Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Having heard Jing Lucheng’s words, the crowd once again went quiet.
Everyone turned their gazes to Jing Yan to see if he dared to accept the challenge.
Jing Lucheng had a cultivation of the Seventh Heaven. His proposal of limiting his own Vital Qi to the Sixth Heaven might have seemed quite fair on the surface, but in reality, it was anything but. Even if he really could suppress his Vital Qi that precisely, having Seventh Heaven levels of power would still aid him in combat against Jing Yan.
The higher a warrior’s rank was, the stronger his or her control of Vital Qi would be. As a result, any martial systems the warrior used would be more powerful.
Put simply, even if a mighty Precelestial warrior limited his fighting power to a lower level, nobody who was really at that rank could beat the Precelestial warrior. The Precelestial’s martial systems would simply be overwhelming.
As crazed as Jing Lucheng was acting, he knew exactly what he was doing. Even though he kept saying that Jing Yan couldn’t be at the Sixth Heaven, he knew that the testing crystal was accurate once the Elder examined it. Odds were good that Jing Yan really was at the rank that he claimed.
Even if Jing Yan was truly a Sixth Heaven warrior, though, he still shouldn’t make a real match for Jing Lucheng. That was why Jing Lucheng appeared so confident that he openly claimed that he would limit his own power to the Sixth Heaven. He simply did so to get Jing Yan to agree to the fight.
Beating Jing Yan would be the best way to humiliate him.
If the former No. 1 genius of the Jing Clan and Dong Lin City ended up losing to Jing Lucheng, it would significantly increase his reputation. More than that, he could also gain revenge for Jing Yuqin.
“Fine. You want to fight me? Bring it on,” Jing Yan said, narrowing his eyes a little.
He had wanted to test his real strength anyway.
Ever since Jing Yan had begun cultivating using the Arch of Heaven, his abilities had been more than what his rank suggested. Take his Vital Qi as an example; although he hadn’t entered the Seventh Heaven yet, his Vital Qi was actually thicker than that of regular Seventh Heaven warriors.
“Jing Yan is really bold enough to accept the challenge? Isn’t he afraid of losing? Even if his rank really is at the Sixth Heaven, there’s no way he can beat Jing Lucheng, right?”
“It will be so humiliating for him to lose the fight. But if Jing Yan doesn’t dare to fight, it’ll be even worse.”
“I agree!”
Members of the Jing Clan all voluntarily spread out to make room for the two.
They were inside the Martial Arts Performing Stadium, which was quite spacious. Warriors of the Jing Clan often gathered there to practice their martial arts skills and even compete with each other in practice combat.
A brief moment later, there wasn’t a single Jing Clan warrior near Jing Yan and Jing Lucheng anymore.
The two Elders exchanged glances, but neither of them tried to stop the fight.
Families like the Jing Clan expected their disciples to compete in this way. Otherwise, why would they have built a place like the Martial Arts Performing Stadium?
Of course, the family did have rules and restrictions for practice bouts. The bottom line was that neither of the parties could kill the other. That meant that the contestants had to know when to pull their punches. If a fighter conceded, the other had to stop attacking.
Jing Yan drew Moonbeam Sword, while Jing Lucheng pulled out a pitch-black spear.
“Jing Yan, you have to remember to surrender in time. Otherwise, don’t blame me if you get hurt!” Jing Lucheng gave a sinister smile.
Jing Lucheng had looked furious just a second earlier, yet now he was utterly calm. There was apparently more to him than met the eye.
“You talk too much. If you want to fight, then let’s fight already. Show me how strong you really are, Jing Lucheng,” Jing Yan sneered. The Moonbeam Sword waved slightly as a streak of flashing sword light whirled out.
Jing Lucheng darted at Jing Yan, his Vital Qi roaring and frothing within him. The black spear darted at Jing Yan like a long snake that intended to swallow Jing Yan alive.
He really had limited his Vital Qi to the Sixth Heaven.
“Dancing Dragon Spear Technique!” Jing Lucheng hissed.
The long black spear, moving like a striking serpent, left a blurry shadow in the air. Several images of the spear emerged simultaneously and formed a stunning spear screen.
“This is a Middle-grade martial arts system, Dancing Dragon Spear Technique!”
“So powerful! I didn’t expect Jing Lucheng to be able to perform the Dancing Dragon Spear Technique this well. Even if he hasn’t completely mastered the skill, he certainly understands most of it.”
“Yep. To execute this martial system so well, he has to have practiced it for at least three years.”
Many of the Jing Clan warriors around them were chattering excitedly to one another.
Gaining a good command of a martial system was very challenging. Even the less challenging Low-grade martial systems weren’t easy to learn, and it usually took warriors a long time to gain true talent with the skills.
As for the Dancing Dragon Spear Technique, most disciples of the Jing Clan had some level of familiarity with it.
There were tons of Low-grade and Middle-grade martial systems in the world, many of which were available in the Jing Clan’s treasury vault. However, because there were so many disciples in the family, there were very few martial systems that no one in the Jing Clan was practicing.
That was the reason the Dancing Dragon Spear Technique was recognized right away when Jing Lucheng started executing it.
Even the two Elders, Jing Mingzhi and Jing Tianying, nodded slightly in acknowledgment and praise when they saw Jing Lucheng begin to perform the skill.
“On your knees!” Jing Lucheng shouted at Jing Yan in a deeper voice.
Jing Lucheng was oozing confidence in his combat abilities. His eyes were ice-cold, and the corners of his mouth lifted slightly in a smile.
“Perfect!” Suddenly, gleams of sword radiance streaked from the quiet Moonbeam Sword in Jing Yan’s hand.
“Stance of Autumn Wind and Falling Leaves!”
While Jing Yan had already refined and improved Moon-Freezing Triple Waves, he didn’t think that he needed to use a Middle-grade martial system to tackle someone like Jing Lucheng. The Stance of Autumn Wind and Falling Leaves should be more than enough.
As he began using the Stance of Autumn Wind and Falling Leaves, streaks of pitch-black sword radiance quickly formed and collided with the spear shadows created by Jing Lucheng.
“What? Jing Yan is using a Low-grade martial system?”
“Low-grade indeed. It’s Stance of Autumn Wind and Falling Leaves. I’ve practiced that too!”
“Wait a minute, that can’t be right. If Jing Yan really is at the Sixth Heaven, he should be able to use a Middle-grade martial system, shouldn’t he? He used to be a Precelestial. It’s not like he’s never practiced Middle-grade martial systems. But now he’s using a Low-grade martial system in combat. What’s he thinking?”
Many people were now watching the fight with puzzled expressions.
Did Jing Yan know that he was going to lose, so he was just using the easiest attacks he could to get the fight over with?
They couldn’t really think of any other reason that Jing Yan would be fighting with a Low-grade system.
The difference between Low-grade martial systems and Middle-grade martial systems was huge. They weren’t even remotely on the same level.
For example, two warriors of the same rank and with the same level of Vital Qi could fight each other, one of them using a Low-grade system and the other using a Middle-grade system. The warrior using a Low-grade system would undoubtedly lose. Moreover, he might even be one-shot.
The crowd of onlookers shook their heads. This fight seemed to have lost all potential to become exciting.
Boom!
Two martial systems finally collided. A deafening boom rolled across the stadium, followed by waves of Vital Qi that surged and spread in all directions.