Chapter 262: The Qi of the Dragon Fountain (Part One)
Ye Chen was still just as calm. In the northern Black Dragon Empire, he was not surprised even when Tuo Baku had taken a punch of his and was completely fine because the Five Mountain Godly Fist Art was only a mid-rank Earth Realm fist Art. Even with his almost fifty thousand pounds of physical strength, it was still incompatible with the power of the sword arts. It would barely work when facing some Clasping Yuan Realm warriors with extremely powerful defenses. Right then, even if Mo Yan’s attack had not reached one hundred percent of its power, it was at least eighty or ninety percent of his power, but it was still not enough for him to break open Tuo Baku’s defense, and that was surprising.
“Top rank Earth Realm defense art, but it seems to be more than that.”
In this true spirit continent, there were a lot of martial skill manuals with different focuses. Some focused on the attacking power such as Luo Hanshan’s Great Rudra Godly Art. Some focused on speed like Wu Liangyu’s Black Crow Great Art, some had special effects like Murong Qingcheng’s Sky Demon Great Art while some focused on defense, which were called the Defending Skills. It was likely that Tuo Baku should have trained precisely that type of skill.
The defending skill was quite similar to the body boosting skill. Judging from the surface, both of the skills came with great bodily defense. But judging from the details, the defense art was completely different from the body boosting art. The defense art used defensive zhen Qi to wrap around the surface of the body instead of increasing bodily defense directly. The body boosting skill aimed at absorbing zhen Qi into the physical body to create Qi power, which would increase physical strength directly.
‘Tuo Baku has obviously trained a top rank Earth Realm defensive art, and he has already reached beyond the tenth level. But the tenth level of a defensive skill would never be able to block out Mo Yan’s attack because Mo Yan had also trained the same – a top rank Earth Realm martial art. Then, would it make it the eleventh level? If it was actually the eleventh level, it maybe could explain this kind of effect, since a defensive skill was designed to increase defenses’.
Mo Yan was shocked and mad at the same time. ‘Are you kidding me? I cannot break his defense?!’
“Monster Spirit Finger! Break for me!”
His index and middle fingers had become black as Mo Yan yelled with a loud voice. He pointed at Luo Baku’s ribs.
“Great timing! Ruin Godly Fist!” Tuo Baku did not move at all before he threw out a fist attack. He had chosen to “wound” himself in exchange of wounding his opponent, ignoring all of those normal defensive instincts.
With one punch out, the air suddenly sank in, and dragon and tiger roars filled up the stadium.
Facing this punch, Mo Yan suddenly felt very small, and could not help but feel frightened. He knew that his finger attack would wound Tuo Baku, but he was aware that it would only be a scratch and he would still be at full attacking power. But if he had been hit by this punch, he knew it would at least not be a small wound.
“Ghost Shadow No Trace!”
Flashing his body, Mo Yan’s body suddenly became a blur. It was like it had turned into a black Qi flow, which helped him dodge that fatal attack of Tuo Baku’s and brought him all the way to the back of his opponent.
Swoosh!
Pointing out one’s finger, Tuo Baku’s defensive zhen Qi layer had been shattered. That dark index and middle fingers stabbed into Tuo Baku’s body. When he tried to screw in his fingers more and create some more damage, a dark layer of light had blocked his finger light. It had bounced him back heavily which had almost broken his fingers.
“How can this be? Even the Monster Spirit Finger could not cause any damage to him?” Mo Yan backed out instantly; his face could not look more depressed.
Turning around, Tuo Baku touched his back. There was a shallow finger hole of about five centimeters, and blood had come out as well. “Very well, I will be serious now.”
Without saying more, Tuo Baku shook his body, and his aura increased indefinitely. The veins over his neck exposed as his face turned red. Then, he reached out his arms, the muscles on his arms tightened and pumped up. One could see the dark blue light running beneath it like a snake or a dragon.
“Ruin Eighteen Fist!”
