Chapter 232 - Hei vs. Long Tian - 3

"You?!" Long Tian exclaimed in amazement. Despite being only a punch, Hei's blow had visibly affected him. However, he regained his calm the next moment, demonstrating his incredible ability to keep a cool head in any situation. Then he analyzed what had happened and soon came to a conclusion.

'That purple smoke...'

He realized that Hei had started moving when that purple smoke appeared. Not only that, the more intense the smoke became, the more Hei's movements returned to normal.

"I understand. You took a cue from Lian even though you changed her tactics to make it more suitable for you. You are using your body as a catalyst to create that smoke. As long as it is present, it is as if there is a corrosive protective layer that prevents my technique from reaching you."

Hearing Long Tian's explanation, Hei just smiled without replying. But that was enough for Long Tian to confirm his assumptions.

'Poison Sublimation burns my body hair to create a protective corrosive smoke layer. It's a move limited by my hair length and quantity. Other than that, the downside is that I'm unable to use Spider Hair at the same time. Also, I won't be able to use Spider Hair until my hair has grown back. But, against the Long Tian technique, this was the only move I could come up with.'

Hei canceled his technique. Since it had a limited duration, he couldn't afford to keep it running unnecessarily. Moreover, Long Tian's crushing technique had been canceled, and therefore there was no reason to keep Poison Sublimation active.

"Come back." Long Tian commanded.

At his command, the hooked swords that were stuck on the stage floor trembled. Then they broke away from the stage and quickly returned to their master.

"Attract and Repel have a limited effect on you. The same goes for my Mother Earth's Embrace. At the same time, thanks to your flexibility, you can dodge most of my attacks. It seems that I am at a dead end." Long Tian smiled as if he found his predicament amusing.

"Yellow Dragon War Dance."

When Long Tian pronounced those words, his hooked swords parted from him. Then they placed themselves in the center between him and Hei, with a distance of three meters from each other.

"Attract."

When Long Tian said those words, something unexpected happened. Hei was ready to be lured towards Long Tian as it happened before. However, this time he felt no force pulling him towards his opponent. Instead, it was Long Tian who moved as if he were being pulled. In addition, since Long Tian himself decided to move, his attraction speed was even faster than his movement speed.

Whoosh!

In an instant, he came to the sword to his right on which he had activated his Attract technique. His feet landed on the sword's blade, which was placed vertically in the air.

"Repel."

Boom!

There was a rumble, and Long Tian was hurled forward at full speed towards Hei. His speed was higher than that shown before, taking Hei by surprise as the latter didn't expect something like that.

"Shit," Hei swore as he activated Spider Carapace on his arms. It was the most effective solution that came to mind at that moment.

"Earth Law, Authority of the Earth: Yellow Dragon Fist."

Boom! Crack!

Long Tian's fist acquired terrifying attack power. His fist crashed into Hei's arms, breaking Spider Carapace's defense and even the defensive layer of spirit power covering his arms. However, Hei's reaction allowed him to prevent the damage from spreading to the arms themselves.

Seeing that Long Tian was using the Yellow Dragon Fist, Hei gave up all thoughts of resisting by force. Instead, he tilted his back to the ground as he bought time with Spider Carapace. Then he raised his legs and placed them on Long Tian's stomach to lift him and disturb his trajectory.

"Attract."

As soon as Hei's quick thinking deflected his trajectory, Long Tian used Attract on the other sword he had at his disposal. His body regained its balance in midair as his feet landed on the sword's blade.

"Repel."

Boom!

Once again, Long Tian was hurled at Hei like a boulder thrown from a catapult. The speed of this move increased his already terrifying attack power even more.

'I absolutely can't get caught. With Snake Hair unusable, even if I combined Spider Carapace with the Darkness Law, I wouldn't be able to block all the damage. So I must try to get out of range of his swords first.'

"Spider Run, Four Legged Mode."

Having personally witnessed the dangers of Long Tian's technique, Hei had no intention of staying there as a stationary target. So he got on all fours, and with all the speed he had, he tried to get away from Long Tian and his swords.

