71 Stone Dragon General
"Um, Yufeng, can you please...?" Meng called out to her.
"Eh? What?" Yufeng just recovered from the shock she just experienced from seeing the entire horde of stone warriors turn into dust. She looked at Meng just to see him pointing at her arms that were tightly wrapped around his neck.
"Oh! I-I am sorry." Yufeng quickly loosened her hold on to Meng's neck.
"Very impressive, young humans. It seems even I have underestimated your strength because it doesn't look like you are that much exhausted. However, the first stage of the trial hasn't been completed yet. The last wave, which is also the most difficult challenge, is going to start soon. You can take your time and help your woman." Residual soul's majestic voice resounded in the entire domain and Yufeng quickly looked down when she heard its words to hide any possible blush.
Meng just raised his eyebrow from hearing residual soul calling Yufeng his woman but he didn't bother to correct it as he saw no reason why it should be aware of their relationship.
"Let's go somewhere more suitable" Meng said before jumping away from the destroyed ground all around to the place that was unaffected by their battle and put Yufeng on the ground, letting her lean her back against a big boulder.
"Thank you..." Yufeng thanked him while avoiding eye contact with him. Meng saw right through her worries and couldn't help but shake his head with a small smile and closed eyes.
"Damn, but Yufeng, you have never told me that you are so strong. Were your profound skills so refined even back 8 months ago?" Meng sat down next to her since the last wave has yet to begin. He sat down so close to her that their shoulders were touching but seemingly neither of them was bothered by it.
"...Heh, of course not...I completely ignored any kind of training after coming to the Heavenly Sword Villa. My talent was never too great." A faint smile appeared on her face as she replied while still avoiding eye contact but her body involuntarily shifted her body's weight against Meng's shoulder.
"Well, after 8 months becoming that much stronger is quite a miracle so I would say that you have some talent but it doesn't matter anyway. Talent is only something similar to a headstart, even the most talented people need to have strong enough determination to keep moving forward, the determination is the most important thing here. And I believe your determination is firm and strong enough. With a strong enough determination, nothing is impossible." Meng consoled her but he didn't lie to her with those words.
"With a strong enough determination, nothing is impossible...huh? I like those words." Yufeng said with a content smile, hiding additional meaning inside her words before she rested her head on Meng's shoulder with a peaceful smile on her face.
Residual soul watched this scene silently before it announced the beginning of the last wave, making Meng slowly stand up.
"The last trial of the first stage...Stone Dragon General"
With a loud and strong earthquake, a mountain gate was opened with only a single opponent walking out of the mountain in front of them.
It looked similar to those stone warriors but only much higher and covered in heavy golden colored armor, wielding a heavy sword. The moment it stepped on the same earth as them, they immediately felt the pressure generated from it.
"T-That's a pressure of lower stages Overlord!" Yufeng's eyes widened in horror as her power has yet to fully return and even if she was in her peak condition, she wouldn't be able to fight against such an opponent. She could only look at Meng with a worried look but that worried look was immediately replaced by shock when she noticed Meng's excited smile.
"Yufeng, will you please leave this guy to me?" Meng asked in a teasing tone while stretching his arms.
'Lucky, it's extremely hard to find a suitable opponent who can help me train my Hell Suppressing Physique nowadays.' Meng thought as he saw its slow movements yet overly heavy-looking armor and sword.
"But Meng! This is the pressure of an Overlord! That thing is the entire 2 great realms above you. Let me distract it so you can try one of your techniques against it while it will have its guard down." Yufeng shouted at him.
"Do you not trust me?" Meng asked with a serious expression which made Yufeng flinch a bit.
"...Tch! That's so unfair!" In the end, she clicked her tongue and leaned against the boulder with folded arms right under her breasts, making them more than noticeable.
Seeing her like this with an upset expression, Meng had an urge to tease her but he had an opponent to face so he would focus on Yufeng after this trial is finished.
Meng started walking towards the unmoving stone general and once he entered its perception range, its eyes flashed in yellow light, immediately swinging its heavy sword down at Meng's head
Meng quickly crossed his arms above his head, intending to block the attack head-on, completely catching both Yufeng and even residual soul off-guard.
