Chapter 150 – Tai Chi Sword
(Mustang: Hey guys, this is the Second regular Chapter for this week. Oh, by the way, this also the 150th chapter, another landmark?)
Soon, the first thirty four contestants had resolved their first fight, and so far, the tournament hadn’t witnessed anything spectacular.
However, Bi Fan had learnt a lot of new martial skills.
The next thirty four contestants were already ready, and they quickly embarked onto the stages.
“The man in the blue dress on stage fifteen is City Sect’s Su Yang. He was ranked ninth in the last Jiu Yu Hidden Dragon list. He told me that he’s almost ready to make the big breakthrough now.” Jing Feng said.
Bi Fan looked around and noticed that there must be at least twenty or so contestants, who were already at the peak of the ‘transformation’ layer.
Since Jing Feng considered him to be quite powerful, his strength must be worthy of recognition. His opponent was also inside the ‘transformation’ layer, but wasn’t as strong as him.
Their compet.i.tion was sure to be a fierce one, and Bi Fan decided to focus on this one, in this slot.
As the contests started, Bi Fan was focusing half of his attention on stage fifteen’s contest, while the other half of his attention was diverted to the other contests, so he could slowly research their skills at a later time.
Su Yang was using the City Sect’s famous martial skill, ‘the heavenly breeze’, and his machete’s blade appeared faster than the speed of the wind itself. Given the power and the speed of the attack, its effect was bound to be formidable.
Su Yang’s opponent was using a pair of golden hooks, and his style was very tricky, and tough to compete against.
Su Yang was relentlessly slashing his sword up and down, as he continued to hack and chop at his opponent.
His opponent was using a very strange skill, which worked very well his golden hooks, and his tricky attacks were becoming increasingly difficult to detect.
Their fight was quite fantastic, and was certainly the best in the first thirty-four so far, both in terms of intensity and skills.
Bi Fan was completely taken by their display by now, and was trying to memorize their skills.
“This is amazing, if Su Yang’s opponent had a higher energy level, then Su Yang might have suffered a very early set back.” Jing Feng exclaimed in admiration.
In these last three years, a lot of young geniuses had sprouted up, like Bi Fan, and some may have even surpa.s.sed last time’s top rankers.
Jing Feng, naturally, could feel that the compet.i.tion was bound to be tougher this time, and was preparing to give his best.
“Wonderful!” Bi Fan exclaimed out loud, as he saw the subtlety of their movements.
Bi Fan had never seen such exquisite machete and hooks skills. He was completely mesmerized by their skills, and was learning a lot of new things.
Soon enough, the other sixteen fights had ended, leaving only Su Yang and his opponent, who were still entangled in an intense bout.
Their fight had already reached its climax, and they were both using their best skills now.
Bi Fan was completely engrossed in their fight, and was continuously adding to his knowledge base.
Eventually, Su Yang won the fight, owing to his higher energy level.
While Bi Fan had remained completely indulged in their contest, right till the end.
“Brother Bi Fan, you don’t practice the machete or the hooks, why were you watching their fight so seriously?” Jing Feng asked.
“Oh? Nothing, I just liked their intensity, that’s all.” Bi Fan was somewhat at a loss, and could only grin sheepishly in reply.
“Pretentious a.s.shole!” Luo Sheng commented in a cold voice.
Bi Fan pretended as if he hadn’t heard that remark, and pigeon-holed Luo Sheng altogether.
Luo Sheng was of no concern to Bi Fan anymore, and Bi Fan was too lazy to pointlessly bicker with him.
As the contest continued, and second batch of the group prepared to proceed to their respective stages; Ji Ying Lan was a part of this lot.
“Come on Brother Ji Ying Lan!” Bi Fan smiled.
“Brother Ji Ying Lan, you’re very strong and skilled, and unless you’re opposed with a top ranked fighter, you’re very likely to advance.” Jing Feng said.
Ji Ying Lan nodded: “Ah, I will fight as hard as I can for the glory of our Sect.”
Ling Xin Ya and Luo Xiao Tian weren’t giving any further instructions to anyone, and were allowing the disciples to play on their strengths, since they felt that their instructions would only pile more pressure on their disciples.
This set of sixty-eight had a lot of good fighters, including Ji Ying Lan, Blue Dragon, and Tian Shui Sect’s Miss Hong Yun Tian.
