Chapter 396: Third Round – Miaomiao & Fogan VS Zhang Liao & Qu Yi – Part Two
Zhang Liao's face was pale. He didn't know how, but he couldn't use his Qi or feel his nascent soul.
Something was wrong after his domain power had been destroyed.
The Zhang Clan's branch leader stared at Miaomiao, who seemed too relaxed for someone who had just used a powerful technique.
He regretted not attacking Miaomiao earlier. He couldn't even use any of his supreme skills and his halberdier domain power!
"What did you do!? Did you use a domain sealing talisman!?"
Miaomiao narrowed one eye and smirked, "Why do I need to use that when I can just smash whatever domain you have with my sword."
"You…"
Zhang Liao took a long deep breath to calm down. He borrowed some of Yang Essence from both of his heaven-grade halberds to check his dantian and his soul.
His dantian and his soul were fine. The elemental Qi, Yang Essence, and his nascent soul were intact, but he couldn't control anything.
"Confused?" Miaomiao waved his katana around in leisure. A second later, Killer Queen glowed in bright orange color as if it was a heated blade in a forge.
Then, Miaomiao slashed horizontally.
SHINK
The bright red horizontal line flashed in front of Zhang Liao again. This time, Zhang Liao's battle armor was sliced. A long cut had appeared on his chest part.
Again, Miaomiao canceled Zhang Liao's connection with his Qi and Essence. Even the borrowed Qi from his heaven-grade halberds were destroyed.
Zhang Liao gritted his teeth as he couldn't see the movement. Currently, Miaomiao was 100 meters away from him, yet his armor was definitely cut.
"Sword Domain!?" Zhang Liao muttered in astonishment.
Miaomiao shrugged, "Wrong. If I really had the sword domain, you would have been dead after the first strike."
"Then, what did you do!?"
"Do I have to reveal my techniques to my opponent during an important life-and-death match?"
"…"
Zhang Liao bit his lower lips. He clenched his weapons in frustration and despair.
He didn't know how to counter or cancel Miaomiao's mysterious technique! Every power he had was suppressed and disabled!
While Zhang Liao and Qu Yi had stopped moving, the people from Yuan Shaoqing's camp began booing. Even the neutral onlookers, merchants, and weak cultivators jeered at Zhang Liao and Qu Yi.
"Such incompetent representatives! Are you really nascent soul cultivators!? Why can't you kill a simple brat that hasn't even reached the 5th-stage!?"
"IDIOT QU CLAN PATRIARCH! I BET A LOT OF MONEY ON YOU! KILL THAT ORC AND THAT BRAT ALREADY!!"
"What are you doing!? Why aren't you fighting!? Have our fighters gone retarded?"
"Is this what the Great Zhang Clan is capable of!? Don't make me laugh. You must have bet a lot on your opponents before you challenged them, right? The odd is 150 to 1 against Siren City! Are you colluding with the Yuan Gambling House!? Are you throwing the match for money!?"
Hearing the jeer and the baseless insult, Zhang Liao and Qu Yi's faces flushed in anger. It was not like they didn't want to fight, but they couldn't use their Qi.
Despite being under the mysterious restriction, Zhang Liao bellowed and absorbed the remaining essence from his two halberds. Using the last bit of his power, he directly charged at Miaomiao and swung the two heaven-grade weapons, aiming to slice him into two like a scissor cutting through a thin sheet.
"As expected of the future tiger general of Cao Cao, you have a good fighting spirit."
Zhang Liao didn't know what Miaomiao was talking about, but the youth simply charged at him with the katana pointing at his neck.
His halberd attack missed. Instead, Zhang Liao was stabbed! Killer Queen penetrated his neck like a hot knife cutting through butter.
Zhang Liao had expected this, but he didn't flinch. He borrowed some Yang Essence and metal element Qi from his weapons to his hands and flushed out the remaining energy back to the weapons.
Both souls in Zhang Liao's weapons screeched as they sensed the will of their master and the threat of Miaomiao's mysterious skill and presence. They slipped off Zhang Liao's hands and moved by themselves, aiming their blades at Miaomiao's neck.
