Chapter 1151: Battle Begins on Mount Xingyun
Wu Juecheng's voice was as frigid as ice. "Come up and fight me!"
Bu Liuqing snorted in derision. "Why don't you come down and I'll fight you!"
Silence reigned above once more.
Bu Liuqing might be an honest and just man but he wasn't a fool. It was apparent that they had laid a trap for them today and was scheming something against them. While he had come here today because of Ning Tianya, it didn't mean that he would be so dumb as to step right into the enemy's trap!
Asking me to go up? So that I can fall into your trap?
I'll get you down here instead!
Wu Juecheng said indifferently, "Do you not dare to come up?"
Bu Liuqing folded his arms, standing halfway up the mountain. With a lofty air, he said, "Do you expect me to go up just because you tell me to? Who do you think you are? What, do you not dare to come down here?"
Wu Juecheng let out a sly laugh. "Don't you want to know what happened to Ning Tianya?"
Bu Liuqing laughed out loud. "If Old Ning is already dead, he'll still be a dead man even if I go up! If he's still alive, he'll still be alive even if I stay here! Wu Juecheng, I only have one thing in mind when I came here today, and that is — to take your head!"
Wu Juecheng sneered contemptuously at him.
Both parties, one at the summit and one at the midpoint, were at a stalemate.
Right at this moment, the Dharma Supreme sneered and said, "To think that the renowned Bu Liuqing, said to be the number one Sword Supremacy in the world, actually doesn't dare to come up here! Nor does he dare to face a challenge from his foe! And Moon Breeze, who have walked the Upper Three Heavens hand in hand with no opposition, have holed up as well, hesitating in their footsteps despite facing the one who had taken their Teacher's life! Hurhur, this is truly laughable. Laughable, I say."
Yue Lingxue's expression changed.
Bu Liuqing gave him a look, stopping him from acting rashly. Then, with a laugh, he raised his voice and said, "One of the famous Nine Tribulations and the descendant of two legends in the Nine Heavens; not only is he despicable enough to lay an ambush, now he doesn't even dare to come down from the mountain for a fight! Could it be that other than relying on his ancestors' name to make a bluff, he actually doesn't have any other capabilities? After living for tens of thousands of years, he's nothing but worthless trash? No wonder he was used by someone else his entire life, almost turning into mud used for blocking holes in the heavens!"
"But of course, the most commendable is still the Lord Dharma Supreme. The Dharma Supreme of a generation actually making sarcastic remarks and humiliating others just to provoke and goad people into doing what he wants... Can you think of something better for real?"
Arming himself with full verbal ammo, Bu Liuqing mocked them mercilessly.
A roar came from the summit!
"After living for tens of thousands of years, he's nothing but worthless trash? No wonder he was used by someone else his entire life, almost turning into mud used for blocking holes in the heavens!"
These words truly and deeply jabbed Wu Juecheng where it hurt the most.
Unable to stand it anymore, he howled long and loud, his white robes fluttering and his wide sleeves billowing. With a resounding boom, the snow on the whole mountain flew out in all directions! At the same time, a slim white shadow shot down at an incredible speed from the mountain summit!
Bu Liuqing laughed raucously. "No self-restraint indeed; a mere provocation and already rushing down! I look down on you!"
Although that was what he said, he had already drawn his sword. With a powerful and majestic roar, the glaring rays of the sword wrapped around Bu Liuqing as he went up against Wu Juecheng!
The flashing sword light around him looked as though a million people had simultaneously drawn their swords at the same time!
A neat outcry of swords clanging echoed throughout Mount Xingyun!
Bu Liuqing was infuriated. "Wu Juecheng! What kind of pathetic man are you! To get so many Supreme Martial Artists to lay in wait after challenging me to a final battle! What a thorough embarrassment to your ancestors!"
Wu Juecheng flushed crimson!
That sword hum earlier was the many swords in the world paying homage to the Supremacy of swords being drawn!
Wu Juecheng and the Dharma Supreme had considered and weighed countless possibilities yet they had forgotten this one point! This could certainly be said to be heaven's will.
