Chapter 0519: I Didn’t Do My Bes
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“Boom-Boom….” Two explosions rang out over from somewhere above, Suo Qiaoye did not see the scene of Ning Cheng crushed to a meat paste. He only saw a long spear flashing with thunder wisps supporting two mountain-like chess pieces on its tip. He had just figured out that Ning Cheng had still not used his full strength when a fist slammed over. It was a fist formed entirely of a strong and murderous Axe Intent.
Ning Cheng felt somewhat helpless in this situation. His 36 Cosmic True Devil Axes suffered complete destruction. Otherwise, with his present cultivation, he could arrange a Furious Axe Array Formation in an instant.
Suo Qiaoye felt incomparably shocked with the current development. The opponent’s domain was as formidable as his own Domain. That itself had left him shocked, now he found that even the quality of the opponent’s Celestial Essence was not any weaker than his own, which left him flabbergasted. Blocking his two descending chess pieces, filled to the limit with Celestial Essence, was one thing; however, completely suppressing his chess Domain formed by the chess pieces, it was an entirely different matter.
As the axe fist descended, the surrounding space immediately parted because of the killing intent contained in the Axe Fist. Suo Qiaoye realised that his own Domain now was at a disadvantage and could no longer kill Ning Cheng as soon as possible as he had initially planned. Seeing the situation turn for the worse, the chessboard in his hands immediately shot out.
“Clang….” Ning Cheng’s fist-shadow slammed onto the now-huge chessboard, making a sound of metal hitting metal.
Suo Qiaoye shot back tumbling, as blood sprayed out of his open mouth.
Ning Cheng turned out extremely strong. However, Suo Qiaoye still had a few tricks up his sleeves; otherwise, he could not have managed to block that fist in time. Ning Cheng knew that he could not do his best in this scenario, so he did not continue with another punch.
Seeing Suo Qiaoye shoot back tumbling with blood spraying out of his mouth before finally coming to a stop at the edge of the battle ring, immediately caused a burst of cheers to erupt within the audience seated in the Celestial Forest Arena. Apparently, everyone felt excited about such a fight.
“Very good, you deserve me going all out.” Suo Qiaoye stood up and wiped the blood off from the corner of his mouth. At the same time, the chessboard in his hand automatically flew up while it kept doubling in size as it somersaulted a few times over his head.
Without waiting for Ning Cheng to speak, the chessboard suddenly transformed. The huge chessboard looked as if made out of liquid mercury as it started pouring down from the air. This liquid mercury then changed into a twisted, irregular and ever-changing chessboard surface. Six more chess pieces landed on this distorted chessboard before quickly arranging themselves into different positions.
At this moment, Ning Cheng felt as if he had teleported into a strange and twisted array formation; moreover, he was right in the middle of this array formation. There only remained a single thought in his head and that was to get out quickly. Otherwise, he would eventually transform into another chess piece inside, forever sealed in this chessboard.
At this moment, within the Celestial Forest Arena, Ning Cheng was not the only one to have entered the chessboard’s Intent Field. Although Ning Cheng had to bear the majority of the brunt, many of the spectators also suffered under the chessboard’s Intent Field, as they immediately felt a sense of crisis.
Shi Yulan also looked anxious; although she had a Celestial Gatherer Cultivation, she remained at the edge of the audience. As such, the chess Domain did not affect her; however, she felt anxious for Ning Cheng.
Suo Qiaoye put away the four chess pieces that had created his chess Domain. By all accounts, it should have been easy to take care of this Wanderer; however, now that Wanderer had trapped himself in his chessboard’s Intent Field, he definitely would not be able to extract himself from it.
If Ning Cheng had been outside, he could have definitely launched his own Domain to bind Suo Qiaoye, and quickly killed Suo Qiaoye. However, being the central character, this chessboard’s Intent Field had immediately brought him in. Only then had a deep sense of crisis emerge within him, telling him to walk out of this place as soon as possible. However, he did not know if a counter-attack was possible.
The six chess pieces started moving faster and faster, and soon shadows of chess pieces covered the entire battle ring. There was also the shadow of the chessboard that remained in constant distortion and mobile. Ning Cheng and Suo Qiaoye’s figure no longer were visible.
The spectating cultivators knew what might have happened; from the looks of it, Suo Qiaoye had stimulated his chess Domain to surround Wanderer. However, the Wanderer still seemed struggling within. As such, the final victory or loss depended on whether Wanderer could break free from this predicament.
