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YEAAAAA!!
The crowd cheered at the top of their lungs, screaming out loud. They were so excited about this battle that was about to begin.
This was especially the case that Shen Lu allowed betting for the audiences. The betting system was divided into two. The prediction bet and the pre-battle bet.
In the prediction bet, they were allowed to predict as to who would be the final winner and the 5 person that would be chosen by Duan Li. Although the minimum amount required to bet in this prediction bet was quite expensive, it provides the highest cut-out as well. If one were to predict correctly, they wouldn"t have to worry about their financial expenses for the whole year!
On the other hand, the pre-battle bet is a bet before every battle commence. This could be considered as the more affordable choice for the audiences that only wanted to gain or lose comfortably that wouldn"t really affect them, as they could bet as low as 10 low quality spirit stones!
With the atmosphere set, the entire Duel hall felt like it was a ring for the gladiators and champions to fight against one another. Just by being in the Duel hall, one would find their blood boiling and their adrenaline to be pushed to the maximum!
There was only one rule in this battle, and that was - no killing allowed! Although this was already widely known and common sense. Even if the battle allowed them to, not a single one would dare!
This was because that the academy has made it so that the repercussions from committing such an act of murder would be extremely heavy. Offenders would be crippled of their cultivation and be put inside the slave mine to work until they die!
"The first match would be between Wei Shang and Yun Bo! Please stand at the Dueling platform!" Shen Lu called out.
The moment these two met each other"s gaze atop of the platform, they each nodded.
"Seems like they knew each other." Shen Lu noted.
With both cupping their fist together as a sign of respect before the battle begins, Yun Bo then spoke out.
"To think that my first opponent would be you, I"m sure is unlucky!" he sighed as he shook his head slowly, before his eyes glinted sharply.
"I was not a match for you one year ago, and I might not still be a match for you now too. But I want to see just how far I had improved during this time!" he said as he prepared himself into a stance.
Hearing this, Wei Shang nodded. He battled with Yun Bo once last year, and managed to win without almost any effort at all.
"I see! Then come at me with everything you"ve got!"
Woonggg!
A series of interlocking runic formations around the Dueling platform were now activated. They formed a barrier to block against any attack from getting past by it so that the audiences would not be injured by any stray skill arts!
Yun Bo gathered his spiritual Qi onto both of his feet as he dashed out.
Pshew!
"d.a.m.n! That speed is too fast for my eyes to follow!" some of the audiences commented.
However for Wei Shang, even though this speed was impressive, there was one fatal weakness in it, which was that it only allows Yun Bo to travel in one direction at a time!
"The same old trick again as last time?" Wei Shang thought to himself as he side-stepped.
But just as he did so, Yun Bo suddenly changed direction while delivering a right kick to his stomach. Fortunately, his reflexes were top-notch and managed to block this attack using his elbows by lowering his stance almost immediately.
BAM!
"Urgh! I felt that kick! Seems like you managed to tailor it even further!" Wei Shang spoke out, impressed.
"Indeed I am! And I"m glad that this has caught you off-guard! At least I got one clean hit on you this time around!" Yun Bo laughed out, evidently satisfied with that one kick of his.
Pshew!
Yun Bo dashed out once more to circle around Wei Shang with the same lightning speed again. Wei Shang closed the both of his eyes, observing the former not by using his eyes, but by hearing it out and feeling the fluctuating spiritual Qi around him.
Even if the other party was moving extremely quickly, it had not yet reached the speed of supersonic. Thus, the sound Yun Bo made with every change in his direction was quite accurate and reliable to measure the distance between them.
"d.a.m.n it! His battle instinct is too formidable! To think that he had already developed a method to sound me out like this!" Yun Bo gritted his teeth.
As expected of his rival!
But he didn"t panic, instead he formed a smile.
"Unfortunately for you, I had already expected this from you!"
"Whirlwind Field!"
