Chapter 247: A Gentleman
The power of the golden light that burst from the Righteousness Song was more terrifying than Zen ever imagined.
It nearly clung to his back and swept past him. Although it didn't hit Zen, he felt the power behind it.
The righteousness was horrifying.
If the golden light, with its tremendous power, hit Zen, it would undoubtedly cut through his body.
The young man was confident enough about his body strength. Only with those who had been in the Illuminating Soul Realm for so many years being his rivals would he not dare resist the attacks with his physical body, like James Mo.
Apparently, after Dick had written the Righteousness Song, he had strength equal to James'.
Still, comparing Dick's strength to that of James' would not be appropriate because while Dick might have exerted maximum strength, the force utilized by James was not the strongest during their battle. To Zen's mind, the pressure was more from James than Dick.
While both Dick and James were masters in the Illuminating Soul Realm, the former had just entered the realm, while the latter was already at the advance stage.
The golden light missed Zen as it hit a light curtain of enchanted barrier, which momentarily blocked its radiance. However, it was not sufficient to completely stop the golden light. A wave resembling a ripple on the surface of the enchanted barrier appeared before the golden light penetrated it.
“Poof!”
Once it pierced the enchanted barrier, the golden light continued in its path and shot to the group of Vulture Peak. It whizzed past an ear of a disciple before boring into the ground where it left a dark round hole no one knew how deep.
The disciple from Vulture Peak turned pale and stood still as he felt the light by his ear. It left him speechless. Had it been any closer, the golden light would have cut through his head cleanly.
It was possible for anyone at the All Peaks Competition to be severely injured or even die due to influence in the aftermath of the contest owing to the intensity of the rivalry.
The master from Vulture Peak was now nervous and hurried to inform all the other disciples to move back. He was aware that if the golden light broke the enchanted barrier again, the disciples from their peak would probably not be so lucky.
There was also a change in the expression of several saints who guarded the arena. If the life vitality influence on the field caused serious injury to disciples outside, this would be considered an accident. To prevent this from happening, they joined hands and put the life vitality in the huge array of the enchanted barriers to immediately make them much denser.
“Chirp!”
Quickly, Dick weighed the situation.
He saw the demonic life vitality continuously devoured the Righteousness Song. Dick had to defeat Zen before the demonic life vitality swallowed all the Righteousness Song. Otherwise, he would be a failure.
As golden light from the Righteousness Song successively burst out to target Zen, he jumped, rolled, and dodged continuously, like a cheetah avoiding a hunter in the forest.
Both warriors were striving for that last chance to defeat the other.
If Dick managed to hit Zen, the latter would surely lose. But as long as Zen resisted the attack of the golden light, his demonic life vitality could devour the Righteousness Song, which was Dick's last backup. If his life vitality swallowed the song, Zen would win.
“Boom!”
The golden light was relentless and flew past Zen threateningly, hitting the enchanted barrier with a dull sound each time. Some of the shots hit the ground, leaving a small deep hole, its depth unknown.
As Dick grew more and more anxious, the golden light spewed out twice as fast putting Zen under a great deal of pressure.
“Phoenix Crystal, start all the energy!”
Zen pushed the energy of the Phoenix Crystal to the maximum as he released all his body strength. He dodged every shot in the limited space of the competition field and resorted to making virtual shadows. His strategy worked as every golden light hit just the virtual shadows.
However, the streaks of golden lights forced him to take cover in a corner.
'Dang it! It's a dead-end corner!' Zen cursed over his predicament.
He looked around to assess his situation.
Then his expression suddenly changed. The golden lights were shot from everywhere - left, right, and above. Although Zen moved with extreme speed, Dick discovered the dead corner where he had hidden.
Dodging was no longer possible. The only choice left was to rush head-on to Dick.
But when Zen came face-to-face with Dick, what would happen?
As long as Dick kept shooting golden lights at Zen, the latter would surely lose!
'The only thing to do is risk my life!' Zen decided.
There was no time for the man to think. With his foot, he kicked and turned into a sharp arrow, shooting ahead.
The move brought a faint smile to Dick's lips. Zen's speed was remarkably high, but he had one disadvantage: having only a few styles of movement.
Still, it was not Zen's fault because he hadn't had chance to develop proper body movements until now.
Seeing his rival move quickly, Dick anticipated Zen's directions to dodge in advance, forcing him to the corner.
With Zen unable to dodge the hits from Dick, his only option would be to rush to his opponent. But Dick already had a plan. As long as he blocked Zen from the front, his opponent would have no way to escape and thus lose.
“I never thought it would be so difficult to win against him,” Dick muttered.
Sighing, he shot the last golden light that would block Zen's remaining passage.
