Chapter 166: Chapter 166: Shi Xiaole’s Unveiled Sharpness (Thanks to Shadow-Ice Heart’s generous reward!)
The Gold Silver Jade Copper Platform.
Today, not a single seat was unoccupied. Even though Dark Alley had implemented a temporary charging system, a countless number of experts still flooded in, filling even the aisles with people.
"It’s been sixty years. Never before has the Dark Alley in the Floating River Area been as bustling as it is today."
"If Shi Xiaole becomes the Copper Banner Master, it will undoubtedly create a sensation across the martial world. If he fails and loses all his bets, he will sooner or later be driven out of Dark Alley. Then, the only thing that awaits him is death. Therefore, he has no way out."
"To become the Copper Banner Master is extremely difficult! Certain people are destined to have only fleeting brilliance before they wither away. Shi Xiaole will not be able to escape his fate."
The crowd spoke chaotically, discussing all sorts of things. Yet, listening carefully, almost no one truly believed in Shi Xiaole. What everyone cared about was only how many matches he could win.
The clamor abruptly vanished when a figure in a green robe appeared.
Shi Xiaole had made his appearance.
Seeing this, the old man in white also stepped forward, first addressing the crowd, then looking toward Shi Xiaole, "Young Hero Shi, are you ready?"
Shi Xiaole nodded.
"Good! I hereby announce that the match begins."
After the old man in white withdrew, Shi Xiaole looked towards the pathway. From there emerged a middle-aged man with a full beard, one among the nine main competitors, Liu Laosan, who had bet that Shi Xiaole would only win three matches.
"Kid, everyone says you’re hiding your true ability. Allow me to expose you today."
As Liu Laosan laughed out loud, he took two copper maces from the weapon rack.
"Dual wielding maces?"
Many were surprised.
Dual wielding was fierce, but it was not easy to master. Those who practiced poorly were weaker than those who used a single hand. No one believed that Liu Laosan was poorly practiced, so everyone’s gaze fell onto Shi Xiaole.
To everyone’s amazement, Shi Xiaole picked up two swords.
"Dual sword style?"
Shi Weiwei’s eyes flashed. She had heard from Ye Linglong that Shi Xiaole possessed the ability to use two weapons simultaneously. It seemed she would have the chance to witness this.
"Dual swords against dual maces, interesting."
Liu Laosan gave a cold chuckle. He darted toward Shi Xiaole with a forceful momentum, swinging his maces violently, creating a turbulent storm. The maces pulled the air as if tearing through fabric, as though splitting it into two halves.
"So strong!"
From just the first strike, the crowd clearly felt that Liu Laosan’s strength vastly surpassed that of Xiang Mingzhen and others.
And this was only the first match. Even if Shi Xiaole could defeat Liu Laosan, it would likely come at a significant cost. What about the eight subsequent matches?
If initially, some people still held hope for Shi Xiaole, that hope was now gradually diminishing.
Shi Xiaole hesitated.
Not whether to advance or retreat, but whether to truly utilize his full strength.
That thought flickered past. Quickly, he made a decision.
At this stage of the fight, there was no need to carry on casually. Dragging it out would be an energy drain, causing more trouble. It might as well be simpler, like using a sharp knife to cut through a tangled mess.
Boosting the Purple Light Divine Skill to around eighty percent, Shi Xiaole moved against his opponent. His left hand swung a sword forward while his right hand simultaneously moved backward, creating two distinct sword thrusts.
Clang, clang.
Sparks flew.
Just as Liu Laosan was about to initiate his next move, he suddenly found that Shi Xiaole’s sword movements had enveloped him.
Once again, Shi Xiaole moved both of his hands simultaneously. The tips of the two swords traced two semicircular arcs in the air, forming intertwining trajectories that resembled the clashing gears of a clock. Amid the hissing sound, a string of sparks erupted, converging on Liu Laosan, who was at the center.
With a grunt.
Liu Laosan was sent flying backward, his face full of shock.
Equally astonished were the countless spectators.
Without giving anyone time to ponder, Shi Xiaole, in his green robe, wielding his dual swords, charged forward again. Slice after slice, blow after blow, the air around him shattered like a scroll of painting under his swordsmanship.
Liu Laosan had only the time to retaliate once, and yet two opposing forces had already neared him, causing his chest to heave. He couldn’t help but shout, "What kind of sword technique is this?"
No one could answer the question except for Shi Xiaole.
Because what he performed was not a martial art of this world.
His left hand performed the Sky Mountain Sword Technique, while his right hand performed the Anti-Sky Mountain Sword Technique.
Long before his journey to the Will Sect, Shi Xiaole had drawn the Sky Mountain Sword Technique. With his outstanding comprehension, it was not difficult for him to learn this sword technique and deduce the Anti-Sky Mountain Sword Technique.
The level of the Sky Mountain Sword Technique was not high. However, when performed with both Shi Xiaole’s left and right hands simultaneously, it subtly formed a peculiar force, similar to the north and south poles of a magnet, mutually attracting each other, unleashing boundless power. It was almost on par with the second-rate lower-tier sword techniques.
Liu Laosan was both fortunate and unfortunate to be the first to have a taste of it.
Clang, clang.
On the fifth move, the dual maces slipped from his hands. Shi Xiaole’s sword was held against Liu Laosan’s neck.
"You, you..."
Liu Laosan was dumbstruck. The fight was over before it even really began. He hadn’t even used any of his formidable martial arts. But he wasn’t foolish enough to protest. If this was a fight to the death, dead men don’t talk.
Moreover, he felt that if they were to do it again, the result would most likely be the same.
We’ve tried to overestimate you, but it seems we’ve still underestimated you.
Liu Laosan stared deeply at Shi Xiaole, then turned and left.
