Town Competition (9)
The fire burned everything around Hao Jianyu, making her grit her teeth in frustration as she jumped away from the fire. It covered a massive area and it slowly turned black before flying back into the lantern.
Meanwhile, the crowd was in complete shock.
"HUH?! Xiao Neng? Wasn't he supposed to be in the Glacial Ice Fortress? Why is he here?"
"I heard that he recently broke through to the 5th stage of the foundation building realm after leaving the Glacial Ice Fortress. The Xiao family of Bei Ling town is pretty proud of this, I hate them so much!"
"..."
Khoru overheard the loud chatters of the crowd as he fought and was shocked to say the least. He turned out to receive a lucky break and pair up with a partner that was equally as strong as Hao Jianyu.
There was only one thing that confused him.
If Xiao Ning cultivated in the Glacial Ice Fortress, why did he have a Martial Spirit that could use fire? This boggled Khoru's mind greatly.
Fortunately, his question was answered rather quickly.
Xiao Ning's expression became one filled with arrogance as he forcefully opened the lid of his lantern Martial Spirit and spoke.
"Sacred Art: Ice-Fire Culmination!" His words shocked the crowd and the quiet fire within the lantern suddenly raged with terrifying ferocity as it grew. It floated out of the lantern and slowly became a mix of cold blue and blazing orange.
Xiao Ning's Spirit Qi mixed with the mysterious fire, bolstering its strength and enhancing the power of the aura that the fire gave off. Hao Jianyu looked disturbed and felt immediate danger when she laid eyes on the fire.
"Tch. I didn't want to reveal this so early on. Battle Art: Gale Possession of Damnation!" As Hao Jianyu spoke, the ground started to turn dark red and the fire that burned on it previously had disappeared.
The ground slowly corroded until what was left was only small bits of the ground. A mysterious and baleful aura bathed the ground. Khoru looked at Hao Jianyu's morning star only to find that it's appearance had changed.
'Her morning star changed just like Feng Xuan's great sword artifact!' Khoru shuddered at the power of the morning star and felt that it was undoubtedly strong. But even still, the ice-fire that fought it was equally as terrifying.
A small grin appeared on his face when he pictured himself fighting alongside and against such strong powers.
He narrowly dodged the man's hammer that smashed into the ground. Khoru transformed his crossblade into a machete. Khoru's eyes glared with a murderous glint as he rushed towards the man and slashed relentlessly.
'Oh... Yeah, I forgot about this.' Khoru had an unorthodox fascination with machetes, knives, and daggers despite loving swords more. His machete waved through the air, nearly chopping it into bits as Spirit Qi covered the blade.
Khoru couldn't use his sword art with the machete, but his attack speed was way faster.
"I, Liu Zheng, won't lose to the bastard child of the Ghostly Blade Family! Everyone in this competition will know my family's name by the e-" Liu Zheng's eyes shrank as Khoru;s machete flew threw the wind, nearly slashing his neck.
"No one cares about your family. Fight like you mean it!" His voice was devilish and Liu Zheng suddenly felt as if he was fighting a demon right now, not the bastard child of the town's most powerful family.
The machete swung threw the air and glided gently across Liu Zheng's skin every time he was careless, reminding him of the nearing death that danced in front of him.
'T-This kid... Why does he attack so fast, and wasn't that blade just a sword a few minutes ago?!' Liu Zheng stayed in his mind for too long and he suddenly realized that he had let down his guard unintentionally.
"I-I."
"I said fight like you mean it!" Khoru was irritated that Liu Zheng was too preoccupied with his mind than fighting him. Liu Zheng didn't bother trying to continue the fight again and yielded, walking off of the stage and watching from afar at the match that still took place.
Ice-fire flew threw the sky with a mind of its own as it roared at the corrupted grown. Khoru immediately noticed that the ice-fire was losing because it was dissipating rather quickly whenever it came in contact with the aura of Hao Jianyu's morning star.
'Is it because Hao Jianyu has more experience and has been in the 5th stage of the foundation building realm for longer than Xiao Neng?' Khoru assumed. Xiao Neng grunted lightly and showed a frustrated expression as he battled against Hao Jianyu's morning star.
'Should I help?' It didn't take long for Khoru to figure out the answer to that question. He summoned his purple sword and reverted his dark blue sword back to its original form and rushed into battle to help Xiao Neng.
Though he wasn't at the 5th stage of the foundation building realm, he could still help balance the battle with his devil aura and sword art.
"Air Collapsing Yin-Yang Sword-Art!" Khoru released the elementary version of his sword art and raised winds of yin and yang energies that created chaotic elements as they raged. Xiao Neng looked back for a moment to see Khoru helping.
He didn't look particularly happy, but he didn't look apprehensive either.
"You're not experienced or strong enough to beat her alone. You've only just reached the 5th stage of the foundation building realm, right?" Khoru asked.
Xiao Neng only nodded his head as he focused on guiding the ice-fire to repel the morning star. It looked incredibly vile and baleful, crude, sharp, red spikes were on the morning star and the material of the morning star had changed into something way worse than before.
It looked vile and fleshy like a sack of meat molded into the form of a morning star. The aura it released was enough to corrupt weak-minded people.
The aura actually started to affect Xiao Neng after he combated the morning star for so long. Luckily, Khoru's purple sword had the same power and a balance was created. Both mental-attacks repelled each other.