A thunderous crash rang out, waking everyone in the villages along the river. Even people in a town more than ten miles away jolted awake.
The timid hid under their covers, afraid to go outside. The bolder ones watched through their windows as light flashed over the Heaven-Reaching River and crashes sounded without end. Martial World experts hurried out, curious, and headed toward the river.
The Martial World was full of tales about someone watching masters clash, gaining insight, then creating an earth-shaking martial art or breaking through a bottleneck. Sometimes two masters even died together, leaving a novice spectator to scoop up the spoils and grow fat in one bite.
This was plainly a clash between supreme experts. Anyone who missed it would regret it bitterly!
Ten-odd miles took these experts only a short while to cover. As they watched the sky flash and heard crashes roll one after another like thunder, they felt both nervous and thrilled.
Some could not help imagining that if they went over, one of the experts might take a liking to them, accept them as a disciple, and pass on their legacy... They had better not think any further, or they would start drooling...
By the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the fastest users of Lightness Skill had reached a place with a view of the river. From afar, they saw dozens of green lights joined into one enormous pattern on the water. At its center, dragon-shaped beams shot skyward and collided with palm-shaped golden lights falling one after another from above.
Each time before a dragon-shaped beam rose, the rushing river paused for an instant.
Each time a giant golden palm descended, the entire sky trembled.
And when the two met, a thunderous crash shook heaven and earth.