Chapter 276: Chapter 262: Brutally Stomping on Li Zhongtian
Li Zhongtian was, after all, a great expert of the Martial Arts Eighth Layer. He didn’t panic despite being locked down by Zhaang Ye’s Tornado. With a light shake of his Bamboo Flute, a sharp soundwave shot through the air and instantly dissipated the Tornado.
After dissipating the Tornado, Li Zhongtian attacked again. He once more unleashed the "Nine-Tone Chain Explosion." This time, he used ninety percent of his True Qi to power it, producing a sound so mighty it could level a small mountain.
But just as he unleashed it, Zhaang Ye was already upon him, moving like a flash of lightning. His ghostly speed and indomitable aura made even Mei Zhihua scream.
Li Zhongtian, however, remained unhurried. His Nine-Tone Chain Explosion could produce at least several hundred different sounds. Some of them were completely harmless, but others contained boundless True Qi, capable of blasting away half a mountain.
With Zhaang Ye charging at him, the closing distance simply made it more convenient for him to use his Sound Attack arts.
"CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP!"
The bird calls emanating from Li Zhongtian slammed viciously into Zhaang Ye. Zhaang Ye felt as if he had been savagely pecked by a large bird, like a chunk of his flesh had been torn away.
"WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!"
The sound of crashing waves produced by Li Zhongtian seemed to brush gently past Zhaang Ye’s body. Yet, he felt as if he’d been scraped by a giant iron brush. Even his skin, tempered by the Dragon Elephant Power, began to bleed.
Li Zhongtian was about to unleash a third Sound Attack, but Zhaang Ye’s counterattack had already arrived. A jet-black ray of Sword Qi streaked across the sky, aimed straight at Li Zhongtian.
Zhaang Ye’s Sword Qi tore through the air, thick with killing intent. Even with his cultivation at the Martial Arts Eighth Layer Middle Stage, Li Zhongtian didn’t dare to ignore such a terrifying attack. His Bamboo Flute vibrated lightly three times, and three soundwaves, visible to the naked eye, shot out to intercept Zhaang Ye’s Sword Qi.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
Zhaang Ye’s True Qi was exceptionally pure, and the Sword Qi he unleashed was immensely powerful. However, Li Zhongtian’s cultivation was far deeper than Zhaang Ye’s. When the three soundwaves struck the Sword Qi, the two forces were evenly matched and exploded with a deafening roar.
Though he had easily neutralized Zhaang Ye’s Sword Qi, Zhaang Ye seized that split second to close the distance to within ten feet.
"CRASH!"
The Heavy Saber let out a great roar as it chopped down toward Li Zhongtian. This strike concentrated all of Zhaang Ye’s True Qi; if it landed, Li Zhongtian wouldn’t survive even if he had a hundred lives.
"CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!"
Li Zhongtian unleashed five consecutive soundwaves, which bombarded Zhaang Ye’s Heavy Saber.
These five soundwaves were formless and intangible, but their power was greater than that of five massive iron hammers. Li Zhongtian had thought they would knock Zhaang Ye’s Heavy Saber aside, giving him the opening to defeat Zhaang Ye in one fell swoop.
But his hopes were instantly shattered. He was horrified to discover that while the five soundwaves had slowed his Heavy Saber slightly, Zhaang Ye’s attack continued its descent with overwhelming momentum!
The fierce wind from the Heavy Saber was so strong he couldn’t even open his eyes!
’This man... his physical strength is immense!’ Li Zhongtian was a great expert himself. He knew instantly that Zhaang Ye could ignore his five soundwaves only because of his formidable physical strength. Based on what had just happened, Zhaang Ye had to have at least seven or eight hundred thousand jin of strength—perhaps even a million!
"AH—"
Li Zhongtian was terrified, his composed and elegant demeanor vanishing in an instant. With a great shout, he thrust his Bamboo Flute forward like a lightning bolt to meet Zhaang Ye’s Heavy Saber.
The Bamboo Flute was carved from ten-thousand-year-old bamboo, making it far harder than even Purple Copper or Heavy Iron. Therefore, Li Zhongtian wasn’t worried that his priceless instrument would break.
"CLANG!"
The Heavy Saber slammed viciously onto the Bamboo Flute. Limitless power crashed down from the blade, and the bones in Li Zhongtian’s arms instantly began to crack. His entire body started to sink into the ground.
"Sigh..." The spectating Martial Artists all sighed as they watched Li Zhongtian get cornered by Zhaang Ye and forced into a direct clash. Li Zhongtian’s greatest strength was long-range attacks; he was clearly unskilled in close-quarters combat. Now that Zhaang Ye had forced him into this situation, his defeat was only a matter of time.
A thousand zhang away, the Ninth-Layer Expert also shook his head slightly. Zhaang Ye’s physical strength was incredible, whereas Li Zhongtian was completely inept at close-quarters combat. With Zhaang Ye’s saber pressing down on his bamboo flute, Li Zhongtian was powerless to use any of his greater abilities.
’This idiot is actually trying to match my strength! He’s dead for sure!’ A flicker of delight crossed Zhaang Ye’s eyes as he pressed his Heavy Saber down, inch by inch.
Li Zhongtian gasped for breath in great, ragged gulps. Zhaang Ye’s strength was even more tyrannical than he had imagined. The pressure made his eyes bulge, and his bones creaked and groaned. He felt like a nail being hammered into the earth by Zhaang Ye.
"Urgh... urgh... urgh..."
