53 Wang Zhu's Anger

With the sudden attack of Wang Zhu, it gave Ye Xiu ample time to try and snatch the hammer away from him. He used his whip to latch onto the hammer and realised that it was a stupid idea. He was pulled along with the hammer as it made its return toward Wang Zhu and he promptly removed his whip's grasp of the war hammer. Ye Xiu frowned at the strength of the throw and cried inside his mind.

'This guy is insane! The hammer was returning to him but it still had so much strength in its return. Imagine if I actually got hit by that...' Ye Xiu didn't want to continue imagining his sorry fate if he was to be hit by Wang Zhu. Vowing to make sure to evade him for as long he possibly could, he picked himself off the ground where he was left after releasing his whip's grasp of the hammer.

He retreated back several metres and watched Wang Zhu take hold of his hammer again. He attacked just as Wang Zhu got ahold of his hammer. He knew that it would take a while for Wang Zhu to be able to throw his hammer again due to how heavy it was. It wouldn't be easy to throw a hammer with that sort of strength and it would tire him out. Of course, Ye Xiu didn't count on the exhaustion of Wang Zhu because that would be nearly impossible seeing how he threw the hammer with ease.

He tried to bind Wang Zhu with his 'Entangling Roots' but Wang Zhu dodged it easily whilst carrying his hammer, not giving up, Ye Xiu made his whip continue to follow Wang Zhu's movement so that it wouldn't give him the chance to attack. As long as he kept far enough from him, the only thing that Wang Zhu could possibly to hit him from that distance would be to throw his hammer but if he kept him moving all the time it would be impossible for him to throw it just like the first time so that it would go back to the owner.

If Wang Zhu had enough experience he would've thrown the hammer and have it return to his next position but he didn't have enough skill with his technique to be able to do such an intricate attack such as that. The only thing he could do was continue to dodge whilst moving closer towards Ye Xiu. Ye Xiu didn't give him the chance to get close because whenever Wang Zhu was able to make it to a five-metre radius around Ye Xiu, he immediately moved to a different position.

Wang Zhu was obviously getting more and more irritated by the minute as Ye Xiu continued to dance and play him like a fiddle. "You coward! Come and fight me like a man or are you such a weakling you have to rely on such tricks to win? I won't accept my loss in this manner if it continues!" His face became red from his shouting and exploding anger but Ye Xiu didn't let that affect him.

Ye Xiu took the chance to taunt Wang Zhu because it was an opportunity that he had been waiting for and had been trying to create with his actions. "If it was out on a real battlefield, do you really think that your foe would give you the chance to attack when they can easily win like this without injury? You're too naive. If you really think that then you'll be the first one to die on the battlefield!"

Several of the teachers who were watching the tournament were nodding their heads in amusement or in appreciation for Ye Xiu's words toward Wang Zhu. Wang Zhu, who took it as an insult became more enraged and dismissed any more words he wanted to say and directly ran towards Ye Xiu with his hammer ready to strike.

"I don't need you to tell me what I can do! I'll just pulverize you into a pulp so you won't be able to say these types of things to me again!" He was trying to close the distance between him and Ye Xiu but his speed just wasn't as fast compared to Ye Xiu's. He had a lot of raw strength and power in his muscles but compared to someone who had trained to be able to keep their distance away from their opponents, then Wang Zhu had absolutely no chance in getting close to Ye Xiu unless he managed to catch him off guard.

"Get back here you little runt!" Ye Xiu's evasion tactics worked extremely well to continue inciting Wang Zhu's anger. Wang Zhu gave up chasing him and took something out from his dimensional storage and placed his current hammer into the storage. He took out a meteor hammer which had a long chain connecting the handle ends' of the hammers together. "I didn't want to use this until we fought the seniors but you've forced my hand!"

Wang Zhu held one hammer and swung the chain to make the other hammer spin extremely quickly. He immediately threw the swinging hammer towards Ye Xiu and it missed him by a hair's breadth as Ye Xiu took out his other whip to help him change the direction that the hammer was flung at.

Ye Xiu took that chance to get into the mid-range distance of Wang Zhu. He knew that he had only a small window of opportunity bind him before the hammer was pulled back but he went for it anyway. He had a single whip go for the ankles of Wang Zhu to make him slip whilst the other would wrap around his arms and body so that he wouldn't have the chance to stop himself from falling.

