Chapter 164 – Shadow Kick
Bi Fan’s mouth fell open while his, now, round and big, eyes were glued to this new disposition skill’s display. (Disposition skill is a name given to a category of skills which create a clone, or a shadow of a fighter, like the Shadow Clone Jutsu in Naruto.)
He stood glued to his place with a silly look on his face.
“Quick, dodge it, ah!” Jing Feng shouted out loudly, since he was afraid that Bi Fan might get injured by the incoming attack.
Luo Sheng and Luo Xiong’s faces exposed a sinister smile, as they watched Chao Rui’s sharp sword storming towards Bi Fan.
“I’ve finally been able to see the entire set of the ‘Triple Transformation skill’!” Bi Fan’s was very excited and overjoyed.
Bi Fan suddenly moved his Dragon Scale sword into action, but didn’t cast out any move, and simply applied his strength into the attack.
In order to launch this attack, Bi Fan decided to use his entire strength, and even drew support from his physical strength.
The Dragon Scale sword clashed with Chao Rui’s weapon, and the collision sent Chao Rui flying into the air.
“Boom!” an ear splitting sound was issued by the ma.s.sive collision.
No one realized what happened, and were confused to see Chao Rui flying out from center of the collision.
Bi Fan followed after the helpless Chao Rui, and unleashed a ‘Shadow Kick’ in mid-air. The powerful strike sent Chao Rui flying thirty feet into the air.
Chao Rui opened his mouth to concede his defeat, but was unable to utter the words due to the immense pain that Bi Fan’s kick had inflicted on his body. Not that it mattered in the least; he was going to land outside the stage anyway.
The instant reversal of the situation left most people dizzy.
Almost everyone in the arena was blankly staring at the scene, while their mouths were gaping in disbelief.
“Brother Chao Rui has actually lost this fight, how did that happen?” Most of the Wu Ji Sect disciples were so taken by this surprise reversal that they even forgot to look at Chao Rui’s condition.
“Ha ha… what was I thinking…. Brother Bi Fan isn’t going to lose that easily.” Jing Feng laughed out loudly.
“Bi Fan! Bi Fan!……” The audience was finally beginning to realize that Bi Fan had won, and had started cheering him.
Bi Fan had just presented them with a brilliant display, so they naturally wanted to return the favor by applauding him.
Bi Fan was very calm and collected at the moment. Anyway, he had gotten accustomed to such responses by now.
Once the referee announced Bi Fan as the winner, Bi Fan returned to his Sect’s dressing area.
“Brother Bi Fan, that was awesome!” Jing Feng punched Bi Fan’s stomach out of sheer excitement.
“Ah….” Although Jing Feng hadn’t punched hard, Bi Fan was still unable to control his own reaction.
“Brother Bi Fan, are you hurt?” Jing Feng asked in a concerned manner.
“I’m fine; I just need to practice for a while now.” Bi Fan shook his head.
“Are you really alright? Let me have a look…” Jing Feng insisted.
Bi Fan really didn’t want anyone to know about the soft armor, which is why he couldn’t allow Jing Feng to check his body for injuries.
“I’m fine, I just need to meditate.”
Bi Fan immediately sat down, in order to meditate. In reality however, Bi Fan wasn’t actually meditating, and was trying to recall the moves of the ‘Triple Transformation skill’.
The ‘Triple Transformation Skill’ was very important for Bi Fan, and he simply didn’t want to forget the moves of the skills.
So as a precaution, Bi Fan decided to use this time to replay the moves once again in his head, in order to create a deeper impression of the skill in his mind.
So much so, that he was even willing to miss out on the skills that he could have learnt from the contests that were taking place in the meanwhile.
Bi Fan played the moves over and over again until he was sure that their images were etched into the depths of his memory. Once he was done, he started practicing the ‘Free Burst’ technique in order to restore his injuries.
The Yin Yang Lotus had already started issuing radiant white strands at an earlier stage, which were working their way around Bi Fan’s body, and were busy repairing his body from within.
Bi Fan’s body had suffered a few heavy concussions, but the cuts were a very few in number, and weren’t very serious either.
But since he didn’t want these injuries to affect him in the contest later, Bi Fan decided to restore his body to its normal state.
On the other hand, Chao Rui was in a very miserable state, and was still lying on the ground, unable to move. It was a while before the Wu Ji Sect disciples realized that their Brother was quite seriously injured.
