The red liquid dribbled to the ground, there wasn’t much of it but this was enough to make this Deng Cai break out into a fit of rage.
“M-my face…m-my beautiful face…this is inexcusable…”
Feng Nuana was still ready to go, she was dejected that the hit didn’t go fully through but she still managed to land a hit. She didn’t know what that guy was mumbling about, but someone that lost their cool during a fight was mostly an easier opponent.
“Stop whining you dweeb, this is only the start!”
She proclaimed while charging forward, the momentum was on her side and she would use this chance to tip the scales in her favor. Her opponent was still stunned from the bloody gash that was on his face and looked to be enraged. Making someone lose their cool during combat was one way to win and Feng Nuana wanted to use this opportunity.
She wasn’t that bad at close quarters combat as some people thought. Her clan was known for their long-range repertoire, but that didn’t mean that they were defenseless at close range. The girl already managed to get one shot in from a close attack, so she would try for another one.
The energy from the tips of her fans expanded upwards, turning them into a dangerous slicing weapon. Before her opponent could turn to counter he saw a green light right next to his eyes.
“You dare?”
He managed to evade the small girl’s next attack, his long hair bouncing into the attack as it got severed in the process. The man coursed out, his seemingly weak opponent was now giving him a hard time. His feet started shuffling and a brown aura started surrounding his frame. The man’s elemental Dao was closer to earth as he was using the Dao of the mountains.
Feng Nuana was ferocious with her attacks but soon enough Deng Cai regained his composure. She managed to slice up his hair and parts of his robe, but the youth surrounded himself with a layer of rock that was indistinguishable from his own skin. Even if she delivered a hit to his body, she could only see cracks instead of blood, as if she struck a massive boulder without managing to crack it.
The man was clearly above her in cultivation and skill. She used her movement technique to quickly jump back, it making her look like she was gliding on the winds.
“I have no idea what a dweeb is, but you will regret what you did!”
The man dusted himself off, the cracks on his rocky skin vanished as if he was regenerating.
‘Thump!’
Deng Cai stepped forward, the ground cracked underneath his foot and you could see spiderweb-like cracks forming on the floor. Feng Nuana moved into a defensive position and moved backward as she knew that he was coming. The young man blasted forward, every step he took a cracked ground with a footprint was left. The more steps that he took, the deeper the holes in the ground were and the faster he was moving.
This was also a type of movement technique, but instead of evasion, it was used for offense. The practitioner would build-up spiritual force with each step they took, while building up momentum that allowed them to move faster. The longer they used this movement technique they faster they would become and the more damage they would deliver to their target if they managed to strike.
At the time Feng Nuana was skipping backward while using her soaring wing step technique. This technique allowed her to just skip along the ground, each little step propelling her far away from her adversary. This was a graceful technique that conserved a lot of energy while allowing her to dodge with minimal movement.
The audience gasped and cheered. They were now seeing a game of cat and mouse. The young lady was jumping back and to the sides evading the man rushing at her with all his might. He was like a locomotive, that couldn’t be stopped. Any spiritual techniques that the girl tried throwing at him just bounced off without doing any damage. The man was clearly proficient at defense, but his speed wasn’t anything to scoff at as he was slowly gaining on the poor girl.
Zhang Liu was also looking at from the side, he could see that the annoying girl was in trouble.
‘If she can’t deliver any damage then she is done for…’
He looked at her opponent, the young man’s eyes were glowing red and the gem on his forehead was also looking eerie. Due to the nature of his movement technique, he was gaining speed fast. Soon enough he was upon her, his hand moving out to strike.
‘Peng’
Feng Nuana moved both her fans in front of her chest to defend herself. The palm strike that was thrown by her opponent, struck right at her weapons. The mortal grade weapons cracked a bit while she herself got thrown to the side by the pressure of the hit. This wasn’t over though, as before she had the time to recover another strike in the form of a kick was thrown her way.
“Ack!”
She defended herself yet again with her battle fans, but the one closes to the foot just fractured and its pieces flew everywhere. She was even infusing them with her spiritual energy but that didn’t do anything to lessen the blow. Her arm felt numb but she wasn’t defeated yet, her second fan was still there and could be used for a counter-attack.
Feng Nuana gave it a shot, while her opponent was in a blind rage she spun her whole body around. She was using the momentum that she gained from her enemies kick while making her body spin to receive less damage. It looked flashy and now her remaining fan was getting swung right at Deng Cai’s face.
The girl’s green wind energy collided against the young man’s brownish earth energy kicking up a storm. The people stood up from her seats, their eyes glued to the large tournament stage.
“Was that all?”
Feng Nuana gulped as her enemy just grasped her wrist before she could fully swing down with her battle fan. The energy from her attack got lowered and didn’t manage to go through the dark palm sect members’ defenses. She was now stuck, she couldn’t move her arm so she tried delivering a kick to the opponent’s face while she was still slightly above the ground.
