New Member-Scarlet
If the battle between Futu and Karrot brought the contest of strength to its extreme, then the battle between Gu Ding and Scarlet took a different approach. Their contest was a comprehensive competition involving many factors such as strength, speed, techniques, and Martial Dao Intent.
The two had clashed countless times in the void. All the onlookers could see were two afterimages flashing in the void, with the booming sounds of their collisions ringing out at an extremely high frequency.
Even Liliath and the others couldn't capture all of the two's movements.
It's not that not being able to detect them means they're weaker than Scarlet. Many factors influence combat; not seeing something doesn't mean your body can't keep up. For powerful individuals like Liliath, combat is instinctive; they only need to judge their opponent's movements to react correctly, not necessarily see their actions.
Gu Ding and Scarlet are the same. They don't need to use their eyes to catch each other's movements. They can judge the opponent's exact location and know what move the opponent is using just by sensing the distance of their breath, sound, light and shadow, and then react accordingly.
The clash between the two continued until the battle between Futu and Karrot ended, seemingly without a clear winner. The onlookers were somewhat surprised by Scarlet's strength, because aside from the top ten on the Ranking List, many other powerful individuals had already fought Gu Ding, and almost none of them could withstand a second move. Scarlet and Gu Ding's battle, however, had lasted for over half an hour, clashing thousands of times head-on, with Scarlet showing no signs of weakness, demonstrating her Scarlet power.
When the roar from the other side completely subsided, Scarlet knew that the battle between Floating Buddha and Karrot must have ended, and he suddenly withdrew from the fight with Gu Ding. Gu Ding did not continue the pursuit.
"The fight between those two is over, so let's end our warm-up here." Scarlet stood proudly not far from Gu Ding, her snow-white hair moving without wind, making her look exceptionally eerie.
Hearing Scarlet's words, many onlookers were speechless. The two had been fighting for over half an hour, and their movements were so fast that they couldn't be followed by the naked eye, yet this was just a warm-up?
"Alright, you lost, so you have to keep your promise and become a member of our team," Gu Ding grinned, seemingly confident that he had his opponent figured out.
The spectators, who hadn't quite understood the agreement between the two, finally realized it was a wager. If Scarlet lost, she would have to Gu Ding Pirate Crew. Many were shocked; the other members of Gu Ding Team were already formidable enough, and with Scarlet, whose Combat Strength and potential were equally terrifying, the Gu Ding Pirate Crew would only become stronger. Among the spectators were several top-tier members of the Federal Government, whose expressions turned bitter after hearing Gu Ding's words.
"If you lose, don't bother me about joining your Pirate Crew again. And I need you to arrange a fight with Bigge." Scarlet knew that Gu Ding was stronger overall, but in actual combat, the stronger one wasn't always the one who won.
"No problem," Gu Ding readily agreed.
Upon hearing Gu Ding's reply, Scarlet struck out with her palm, and the black longsword flew out of her hand, hovering in front of her with its tip pointing downwards, slowly rotating automatically around that point as its axis.
Above the Scarlet head, a projection slowly took shape. It showed a black-robed man sitting on a throne forged from a black longsword. In his hand, he held a golden longsword upside down, a third of the blade of which was stuck in the ground projected in the void.
"This is Emperor Projection!" someone in the crowd exclaimed in surprise.
Gu Ding looked up at the projection and muttered to himself, "It seems different from the Emperor Projection from last time."
"Don't let your guard down. Last time, his Emperor Projection was projected with the help of a sword. This time, he projected it entirely on his own. In addition, his own strength has increased a lot, so the power is incomparable to what it used to be," the Sea Emperor warned Gu Ding in his ear.
"I see."
After exchanging a few words with the Sea Emperor in secret, Gu Ding glanced in the direction of the Buddha and quickly made a decision.
With both palms outstretched, five-colored flames erupted from them, quickly engulfing Gu Ding's entire body. The "Burning Heaven" technique was finally activated at full power.
Gu Ding's entire body underwent a strange transformation, turning him into a humanoid creature made entirely of flames.
This state of Gu Ding was something that no one except his teammates had ever seen before, and almost everyone looked at the scene in astonishment.
Some people also had doubts, because transforming into an element in front of a strong opponent of the same level actually had little impact on the battle.
