Chapter 208.2: The Five Elements Decomposition Reveals Its Might, Ten Straight Wins Shock the Battle Arena! (II)
"Lu Changsheng... Remarkable, truly remarkable!"
"Hahaha, it seems like we've received an extraordinary Dao Foundation martial artist. Maybe he could even become the King of the Battle Arena?"
"To become the King of the Battle Arena, you must first win ten consecutive matches, and only then you have the right to challenge the reigning King. It's not easy, but Lu Changsheng really does have a chance."
"He's already won four in a row. Given his performance so far, ten straight wins seems achievable for him."
Even the onlookers around the arena grew faintly excited. Being King of the Battle Arena was a very special honor within these grounds, and the spirit stones wagered on the King every day were beyond imagining.
Naturally, Lu Changsheng wished to become the King of the Battle Arena, but he did not yet have the right to challenge for the title. He had to win ten fights in a row. For now, he gave no thought to anything so distant.
Lu Changsheng came down from the platform, and Wang Cheng hurried over at once, bearing the spirit stones.
"Lu Changsheng, here are your winnings. 23,359 spirit stones in all. Ten thousand of them are for your drop of Heavenly Spirit Water, which we've converted straight into spirit stones. If you'd rather have the Heavenly Spirit Water, you can exchange ten thousand spirit stones for it here at the arena," Wang Cheng said with a smile.
Heavenly Spirit Water was a hard currency that even the arena could redeem at any time.
Lu Changsheng worked out the total wager carefully. His ten thousand spirit stones, plus the 474 he had wagered, plus the 13,640 staked on the fourth match, came to 24,114 in total. For winning, he earned a tenth of the betting pool, 2,411 stones, and since his own wager had paid off, he won an additional 10,474 bringing his grand total to 23,359.
It was indeed a vast sum for anyone out there, enough to buy two drops of Heavenly Spirit Water. However, for Lu Changsheng, it was still not enough—nowhere near enough.
By Lu Changsheng's reckoning, to make his Divine Ability Dao Fruit transform into a true divine ability, each Dao Fruit would require at least several dozen drops of Heavenly Spirit Water.
One could not have too much Heavenly Spirit Water, and there was no harm in preparing a few extra spirit stones either.
Lu Changsheng kept to his pace of one fight every three days. The fifth, the sixth, the seventh, the eighth, the ninth... Five more in a row, and through them all Lu Changsheng crushed every foe with his Mental Black Hole, his Four Symbols Prison, and the rest.
He remained unmatched, invincible, and he hadn't even revealed his mightiest divine technique yet, the Five Elements Decomposition.
The only pity was that from the fifth match on, Lu Changsheng's odds had shifted. Even when he wagered on himself, his returns grew slimmer and slimmer, until at last they sank to an outrageous low. He would wager ten thousand spirit stones and only win a few hundred.
Clearly, the arena had grasped how formidable he was. Yet even so, his takings from each match only mounted, for as Lu Changsheng's fame spread, more and more people followed his bouts, and the more who watched, the larger the wagers naturally grew.
For the tenth bout, Lu Changsheng's opponent was likewise an expert with nine straight wins. But this was no longer the martial arena; it was the mixed arena. The man was a supreme Dao Lord named Dong Xu.
The two stood on the platform.
Dao Lord Dong Xu gazed at Lu Changsheng and suddenly said, "You're strong. Deep down, I'd have rather not faced you in the arena at all. But I didn't refuse the tenth match. A contest between you and me is sure to send the wager soaring past a hundred thousand spirit stones, and I need those spirit stones!"
Lu Changsheng made no response, keeping his gaze fixed on Dao Lord Dong Xu.
Unbothered, Dao Lord Dong Xu went on, "I've studied you. Your techniques, mental, offensive, binding, are all powerful. However, you have one flaw, one weakness. Your offensive divine techniques haven't reached the very highest tier. And I, as it happens, possess a defensive enchanted treasure, the Tortoise Origin Disk! Break through my Tortoise Origin Disk and you can kill me. Fail, and you die instead."
As his words fell, Dao Lord Dong Xu brought forth the enchanted treasure, the Tortoise Origin Disk with an accompanying hum.
