Chapter 143: CAN YOU DELIVER THE NEXT MOVE?(1)

Inside the barrier, Gao Shan reached behind his back.

SHING—!

A brutal, serrated heavy saber slipped from its sharkskin sheath.

The blade was as wide as a palm, forged from deep-sea dark iron and inscribed with wind-attribute spirit runes. The moment it was unsheathed, gusts of sharp, howling wind swirled around Gao Shan’s boots, kicking up dust and pebble fragments from the granite tiles.

The terrifying spiritual aura of a peak Qi Condensation cultivator erupted from Gao Shan’s body like a tidal wave!

"Junior Brother Li, pick your weapon!" Gao Shan sneered, resting the heavy saber casually on his broad shoulder.

"Don’t say your senior brother didn’t give you a fair chance!"

Li Yan’s gaze swept across the weapon rack standing beside the arena pillar.

There were refined iron spears, heavy broadswords, and sharp steel rapiers.

Yet, Li Yan did not even glance at the metal weapons. He casually reached out and pulled a plain, unrefined wooden practice sword from the side rack.

The wooden sword was made of cheap cedar, devoid of spiritual markings, light and blunt.

The entire spectator stand erupted into pandemonium!

"A wooden sword?!"

"Is he insane?! Gao Shan’s Sharkskin Saber is a mid-grade spiritual weapon that can slice through boulders like bean curd! Facing a spiritual saber with an unrefined wooden branch... isn’t that seeking absolute death?!"

"His mind must have been burnt away by the northern fever!"

Li Wei nearly laughed out loud in the crowd, having to bite his tongue to suppress his sheer ecstasy.

On the stage, Gao Shan’s face twisted with insulted rage. To him, Li Yan pulling a wooden sword was the ultimate mockery!

"Courting death!" Gao Shan roared, his muscles knotting beneath his azure robes. "Since you wish to become meat paste, I shall grant your wish! Take my first move!"

Gao Shan kicked the ground!

BOOM!

The granite tiles beneath his feet cracked as he propelled himself forward like a raging bull! His heavy saber traced a dazzling, crescent arc through the air, gathering the surrounding wind into a howling, razor-sharp gale!

"First Move: Gale Cleaving the Clouds!"

A three-zhang-long blade-wind, sharp enough to sever steel armor, tore across the arena floor, ripping deep trenches into the stone as it surged straight toward Li Yan’s throat!

The terrifying wind pressure blew Li Yan’s long, ink-black hair wildly across his shoulders. The spectators held their breath, some outer disciples even covering their eyes, unable to watch the scene of the slender youth being cleaved into pieces.

Yet, Li Yan did not retreat by half a step.

He didn’t even shift his footing!

In his eyes, that flashy, howling blade-wind was full of hollow, wasted momentum.

At the very instant the sharp wind aura reached three feet before his chest, Li Yan’s right arm moved!

There was no spiritual light in his movement. No elemental surge. Only a pure, bone-forged, terrifying velocity!

Whoosh—!

The plain wooden sword swung in a blinding, downward diagonal arc!

CRACK—BOOM!

A deafening sonic boom exploded in the air!

The sheer physical kinetic force generated by Li Yan’s eight hundred catties worth of bone strength compressed the atmospheric air into an invisible, solid sledgehammer!

The plain wooden sword collided with the three-zhang blade-wind!

Under the shocked, disbelieving eyes of thousands of onlookers, the sharp spiritual gale did not slice through the wood—it was violently, utterly shattered by the sheer impact, dissolving into scattered gusts of harmless breeze!

Thud, thud, thud!

The violent recoil sent a shockwave back along the air currents, slamming straight into Gao Shan’s chest and forcing him to stumble back three heavy paces!

The entire arena fell dead silent.

The sound of dropping needles could have been heard across the vast plaza.

"He... he broke a peak Qi Condensation sword-wind with a wooden sword?!"

"Where is his Qi?! Did anyone sense Qi?!"

"None! It was... pure physical swing speed! How heavy was that strike?!"

Gao Shan stabilized his stance, his chest heaving as a trace of shock flickered through his triangular eyes. But that shock quickly morphed into deep, humiliating madness. He had been repelled by a cripple holding a toy!

"A parlor trick!" Gao Shan hissed, his eyes turning bloodshot. "You relied on the momentum of my own wind! Let’s see how your fragile mortal bones endure the weight of Mount Tai!"

Gao Shan raised his saber high above his head with both hands. This time, he mobilized every single drop of spiritual Qi within his dantian!

A dark yellow, earthy glow enveloped the serrated blade, weighing down the air as if a miniature mountain was forming upon the steel!

"Second Move: Divine Earth-Splitting Mountain Strike!"

Gao Shan leaped ten feet into the air, bringing the weight of the saber crashing down toward Li Yan’s crown with the force of an avalanche!

The sheer downward pressure caused the stone tiles beneath Li Yan’s boots to groan and crack.

Clang!

Facing this earth-shattering downward cleave, Li Yan did not dodge.

He simply stepped his left foot forward, dropping into a textbook, immovable mountain-piercing stance. With both hands gripping the plain wooden hilt, he raised the wooden sword horizontally above his head.

BANG—!

The dark spiritual saber slammed directly onto the center of the wooden blade.

A violent shockwave erupted from the point of impact, blowing dust and gravel against the blue arena barrier like hail.

Li Wei leaned forward, his nails digging into his palms, waiting for the sound of wood splintering and Li Yan’s skull caving in.

Yet, what echoed was the sickening sound of snapping metal.

CRACK.

The plain wooden sword did not break.

His newly adapted bone marrows acted like an iron pillar rooted into the core of the earth.

Not only did his knees not buckle by even a fraction of an inch, but the horrifying counter-shock of his pure brute force surged directly up the serrated blade.

"ARRGH!"

Gao Shan let out a blood-curdling scream.

The flesh between his thumb and forefinger instantly split apart, spraying warm blood! The bones in his forearms groaned under tremendous stress, and the violent recoil rebounded straight into his internal organs.

Pfft—!

Gao Shan coughed up a mouthful of dark crimson blood, his massive body flung backward through the air like a discarded sack of flour, crashing heavily onto the dark-iron tiles ten paces away.

The crowd gasped in pure, unadulterated horror.

Two moves.

An inner disciple using high-tier spiritual martial arts was beaten until he spat blood by an outer disciple holding a wooden stick.

"Gao Shan!" Cui Ahjun stood up in the pavilion, his face entirely dark.

On the stage, Gao Shan dragged himself up from the ground, his azure robes drenched in his own blood. His arms were trembling uncontrollably, the serrated saber in his hand rattling like dry leaves in autumn.

Looking at Li Yan—who still stood in his pristine, unwrinkled blue robes, the spirit peach-wood hairpin in his hair unruffled, his expression as calm as a frozen lake—an icy, creeping terror finally seized Gao Shan’s soul.

Monster!

He isn’t a cripple... he is a humanoid beast!

"Two moves are finished," Li Yan’s voice drifted across the stage, calm, flat, and chilling to the bone.

Li Yan took a slow, deliberate step forward, the tip of his wooden sword pointing toward the trembling inner disciple.

"Senior Brother Gao... do you still have the guts to deliver your third move?"