Chapter 187: Stay Calm
In a concealed manner, Yates tried to show off his skill in front of the cheering crowd. He gathered his life vitality and injected it right into the spear rod. Then while charging great power into the spear point, he rushed right at Zen.
“Wow, Yates has made progress again! Look, his spear's strength has grown by two inches when compared to earlier.”
“Yates is such a gifted and talented man! He just became an inner disciple, however, his competence has been increased at a horrible pace!”
“The man hailing from Drizzle Peak is going to have a bad day. Yates seems to be showing no signs of mercy. All of the twelve stabs were pointed right at the vital parts of the young man!”
The disciples of Egret Peak, brought here by Yates, were discussing in a low voice.
Since they were all practitioners and also inner disciples of Egret Peak, they knew each other quite well.
Nory, Sean and Wurth had stepped aside and they didn't seem to be worried about Zen at all.
And their confidence in him was justified. As since they met, Zen had left quite an impression by defeating rivals with higher cultivation level. So the truth of judging competence by cultivation level didn't apply for Zen.
Even with this said, they had no idea about how powerful Zen actually was and what kind of masters he could defeat with the power he possessed. But at least, they knew that in the end the one who underestimated Zen would most definitely suffer a great deal.
Zen stood still for quite a while. He smiled indifferently as he spotted Yates stabbing at him with all his strength.
Yates was extraordinarily fast in wielding his spear. It was rare for a practitioner at the fourth grade of nature level to have reached such a high speed.
However, that was just how the average person saw and understood it.
As far as Zen was concerned, Yates' speed was nothing at all. At the most it felt like a slap on the wrist.
He stabbed towards Zen twelve times in a split second and all these aims were pointing and positioned right at Zen's critical parts, which would maim him.
Zen knew that even though Yates' speed was extremely fast, the twelve stabs couldn't reach him at the same time, so he had adequate time to dodge the spear and make a defensive move.
As the twelve points approached Zen, he suddenly moved and disappeared into a blur.
“It seems he got stabbed! Go to perdition!” Yates cried out in his heart with joy as he wore a vicious smile. He was excited at the thought of actually hitting Zen, like a dart board. 'Even if you're admired by Nina, so what? It doesn't matter, you're dead!' he thought gleefully.
However, to Yates' surprise, nothing had turned out in his favor.
Not a single one of his twelve stabs had even brushed Zen let alone hit him.
In fact, he just realized that all twelve of his thrusts had aimed at Zen's shadow, not Zen.
He wouldn't be surprised if he had hit Zen's shadow only several times, but how could he have missed all the targets?
It was impossible! Zen shouldn't have reached such an outrageous speed!
It was no wonder that Yates stabbed so fast. After all, his spear was feather light and the tier-4 cultivation method he used was powerful enough to pierce through a brick wall.
Yet the stabs missed the aim, so the real question was how Zen moved so fast and how he kept dodging each and every different-angled stab coming at him in such a high speed.
Yates stared at Zen blankly, like he was watching a ghost, trying to understand what had happened because it was all so fast. He still couldn't believe what he had witnessed was true.
James, who had been watching from behind them was shocked too.
As a high-level practitioner, he knew even better than the others what an incredible level Zen had reached to be able to do what he had just done.
Technically, Zen wasn't that special. He hadn't learned any other skills except for the Heavenly Ogre Fist, so there was nothing special about his moves, nothing really.
However, just owing to this fact, it should have been more difficult for him to dodge Yates' spear.
'That young man dodged Yates' attack merely by quick steps!
Even a master who has just entered the Illuminating Soul Realm can't reach such speed and agility!
Is he really just at first grade of the nature level? It all seemed surreal.
Or maybe he is an Illuminating Soul Realm master, but has been trying to hide his true cultivation level deliberately for some reason?
No, that's impossible!' James disregarded his assumption immediately.
When a practitioner had reached the nature level, he could collect his life vitality and send it below the belly to cover his original breath, so that the others wouldn't know his true practice realm.
However, it was useless for the lower-level practitioners to use this method when they encountered higher-level practitioners.
James didn't think that Zen could top him but he still wondered.
Nina looked at Zen with a wide smile as he moved and dodged Yates' spear swiftly. She found the fight between them very interesting.
After the trial for slaying demons and returning to Lady Peak, she had always been talking about Zen. After hearing the name of 'Zen' so many times, her friends couldn't bear to handle it any more. So these young girls had begun to mock her when she mentioned Zen again.
"Really? Is Zen really so powerful as you mentioned?
Since he is so powerful, why wasn't he ranked on the Cloud Sect list?"
Although they were just joking, Nina remembered all these words.
Now her friends would see how powerful Zen was on the spot!
