Chapter 69: Sky-rending Hoop
This was not the first time that Zen encountered a nature creature.
Several days ago, he confronted and killed White Fiend and Black Fiend with his old, dilapidated flying knife.
His successful assassination of White Fiend and Black Fiend could be mainly ascribed to this old and broken flying knife.
But now Zen was fighting inside a battle ring.
Although Cloud Sect had no strict rules regarding the use of weapons inside a battle ring, he knew that the flying knife would cause serious injuries, even death, if he used it. In a peak-level challenge of this caliber, Zed didn't want to kill his opponent.
The golden hoop was full of life vitality. Gleaming with metallic luster, it fluttered in the air, humming and buzzing.
As the golden ring drew closer to Zen, it became bigger, as though it was going to encircle him.
“That's great!” exclaimed Zen. He had already planned a counterattack for the golden ring.
As a streak of purple light enveloped his body, Zen fiercely flung his fist toward the golden ring.
“Bang!”
The golden ring produced a crisp sound when it came into contact with Zen's fist. It turned flat upon impact and flew back for about 60 feet from the battle ring.
In spite of this, Jesse chuckled. Seeing his golden ring flying so far away, he stretched out his hand. A buzzing could be heard as the golden ring whizzed toward its master. As soon as the ring returned to Jesse, it regained its original shape. In the blink of an eye, Jesse tossed the golden ring at Zen, in an attempt to trap him.
At the same time, another golden ring showed up in Jesse's hand. This new ring had been crafted from Jesse's life vitality as well. Jesse directed the second ring toward his opponent without giving Zen a chance to defend against the first ring.
“Bang! Bang!”
As before, both rings flew back upon impact with Zen's fist.
Very soon, Zen understood what Jesse intended to do.
However, by the time Zen came to this realization, it was a little too late. He saw that Jesse still stood where he had been, unceasingly waving his hands in the air. Then, one after another, more and more golden rings appeared around his hands.
A few moments later, seven golden rings were hovering over the battle ring.
Zen made a tenacious effort to hit these rings to prevent them from trapping him. However, Zen struggled to withstand the attacks of several rings.
At last, a golden ring flew through a flaw in Zen's counter attack and trapped Zen. The golden ring tightened around Zen's torso, securing both his arms.
“Do you think that you can trap me with only a ring?”
Zen struggled in an attempt to loosen the golden ring and throw it off him.
He had assumed that based on his current strength, he could confront a nature creature. Zen was also confident that he could use his power to break the golden ring.
As he had expected, the golden ring didn't hold up against his aggressive struggle. Soon, it began to show faint cracks. But at this moment, other rings flew toward Zen and encircled him, one after another.
One or two golden rings couldn't withstand Zen's mighty power.
But when seven rings confined him, Zen felt challenged to free himself.
Just like a chopstick was easy to break, but it was extremely difficult to break a bunch of chopsticks.
As the rings imprisoned him, Zen took a deep breath and grumbled in a low voice.
Immediately, dark green light sparkled over seven dragon scales in his mind, and a great surge of strength was produced in him. A physical change could be seen in Zen as veins popped out all over his body.
Although Zen made every effort to break away, the rings didn't budge.
Seeing this, Jesse strolled over to Zen. With a light chuckle, he said, “It is impossible for you to shake off the rings. Even nature creatures can't get away when my sky-binding hoops fetter them. You will be unable to break away even though your strength is far mightier than others who are at the same level as you. Now, you have been defeated.”
Spectators from Vulture Peak were stunned at this scene and took a deep breath.
They had witnessed the incredible power of Jesse's sky-binding hoops many times before.
Before Jesse was a half-step into the nature level, his sky-binding hoops, which were only filled with life energy, had been so insuperable that no one at Vulture Peak could break free from them.
Now, Jesse had become a nature creature. The power of his sky-binding hoops was substantive. To be sure, Zen, who was only at the marrow refining level, couldn't break away from the rings.
Zen had attempted to struggle and escape twice but failed. In view of his futile efforts, he gave up. At the same time, he forced a bitter smile across his face and snapped back, “You've just trapped me. But does this mean that I've been defeated?”
Zen's question left Jesse shocked, and he responded, “You can't move your hands or legs. And so, it is beyond doubt that you have been defeated.”
“But as you can see, I am still standing inside the battle ring, right?” Zen retorted.
For a battle ring challenge, whether a person won or not was dependent upon two cases. The first way to ensure victory was to knock the opponent out so that he couldn't stand up anymore. The other way was to throw the opponent out of the battle ring.
As soon as he heard Zen's quibbling, Jesse sneered at Zen who was trying to play a petty trick on him. Then, he retorted, “Well, since you feel so strongly about this, let me throw you out of the battle ring! Afterward, I will be the winner!”
As soon as he finished speaking, Jesse extended one of his hands and pointed it at the golden rings trapping Zen. Immediately, the rings trembled and jingled as though they had received an order from Jesse. After that, they pulled Zen toward the edge of the battle ring.
Just as Zen reached the corner of the battle ring, Jesse felt a sharp pain in his brain. This pain seemed to be spiritual, as a result of which, Jesse nearly fainted.
“Ahh!”
Jesse gave a horrible shriek while holding his head with both hands.
The scene inside the battle ring confused the spectators.
The disciples from Drizzle Peak had accepted the fact that Zen had been defeated when they saw that he couldn't break free from the rings.
They had known that Zen's failure was inevitable since Jesse was a nature creature.