Chao Rui had attacked Bi Fan with a very strong attack, and had put his entire strength behind the strike. Even though the collision had sent him flying, he hadn’t really been injured by the collision of their swords. Bi Fan’s mid-air shadow kick however, had sent him flying over thirty feet in the air, and the sheer intensity of the attack, plus the force with which he landed on the ground, had left him immobile. He felt as if his whole body was falling apart.
If Bi Fan hadn’t held back a bit, Chao Rui wouldn’t have landed alive on the ground.
But Bi Fan didn’t want to expose his real strength yet, since he wanted to save some surprises for his fight against Wu Ji Xuan.
Chao Rui was nothing compared to Wu Ji Xuan.
By the time his peers carried him back to their Sect’s dressing room, Chao Rui had already lost consciousness.
“Just imagine Bi Fan’s strength. If you guys run into him, you must be very careful.” Wu Ji Xuan said.
Wu Ji Xuan had an unparalleled reputation amongst the outer disciples of the Wu Ji Sect, and even though no one would dare to neglect Bi Fan’s strength now, they all wanted to see him beaten.
“Brother Wu Ji Xuan, we need to take action against Bi Fan. We simply cannot allow him to get away after hurting Brother Chao Rui this badly. We must kill him to avenge Brother Chao Rui.”
“Yes, Bi Fan is an exceptionally talented youngster, and is definitely better than Jing Feng, so it is very important for us to find a way to eliminate him as soon as possible; otherwise his progress might threaten the Wu Ji Sect’s status in the future.” Wu Ji Xuan said in a cold manner: “You guys don’t worry, as long I get to fight Bi Fan, I won’t allow him to leave the ring alive.”
The Wu Ji Sect disciples were relieved to hear Wu Ji Xuan’s words.
As the set progressed, Jing Feng and Mo Nan also won their fights without much struggle.
Jing Feng had already ensured his position in the top twenty eight, but Bi Fan and Mo Nan still had one more fight to go.
Given their strengths, they were very likely to ensure their seats in the third round as well, which effectively meant that the Quinyang Sect would be represented in the third round by a total of four people.
If the Quinyang Sect was able to secure four places out of the total twenty eight in the third, then it would be a very proud moment for the entire Sect.
“Bi Fan, Mo Nan, you two must win your next fights. The Quinyang Sect will definitely be in the limelight after that.” Ling Xin Ya smiled.
“Yes, Deputy Master!” both Mo Nan and Bi Fan had already recovered their energies, and were ready to finish the job.
Even though Bi Fan had missed out on a few very interested matches, he was still in a very cheerful mood.
Since a few groups had already been decided, there was no need to conduct the remaining fight of that group, which is why the final Set didn’t have a lot of fights in it.
For example, the first and the second group’s winners were already guaranteed, since Ji Ying Lan and Li Quin Xun had already won their two fights.
Bi Fan’s turn to contest his fight came much sooner than expected, and Bi Fan left the dressing area and made his way to the stage, carrying himself in an imposing and confident manner.
Bi Fan waited on the stage for a while, but his opponent didn’t show up.
“If that’s so, then this fight is declared a walkover, and Bi Fan from the Quinyang Sect is the winner by default.” The referee announced since his opponent didn’t show up in the scheduled waiting time.
“No! Don’t do that….” Bi Fan was a bit depressed.
Logically speaking, Bi Fan should be happy, since this meant that he was into the third round now, but he knew that he’d win anyway, and had now missed out on the opportunity to learn some new skills.
Bi Fan didn’t realize that he was going to face some interrogation once he’d return to his dressing area due to this latest comment of his.
“Brother Bi Fan what’s the matter with you? You just won the match, and you didn’t even smile, and were rather sad about it… did something happen?” Mo Nan asked in a puzzled tone.
Bi Fan suddenly realized that his behavior would be considered very unusual under normal circ.u.mstances, and estimated that a lot of people would have noticed his reaction.
“I just wanted to beat someone up…. But unfortunately my ‘free sandbag’ didn’t show up… I don’t know why people don’t like being my ‘sandbags’.” Bi Fan smiled wickedly.
“Hey, I still have to fight in this tournament, so don’t even look at me.” Jing Feng quickly ducked away.
Mo Nan too, hastily put some distance between himself and Bi Fan, since he afraid that Bi Fan might just start punching him.
Bi Fan had a notoriously high physical strength, and his punches would be quite painful to take.
The contest continued, and Bi Fan resumed watching the fights.
There were some very entertaining fights in the few remaining groups that were still undecided, and a few moves caught Bi Fan’s eye from time to time.
The contest ended for the day, and the third round was scheduled to start the following day.