In addition to them, there were several other ‘transformation’ layer martial artists in this group.
In the first batch, there were three more ‘transformation’ layer fighters, apart from Ji Ying Lan.
Ji Ying Lan seemed to be having a run of bad luck, since he was set to fight a ‘transformation’ layer fighter in the first round itself. On top of that, this man was a Wu Ji Sect disciple; his name was Cao Jia Le.
They were both inside the ‘transformation’ layer, and they were both using swords, so naturally Ji Ying Lan was quite confident of his victory.
Ji Ying Lan was obviously started to use the ‘Fufeng double-edged Sword’ skill, owing to his exceptional proficiency in the skill, while Cao Jia Le started with Wu Ji Sect’s ‘Tai Chi Sword’ skill.
The Quinyang Sect’s ‘Fufeng double-edged sword’ is a very agile and elegant skill, while the Wu Ji Sect’s ‘Tai Chi Sword’ is a very slow skill, which is known to consume a very low amount of energy, enabling the fighter to fight for a long duration.
“Boy, I do not care who you are, as long as you belong to the Quinyang Sect, do not expect any mercy from me!” Cao Jia Le sneered.
Ji Ying Lan replied in a cold tone: “Since you’re a Wu Ji Sect disciple, I will never allow you to win.”
“Fufeng double-edged sword!” Ji Ying Lan cast out his own version of the skill’s set, and his sword started to attack his enemy from all angles.
Cao Jia Le didn’t seem to be bothered by it, as he continued to cast out the same ‘Tai Chi Sword’ in its usually relaxed manner.
Cao Jia Le’s sword was constantly revolving in circle, and even though the movements were quite slow, he seemed to be obstructing Ji Ying Lan’s attacks quite easily.
“The Wu Ji Sect’s ‘Tai Chi Sword’ isn’t as simple as it looks; even Brother Ji Ying Lan’s sword-play isn’t able to get past it! I don’t know what the rest of us will do against this sort of a defense….” Jing Feng was astonished.
Ling Xin Ya said: “The Wu Ji Sect’s ‘Tai Chi Sword’ is indeed a very difficult one to compete against, and can be very useful for them. It doesn’t require too much energy, and has an amazing defensive usage, since it’s awfully difficult to breach this skill.”
“Deputy master, then how do we break past the ‘Tai Chi Sword’?” an outer disciple asked.
“It’s quite difficult, and there are two ways of doing this: first, you can overpower your opponent completely, or second, you can attack with an extremely high speed move.” Ling Xin Ya patiently explained.
Bi Fan was watching the contest so carefully, that he didn’t even pay any attention to Ling Xin Ya’s words.
Bi Fan exposed a sly smile, since he had already figured a way to break past the ‘Tai Chi Sword’.
Ji Ying Lan didn’t seem discouraged to see that his attacks were constantly being blocked by his opponent, and continued to attack even more violently.
He was aware that he need to finish the fight as quickly as possible, otherwise he would end up in a very disadvantaged position.
‘The Tai Chi Sword’ consumed very less energy, and in comparison, Ji Ying Lan’s skill was consuming much more. As the fight would drag on, Ji Ying Lan would eventually start getting suppressed, and his chances of winning would lessen.
Ji Ying Lan had a very unique and profound understanding of his skill set, and was quite experienced as well. The moment he realized that the skill wasn’t going to work, he directly cast out his best moves: “the flying willow! A thousand willow needles!”
He started casting out the last two forms of the ‘Fufeng double-edged sword’ skill, without any breaks in between.
During his fight with Bi Fan, Ji Ying Lan had learnt a lot of new things, and post his defeat, he had made a lot changes to his style, especially to the last form of the skill, owing to which, his power output had seen a major increase.
It appeared as if his sword had completely surrounded Cao Jia Le.
Numerous blades lashed at Cao Jia Le, and it was already too late for him to dodge, as he frantically tried to block the attacks.
Ji Ying Lan’s speed was so fast that Cao Jia Le was unable to block all of his attacks.
“Puchi… puchi….”
Cao Jia Le continued to get pushed back, and blood had already started to drip from the countless holes that Ji Ying Lan had poked in his body so far. Even though none of the wounds were serious, Cao Jia Le wasn’t looking very good at this moment, and was beginning to lose a lot of blood.