Despite his defeat, they deemed that Zen was a credit to Drizzle Peak. He had defeated three opponents from Vulture Peak. That he had used a fist each time was even more astounding. Perhaps, this success would never be achieved by any outer disciple of Cloud Sect, now and forever.
Since Zen had tried his best, most disciples from Drizzle Peak thought they could do nothing but accept the truth of Zen's imminent failure.
But when Zen was dragged to the battle ring's boundary, something unexpected happened.
Jesse was holding his head and screaming as though he was in tremendous pain.
“Did he fall ill unexpectedly during the fight?”
“Hahaha. It would be so great if he is gravely ill. But, Jesse is a nature creature with a supernatural body. How is it possible for him to suffer from a serious illness?”
“Both of Zen's hands are fastened by the rings. It is impossible for Zen to do anything to hurt Jesse. How can Jesse be in such pain if he is not ill?”
Jesse's weird response provoked heated discussions among the disciples of Drizzle Peak. None could figure out the mystery!
The inner disciples dressed in black robes, however, had noticed some clues.
Glenn, one of the inner disciples, murmured to others around him, “Look. As I've mentioned before, this guy is exceptionally powerful for someone at the marrow refining level. My guess is that he doesn't merely fight based on his strength. He must have mastered other extraordinary skills.”
The inner disciples around Glenn were stunned by his words, and one of them responded, “I haven't noticed this yet. What skills on earth could he have used to make Jesse shriek with such great pain?”
“If my memory serves, Zen has attacked Jesse with his soul,” said Glenn with a thoughtful expression.
“Attacked with his soul? Skills like this can be only used by a cultivator with a pretty strong soul. This guy's physical body is astonishingly strong. He has a strong soul too?” The inner disciple beside Glenn was flabbergasted.
Discerning the disciple's doubt, Glenn sighed, patted his shoulder, and said, “In such a big world, all sorts of strange things are possible. When I left my hometown, I was the highest ranked from among the young generation of T County. At that time, I was very proud of myself. I had all the favor, love, and mercy from God. But after I joined Cloud Sect, I have understood why it is said that there is always someone better than you no matter how good you think you are...”
At that moment, Zen focused all his attention on Jesse. Naturally, he didn't hear what Glenn had said.
Jesse had held his head in his hands for quite a long while before he finally resisted the great pain and returned to his senses. His calm expression had turned furious. In his eyes reflected a tinge of fear.
Even at this moment, Jesse still insisted that he and Zen were not of the same caliber.
Before this fight, Jesse had known that Zen had demonstrated very stunning skills. He knew that it was particularly rare for a guy at the marrow refining level to have mastered those skills.
In spite of that, Jesse hadn't feared battling Zen at all. He had great confidence in his abilities. After all, he was a nature creature, who dominated ordinary people.
Thus, Jesse had compared himself to a heavily-armed adult and thought of Zen to be naive.
In his opinion, he could easily defeat Zen by only using his life vitality.
Jesse had planned not to use any of his unique skills, as he had thought it sufficient to trap Zen with his sky-binding hoop and then throw him out of the battle ring.
Just as Jesse thought that he had won this fight against Zen, his opponent attacked him spiritually.
The pain from Zen's soul attack would be unforgettable for all of Jesse's life.
As a consequence, Jesse rapidly flinched after he recovered his senses.
As Jesse drew back, an old and dilapidated flying knife hovered over Zen's hand. It swirled around the rings around Zen's body. In the next instant, it sliced through the rings. “Bang, bang, bang, bang...” Several loud and crisp sounds were heard.
The old and dilapidated flying knife had cut through all seven golden hoops. Their glittering golden light disappeared right away and turned into life vitality, which dissipated in the air.
Seeing Zen's flying knife, Jesse raised his eyebrows. He wondered why Zen hadn't used his flying knife before since he had been carrying the knife with him.
At the same time, Jesse had no idea that Zen hadn't intended to use this flying knife to fight his opponent. After breaking away from the sky-binding hoops, Zen casually tucked the flying knife back into his space ring, smiled, and said, “It seems that the outcome of this fight is hard to foretell.”
“That's funny!” Like Zen, Jesse hadn't planned to make an all-out effort in this fight, but he had started to take this fight and his opponent seriously after being subjected to Zen's spiritual attack.
A faint golden aura of life vitality emitted from Jesse's skin and started to condense slowly.
“Since you want to make more trouble out of nothing, I will show you my real strength as a nature creature! Sky Rending Hoop!”
As soon as Jesse shouted those three words, a golden hoop showed up on his hand. But it was a little different from his sky-binding hoops in terms of shape. This ring had neatly lined saw-teeth all around it. The sky-rending hoop was faster than the sky-binding hoops as well.
“Whooshing!”
Very soon, seven sky-rending hoops were suspended in the air around Jesse, swirling crazily.
“Go!”
Jesse extended his hand and pointed at Zen. His eyes were full of apathy. Zen had enraged him. Jesse felt humiliated by Zen who was only at the marrow refining level. And anyone who infuriated Jesse would pay for what he had done at any cost.
The seven sky-rending hoops flew at Zen from different angles.
Two of them flew high. Their flying route made up a parabola.
Another three sky-rending hoops flew toward Zen along a straight line.
The remained two hoops rolled on the floor of the battle ring, aiming for Zen's legs. Deep furrows were noticeable in the direction where the rings had passed as if the floor of the battle ring was muddy.
In the face of these seven sky-rending hoops, Zen looked rather nervous.
He knew that his strength wasn't powerful enough, so he had to take a confrontation with every nature creature seriously from now on.