Suo Qiaoye had indeed trapped Ning Cheng, and right in the middle of this chess arrangement. It seemed that if he stepped in any direction, this flexible and extremely mobile chess array would squeeze him into a paste at any time.
This was not just the array formation, there even was a powerful killing intent emanating from the chess pieces that tried to suppress him. It wanted him to submit, without trying to resist.
Initially, when Ning Cheng still used Spirit Qi for cultivation, he had already made contact with the Axe Intent and the Spear Intent. After that, his Axe Intent had rapidly started to grow towards perfection. When he made his way out of the Angry Axe Valley, and with the additional help of Cang Wei in refining the 36 Cosmic True Devil Axes, his Axe Intent had already transformed into something self-contained with a complete attack system.
It also helped his Spear Intent to experience constant improvement, allowing him to take a step closer to comprehend Intent Fields. As such, his understanding had reached a more profound level compared to other average people.
At this time, Suo Qiaoye’s Chess Intent was utterly different from his Axe Intent or his Spear Intent; moreover, it also integrated seamlessly with the array formation, which made it difficult for him to extricate himself from this predicament in a short time.
Moreover, this kind of ever-changing array formation was not a normal low-level array formation but an array formation that neared Celestial Grade. Because the Array Flags of this array formation could not cover the entire chessboard and had a slight flaw, it could not actually make that advancement.
Ning Cheng, who currently felt incapable of extricating himself from this Chess Domain and the Chess Array, continually tried to calculate his own way out. Because of this, he kept his mind trained over the constantly moving chess pieces and the position of the Array Disc. At this moment, only a powerful attack could force him to sober up. Without the sense of crisis from a powerful attack, most likely anyone could manage to kill him at this moment.
Although Suo Qiaoye could sense the state Ning Cheng was in, he, unfortunately, had no extra strength to attack Ning Cheng. His mind remained wholly focussed on his own Chess Intent Field and controlling the Array Disc. He wanted to trap Ning Cheng to death. It was just that Ning Cheng’s Domain was too powerful for him to bind Ning Cheng completely.
Suo Qiaoye understood it very clear that once Ning Cheng managed to get off his chessboard’s Intent Field he, Suo Qiaoye, would definitely die. He could not help but feel very depressed in his heart because of this match. With a Celestial Shatterer Cultivation, Suo Qiaoye could have killed Ning Cheng before it reached this point. He also could not help but think of what kind of a monster was Ning Cheng to have such a powerful Domain. So powerful that it even made him fearful and apprehensive.
Because Suo Qiaoye felt extremely anxious, he crazily poured every ounce of energy into his chessboard and chess pieces.
Intent Fields did not work that way though; crazily trying to stimulate it would not necessarily make it more powerful, as it was something that one could only grasp intuitively. As such, under Suo Qiaoye’s madness, cracks started to appear within his Chess Intent.
The moment Ning Cheng saw those cracks he immediately sobered up. He finally sobered up to the fact that his opponent’s Chess Domain had completely surrounded and trapped him. He also recalled what Shi Yulan had explicitly said to him that Suo Qiaoye’s Chess Domain had reached a deep level. Although those words had not referred to this situation, it still rang true. At this moment, Ning Cheng felt somewhat grateful for Shi Yulan’s visit.
Because of Shi Yulan’s information, he always held some vigilance in his heart, which allowed him to understand the opponent’s Chess Domain this quickly.
At this moment, after seeing through Suo Qiaoye’s Chess Domain, Ning Cheng could break it open at any time and easily kill Suo Qiaoye. However, Ning Cheng did not make any moves. He continued to improve his understandings of array formations and intent field within the Chess Domain. Although fighting against Suo Qiaoye, he had never given it his best from the start.
Spear Intent, Axe Intent, Fist Intent, Chess Intent…
Everything within the universe, as long as one can understand something to a certain level, they can then transform it into an intent field.
At this moment, Ning Cheng had already experienced the Axe Intent in the Angry Axe Valley. He sensed his Spear Intent through the Everlasting Blue Thunder City, and now he got himself trapped in the middle of someone’s Chess Intent. All of these allowed him to experience a sudden awakening.
Both his Spear Intent and Axe Intent intertwined and resonated with each other to break through to a new realm at the same time, Partial Omniscience.
Ning Cheng had learned about the realms of intent in the True Cultivation World. His Spear Intent should have already reached the Realm of Major Completion. Now it had advanced to the Realm of Partial Omniscience, which meant that he could manipulate his Spear Intent and Killing Power at will. At the same time, fiddle with Killing Power without doing anything.
