That First Strike!
Wang Xianzhi knew that punch had done no real harm to Chen Zhibao. He gave a cold snort, didn't even look at Chen Zhibao, and quickly closed in on the center of the formation. Before he had even arrived, he threw a punch.
Wang Yue sneered. His figure flashed, and he appeared directly in front of Wang Xianzhi. One hand kept the formation going while the other formed a sword finger and jabbed at Wang Xianzhi's fist.
Before fist and finger could meet, the fist-shaped mass of true qi had already collided with the sword qi formed by Wang Yue's finger.
Since Wang Yue had struck second, he was at a slight disadvantage. The shock of the true qi sent him staggering backward, and his momentum continued to carry him away.
Worried that he might disrupt the formation behind him, he quickly used Spatial Shift to send the force of the punch into the air beyond it.
After its position was shifted, the punch force hurtled into the sky. It seemed to crash into some unknown barrier, rippling the air before its power slowly dissipated.
Wang Xianzhi was hardly unscathed either. Wang Yue's sword qi had driven him backward until he stumbled onto the ice covering the river and finally regained his balance. The ice beneath his feet had cracked into pieces, showing just how powerful Wang Yue's strike had been.
That did not keep Wang Xianzhi from standing. At his level, standing on water was nothing unusual.
Wang Xianzhi saw that Wang Yue had tried to maintain the formation while stopping him, and had even managed to drive him back. He felt that Wang Yue was looking down on him, so he increased his strength and swung a punch at him, charging toward Wang Yue at