CLANK
CLANK
Despite being coated with metal Qi, lightning Qi, and 100 billion liters of Yang Essence from Zhang Liao's flushed energy, the two heaven-grade halberds failed to cut through Miaomiao's dark red scales, which shone the same color as the Qi-Sealing Amethyst gemstones.
After contacting with the metal-like scales, the two weapons suddenly lost control of their Qi. They flopped and fell on the ground as they couldn't muster the energy from their souls.
The neck of Miaomiao, which had been hit by the halberd blade, gleamed in black light. It shone like the dark amethyst gemstones in Nero's cave, which could suppress any cultivator's Qi and Essence upon touch.
Zhang Liao widened his eyes while the tip of Miaomiao's katana was inside his neck. He finally realized what Miaomiao had done and the trick that the latter had used against them.
'Qi-Sealing Amethyst Scales… So he got a fortuitous encounter from the forbidden mine. That explains everything, including that spider monster...'
The counterpart of Cao Cao's Great General closed his eyes, accepting his defeat. He didn't say anything, but he waited for Miaomiao to deliver the final blow.
…
After Miaomiao had stabbed Zhang Liao's neck and withstood the halberd strike, Fang Yanxu stopped conversing with his superior, Samsara, and looked at the battle.
The immortal's face distorted. From the very beginning, he knew what Miaomiao had used.
Miaomiao had used three techniques to disable Qu Yi and Zhang Liao's domain power and Qi manipulation ability!
The first factor was related to the sword dao that Miaomiao had mastered.
Normally, a swordsman's dao could only be comprehended after one's had formed several elemental continents as their foundations to support a dao pillar. Then, the swordsman could manifest a dao avatar as a part of their core pillar realm's skills and abilities.
But in Miaomiao's case, he had neither elemental continents nor a core pillar to manifest his dao into a dao avatar. Yet, his experience, sword intent, killing intent, and boundless Life Essence were so strong that he could emulate the dao avatar power with his physical and mental energy without the need of the dao manifestation process or a dao pillar.
The second major factor was Miaomiao's obscene sword technique, which no mortal should have learned.
Fang Yanxu knew of a crazy immortal, who was a part of the family of sword lunatics, the Immortal Jian Clan. They came up with unique sword art, which had been passed down from generation to generation.
Some said that it was the deathliest sword art, while many feared them for their perverted nature. However, Fang Yanxu understood the true potential of this sword technique as he had sparred with one of them before.
The technique itself focused on stripping their opponent's weapons, armors, clothes, and power. A master of this technique could interrupt, intercept, or even cancel their opponent's Qi-based power!
Their sword art and techniques were known as "Stripper Swordsmanship".
Fang Yanxu was confused about how the prestigious immortal clan's divine-grade technique appeared here. He suspected that it might relate to the people from the Xu Clan, the infamous succubus family.
He remembered a rumor that one of the Jian Clan's young masters pursued Xu Chu and Xu Huang, and that idiot might have leaked the secret of the Stripper Sword Technique to one of the succubi. He didn't know what happened afterward, but he guessed that the technique might have been passed to this mortal world.
And lastly, Miaomiao's power came from Nero's bloodline and his specialties, Dragon Metal Element Qi.
While Dragon Fire Qi favored burst power and offensive techniques, Dragon Metal Qi was compatible with all elements since it supported all defensive and offensive skills.
By coating one's weapon or body with Dragon Metal Element Qi, their weapons, armors, bodies, or Qi-based techniques could inflict a Qi-sense suppressing effect like the black amethyst crystals or gemstones in Nero's cave!
Miaomiao increased his sword range with his sword dao and the stripper swordsmanship technique. At the same time, he merged the stripper technique with Nero's Dragon Metal Qi and applied the Qi-Sence suppressing curse to Zhang Liao and Qu Yi with his long-ranged slash.
As a result, with a slight graze to the overlapped domains, Fogan, Qu Yi, and Zhang Liao's Qi-Sense abilities were disabled, resulting in the present development.
