Chapter 207 – Xuan Yuan Long
“Arghhh!” Iron Hands roared as his big fist pounded in Blue Dragon’s direction.
Iron Hands wasn’t using any weapon; however, he was wearing iron mittens in both hands.
His iron mittens looked quite heavy, and it seemed rather obvious that it would be best to avoid them.
“Hegemon Blade!” Blue Dragon’s scimitar hacked down with a huge momentum.
“Bang!” the collision gave rise to a loud noise!
Iron Hands didn’t dodge the attack, and actually went ahead and punched Blue Dragon’s blade. Sparks flew as the two weapons collided, but Iron Hands’ iron mittens didn’t budge from their position.
Even though Blue Dragon was slightly surprised to see this, he immediately launched another storm of attacks.
However, this time Blue Dragon didn’t attack as recklessly as before since he had already sensed Iron Hands’ strength and had no intention of losing this fight.
Blue Dragon could already sense that it would be difficult to overpower the man.
Therefore, Blue Dragon immediately changed his strategy, and started attacking at a fast pace, and would then duck away, and would only return upon seeing an opening in Iron Hands’ defense.
Blue Dragon’s strategy was working rather well since Iron Hands wasn’t as nimble or smart.
Iron Hands would usually rely on his brute strength to win a fight since he was physically much stronger than most youngsters. However, even though Blue Dragon wasn’t as strong as him, he was strong enough to stand his own, even after facing several head-on collisions.
Blue Dragon occupied the higher hand soon enough; and it didn’t take long for him to win the fight thereafter.
“Jiu Yu City’s Blue Dragon wins Six Thousand Spars!” the referee announced loudly.
After handing over the spars to Blue Dragon, the referee asked: “Blue Dragon, would you be interested in defeating three more Lords of this ring? You can win a lot more spars if you do.”
“More Lords?” Blue Dragon thought for a moment, but then shook his head and refused.
Although Blue Dragon really wanted to contest more fights in the ring, he had no intention of fighting against an unknown opponent.
The chances of winning a fight and the spars as a result, were much higher if Blue Dragon was allowed to watch the Lord in action before making a challenge.
Blue Dragon rejoined his friends, and they all congratulated him on his victory.
“Well done Brother Blue Dragon!” Jing Feng laughed.
Blue Dragon seemed very excited: “That felt good. I really want to find another ring now so I can fight again.”
w.a.n.g Zhong suggested: “Let’s all spread out and look for rings to fight in, and then we can all meet up in the Hotel later in the evening.”
A challenger’s layer in a Martial Street contest wasn’t allowed to be higher than the Lord since it would help in avoiding injuries; even if the Lord and the challenger were off the same level, the chances of injuries over the course of the contest was very less.
Moreover, the referee of the ring wasn’t just a show piece, and was generally much stronger than the Lord of the ring, and was hence capable of preventing any casualties if needed.
Bi Fan and his friends set out in different directions precisely because of these reasons, believing that the area was safe enough.
This was obviously a rare opportunity and these six youngsters naturally wanted to make the most of it.
Bi Fan would mostly just walk around, and would only stop at a ring if the contest was beginning to get interesting; He’d find a seat, and would then concentrate on memorizing their martial skills.
Since the youngsters here had gathered from different cities, there were a lot of new skills on display which Bi Fan had never seen before.
And hence, Bi Fan was planning on spending his entire time in watching these contests rather than fighting himself.
Actual combat was obviously very important for Bi Fan, but he simply couldn’t miss out on this amazing opportunity of witnessing some exquisite skill sets.
Bi Fan spotted several youngsters from the Jiu Yu City along the way; some of them had even contested and lost against him in the past.
Bi Fan spotted the six disciples from the Wu Ji Sect a few arenas down the lane. Out of those six, Xuan Yuan Yun was contesting on the stage against the Lord.
The Wu Ji Sect’s martial skills were indeed very powerful; even though Xuan Yuan Yun was contesting against an equal-layered Lord, he managed to defeat the Lord in less than fifty strokes.
Xuan Yuan Feng had spotted Bi Fan at the time Bi Fan stepped into the arena.
“Bi Fan, are you interested in fighting against me?” Xuan Yuan Feng came over and asked.
“Well, you go ahead and fight; I won’t fight.” Bi Fan smiled.
Xuan Yuan Feng’s face changed slightly, but restored its composure soon enough: “Brother Bi Fan, you can smile since even I know that I can’t beat you. However, this is my senior, Xuan Yuan Long; He’ll be renting the ring after the Lord steps down; I hope you’ll contest against him.”
