Chapter 225: The Array Flag
After a long period of failed attacks, Langdon finally turned from the offensive to defensive, forming a thick shield by congealing layers of armor on his skin.
“Ha! My Earthen Armour can stand against the full strength of an Illuminating Soul Realm master's strike. You're mighty strong, but what can you do to me now?” he sneered. “No one can break my armor without the help of life vitality.”
Originally, Langdon had no intentions to use this tactic. Talents emerged in large numbers during the All Peaks Competition, so many means had to be used at critical times in order to reverse the situation. If he didn't use it this time, he would definitely lose the competition.
As Zen's first opponent in the competition, Langdon wasn't very strong. Still, Zen was impressed that he had mastered so many techniques.
“Can you really withstand a full strength blow from an Illuminating Soul Realm master?”
Glancing at Langdon's Earthen Armour, a small smile played on Zen's lips. “In that case, let me try. Let's test the limits of my strength,” he taunted.
“Crushing fist!”
In a sudden move, Zen slipped sideways and his strength rose as he mobilized half of the dragon scales' strength.
His corporeal body was much stronger than that of ordinary people, not to mention when it was combined with the strength of dragon scales. Half of the dragon scales' strength was able to increase Zen's corporeal body power by the dozens.
Poof!
The sound that came from Zen's fist punching Langdon's Earthen Armor was as though he had hit on earth ground. Langdon's earthen life vitality was supposed to be good for defense. His Earthen Armour was supposed to imitate the characteristics of the land that could bear the weight of anything. As it received an impact, it could instantly spread the offensive force throughout the entire armor, thereby weakening the opponent's striking power.
Thud, thud!
Upon being hit by Zen's fist, Langdon had to take two steps back, his face flushing red. Having assumed that Zen's strength had already reached its limit was a wrong move on Langdon's part. Under Zen's mighty force, the life vitality rolled over in Langdon's body and vented strong power, making it difficult for him to stand and he felt his Earthen Armour about to collapse.
“How can this be possible?” Because Langdon was born a strong man, he knew how difficult it was to increase one's strength even by a fraction when in limit condition. 'How come Zen's power increased so much in an instant?
Wasn't that already the limit of his strength? Or is he infinitely powerful…and he wasn't exerting much strength before?' Langdon was left puzzled.
Not missing a beat, Zen mobilized half of the dragon scales' strength and punched Langdon's Earthen Armour once again.
Thud!
With a heavy clunk, cracks started to form on the thick armor, as if it could shatter into pieces at any moment.
Langdon's face turned sickly flushed and after holding it in for a while, Langdon couldn't help but spurt out a mouthful of blood.
At this point, he realized he didn't have to go on.
Seeing Zen raising his fist, ready to dash over again, Langdon raised his arms and hurriedly shouted, “Referee, referee, I surrender!”
“Zen won, Langdon lost!”
The referee pronounced the competition results with a straight face.
Since Langdon conceded his defeat, Zen stopped his attack. Although there had been quite a few disciples who died in the All Peaks Competition, Cloud Sect didn't advocate fighting to the death.
Seeing Zen stop at that point, Langdon gasped with relief. 'A narrow escape! My opponent is a human-shaped monster…he destroyed my Earthen Armour. It's good I had it to protect me. A direct hit from him would have smashed me to bits.'
“Good job, Zen!” Pleased by Zen's performance, Master Wen's face lit up into a smile.
In the eyes of the Drizzle Peak masters, Zen was a special disciple. Because Master Su always took care of Zen in the past, the other masters didn't meddle in Zen's affairs. Even so, his many impressive performances were well known to them.
If Zen did well in the All Peaks Competition, the entire Drizzle Peak would benefit from it as well. It was not only a concern of honor--if the ranking of Drizzle Peak was raised, so would the rewards to its masters and disciples.
Most importantly, they would no longer be humiliated by the other Peaks of Cloud Sect.
Pointedly, Master Wen looked at Master Wang of Sea Peak, which was next to Drizzle Peak.
Wearing a sneer on his lips, Master Wang turned to his disciples. “Zen of Drizzle Peak is truly strong, but that's all he has. There have been many disciples born with extraordinary strength in Cloud Sect throughout the ages, but none of them have made any great achievements. York, it's your turn in a minute. You've been preparing for this competition for two years. Our Sea Peak's results depend on you. If you face that guy of Drizzle Peak, give him a knockout blow!”
Standing beside Master Wang was York, a determined and obedient disciple.
The comprehensive power of Sea Peak was stronger than that of Drizzle Peak and York was at the consummation of nature level. Sea Peak had three disciples at the same level attending the competition while Drizzle Peak had only one.
The masters and disciples of Sea Peak had a great ambition to raise its ranking into the top ten or so and they put their hope on York.
