After a period of recuperation, Huang Yaoshi and Hong Qigong finished resting.
Wang Ming could no longer wait and stepped forward to issue a challenge.
"Island Master Huang, please."
"Please."
Immediately, the two engaged in combat.
Wang Ming opened with the Nine Yin Divine Claw. Huang Yaoshi was initially stunned, wondering where Wang Ming had obtained the Nine Yin Manual. Then, realizing that the old beggar also knew it and it was no longer exclusive to anyone, he stopped dwelling on it.
Although Wang Ming's Nine Yin Divine Claw had fierce claw-force, it was restrained by Huang Yaoshi everywhere, making his execution extremely unsmooth.
"Brother Wang, you might as well use your swordplay!"
Huang Yaoshi actively put distance between them and said with great poise.
The lower scroll of the Nine Yin Manual had fallen into Huang Yaoshi's hands for ten or twenty years. Bound by an oath, he had never practiced any of the martial arts on it, but he had thoroughly cracked all the martial arts techniques within it. Now, for Wang Ming to use the Nine Yin Divine Claw in front of him was almost equivalent to letting him win.
Hearing this, Wang Ming was also startled before he understood. Huang Yaoshi was an extremely conceited fellow. Having just seen Li Mochou use the dual-sword combination to easily defeat Guo Jing, yet not using swordplay against him and instead using the Nine Yin Divine Claw, this was simply looking down on him.
Thinking about it carefully, it was indeed true. Bare-handed combat was not his strong suit to begin with, and the opponent was even more familiar with the Nine Yin Divine Claw than he was. To continue fighting would simply be asking for humiliation.
He immediately stopped standing on ceremony.
"Mochou, the Gentleman Sword," Wang Ming said, holding out his hand.
Wang Ming's greatsword was still planted in the distance where he had left it before the fight.
Hearing this, Li Mochou respectfully drew the Gentleman Sword she carried with her and obediently handed it to Wang Ming.
Although she did not know why her master did not use the greatsword he usually carried, it did not matter; her master naturally had his reasons. This girl had been so startled by Wang Ming's infallible calculations in Mongolia that she still hadn't fully recovered.
"Island Master Huang, among the Five Greats, the one I admire the most is your talent. All your martial arts are self-created, unlike the rest of us who can only pick up the knowledge of the ancients," Wang Ming said as he received the longsword.
"Brother Wang flatters me. You are younger than us, yet you can cultivate your martial arts to this realm—it is truly admirable," Huang Yaoshi also exchanged polite pleasantries.
Being young was only in comparison to the Five Greats; he was younger than them by nearly ten years.
"Most of my skills lie in the sword. This is my sword of youth, please evaluate it, Island Master Huang!"
Wang Ming immediately unleashed the Five Peaks Swordplay, which he had not used for a long time. Under this continuous and complex offensive of sword techniques, Huang Yaoshi appeared very battered, yet he still stubbornly stood tall.
In the distance, Hong Qigong watched with great amazement. The set of Five Peaks Swordplay that had been used right before his eyes all those years ago had been broken by him in just a few moves, but the power of today's display was simply incomparable to that day.
This was also a sudden epiphany Wang Ming had gained recently from fighting Qiu Qianren and watching the duel between Hong Qigong and Huang Yaoshi.
He had been thinking along the wrong lines. The reason the Five Peaks Swordplay had been so easily broken by Hong Qigong that day and appeared so unremarkable was not because it didn't work without matching internal energy.
It was simply that the gap in internal energy between him and Hong Qigong was a bit too large. No matter how ingenious his sword techniques were, the man would just use a Dragon-Subduing Palm strike and scatter them.
Ever since his internal energy caught up to theirs and he studied the General Chapter of the Nine Yin Manual, he could finally use the Innate Skill internal energy to fully unleash the power of the Five Peaks Swordplay.
