Archfiend

Chapter 38: Battle Royale (3)

 Gao Ye was a tall youth and moreover extremely robust. He was nearly as tall as Chu Zhaonan, approximately around 1.9 meters tall as well. His head was bald, and his muscles were bulging like a sturdy ox. With eyes as large as copper bells, he looked at Chu Zhaonan like he wanted to eat him.

Chu Zhaonan couldn’t even be bothered to spare Gao Ye a glance. From his leg wrappings, he coolly took out a gun. It was a small handgun, exceptionally small, the size of a palm. So small that the brand couldn’t be seen clearly, and it was without any runes. 

“Hehe…” Gao Ye’s laugh was raspy, and his voice was like a rusty blade. Atop the arena stage, he didn’t make the first move but rather crossed his arms across his chest and looked at Chu Zhaonan with full interest as the latter unhurriedly loaded his pistol. Chu Zhaonan had only loaded it with a single bullet, one that was dark-green in color. 

“Are you retarded?” After waiting no less than a minute, Chu Zhaonan callously blew on his pistol’s muzzle, and Gao Ye sneered. 

“Firearms basically can’t hit cultivators. They can’t kill them, either. Didn’t you learn that at the Tianfeng City branch?”

Chu Zhaonan’s gaze flitted across Gao Ye, looking down at Xu Yangyi below the stage. He suddenly laughed. “Your show wasn’t bad. However, I’ve got a part here, too. Although the time it takes is a bit long, it’ll be a win in style.”

Xu Yangyi chuckled. He crossed his arms and leaned back against the stone wall, not speaking. Gao Ye had lost… He knew that Chu Zhaonan didn’t need a gun. However, Xu Yangyi was still a newcomer that didn’t understand much regarding the cultivation world, so he simply didn’t understand what having a gun represented. But while he didn’t know, he could perceive that the pistol at Chu Zhaonan’s waist was very dangerous… extremely dangerous. 

His five senses had already strengthened by a third in comparison to ordinary cultivators. Every time his spiritual sense congealed over that gun, he kept on feeling a stabbing pain between his eyebrows. This was the manifestation of a danger signal. When he’d originally kicked Chu Zhaonan on the airplane, he had understood that Chu Zhaonan’s body was unlikely to be much weaker than his in the slightest. Their realms were similar, and while he hadn’t felt a prick between his brows as Chu Zhaonan took out the small pistol, he had still felt extremely uncomfortable. 

“Since you have such confidence…” Gao Ye whistled a tune, “lemme see what you’re worth.” 

Chu Zhaonan could see these words were lip service, and the corner of his mouth faintly turned upwards. In the next second… he had vanished! Gao Ye’s vision suddenly intensified, and Xu Yangyi’s eyes flashed. The gazes of everyone in the arena were trembling! Moments ago, Xu Yangyi had also been a shadow, but this time Chu Zhaonan had truly disappeared! 

Xu Yangyi sucked in deeply, and his spiritual sense rushed forth like a tide. Short of 0.3 seconds later, he raised his head with a jolt! All the middle-stage and late-stage Qi Condensation cultivators, and Foundation Establishment cultivators raised their heads. Twenty meters high in the air, Chu Zhaonan’s figure astonishingly appeared! 

“Gun Kata…” Chu Zhaonan had at some unknown time taken out two guns in his hand, a pair of identical silver pistols. He breathed in deeply, and his gaze sharpened explosively. “Heartseeker!”

Swooooosshhh! In an instant, his body revolved into a spinning top! However… as he spun, all that could be seen at the center of this camouflaged grassy-green tornado were flame tongues! From ten, they counted to a hundred, from a hundred they turned into a thousand. From a thousand, they transformed into over ten thousand! At nearly the same moment, these flame tongues furiously churned outwards! 

Bang bang bang! In the air, the roar of pistols formed a symphony of slaughter! Simultaneously, Shadowslay unexpectedly stood up and slightly flicked out with a forefinger. Buzz! A gigantic curtain of green light surrounded the arena stage to the innermost part of all sides! 