*BANG!* The ground ruptured and large pieces of it started flying through the sky.
"Meng!!!" Yufeng shouted as she watched this with shaky eyes, involuntarily they started becoming moist. Although she believed in Meng, it was due to his techniques, she never expected him to try to receive the attack from the overlord head-on.
She couldn't help but think of the time they spent together but her thoughts were immediately cut-off once the dust cleared up and she saw Meng standing in a small crater, blocking the heavy sword with his bare hands. Her eyes once again regained their calmness and a happy expression appeared on her face, she didn't even bother thinking about how did he survive that attack.
Residual soul on the other hand narrowed its big azure eyes, it would already be an understatement if one said that it was impressed by Meng's performance.
Stone general kept pushing down his heavy sword, applying its weight on Meng's body.
"Daring to compete with me in terms of weight?! HA!" Meng smiled before clenching his teeth and pushing the heavy sword back, shifting the weight back at the stone general making it fall down on its one knee.
"Although its body was high, when it was kneeling down, it was possible for Meng to go for an axe kick aimed straight at its head covered in a golden colored helmet.
*boom* Upon the impact, the ground in a radius of 100 meters shook and cracks started appearing like cobwebs.
However, it was not enough to kill it and the stone general swung its heavy sword from down to up motion. Meng once again crossed his arms in front of him but he was sent flying straight into a small mountain a few hundred meters away, completely demolishing its peak and creating a small avalanche of stones and dust.
The stone general switched its target from Meng to Yufeng. Although Yufeng was worried for Meng, right now, she should worry about herself as she couldn't contend with the overlord at her level of strength. She just intensively glared at the stone general as he swiftly approached her and was about to swing its heavy sword at her.
She was ready to use her everything to evade this attack and then try to cut off its head but she doubted her weak profound energy would be enough to do the work.
Just when the stone general was about to swing its sword, it stopped and glanced at the purple disruption of space next to him just for Meng to suddenly appear at the place of space's disruption, already swinging his fist towards it.
That was Meng's The Void Shattering Step that's capable of traversing large distances in flash.
The stone general was quick enough to put its heavy sword forward to block Meng's fist but it was similarly sent flying hundreds of meters away before crashing into the same mountain it arrived from.
"Payback time!" Meng said with a smile while stretching his neck.
"Meng...Are you alright?" Yufeng heaved a sigh of relief before she asked with a worried expression.
"This guy has only strength, no speed or technique. Don't worry." Meng replied with a comforting smile before he rushed at the stone general who received only a few cracks on its body from that attack.
Two of them started fighting like wild beasts, sending each other flying, devastating small mountains in the vicinity with their attacks containing only their physical strength.
At some time, more cracks started appearing on the stone general's body so it started summoning the stone warriors but Yufeng has already recovered enough to deal with them on her own and even supported Meng in case any of them tried to attack him from the back.
Meng felt the stone general preparing its last overhead slash but Meng instead of preparing to evade it, fully activated his physique to also go all out on his side.
"Let's do this, little guy!" Meng laughed a bit, preparing to meet its weapon with his bare fist.
As if the stone general that never talked or responded in any way felt Meng's word humiliating, increased the power and speed of its swing even further.
*BOOM* with the impact, the earth below them and in the vicinity was completely demolished and the dust also appeared way behind where the stone general was last standing.
When the dust cleared up, only Meng was revealed standing with torn clothes and a few scratches on his face but he was still smiling while looking in front of him. The stone general was nowhere to be seen in the radius of a few hundred meters of demolished earth. The only remaining evidence that it was defeated was its previous quite strong heavy sword that was right now lying in front of Meng's legs, shattered in a thousand pieces.
Both Residual soul and Yufeng were once again shocked but this time not because the stone general lost since it was visible that he was slowly on the losing side...The thing that shocked them was that a small mountain was standing behind where the stone general stood but now that all the dust cleared up...there was no trace of that small mountain, only a big amount of dust being blown away by the gust of wind, creating a small dust storm.
'...He was holding back so much the entire time...? Anyway, what is with his physical strength? It's too strange, it's most likely even stronger than the body of a true dragon considering that his physique hasn't matured yet.' Residual soul thought in disbelief.