If so many people had suddenly appeared and besieged Bu Liuqing when the battle was already underway, it wouldn't have upset Wu Juecheng this much even if Bu Liuqing had insulted him. Everyone would be in the midst of battle at that point and in peril; who would have the leisure to think so much about what the other party was saying?
As for after the battle, the winner would be king and the loser a knave. What problem would there be?
But the problem now was that the battle hadn't started. Neither party had even warmed up, yet Bu Liuqing's drawing of his sword had led the swords of hundreds of his allies to cry out at once!
This was akin to a brutal slap in Wu Juecheng's face! So searing hot that it pained him!
Yue Lingxue guffawed and said, "To think that the elders Chen Feng and Liu Yun were such heroes back then. Who would have expected their descendants to be of such character! This certainly makes one sigh in disappointment!"
Boiling rage bubbled in Wu Juecheng's heart. His face flushed red, he snickered. "Then do sigh a little more while you still can."
Suddenly, he raised his arm and flicked his wrists several times. At once, a colorless and odorless poison gas permeated the air within a radius of hundreds of kilometers of where they were!
Then, his white robes flurried and he rushed toward Bu Liuqing.
With a tremor of Bu Liuqing's sword, a sword mountain manifested out of nowhere in the sky!
And then came crashing down on Wu Juecheng!
This display of skill from Bu Liuqing made Wu Juecheng realize immediately that he had been duped by Ning Tianya the other day because Bu Liuqing's attack was easily on par with the strongest attack Ning Tianya had dealt that day!
"That damned Ning Tianya!" Wu Juecheng cursed furiously in his heart. If not for the fact that he had something as amazing as the sword intent, which was completely out of Ning Tianya's expectations, there was certainly a high possibility that Ning Tianya really could've used their own ploy against themselves!
The sword aura that Bu Liuqing displayed with this strike of his caused even Wu Juecheng to be rather alarmed!
Once a professional made his move, one would immediately know whether he truly had it in him!
Wu Juecheng's wrist flicked in the air and a long black whip appeared at once! It cracked in the wind, smashing the heavy snow and Bu Liuqing's sword mountain to pieces!
Rays of sword light burst forth!
Bu Liuqing wielded his sword, his strike as though it had split open the heavens and earth. With a loud laugh, he said, "Wu Juecheng, this move is called 'Destroying the Morning Wind'! What do you think of it?"
This move was, of course, named something else, but Bu Liuqing instead said that on purpose, in an attempt to provoke Wu Juecheng.
"How presumptuous!" scoffed Wu Juecheng, his whip flying out once more. The trail of the whip overlayed, forming tiny ring after ring in the air, circling around Bu Liuqing's sword light.
With a coil of the whip, it curled around and entangled with the sword. The two of them suddenly changed from long-ranged attacks to close-quarters combat. With a deafening bang, Bu Liuqing struck out with his left palm and Wu Juecheng with his right, the two of them exchanging a severe blow!
Boom!
The snow on the ground flew everywhere. With a tremor of his sword, Bu Liuqing soared into the skies, Wu Juecheng close behind him, his whip snapping and cracking violently!
"Your reputation as the Poison Doctor is not for naught! Even your palm strike is a poison palm strike!" Bu Liuqing shook his left hand from side to side.
"Don't put on pretenses in front of me. With your cultivation, before your protective internal energy barrier is broken, this bit of poison can't do you any harm!" said Wu Juecheng harshly, his attacks increasingly ferocious!
Bu Liuqing guffawed. "The descendant of Chen Feng is indeed as clever as a child genius!"
Wu Juecheng clamped his mouth shut, not bothering to waste his breath on him.
He had finally come to realize that this Sword Supremacy, despite his cold and brutal exterior, his mouth was shockingly foul! Squabbling with him could practically piss someone off to death!
While Bu Liuqing didn't hold back in his verbal attacks, he did have a plan in his mind. As he battled, he was also observing the surrounding terrain to see if there were any areas that could double as hiding places so that he could strike at opportune moments and slay a few enemies as warm-up!
When the fatalities among the enemies increased, an ambush would no longer be one.
Yet he didn't discover any when he looked around. If not for that sword hum earlier that had revealed the overwhelming number of enemies here, he might even have thought that the area was devoid of any human presence!
