Chapter 209.3: Lu Changsheng Slays Hong Shan with a Flip of His Palm! The Battle Arena Erupts! A New King of the Battle Arena Is Born! (III)
Is his mind that resilient? No, even a formidable mind would crumble against a fraction of the Mental Black Hole's power.
Lu Changsheng narrowed his eyes, having seen through Hong Shan's defense.
"You possess a treasure that words off mental attacks, don't you?"
Hong Shan made no response. Instead, he swept out his hand, and several beams of light instantly flared up. Another divine technique was being activated. Then, another one followed, then another, and another. In a heartbeat, seven or eight supreme compound divine techniques surged forth in a dense torrent and blotted out the sky. Each of those techniques was on par with Lu Changsheng's Flame Current.
What supreme Dao Foundation cultivator or Dao Lord could possibly withstand such a fearsome onslaught?
This was the source of Hong Shan's strength. With nine Principles, he could combine them at will into a great many divine techniques, and he happened to have cultivated many supreme compound techniques, likely several dozen in all.
With sheer numbers of techniques alone, he could simply stack his techniques against an opponent and overwhelm them.
"What, is this a contest of who had more techniques?" Lu Changsheng scoffed, not the faintest flicker of alarm crossing his face. In fact, he remained perfectly calm. In truth, if he wished to devise divine techniques, then never mind dozens, he could even manage hundreds.
However, there was no point in that. Lu Changsheng had already begun to understand that quality was more important than quantity when it came to divine techniques.
Unlike you, I only need a few.
With that, Four Symbols Principles surfaced within his Mind Space, and he swiftly unleashed the Four Symbols Prison.
Boom!
The Four Symbols Prison swept over Hong Shan and all seven or eight of his techniques at once, enclosing them as if within a real cell.
Rumble!
Hong Shan's divine techniques crashed against the Four Symbols Prison, striving to tear it open. The prison shuddered violently, the whole platform quaking along with it.
Hong Shan wore a calm, composed smile on his face, but a few moments later, that smile vanished.
Lu Changsheng stood quietly upon the platform. The Four Symbols Prison was being battered without end by those powerful techniques, shaking and swaying as though it might collapse at any moment.
And yet, when all the smoke and dust cleared and the techniques exhausted their power, the Four Symbols Prison still stood, and Hong Shan was still trapped within.
"What the..." Hong Shan's eyes widened, marking the first crack in his composure during the fight.
"How is this possible?" he murmured. "My divine techniques couldn't break through yours? What in the world is that? How could my techniques fail to break your defense? No technique could be this powerful..."
Hong Shan struggled to contain his disbelief. No one had ever heard of any kind of defense that could withstand a barrage of his divine techniques. Perhaps it would have been plausible if he had unleashed just two or three techniques, but enduring seven or more was simply absurd.
And yet, that absurdity had just occurred before his eyes. Lu Changsheng's Four Symbols Prison remained standing!
"What the hell is going on?"
"Hong Shan's assault has been stopped for the first time! Look at Lu Changsheng! He's totally composed and in full control of the situation!"
"Yeah, each of his previous fights was exactly like this, everything seemingly within his grasp, calm and at ease, his opponent wiped out with a flip of the palm. I thought his opponents were simply too weak, but now he's facing Hong Shan, and he's displaying the same kind of performance... Just how strong is this Lu Changsheng, really?"
"Don't forget, Hong Shan still has his trump card. He's a supreme Dao Foundation expert with dozens of divine techniques!"
The crowd was going wild, as the bout had already exceeded everyone's expectations. Rather than being a one-sided fight in Hong Shan's favor, it looked like Lu Changsheng had the upper hand.
Lu Changsheng's Four Symbols Prison drew on only four Principles, and yet it possessed power far greater than that.
Hong Shan had unleashed seven or eight divine techniques, all supreme compound divine techniques of five Principles each. Naturally, everyone had assumed that the sheer number of techniques would secure the victory for Hong Shan.
And yet, Lu Changsheng's Four Symbols Prison had proven everyone wrong. Many were realizing for the first time that more techniques did not necessarily mean more power. Sometimes, quality was enough to shake the heavens.
"Tch!" Hong Shan clenched his teeth.
Hum...
All nine of his Principles flickered within his Mind Space. From those nine Principles, Hong Shan had practiced sixty-three divine techniques, of which more than fifty were compound techniques.
Woosh!
Hong Shan poured out his every ounce of strength, holding back almost nothing. All sixty-three techniques came surging forth.
Rumble!
The techniques erupted at once, sweeping toward Lu Changsheng in a vast, mighty flood. Now, faced with sixty-three divine techniques, it really looked like the Four Symbols Prison would collapse like a sandcastle against the lapping waves.