“Hmph!”
“Ack…”
Before her kick could go through she felt a sharp pain in her abdomen. Her mouth opened wide and she gasped out in pain, the hit propelling her back. She didn’t fly much though as the man was still grasping her slim wrist and wasn’t intending to let go any time soon.
“You’re not going anywhere, you harlot!”
The short girl didn’t have time to even reply as she felt a sharp pain on her face, her cheek in particular. A metallic taste filled her mouth after the slap, her eyes going wide as she protested. She wanted to retaliate, her legs and hands squirming around but to no avail as the man’s defenses proved themselves too tough to break.
“Not so chatty now, are you?”
The sounds of slapping resound around the stage. The people in the large colosseum structure could only gulp as they saw the overbearing young master hit the poor young girl’s face over and over again. The person with the biggest shock was Feng Liena, her hands were grasping the balustrade. It was made from hard steel, but even it was bending in odd ways as this woman mangled it in fury.
“How dare he…to my little sister…”
The people to her side looked to the one-sided battle, then back to the woman that was watching the whole thing in fury. They knew well what she felt, but this youth had a large backing behind him and this was a sanctioned battle. It wouldn’t look good on their part if they got involved. The other danger was offending the man that was standing behind this disciple, his master who was someone with powerful connections.
“Lady Liena please calm down, things like this happen. The boy was just stronger than her, he might be overdoing it slightly… but if he doesn’t target her life than its not our place to intervene…”
Zhang Jin said while moving closer to the woman that was close to jumping down from the VIP booth. She was even getting held back by her grandma that was sweating bullets and not sure herself, of what to do.
“Y-yes listen to the elder from the Zhang Clan… wounds and pride can be healed, but we can not offend the Dark Palm sect!”
Feng Liena was still mad, but the threat of the Dark Palm Sect that was looming over her head was a good enough deterrent to make her stop. There was also another option that they could go with, that was milder even though they would take a hit to their face. While the Feng Matriarch was contemplating her choices, her little sister was tossed to the side.
“Ugh…”
Her face was all red from all the slaps she received, it was even swollen. Her battle spirit wasn’t broken just yet though, her eyes were still staring daggers at the haughty young master.
“Oh, still defiant?”
Deng Cai said while smirking, he moved two of his fingers up to his face. The previous gash that was there was covered up by his rock armor now so it couldn’t be seen, but he still could feel the wound throbbing.
“You think this is over… you damaged my face… so I’ll do the same to you!”
He moved closer while outstretching his hand, his palm visible as something formed on it. It was a small rock that quickly expanded and got thinner, soon it changed into an impromptu dagger with a razor-sharp edge.
“After I’m through with you, your own mother won’t recognize you!”
The man got nearer while Feng Nuana tried standing up to defend herself. Her legs were shaky though, the slaps weren’t just regular hits they were boosted by the man’s spiritual energy. Her own Qi got dispersed while the enemies spiritual energy invaded her body and caused chaos inside. But before Deng Cai could go through with his dastardly deed, Feng Liena finally shouted out her cultivation base of the great circle of core formation blasting out.
“Halt, that’s enough! This battle ends now, the Feng Clan admits that Feng Nuana has lost this bout and we request for it to end!”
She shouted out so that everyone here could hear her. The judge that was overlooking the whole thing looked at the VIP booth from where the voice was coming from and could see the woman that roared out. This wasn’t anything out of the ordinary but didn’t happen too often, an elder member of the participant could announce their defeat if they felt that their junior was in danger. Most of the time this didn’t happen as everyone took the matter of pride and face even more seriously than the life of a junior.
The judge didn’t really have a reason to refuse the request. He was about to stand up and give his verdict, even though Deng Cai was an inner sect member he still was only a junior so he would have to follow the judge’s order here.
“I announce this match…”
“HALT, THIS MATCH WILL NOT END!”
An even more dastardly aura filled the area, this one blasting out from another VIP booth that was right opposite the one the Triforce alliance was residing in. The People in the audience were feeling dizzy, they were lower-level cultivators so when people at the pinnacle of core formation bombarded them with their aura, they felt like puking.
The judge looked up to the other person, his eye twitched a bit. He soon cupped his fists and bowed, he sat back down in his seat as if nothing happened.
“Continue the match, both of the participants are still able…”
He murmured a bit, not being able to go against Yang Kai that was a high ranking Dark Palm Sect elder and from the direct line of the sect Patriarch.
Feng Liena and her grandmother starred at the man that spoke up, recognizing his smug face from the time two years ago. This was the same man that tried proposing to the young Matriarch. Both of them were present at the time, but due to their ancestral teachings, they refused his advances. Now their decision came back to bite them yet again.
