Chapter 856: You re In For A Surprise
The conclusion of this battle was too fast, so fast that many were left unprepared. Imagine hoping to see a brilliant battle, but the battle was already finished even before one could pay attention, leaving no aftertaste.
"What happened? Marquis Short Sword was too careless, right? Whatever the result, he should have been able to exchange a few moves, shouldn't he?"
Although Ye Chen's attack was fast, few people believed the result was due to Marquis Short Sword's carelessness. Otherwise, how was it possible that he was unable to resist even a single strike with his identity as one of the ten great sword artists of Sky Sword Continent?
On the other hand, Marquis Short Sword was on the verge tears. What carelessness? He was truly incapable of enduring a single sword strike. Although Ye Chen's strike was not too quick, its trajectory was unfathomable. He could not read it at all!
"F*ck! it's finally over. Although it was a bit unsightly, others won't fare better either. I'm waiting for these people to make a joke of themselves." This was how people were. If they fell, they wished others to fall with them.
"Such a fast sword!"
Although others were unable to see through Ye Chen's strike, it didn't mean Marquis Star Sword couldn't. Amongst all, he was the only person who could see how frightening Ye Chen's sword strike was.
"Interesting! Finally a sword artist I can get seriously fight with..." A faint smile appeared on his face.
On the Sky Sword Continent, apart from Marquis Star Sword and Marquis Sword Realm was another peerlessly talented sword artist— Marquis Sword Snow. He looked around twenty years old, more or less the same age as Ye Chen and Dugu Jue. His appearance was delicate, looking more like a boy-next-door. As soon as he appeared, everybody's faces amongst Sky Sword Continent's experts, including Marquis Star Sword, turned serious. They had no idea how powerful he had become. This was especially because his cultivation base seemed to have sharply increased inside the Life-and-Death Secret Realm.
Marquis Sword Snow's opponent was Lu Shaoyou, who was also a sword artist.
Standing about a hundred meters from Marquis Sword Snow, Lu Shaoyou didn't dare be neglectful in the slightest. Although the former's body was not exuding any sword aura, as a sword artist, Lu Shaoyou could indistinctly feel that Marquis Sword Snow's strength was immeasurable and extremely frightening, like a deep water body whose depths could not be measured.
It was completely quiet between the two of them; neither of them made the first move. More than a minute passed by, making many spectators impatient.
Clang!
At that moment, Lu Shaoyou unsheathed his sword in a swift motion, and fierce gales appeared in the void. These gales were condensed from sword Qi and were exceptionally sharp.
Marquis Sword Snow faintly smiled, and snowflakes filled the sky all of a sudden.
"Beautiful!" Jihai Ruo couldn't help but sigh.
The snowflakes became increasingly bigger before a stunning gust of blood splashed around, dyeing the expanse of snowflakes red and making the scene look like a colorful ink painting.
Lu Shaoyou had lost.
From the start to end, he never managed to see when Marquis Sword Snow unsheathed his sword.
"Snow profound and water profound both are actually eighty percent perfected." Ye Chen took a deep breath. Marquis Sword Snow's strength was beyond his expectations.
Snow profound could actually be considered a part of water profound, but it had some Houtian transformations, making it different. The integration of these profounds made Marquis Sword Snow's sword arts light and soft. This integration was distinct; for example, the integration of wind profound and water profound, metal profound and earth profound had a lot of variations, whereas the integration of water and snow profound seemed much more unified.
"Seems like another sword artist worth being a true opponent has appeared." Marquis Star Sword's brows relaxed and a faint smile appeared on his face again.
"Haha, it's my turn."
"I'll beat you in three moves!" Chu Zhongtian sized up Wang Taiyi.
"Dream on!" Wang Taiyi's face contorted.
"First move!"
Without any special move, Chu Zhongtian fought with pure power and the dark red rapier in his hand emitted a blinding, sun-like blazing radiance.
Bang!
