Chapter 645: Chapter 644: Attract and Repel Martial Arts
"Clang! Clang!
Clank!
Sparks flew in the air as a figure was sent flying backwards. It was Tie Yunzi again, only this time, he was not retreated but willingly withdrew as part of his strategy.
Unexpectedly, his body came to an abrupt halt as he used the force of the recoil to propel forward at a speed even faster than before. The Vigorous Air emanating from his body was like curvature knives, leaving deep notches on the Array System of the surrounding peaks.
Halfway through his swing, a sword tip soared upwards. The impact was not very forceful, but it hit right into the most critical part. Ripples of shockwaves flowed into Tie Yunzi’s arms, crushing the protective Vigorous Air cover on his body.
"Rainfall Twin Stars!"
Keeping his cool, Tie Yunzi quickly adapted, swinging his shoulders. Relying on his powerful waist strength, he threw out his two hammers at different speeds. Each hammer was bound by an iron chain wound around his arms and the tail of the hammers.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh.
One of the iron hammers spun like a whirlwind, filling the sky with its shadow. The second hammer flitted amongst these shadows, appearing to move slowly yet adroitly filling the gaps in the hammer’s shadowy path. Amidst the speed was tact, and within the slowness was precision.
Since this attack drew completely on the momentum of his body, Tie Yunzi didn’t need to build up any energy. His move struck exactly when Shi Xiaole was still regaining his strength.
If he had utilized the Undying Seven Illusions, Shi Xiaole would undoubtedly have been able to easily reverse the situation. However, he didn’t, because Tie Yunzi was not worth the effort yet.
Despite appearing to have exerted all his strength in the previous attack, Shi Xiaole had actually held back some. Without bothering to look, he jabbed his sword towards the dense shadowy hammers.
Clang!
The swirling shadows vanished as Shi Xiaole’s sword tip touched the slower iron hammer. He stood still, ignoring the faster hammer hurtling towards his face, as if incapable of stopping it.
Before anyone could cry out in shock, the faster hammer unexpectedly contracted and rebounded towards Tie Yunzi.
"Damned thing!"
Tie Yunzi cursed inwardly.
While his move, Rainfall Twin Stars, appeared to focus on speed, in fact, its core was slowness. Through the interaction of the faster and slower hammer, leveraging the opponent’s force, it could create the greatest damage.
In other words, whether blocking both hammers or only one, it would result in a savage rebound. However, if he held onto the slower hammer and didn’t resist, the move would self-destruct without external interference.
Tie Yunzi wasn’t sure whether Shi Xiaole was simply lucky or had seen through the reality of this move. However, he didn’t have time to figure it out as Shi Xiaole’s attack was incoming.
A blaze of sword light slashed from the side, startling Tie Yunzi whose move was just executed, forcing him to dodge quickly.
But the moment he moved to the right, Shi Xiaole’s sword shadowed him, even reaching the spot before he did. To the audiences, it looked as if Tie Yunzi had deliberately run into the sword.
"Hammer Shadow Step!"
With a vigorous stamp of his feet, Tie Yunzi narrowly slid past the attack. Every friction between his feet and the void created a booming sound that led to a throbbing headache, accompanied by his elusive speed, enough to leave any Lord helpless.
However, this did not include Shi Xiaole.
Setting aside his superior spiritual power, after countless fights, Shi Xiaole’s combat skills had gotten to the peak. Relying merely on experience, he could roughly predict where the opponent would be.
Without giving Tie Yunzi any breathing space, Shi Xiaole’s sword aura soared, and he unleashed a sweeping strike. A large shadow was cut off, and the Sword Qi was whittled down to a single strand. With a thud, a figure shot out.
Tie Yunzi hadn’t even put down the hammers he had raised when Shi Xiaole appeared behind him like a ghost, slashing at his head with his sword.
Clang!
Mustering 60% of his strength, Tie Yunzi barely managed to block the attack. As he stumbled, he attempted to shake off Shi Xiaole’s control of the Qi. However, he had underestimated Shi Xiaole’s speed.
No, everyone had underestimated Shi Xiaole’s speed.
Shi Xiaole’s speed had transcended mere swiftness and entered the realm of perfection. The coordination between his hands and feet, body and mind, man and sword were so seamless, they gave off an unhindered, flowing sensation that made one’s defense seem impenetrable.
The sword light flashed.
The long sword cut through, compelling Tie Yunzi to retreat the way he had come. He tried to lift his hammer to strike, but the moment he started to raise his hands, Shi Xiaole’s sword was already bearing down.
Clang!
Tie Yunzi staggered backward, looking disheveled, his face as disgruntled as it could be.
Before the fight began, he was brimming with confidence, thinking he could easily defeat Shi Xiaole. Yet he was caught off-guard by the harsh reality. Not only was he unable to defeat Shi Xiaole, but he was also pushed into a tight corner where even retaliating seemed too much to hope for.
Never had he encountered someone who didn’t even allow him the chance to strike back.
As for the masters on the surrounding peaks, regardless of whether they were from the righteous or the demonic faction, male or female, young or old, everyone was stunned.
They were not just shocked at Shi Xiaole’s extraordinary strength.
They were more astounded that Shi Xiaole’s attacks were accompanied by an indescribable sense of beauty, as if fighting had become a form of art in his hands. They could only watch as their opponents were gradually forced into a disadvantage and slowly sinking under his strategic offense and withdrawal.
He was the chess player, while his opponent was merely a chess piece. This was the gap in combat skills!
"Brother Shi, when you killed the top fighters of the three major families last time, how much of your strength did you use? 10%, or 5%?"
Qin Xiangyu muttered to herself, her voice so low that only she could hear it. When she thought back to their first meeting when she attempted to control Shi Xiaole, she couldn’t help but shake her head.
