Chapter 284: The Epic Battle
All of a sudden, the battling platform had become so quiet that even a needle dropping on the ground would be heard. After about three blinks’ time, the noise from the crowd exploded again.
"This is… seven…seventy percent sword intent, right?!"
"Although seventy percent sword intent is only ten percent higher than the sixty percent sword intent, it has already reached the upper realm of the sword intent while the sixty percent was only a lower realm. The difference is huge as two different worlds… It is like the difference between a senior warrior and a junior warrior."
"How crazy and unbelievable! Ye Chen’s final reveal was indeed his seventy percent sword intent. Even among the Astral Reaching Realm warriors, there is rarely anyone who has mastered it!"
Everyone was so shocked that they could not believe their eyes.
Sitting in the front row of the audience seating, the Astral Reaching Realm warrior who had competed against Ye Chen in the auction for that Sword-shaped Plant Song Yan froze a little. He remembered that Ye Chen was only at fifty percent back then. Perhaps, he had increased to twenty percent with two sword-shaped plants?! But he didn’t think it was even possible.
The Sword-shaped Plant had indeed contained the Battle King’s sword intent, but it would be almost impossible to increase sword intent with only that. If one out of ten people managed to do so, it would be only because of his or her luck. Not to even mention increasing twenty percent sword intent at once, especially considering the huge gap between the sixty percent and the seventy percent. Once one reached the upper realm of sword intent, it meant that the sword artist had already accomplished a lot.
After Song Yan bought that one sword-shaped plant from Ye Chen, it had also helped him figure out something. However, his sword intent was still the same at ninety percent.
Regardless, wanting to increase sword intent, the sword artist would have to have a deep understanding of the art of swords. Otherwise, even the guidance from a Life and Death Realm warrior would not help.
"What a rare genius! You can barely see someone like him in decades." Song Yan took a deep breath, his eyes losing focus into the distance.
The second Ye Chen released his seventy percent sword intent, Li Daoxuan finally realized why he had the hunch from before. It turned out that Ye Chen was indeed a rightful warrior for Sikong Sheng. And now, he was only starting to get serious.
"The upper realm of the sword intent… he is indeed horrifyingly powerful."
Li Daoxuan made a comparison and realized that the sixty percent sword intent was almost like nothing in front of the seventy percent sword intent. It would be suppressed and controlled with no chance of fighting back.
As for Yan Chihuo, he had almost bitten his tongue. He had never expected that Ye Chen’s hidden ace card was his seventy percent sword intent. Sword intent was just like the blade intent, it would only get harder and harder as it progressed. Meanwhile, each slight progress would mean a tremendous increase in power. The seventy percent sword intent was indeed the upper realm of the sword intent. If Ye Chen had revealed his seventy percent sword intent before when they were battling, his peak of sixty percent sword intent would not only fail to fight against it, he would have been controlled completely and would only be able to use eighty percent of his true power.
"No way! How can his sword intent be this powerful?!" The leader of the Purple Sun Martial School tightened his fists. The more powerful Ye Chen got, the bigger a threat he would become for the Purple Sun Martial School. With time, once Ye Chen reached the Astral Reaching Realm, even the Great Master would not be able to handle him, which would be the last thing they wanted to see.
The headmaster of the Purple Sun Martial School sneered, "Sikong Sheng is not someone that is weak. Half-step zhen yuan has increased his battling power drastically… He is perfectly capable of taking on an Early Astral Reaching Realm warrior. However, this Ye Chen should definitely be eliminated. Once the Hidden Dragon Rank competition is finished, we should take him out once there is an opportunity… no matter how bad the consequences end up being."
"Indeed, this guy should not be left unattended. Otherwise, there will never be a day for the Purple Sun Martial School to reach the top."
"Kill!"
All the people from the Purple Sun Martial School had a killing vibe and a scary expression on their faces.
Over at the judges’ seats, thirteen judges gasped at the same time.
"I thought that Sikong Sheng was winning for sure. Now, the champion place of the Hidden Dragon Rank is uncertain again." A judge said emotionally.
The old group three judge who had seen all of Ye Chen’s wins nodded, "He is not even eighteen years old. Seventy percent sword intent, he has definitely broken the records for the past decades in the whole South Rudra Region. Calling him the rare sword art genius of the whole South Rudra Region for the past decade is not really an exaggeration."
"It is still pretty hard to tell the result." The head judge said, "According to the martial arts’ rank, it would take a different amount of time to extract zhen yuan. For mid rank Earth Realm martial arts, it would take the trainers eight times to convert the zhen qin into zhen yuan. The high-rank Earth Realm art would need four times while the top rank Earth Realm would need two. Sikong Sheng has already extracted once, which makes him still in the half-step zhen yuan level. Although it would not be as powerful as the real zhen yuan, burning zhen yuan would give him more battling power. Its quality would be way better than normal zhen qi. The battling power it brings would be more than twice of its original level. For Ye Chen to win against Sikong Sheng, it would take him more than seventy percent sword intent."
Extracting zhen yuan was a hard process, and it would take a long time as well. Even if one were a martial genius, he would not be able to do so in a short time. However, once extracted, his power would increase rapidly.
Ye Chen felt better after unleashing his seventy percent sword intent. Earlier, he had limited his sword intent, which resulted in him feeling restricted while battling. Ye Chen believed that a Ye Chen who had only learned the sixty percent sword intent would definitely be able to beat him with a limited sixty percent sword intent. That was because the former was battling in the most comfortable way while the latter put on locks to restrain himself on purpose.
