Duel (8)

Lin Mingjie, meanwhile, was blasted seven or eight steps back by that supremely yang palm force. A bloody red palm print was stamped across his chest, and he spat out a mouthful of blood. His yielding fist force simply could not dissolve such a fiercely yang palm force; he could only take that yang strike head-on.

Then the two gritted their teeth and struck again. Ying Zhixing unleashed several surging waves of palm force in succession, madly smashing them toward Lin Mingjie, while Lin Mingjie threw out wave-like streams of fist force one after another, clashing head-on with the palm technique.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A series of low sonic booms rang out. Neither man could defend against the other's attacks and could only endure them head-on. Both were shaken by their opponent's power until blood flowed from all seven orifices, grievously wounded.

"Damn! Are you really not afraid of dying?"

"You're not afraid, so why the hell should I be?"

With that, the two attacked once more. Lin Mingjie used the third form of the Shaolin Profound Void Fist, Airwave. Streams of yielding internal energy gathered within his fists, then both fists shot out at once, unleashing a wave of yielding force that sped toward Ying Zhixing to kill him.

Ying Zhixing used the third form of the Shaolin Mountain-Pushing Palm, Strike the Ox Across the Mountain. The internal energy throughout his body erupted all at once. Both palms thrust out together in a savage push, and a supremely yang palm force shot straight ahead, passing through Lin Mingjie's yielding fist force and striking him squarely in the chest.

Pfft!

Lin Mingjie was the first to be struck by that palm force from afar. He flew backward, spraying a blossom of blood through the air before being sent out of the arena. The Prajna Hall Chief hurriedly caught him and quickly used internal energy to slowly suppress his injuries.

Ying Zhixing hurriedly circulated the yang internal energy throughout his body and forcibly endured the yielding airwave force. He was blasted back seven or eight steps, blood once again flowing from all seven orifices. He barely managed to sit cross-legged on the ground and circulate his energy to suppress his injuries!

At that moment, the Martial Arts Elder slowly stepped forward and said helplessly, "Arhat Hall wins this match!"

He felt that his own luck with the draw was truly cursed. Right from the start, several matches in a row had pitted the chief disciples of different factions against one another. They either both ended up badly injured, or one side eked out a miserable victory. He was utterly speechless.

Still, their strength had been witnessed by everyone, and they had already been selected for the Hall of Subduing Tiger, though their rankings had dropped considerably. The only question was whether, among all these disciples, there would be another dark horse like Li Changfeng.

Seeing this brutal match, the Arhat Hall disciples wore helpless expressions. "What a pity for the chief senior brother of the Third Branch Academy. After winning this battle by such a narrow margin, he's badly injured too. His next match will probably be in doubt!"

Li Changfeng was equally speechless. "This Martial Arts Elder's luck with the draw is way too rotten, isn't it? He pulled all these experts up to fight so soon. Seriously, what the hell!"

Golden Arhat said helplessly as well, "This has never happened in previous competitions either. All I can say is that this tournament is a little uncanny!"

The Shaolin Abbot gave a bitter smile at the sight. "The rules for the next Hall of Subduing Tiger competition need to be changed. Luck truly is impossible to predict sometimes. From now on, we'll use twenty arenas, with a chief disciple as the arena holder on each one."

"The remaining disciples will first compete to determine the strongest thirty. Then they can each challenge an arena holder. That will prevent this sort of thing from happening again!"

Upon hearing this, the Hall Master of Subduing Tiger nodded. "Abbot Senior Brother's method is excellent! We'll do it this way from now on, and this won't happen again!"

The major sects present also felt that it made sense. They used this sort of competition format as well, but had never encountered a situation like Shaolin's. When they returned, they would discuss it with their sect leaders; in the future, they too would adopt this tournament format!