Chapter 611: Duel (Part 2) [V6C141 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
The middle-aged general was Li Tianquan’s trusted aide. He wasn’t very happy after hearing Li Qingyun’s unduly frank words, but he couldn’t act out, either. He said with a disdainful snort, “What twin stars of the empire? How can a child’s game like the bloody battle be taken seriously?”
Li Qingyun smiled. “He won’t be a kid after a couple of years. You can say what you want here, but who dares say that in front of Zhao Jundu?”
The middle-aged man was livid—he, of course, did not dare speak to Zhao Jundu in this manner. Not to mention the latter’s background and future potential, he was currently capable of using his domain to contend with a marquis five levels above him. How many people would dare challenge him?
Seeing that the battle was already about to begin, Li Qingyun asked, “Is Second Elder not coming? I think this battle is worth watching.”
The general said disapprovingly, “What’s interesting about a fight between these inferior fellows? It’s enough with me here. There’s no need for the second elder to come personally.”
Li Qingyun sized him up from head to toe and chuckled. His expression was fairly amicable, but the middle-aged general quickly became awkward. Li Qingyun’s meaning was quite clear—he wasn’t qualified.
However, the general was still a Li family member. He couldn’t be clearer about the barbarism and cruelty beneath Li Qingyun’s common external appearance. One mustn’t be fooled by his bearing and tone because he might just attack and draw blood the very next moment. The middle-aged general suppressed his anger, pretending not to see the disdain in Li Qingyun’s eyes.
Soon, Lu Sha’s group also arrived among the spectators.
Arms folded, the man watched Qianye with a gloomy expression—much like a fierce beast on the verge of turning violent. The others weren’t that quiet. The group arrived in a boisterous manner, spouting indirect insults in local dialect but later escalated to profanities.
Hearing these directly addressed vulgarities, Qianye finally opened his eyes and beckoned toward the group. “If any of you want to fight, come up one by one after this fight. We shall fight to the death, how about it?”
The voices on the other side became silent as those people glanced at one another with uneasy expressions.
Perhaps they didn’t quite put Qianye in their eyes before, but everyone understood after he restrained the burly man from the exchange area in one move. None of them were very confident about fighting Qianye. They knew they could easily win a fight against the burly man, but such a clean victory was almost impossible.
Qianye’s challenge at the moment was already giving them the advantage of a tag battle—the only thing left was to attack at the same time. These mercenaries were vicious and manipulating in nature, but it was simply too embarrassing to gang up on Qianye under the eyes of so many.
Lu Sha only spoke up at this point, “You lot shut up. If you have so much strength, use it on the battlefield.” With that, he strode over and took his seat.
The group stopped talking, albeit resentfully and found their own seats around Lu Sha. This was an expression of their weakness, but it afforded them their only way out.
Qianye paid no more heed to Lu Sha’s group. He walked into the arena with the bugle call and planted East Peak into the ground. The arena floor was built of coarse rocks, but a casual thrust sent his unassuming heavy sword half a meter into the ground—almost as though he were cutting through tofu.
Qianye’s appearance on the stage stirred up a round of discussions. It turned out that he had brought no other weapon apart from East Peak, so much so that he wasn’t even wearing any armor. He was clad in ordinary combat attire, the defensive stats of which was virtually non-existent.
Du Li also walked into the arena. Compared to the sparsely equipped Qianye, it could be said that the former was armed to the teeth. He had a halberd with three square blades in his left hand, a double-barreled handgun at his waist, and an origin bow strung to his back. There were also daggers strapped to his thigh and back. There was even an origin grenade hanging below his chestguard.
The bugle call rang out once more to signal the start of the battle.
Du Li stared at Qianye with strands of blood popping up in his eyes, and said in a sinister tone, “Qianye, your daddy here has been tolerating you for a long time! I’ve hated you since I first set eyes on you. You robbed me of the limelight, you robbed me of my contributions, now you want to rob me of my position? Come, I’ll let you see how different a fight to the death is from your fancy duels!”
Du Li screamed thus as he charged at Qianye, his halberd whistling toward the latter’s heart. The halberd had barely moved when a meter-long green radiance shot out from its tip—it was clear that Du Li had gone all out with the first move.
The radiance flashed out with great momentum, but Qianye showed no signs of movement even as it approached his chest. It seemed as though the attack would draw blood in the very first bout!
The audience was watching with bated breaths, but their vision blurred all of a sudden—it looked as though Qianye had moved, but it also felt as though he hadn’t. The torrential attack from the spear shifted away and pierced into empty space, almost as though Du Li had stopped the attack at the last moment. However, everyone knew that wasn’t possible.
Du Li’s charging momentum hadn’t stopped when the spear missed its mark. He should’ve had the strength remaining to switch to another move, but there was an unexpected force drawing him in from the front, forcing him to continue his charge toward Qianye.