Taking one step forward, Tuo Baku threw out a punch towards Mo Yan. Then the second and third punch had followed, blocking Mo Yan’s escaping route.
Mo Yan had pushed his Ghost Shadow Art to its limit, running in between each fist power. It could not look more intense; it was like a tiny boat in a thunderstorm, any second could be its last. But being able to be in the top of the younger generation, Mo Yan naturally would not be that easy to defeat. He was not wounded at all by the seventeen punches.
“The eighteen fist attack – Dragon Movement!”
After the punch had been thrown out, the fist power had turned into a dragon, dancing and roaring in the sky. It opened its mouth and captured Mo Yan’s body, bringing him all the way towards that dark blue light wall.
When they were less than three meters away from the light wall, the dragon-shaped fist power suddenly cracked open, and Mo Yan jumped out from within. His face was pale, and his body was covered with a small amount of blood.
The Sky Demon Eyes from the Sky Demon Great Art was not just a trick. When Mo Yan was bitten by the dragon-shaped fist power, he had used his demon eyes, which helped him in finding the weakness in a short time. He pointed his finger out to get out of the control. If it were someone else, he would definitely not be able to do anything.
“Interesting!” Tuo Baku’s eyes flashed the light of excitement. After leaving that place where he had lived for more than ten years, besides the fight with Ye Chen, he had not met anyone worth fighting yet. All those battles before were only children’s games.
Murong Qingcheng shook her head. Her head disciple had faced his enemy. Facing that super-strength defense of Tuo Baku, his Sky Demon Eyes had lost a lot of its effectiveness. And judging from his quantity of his zhen Qi and attacking power, Tuo Baku was obviously more powerful than her head disciple.
Ye Chen was thinking the same as Murong Qingcheng. Among all of the contestants this year, Tuo Baku was no doubt Mo Yan’s biggest enemy. It did not mean that Mo Yan was weak, in fact, his general power was almost the same as Tuo Baku. If it were someone else with the same power as Tuo Baku, Mo Yan would not be in such a position, maybe he even would have had the upper hand. With those thoughts in his head, Ye Chen could not help but be surprised by Tuo Baku’s defense. When they were back in the north side of the Black Dragon Empire, Tuo Baku had not used all his power. As for the reason, Ye Chen did not have a clue.
“Spirit Finger!”
Performing once again his Ghost Shadow Art, Mo Yan had a cold look in his eyes. His index and middle fingers pointed out together, its sharp light attacking right towards Tuo Baku’s throat.
Tuo Baku had also thrown out a punch, its power covering the finger light.
‘Eh?’
The punch had missed. The finger art kept shifting as if it could travel by itself. It suddenly appeared in front of Tuo Baku, seeming ready to shatter his attack.
Right then, Mo Yan planned to forget about everything else. No matter what it took to beat Tuo Baku, he would do it. Therefore, he had set the target of his attacks as Tuo Baku’s eyes, wanting to blind him for real.
“This Mo Yan is so vicious. If it were anywhere else, it would still be treatable, but if it was the eyes, it is almost certain that it would be unhealable. Unless there was some kind of rare great medicine, or one was able to enter the Life and Death Realm. Otherwise, he would have to be a blind person for the rest of his life.”
“What else can he do? Tuo Baku’s defense is way too scary.” As for Mo Yan’s method, everyone had a different opinion.
Ha!
Tuo Baku had performed a flying art for the first time. His spine changed suddenly, as if he turned into a huge dragon, shifting his body around and dodging that dangerous finger light.
“Mysterious Spirit Seven Fingers!”
Mo Yan sneered. He reached out both of his hands, shooting out seven finger lights.
Swooosh!
Tuo Baku was still slightly weaker in terms of flying art. Although he was able to avoid the six finger light, he was unable to run away from that last finger light. But at this critical moment, he tilted his head so that his eyes were not hit. Only his eyebrows had been shaved off.