Yun Bo deployed a field effect skill art. He had painstakingly learnt this specific skill art in order to cover the weaknesses in his movement technique.
While this skill art deals no significant damage to the enemy at all and would only create a slight discomfort and nauseating effect to one sense of balance and direction, what Yun Bo really targeted was that this skill art creates a lot of noise.
In other words, the sounds produced by him changing direction would blend in perfectly with the Whirlwind Field, effectively cutting out Wei Shang from being able to detect him!
At the sight of this change, Wei Shang"s brows knitted.
"To even think of a method to cover this flaw as well. You"ve really come prepared!" he complimented.
"But if you think you could hide better than me, then I had to dissapoint you!"
"Mystic arts: Concealing life!"
Instantly, after Wei Shang used this skill arts, he turned invisible on the spot. This move of his had Yun Bo dumbfounded in disbelief. Not just him, even the entire audience was shocked as well!
"His presence just suddenly disappeared? How is that possible?!"
"Even my keen instincts are not able to locate him on the platform! Just where is he?!"
Besides Duan Li, w.a.n.g Xiolun commented, "A very formidable concealing arts. Even my long years of experience before this, I hadn"t yet witnessed something as such."
Shen Murong nodded in agreement. "He is not someone from the Wei clan for nothing I guess. But for this skill of his, I had not seen any other Wei clan members deployed it before, could it be one of the seven famed mystic arts that their clan has?"
"Its highly possible that he just used a mystic arts right over there. Against such an ability where our senses could not detect his presence at all, I guess the only method to sound him out would be an area attack skill arts!" Shen Lu spoke out, feeling intrigued by this Wei Shang fella.
It was no wonder that Brother Duan Li immediately shortlisted him, seems like this person really has the capabilities after all!
Sitting atop of his throne, Duan Li casted out his soul sense and found out that Wei Shang was just standing idly on the same spot without moving a single inch!
On the other hand, Yun Bo had expended his spiritual Qi drastically with the Whirlwind Field skill arts. Thus, he cancelled it out.
As soon as the skill arts were cancelled though, Wei Shang whom was currently invisible to the naked eye instantly dashed to a certain location on the Dueling platform and threw out a punch.
BAM!
His punch connected and hit Yun Bo squarely on the chest, causing the latter to flew across the platform like a broken kite before Yun Bo"s body skidded on the ground and finally came to a halt at the very far ends.
Urghh!
Rising weakly from the ground with one hand clutching at his chest, Yun Bo spat out a mouthful of blood.
Sighing regretfully, he raised his other hand and surrendered.
At this point, continuing the battle would just be useless. Not only that he had expended quite a significant amount of his spiritual Qi already, he could not detect where Wei Shang were on the platform AND he was dealt with an injury.
If he decided to press on despite these clear tell-tale signs that he could not win the battle, he would truly be a fool and would only make an embarra.s.sment out of himself!
Whoosh!
Wei Shang appeared as he cancelled out his mystic arts.
"To think that I would be forced to use my mystic arts against you, you had truly improved a lot!" he said as he cupped his fists together.
Similarly, Yun Bo cupped his fist as well.
"One day, I would at least score a single victory against you." Yun Bo laughed out as they both slammed at their fist together laughed out.
They were both childhood friends from different clan, but that did not stop them from treating each other like true brothers bounded by blood!
Seeing this, Duan Li nodded, feeling very satisfied with this first battle! He made sure to remember this Yun Bo person within his mind. In the future, he might need a person as such.
As for now, what he needed was raw power. Against 30,000 one star monsters, there was no place for trickeries on the battlefield but brute strength!
With the final outcome of the first battle, the audience cheered atop of their lungs. Some however were feeling downcasted as they lost a bet. But nevertheless, they were still excited and positive for the next battle!
Even if one lost a single bet, it did not mean that one would lose again and again right?
After a while, the second battle was about to begin and the crowds were riled up once more!
...