“This is…” An old man said slightly surprised. “Senior Shadowslay used spiritual force to construct a defensive cover? He…” He glanced at Chu Zhaonan in shock. “Does Senior Shadowslay believe that this student can injure the same graduating juniors?! Is the distance between them so far apart?” 

“Gun Kata!” But at the same time, there were many people who had already recognized Chu Zhaonan’s moves, and gasped coldly. They immediately defended the juniors of their own families within their qi! 

“Great-grandfather… What’s going on?” A young boy asked incredulously and looked bewilderedly at the cautious face of his great-grandfather, who was also an ancestor of their Song Clan, in front of him. 

“This is Gun Kata.” The old man’s expression was focused. “This is an arcane effort, a secret technique he brought himself. The demand for it on the market is at least a few billion! Furthermore, maybe there’s no market for this price! It looks stylish and has a reputation of being a sure-killer within the same boundary… I looked up this competition in advance, and that student’s surname is Chu. I’m afraid he has a backer of unimaginable greatness within the Chinese government...” 

Gao Ye was already stunned. What Chu Zhaonan had said wasn’t from the Hundred Solutions? What was this? He couldn’t see it clearly, but he could distinctly sense it. A countless number of bullets were racing towards his entire body in assault! They seemed to flutter about like honey bees and butterflies, but the fact of the matter was that every single bullet’s final destination was his heart!

“ARRRGHHHH!” He suddenly roared, and the muscles of his entire body sharply swelled. The camouflage clothing on his body suddenly burst apart, and all the veins on his upper body were like rushing dragons and serpents, converging together into the image of a qilin on his chest! 

Life Sacrification! 

Xu Yangyi’s gaze turned a shade grave upon seeing this. A student capable of using Life Sacrification was absolutely deserving of his reputation as a champion. 

“Tortoise Burdens!” With his second roar, Gao Ye crossed his arms in front of himself and leaned forward. By combining Life Sacrification and Tortoise Burdens together, he didn’t believe that he wouldn’t be able to block this confrontation of mere firearms! 

Yet even if he couldn’t block it… Gao Ye didn’t have any other moves to use afterwards! 

Bang bang bang! Endless tongues of fire spewed out resplendent fireworks in the sky, like a fountain of flames. As all the bullets were on the verge of making contact with Gao Ye, countless tiny ripples suddenly appeared in front of him at the same time. 

If someone looked carefully within these ripples, they were all incomparably small bullets. Meanwhile, the four qi walls were the same as the front of Gao Ye, suffused with several millions of ripples at the same time! Endless bullets simultaneously bombarded, reaching a magnificent spectacle in parallel!

“Huff…” Xu Yangyi inhaled deeply and took his hand out. Powerful… As expected, Chu Zhaonan was very powerful! Arcane efforts weren’t something they could access, but treasure blades would be put into the hands of brave warriors. Evidently, Chu Zhaonan was that man of bravery. This was his true strength! A split second ago, killing intent had filled the wide expanse! Every ripple was a true streak of murderous will. If not for Shadowslay acting to obstruct it, then perhaps Gao Ye would’ve already died by now!

Buzz... Shadowslay waved his hand and the four qi walls dissipated into white qi. However, the bullets that had been “stopped” in midair by the qi walls finally fell down at this instant, making tinkling noises. The sound was clear and crisp like small and large pearls crashing down on a jade platter. A floral shower of countless bullets rained down upon Chu Zhaonan’s surroundings! It was just that this floral shower was a fatal one, even bringing with it hissing white smoke caused by the emission of severe friction. It was a perfect curtain call.

A drop of cold sweat on the tip of Gao Ye’s nose fell onto the ground. Heaven knows that he’d almost believed himself to have died at that final instant. Endless bullets… A genuine forest of guns and raining bullets! It was as if millions of reapers had brandished their sickles, and come charging at him while screeching! How was Life Sacrification coupled with Tortoise Burdens supposed to resist this?

“Tianfeng City, Chu Zhaonan wins.” Firecloud’s voice echoed out, shaking everyone awake from this stylish feast of slaughter. Yet in the next second, a familiar sound like a crumbling biscuit swiftly pervaded everyone’s ears. 

