"Up next: Lin Zhengli of Wangjiang City versus Zhao Tiehe of Three Mountains City. Begin!"
At the referee's command, both sides began forming hand seals at dazzling speed.
The only difference was that Lin Zhengli remained where he was, his expression calm, while Zhao Tiehe charged forward as he formed his seals.
Two completely different styles clashed. Before they met, no one could know how it would end.
Earth Element Qi gathered, and sharp stone spikes burst from the ground.
Both opened with Earth Spike, but Yang Xingyong had used it defensively, while Zhao Tiehe used it to attack.
A wave seemed to appear out of thin air, bearing Lin Zhengli into the sky and letting him narrowly evade the stone spikes.
This was Surging Waves, a top-grade Ding-rank Daoist Art, a movement art that used Water Element Qi.
Zhao Tiehe had finished forming his seals. He raised both hands, and the stone spikes tore free of the ground, shooting toward Lin Zhengli in the air!
Unlike Yang Xingyong, who had used physical force to propel the spikes into a second attack, Zhao Tiehe was manipulating the Daoist Art itself to make a second-stage transformation. He had truly reinvented the art!
Lin Zhengli was still in midair. He had already used Surging Waves, and seemed to have no way out. But the fingers he had kept moving suddenly flicked upward. The wave carrying him surged violently, and another wave rose from within it, bearing Lin Zhengli out of the spikes' barrage at the last possible moment.
He had also demonstrated a second-stage transformation of Surging Waves!
It could be said that Zhao Tiehe and Lin Zhengli's battle was the first to truly showcase a clash of Daoist Arts.
The advanced transformations of their two arts also revealed the foundations of the Three Mountains City Dao Academy and the Wangjiang City Daoist Academy. After all, it was the refinement of basic Daoist Arts that could truly improve an academy's overall strength at its very roots.
Lin Zhengli dodged again and again, but Zhao Tiehe's offensive remained relentless. He stamped his toe and sprang into the air.
Rising from below, he threw an uppercut. His fist had already been covered in layer upon layer of stone: Stone-Covered Fist!
He had almost recreated Yang Xingyong's Daoist Art, answering Lin Zhengli's earlier jab about "weaklings pecking at each other."
Lin Zhengli still hadn't landed and had almost nowhere to dodge, but his fingers flicked upward again.
Another wave rose within the waves, pushing him clear of the attack once more.
Triple Wave Layers!
An ordinary movement art like Surging Waves had displayed three stages of transformation today.
If the second-stage transformation of Earth Spike had pushed that art to the limit of a top-grade Ding-rank Daoist Art, then Triple Wave Layers had forcefully raised a Ding-rank art to the level of a Bing-rank art. This was a qualitative leap!
Zhao Tiehe's Stone-Covered Fist missed again. He had no time to be shocked, because Lin Zhengli's counterattack had already arrived.
Relying on Triple Wave Layers as his trump card, he had dodged again and again in a way no one expected. At last, he completed his Daoist Art.
All the Water Element Qi on the field suddenly ran wild. Water surged everywhere, and waves rolled violently. They rushed in from every direction, and Zhao Tiehe couldn't evade them in time. A wave slammed into him, as if he'd been struck by a heavy punch, and sent him flying out of control.
While he was still in the air, another wave crashed into him, making him spit blood as he flew away.
The waves surged back and forth, battering Zhao Tiehe like a broken sandbag and making dull, heavy thuds.
This was an unambiguous Bing-rank Daoist Art: Raging Waves!
Lin Zhengli's expression remained calm. The slightest trace of levity from before the battle was gone, replaced by the composure of someone with everything under control. He swiftly formed hand seals, and the instant Raging Waves ended, he drew out an exceptionally long vine whip and lashed it forward with a howl.
Zhao Tiehe had been almost powerless to fight back amid Raging Waves. He could only curl up, shielding his head and minimizing the area exposed to attack as much as possible.
The instant Raging Waves ended, his body uncurled. He suddenly reached out and grabbed the vine whip.
Blood still seeped from the corners of his mouth. His clothes were in tatters, exposing a body covered in bruises. Yet he seemed unable to feel pain. Perhaps cultivators from Three Mountains City all had this same ferocity. Gripping the vine whip, he pulled hard, trying to drag Lin Zhengli in front of him!
But Lin Zhengli loosened his grip. The vine whip suddenly turned back, winding around Zhao Tiehe like a living serpent and binding him tight.
As it turned out, the Daoist Art Lin Zhengli had just used wasn't the mid-grade Ding-rank Green Vine Whip, but the top-grade Ding-rank Vine Binding Technique!