Wang Taiyi was forced back four steps by the strike while the clothes on his chest were burnt black.
"Second move!" Chu Zhontian charged over like an out-of-control horse.
"Die!"
Wang Taiyi extended his hand out and operated his Zhen Yuan to the limits, his five fingers issuing five water-dragon-like gales. The gales interweaved, coiling around Chu Zhongtian.
"Break! Break!"
A red light flickered from amidst and Wang Taiyi's assault was instantly destroyed. Next, Chu Zhontian rolled over him like a ferocious ancient beast.
"Third move!" Raising his rapier high in the air, Chu Zhongtian forcefully slashed down.
Puff!
Spurting out a mouthful of blood, a greater part of Wang Taiyi's chest caved in, his internal organs thoroughly crushed.
"This guy is too violent!"
True Spirit Continent's experts shook their heads, feeling sorry for Wang Taiyi.
Tantai Mingyue's opponent was Yue Lingshuang. Both had 'moon' in their names, and their conduct was also soft, gentle, and ethereal like moonlight, without a trace of disharmony. But Tantai Mingyue was, after all, a monstrous grade genius of True Spirit Continent. Despite all her efforts, Yue Lingshuang couldn't succeed in any of her attacks and was ultimately defeated. Anyhow, she was thoroughly convinced and accepting of her loss.
Young Elephant's Lord arrival on the stage immediately heated the atmosphere. His opponent was none other than Qin Tianxiong, who had arrived together with Ye Chen.
Nevertheless, there was no suspense. Young Elephant Lord punched out, shattering the space and almost instantly turning Qin Tianxiong into blood mist.
Following him, Young Undying Demon Lord and Lu Tiandu also swept through their opponents. It seemed that they didn't reveal even half of their strength. After all, making them use even half of their strength was a remarkable achievement.
As a result, the first round didn't even take a hour.
Although it was merely the first round, it was not difficult to see who was powerful and who was concealing deeper than the others. Many had already become background characters, whether they were willing or not.
Second Round!
Third Round!
...
After six rounds, everybody had a rough idea of their opponents.
Blood Sky Continent had Young Elephant Lord, Young Undying Demon Lord, and Lashan Mei.
Sword Sky Continent had Marquis Star Sword, Marquis Sword Snow, and Marquis Sword Realm.
True Spirit Continent, on the other hand, seemed almost perverse. Half of its experts seemed powerful: Lu Tiandu, Ye Chen, Xu Jing, Dugu Jue, Chu Zhongtian, Tantai Mingyue, as well as Yan Fengfeng.
As for marine experts, Princess Godhshark and Jiang Tian looked outstanding.
Round seventh, fifth battle...
Ye Chen against Wang Taiyi.
"Long time no see!" Ye Chen faintly smiled at Wang Taiyi.
"Damn it!"
Wang Taiyi's face was ashen. From the previous six rounds, he was convinced that he was not Ye Chen's opponent at all. In this duration, Ye Chen had actually matured to such a state, which made him extremely unresigned and sullen.
The battle soon ended and Ye Chen turned around before entering his small chamber. Meanwhile, Wang Taiyi's forehead had a blood stain on it.
"Seems like I underestimated him in the end." Yue Lingshuang didn't expect this time's Life and Death Secret Realm's events to develop in such a manner. Peerless geniuses were popping one after another like weeds after rain. She had originally predicted that it would be hard for Ye Chen to enter the Substitute List. However, going by the current situation, Ye Chen was already a candidate to contend for the top five spots. She could only admit that her thinking back then was too old-fashioned. This time's Life-and-Death Secret Realm was nothing like the previous ones.
In the eighth round, Marquis Sword Formation defeated Jing Tian from a small opening the latter had revealed. Subsequently, Yan Fenfeng was defeated by the Young Undying Demon Lord. His undying body was indeed a bit too powerful.
Ninth round...
Chu Zhontian faced the Young Undying Demon Lord.
Roar!