Unfortunately for Hei, the swords didn't hold a fixed position but were movable. Furthermore, the speed acquired by Long Tian was such that it rivaled his movement technique. So running away wasn't feasible.

'If I can't escape, then I have to fight back to break his technique.'

Seeing no other alternative, Hei made up his mind to face his opponent head-on. He then resumed an upright position and prepared to welcome the arrival of Long Tian.

'He resumed his standing position. Did he understand that it is useless to escape? No, I doubt he has lost the will to fight.'

When he saw Hei get up, Long Tian became thoughtful. Hei was a difficult opponent to face due to his techniques. Furthermore, he had an incredible speed of reflexes and thinking, that he could escape even the most desperate situations.

'Even so, I can't back down. Let's see what you have in mind, Hei!'

Long Tian slammed into Hei again using his Repel technique on himself. His spirit power was ready to condense in his fist to form the Yellow Dragon Fist.

"Snake Run + Snake Coiling, Snake Dodge."

Hei twisted his back at the last moment so that Long Tian flew right in front of his face. Then he opened his mouth and stretched out his tongue.

"Chameleon Tongue + Darkness Law, Dark Tongue."

A dark mass was formed from his tongue, which took the form of a tongue, or to be more precise, became the extension of his tongue.

Grasp!

The dark tongue formed by the Darkness Law wrapped itself around Long Tian's foot, thus abruptly restraining his movement.

Crack!

As Long Tian was moving at great speed, the dark tongue couldn't resist and broke apart, creating shards of black light. Despite that, however, it had succeeded in its purpose: to stop Long Tian in midair.

"Poison Spider Lance!"

Stab!

Hei's technique lodged in Long Tian's stomach. The defensive layer of the latter tried to resist but without success; in a few moments, it shattered, leaving the flesh uncovered.

"Attract!" Long Tian exclaimed with agitation.

He had seen firsthand the tremendous piercing power of Spider Lance. With his incredible defense, even Hu Jie had lost against this move.

Whoosh!

Long Tian's body was drawn towards his nearest sword, thus preventing Hei's technique from hitting him directly. Now, ironically, the situation had turned around once again.

Pant!

Long Tian took a few breaths to calm his racing heart. His face was impassive, but his eyes betrayed the amazement and fear he had felt moments before.

'Every tactic I tried proved to be a double-edged sword. Usually a martial artist would only learn a certain number of techniques as they must be continuously trained. But Hei's techniques are all intrinsically linked, allowing him to have a solution for everything.

I wanted to avoid him as much as possible, given the danger of his Spider Lance technique. But apparently, I have no other alternative if I want to win. So I have to use a brute force approach.'

"Yellow Dragon Fist."

Long Tian condensed as much spirit power into his right fist. His goal was to strike as hard as he could infuse until Hei could no longer fight back.

"Spider Lance + Beast Claws + Snake Coiling + Poison Law, Poison Piercing Lance."

Hei was also prepared to respond with full force. He used a combination of three techniques, to which he also added the Poison Law. Like that, his arm twisted like a snake to gain more momentum power as his spirit power condensed on his sharp nails, which took on the corrosive power of the Poison Law.

BAM! STAB!

The Yellow Dragon Fist and the Poison Piercing Lance collided with each other. The attack power of two fighters by that time had reached their peak. Either technique could kill a normal Spirit Soldier on the spot. Even those with powerful defenses like Hu Jie wouldn't be left unscathed.

CRACK!

As the contact continued, Hei and Long Tian's defensive layer of spirit power shrank. Eventually, it reached its limit and burst, leaving both hands defenseless. Nonetheless, none of the fighters stopped.

CRACK!

There was the sound of bones breaking, and unsurprisingly, the fingers of Hei's left hand had been broken, taking on a shapeless shape. At the same time, Long Tian's fist had a deep wound: part of the flesh of his hand was being cut off, and blood was running copiously to the ground.

"Yellow Dragon Fist!"
"Spider Lance!"

Ignoring the pain in their hand, both Hei and Long Tian prepared to strike again, this time using the other hand still in good condition.

Bam! Stab!

