoxue is the Second Young Lady of the Lin family whose profound veins had yet to awaken?"
"Yes, but I"ve heard that her profound veins have awoken, and she"s now a Profound Pract.i.tioner."
"No wonder! She dares to challenge the He family!"
"But she was too impulsive. Doesn"t she know who the He family is? How can she win?"
"Even if she loses, just her courage alone is great enough to make the Lin family proud."
Those two people on the stage heard the audiences" whispers. Lin Haoxue"s expression didn"t change at all but He Long"s looked even more gloomy.
She gave a glance at her surroundings and then spoke to the Zheng, w.a.n.g, and the Wu family heads, "Please, family heads, be our witnesses!"
"Please lay down the rules for the fight," He Long spoke.
He was originally in a terrible mood so he wanted to vent his frustration by threatening Lin Haoxue to let her know when to stop. But he didn"t expect that she actually accepted his request for a fight without hesitation.
This was great, but now it couldn"t be stopped halfway.
Those three family heads looked at each other and eventually, Zheng Shiling spoke, "That sounds fine, we"ll bear witness. As for the rules, it"s easy. If Lin Haoxue falls off the stage during any of the ten attacks then it will be He Long"s win, if it"s the opposite then it will be his loss."
"Alright!"
"No!"
He Long and Lin Haoxue responded at the same time but their answers were opposite. He Long agreed with the rules but Lin Haoxue disagreed!
"Then what do you want?" The expression on He Long"s face turned even more annoyed.
"There"s no need for restricting the numbers of moves. It"s a loss for whoever falls off the stage!" Lin Haoxue gave a quick glance at him while speaking calmly.
"Are you serious!?" Zheng Shiling looked at Lin Haoxue with another disbelieving gaze, and he had absolutely no idea where her confidence came from.
"Yes, I"m sure! Uncle Zheng, today I will prove to everyone that we, the Lin family, don"t need special care! We also don"t need anyone"s so-called shielding! Lin Haoxue"s eyes shone brightly. Her words were spoken out firmly, and they showed her lofty, unyielding character.
"Ugh! You really don"t know the immensity of the heavens and earth!" He Long"s expression turned even worse.
"You"ll see later," Lin Haoxue clenched her teeth as she spoke with deadly seriousness unlike anytime before. Today, she couldn"t lose even though her opponent was a Profound Grand Master.
The Lin family desperately needed a victory.
"Bring it on!" He Long calmed down.
"Good!" As her words faded, Lin Haoxue stamped her left foot hard and punched out with her fist that had been acc.u.mulating power.
Seeing her fiercely approaching, He Long didn"t get anxious. He leaned his body faintly sideways to dodge and her fist missed his face by a meter.
But he didn"t discover the mocking look she had, he only saw her lower her fist a bit and unfolded her palm. A ball of flame which was almost transparent emerged from her palm. Because of his negligence that ball of flame was thrown into his chest giving him nowhere to hide.
In a moment of desperation, He Long used his profound power forming a light barrier to protect his body.
Bang!
An explosion rang out.
The two figures separated, and Lin Haoxue flew back slightly then landed gently. Everyone could see that her aura wasn"t disorderly in the slightest. As for He Long, he was forced back a couple of steps and his clothes were in tatters. One could see that the attack had completely taken advantage of him underestimating his opponent.
He Long raised his head and looked at Lin Haoxue"s calm face. He became more serious as he realized that even though she was realms lower than him, in real combat experience and cautiousness, she wasn"t far behind him at all.
If he didn"t want to lose this battle, he had to be serious. He didn"t dare look down on Lin Haoxue anymore.
Lin Haoxue was alert and watched He Long, this Profound Grand Master, as his aura grew. Feeling the pressure he gave off, put her under stress.
Even though her real strength was close to a late-stage Profound Master, in the end, she was just a Profound Master. Normally, if one was a realm higher, they could easily crush a person who was a level lower than them even if they didn"t use any profound skills.
"Your skills are indeed beyond my expectations, but it"s really a shame. As it turns out, I"m a water elemental user. Not only am I superior when we talk about ranks, but I also restrain your fire elemental profound power."
Restrain? Lin Haoxue looked at him with a weird smile. Who really had the better qualification to restrain others?
"Is that so? Then let"s see how you plan on restraining me?"
Facing Lin Haoxue"s provoking words, He Long didn"t reply and instead wanted to finish this battle as soon as possible.
"Piercing Stone Drop!"
A slim, tough ice cone formed in He Long"s hands. The water elemental profound power within was much denser than Lin Haoxue"s Ceramic Flame. As He Long roared, the ice cone rapidly shot towards her.
"Brother already needed to use this skill?!" He Hu and He Bao looked extremely surprised. n.o.body knew how strong that skill was more than them.
This was the skill which the three brothers practiced together. It was a high-quality Zhen ranked skill. It was also their skill with the strongest attacking power. It was a skill based on the saying, dripping water penetrates the stone, and its toughness and speed were strong enough to kill an opponent whose realm was a level higher than themselves.
"This Second Young Miss from the Lin family is pretty tough, huh? She made He Long use his profound skills right away," w.a.n.g Xunyuan touched his beard and nodded.
