Bai Cheng's Challenge, Earth Dragon Overturning

"Qin Yu!"

Qin Yu had just handed his points booklet to the registration clerk when a gloomy voice came from behind him.

He turned at the sound. Bai Cheng stood a few steps away, arms folded across his chest, staring at him with a sinister gaze.

"Settle this once and for all?"

Qin Yu took the initiative to speak, causing Bai Cheng to frown slightly.

In his impression, Qin Yu was not some hotheaded country bumpkin who only knew the words "beat him up" whenever provoked.

But when he thought of the results of his training over this period, Bai Cheng felt fully confident.

There had always been plenty of people around the arena registration area. By now, quite a few students had stopped to watch, whispers rising one after another.

Qin Yu was fairly well-known in the Outer Academy now.

After all, he had only been a One-Star Dou Practitioner when he enrolled, yet in just over half a year, he had advanced to Battle Master. It was hard not to draw attention.

"What? If you have something else to deal with, go ahead. I'll be waiting anytime."

"Heh, Junior Brother, you're certainly straightforward. Then please."

Bai Cheng's face darkened. With a cold snort, he turned and strode toward the arena.

Once on the arena, Bai Cheng flipped his right hand, and a long spear appeared out of thin air in his palm.

The shaft was around seven feet long, its tip gleaming with a cold light. Faint patterns resembling snake scales were engraved along its body.

Holding the spear in one hand with its tip angled toward the ground, Bai Cheng's Dou Qi surged. A layer of Battle Qi Gauze slowly emerged and enveloped his body.

Seven-Star Battle Master.

After taking a deep breath, Qin Yu spread his hands. Dou Qi gathered in his palms, and within the dark brown Earth-Attribute Battle Qi was a faint grayish-white hue.

Unless he had rocks for brains, he would not clash head-on with Bai Cheng's spear tip. The Metal-Attribute Battle Qi generated from his Earth Attribute would be more than enough to deal with the other man's spear techniques.

As the referee's words fell, Bai Cheng stepped forward with his right foot, his spear tip piercing straight toward Qin Yu's chest amid a fierce gust of wind.

Qin Yu remained calm. He sidestepped and precisely slapped the side of the spear shaft with his right palm, knocking the spear tip slightly off course.

The edge of his palm, hard as metal, collided with the spear shaft with a clear metallic clang.

Bai Cheng's wrist trembled. Feeling the force transmitted through the shaft, he was slightly shocked.

But he did not pause. With a flick of his wrist, the spear shaft shook, and the tip traced an arc as it swept in from the side.

Qin Yu retreated half a step, slapped the spear shaft aside again with his left hand, and simultaneously reached forward with his right, going straight for Bai Cheng's wrist.

Bai Cheng hurriedly withdrew his spear to defend himself, holding its shaft horizontally before him to block Qin Yu's palm.

Bang!

Amid the muffled impact, Bai Cheng staggered back two steps, his tiger's mouth going slightly numb.

"Damn... Isn't this guy using Earth-Attribute Battle Qi like me? How can he be this hard?"

Qin Yu pressed forward, but Bai Cheng's spear technique suddenly changed. The spear tip began to weave in bizarre arcs, like a venomous snake ready to strike, flickering unpredictably and making it impossible to tell where the next thrust would come from.

Eight-Headed Snake Dance.

Qin Yu had seen this spear Dou Technique while watching previous matches. It had eight forms, each concealing several variations. Combined, there were no fewer than twenty or thirty possible attack routes.

Moreover, the spear moved like a snake—cunning and strange. Its greatest strength was confusing opponents and leaving them unable to guard against it.

"Let's see how you handle this."

A confident smile curled Bai Cheng's lips, yet Qin Yu's response nearly made his jaw drop.

His figure darted and twisted through the shadows of the spear. Even without using a movement Dou Technique, Bai Cheng could not so much as touch the corner of his clothes.

No matter how strange a spear technique was, it still had to be wielded by a person.