Chu Zhongtian didn't dare be neglectful in the slightest and instantly pushed his strength to limits. Young Undying Demon Lord was ranked fifth last time and was a prime candidate for the top three this time. Apart from Marquis Star Sword, Lu Tiandu, and Young Elephant Lord, people believed that nobody had the qualifications to be his opponent. Of course, they had also included Marquis Sword Snow to some extent among the challengers. After all, the latter's sword arts were indeed magnificent. To this moment, almost nobody had managed to resist a single sword from him.
Although Ye Chen's sword arts were also powerful, killing everybody in one strike too, not many believed that he was as powerful as Marquis Sword Snow. Thus, they would naturally not consider him an opponent for the Young Elephant Lord.
"Break!"
Fire and earth Astral Yuan erupted as Chu Zhongtian's body leapt forth and he slashed his rapier at Young Undying Demon Lord.
Deng!
Young Undying Demon Lord smiled and swatted at the rapier, the immense force making Chu Zhongtian's body fly back.
"Chaotic Demonic Fist!" Young Undying Demon Lord charged over, his fist art looking incomparably firm and ferocious.
Peng Peng Peng!
The two focused on offense, completely disregarding defense. As far as they were concerned, defense was superfluous. If one had the spare energy to focus on defense, one'd rather focus it on the opponent's body.
"Too perverse! Is this still considered human?"
"Worthy of being the Young Undying Demon Lord, an expert who exchanged more than a hundred moves with the Young Elephant Lord last time."
"This Chu Zhongtian is also quite powerful, actually being able to exchange so many moves with the Young Undying Demon Lord."
Seeing such an explosive battle, everybody's eyes opened wide, afraid to miss the slightest of details.
"This is the Undying Body!"
However, Chu Zhongtian was unable to resist in the end as he had a fleshy body. Although it was Astral Spirit Body, it had its limits. It couldn't beat the Young Undying Demon Lord's body which wouldn't be destroyed no matter how many times it was struck.
Slowly, blood traces began to appear at Chu Zhongtian's corner of his mouth. The blood flowed turned increasingly pronounced, wriggling down his face like snakes.
"You can be proud of being able to exchange so many moves with me." The Young Undying Demon Lord roared with laughter as his punches turned increasingly ferocious and brutal. Swatting off Chu Zhongtian's right arm, he punched at his chest.
Kacha!
The ribs inside Chu Zhongtian's chest shattered into many pieces, one of which pierced his heart.
It was Young Undying Demon Lord's victory!
"This guy!" Although he'd won, his whole body was soaked in sweat. His opponent's cultivation base was merely at the second layer while was at the peak of the third layer, which gave him a huge advantage from the start. However, this battle was challenging still. He'd never met such a tenacious person aside from the Young Elephant Lord.
The highlight of the tenth round was the match between the Young Undying Lord and Ye Chen.
Up till this moment, Young Undying Demon Lord was the one to encounter the geniuses of True Spirit Continent. Aside from defeating several geniuses who revealed prominent strengths, hje had defeated two shining geniuses: Yan Fengfeng and Chu Zhongtian. And now, it was Ye Chen's turn.
"This is really setting the stage for him!" Young Elephant Lord smiled. He didn't believe that Ye Chen had the qualifications to be Young Undying Demon Lord's opponent.
"I hope his spirit won't break before the Undying Demon Lord, or else it would be too boring." Marquis Star Sword shook his head. He also didn't think Ye Chen had much of a chance. After all, this was no longer related to one's battle strength. Even if one's strength was higher, one wouldn't be able to prevail unless his battle strength was considerably higher.
Although Young Undying Demon Lord was ranked fifth in the previous rankings, many under him were not weaker than him at all, but were still defeated in the end. Apart from a few people from the True Spirit Continent, nobody was looking favorably on Ye Chen.
'An existence capable of killing a peak level evil spirit himself, how can he not be able to beat the Young Undying Demon Lord. You all are in for a surprise!' Qin Tianxiong sneered.