Combining these three factors together, Miaomiao coincidentally mimicked the famous domain's ability of Immortal Jian Clan, Power Stripping Domain!
Seeing how insanely strong Miaomiao was, Fang Yanxu gritted his teeth.
'Meng Xin or Mao Miaomiao? Should I go for the Yama Election, or should I abandon that thing and invest in this brat? If I nurture him and make him join the Fang Clan, our immortal clan will get the Jian's Stripper Sword Technique and the bloodline of Nero!'
'But if I draw Meng Xin on my side, not only I can be the next Yama for a hundred years and get the dreamt authority, Meng Xin's three dao fruits and his supreme fate can be passed down to his children and Fang Meirong. Her ascension to the Divine Realm is definitely guaranteed, and the Fang Clan can move to the higher realm with her influence!'
Fang Yanxu hesitated if he should reconcile with Miaomiao or proceed with his scheme and kill the boy right here.
He wanted them both, but he could only pick one as his son-in-law as he only had one daughter!
'Dammit!'
As Fang Yanxu couldn't decide, he sent a telepathic voice to his superior officers and his wife, consulting with them.
…
As Zhang Liao had given up fighting, he closed his eyes and waited for the final blow.
However, ten seconds had passed, but Miaomiao didn't move the katana in his neck. The blade simply stuck there, draining his Qi and Essence from his meridians and blood vessels.
Zhang Liao opened his eyes and glared at Miaomiao. As his vocal cord had already been severed, he tried to send a telepathic voice to the latter.
However, the power couldn't come out. Zhang Liao couldn't use any ability.
Without a choice, Zhang Liao's lips moved as if he said the words out loud, hoping that Miaomiao could read his lips.
'What are you doing? You've already won. Now, kill me!'
Miaomiao had been gazing at Qu Yi, who had reluctantly jumped off the platform and stood outside the ring. The archer bitterly smiled and cupped his fist, bowing to Miaomiao and gesturing surrender.
The dragonewt sighed, "How dullard."
'What!?'
Zhang Liao was fumed with rage. He thought that Miaomiao had belittled them because of their weaknesses.
'You can kill us, but don't insult our hard work and dedication! We have reached this stage because of our blood and sweat. A brat that got lucky with several fortuitous encounters like you can't possibly understand what kind of world we, the bottom feeders, have been through to get this far!'
Miaomiao frowned for a moment as he noticed Zhang Liao's mouth movements. He turned to the guy, "I'm sorry. What are you trying to say?"
'Just stop playing around and kill me! I've lost!'
"… Haiz," Miaomiao rolled his eyes as he didn't understand what Zhang Liao was trying to communicate. He gently pulled Killer Queen from Zhang Liao's neck. Blood started gushing out from the latter's wound.
The counterpart of the great general collapsed on the ground, waiting to be bled to death. He bitterly smiled and struggled to lie on his back, so he could gaze at the dark cloud and the tribulation eyes in the sky.
Zhang Liao thought of himself that his pitiful life of a loser like him finally came to an end. He wouldn't be bullied, insulted, or humiliated by the stronger clansmen from the Holy Land anymore. He closed his eyes, waiting for his consciousness to fade.
SPLASH
Suddenly, Zhang Liao sensed something cold hit his face and neck. He snapped open his eyes and glared at the culprit, who had splashed water at him.
Zhang Liao coughed and scratched his neck. He sat up and yelled at Miaomiao, "FUCK YOU! CAN'T YOU JUST LET ME DIE IN PEACE!? HOW FAR ARE YOU GOING TO TORTURE OR HUMILIATE ME BEFORE I DIE!?"
While rolling his eyes, Miaomiao sighed again. He walked closer to Zhang Liao and gently pulled off the general's battle helmet. Afterward, Miaomiao smacked the back of the latter's head, sounding a loud bang.
"Is that how you talk with your savior!? Now that I repaired your vocal cord, say that again! What have you been trying to say to me earlier?"
"Huh?"
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