Shoulders, hips, wrists—through the movements of those parts, Qin Yu could completely predict Bai Cheng's intentions, no matter how bizarre his spear technique was, and foresee how Bai Cheng would launch his next strike.

"Damn it!"

Eight-Headed Snake Dance consumed a considerable amount of Dou Qi. After unleashing more than a dozen consecutive moves, Bai Cheng's Battle Qi Gauze had already dimmed somewhat.

He could not drag this out any longer.

A fierce glint flashed through Bai Cheng's eyes. He abruptly leaped backward, opening a distance of several yards between himself and Qin Yu.

He gripped the spear shaft with both hands as Dou Qi poured frantically into the weapon. The snake-scale patterns on the black spear's surface seemed to come alive and slowly wriggle.

The Dou Qi at the spear tip condensed into the phantom of a snake's head, its fangs fully exposed.

Earth-Splitting Eight-Headed Snake Slash!

With a furious roar, Bai Cheng leaped high into the air. His spear, wrapped in eight streams of snake-shaped Dou Qi, came crashing down at Qin Yu from above!

Bai Cheng showed no mercy with this move.

Seeing this, Zhao Yuan, who stood below the arena, had a flash of excitement in his eyes.

Earth-Splitting Eight-Headed Snake Slash was Bai Cheng's strongest killing move. It was this move that had secured his place among the top fifty.

Qin Yu raised his head to look at the incoming Bai Cheng, then slammed his hands together before him.

Clap.

The crisp sound of palms striking echoed across the arena.

The next instant, the arena floor began to shake violently, like some ancient beast that had slumbered for a thousand years suddenly awakening. An earthy yellow glow spread outward from beneath Qin Yu's feet.

The ground began to rise and collapse in wave after wave, then rise again.

The stone slabs of the arena were like paper before this force, easily torn apart and flung into the air.

Bai Cheng's Earth-Splitting Eight-Headed Snake Slash came down.

The eight streams of snake-shaped Dou Qi slammed fiercely into the ground, but Qin Yu was no longer where he had been.

The rolling earth lifted and carried him along, as though he stood upon the back of a massive dragon.

"What... Dou Technique is this?"

Bai Cheng's pupils contracted sharply. He had seen quite a few Earth-Attribute Dou Techniques, but one that could make the entire ground roll like a living creature...

At least at the Battle Master level, it should have been impossible to use.

What frightened him even more was that, under Qin Yu's control, the rolling and shattering force of the earth was already bearing down on him.

That feeling...

It was as if he were facing a massive dragon turning over from beneath the earth!

Qin Yu stood atop the dragon's "spine." Following the dragon's forward momentum, he thrust his right palm forward.

Bai Cheng still crashed down in an arc.

The earth stopped rolling, and the dust slowly dispersed. The arena had already become unrecognizable.

The once-flat stone floor had turned into ruins, littered with heaved slabs and collapsed pits.

Bai Cheng lay on his back beneath the arena, the robe over his chest already torn to shreds.

At that moment, even breathing had become difficult for him, because every breath sent waves of pain through his internal organs.

On the surface, Bai Cheng was neither bleeding nor visibly deformed, but only he knew what a mess his insides were in.

"Qin Yu wins!"

The entire venue fell silent for a moment, then erupted into deafening uproar.

"Holy shit! What was that just now?!"

"The ground was rolling! Did you see that?! Is that kind of destructive power something a Battle Master can possess?"

"What level of Dou Technique was that? Earth Tier?!"

Zhao Yuan stood beneath the arena, his face pale.

He looked at the battered Bai Cheng, then at Qin Yu on the arena, whose breathing had not even become uneven, and recalled the day Qin Yu had blasted him off the arena with a single punch.

Back then, he had thought he had merely been careless. But now it seemed...

Qin Yu had already shown him mercy.

"What... Dou Technique was that?"

"Earth Dragon Overturning."

Qin Yu gave Bai Cheng only those four words, then turned to glance at the arena, now reduced to ruins.

...He shouldn't have to pay for this, right?