That pure and horrifying sword intent spread out in the air. Once Sikong Sheng’s tornado-like aura reached in, it was shattered into nothingness by the sword intent. Right now, Ye Chen was like a God warrior appearing out of nowhere, telling the mortals what ‘a sharp and unstoppable power’ was.
Pop!
Sikong Sheng could vaguely hear his aura being popped open. His slightly raised up eyelids had finally been let down. He looked right at Ye Chen, "Very well… I thought it was going to be an easy battle. You now are qualified for me to be serious. But of course… it would only be limited to that."
Sikong Sheng stopped spreading out his aura called back some of it. His not-so-big body seemed like a mountain, a peak that no one could reach.
The Star Scar Sword started to vibrate under the influence of the sword intent. It looked like it was about to shoot out of the scabbard by itself, destroying everything in front of it. Ye Chen started to talk without any unnecessary emotions, "Needless to say more, let’s fight!"
Once he said the word "fight", Ye Chen’s sword intent turned even sharper. Everyone almost saw an unreal great sword in the air above Ye Chen. It seemed like once he decided, he would be able to kill whoever he wanted to kill. A lot of young women who had seen this could not help but have their hearts beat fast, their faces turning extremely red.
"I will remind you once again, with the help of the half-step zhen yuan, my Mysterious Sky Tyrant Fist art is able to bring out my true power."
Resting both of his hands on the sides of his body, Sikong Sheng took a step forward. That deep like ocean aura exploded again, looking down at everyone present.
"Sikong Sheng is about to attack. This should probably be the first time he uses his true power."
All of the young warriors sitting down the stage could not help but have their heartbeats raised. Their mouths felt dry, yet they continued to stare at the two people on the stage without blinking, fearing to miss anything.
Once his aura had been exploded to its limit, Sikong Sheng yelled, "Take my punch – Fist Froze River!"
Boom!
The whole battling platform suddenly shook, and tiny cracks appeared out of nowhere. The next second, the space that Ye Chen was in suddenly started to tighten up and then break down. It turned into a natural cage, locking Ye Chen in. Meanwhile, that unstoppable fist power along with that horrifying aura had attacked out as well.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
After that punch had been thrown out, a huge gap suddenly appeared on that battling platform, which had not been damaged much after all those countless battles. The brutal Qi had made everyone watching feel a chill in their spines.
Chin!
Ye Chen took out his Star Scar Sword with his right hand all of a sudden, and finally, the seventy percent sword intent had got its container. Its frightening sharpness was incomputable. The sword intent right now was its most powerful state, as it could not be fully performed before the sword artist took out his or her sword.
"The Sky Shattering Cloud!"
A half meter thick electrical light shot out furiously. It was not bound by the space, and had also extracted the yuan Qi of thunder and clouds. It landed heavily on the fist power while everyone watched with their mouths wide open.
Boom!
The air exploded, as that horrifying blasting power formed a visible, sparkly and creepy power. Even that sealing light wall could barely handle the clashing two power as it expanded towards outside, reaching its limit. Along with the popping sounds, countless tiny tears appeared on the light wall. The power and the rest of the sword Qi rushed out through the tears like countless arm-thick light columns. Glancing over, the whole platform was like a glowing hedgehog.
The sealing light wall had been stabbed through!
Everyone was shocked!
"Be careful!"
The battling platform was surrounded by deep cliffs, and in front of the cliffs was where the young warriors were standing. Seeing all that Qi power and sword Qi shooting at them, all of them gasped as they performed their ace attacks to protect themselves and then back out to a very far distance.
"How horrifying! The after wave of the Qi power alone had pushed us to use our ace attacks." The young generation could sense the power gap between them and those two on the stage, and they could not help but get more and more shocked.
Murong Qingcheng gently pushed away from the incoming attack of that Qi power as she continued to stare at the two on the stage without blinking. To be more accurate, she was focused on Ye Chen the whole time – the person who continued to impress everyone.
Ye Chen and Sikong Sheng had coincidentally both backed out dozens of meters away. That exchange of attacks was definitely their ways of seeing their opponents’ level, and these were definitely not their best attacks.
"Half-step zhen yuan, it is indeed impressive." It was Ye Chen’s first time sensing such huge pressure. He knew that if he did not use everything he had got, he would really lose. The top warrior in the whole South Rudra Region was not just a mere title.
"Seventy percent sword intent, the poetic perspective of clouds and thunder!" Sikong Sheng looked very surprised. After Ye Chen exposed his seventy percent sword intent and had his martial art poetic perspective raised all the way up to a whole new level, Sikong Sheng knew that he could not underestimate his opponent. He straightened his sleeves and said without emotions, "Being able to block out this punch, it proves that you indeed have the power to fight against me. However, it was only a test attack. You should watch out for the following punch."
Fist Froze River had the effect of restricting spaces, so its attacking power was relatively not as powerful. Sikong Sheng knew that instead of trying to restrain his opponent, he might as well use his extreme power to suppress him.
"That sword attack was also only a test attack. The Sky Shattering Cloud has more power than this!" For this year’s Hidden Dragon Rank competition, Ye Chen had prepared a lot. As far as the ace attacks alone were considered, he had prepared more than three of them. However, he wanted to save two of the three unless it was necessary.
"This was only a test attack?!"
"No way!"
The first exchange of attacks just now had already shocked everyone. And now, hearing them saying it was only a test attack had totally stunned everyone in the stadium.