No matter how powerful Lu Changsheng's four-Principle divine technique was, there was no way it could withstand such an assault. After all, Hong Shan's nine-Principle divine technique was part of the barrage, and its power was earth-shattering.
This was the first time Lu Changsheng had ever been faced with something like this. In terms of sheer power, the force of dozens of divine techniques erupting together was beyond imagination. It would be no exaggeration to say that Hong Shan was the strongest opponent Lu Changsheng had ever faced in the Dao Foundation Realm.
The dozens of divine techniques crashed against the Four Symbols Prison, and the prison shuddered violently at once. It seemed like the tremendous force would tear the prison apart with ease.
"What?"
And yet, no matter how violently the Four Symbols Prison shook, it did not collapse, as though it was truly indestructible. There was a faint sense that something within those four simple Principles was endlessly regenerating.
"Are those Principles... generating one another?"
"Just what kind of technique is that? It can actually withstand the impact of dozens of divine techniques, among them one devised from nine Principles. How is that possible?"
"How could a technique devised from just four Principles become this insanely powerful? If not even sixty-three techniques can blast open the Four Symbols Prison, what can?"
"I've never seen or heard of such a divine technique before. And this Lu Changsheng, they say, has a Five-Elements divine technique as well, one that's supposedly capable of decomposing anything..."
Everyone in the arena was stunned. The spectators had already thought highly of Lu Changsheng, but now that they were witnessing his true power, they felt like they had underestimated him terribly. One technique—that was all Lu Changsheng had used to block Hong Shan's entire arsenal.
And now, it was Lu Changsheng's turn to respond.
"Five Elements Decomposition!"
A stream of five-colored radiance surged forth and swept over Hong Shan's techniques in an instant. There was no element of luck involved; this was a head-on clash of pure force, one technique against dozens.
"Is that really all you've got?" Hong Shan sneered. "Not even a technique formed from eight Principles could crush mine in a direct clash, and yet you're foolish enough to fight me head-on with that pitiful five-Principle—"
His face suddenly froze. "What the...? Impossible..."
All color had drained from Hong Shan's face. He could not believe his eyes. Lu Changsheng's five-colored radiance had collided fiercely with his barrage of divine techniques, and his techniques were rapidly disintegrating, one after another, like snow melting under the sun.
"How is this possible?" Hong Shan was utterly dumbfounded.
No matter how unbelievable it seemed, the truth was undeniable: his techniques had been completely countered. Indeed, dozens of divine techniques had been countered by one technique derived from just five Principles. This incredible sight overturned everything Hong Shan thought he had known about martial arts.
It wasn't just Hong Shan; the spectators were dumbstruck as well, scarcely able to believe what lay before their eyes.
"A technique can do this? Completely countering that many techniques at once is just ridiculous."
"Yeah, I've never heard of something like that before. I mean, what are you even supposed to do against that?"
"There must be some trick to it, something we're missing. No way it's actually that powerful, right?"
"Lu Changsheng has devised that technique from the Five Elemental Principles. The Five Elements generate and restrain one another, so in theory, any force that's tied to those elements would be countered by the Five Elemental Principles. Could it be that Lu Changsheng's technique can already counter all forces of the Five Elements?"
"If that's the case, then Hong Shan couldn't have done anything against him."
A few of the more worldly, well-informed onlookers seemed to have grasped it: the Five Elements divine techniques, generation and suppression.
Lu Changsheng's technique most likely made use of the property of mutual suppression among the five elements, able to counter any force within their bounds.
All of Hong Shan's techniques carried, to some extent, the power of the Five Elements, so naturally they were countered by Lu Changsheng's technique. Perhaps his techniques would have been effective had they been of the mental type. Or if Hong Shan had grasped the Space Principle, any technique derived from that would have bypassed the Five Elements Decomposition.
In any case, such what ifs were meaningless now. They were the sort of things only the defeated dwelled on.
The last of Hong Shan's divine techniques melted away, and at last, the Five Elements Decomposition dissolved closed in on him.
"Noooo!"
Hong Shan's body was also composed of the Five Elements. As such, the moment the Five Elements Decomposition enveloped him, his body began to decompose, and with one final, wretched cry, Hong Shan crumbled to dust.
Just like that, Hong Shan, the King of the Battle Arena, had been slain. Lu Changsheng had slain the King with just three divine techniques, reducing him to dust. Once again, with utmost composure and dominance, he had slain his foe with a mere flip of the palm!
"Whoooo!"
The crowd erupted into cheers for the new King of the Battle Arena.
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