The people on the scene were also bewildered.
This feeling was like constantly using a longer stick to measure the depth of the water, only to find out at the end, the deeper we measure, the deeper the water gets, it was simply inexplicable.
"I didn’t believe Linglong’s words before, but now I have to believe them."
Shi Weiwei sighed deeply.
If Shi Xiaole had not killed Xue Ang, she would have been tempted to take him as her disciple. His skill of doing two things at once was innate, not something that could be accomplished by hard training. Even Ye Linglong fell short of it.
Ye Linglong didn’t speak, for she had already witnessed it, although she was still amazed.
From the Red Sword Pavilion, the ’hero among men’ Wei Renhao, who had specifically come to watch the battle, had also changed his complexion, a bad premonition rising in his heart.
"Haha, the young brother is very strong, I admire you."
The eighth master is up, a swordman.
Shi Xiaole swung both hands, and the two swords returned to the weapon rack. He picked up a knife.
"Using a knife against me?"
The swordsman raised his eyebrows, his internal power reached the extreme, he leapt up, a phantom long sword extending from his body under the stimulation of his internal power. When it reached two feet long, he slashed it down heavily.
Bang, the air was pushed away, the great momentum giving the illusion that the ground was going to be split open.
Feeling provoked, the swordsman directly used his killer move.
With his hands gripping the sword, Shi Xiaole’s elegant demeanor remained unchanged. However, within the elegance, there was an added toughness and sharpness. His internal power remained 80% unchanged, and he counterattacked with a sword from bottom to top.
Blood Battle Ten Forms, Monarch Overlooking the World.
The two waves of sword pressure collided like raging waves, rocks shattered in the open sky, amidst the suffocatingly loud explosion, the two people in the arena were already fighting together.
Shi Xiaole had many ways to defeat the swordsman, but he didn’t want to do so. He wanted to defeat the opponent with the purest swordsmanship, because both the sword and blade were his way.
The two figures, one blue and one gray, interlaced in the arena, cutting and slashing at times, the sound of fierce confrontation echoed in every corner of the arena, continuous like torrential rain.
But in fact, the two had only exchanged twelve moves, the rest were echoes.
With a movement of his wrist, Shi Xiaole’s knife cut into the gap of the opponent’s move at an incomprehensible angle, he shook it with force, the swordsman couldn’t retract his power in time. By the time he wanted to make a move, his vision was already filled with blade light.
The second round, over.
"Was that... Man and blade as one?"
The swordsman was empty-handed, murmuring to himself. Seeing Shi Xiaole nodded, he couldn’t describe his feelings.
He learned from the information that Shi Xiaole had grasped the concept of man and sword as one, but he didn’t expect that Shi Xiaole had also grasped man and blade as one, and the realm was not lower than man and sword as one. How could this be fought.
If Shi Xiaole told the swordsman that his understanding of man and blade as one was only temporarily realized just now, the swordsman would have been disheartened.
But that was the truth.
From the time he traversed to the present, Shi Xiaole’s knife skills were not worse than his sword skills, even before he learned the Moon Concealing Sword Technique, they were better. It was just a matter of understanding the concept of man and blade as one, he just lacked an inspiration.
Unfortunately, the swordsman unexpectedly became this inspiration.
The second master was easily defeated, and the hearts of the spectators trembled heavily.
Shi Xiaole, who possessed two types of second-class low-grade internal powers, and trained one to perfection while the other was close to perfection, had a purity of internal power that surpassed most of the masters at the sixth level of Qi Absorption. It’s just that his total amount was slightly lacking.
The two offset each other, so it was not a battle of endurance, and it was difficult to gain an advantage over Shi Xiaole. Perhaps there were people who could train two second-grade low-grade internal powers to this level under the seventh level of Qi Absorption, but there were definitely none in the Floating River Area.
As for martial arts realm, this was even more of Shi Xiaole’s strong points, and it was difficult to find an opponent.
So, below the seventh level of Qi Absorption, if the nine masters were considered to be the limit of masters, Shi Xiaole was more extreme than the limit of masters, and it might not be impossible to call him the invincible of the Floating River Area.
Three consecutive victories.
Four consecutive victories.
The match came quickly and ended even quicker. After several matches of about ten moves each, Shi Xiaole smoothly achieved eight consecutive victories.
The scene was silent, with many people even losing their ability to think.
In front of the truly sharp Shi Xiaole, the so-called master of Dark Alley looked dull, and at worst, he was just a stepping stone. And many people’s predictions before the match, just like the slaps of defeat in each round, were so ridiculous and not worth mentioning.
What kind of person was this, so indifferent like water when not moving, carefree like a cloud, but so radiant and shocking when moving.
"Wind and Thunder in Unison!"
The first master tried his best, opening his hands, and a wave of howling energy was like rushing wind, falling thunder, enveloping Shi Xiaole from the sky and the ground, from all directions. Between the dense impacts of energy, it seemed as if all the air had been squeezed into an iron plate.
"It seems that there’s no chance to use other martial arts."
With a sigh, Shi Xiaole found that he had greatly underestimated himself. Even without the mid-stage realm of man and sword as one, without the Moon Concealing Sword Technique that incorporated the Chaotic Intent Realm, after he had reached the third level of Qi Absorption, he was still able to sweep all martial artists below the seventh level of Qi Absorption in the Floating River Area.
With the Purple Light Divine Skill increased to its maximum, Shi Xiaole swung his arm, and gently but quickly swung out with a sword. Rocks collapsed and water surged, forming an incredibly risky sword stance.
The killer move, Landslide and Water Split.
Bang!
The first master retreated ten steps, suppressing the taste of blood in his throat, and said in disappointment, "I’ve lost."