Above his head, a massive tortoise shell seemed to materialize, as though a great spirit tortoise lay crouched in the air. It was clearly a supreme defensive treasure.
Lu Changsheng knew of Dao Lord Dong Xu, and knew that this Tortoise Origin Disk was his greatest strength. Through nine straight wins, the man had relied on it almost every time, and no one had managed to shatter it.
"Begin," the official announced.
With that, their tenth fight began. Dao Lord Dong Xu simply stood there on the platform, his whole body shrouded within the Tortoise Origin Disk. Lu Changsheng wasted no time and materialized his Mind Space at once.
Boom!
The light of his Principles flickered ceaselessly within the Mind Space.
"Mental Black Hole!"
But the moment the Mental Black Hole swept toward Dao Lord Dong Xu, the Tortoise Origin Disk blazed with light, and a faint, gray haze rose up to hold the Mental Black Hole at bay all at once.
Lu Changsheng raised his eyebrows slightly, as if caught off guard. Was there actually an enhanced treasure that could block his mental technique?
Dao Lord Dong Xu, for his part, wore a grave expression. He knew just how marvelous his Tortoise Origin Disk was, able to fend off even mental techniques. Yet Lu Changsheng's mental techniques were so powerful that he had not been certain the disk could hold.
Now, at last, he could let out a sigh of relief. The Tortoise Origin Disk had successfully blocked Lu Changsheng's Mental Black Hole, and though it could not stop it entirely, it had warded off the greater part of its power.
What remained of the Mental Black Hole was still considerable, but Dao Lord Dong Xu had prepared an enchanted treasure to protect his mind, and his own mental strength was decent to begin with. Resisting the rest of the Mental Black Hole's assault by force posed him no difficulty at all.
"It actually held off Lu Changsheng's mental divine technique?"
"That Tortoise Origin Disk really is something."
"The disk has that kind of marvelous effect?"
"Now it's Lu Changsheng who's in trouble. If his mental techniques don't work, can his offensive techniques break the Tortoise Origin Disk?"
Many found it hard to believe. The greater part of Dao Lord Dong Xu's strength rested in that disk. They had known it to be powerful, but no one had imagined it was powerful to this degree.
Even Lu Changsheng was caught off guard, but he did not waver. A thought stirred, and five rays of light shone.
"Lesser Five Elements Annihilation!" Lu Changsheng roared.
A black current filled his entire Mind Space and wrapped around Dao Lord Dong Xu's Tortoise Origin Disk fast in an instant. Ever since Lu Changsheng had devised the Lesser Five Elements Annihilation and brought it to Perfection, no one had managed to match it.
Dao Foundation experts, supreme Dao Lords, divine techniques or enchanted treasures—nothing could withstand the Lesser Five Elements Annihilation. The divine technique simply annihilated everything in its path. Even across the whole of the Sacred Earth, the offensive power of Lu Changsheng's Lesser Five Elements Annihilation was overwhelming.
Yet when it swept in and engulfed Dao Lord Dong Xu's Tortoise Origin Disk...
Screech!
A deafening, shrill sound rang out, and multiple beams of light flickered across the Tortoise Origin Disk, but it endured, still radiating its spirit light. For the first time ever, Lu Changsheng's Lesser Five Elements Annihilation had failed to annihilate a target.
"Hahaha, nice try! My Tortoise Origin Disk still stands! Now you've got nothing! I win!" Dao Lord Dong Xu sneered.
Dong Xu had been deeply wary of Lu Changsheng prior to the match, but now that the Tortoise Origin Disk had managed to withstand Lu Changsheng's fearsome divine technique, Dong Xu was elated.
"Is that so?" Lu Changsheng came to a halt as well.
When it came to defense, he was hardly lacking either. He had the Four Symbols Prison, and could simply bind Dao Lord Dong Xu outright—but he saw no point in a battle of attrition.
They were both supreme Dao Foundation martial artists; how long could that drag on, a month, a year? To be sure, in a true war of attrition, Dao Lord Dong Xu's Tortoise Origin Disk might not hold out long. Still, Lu Changsheng had no wish to grind through a drawn-out contest. He had yet to bring out his strongest weapon.