Qianye was unmoved, almost as though nothing had happened just now. He only took half a step forward and leaned in ever so slightly. There was suddenly a muffled thud—Du Li was sent flying and only managed to find his footing after staggering several steps back.
The arena turned silent all of a sudden because no one had imagined this outcome.
Li Qingyun was tapping on the armrest. His finger froze for a short moment before continuing its original rhythm.
Du Li’s face was drenched in blood and his head was in a daze—he had no idea what had just happened or what he had crashed into. He wiped away the blood and found Qianye still standing in place. It seemed as though the latter hadn’t even moved a finger. East Peak was also sitting where it was at the very beginning, entirely unused.
Du Li gritted his teeth—the stench of blood sent him into a state of ferocity, a stark difference from his cautious attitude when he took the stage. He tossed the halberd away, drew his two daggers, and pounced at Qianye with lightning speed. He unleashed a tempestuous flurry of attacks upon closing in, his twin blades transforming into masses of light which flew around Qianye incessantly.
Those below the champion level couldn’t even keep up with his movements.
This round of wild attacks revealed Du Li’s true strength. They were extremely vicious and accurate, short but deadly. If this were on the battlefield, the enemy would likely fall into a perilous situation after being suppressed by such attacks. Even people more powerful than Du Li might suffer if they were caught unaware.
However, the spectators once again felt their vision turn blurry. The edges of Qianye’s figure became fuzzy as though there were many superimposed projections of him.
Many people rubbed their eyes, while others became alert and quickly reinforced their vision with origin power. Only then did they realize that nothing was wrong with their vision. Qianye’s movements were simply too fast and minute—there wasn’t a bit of wasted distance. This left afterimages in the eyes of the less powerful.
At this moment, Qianye was paying attention to the battle before him.
It would seem that there were some deviations to his senses. On the one hand, he felt that Du Li’s attacks should be fairly powerful. He recalled that this strangely hostile fellow wasn’t a complete idiot; at least his strength was worthy of his rank. But at this moment, Du Li’s attacks were slow and full of openings despite their great momentum.
Qianye didn’t even need to use his military combat arts. All he needed to do was smack the opponent at his weak point, and the entire attack would break down.
Qianye took a sudden step forward and somewhat passed through the storm of blades. He merely leaned into the enemy and raised an elbow before the man was sent flying backward once more.
An idea occurred to Qianye as he watched Du Li moving away. Amidst the boundless knowledge he had received from the River of Blood, a certain rune emerged on the water surface.
An almost invisible red thread shot out from beneath his feet. It stretched dozens of meters in the blink of an eye and overtook Du Li who was still flying through the air.
Qianye then slid forward as though being pulled by an invisible force, leaving numerous afterimages in different stances. He caught up to Du Li in a single step and pushed him into the ground by the back of his neck before standing up.
Those after images had appeared at almost the same time and vanished within moments of each other.
The greater part of Du Li’s body had sunk into the rocky arena floor, where he remained motionless. No one knew whether he was alive or dead.
Qianye stood silently as though he were pondering about something. Meanwhile, the entire arena was silent—there wasn’t a single cheer, shout, or curse. It was as though everyone was afraid of disturbing this young man.
Li Qingyun’s finger paused for a long while before coming down onto the armrest. He was more delighted than surprised as he sighed. “What skill, what skill! I won’t be lonely anymore!”
With that, he stood up and left without even glancing back at Qianye. One of the experts following him unintentionally looked over at the chair. The entire seat—from armrest to back—was filled with countless cracks, but somehow, it was holding its original shape without crumbling.
Moments later, the arena was still completely silent. People didn’t know whether they should cheer, shout, or react differently. The warriors here had all experienced many battles, but they had never witnessed such an exchange. Every detail made them suspect what they had just seen.
In truth, Du Li had made a fair bit of name for himself be it in terms of contributions or duels. He had won a lot of spars among those of the same level, proving once more the strength of Lu Sha’s group.
However, the battle just now involved no intense clash between origin powers, neither was there a contest between blades. The spectators hadn't even seen their techniques clearly when the battle ended.
Qianye finally woke up from his reverie. He shot a glance at the man embedded in the floor and said to the dazed judge, “Send all of his equipment to me.”
Lu Sha stood up all of a sudden and shouted, “Qianye, don’t go too far!”
“Isn’t this a common rule?” Qianye looked up at Lu Sha and said indifferently, “Of course, the rules can also be changed by those with bigger fists. If you think I’m going too far, come down here and fight to the death with me.”
Lu Sha’s expression was gloomy. Qianye had defeated Du Li too easily—especially that last movement technique felt like he had walked through the air. It was true that champions could fly, but how powerful must one be to be able to step through the air and maneuver at will?
At the thought of this, Lu Sha took a deep breath and stood firmly in place, suppressing that intense desire to challenge Qianye to a fight.
Qianye didn’t force him, either. “You can challenge me anytime before I walk out of the door.” With that, he walked out of the ring with East Peak in tow.