He had used Vine Binding Technique without first restraining his opponent, disguising it as Green Vine Whip instead. He'd lured Zhao Tiehe into grabbing the vine, so he could bind him perfectly.
From the start of the battle to that moment, every move Zhao Tiehe had made had fallen into Lin Zhengli's calculations. In fact, it was possible that Lin Zhengli's words to Zhao Tiehe before the match had been part of the setup too.
Now, Lin Zhengli could reap the fruits of his victory.
He calmly finished forming the hand seals. This time, he truly summoned a Green Vine Whip and lashed it viciously at his bound opponent.
But the vines around Zhao Tiehe suddenly burst apart. He rolled across the ground, dodging the whip that had been swung with no restraint.
Only then did people notice the blood streaking down Zhao Tiehe's body and the countless bloody gashes covering him. On the ground, shattered stone lay mixed in with the remnants of the vines.
It turned out that as soon as Raging Waves ended, Zhao Tiehe had covered himself in a layer of Stone Armor. Perhaps Lin Zhengli hadn't noticed, or perhaps he had noticed and simply hadn't cared.
After all, Stone Armor Technique only increased defense. It couldn't help him escape Vine Binding Technique.
But the stone armor had exploded.
It had torn Zhao Tiehe's flesh in an instant—and blasted apart the vines wrapped around him.
The scene was so brutal that many people couldn't bear to watch. Ling He even reached out and covered Jiang An'an's eyes.
But Zhao Tiehe, drenched in blood, charged at Lin Zhengli once more.
No one knew why he still refused to give up, or why he kept fighting.
Wasn't this just a debate match?
It wasn't the Prefecture Academy's November examination. His future wasn't at stake!
The contestants were all first-year students, and the other cultivators watched from outside the arena.
Sun Xiaoman stared at the field without blinking.
Lin Zhengren turned to her. "At this point, do you still want them to keep fighting, Miss Xiaoman? Someone could die."
"Whether he chooses life or honor isn't for me to decide." The barefoot girl, small as she looked, didn't even turn her head.
"Smack!"
This time, Zhao Tiehe couldn't dodge the whip.
A deep lash mark split his skin, leaving it torn and bleeding.
But he didn't seem to have tried to dodge. Instead, taking advantage of the moment the whip struck, he grabbed its tip with one hand! He spun several times, winding the Green Vine Whip around himself.
Then he pulled on it and walked toward Lin Zhengli. Stone slowly gathered over his fist. It formed much more slowly than before, but it was still that same move: Stone-Covered Fist.
Lin Zhengli had no choice but to let go, abandoning the whip formed from the Daoist Art. He leaped backward as he retreated. "Surrender! Keep this up and you really will die!"
"Surrender?" Zhao Tiehe looked at Lin Zhengli, the smile at the corners of his mouth spreading wider and wider. "We people of Three Mountains City can't let you look down on us that much!"
He suddenly rushed forward a few steps and brought down his Stone-Covered Fist!
Boom!
Lin Zhengli sprang away. The stone fist crashed into the ground, leaving a deep crater.
"Looking for death!" Lin Zhengli was still in midair, already forming hand seals at lightning speed. He didn't want to admit that fear had crept into his heart during this battle, but he had decided to use an even more vicious Daoist Art. Even if he couldn't control it, even if... it killed his opponent.
Just as the art was taking shape, he landed. His timing was so perfect that he almost wanted to praise himself.
But for some reason, there was a pit in the ground. He had no idea when it had appeared.
It was a trap Zhao Tiehe had prepared long ago. Guided by Earth Element Qi, the ground had caved in. It was a simple, low-level Daoist Art, a low-grade Ding-rank art whose name was simply "Pitfall."
But the timing was perfect.
Lin Zhengli's foot twisted. His stance crumbled, and the Daoist Art he'd been preparing dissipated. Though he twisted around immediately and managed not to fall to the ground—
Zhao Tiehe pounced like a wild beast, knocking him down and pinning him firmly to the ground.
The two were so close that any Daoist Art that couldn't be cast instantly was useless.
Thud!
It was the sound of a fist striking a face.
"I'm no Mountain Barbarian!"
Thud! Thud!
"I'm a cultivator from... Three Mountains City, Qinghe Prefecture, Zhuang Kingdom! Zhao. Tie. He!"
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Zhao Tiehe punched him again and again.
Outside the arena, Lin Zhengren's eyelids twitched. It was as if every punch had landed on his own face.
"Give up!" he shouted.
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