“Roar!!”The loud roar of a dragon tore through the battlefield with a volume far greater than any other source of sound in the area. It was coming from the battle between Li Chengfeng and Lin Dongxiao.
The long tail of a dragon streaked through the sky following that roar along with multiple blades of energy made from a Law. Like knives, they shot through the sky to tear apart the dragon tail.
Li Chengfeng looked like a tiny speck in front of the giant dragon tail. Though protected by a green glow of light, Li Chengfeng looked like he was vulnerable to being crushed into nothing if he were to be hit by the tail.
Before the tail could crush him, Li Chengfeng seemed to suddenly fly several dozen meters higher into the sky to just barely get himself out of dodge and into safety.
“He"s basically just a mindless freak. That sort of opponent is easier to fight against…”
Li Chengfeng looked extremely calm for just "barely" dodging the dragon tail. If anything, he looked extremely calm right now as he thought about something before smiling at the situation.
He spoke very casually as if he wasn"t concerned for his life. It was as though this "freak" wasn"t worth his attentiont at all!
“Roar!!”
The rotting dragon let out another loud cry as it swiped at Li Chengfeng with its mighty claws.
“Whoos.h.!.+”
The claws tore through the area where Li Chengfeng stood, but Li Chengfeng was no longer there to be seen. He had dodged the attacks once again with a burst of energy and hardly any trouble.
“Die!!”
From up top on the dragon"s head, Lin Dongxiao was a frothing mess. He too, was screaming loudly along with the dragon. Greenish-gray energy flowed from his torso to the dragon underneath him, as if to feed the dragon more energy.
“Roar!!”
Renewed, the dragon began to tremble from head to tail. It dropped its mouth wide open and let out a loud roar as specks of greenish-gray light started to gather in it!
Simultaneously, the tail and claws of the dragon started to move even faster as if trying to catch Li Chengfeng.
“Bzz…”
Li Chengfeng didn"t look like he had the intent of dodging this time. An orange s.h.i.+eld materialized in front of him immediately, flooding the air around him with an equally-orange light. Soon, a giant barrier encompa.s.sing a dozen meters was erected all around him.
“Boom!!!”
The first to strike the s.h.i.+eld was the burst of energy fired from the dragon"s mouth. Like paper, the s.h.i.+eld around Li Chengfeng crumpled and relented for the energy burst to flood and bury Li Chengfeng underneath…
Pleased, Lin Dongxiao smiled at his handiwork. But just as he was about to congratulate himself, he saw a figure standing far beyond the area of his own attack—Li Chengfeng! He hadn"t been trapped by his attack earlier!
“My my, seems like defending isn"t in the cards for me. That"d be quite nasty for me if I wasn"t fast enough to dodge…”
Li Chengfeng sighed wistfully as he stared at the broken remains of the s.h.i.+eld where he once stood. Waving his hand, he recalled the fragments and stored them away.
“Aaahhh!!! d.a.m.n you!! Diee!!”
Infuriated by Li Chengfeng"s carefree nature, Lin Dongxiao had the dragon charge at Li Chengfeng at once.
Lin Dongxiao wasn"t even just angry anymore. He was humiliated. The nature by which Li Chengfeng was treating him made him feel like a child. A toy being made to dance on top of the palm of another. Every single attempt he made to kill Li Chengfeng had been rebuffed with ease! With each attack of his failing to hit his mark, Lin Dongxiao began to think to himself:
“I can"t hurt this person no matter what attack I use…”
This thought was intensified with how Li Chengfeng dodged his attacks. Every single time Lin Dongxiao was so sure his attack worked, Li Chengfeng would reveal himself to be somewhere else, completely unharmed and unbothered…
It was Lin Dongxiao who was on the attack, but it felt like he was on the "losing" side. It…it almost felt like his opponent could see what moves he"d use and was acting accordingly on it!
This was a concept Lin Dongxiao felt hard to stomach. He didn"t even have this bad of a time when he was fighting against Ouyang Hua.
There were other factors Lin Dongxiao had to take into account. He wasn"t as strong as he was anymore. The dragon he combined himself with wasn"t exactly in a pristine state of health. Wounds littered the entirety of the dragon"s body, such as having a portion of its tail being cut off, one of its claws being practically torn in half, or there being multiple dents in its body. All those factors combined meant the dragon wouldn"t be able to move and attack as efficiently as before, thus meaning its attack power was inevitably far weaker than before.
But those were factors negligible in the grand scheme of things. Against an Early-stage Soul Emperor like Li Chengfeng, Lin Dongxiao had been extremely confident in his odds. These factors shouldn"t even have been a point of contention.
……
Like an extended game of cat-and-mouse, Li Chengfeng and Lin Dongxiao"s battle continued. Each of Lin Dongxiao"s attacks were dodged by "just" a hair-breadth with only the occa.s.sional change in expression by Li Chengfeng. His expression would harden every once in a while, as if he was focusing on the battle, but other than that, Li Chengfeng was never harmed during the process.
“Whoos.h.!.+”
The first change happened once Li Chengfeng dodged yet another tail strike. Li Chengfeng"s eyes narrowed together as he began to focus his energy. That energy took on a violet shade of light around his body as if preparing for an attack of some kind. Halfway through it, Li Chengfeng suddenly cut off the energy flow and retreated to avoid another claw swipe.