Huang Yaoshi now felt a headache throbbing. Wang Ming's sword techniques seemed endless; in the short span of time, the two had already fought three hundred rounds, yet the opponent's sword moves were never repeated. This completely prevented him from using the counter-sword strategies he was racking his brains to figure out.
One moment the sword qi was stern and majestic, resembling ten thousand horses galloping forward with long spears, great halberds, and a thousand miles of yellow sand; the next moment the swordplay was nimble, unpredictable, and shifting like a ghost. One could only see wave after wave of ever-changing swordplay. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he truly wouldn't have believed there were such bizarre and sudden sword techniques in this world.
Just as he finally adapted to this style, the swordplay turned dense and rigorous, excelling at defense, yet often thrusting out lethal blows from the most unexpected places. Then suddenly, the swordplay became heavy, steady, and strictly disciplined. The sword moves spiraled higher and grew more perilous, becoming increasingly ruthless with every rotation.
Finally, it turned into a succession of bizarre and perilous moves—silent and quietly lethal.
It was extremely entangling. It wasn't that Huang Yaoshi didn't want to create distance and launch ranged attacks just like he did against Hong Qigong, but Wang Ming's Lightness Skill was superior to Hong Qi's, making it very difficult for him to open up the distance.
This battle left a not-so-small psychological shadow on Huang Yaoshi.
It was as if someone kept hurling advanced calculus problems and geometric proofs at your face, demanding that you solve them.
And quite unfairly, they required you to write down the answer the moment you finished reading the question.
This was no joke; if you failed to solve a geometry problem, you would at most lose a few points, but if these incoming sword moves weren't solved, the lightest consequence was taking a sword strike.
Even with an academic genius like Huang Yaoshi, he eventually found it a bit too much to bear.
Suddenly, Huang Yaoshi took Wang Ming's sword strike without dodging or evading, using the momentum to leap backward, immediately followed by a barrage of incoming Finger Flicking Divine Skill.
He blocked the incoming Qi projectiles a few times with his sword, the impact causing a slight stinging pain in his palm.
Wang Ming tried to close the distance with Huang Yaoshi, but failed every time after a few attempts, continually getting kited by Huang Yaoshi.
After several such rounds, Wang Ming grew irritated by the harassment.
"Watch out, Thousand Flowers Scatter Money!"
In an instant, dense, tiny pieces of metal shot out from Wang Ming's hands.
Every single piece carried the might to cleave gold and fracture jade as it assailed Huang Yaoshi.
Huang Yaoshi wielded the iron flute in his hand, blocking all the metal pieces attacking him.
"It is Huang who has lost. Thank you for showing mercy," Huang Yaoshi said, then walked off with a slightly desolate air to sit cross-legged and rest.
Huang Yaoshi was a person who cared immensely about his pride. Looking at the metal pieces that had pierced right through the granite on the ground, he knew he had lost.
The hidden weapons shot at him just now were less than a third of the total; otherwise, it wouldn't have been so easily blocked by him.
If Wang Ming hadn't called out a warning and deliberately shot off-target, he would likely have been in grave danger.
In the distance, Huang Rong was grieving over her father's defeat, but at the same time, she was astonished by Wang Ming's magnanimity. She couldn't help muttering inwardly, This Mr. Wang really treats Brother Jing quite well. Just because of his close association with Brother Jing, he teaches such powerful martial arts without hesitation.
The last time Wang Ming had shot hidden weapons at a tree, Huang Rong's intuitive impression had been ordinary.
Coupled with the fact that she didn't like practicing martial arts, the Thousand Flowers Scatter Money in her hands was at most used to shoot snakes.
Today, seeing that Thousand Flowers Scatter Money could actually instantly defeat her father in a single move, the impact was nothing short of massive.
Nor should anyone think this was unrealistic—Thousand Flowers Scatter Money was obtained by Wang Ming from The First Under Heaven world, and the martial might of that world was not something the Condor Heroes world could compare to.
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