Where had all of them hidden?
Thoughts flashed through Bu Liuqing's mind but his sword did not let up at all, exchanging heavy blows with Wu Juecheng! Comparing the internal energy cultivation level alone, Bu Liuqing certainly didn't lose out to Wu Juecheng by just a small step. However, he was surprisingly holding his ground in their exchange of blows right now!
From the start of the battle, they had been fighting a hundred feet above the ground, neither going any higher nor any lower. Should they have gone higher, according to their conversation at the beginning, it would end up becoming Bu Liuqing following Wu Juecheng's command and going up. Similarly, if they had gone lower, it would be Wu Juecheng on the losing end.
Therefore, the two of them fought on like this with no shame whatsoever, going neither higher nor lower.
With a raucous laugh, Bu Liuqing flicked his sword and a sound as though the roar of a dragon could be heard. He said mockingly, "The descendant of Chen Feng is nothing more than this! The Nine Tribulations of several tens of thousands of years are nothing more than this!"
Wu Juecheng was so furious that he was practically smoldering!
For no other reason except that when he had intercepted Ning Tianya the other day, Ning Tianya had said exactly these same few words to him! To make matters worse, not only were their words exactly the same, even the tone they used was identical!
How could this not enrage Wu Juecheng? From this, it was apparent that these two fellows had long since thought little of Supremacy Chen Feng!
If not, it wouldn't have been this much of a coincidence!
He was about to attack when he saw Bu Liuqing suddenly fall back a great distance. With a tuck and roll, tremors went through his sword light and it abruptly transformed into a bright and resplendent rainbow arc!
The ray of sword light was like a cylinder several feet wide, yet it looked as though there was no end to its length.
Bu Liuqing's entire form was concealed within the sword light, charging toward him like a rainbow shooting toward the sun!
Form and Sword As One!
Wu Juecheng snorted. He waved his whip in the air and with a resounding snap, a black night-blooming cereus appeared in an instant. With a loud cry, Wu Juecheng pushed his hands outward and the black flower went forward, coming into contact with Bu Liuqing's Form and Sword As One!
The whip moved again and flower after flower of night-blooming cereus flew out.
Stamen of the Night-blooming Cereus!
This was clearly an ultimate technique in swordsmanship but Wu Juecheng had instead used his whip, which was of a completely different nature. In addition, this change did not diminish its might at all, instead of increasing it!
Bu Liuqing sneered. "The Stamen of the Night-blooming Cereus is no match for the Sword Supremacy!"
He pushed forward head-on, crushing every flower under his sword! Wu Juecheng cracked his whip once more, actually replacing the sword with his whip to use the same Form and Sword As One technique. He charged forward as he sneered, "Sword Supremacy? Are you even worthy of that title!"
Both of them collided, a deafening boom echoing!
With a tuck and roll, Wu Juecheng somersaulted seventeen to eighteen times in the air, rising to an altitude as high as 500 feet.
On the other hand, Bu Liuqing drifted out slanted downward, his cyan-robed form leaving behind a trail in the snow!
Wu Juecheng snorted, about to use the sword intent!
He had deliberately battled Bu Liuqing earlier using a fighting method that he wasn't good at precisely for this moment!
He was just about to strike when suddenly, the wind howled behind him, intense murderous intent flaring!
Stunned, he hastily ducked.
With a loud sound, Wu Juecheng took a sword slash to the shoulder, his white robes torn and blood distinctly visible from the gash. Then, another slash reached his calf and blood dripped from the wound. He hurriedly circulated his energy to stop the bleeding, his expression filled with fury and astonishment!
Sword light flashed and the Moon Breeze couple struck out at the same time, coming at Wu Juecheng with their swords!
It was them who had joined hands to launch a sneak attack on him earlier!
Everyone was immensely surprised by this, be it Wu Juecheng or the Dharma Supreme, or even Bu Liuqing! No one ever expected Moon Breeze, who had always been widely known to act in an honorable manner, to launch a sneak attack!
Yue Lingxue's expression was calm.
So only you get to be despicable and set a trap for us but we aren't allowed to do sneak attacks? What kind of logic is that!