Chapter 1291: Xianchen's Lone Blow
"[Night Parade: Hundredfold Echo]!"
A huge number of ghostly figures emerged from Ye Xianchen's body, then simultaneously enveloped her. Her eyes turned ink-black as ghastly winds surrounded her, almost as though she were being possessed. Her short black hair suddenly lengthened.
Pitch-black ghosts crawled over her skin. Ghostly hands dangled as though cursed.
She howled like a banshee, and a demonic shadow appeared behind her.
Right then and there, Ye Xianchen seemed to have transformed into a creature straight out of a nightmare.
"[Madness Claws]!"
Ye Xianchen slammed her palms down on the earth as hundreds of claws emerged from underground and swiped toward Zhang Lie.
Zhang Lie stomped on the ground, causing pale blue energy to ripple like the tides, clearing away the claws and leaving behind only a pair of pitch-black eyes staring at him, like those of a malevolent ghost's.
When Ye Xianchen spoke under this transformation, she sounded like a banshee, with eerie undertones that caused all the spectators to shiver.
"Before receiving everyone's training, faced with such a powerful master that I despaired of ever trying to beat him, I would already have surrendered—but now, I'm not fighting alone. Everyone is standing behind me, and I'll defeat you thanks to their hard work and expectations!"
"If you're the hero of justice, then I must have become the great evil you have to defeat," Zhang Lie couldn't help but joke.
"This is my strongest attack!"
Ye Xianchen's body floated into mid-air. She gripped her daggers tightly. As though a demon were descending on the realm, black genetic energy poured from her and manifested in the form of a fierce demonic head.
"[Nightmarish Strike], [Heaven's Judgment], [Darkbane Dragon's Remnants]!"
Wind and storm combined and crackled at the tip of Ye xianchen's sword, spinning and manifesting in the form of a dragon of shadows and tiger of darkness.
As [Darkbane Dragon's Remnants] exploded, the dragon of shadows coiled around Ye Xianchen and infused itself into her blade, causing the pitch-black storm winds to double in size.
Zhang Lie frowned. "A very familiar technique."
The space around Ye Xianchen shattered like glass. Pitch-black genetic energy ignited and transformed the winds into a cyclone of black flame.
Countless ghostly hands emerged from underground. Ye Xianchen had compressed the strength of her techniques again and again until she was at her limit. Only then could she unleash such a blow.
Her sword possessed incredible might, as though hundreds of ghosts accompanied her strike. The blade shot forward amidst wailing cries. The attack was composed of dark-attuned genetic energy, but had been transformed fourfold to encompass four different elemental effects: darkness, wind, thunder, and fire.
The fact that she had been able to develop such a technique was an incredible shock to Zhang Lie, who could only sustain a dual-element transformation at the moment. Ye Xianchen's ability to manipulate elemental attunements surpassed even his own.
Although she wasn't as practiced as Zhang Lie, she possessed an incredible talent.
Burning ghosts pounced toward Zhang Lie.
"It looks like I'll have to be a little serious against this technique. I'll use a third of my strength, then."
Ye Xianchen had clearly spent a considerable amount of time on this technique, and it was only reasonable to treat it with commensurate strength.
Pale blue genetic energy rippled about Zhang Lie's arms. He flicked his wrists, causing a frightening aura to descend on the world. The sky began to darken, and a fish the size of a whale materialized in the air.
A howling gale swept over the arena. As more and more genetic energy gathered around Zhang Lie's arms, it looked as though he were at the heart of a whirlpool.
"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Soar]!"
A huge wave soared into the air. As Zhang Lie punched forward, the fish slammed its huge tail on the ground and sent a torrent of water surging.
Ripples of energy spread out from Zhang Lie, warping the space around him. The towering waves looked like enraged black dragons, flooding the arena, extinguishing the burning ghosts, and sending a surge of water toward Ye Xianchen until she screamed in shock.
However, the flood of water didn't land on Ye Xianchen. It flew harmlessly overhead, smashing into the cracked barriers that Zhu had erected.
Huge, reverberating sound waves shook the air as the flood of water broke barrier after barrier before exploding in mid-air in a burst of terrifying energy, shaking the entire unified world.
Howling winds scoured the world as Ye Xianchen slumped to the ground in shock, her legs turned to jelly. She looked at her master dumbly for quite some time, unable to speak.
Zhang Lie asked, "What did you think?"
Ye Xianchen belatedly came to her senses. "My knees are still trembling..."
If that blow had struck her, she wouldn't just have turned into a heap of flesh—her bones might well have crumbled into powder.
Only now did Ye Xianchen realize just what sort of monster the members of Team Zenith had to face.
Zhang Lie asked, "What did you intuit from this fight?"
Ye Xianchen, still not fully recovered from the shock of the attack, numbly shook her head.
Zhang Lie commented, "You really have surprised me. To be honest, I'm a little shocked by how much you managed to learn from everyone from Team Zenith. You've really worked hard on your elemental transmutation that I talked to Sun Xiaowu about, and you've done more with it and gone even farther than I could have expected. You're far more talented than I had imagined."
Ye Xianchen couldn't help smiling at Zhang Lie's praise.
"However, there are some obvious problems you'll have to figure out. There's too large a gap between you and the other members of Team Zenith. At the start of the fight, your techniques were still reasonable, but your [Nightmarish Strike], [Heaven's Judgment], and [Darkbane Dragon's Remnants] aren't very strong techniques. Fang Yi's strongest attacks incorporate the combination of at least five or six different types of energies, but at the moment, you're only incorporating four different elements and three techniques."
She was only using half as many combinations in her attacks as Fang Yi did.
Ye Xianchen asked, "Master, does that mean that I need to work on my techniques?"
Zhang Lie replied, "The structure and skeleton of your techniques is good, but you haven't mastered them to your full abilities at the moment. I look forward to seeing how you've grown in the fourth realm, when you're able to expand your repertoire."
Ye Xianchen promised, "I'll keep working hard, Master!"
Zhang Lie turned to Jun Jiuxiao. "I expect the same of you, Jun Jiuxiao. When we meet in the fourth realm again, I'd like to see both of you grow even stronger."
Jun Jiuxiao nodded seriously. "I won't disappoint you, Master."
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