“This is impossible!” Althorne raged. His paw had flourished into a blue halo of light that was over twenty meters in size, but Xu Yangyi’s fist, a fist more triumphant, attacked him with the power to topple mountains and overturn seas.
Boom boom boom! Both sides’ fists crossed with blinding speed. All that could be heard were muffled sounds similar to the beat of a drum. In the air, dozens of azure qi flowers were exploding. If not for Holy Whip Lawrence’s protective light, there would be nothing alive in the 200 meters around Xu Yangyi and Althorne!
As Althorne continued to fight he became more fearful. He was attuned to a beast spirit, currently. In this state, although he only cultivated an ordinary physique art, he could deal with a cultivator who trained in a high-level physique art! But despite this, he was taking step after step back. Up to this point, retreat was his only option!
As for Xu Yangyi, his spirit rose higher and higher as he kept on fighting. He discovered that with the Dream Eater’s support, Althorne’s punching speed, direction, and intent were as plain as day in his eyes! While the Dream Eater was only at the second stage, and it was still far from having its own battle skills, this aspect of it strangely agreed with his physique art.
In this agreement, he even felt like a fish in water. He was enjoying this battle.
“ROAR!” Suddenly, Althorne fell back ten-odd meters in the wake of a boom. Likewise, Xu Yangyi retreated a few steps, but he regained his bearings even faster than Althorne and shot forward again like lightning!
Swish… Spiritual light flickered. Althorne rapidly recovered amidst his retreat, but he didn’t have a shred of an elf’s grace. His long silver hair was sprawling over his shoulders, and one of his antlers was severed. His reddened eyes carried shock and a tinge of anger as he looked at Xu Yangyi’s azure figure.
“You…” Althorne’s right hand tightly covered his left. Xu Yangyi’s gaze flashed. He also saw clearly. Althorne’s left hand was beginning to turn gray little by little. Afterwards, it became rigid.
Petrification!
In the previous clash over twenty minutes long, the Hundred Eras of Spring had finally activated! And in this time, the added petrification was basically snow on top of frost for Althorne!
“Such powerful physique arts… Y-You grasp such rich knowledge! Where did you get the time to cultivate a physique art?! This doesn’t make any sense!” Althorne gnashed his teeth. Over twenty minutes of close-quarters combat. The Elves’s physical ability wasn’t strong, but it definitely wasn’t weak after the infusion of a beast spirit!
Nonetheless… this ‘wasn’t weak’ was ground to dust by the figure in front of him. Without any other divine abilities. Perhaps it could be said that once physique training was finished, all physique divine abilities were merged into every punch and kick. In either a lift of an arm or a raise of a leg, all were divine abilities.
Crow, bear, snake, tiger… Althorne infused any beast that was strong at physical combat in these twenty minutes. He simply hadn’t expected that he wouldn’t be able to do anything against Xu Yangyi! The demon slayer was basically a tank in human form! Primitive weapons were all ineffective!
In the blink of an eye, Xu Yangyi had already dashed ten meters into the scope of life and death. His fingertips were radiating five white lights. Althorne reared his head back and roared, and his entire body swelled. In the light, a ten-odd-meter-sized mammoth appeared and raised its giant feet to trample Xu Yangyi.
“Is that it?” Xu Yangyi sighed. Althorne was also incredibly staunch, meeting him in a direct clash of physique arts. The elf didn’t retreat one step.
However, it still wasn’t enough.
Althorne’s physique arts weren’t strong enough!
Azure light was already creeping up his left leg. In the instant Xu Yangyi approached, the mammoth-form Althorne suddenly felt the sky become azure.
A sound that he’d never heard before, just like… a legendary ‘dragon’ of the East roaring. Afterwards, a glorious azure crescent filled his vision.
“Azure Dragon Tramples Mountain!”
“No… it isn’t azure light!” Althorne seemed as if he was possessed as looked on with wide eyes as the light attacked. His pupils reflected an azure claw!
The cloud dragon stretches its claw!
Swoosh! A hundred meters of arcing azure light cut through the air and fiercely collided with the mammoth. The mammoth roared angrily and flew away. Its tusks were broken, chips and fragments splattering through the air. Blood freely flowed out from Althorne’s mouth.
Swooosh. Meanwhile, the surrounding black fog trembled. Surprisingly, Xu Yangyi’s kick had cleaved out a hundred-meter-sized hole. From the outside, everything was completely visible.
“Gasp…”
“Hiss…”
“This… how could this happen? Althorne’s already attuned with a beast spirit. He’s actually… being beaten by X like this?!”
“And in a contest of physique arts! Althorne is seriously losing even with a beast spirit?”
At this moment, all the elves in the audience stood up. None of them dared to believe their eyes.
“This fellow!” In the Corvinus’s section, Pale Dragon’s face was now extremely grave. His slender fingers were nervously tapping the armrests of his seat. The people beside him were likewise solemn. “Mr. X… after advancing to high Marquis, actually has the power to defeat a quasi Grand Duke… This truly is hard to imagine…”
Black fog spread again, obscuring the audience’s line of sight. The giant mammoth was spitting out blood as it flew away. Truly, it had been struck back tens of meters in the air, collapsing back into a humanoid shape. A loud boom then rang out, and Althorne slammed into the arena’s light cover.
“Puh!” Althorne tumbled to the ground and immediately vomited a mouthful of blood. Not even waiting for him to react, a foot landed in front of him.