Just when Dick thought the fight would be coming to an end, Zen suddenly executed an unusual maneuver.
The Sword Step!
The young warrior had not actually developed the required body movements, but he had partly mastered the Sword Step.
It astonished Dick to see Zen slowly executing the Sword Step, and his pupils dilated.
There was no doubt that his rival knew the move. When Zen fought against Cecil, Dick was also on the spot and remembered the fight clearly.
Back then, Zen's Sword Step didn't merit Dick's attention because he was not a swordsman, nor did he know the secret to the maneuver. Like most people, he thought Zen had just started to learn the skill, and imitated the moves awkwardly.
Besides, in their previous fight, Zen didn't engage the Sword Step, so Dick had forgotten the move during their tense battle.
But now, he panicked upon seeing Zen suddenly take the position for the Sword Step.
There was no doubt Zen's strength was remarkable, and that he could perform the Sword Step, which meant he had been planning to use this for a long time.
As expected, after Zen started with a weird step to the left front, he skirted around the last golden light by reclining his body. Then he continued to dash towards Mess with the unusual steps.
At that moment, the golden light on the surface of the Righteousness Song was finally removed by the demonic life vitality, which eventually devoured the entire song.
There was no time for Dick to marvel at the speed with which the demonic life vitality devoured the song. He was now face-to-face with Zen's innate superhuman strength.
Despite his heartbreaking defeat, it must be said that Dick remained a gentleman. He calmly stood in the hour of peril. The man bowed slightly and continued to wave the brush pen in his hand to begin writing the defense song in the air.
His moves were no match for Zen's high attacking speed.
The defense song was merely a shaking dike that was instantly destroyed by Zen's flood-like fist.
After breaking Dick's defense song, Zen threw a straight punch at his rival's face.
Fate had decided on the outcome of the competition. Dick closed his eyes without dodging unexpectedly.
However, Zen's fist stopped right in front of Dick's face abruptly, less than an inch away from his nose.
Seriously, Zen said, “I am giving you a chance to admit defeat.”
Smiling, Dick opened his eyes and said, "Zen, you have the upper hand and can stop before going too far. You are a gentleman!
So, I am admitting defeat!“ After saying this, Dick turned around and told the referee standing nearby, ”I have lost this round!"
Despite his loss, he could be honest and straightforward. Being a gentleman had always been Dick's style.
It would be better if he could win, but if he lost, he wasn't going to be bothered by it. Dick didn't hope for everything to be up to expectations, but he wanted no regrets in his life.
The referee heard his pronouncement and proceeded to announce, “The winner is Zen from Drizzle Peak, and Dick from Blackrock Peak has lost this match!”
“Has he lost?” There was a buzz around them.
“So soon?” There was a quiet surprise. The final confrontation between Zen and Dick was over in an instant. Zen had quickly turned the tables that so many disciples had no time to react.
"What do you know?
Dick's righteousness doesn't allow him to push himself too far. What's more, considering Dick's character, if he admits defeat, that means he definitely can't win against Zen!"
Suddenly, there was whining!
"Ahhhh... My points!
I've lost more than 800 points!" A disciple was in deep sorrow. Eight hundred points was equivalent to 1, 600 cubic crystals. Even a disciple from the noble clans would be sad to lose that much money. He had bet on Dick and lost everything.
The happiest, however, was not Zen, or Master Wen, or the disciples from Drizzle Peak. They were the people who bet on Zen.
One of them was Zachary of Ninety-foot Peak, whose wild laughter reverberated in his peak nonstop. Most inner disciples thought he had become a fool, but no one dared say anything to his face. After all, Zachary was very, very strong. He didn't join the All Peaks Competition, but other than the ones who competed, he was the strongest among the spectators.
No one knew that Zachary also thought he behaved like an idiot standing and laughing wildly, but he was so happy that he couldn't control himself.
He had bet 1200 cubic crystals on Zen, and as a result, would make nine times more than he put in.
With Zen's victory, Zachary's total cubic crystals rose to more than ten thousand, a vast amount of money that he never imagined before, which now gave him a great fortune.
Every time he thought of his ten thousand cubic crystals, Zachary's heart would race and he would breathe quickly.
Would he continue to bet on Zen? Now that Zen had defeated Dick, the odds following this competition would certainly go down. After all, this had been a tough fight and Zen proved his strength and ability. No banker would be stupid enough to offer Zen high odds. Otherwise, they would lose everything.
'Even if the odds were 1:2, my ten thousand cubic crystals would double to twenty thousand, ' Zachary thought.
'That's twenty thousand cubic crystals!'
His expression turned vicious. He would risk everything, Zachary decided, so he continued to bet ten thousand cubic crystals on Zen.