Hearing Master Wang's eager words, York simply nodded. Though he looked like a rather plain and ordinary fellow, his eyes gave off an extremely dangerous glint.
“Master Wang, I won't let you down. I'm sure I can defeat him within ten minutes,” he responded as a confident smile crossed over his face. It didn't seem like he had taken Zen's performance into consideration at all.
And Zen's victory did surprise a number of people as his opponent, Langdon, was also a naturally mighty man. The forceful confrontation between the two was definitely eye-catching.
However, in the Eastern Region, the vast majority of cultivators were practicing life vitality and were contemptuous of simple strength. In their opinion, abandoning life vitality and merely using strength was typical behavior for a fool. Most people only laughed at Zen's performance, because mere strength was not much of a threat.
Though Master Wang and York kept their voices hushed, Zen had a keen sense of hearing and could listen in on their conversation.
Upon hearing their words, Zen didn't have much of a reaction apart from a smile.
After Zen, the next competitors of Drizzle Peak were Yehudi and another disciple.
Because Yehudi was the only disciple of Drizzle Peak who had reached the consummation of nature level, great hope was placed on him to succeed. His first opponent was Mack from Blackrock Peak who was not only at the consummation of nature level but also a master of magic array.
To be a magic array master, a cultivator was required with a high level of soul talent. Having reached the consummation of nature level and having attainments of the magic array at a young age, Mack had enough skill to prove he was a genius.
The killing array that a magic array master used in battle was mysterious and flexible, making it extremely challenging to keep up with.
It might have been a bad start to have encountered such a strong opponent during the first battle.
However, Yehudi was a strong-willed man who wouldn't give up so easily just because his opponent was strong.
After the eighteen disciples arrived in the Arena, the referee announced the beginning of the competition.
Mack was a rather short, dark-skinned man with pearly white teeth. When Yehudi made eye contact with him, he immediately felt a kind of chill run through his soul.
Such was the special ability of a magic array master--using his powerful soul to suppress his opponent's confidence.
With the cultivation of the Spiritual Thorn, Zen could also achieve this effect. However, the Spiritual Thorn, as a kind of fourth-tier cultivation method, was more prone to launch a surprise attack. Once the opponent was caught off guard, he gave his opponent's soul a strong stab and used his broken flying knife to make a sneak attack. This collocation method of the Spiritual Thorn and the flying knife was truly successful and had even been used repeatedly by Zen.
Unlike Zen's Spiritual Thorn, Mack's soul had a steady flow of power and was good at crushing opponents' morale.
There was no verbal communication between Mack and Yehudi when they first met on stage. As soon as the referee announced that the competition had begun, Mack tossed out a black-colored array flag. As if it were alive, it stood up as soon as it touched the ground.
“Deploy the black fog killing array!” Mack commanded the array flag.
Having reached the consummation of nature level, Yehudi's rich combat experience was evident. None of the disciples who had reached such a level could be anything but hardworking and diligent.
If Mack finished deploying the battle array, his combat effectiveness would be greatly enhanced, which would inevitably affect Yehudi.
Given this, Yehudi decided to take action as soon as Mack showed the array flag. A white spear appeared in Yehudi's hands instantly.
With that, Yehudi jabbed at Mack with his spear rapidly.
“Eh, can he use a spear?” Master Wen asked.
Never having seen Yehudi use a spear before, he was puzzled.
The disciples of Drizzle Peak looked questioningly at one another.
In their memory, Yehudi had never used weapons before as he accepted many challenges from inner disciples at Drizzle Peak. In his fights, he had always used boxing.
As soon as he began the competition, though, he brought out his weapon. His white spear was not of low quality, but a middle-grade spiritual weapon.
“Ha! It would seem that Yehudi has been keeping us in the dark,” laughed Master Wen. It was clear that Yehudi hid his skill with the spear in order to use it in the All Peaks Competition. In the Art of War, it was said that “knowing oneself and one's enemy ensures invincibility.” Conversely, the less the enemy knew about you, the greater your chances of success were.
However, another master of Drizzle Peak shook his head and told Master Wen, “Don't celebrate too soon. Yehudi is using his spear in the beginning, which shows that he's afraid of Mack's magic array. Otherwise, he would have left the spear to use in the following combat.”
“You're right. But the competition has just begun. The outcome depends on Yehudi's performance,” returned Master Wen.
In the battlefield, Yehudi's spear pierced the air. As it turned out, Mack was not only good at magic array, but also had good reflexes and he dodged Yehudi's spear like a fish comfortably swimming amongst rocks.
Failing to make any strike, Yehudi didn't follow Mack's figure any longer, knowing that the most dangerous thing wasn't Mack himself, but his array flag. Once the magic array was deployed, his chances of success would be greatly reduced.
Knowing this, Yehudi turned to stab the array flag down to the ground, wanting to destroy it.
When he stabbed at the flag with his spear, though, his expression suddenly changed.