The Tortoise Origin Disk is itself made of all elemental materials, metal, wood, earth, and so on. And anything made such materials, anything that holds the power of the Five Elements, cannot withstand the Five Elements Decomposition!
With that, Lu Changsheng hesitated no longer. "Five Elements Decomposition!"
At once, within his Mind Space, the Five Elemental Principles each blazed forth with light.
Hum.
The five colors of radiance wove together and collided, until they formed a single dazzling brilliance, a riot of color lovely to behold. And then those five colors swept across Dao Lord Dong Xu's Tortoise Origin Disk in one stroke.
Whoosh!
The Tortoise Origin Disk shuddered violently, and then came an astonishing sight. Sheathed in the five-colored light, the disk was decomposing at a speed perceptible to the naked eye. From afar, it looked as though the Tortoise Origin Disk was melting.
"How is this possible?"
"Dao Lord Dong Xu's enchanted treasure, the Tortoise Origin Disk, is melting away?"
"What divine technique is that of Lu Changsheng's? Those five colors... They look something like a technique devised from the Five Elemental Principles."
"No doubt it's the Five Elemental Principles! In the Sacred Earth, plenty of supreme Dao Foundation cultivators have comprehended five Principles, but few have comprehended exactly the Five Elemental Principles."
"The Five Elemental Principles, yes, but even so, can a technique devised from them be this powerful?"
"A five elemental divine technique this strong is simply unheard of..."
The spectators were dumbfounded. These people had followed Dao Lord Dong Xu's run from the start, and they knew full well how formidable the Tortoise Origin Disk was. Most had been certain that no Dao Lord and no Dao Foundation expert would dare claim they could break the disk.
And yet, Lu Changsheng had just done the impossible, unleashing a technique that was melting the disk bit by bit before everyone's eyes.
"Nooo... My treasure! My Tortoise Origin Disk! You bastard!" Dao Lord Dong Xu roared madly, his face twisting with rage.
The Tortoise Origin Disk was his very lifeline. Never in his wildest imaginations had he thought it could be destroyed, and right before him at that, melting away piece by piece.
Lu Changsheng, for his part, was not surprised in the least. The Five Elements Decomposition was a technique he had devised himself, having seen through the mysteries of the five elements. Anything connected to the Five Elements was bound to collapse against it.
In truth, the disk was not melting; rather, it was decomposing. The elemental substances within the Tortoise Origin Disk were being broken down into the basic power of the Five Elements, scattering into the world between heaven and earth.
Stripped of those substances, the disk naturally ceased to exist.
In the end, Lu Changsheng casually unleashed the Flame Current, which swallowed Dao Lord Dong Xu whole.
Without the Tortoise Origin Disk, Dong Xu had no power to resist. He tried to charge out and stake his life against Lu Changsheng, but he was helplessly bound by the Four Symbols Prison. Now, he could only watch as the Flame Current was about to swallow him whole.
"This can't be happening..." Dao Lord Dong Xu murmured with wide eyes. He had risked his life to win nine consecutive fights in the arena. Just one more victory would have given him the chance to become King of the Battle Arena.
But in the end, everything turned out for nothing. In the arena, defeat meant death, and Dao Lord Dong Xu had just reached the end of his road.
Hiss!
Only ashes were left of Dao Lord Dong Xu.
"Lu Changsheng wins!" the official announced.
At first the arena was eerily silent, but then, the spectators finally erupted with cheers.
"Lu Changsheng won, ten straight wins!"
"Hahaha, I really struck gold this time! I'll bet on Lu Changsheng to become King of the Battle Arena long ago, and if he pulls it off, I'll be the richest man alive!"
"Lu Changsheng, you have to challenge the position of King of the Battle Arena!"
Countless people cheered for Lu Changsheng as he quietly stepped down from the platform.
King of the Battle Arena?
That had never been his aim. From first to last, his aim had been spirit stones and nothing else. But if claiming the title would bring him a vast hoard of spirit stones, then he would not mind playing the part of King!
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