Xu Yangyi’s voice didn’t have a trace of emotion. “Stand up.”
“Or else admit defeat.”
Covered head to toe in blood, Althorne leaned against the light cover. In several dozen minutes, he, who was a quasi Grand Duke, had actually been forced into this state by a high Marquis. He hadn’t predicted this at all.
“Going to keep quiet, huh…” Xu Yangyi twisted his waist and his foot thrashed out like a whip. In the end, endless azure qi screamed. The crack of a sonic boom even rang out.
Bang! But just as his foot was about to stomp Althorne’s throat, he shockingly discovered… that he couldn’t go any further.
At some unknown time, streaks of misty white spiritual energy began to radiate around Althorne. It was like he was being wrapped inside an egg.
Althorne was silent. Green energy hovered over all of his wounds, and in less than ten seconds he was restored to his initial appearance. Not the slightest scar was visible. Merely, his chest was heaving up and down somewhat seriously.
“I’m curious.” Althorne lay down on the ground and propped himself up, blood dripping on the arena floor. He didn’t raise his head, but his white hair was dancing freely in the wind. “What kind of experience gave you such terrible power as a high Marquis?”
“I can sense that your body is even stronger than mine when I attune myself to a beast spirit. You see, I have the ability to enter the top fifteen in this Holy War. I dare confirm that you’re certainly going to be in the top five… A human’s life is limited, but you achieved the impossible…”
He spoke neither swiftly nor slowly, but as he talked, the Dream Eater behind Xu Yangyi suddenly trembled a little. An extremely powerful sensation of danger appeared in his mind.
“This…” Xu Yangyi intensely focused on his surroundings and then finally on Althorne himself.
This oppressive force was coming from the elf.
As the essence around Althorne became stronger and stronger, the oppressive force progressively became more formidable. He was still a quasi Grand Duke, but… he seemed to be of a different realm than other quasi Grand Dukes!
It was just like… that day he had encountered Bloody Moon!
“This is… Core Formation oppressive might!” Xu Yangyi sucked in deeply and immediately retreated thirty meters away. He gravely watched Althorne, who was supporting himself with both hands on the ground.
Swoosh! Swooosh! All of a sudden, green runes brightened all over Althorne, and he reared his head back and roared. Visible to the naked eye, rays of white essence gathered from his entire body to his forehead. From his pores, infinite white light rocketed to the heavens! In an instant, everything darkened!
Hum… The infinite white light even passed through the light cover that Lawrence had laid down himself, creeping into the audience stands!
“Mr. X… you are strong… Truly, so strong that even I am afraid…” Althorne’s voice reverberated through the arena. “I apologize for my prior slip of the tongue. Allow me to express my regret with my strongest move for you.”
“Let us determine the outcome of this battle with the utmost perfection!”
“I, Althorne, son of the Whitedeer Tribe, shall finish you with the call of the Whitedeer King!” His arms swung wide open, and he was cloaked in white light that soared above. “Please answer your people’s call! Whitedeer King, Malorne!”
Swish! Behind him, an enormous totem of a stag, no less than a hundred meters tall, suddenly glimmered.
Meanwhile, as if from beyond the nine firmaments, the bleating sound of a deer echoed through each person’s ear.
“This is…” An elven woman looked all around in shock, and then she lowered her head as she gazed hotly at the light screen covering the arena. “Sacred Spirit Calling!”
“Althorne’s summoned a Sacred Spirit!”
“What in the world is happening inside? Is Althorne at a complete disadvantage?”
“Wasn’t the strategy we formulated only to use a Sacred Spirit Calling as a last resort?”
Countless elves, and even Counts, saw that there was a problem.
In the first battle, a Sacred Spirit had been called. This was the hidden trump of Althorne’s tribe. Was this move really for that master spirit-technician whose odds were one to eighty-five? That extremely feeble-looking master?
“Sacred Spirit attunement.” In the audience, numerous gazes became serious. All they could see were lights rushing to the horizon and turning the area below into a holy white sea.
In the white sea, spiritual energy so dense that it was solidifying was slowly revolving like a vortex, Althorne at the very eye of the maelstrom. Heart-shaking spiritual energy was gradually converging. This time, even the five supreme figures in the first row cast their gazes over.
“Sacred Spirit attunement?” the old man of the Dracul murmured, “That’s not easy… Has it been sixty years already since I’ve last seen it?”
“The root that the Elves establish themselves on is a Sacred Spirit. Originally, they existed for over a thousand years in the five corners of the Amazon, but they only unified 300 years ago and formed the Woodland of Nature’s Dream. Only the most gifted among the Elves can be granted a Sacred Spirit’s blessing. Once this Sacred Spirit answers Althorne’s call, an incarnation will hurry over and meld with him.” He brushed an apathetic eye over the arena. “It is unknown how long Sacred Spirits have existed, and their realms are also unknown. The only thing certain is that each Sacred Spirit is at least a quasi Prince.”
At his back, a vampire said lowly, “Your Highness, you’re saying that Mr. X will be facing… a quasi Prince?!”
“No.” The old man shook his head. “The amount of strength all Sacred Spirits can display is completely dependent on the summoner’s ability. If the strength of a quasi Prince descends on a Marquis, Mr. X will definitely not be the very first to die. In the Marquis rank, Althorne can make one attack at most. This attack will consume all of his essence. In other words, if Mr. X can withstand this move, his victory is assured.”
“Look well, the next five minutes will determine the winner of the first battle.”