Chapter 1491 Determining Victory With Three Strikes

A day passed, and the final eight was finally determined. The matchups for the next round were also determined.

In the first bracket, Ling Han was matched up against Hong Ma, and Long Xiangyue was matched up against Cheng Zhi. In the second bracket, Gu Daoyi was matched up against Zi Chenfeng, and Cheng Xiaofan was matched up against Dang Da[1].

The four battles began at the same time.

“Brother Ling!” Hong Ma was dressed in a snow-white hemp robe, and there was a fly-whisk in his hand. He appeared especially elegant. He nodded slightly at Ling Han, and he didn’t seem aggressive at all. He was like someone who had attained dao, and there was divine light pulsating around his body.

Ling Han nodded slightly as he clasped his hands in greeting, and said, “Brother Hong.”

“I’ll only launch three strikes. If Brother Ling can withstand all of them, I’ll turn around and leave,” Hong Ma said. “However, if Brother Ling can’t withstand them…”

“Then I’ll turn around and leave,” Ling Han said with a smile.

“Deal,” Hong Ma said with a nod.

Supreme king tiers like them could easily battle against each other for a dozen days or half a month. In fact, they could even battle for a dozen or two dozen years without determining a victor. However, they had limited their battle to three strikes now, and thus it was destined to be incredibly intense and dangerous.

Because the following battles would become more and more difficult, it was also a good idea to complete this battle as quickly as possible. That way, they could naturally expend less energy.

They wouldn’t be able to determine a victor after the conclusion of the three strikes. However, they would be able to determine who had enjoyed the upper hand. This would then allow them to understand the direction of the battle.

Hong Ma started to recite a mantra as he flicked his fly-whisk. A white stone statue suddenly materialized behind him. This was a plump and lively statue only nine meters tall.

Since they were determining victory with just three strikes, Hong Ma naturally had to unleash his most powerful strikes. Moreover, he would have enough time to gather power for these strikes. If they were locked in a battle of attrition, he definitely wouldn’t have enough time to prepare such attacks.

Ling Han was unfazed by Hong Ma’s preparations. His physique was far too powerful, and there were more so killing formations engraved inside his body. These killing formations could be activated at any moment, and he didn’t need to deliberately prepare them.

He started to observe Hong Ma’s actions. He could learn from all of the techniques in the world. He had a wild aspiration, and that was to imbue all kinds of Regulations into his Lightning Sword Technique. He wanted to transform it such that it could be powerful and peerless even in the Celestial Realm.

Weng!

An overwhelming aura flowed into the surroundings as the white stone statue behind Hong Ma suddenly opened its eyes. His aura suddenly rose explosively—more than one-hundred-fold—and it was as if a Saint had descended into the arena.

Creak…

The arena started to shake as a web of cracks slowly started to spread across it. The arena was unable to withstand his aura.

In fact, the spectators could sense his devastating aura even through the layer of restrictive barrier. They were all astounded. If they were to come across such a formidable opponent, they wouldn’t even be able to lift a finger. They would definitely suffer defeat.

“This is the might of a Saint!”

“Indeed, this is genuinely the might of a Saint.”

“He can destroy mountains and obliterate seas with just a single thought.”

“But why is this might appearing on the body of an Eternal River Tier elite? Unless… he’s activated the decree of a Saint? However, there are rules in place, and it’s impossible to activate the decree of a Saint in the competition. In any case, he hasn’t retrieved any decree.”

The spectators were all unsure of what was happening. This was already beyond their understanding.

Ling Han also frowned. If Hong Ma could genuinely summon a Saint, then he would naturally have zero chance of victory. However, if he were that powerful, how could he have been forced to crawl through the dog flap at that time?

Only him, Empress Luan Xing, and Jiuyao had been spared from the humiliation of crawling through the dog flap.

This was most likely a hollow shell, just like the Notionless Saint.

Ling Han’s belief was firm, and he immediately leaped up and charged at Hong Ma.

This astonished the spectators. Was there something wrong with Ling Han’s brain? He was facing a “Saint”, yet he still dared to actively charge over? He was treating the Saint as if it didn’t exist…

Ling Han arrived before Hong Ma, who humphed softly as he raised a finger. The stone statue behind him also raised a finger. A beam of light instantly shot at Ling Han, and this beam of light was radiating with a saintly might. So what if he was a king tier? His battle prowess would still be decimated by 30 or 40%.

However, Ling Han laughed loudly upon seeing this attack. If his opponent were genuinely a Saint, just a single thought from them would be enough to suppress him. Would there be any need to complicate things and attack him?

He unleashed heaven’s might to resist this saintly might.