The True Qi in Li Zhongtian’s body surged frantically as he tried to blast Zhaang Ye away. But Zhaang Ye was like an immovable mountain; no matter how Li Zhongtian circulated his True Qi, he was utterly incapable of overcoming Zhaang Ye’s immense power!
A thousand zhang away, Elder Wei Jiushu of the Wei Kingdom True Hall laughed heartily. "This is the legendary ’great stone crushing a crab’! No matter how tough the crab, it’s bound to get squashed. Zhaang Ye has over a million jin of strength. Under that kind of pressure, Li Zhongtian is about to be flattened! Elder Ling, you were just so certain about how incredible Li Zhongtian was. Looks like he’s nothing special after all!"
He had been worried that Li Zhongtian would cripple Zhaang Ye, but now, seeing Zhaang Ye overpowering a Martial Arts Eighth Layer Middle Stage expert, Wei Jiushu felt an indescribable sense of satisfaction.
Elder Ling sneered. "The battlefield is always full of surprises. No one knows the outcome until the very end. Don’t celebrate too early, Elder Wei!"
Wei Jiushu refused to believe it. He was about to retort with a few mocking words for Elder Ling when his expression suddenly changed, and he roared, "Despicable!"
It turned out that just as Zhaang Ye was about to crush Li Zhongtian’s bones, Mei Zhihua had silently drawn her Long Sword and was stabbing toward Zhaang Ye’s back. Almost simultaneously, Li Zhongtian gave his Bamboo Flute a slight twist, aiming one of the finger holes directly at the spot between Zhaang Ye’s eyebrows. In that instant, a faint green light shot out from the hole, rocketing toward its target!
No one could have imagined that the nearly defeated Li Zhongtian could still launch such a sinister counterattack.
No one could have imagined that Mei Zhihua would suddenly strike, aiming straight for Zhaang Ye’s vitals!
Zhaang Ye, who had held the absolute advantage, was suddenly besieged from both front and back. In that moment, death was upon him!
As death loomed, Zhaang Ye’s Heart Spirit became completely tranquil. Under the pressure of his impending demise, his senses became ten, even a hundred times sharper than usual. He could feel the individual dust motes dancing in the air, instantly discern their type, feel the atmospheric vibrations from the crowd’s shocked gasps, and feel Mei Zhihua’s Long Sword cleaving through space, inch by inch, as it stabbed toward his back.
At the same time, Zhaang Ye also perceived the green light that had shot from the Bamboo Flute. It was actually an insect. The creature had a pair of wings, a pale green body, and two savage, terrifying fangs on its front. Its eyes held an extremely violent aura, as if it wanted to devour Zhaang Ye whole.
In this life-or-death moment, Zhaang Ye’s Spiritual Power seemed to achieve a breakthrough. Every movement in his surroundings was reflected in his mind.
Comprehending the entire situation, Zhaang Ye reacted without a moment’s thought.
A brilliant glint suddenly shot from his eyes, aimed directly at the strange, pale green insect.
This brilliant glint faintly contained Ancient Dragon Power. Dragons are the masters of all insects, and their aura has a suppressive effect on any insectoid creature. The moment the pale green creature sensed the Dragon Race’s aura in Zhaang Ye’s gaze, the violence in its eyes was replaced by fear. It flapped its wings, turned in a flash, and flew back the way it came, thirty percent faster than before!
At almost the exact moment the pale green insect flew back, Zhaang Ye’s body pressed down like a great mountain, forcing Li Zhongtian’s entire frame into the earth below.
"SWOOSH!"
By pressing down, Zhaang Ye’s body leaned forward, allowing him to perfectly dodge Mei Zhihua’s thrust. Her strike was exceptionally vicious in both speed and angle. But it was as if Zhaang Ye had eyes in the back of his head; he had somehow dodged that ruthless attack! He had evaded it by a hair’s breadth!
"WHOOSH!" After dodging Mei Zhihua’s sword, Zhaang Ye kicked off, landing his foot squarely on Li Zhongtian’s face. Zhaang Ye inwardly seethed at the man’s earlier treachery and put ten percent of his strength into the stomp. The tyrannical force crushed Li Zhongtian’s nose, tore the skin from his face, and shattered his teeth.
"AH, CRACK—" Li Zhongtian only managed half a scream before the force traveling through his body crushed his bones and Meridians, turning him into a cripple.
Using the momentum from the stomp, Zhaang Ye suddenly swung his palm in a backhand motion, striking squarely against Mei Zhihua’s Long Sword.
"CRACK!"
Under the impact of several hundred thousand jin of force, the Long Sword in Mei Zhihua’s hand was shattered inch by inch from Zhaang Ye’s strike. She never expected Zhaang Ye to be able to dodge her sword, let alone counterattack so instantaneously. In the moment she stood stunned, her Long Sword was already destroyed, and Zhaang Ye’s blow sent her flying back several dozen zhang, where she collapsed, unable to rise!
"*Hiss*—"
Whether it was the ordinary Martial Artists or the Ninth Layer Martial Artists a thousand zhang away, all of them drew a sharp, cold breath when they saw how Zhaang Ye had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. They had been certain Zhaang Ye was a dead man when he was attacked from both sides. Who could have known that in the span of a single blink, he would counterattack, stomp a Martial Arts Eighth Layer expert into the ground, and then send a Martial Arts Seventh Layer expert flying with a single slap!
"Kid, you’re too ruthless!" The elder from the Da Ling Kingdom True Hall sensed Li Zhongtian’s miserable state. With a furious roar, he crossed the thousand-zhang distance in an instant, heading straight for Zhaang Ye. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian.com to vote for Recommendation Tickets and monthly passes. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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