The three fights ended with two wins and one loss for the students' team. Though there was still a loss, the shift in mentality and attitude was evident in the students.
The results were commendable for the students despite the close three fights. The difference between win and defeat was minuscule and it usually fell down to who had more capacity to endure a beating than the other long enough to outlast his/her opponent.
Nonetheless, regardless of the results, their efforts could be seen. Instructor Pan had set up their matches and he matched the students against opponents he felt they had a high chance of losing against. The fact that they could claw a win or force a bitter win from their opponent showed they had grown a bit from who and how they were before the dueling test started.
Peng Zhen was among the final participants from the first group of convicts selected. The students at the arena numbered seventy while the convicts numbered thirty, and while some of them could handle several fights in a row, the Instructors usually let them have one fight a day, so they could improve themselves should they survive, and be even tougher opponents for the students when they were next called upon.
There was another inmate group in waiting, the moment Peng Zhen's group finished their fights. These groups would usually have a mix of regulars like Guo Feng and new inmates who have been judged to have enough combat acumen to push the students.
Peng Zhen's opponent was a young man by the name of Bai Chen. He had a muscular physique and wielded a glaive. He was at the third stage of the foundation establishment realm.
Peng Zhen didn't have a weapon, which was no surprise to Yang Qing, who could tell from the first moment they met that Peng Zhen wielded his body as a weapon. His body had been repetitively tempered and strengthened to that end.
Instructor Pan gave them a minute to prepare themselves before he announced the start of the match.
The moment the announcement was made both Bai Chen and Peng Zhen charged toward each other.
A white blizzard cyclone in the form of a tiger was created when Bai Chen thrust his glaive toward Peng Zhen. The move he had executed was a top-tier orange-grade art by the name of Maw of the Blizzard Tiger. It was an art that had a restraining ability accompanied by a powerful destructive force.
Peng Zhen on facing the attack did not halt his steps and instead met it head-on.
Scarab white shield
Peng Zhen's skin glowed as a white golden coating appeared on it. The coating looked like the exoskeleton of a beetle.
The moment Bai Chen's attack reached his body it was like it had clashed against an immovable metal.
A clinging sound was produced from the attack as Peng Zhen punched through the blizzard cyclone tiger.
Clang!
His fist collided heavily with Bai Chen's spear causing an air explosion. Bai Chen gritted his teeth as his muscles bulged with him tightening the grip on his glaive.
His glaive was vibrating heavily from the clash with a sharp stinging pain coursing through his arm from the collision. He had to forcibly endure the pain to prevent the glaive from leaving his hand.
Bai Chen muscled through the attack as he retaliated with a circular swing of his glaive that halted Peng Zhen in his tracks as the attack threatened to take away a limb if he bulldozed through, even with the white gold shield that coated his skin.
However, even with a pause in his movement, his attack didn't stop as he performed a down swipe with his palm which created tidal scythe-shaped attacks made of pure white light that had a terrifying tearing force at their edges.
Bai Chen was immediately forced into the defensive as he used his glaive to swipe away the attack. Though he managed to successfully disperse the attack, he was forced back a few steps as a searing pain assaulted his hands like he had been burned.
A grim expression appeared on his face when he saw Peng Zhen swipe his palms four times in quick succession creating four more white tidal sycthe attacks.
Ape storm of the five chariots
Bai Chen swallowed in the air, while his arms suddenly mushroomed as a result. He swung his glaive with a rapid rotation of his body with terrifying momentum and weight beneath his steps. It was like an avalanche and an eruption had descended beneath his feet.
He tore through the four attacks in one single motion with his rotational momentum still ongoing as it was aimed at Peng Zheng's neck who was forced to suddenly raise his right hand and use it as a shield for his neck.
Peng Zhen felt like the force of five mountains had suddenly been slammed into his forearm. The white golden glow on his skin let a more intense radiant glow as though he was using it to fight against the force that aimed to tear his hand along with his neck apart.
The golden radiance being released from his skin eventually gave out as a cracking sound was produced.
Bai Chen's glaive broke through the white gold exoskeleton and then proceeded to slice into his arm. Bai Chen's eyes bulged wide open with fury as he pushed with all his might to slice more into Peng Zhen's forearm.
The muscle in Peng Zhen's arm suddenly constricted and tightened, halting the progress of the glaive while he used his other hand to launch a counterattack.
His finger let out a piercing light that seemed to burn as hot as the sun which he rapidly used to pierce at Bai Chen as he aimed for his neck.
Though Yang Qing didn't know the defensive art Peng Zhen was using since it wasn't part of the brilliant ray fist art he had given him, he recognized the finger light attack he had just released.
The attack was part of the brilliant ray fist technique. It was one of the many supplementary moves contained within the art known as the solar flare finger technique that combined the force of the entire body into a single point, the finger, and as one's mastery over the technique grew, one could display it over five fingers simultaneously, and if mastered to perfection, one could tear through any defensive treasure from the sky rank to below, very effortlessly.
Yang Qing could tell Peng Zhen's mastery over the art wasn't very high but the level he had reached, coupled with his cultivation base and his rich experience, was sufficient to trouble Bai Chen who was immediately forced to abandon his attack as he used the pommel of his glaive to deflect Peng Zhen's attack.
The pommel caved in as finger finger-sized hole appeared on it.
"What kind of art is that?" Bai Chen warily thought as he charged up another attack.
A terrifying pressure was released from his body as a silhouette of a dragon with five different colors appeared around him with its tail coiling around his glaive.
Peng Zhen no longer delayed and immediately launched rapid continuous punches, with his fists letting out a gentle but penetrative white light with every punch.
Alarm bells rang from his body when he detected the change on Bai Chen's body and could no longer afford to delay using the blue-grade art Yang Qing had given him even if his mastery of it wasn't even at the blooming stage yet.
His fists rained on Bai Chen with unrelenting force as he aimed to disrupt whatever art Bai Chen was about to use, however, his fists which seemed to have enough force to punch a hole through a mountain were immediately swallowed when the silhouette of the dragon surrounding Bai Chen opened its mouth and released a blue whirlpool.
Peng Zhen's fists were drowned in the blue whirlpool that seemed to have scale-like markings floating within it.
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