"Is this your current strength?"
Ji Morou sighed deeply, her eyes both lost and sparkling.
If she were to fight against Shi Xiaole now, she wouldn’t even be able to handle one of his moves. At this point, she was no longer in doubt – Shi Xiaole was indeed worthy of the title of prodigy.
"Such perfect control over rhythm!"
Even Gui Zhihang drew a soft breath.
He saw more than others did. Rather than saying that Shi Xiaole’s combat skills were superior, it was better to say that his control over rhythm was too powerful.
From the exchanges between the two, Shi Xiaole’s ability to break Tie Yunzi’s movements relied mostly on this sense of rhythm. In this respect, even Gui Zhihang had to admit his inferiority.
In his eyes, of the four demons, no one’s rhythmic sense was superior to Kirin’s except for Young Dragon.
"This is too much!"
After being repelled once again, Tie Yunzi roared in rage.
His figure moved instantly, Shi Xiaole’s face remained expressionless as he increased his power by a tenth, swinging out his sword. This time it wasn’t an ordinary sword move, but the third move of the Wind Extreme Sword Technique, Wind Rolling and Thunderclap.
Boom!
As his body lunged forward, Tie Yunzi felt a sweetness in his throat, almost spitting out blood. His expression was extremely fierce, and within the ferocity, a hint of killing intent could be discerned.
Suddenly, a strange and incredibly powerful force, with Tie Yunzi at its center, violently spread in all directions. The sea of clouds below was immediately thrown into chaos, with some colliding with each other and others spreading far apart.
Through the power of the Array System, many experts also had a strange feeling, as if the void in front of them had undergone severe distortion, just like a smooth piece of paper being crumpled into a ball.
"Not good!"
Fei Wenyu’s face changed dramatically, he quickly stabilized his mind and after a while, he narrowly dispelled this feeling.
"A broken martial arts force?"
The peak Array System could resist attacks but it was very hard to resist all spirit fluctuations. When Jade Lion and Xing Shuzi released their own martial arts forces before, Fei Wenyu didn’t have any room to resist.
But now, he sensed a fragment of an incomplete martial arts force, coming from Tie Yunzi.
It was this trace of martial arts force that caused a problem with Fei Wenyu’s sense of space. Fortunately, due to the isolation of the Array System, the impact he suffered wasn’t significant.
"Junior brother, you could have done this earlier."
The fat-faced man’s face was cold, and Xing Shuzi on his side remained silent, his purple lips pressed into a straight line, revealing his unrest.
Although a martial artist of the False Divine Barrier Realm failed to break through to the Divine Barrier Realm, his sea of consciousness would retain more or less the broken image of martial arts, possessing a part of the power of martial arts.
Facing genuine Terrestrial Immortals of the Divine Barrier Realm, a martial arts shadow was of course not enough, but it was an indomitable weapon for dealing with martial artists of the Dragon Gate Realm.
What Tie Yunzi comprehended was the Attract and Repel Martial Arts, a secondary martial art. Even though it was just a secondary martial art and was somewhat damaged, its power was enough to crush a top-grade true intent.
What really took Xing Shuzi by surprise was that his second disciple actually used this last resort to suppress Kirin.
"The power of martial arts, using such methods, this is simply bullying!"
The Lords present couldn’t help but sigh.
The power of martial arts is the power of martial arts, even if broken, it is not something that a Dragon Gate Realm Lord can resist. No matter how strong Kirin is, he cannot make up for this difference.
"Kirin, I admit you are strong, but skills are just skills, they can never overcome absolute power. You forced me into this."
No one could describe the anger and humiliation in Tie Yunzi’s heart. Now, he just wanted to defeat Shi Xiaole as quickly as possible, preserving his last bit of dignity.
With his hands raised, Tie Yunzi swung a pair of hammers forward. Under the blessing of the Attract and Repel Martial Arts, the force of the hammers formed an irregular invisible force, rotating forward.
"Gale Blade!"
With a chill in his heart and a sense of crisis, Shi Xiaole slew his sword at an angle based on his intuition towards the fluctuations, unleashing the strongest move in the Wind Extreme Sword Technique.
The blue sword light swept forward, splitting the world in half, but it suddenly stopped halfway, then twisted, shattered like a snapped willow twig.
The remaining irregular force continued to rush forward, turning the thousand-meter layer of clouds ahead into a mess under Shi Xiaole’s timely evasion.
Whoosh!
Tie Yunzi rushed straight ahead, surprisingly faster than before.
As the name ’Attract and Repel Martial Arts’ suggests, it involves the switching between gravitational and repulsive forces. These two kinds of forces can be used to increase one’s speed and strength, as well as limit the opponent.
Shi Xiaole keenly discovered that the air pressure around him was surging towards him. A single move now required him to use several times the Vigorous Air compared to before.
"Heavy Hammer Blooming Flowers!"
Hammers shadows were everywhere, attacking Shi Xiaole crazily.
Every time Shi Xiaole tried to counter, the powerful force of attraction and repulsion would deform his movements. His stance was left wide open several times, almost being hit by Tie Yunzi’s heavy hammer.
"Twin Hammer Life-ending Strike!"
The two large hammers, like two mountains, were swung down heavily at Shi Xiaole under Tie Yunzi’s force.
Clang! Clang!
Shi Xiaole was forced to retreat while Tie Yunzi seemed to become more and more courageous. Especially under the blessing of the Attract and Repel Martial Arts, his strength surged, tirelessly pressing against Shi Xiaole.
"This is one type of strength-based martial art, but it has its endurance limit, which is the biggest weakness of this martial art."
Despite the dangers, Shi Xiaole’s mental power was exceedingly strong and did not prevent him from analyzing the Attract and Repel Martial Arts.