“Tch! Still not right!!”
Li Chengfeng let out an annoyed remark upon his retreat.
His actions seemed unfathomable to Lin Dongxiao. This wasn"t the first time this has happened so far. He"d make the preparations to defend whenever Li Chengfeng prepared to attack, but as if toying with him, his enemy would abandon his attack just as quickly as he started on it. To Lin Dongxiao, this was a situation as frustrating as not being able to hit him…
And the worst part was that this wasn"t the first time…
Their game of cat and mouse continued with Li Chengfeng dodging every single attack Lin Dongxiao had to offer. Whenever it seemed like Li Chengfeng would attack, Lin Dongxiao would prepare himself to guard only to see Li Chengfeng give up the attack and move elsewhere.
This was the strangest tactic Lin Dongxiao had ever seen from an enemy. By this point, Li Chengfeng felt more like a bothersome gnat, one he couldn"t kill no matter how many times he tried to kill it.
But…what Li Chengfeng getting at?
Was he trying to exhaust him?
The thought seemed laughable to Lin Dongxiao. There"d be no way Li Chengfeng would be able to do that even if he were to fight with Ouyang Hua at his strongest. The dragon he combined himself with was far stronger than any other soulbeast of the same level. He had faith that Li Chengfeng would be the one to lose steam first. From there, Lin Dongxiao was certain he"d be able to win.
Like a fairy, Li Chengfeng weaved to and fro between every single one of Lin Dongxiao"s attacks. As easy as he made it look, the energy required to do so was actually quite high. Not even Li Chengfeng would be able to last another minute or two without suffering from extreme soulforce strain.
But would Li Chengfeng do something as silly as that?
Of course not.
“Tch!!”
Clicking his tongue, Li Chengfeng flew off in a burst of green light to dodge Lin Dongxiao. Something about the last attack seemed to spark regret in his eyes and a sheet of sweat from his forehead.
It wasn"t luck nor coincidence that Li Chengfeng was managing to dodge every single attack.
The path of cultivation Li Chengfeng walked on was a very powerful and secretive one taught by the Fate School. Much like Bai Yunfei"s Dual Flame Artes, Li Chengfeng"s Spirited Judgement contained two segments to it. One segment focused on the art of cultivation while the other focused on warfare. And in the warfare segment, the Spirited Judgement not only increased one"s capacity of soulforce, but also improved the body"s "instincts" to their limits.
In other words, this "instinct" could also be equated to "intuition", or a "sixth sense".
To put it simply, Li Chengfeng could rely on this "intuition" or "foresight" to see how to best dodge any attack!
That meant Li Chengfeng was capable of seeing and dodging attacks, even if they"d normally be faster or stronger than usual. By relying on this "foresight", Li Chengfeng could evade any potential danger.
As hard as it was for Lin Dongxiao to hurt Li Chengfeng, however, the inverse was also true for Li Chengfeng. Him defeating Lin Dongxiao would be an extremely difficult task since Lin Dongxiao wasn"t giving him any opportunities to inflict serious harm. That was most likely the reason why Li Chengfeng never committed to any attack.
But if that was the case…what should he be waiting for then?
As things turned out, the answer was already rapidly approaching…
“Eh?!”
Li Chengfeng"s eyes sparkled brightly once the fifth or sixth minute of this stalemate was reached.
He looked excited about something. Dodging another two of Lin Dongxiao"s strikes, he began to release an abnormal amount of soulforce!
“Over there!!”
Killing intent flooded Li Chengfeng"s eyes as he adopted a battle-ready stance. Seeing nothing to stop his advance, Li Chengfeng took off toward Lin Dongxiao with extreme speed!
The power radiating from Li Chengfeng was far beyond what he normally had. Violet light crackled all around him as he sped like a lightning bolt toward Lin Dongxiao. The mysterious soul skill he was using to increase his power levels were making it possible for him to fly rapidly toward Lin Dongxiao"s main body!
“You"re getting c.o.c.ky!!”
Lin Dongxiao seemed pleased to see Li Chengfeng "finally" attacking. Snarling in preparation, he urged the dragon beneath him to let out a loud roar before firing off a ball of energy toward Li Chengfeng.
It sped towards Li Chengfeng nearly as fast as he was traveling toward Lin Dongxiao. Twisting his body, Li Chengfeng managed to graze just past the ball to continue onward!
Lin Dongxiao remained unphased even as the "crisis" approached him. If anything, the corners of his lips seemed to start to twitch upward as if to sneer mockingly…
Then his aura took on a sudden change…
……
Given the current amalgamation of human and beast, anyone would"ve a.s.sumed that the human body would be the weak spot. Any damage dealt to the human body would be the same as damaging the core of it all.
But in this case…that was not true!
The amalgamation that was Lin Dongxiao had two types of soulforce sources. One was the Soul Emperor energy belonging to Lin Dongxiao, and the other belonged to the mid-stage cla.s.s eight dragon. If neither of the two were fused together, Lin Dongxiao wouldn"t even be considered a Soul Emperor.
But right now…Lin Dongxiao"s aura was rapidly spiking to the level of a Mid-stage Soul Emperor!
He was transferring the aura of the dragon to his own body!
“Die!!”
Lin Dongxiao howled sinisterly. The grayish-green light around him intensified into a demonic figure that whipped both arms out to slash at Li Chengfeng with its claws!
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