Chapter 256 - 255: The Fight Among Peerless Gods! (3)
"Upper Division General Bracket! Match Two! Lin Yuan of the Zhao Province versus Ling Chuan of the Ling Province! Contestants, take your positions!"
A collective murmur washed over the arena.
"Ling Chuan again? He just got battered by Chu Kuang!"
"The Ling Province has the worst luck in the draw! First they face the Half-Step Transcendent brute, and now they must face that Supreme Stage rat!"
"Ling Chuan will likely concede. No one in their right mind would fight Lin Yuan after what happened to Jiang Wan."
Across the arena, in the Ling Province pavilion, Ling Chuan stood up. His pale blue robes were freshly changed, but his face was remarkably grim. His chest was heavily wrapped beneath his tunic, bearing the blunt trauma from Chu Kuang’s halberd. Yet, despite his injuries, there was no cowardice in his posture.
Ling Chuan looked toward his provincial lord, who offered him a solemn, understanding nod. In the Central Continent, to concede without stepping onto the star-iron was to bring eternal disgrace to one’s lineage. Even if defeat was inevitable, one had to draw blood, or at least force the opponent to reveal a technique.
Ling Chuan stepped off the pavilion terrace, his body dissolving into a swirl of pale blue vapor that reformed instantly in the center of the northern combat quadrant.
Lin Yuan stood up from his seat. He gently squeezed Bai Qingyue’s hand, offering her an assuring nod, before stepping off the edge of the Zhao pavilion.
He did not use a flashy movement art. He merely stepped forward into empty air, his foot landing upon an invisible ripple of spatial force, and in the next moment, he materialized thirty paces away from Ling Chuan. His robes fell perfectly still, untouched by the wind.
The Void Refinement spatial barrier slammed down around the quadrant, sealing the two combatants inside.
Ling Chuan looked at Lin Yuan. The young general of the Ling Province did not possess the arrogant, bloodthirsty sneer of Chu Kuang, nor the cold, detached fanaticism of Jiang Wan. His eyes were calm, analytical, and resigned to the brutal reality of the martial ladder.
"Daoist Lin," Ling Chuan spoke, clasping his hands together and executing a formal, deeply respectful martial bow. "I witnessed your duel against Jiang Wan. You stand at the Ninth Step of Dao Resolve, while I linger at the Seventh. By all logic, this match is already decided."
Lin Yuan did not mock him. He returned the gesture with a nod. "A man who understands his boundaries possesses greater wisdom than a fool who believes his rage can alter reality. Yet, you stepped onto the floor."
A/N: Please note that Lin Yuan’s understanding of the Dao, as well as the deeper meanings behind the ancient sayings and principles associated with it, has greatly increased after absorbing the Dao Essence within the Nine Essence Genesis Pill.
Because of this, you may notice Lin Yuan speaking in a more profound and insightful manner.
Ling Chuan straightened his posture, a faint, wry smile touching his lips as he reached into his spatial ring. "The Ling Province may be small among the Upper Division, but our waters do not freeze out of fear. My lord requires me to test your depth. I would be doing my ancestors a grave disservice if I did not force you to raise your hand."
With a soft flick of his wrist, Ling Chuan withdrew a pair of curved, hook-like short blades forged from translucent, pale-blue spiritual jade.
The moment the blades cleared his sleeves, the ambient temperature within the quadrant plummeted. The air grew damp, thick with a dense, shimmering mist that smelled of mountain springs and frost.
"Ling Province Divine Art," Ling Chuan chanted softly, his Seventh Step Sovereign Stage Qi flaring to life. "Nine Heavens Glacial Mist: Mirror of the Drifting Cloud!"
The pale blue mist erupted outward, expanding with terrifying speed. In less than a second, the entire combat quadrant was completely enveloped in a blinding, opaque fog.
To the spectators outside, the match vanished behind a wall of frost. Even high-grade divine senses struggling against the Void Refinement barrier found themselves sliding harmlessly off the mist, unable to penetrate the thick layers of moisture.
Inside the fog, Lin Yuan stood perfectly still.
His deep purple eyes scanned the blinding white void. He could hear the sound of trickling water, echoing from every conceivable direction. The mist was not merely an obscuring smoke, it was a localized domain of extreme sensory deprivation. It chilled the flesh, slowed the circulation of Qi, and scrambled the spatial coordinates of anyone trapped within.
"Ooh, a hide-and-seek specialist!" Ling Xi’s voice chimed within his mind, her nine ethereal tails swishing playfully. "He thinks he can hide his physical form inside ambient water vapor! So short-sighted!"
"Indeed," Lin Yuan agreed.
He then closed his eyes, allowing his God-Tier comprehension to reach outward. He activated the [Great Evolution Divine Ability].
The concept of the Great Evolution was the deduction of the universe. To a mortal, the drifting mist was a chaotic, unpredictable phenomenon. But to Lin Yuan’s intellect, every droplet of water, every faint fluctuation of temperature, and every subtle draft of air followed a calculable trajectory. Within three heartbeats, Lin Yuan’s mind had mapped the entire geometry of the quadrant.
He found it!
Forty feet to his left, hidden behind three layers of refracted light, a pocket of mist was moving against the natural thermal currents.
"Nine Shadows Glacial Severance!"
Ling Chuan’s voice echoed from nine different locations simultaneously.
From the dense fog, nine identical figures of Ling Chuan lunged forward, their curved jade blades flashing with freezing, cyan light. Each figure moved with astonishing, silent speed, aiming their strikes at Lin Yuan’s throat, heart, liver, and major meridian junctures. The coordination was flawless, designed to overwhelm a target’s physical blocking ability.
Lin Yuan did not dodge.
His hands moved in a fluid, circular motion before his chest.
[Cloning Technique] fused with the [Illusory Array Concealment].
The moment Ling Chuan’s nine strikes converged on the space Lin Yuan occupied, Lin Yuan’s physical form dissolved into a swirl of golden-purple leaves.
The nine jade blades pierced empty air.
"What?!" Ling Chuan’s genuine voice gasped in shock from within the formation.
Before the nine figures could recalibrate, the dense, white glacial mist was violently illuminated by an array of blinding, golden-purple runes that carved themselves directly into the air.
Lin Yuan had not run. He had used the cover of Ling Chuan’s own mist to deploy a trapping formation.
[Heaven as Net, Earth as Web].