Being hit was not the battling style of Tuo Baku. He had not even waited until he fully regained his balance and threw a punch on the ground. The dark blue colored light spread on the platform like a wave of ocean, then turned into a black zhen Qi dragon, attacking towards Mo Yan.
Mo Yan was just about to perform his flying art to avoid when the black zhen qi dragon exploded, turning into black halos that shot out in different directions. His protective zhen Qi layer was indeed in the blasting zone.
Boom! Mo Yan was blown backward. His wound from earlier combined with the new injuries and he could no longer hold onto anything anymore. A chunk of blood was puked out by him.
“Tyrant Dragon Movement!”
Tuo Baku did not stop his attack. He threw out another punch, which turned into a zhen Qi dragon. It caught Mo Yan’s body once again, bringing him towards that dark blue light wall.
A huge noise was heard then Mo Yan fell onto the ground.
“Tuo Baku won!”
The judge announced the result on time. Mo Yan seemed to have been quite badly wounded, and everyone in the Sky Demon Martial School must have freaked out. There was no time for them to waste.
“Hehe, great!”
Tuo Baku was quite satisfied with the fight which he had not felt for a long time.
Seeing Tuo Baku, who had only got one eyebrow left, Ye Chen shook his head as he chuckled. Facing an opponent like him was unlucky for Mo Yan. But he would also have to face him sooner or later, and it would be inevitable. Furthermore, he would have to face those top warriors of the young generation, including Murong Qingcheng.
Ye Chen looked over at Murong Qingcheng who happened to look over as well.
Murong Qingcheng smiled lightly as she said with zhen qi, “In the ranking competitions, I will not give up.”
“Of course.” Ye Chen would also not underestimate her because upon judging with his soul power, he found that her power had already reached beyond Mo Yan, and was similar to the “Fire Spirit Prince” Yan Chihuo, Lin Yun and the “Heartless Sword Artist” Li Daoxuan. If he said it out loud, maybe people would not believe him at all, since the cultivation was slightly different from the fighting power. People with higher cultivation might not be able to win against some of those with weaker cultivation. However, people with higher cultivation were still more likely to win, since wining people against a stronger cultivation was still a minor case. Furthermore, Murong Qingcheng was one of the calmest people he had ever met, with which she should already be able to get into the top three since Lin Yun and Mo Yan were not as good as her when it came to being calm.
The two had then both looked away and stopped looking at each other.
The tenth round of the battles was conducted at a very slow pace. This round would be the last round, and a lot of those young warriors who could potentially make it into the next stage had brought out all they had got. Deadly ace attacks were seen everywhere since it was the most critical time which decided whether or not they would be in the Hidden Dragon Rank this year or not.
Moments later, Xu Jing had beaten her opponent, which made her the fourth person on the scoring rank. It meant she would definitely be on the rank.
Right now, only Lin Qi was still unsure.
After two other battles, Lin Qi had stepped onto the battling platform. His opponent was not easy, and had one more points than he did. They were ranked tenth and eleventh. Whoever lost could end up dropping out of the rank and losing their opportunity to carry on competing.
The battle had carried on for a long time until both of them were wounded.
Roooar!
As the zhen Qi was being slowly burnt out, Lin Qi decided to push it. He ignored his defense and attacked towards his opponent with the rawest and the most brutal way possible. It looked like he was willing to risk his life.
His opponent was very powerful. However, Lin Qi had stopped worrying about dying. Under his mad attacks, the opponent kept backing out until he accidentally revealed a flaw, which was hit by Lin Qi, who was by then already covered in blood, with a blade attack.
Now, it was certain that Lin Qi would make it into the Hidden Dragon Rank this year.
Time passed extremely fast.
After half an hour, the tenth round had finished completely. The top twelve contestants of each team would be in the Hidden Dragon Rank this year, while the rest would lose their chances. Those who were still below twenty-one years of age would still have an opportunity in the next Hidden Dragon Rank while those of who had reached beyond twenty-one years could not look sadder.