He thought that He Long"s ice cone was sharp and extremely fast, so no matter what Lin Haoxue wouldn"t be able to dodge the attack. How could she melt it?
Lin Haoxue"s tiny face was unyielding as she faced the incoming ice cone. Lifting her left hand, she urged her earth elemental profound power to form a strong barrier in front of her.
Kacha!
The ice cone pierced through the earth barrier, and again shot toward Lin Haoxue. Even though earth restrained water, the strength difference between them was too much after all.
Lin Haoxue"s earth elemental profound power was only at the Profound Pract.i.tioner early-stage, but He Long"s was at the Profound Grand Master early-stage so there was a ma.s.sive gap between them. Therefore, Lin Haoxue"s barrier could only delay his attack for a bit.
But it gave her a few precious seconds. From her right fist cyan-colored wind elemental power shone faintly outwards as she strafed to the left. At that moment, she dangerously dodged the ice cone attack which streaked past her right side. It was just one strike, but beads of sweat had formed on her forehead, so it was obvious how dangerous it was.
"You have double elemental profound veins?" He Long shouted out almost losing his voice. He hadn"t noticed that Lin Haoxue had used the wind element earlier. But even that already surprised him a lot. Double elemental profound veins! It was so rare that it would let her achieve the cultivating speed He Lingyuan had. Now he was starting to feel that maybe the young lord"s decision might have been a mistake. This Lin Haoxue didn"t have a waste const.i.tution at all but was actually a heavenly genius.
Double elemental profound veins! These four words were like thunder that shocked everyone. If He Lingyuan"s cultivating speed was referred to as at the genius-level, then could it be that Lin Haoxue was actually the number one genius as she had double elemental profound veins?
Lin Haoxue pressed her lips tightly as she guarded against any attacks that might come, and she didn"t respond to his question.
But his shock only lasted for a moment then He Long regained his focus. It wasn"t that he was impatient, just that everything he saw today was too unbelievable. Who could have expected that not only did Lin Haoxue"s profound veins awaken, but she also had double elemental profound veins.
But, since it had turned out like this, he could only keep going. Thinking of his circ.u.mstances, He Long felt anger rising inside him which made him push his Profound Grand Master power to the peak. Ice cones formed one after another surrounding Lin Haoxue.
Suddenly, the pressure on her increased rapidly. Lin Haoxue could only barely manage to dodge one ice cone with her wind elemental profound power helping her. As they shot towards her, she did her best to dodge with her full focus. If she was inattentive for a single second she could get killed. However, even though she tried her best to dodge all the attacks, she was still scratched by a few ice cones.
"Is He Long really pushing her to her death?" Zheng Shiling frowned feeling unhappy about the He family"s actions.
"For the He family"s reputation, he didn"t have any other choice," w.a.n.g Xunyuan understood the reasons for their actions, but he still took pity on Lin Haoxue.
Wu Haiping didn"t say anything but he felt relieved. So what if she was a heavenly genius? There were countless geniuses in this world that died at a young age. Once Lin Haoxue died on the stage, the Wu family wouldn"t have any more worries.
Everyone could see that Lin Haoxue was in a crisis and so could Lin Geng. He moved his body and when he was about to go save Lin Haoxue, he was stopped by someone"s hand, "Lin family head no rush, they"re just exchanging pointers."
"Exchanging pointers?! Are you f.u.c.king blind. How is this a friendly lesson? This is just an execution!" Lin Geng was so hurried and mad that his eyes almost seemed to spit fire as he stared at Wu Haiping with a death glare. But Wu Haiping was at the Profound Spirit realm which was a whole realm higher than his own cultivation, so there was really nothing he could do.
Wu Haiping didn"t really care about Lin Geng"s anger and acted like he didn"t even hear him speak. All he wanted was to see Lin Haoxue parish.
"Should we do something for her?" w.a.n.g Xunyuan asked. This would give himself the chance to make friends with the Lin family, and he was also seeking Zheng Shiling"s opinion since the Zheng and w.a.n.g families had always been on very good terms.
"No rush. Let"s just wait and see!" Zheng Shiling stopped him.
This moment, beyond everybody"s expectation, Lin Haoxue closed her eyes all of a sudden and incredibly dodged He Long"s crazy attacks with ease. Her body seemed to move like water, and she successfully escaped from his attacks.
It turned out that when Lin Haoxue tried her utmost to dodge all the approaching attacks, she pushed her body to its limits. At that moment the ring in front of her chest trembled and a slim stream of Qi flew out from the ring. This Qi thread rapidly entered her Baihui point on her head.
All of a sudden, Lin Haoxue felt at peace. Her heart had completely calmed down. At this moment, she discovered that the high-speed ice cones had slowed to a crawl and she was able to easily dodge them. She could easily see that He Long"s attack had hundreds of weak spots.
"Enough," Lin Haoxue murmured slightly. She lifted her hands and used her simple fire elemental profound power to attack directly. It simply pa.s.sed through all the layers of barriers he had set up and collided fiercely with He Long sending him flying off the stage.
Zheng Shiling and w.a.n.g Xunyuan stared at each other with shock.
After a short period of time, Zheng Shiling announced, "Lin Haoxue"s victory!"