Was a Saint superior to the heavens?

The answer was naturally negative.

The saintly might was instantly suppressed by the suffusing heaven’s might. However, it was only pushed seven or so meters back from Ling Han’s body. It continued to swirl around like a tumultuous body of water. After all, Ling Han’s cultivation level was still inferior, so he could only push this saintly might back. This saintly might wouldn’t be able to affect him any longer, though he wouldn’t be able to affect Hong Ma with his heaven’s might, either.

However, this didn’t matter. His battle prowess came from his body, not from heaven’s might!

He would battle!

Ling Han arrived before Hong Ma, and he swung both of his fists at once. Sword Qi burst into the surroundings.

Hong Ma couldn’t help but feel astonished. Summoning the projection of a Saint was a powerful technique of his. Under the powerful aura of a Saint, which cultivator wouldn’t have their cultivation level suppressed and their battle prowess decimated?

However, his opponent’s heaven’s might was surprisingly powerful, so much so that it could even block his saintly might.

As expected of a supreme king tier. During the competition in the Sunken Abyss Valley, he definitely hadn’t ascended the gigantic golden boulder due to luck.

Hong Ma launched a counterattack.

Boom!

They exchanged a strike.

Both of them shot back before coming to a stop and standing upright and proud.

“Who enjoyed the upper hand?”

“I couldn’t tell!”

“Look over there, Hong Ma’s hand!”

Everyone looked over, only to see a drop of blood forming on Hong Ma’s hand. However, this drop of blood didn’t drip down onto the ground.

Hong Ma had been wounded during this exchange, although this was only a very minor wound.

There was a solemn expression on his face, and he said, “Second strike!” He raised his right hand, which gradually became as white and transparent as jade. One could clearly see the heavenly bodies pulsating inside of it, and there was more so a silver river cutting across this hand. Its aura was astounding.

The projection of the Saint was still present, and this was clearly a stacking of two supreme techniques.

Ling Han was as calm as usual as he waited for his opponent to complete his preparations.

“Die!” This time, it was Hong Ma who actively charged at Ling Han. He lashed out with his palm.

Whoosh!

His white and jade-like palm transformed into a heavenly body that descended from the sky. It desired to forcefully suppress Ling Han with its overwhelming aura.

Ling Han snapped his fingers, sending forth a burst of Sword Qi.

Just how domineering was the Lightning Sword Technique? The descending heavenly body was instantly obliterated by the powerful Sword Qi.

However, a cold smile stretched across Hong Ma’s face. Could his supreme technique be defeated so easily?

Boom!

The obliterated heavenly body transformed into countless meteors that continued to hurtle toward Ling Han. Their might hadn’t deteriorated in the least.

‘How’s that?’

Hong Ma was brimming with confidence. He made a pressing motion with his right hand, pushing the meteors and causing them to accelerate as they hurtled toward Ling Han. However, a look of astonishment instantly appeared on his face. This was because the meteors were actually crumbling!

They weren’t crumbling like the heavenly bodies had crumbled into meteors. Rather, they were crumbling from the very source of their essence. They were decaying, and they eventually transformed into ashes. They lost all of their might.

Boom!

A palm landed, and it instantly sent plumes of dust into the sky. However, it couldn’t even hurt a single strand of Ling Han’s hair.

It was clear who had enjoyed the upper hand.

Ling Han had actively attacked during the previous exchange, and Hong Ma had suffered a minor wound to his hand. Meanwhile, Hong Ma had actively attacked this time, and Ling Han hadn’t been wounded at all.

There was still one strike remaining. If this exchange ended in a tie, Hong Ma would have no option but to admit defeat.

Hong Ma’s expression was extremely solemn. He hadn’t counted on his second strike being able to suppress Ling Han. However, in his plans, that strike should have flustered Ling Han, even if he were able to eventually block it. However, Ling Han had been far too calm and composed.

He had to unleash his true trump card. Otherwise, there was simply no way he could defeat Ling Han.

He shook his fly-whisk.

Weng!

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Numerous divine patterns surprisingly lit up on the fly-whisk. As it turned out, this was also a precious treasure!

‘Pseudo-Saint Tool!’

Although Hong Ma was only at the Eternal River Tier, meaning that he was unable to take full advantage of a Pseudo-Saint Tool, he could still unleash might on par with the peak stage of the high extreme of the Eternal River Tier. With such overwhelming power, he refused to believe that he couldn’t suppress an elite at the low extreme of the Eternal River Tier.

[1] Logically speaking, Empress Luan Xing should be one of the eight, so one name is wrong. However, it’s unclear which.