Crash!
“The Thirteen Series of Gale Force Blade! Seven Cuts in One Breath!”
Shi Mu’s body suddenly began to revolve wildly like a gyroscope, and the long knife in his hand created shadows, one after another, stretching and morphing. Each time he moved the knife, seven shadows of it emerged, eventually creating a miniature mountain!
The mountain, however, was not made of stones but of deadly gleaming blades, and shrill sounds came faintly from the mountain now and then.
Then Wang Tianhao’s six fireballs disappeared into the mountain, as quick as shooting stars. Immediately six booming noises exploded from the mountain! A violent heavy rain of sparks fell in all directions, heating up the entire room. The entire area was filled with sparks.
Simultaneously, on the floor of the ring, whizzing noises resounded as hundreds of blade marks were cut into the floor, centered around the spot where the blade mountain had exploded. Each mark was three chi both in depth and length, making a huge circle that appeared to be carved by a ruler[A].
“Peng!” A deafening noise.
As though rammed by an invisible burst of energy, Wang Tianhao tipped over in midair and then thudded down onto the floor. Unable to steady himself, he stumbled back as far as seven steps, meanwhile leaving a trail of seven half-inch deep footprints on the floor.
Once he had finally come to a stop, his face had turned ashen, and his hands, barely managing to hold his spear, would not stop trembling. The front end of the spear used to be imposing, but now it had vanished, or had been melted away by the heat.
All the instructors below stared at the lower part of the melting blade mountain, their eyes unblinking.
Practitioners, including Feng Jun, were more shocked than their instructors, some even holding their breaths.
Finally, when the last shadow from his knife faded from the ring, Shi Mu’s silhouette suddenly became visible: he was standing straight, holding his knife single-handedly. The only unusually things were that he was blushing from the heat, and his shoulders and hair were slightly burnt. As for his knife, there were many notches on its edge, as if the knife had been struck repeatedly by some unknown hardware.
But as for Shi Mu, it was as clear as day why his knife had all those notches. It went out of control at the fireballs impacts and thus cut directly into the floor which then pocketed the edge. And this was also why he had left numerous knife marks around him.
“Can’t believe you took my six fireballs head on!” After observing Shi Mu’s body closely and seeing that he was not badly injure, Wang Tianhao could not believe his own eyes.
“It’s all because of my advanced blade art, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to take your last strike.” Shi Mu did not look triumphant. On the contrary, at this moment he actually had some reverence for Wang Tianhao.
“Seven Cuts in One Breath! You had gone this far in your Gale Force Blade Art, thus my defeat was certain. But in this match the spear I used was made of ordinary iron, not refined iron, so it definitely couldn’t withstand my overwhelming flame. If I had used a refined one, then you wouldn’t have been able to stay safe and sound. But I won’t break my promise, I’ll retire from the match since you’ve taken my attacks.” Wang Tianhao first let out a sigh, then said this in a grudging tone, before he jumped out of the ring as promised, and went straight to the gate of the hall.
“Hold on a moment, Tianhao! Please excuse me.” Uncle Xu was flustered at the scene, and after a hasty goodbye, he hurriedly chased after his nephew, leaving other Jin Gang members behind.
Seeing this, the remaining instructors and practitioners could only gape at each other.
It was surprising enough for Shi Mu to have accomplished his Seven Cuts in One Breath; but the result of the challenge was even more surprising!
“Wow...Liu Feng club wins! Shi Mu wins! A young hero indeed! But as Uncle Xu said earlier, now little brother Shi is faced with two choices: one, the fight can be deemed as a winning challenge against Jin Gang club, so you can retire now and fight in the next round; the other, you can remain at the ring and wait for the next challenge from other clubs’ practitioners. If no one can defeat you, then Liu Feng club will naturally come first in this year’s competition.” The military officer ascended again to the ring and announced the result, before he measured Shi Mu from head to toe in a most surprised manner.
This result undoubtedly created a commotion below the ring.
Although most of the practitioners were impressed with Shi Mu’s earlier performance, they knew well that his energy was reduced after that bitter fight. Furthermore, even if Shi Mu was not badly injured, his strength would not hold much longer in the next fight, plus his weapon had been ruined in his earlier fight. But according to the conventional rule, if Shi Mu decided to take the next challenge without a rest, he would be denied of the chance to have a new weapon.
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