Slaying the Ranks
Two weeks went by. It was now time for the final part of the competition. Everybody in the team was now emitting the terrifying aura of a cultivator of the 9th level. Yes, everybody, including Li Tengfei.
This part of the competition would consist of a total of seven fights and each win would be worth one point, anything else would not be worth anything. The team with the most points wins. The first few team battles were extremely easy. The latter ones, a bit more challenging and now came the last fight.
Indeed, it was finally time for the final match of the day; the fight between Li Tengfei's team and the team of elites sent by the Fu Family. The arena was now packed with people and operating at maximum capacity.
The strategy for this match? Li Tengfei would take care of Qin Da while Lu Mengyu and the rest would take care of the remaining opponents. This was the most anticipated fight of the entire competition. In fact, even the last Genius Summits did not attract this much attention.
This was it. This was the final showdown.
The fight started and everyone moved at the same time. An Zihao swung his halberd towards the archer who managed to dodge it. At the same time, a whip nearly hit him while he was dodging. At almost the same time a spear was thrusted towards Xiao Yu but was blocked by Lu Mengyu's saber. When she blocked the spear, she left her right flank open and a saber slash was coming that way. Fortunately, An Zihao quickly reacted and his halberd fell down on the attacker who forced to dodge. The archer then sent a volley of arrows towards him and An Zihao was forced to move to the side. It was pure madness. Even the judges could not say they understood everything that was happening.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the arena, two swordmen were having a showdown. Sparks were flying everywhere each time their swords touched. A lunge here, a parry there, a high blow followed by another lunge... it was really a magnificent fight.
After exchanging tens of moves they both took a stance and stared at their opponent. Li Tengfei adopted a fool ward stance while Qin Da remained with his classic ox ward stance. A layer of sweat could be seen on both of their foreheads.
After a few seconds they both charged forward. Qin Da performed a horizontal slash that Li Tengfei beautifully parried. Li Tengfei countered with a forward lunge that barely missed Qin Da who performed an overhead thrust which was deflected by Li Tengfei.
Back to An Zihao and the rest, Lu Mengyu performed a forward thrust followed by a vertical chop. An Zihao then followed with a swing that nearly amputated the opponent's leg. This time, Xiao Yu made a beautiful arc with her whip and hit the saber user.
On Li Tengfei's side, the two swordsman had already stopped fighting and were now staring intently at each other. The two were only separated by approximately 8 meters, distance they could cover extremely rapidly with their strong bodies at the 9th level.
"I admit you are way more powerful than I imagined you to be" said Qin Da while panting due to physical exhaustion."However, you must know that you are currently fighting on the Fu Family's turf. Did you really think these prizes were really meant for any participants? Wrong! As tyrants, how could us, the Fu Family, let an outsider take the prizes!" Qin Da said that in a voice just strong enough for Li Tengfei to hear, so as not to alert the judges.
Li Tengfei frowned upon hearing that. He knew corruption was bound to happen in large organisations due to his experience at the harsh reality of the world when he was a slave, but he could not envision being attacked during the summit before all these spectators.
Suddenly, Qin Da discreetly produced a pill from his pocket and ate it, but it only seemed as if he had wiped the layer of sweat accumulated on his face. Li Tengfei could sense power well up inside Qin Da and he was becoming redder and redder. His aura was rapidly becoming almost at the same level as a true Manifestation realm cultivator. However, Li Tengfei would obviously not let him succeed in his transformation. He dashed and delivered an upward slash to the man, however Qin Da reacted in time and dodged the potentially deadly strike, then he started laughing like mad.
"Are you panicking right now? It's no use! I will crush you in one strike!" Qin Da said arrogantly. The public only thought Qin Da had finally revealed his true strength and cheered him on. His sword was so fast, it looked like an illusion.
'I must go on! For the sect and my friends! There is surely a way to not reveal my true strength and win!' Li Tengfei thought fervently.
'Kid, just stall for time. He is using an external aid to boost his strength, he won't be able to last long and the side-effects are sure to be serious.' Ancestor Li provided a solution.
All sorts of jabs, slashes, thrusts... were delivered to Qin Da, but he stood his ground and intermittently riposted by swinging his sword like a broken toy. The fight was so majestic in the public's eye that it stole all the limelight.
After a long exchange of moves, Li Tengfei was finally at his wit's end. He reluctantly prepared himself to reveal his real moves but he was interrupted by a simple shout:
"Li Tengfei, bro, we are coming to help." said An Zihao said while trying his best to catch up to Lu Mengyu and Xiao Yu before him. Li Tengfei had completely forgotten them because he always used to battle alone since young. The other three opponents had been thoroughly defeated. Suddenly, something clicked in his mind and he came to a sudden realisation:
'Humans are social creatures that unite to survive. If enough ants unite, they could even kill the most immense creature. More is better than one. HOWEVER, individuals that have absolute strength does not conform to this rule since they have the power of an army.'
This only made Li Tengfei's resolve to reach the peak stronger. He felt that this realisation was the key to directly breakthrough to Manifestation realm.
Qin Da obviously did not think his other three allies would be this useless. He also did underestimate the individual might of the other three opponents. The quartet managed to land the 'enhanced' Qin Da in a difficult situation. When the fight was almost concluded, a deranged expression sprouted on his face and he said:
"If I can't injure you without getting damaged, let's perish together!" Just after that, he swung hard to chop both Li Tengfei and Lu Mengyu who was on the sword's way.This strike was almost the same might as of a normal Manifestation realm cultivator. Li Tengfei knew he could not dodge as Lu Mengyu, whom he shared a strong bond with, would be heavily injured, so he would wager all on this one strike. Li Tengfei took a big risk and jumped onto the sword that was swung his way and used it to pounce forwards onto Qin Da, while deviating the sword from its initial trajectory. Qin Da, shocked by the unexpected move, could only stare as Li Tengfei bashed the hilt of his sword onto his skull. Li Tengfei knew he would be crippled after this, so he did not waste his energy in killing him. It would also affect his reputation in the city if he did that.
The swordsman collapsed on the cold ground as the spectators did a standing ovation. The sound of applause was overwhelming.They had done it. They had won the Genius Summit. Everyone, including the judges stood up and cheered for them. Never had they seen such an exciting match between Body Refinement Realm cultivators. Li Tengfei was extremely grateful that he had such great teammates. Without them, who knew if he had to reveal all his moves and abilities he learnt from Ancestor Li.
However, Li Tengfei knew that trouble would soon knock a their doors.