“It's not…” An old man raised his head in astonishment.

“Real or fake…” Dazed, a middle-aged woman uneasily shifted her Chanel bag, and looked at the suddenly trembling stone steles. 

“Isn’t Nantong Province’s luck… too good this time? First there was that fiend Xu, and now a second fiend has appeared?”

“Someone else broke the steles from past graduations?”

“Heavens… This does the Nantong Province branch proud. Two fiends in a row!” 

The sound of cracking rang out progressively. In the next moment, four steles shattered with a rumble! Eighteen stone steles were violently swaying back and forth! 

No one spoke. Among the light pillars of the disintegrated stone steles, Chu Zhaonan looked proudly at Xu Yangyi from the stage above. Xu Yangyi raised his head and looked at his counterpart, absent of the slightest concession with a warring gaze. This was a declaration of war. This was a true battle challenge! He, Xu Yangyi, had roused a hundred percent of Chu Zhaonan’s fighting will!

Xu Yangyi had settled his battle in three seconds before. His style was crude, barbaric, and unreasonable.

Chu Zhaonan had settled his battle in thirty seconds afterwards. His style was polished, graceful, and untainted by even a speck of dust. Within the gathering of ten thousand flowers, not a single petal had touched his body. Among the pitter-patter of infinite bullets, the will to fight had reached extremes, in the duo’s eyes.

Cultivation in the first place was the struggle of all beings. To lack diligence and caution would lead to a dead end! Only the most fitting opponent was capable of sharpening one’s own skill, willpower, and strength to an even higher level!

They both understood this principle. At this instant, they seemed to have caught sight of each other as predestined rivals. Their styles were different and their timings was different, but their strength and fierceness flowed together in a similar vein. Chu Zhaonan raised his hand and sliced it across his throat, licking his lips. He hadn’t even looked at Gao Ye’s face, which was deathly ashen.

The students watching this turned their gazes to Xu Yangyi. It was because they understood it very clearly… These two people were cut from the same cloth, the strong and the monstrous. Their opponents wouldn’t be them whatsoever! It was without question that Chu Zhaonan wasn’t looking at them. A monster… should compete against monsters! And fight other monsters!

“I’ll be waiting for you.” 

Xu Yangyi’s brows were still. It appeared that the current scene of raining bullets pitter-pattering was different from the background behind Chu Zhaonan. Chu Zhaonan could’ve concealed his Gun Kata, could’ve relied on the Hundred Solutions, but he hadn’t. Instead, he had taken out his own impressive hidden ace, demanding for battle!

If you want a fight, then I’ll satisfy you! You want a battle where you can fight to your heart’s content and dye your fist with blood? I, Xu Yangyi, also look forward to an expert I can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with!

“You’re not worried?” A voice abruptly emerged from Xu Yangyi’s side, a woman’s voice. She wasn’t tall and couldn’t be considered very beautiful. 

“Why should I be worried?” Xu Yangyi raised a brow and replied.

“That’s an arcane effort that none of us have ever seen! That kid is cheating!” The woman said hatefully, “We’re going to go together and make an appeal to the Foundation Establishment seniors! This is illegal! He’s cheating! He secretly learned other arcane efforts!”

Xu Yangyi stowed his gaze away from Chu Zhaonan and glanced pitifully at her. “So, all of you can only play the hare. Your heart is without sword, yet your external sword is better, brighter, and sharper…” He fished out a lighter and leisurely lit a cigarette, taking a drag in satisfaction. “but you can only be the hare.”

He answered the woman no longer, placing his eyes on the present cultivation clans. Their faces were incensed as if they were crazy. With another glance, he saw the excitedly standing personnel from the Bountiful Treasures Pavilion, the Featherwood Guard, and the CSIB. He ought to have accepted such courtesy. The strong never wanted false modesty. He laughed as he flicked his cigarette ash, an incomparably resolute thought within his heart now.

Only I can break him! There’s no one who can pose a shred of threat against him besides me! 

Xu Yangyi was quite sure that Chu Zhaonan also had this same thought within his heart.