Bi Fan looked at Xuan Yuan Long, and realized that the man was an ‘Emerging from the Womb’ layer martial artist; however, he could only be regarded as very weak core disciple amongst his peers.
However, he was still a core disciple at the end of the day, and it would naturally be difficult to deal with him since he was an ‘Emerging from the Womb’ layer martial artist.
Bi Fan was quite sure of defeating the man, but he had no intention of rising to fame so early here.
In case an ‘Enormous Strength’ layer martial artist was able to defeat an ‘Emerging from the Womb’ layer martial artist, the news would obviously spread very quickly.
The shot hits the bird that pokes its head out; and Bi Fan had no intention of getting shot.
“Not interested.” Bi Fan turned around to leave.
Xuan Yuan Long ducked sideways to obstruct Bi Fan’s path, making it rather obvious that he wouldn’t allow Bi Fan to leave without a match.
“Aren’t you the Jiu Yu Hidden Dragon List’s champion? How could you be so timid? You’re saying that you’re afraid of a challenge?”
“You’ll have to come up with something better if you wish to force me into fighting. Otherwise don’t waste my time.” Bi Fan replied back indifferently.
Xuan Yuan Long asked in a cold voice: “Like what?”
“Erm…. Like a Top Grade weapon. I’m willing to fight for a top grade weapon’s stake, but I’m not sure if you’re up for it.” Bi Fan grinned.
Xuan Yuan Long hesitated for a bit since Bi Fan had already defeated Wu Ji Xuan, an elementary ‘Emerging from the Womb’ layer martial artist. Xuan Yuan Long wasn’t much stronger than Wu Ji Xuan, and was simply relying on his superior weaponry to challenge Bi Fan.
In case he was to defeat Bi Fan, word would spread out, and he would earn himself some much needed fame.
“Done! I’ll place a top-grade weapon as an additional bet, but I hope that you can come up with something of equal value.” Xuan Yuan Long stated loudly.
“I don’t have a top grade weapon with me right now. But my Dragon scale sword almost qualifies as a top-grade weapon, right?” Bi Fan smiled confidently.
Bi Fan’s dragon scale sword had become rather famous throughout the Jiu Yu City, and Xuan Yuan Long’s envy and greed had already started to reflect on his avaricious face at the thought of winning the famed weapon.
Xuan Yuan Long could only be regarded as an average talent in the Wu Ji Sect’s pool, and had hence received much less training and importance than Xuan Yuan Feng and the others. And although his Sect had given him a top-grade weapon, but the weapon still wasn’t as good as Bi Fan’s dragon scale sword.
Xuan Yuan Long and Bi Fan sealed the bet, and proceeded to tell the referee about their private bet, making the stake an official one.
In case a challenger lost in a Martial Street Contest, the challenger would have to honor the bet; else they’d be kicked out of the Martial Street region.
Once, a renowned ‘Gold Dan’ layered youngster lost a contest in Martial Street, and refused to pay up claiming that he had been cheated. Later, he was intercepted by the authorities, but he still refused to pay up. He continued to refuse paying his stake despite threats from the authorities, and ended up dying at the hands of the Hong Sect martial artists.
“The Contest Begins!”
This wasn’t a regular contest since Xuan Yuan Long had rented the stage for a private contest.
Even though the referee announced the start of the contest, neither man rushed into action.
Xuan Yuan Long was aware of Bi Fan’s strength, and therefore knew that he couldn’t afford to act carelessly.
Xuan Yuan Long was simply waiting to find a flaw in Bi Fan’s defense, but he wasn’t succeeding at the moment since Bi Fan was simply standing idly on the stage.
Xuan Yuan Long was quite patient by nature, and didn’t seem to be getting anxious.
However, he did have this strange feeling inside his heart that he wouldn’t be able to surpa.s.s Bi Fan’s momentum.
As Bi Fan’s momentum continued to rise, he even started questioning his decision of making this challenge.
Xuan Yuan Long’s face started turning pale with fright as he started to realize that Bi Fan’s bare momentum was higher than his own.
Bi Fan was intentionally exposing his enormous momentum in the hope of forcing Xuan Yuan Long to make the first move.
Bi Fan was confident that he would be able deal with Xuan Yuan Long a lot more easily as long as Xuan Yuan Long made the first move.
“Arghhhh!” Xuan Yuan Long roared loudly as he unwilling made the first move.