Whereas, Yetta, who stood beside Nina, looked very anxious.
Yetta had just reached the first grade of nature level, so with her current competence, she couldn't fathom the subtlety lying in the fight between his cousin and Zen. Even so, she knew the difficulty in dodging Yates' spear for Zen was much higher than the difficulty for Yates to thrust his spear.
Now Yates' face had turned pale. On the contrary, Zen looked very relaxed. He didn't seem to take Yates seriously at all. Just like teasing a mouse, he was just playing with Yates.
It seemed that Nina was right.
Her brother Yates was no match for Zen by any standards.
From Zen's expression, Yetta could tell that he was disdain to strike back. If he counterattacked, could her brother dodge the hit and survive?
She dared not to think further, because the consequence could be harsh.
At the same time, Nina's other friends kept discussing in loud voices.
“Wow! Zen moved so fast! He was so cool when he dodged the spear!”
“Only very gifted men at the first grade of nature level could reach such a high speed! But it's a pity...” A girl who stood behind Nina exclaimed with a sigh.
“Exactly! He hasn't come to visit Nina yet after returning. Is he attracted to some other girl?” Another girl slyly joked with Nina.
“You naughty girls! If you don't stop saying this utter nonsense, I'll stitch up your lips!” Nina exclaimed and was going to hit them, pretending to be annoyed with the unnecessary chatter. She seemed very confident about Zen, so she was still in the mood to romp with her friends in such circumstances.
“It's impossible! How could you move so fast?” Yates couldn't accept the truth. He held his spear tightly and took a deep breath, looking flustered.
Zen looked at Yates indifferently and shook his head. “The most important thing for a practitioner is to remain calm, especially when you are attacking your rival. You should relax and take a breath before stabbing. And only when you calm down, you could be more fast. But unfortunately, you have been distracted,” he said.
“Stop! Don't try to trick me!” Yates yelled out. Then he held up his spear and stabbed it towards Zen with more determination. But, this time, his moves seemed to have totally spiralled out of control.
Since Yates couldn't remain calm as the fear of loss got to him, his speed wavered and was greatly reduced.
When he remained calm, he could thrust twelve stabs in the blink of an eye. However, since he had lost his temper, he could only thrust eight stabs within the same duration.
Therefore, with this attempt, it was even less likely for him to actually hit Zen.
James was a little shocked when he heard Zen, because he knew what Zen had said was an important rule that a practitioner should abide by under any circumstance. It was also the key for practising cultivation.
No matter what kind of situation he faced, even if it was death, a practitioner should always stay calm.
Most often, when a practitioner couldn't find a way to escape death, the negative emotions like rage, anger and etc. were useless, but instead they just sped up his death and brought him closer to his end.
The best way was to calm himself down and manage to find a way to get off the hook with his retrospective nature.
It was not until forty that James had realized the truth.
However, the young man, who did not even look 20, had already figured that out. How incredible!
On the contrary, his son Yates had lost his temper now. His spear's strength now appeared even longer, thicker and more powerful than before.
However, this didn't help him to speed up, but yet again slowed him down. Further more, instead of being specific, he had begun to stab aimlessly.
'Yates is no match for that young man. They're not even in the same level in competence, ' James thought to himself as he watched the duel.
Zen was still shuttling back and forth at an extremely high speed in gusts of spear waves.
After thrusting about forty-five stabs, Yates finally realized that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't hit the target, not when it was Zen. Then with a roar, he waved his spear and used a sweep strike towards Zen as a last bid.
“I don't believe you will be able to dodge my attack this time!” Yates shouted in a hoarse voice.
However, Zen didn't dodge at all, but instead reached out and grabbed the spear rod.
Yates tried to draw his spear out of Zen's hand, but only realized that the spear didn't move at all, as if it was cemented in Zen's hand.
It was only now he had realized that Zen's strength was much greater than his.
'What level has he reached?'
Yates wondered. His eyes were filled with horror. Zen was not only much faster than him, but his strength too was incredibly high. How could a practitioner at the first grade of nature level be so extremely powerful? God was so unfair!
In Yates' view, a practitioner's competence should be proportional to the level he had reached to ensure fairness.
He knew that cultivation level didn't mean everything, but at least, it should be an important reference. Otherwise, there was no need to rank practitioners.
However, the principle of grading practitioners according to their competence didn't seem to work for Zen, not one bit!
Zen grabbed Yates' spear rod and suddenly shook his hand slightly. Yates immediately felt a violent vibration flowing through from the spear rod.
Zen had learned the vibration skill from the Murlocs in the Lake of the Magical Fish. When Zen shook his hand, the light spear rod began to vibrate in a similar manner.
Yates felt his hands grow numb with the raging vibration and now he was unable to hold his spear for a moment longer.