In fact, the ability of elementalization is linked to the strength of one's divine source, so the more monstrous a person is, the less they use it. This is because the increase in the strength of one's divine source depends on the accumulation of ranks, and monstrous talents are all strong individuals who fight beyond their ranks; their divine source, to some extent, is a hindrance.
However, some people who believed in Gu Ding's abilities didn't think Gu Ding would do something pointless. They were all somewhat expectant, wanting to see what Gu Ding would do next.
Gu Ding's long, slender fingers began to rapidly form peculiar hand seals, the movements of which were extremely fluid and swift. No one would have guessed that this was actually the second time he had used this technique.
In just a few seconds, the mark condensed and took shape in the void. Gu Ding's divine energy surged wildly into the mark until it was more than half depleted, at which point it stopped.
The mark suddenly rippled, though it didn't cause any real damage. However, after the ripple spread, the sky quickly darkened, and a powerful, oppressive aura emanated from it, making everyone feel vaguely uneasy.
Scarlet looked up at the sky. The strange phenomena caused by Gu Ding were indeed very concerning. He had no idea what would happen next.
With a slight frown, and seeing that the other party hadn't made a move for a while, he got impatient and stretched out his right hand, pointing two fingers at Gu Ding. The black longsword in front of him finally moved, not shooting out, but instead deeply embedding itself in the ground.
The moment the black longsword touched the ground, the entire ground instantly cracked open, and countless Black Sword Radiance burst out from the ground, heading straight for Gu Ding. There were at least a million of them, forming a sea of sword light.
"Sand Rain Sword Burial!"
Everyone vaguely heard that when this move was unleashed, Scarlet uttered these four words softly.
In an instant, Gu Ding was completely surrounded by sword light, with no possibility of dodging.
Just when everyone thought Gu Ding was about to be defeated, a terrifying aura emanated from the ground beneath their feet. Suddenly, a giant fiery claw appeared without warning on the battlefield between Gu Ding and Scarlet, tearing the black sea of sword light to shreds with overwhelming force. But the giant hand did not disappear immediately; instead, it slammed down fiercely towards Scarlet.
Scarlet tried to draw his sword to block, but even with the blessing of that Emperor Projection, his sword light, which could annihilate a five-star Peak-rank God, was crushed to pieces by that giant hand, which then slapped him.
With just one strike, Scarlet nearly exploded and was eliminated, her body flying backward and crashing into countless obstacles.
The Emperor Projection above Scarlet's head dissipated automatically due to Scarlet's severe injuries. Gu Ding knew that Scarlet had completely lost its fighting ability, so he also automatically dispelled his giant fiery claws, and his fiery body returned to its original human form.
Dozens of kilometers away, Scarlet struggled to climb out of a collapsed iceberg, took a few bottles of medicine, and sped towards the battlefield she had just been on.
A few minutes later, he finally arrived at the scene and walked up to Gu Ding. "I lost to that move you just used. What was it called?"
"The Heaven Burning Seal!" Gu Ding grinned.
"Heaven Burning Seal, a very powerful move. Even after I summoned the Emperor Projection to enhance my Combat Strength, it was still able to completely crush me." Scarlet had thoroughly memorized Gu Ding's move.
"What about joining the Pirate Crew?" Gu Ding winked at Scarlet.
"I'll be waiting for you on Sword Star. Come and pick me up on the ship as soon as possible," Scarlet readily gave her location.
Everyone was filled with envy upon hearing this; the Gu Ding Pirate Crew had actually recruited another powerful member.
After exchanging pleasantries with Scarlet, Gu Ding checked the time; there were less than six hours left before the virtual world game ended. He looked at the crowd of onlookers and asked, "Anyone else want to take on the challenge?"
Two or three minutes passed, and no one responded.
"It seems there's no one else here." Fu Tu slowly walked towards Gu Ding's direction. "In that case, let's have one last battle!"
~~~
Last night around 11 PM, I heard a woman humming a song, and it was the kind of soft chanting you hear from a white-clad female ghost in a horror movie. It sounded like the TV from our new neighbor who just moved in. It gave me goosebumps. Seriously, at this hour, can't they watch something normal?! Damn it!
.
.,