Wang Zhu retaliated with the single hammer that he had and used it to pin the whip that was aiming for his ankles and crouched to avoid the whip that was going for his upper body. Ye Xiu could only have the single whip that was dodged by Wang Zhu try it's best and bind his movements by following him but it was too late because Wang Zhu managed to get the thrown hammer back into his hands and used the sharp point on the hammer to cut the whip.

Wang Zhu managed to get out of the crisis and calmly got back up onto his feet. Taking the chain into his hands, the distance between the two hammers shortened so that he could easily spin both of them at the same time with both of his hands. The meteor hammer that he was using was obviously much heavier and larger than the standard sizes that he had seen in the armouries that he had visited.

Even though the meteor hammer was big it didn't affect the smoothness of his techniques and effectively used it to attack Ye Xiu from a distance. Of course, it wasn't as far as Ye Xiu could attack Wang Zhu but it was enough as long as he could get close enough to Ye Xiu. One of the good things about this particular meteor hammer that Wang Zhu had was that it had an extendable chain that could shorten or lengthen to up to four metres instead of the conventional 3 metres.

Wang Zhu's body size and arm length certainly helped him to use the meteor hammer comfortably enough to force Ye Xiu to evade most of the attacks that came his way. Wang Zhu's attacking frequency became higher as the speed of his rotations became faster since he had gotten into his battle tempo. Ye Xiu desperately wanted to use his whips to change the direction that the meteor hammer travelled but was still unsure whether he would be able to exert enough strength to stop the momentum.

Deciding to do so anyway, he managed to use both whips to pull the chain which connected the two ends together and force Wang Zhu to get into close-quarters. Ye Xiu didn't mind ditching the usage of his whips for the moment because he was going on the offensive with his body. He jabbed Wang Zhu multiple times in different parts of his body, mainly his joints using his training in Medical Arts to his advantage.

Ye Xiu was using the same concept that Shang Yang uses for her own combat style by attacking the vital points of his opponent and trying to block his Qi pathways. Ye Xiu didn't have the same finesse as Shang Yang but his training in the usage of Qi scalpels definitely helped him to cause physical damage whilst severing Wang Zhu's Qi pathways. Ye Xiu didn't completely sever off Wang Zhu's Qi pathways because that would permanently cripple him if he had no access to high-grade pills or elixirs.

This would allow Wang Zhu to still be able to train and cultivate but he would need to spend a few months to recover back to his original state. If Wang Zhu had the help of a Medical Master then he would recover much faster. Ye Xiu did this to teach him a lesson that people shouldn't be provoked and that he should be more careful when he fights outside of the Academy. He wanted him to know that if he was a person with bad intentions, then he would've long died or become a cripple for life.

Ye Xiu's attacks disabled Wang Zhu's limbs for the entire match and Ye Xiu waited for him to surrender as he had both his whips to bind him at the same time as an extra precaution. His whips had their Qi thorns draining his Qi as well just in case he didn't manage to sever the Qi pathways correctly. Ye Xiu wanted to teach this method of fighting to Shang Yang but wanted her to see the effects of the fighting style for herself before she decided whether she wanted to apply it to her fighting style.

Shang Yang's own Qi blocking style was definitely an effective style but it would become a deadlier style with the addition of the Qi scalpels. The Qi scalpel idea had originally popped into his head when he watched his father form Qi arrows. He asked for help from his father and used that help to build his foundation for the Qi thorns and Qi scalpels. This style of fighting required excellent Qi control but he knew that Shang Yang would be able to master it if she wanted to learn it.

Wang Zhu bit the inside of his right cheek, drawing blood. He gnashed his teeth together in rage before grunting out several unidentifiable sounds. The referee moved closer towards Wang Zhu so that he could make out the unintelligible sounds that he was making. Wang Zhu grunted, "I give up. Get someone to take me to the Medical Centre."

The referee nodded shortly after he was able to digest Wang Zhu's grunts. "Ye Xiu advances to the finals for the First years! Could we please get someone to help carry this young man to the Medical Centre?" A couple of friendly students that worked at the Medical Centre helped carry him off the Arena carefully and made their way to the Medical Centre. Ye Xiu followed their descent and disappeared into the crowd to watch the next match.

He didn't bother looking for the others because he had told them that he would stay here to watch the finals close up to see what other tricks Yan Guo had up his sleeve. Ye Xiu thought back to the fight just now and felt that he could improve his "Entangling Roots' style to a much deadlier style than what it was like currently. He quickly categorized that thought into a section of his mind for later and observed the two foes that he could possibly fight in the finals.

He wasn't sure whether the buff twin would be able to defeat Yan Guo so he was careful to watch both of them with equal attention, committing their skills and techniques to mind.