“Bang” Ning Cheng’s mind felt as if it had opened up to a brand new world, as a more powerful kind of enlightenment welled up inside. As soon as he raised his hand, the Treasured Thunder Spear, which had remained trapped outside the Chess Domain by Suo Qiaoye’s array formation, suddenly appeared in his hand. The next moment, his hand relaxed slightly, and the array filled with Chess Intent, which looked like a flowing stream of mercury from the inside, collapsed.
The Treasured Thunder Spear in Ning Cheng’s hand had suddenly appeared over Suo Qiaoye’s glabella; however, the other party could not even move slightly.
At this moment, his mind could not even bother with Suo Qiaoye, as his understanding of array formations directly soared to the ninth tier before breaking through once again. His mind opened up a new world, an entirely new world.
That is right, at this moment, after gazing into and understanding a Celestial Grade Array Formation; he had officially entered the ranks of Tier 1 Celestial Array Master.
Cold sweat oozed out of Suo Qiaoye’s forehead. A moment ago, he still had the upper hand, yet the next moment, he turned into a lamb that the opposite party could slaughter at any time.
He did not dare to move, the Treasured Thunder Spear had bound him. Surrounded by the opponent’s Domain, as long as he made the slightest movement, he might just turn into a ghost under the Treasured Thunder Spear in front of him.
“I admit defeat…..” Suo Qiaoye screamed out those three words while feeling grateful and happy in his heart that Ning Cheng had not killed him.
A burst of thunderous applause resounded; however, Shi Yulan’s excited voice had almost overshadowed the rest of the cheering.
However, Ning Cheng remained motionless. The long spear remained pointed at Suo Qiaoye’s glabella, without any intentions of retreat.
Suo Qiaoye’s face turned ugly to look at. To the point that even his face turned red from anger and humiliation, this kind of act was a complete insult towards him. Even the faces of the people from the Gale Arena had become hard to look at. This was not just an insult to Suo Qiaoye, but also an insult to the Gale Arena.
Gale Arena had taken the initiative to issue the challenge. However, now that Suo Qiaoye had admitted defeat, the long spear remained pointed at Suo Qiaoye without any movement. If this was not an insult then what was?
In complete contrast to them, the Celestial Forest Arena’s Arena Master and the other stewards had a wide grin plastered over their faces. From this point on, the Celestial Forest Arena was bound to be famous within the entire Revolving Jade City.
Ning Cheng honestly had not heard Suo Qiaoye’s words; after gaining a sudden deeper understanding into his Spear Intent and Array Formations, his consciousness had also deepened. At this moment, he suddenly understood many of his shortcomings. Although his knowledge regarding the Spear Intent and Axe Intent had reached a very high level, it had not actually formed an attack system.
His Celestial River Flame had already advanced to an intense purple colour a long time ago; however, only recently could Ning Cheng comprehend a manoeuvre, the Nothingness Flame Patterned Spear.
Although he had a Domain much more potent than a normal cultivator’s Domain, he could not make good use of the Domain to form a trump card. Even though his understandings of array formations had reached the Celestial Tier, and yet he still could not effectively utilise his perceptions of array formations to fight against enemies.
Even the Maximal Flame Spiritual Technique was not something that he had comprehended on his own, but something taught to him by Eldest Brother Cang Wei.
At this moment, Ning Cheng’s mind had turned entirely sober. If he could take all of his different understandings and combine it to form a complete set to use against enemies, would he still need to fight against someone like Suo Qiaoye for so long? Could Suo Qiaoye force him into him Chess Domain?
After Ning Cheng understood his shortcomings, he suddenly gave out a long and loud howl that penetrated through the entire Celestial Forest Arena. He finally recognised what he lacked. Fighting continuously for more than ten days in the arena, he had not gone through it all in vain.
Shi Yulan felt shocked, as she could feel a little familiarity from this howl.
“I already admitted defeat, what do you want?” Suo Qiaoye finally erupted in anger.
Ning Cheng smiled and put away his Treasured Thunder Spear. Killing or sparing Suo Qiaoye no longer felt important to him, not to mention that he currently was in a happy mood.
Seeing Ning Cheng putting away the long spear, Suo Qiaoye felt slightly relieved, yet he boldly spoke out, “Although I lost, you also did your best. Next time, I will not give you this opportunity.”
Ning Cheng looked at Suo Qiaoye and calmly spoke out, “You’ve made a mistake. I didn’t do my best.”