Fist and Lance collided again, although with less power as they hadn't had the opportunity to condense their spirit power to the peak. Yet despite this, the attack power of both techniques easily surpassed the techniques of most of their peers.

"Spider Lance!"
"Yellow Dragon Fist!"

Gritting his teeth, Hei used his spirit power to return the fingers to their original shape forcefully. Then he used his wounded hand to hurl another Spider Lance. The same was true of Long Tian, who used his spirit power to restrain the blood from leaking out forcibly.

Once again, Lance and Fist clashed, making the situation worse for both hands. But both Hei and Long Tian didn't even have the idea of ​​stopping and kept exchanging blows after blows regardless of their injuries or spirit power expenditure.

The only thought that went through their minds was to take down the opponent in front of their eyes, whatever the cost.

Before long, the stage area where Hei and Long Tian were standing became soaked in blood and sweat. Their hands had now assumed a shape difficult to call normal. If it weren't for the spirit power forcibly clutching their wounds and their will to fight, both Hei and Long Tian couldn't even raise their hands.

Pant! Pant!

After countless bloody exchanges, the two paused to catch their breath. Their entire body was covered in sweat, and they had begun to acquire a certain paleness due to the constant loss of blood and spirit power.

'Shit. The vibrations of spirit power behind his blows have spread beyond his arms. As a result, my body has various small to medium internal bleeding. I'm in no danger of life, but it won't be long before my body collapses if this continues.' Hei examined his condition while he didn't take his eyes off his opponent.

'Fuck. His poison has entered my body and is devouring it. I have to finish as fast as possible, or I'll end up losing.'

Bam! Stab!

After this momentary pause, they both exchanged another blow again. However, their body reached their limit this time, and they both fell to the ground in pain.

Argh!

They both wriggled on the ground, trying to ignore the pain coming from their hands. But it wasn't just their hands that hurt; their whole bodies were wounded. As their spirit power was eventually given up, nothing prevented these wounds from taking their course.

"Both Spider Lance and Yellow Dragon Fist are high-powered techniques but with high consumption of spirit power. In addition to that, they have additional effects that can cause continuous damage. If it weren't for the precise control they have over their spirit power, they couldn't have continued to exchange attacks like that for so long." commented Feng Chen, who understood by now that the battle was about to come to its conclusion. Beside him, Hu Jie nodded his head to express his assent. He, too, thought the same thing.

Meanwhile, Lian, Ye, Xing, and their other companions looked at Hei with deep concern in their hearts. Although he had been injured before, this was the first time they had seen Hei squirm like that in pain. Not to mention that it was the first time they had seen his spirit power give way like that.

"Hei…" Lian whispered as she clenched her hands tightly to keep herself from intervening. She knew Hei wouldn't want her to interfere and could only pray that Hei wouldn't get hurt further.

Ye and Xing were also sadly watching the fight, and they were having a hard time keeping themselves from getting on stage. But like Lian, they knew they couldn't.

Pant!

Using his remaining energy, Hei got up from the ground, staggering. Long Tian also stood up again as he staggered forward. The spirit power of both of them had now depleted, and blood was constantly flowing from their wounds. If it weren't for their bodies strengthened by their cultivation, they would have already collapsed or even died.

"You're stubborn, aren't you?" Long Tian commented, "Why do you push yourself this far? Why do you keep getting up and attacking?"

Long Tian could clearly see that there was something more than the will to win or fame motivating Hei. It was something deeper and more complex, which gave the latter the strength needed to continue the battle.

At Long Tian's question, Hei slowly raised his head and cracked a smile, "It's nothing out of the ordinary. It's just that I want to get stronger, that's all. Become stronger than all of them to protect them."

"Protect them?" Long Tian asked before coming to the answer on his own. "I understand. Apparently, we are really alike. Nonetheless, I can't let you win. I also have people I want to protect. I promised never to lose to get the necessary conviction and strength to protect them."

"I know; I understand you perfectly." Hei replied, "But even so, I have to win. Even if it means forcing you to break your promise."

"If so, then you leave me no choice, Hei."

"BLOOD ESSENCE, BURN!"
"BLOOD ESSENCE, BURN!"