Chapter 262: Flying Knife Versus Short Sword!
Now that Johanson decided to strike, he wouldn't limit himself to only using the soul attack.
Once an assassin made a move, he would go for the kill!
Of course, if his opponent had been somebody else, Johanson might have shown him mercy, or say, not caused a fatal injury to his opponent.
Now that Johanson had regarded Zen as a man he must kill, he would not reserve his strength!
Just as Johanson launched the soul attack, a beam of bright light shot out from his hand.
The light warped into the shape of a short sword—a snake-shaped short sword!
The short sword was Johanson's family heirloom. It was a fairy weapon that had been passed down within their family for several hundred years! When the Jiang family was undermined by the Burning Sky Empire 300 years ago, most of its treasures and fortunes were kept in one of the secret realms of their Shadow Group. Thus the snake-shaped short sword was preserved within the family, and eventually, it was handed down to Johanson.
He preferred to first, befuddle his opponent's mind with the soul attack, and then, cut the opponent's throat with the snake-shaped short sword. Although this assassinating method was quite simple, it was almost impossible to guard against it!
In most cases, as long as the opponent's soul was not strong enough to resist his soul attack, in no way could he escape from Johanson's snake-shaped short sword!
Even though Zen's flesh was incredibly strong, he could not be able to fend off the snake-shaped short sword!
Therefore, as per Johanson, by implementing his two-step attacking method, there was no doubt that Zen would die!
“Go to perdition!”
'I'm destined to be a world-famous assassin while you are doomed to be reduced to a pile of bones.
As to the little locusts that mocked me from the audience, they are bound to admire me, and to listen to legends about me!'
However, at the precise moment that Johanson's soul attack targeted Zen's mind, an unexpected event happened!
The soul attack, to put it simply, was a confrontation on a spiritual level.
Since Johanson had been consuming the soul-nurturing herb since he was a child, his soul was much stronger than those of ordinary people.
The soul-nurturing herb was a precious plant, but its effect on enhancing a person's soul was quite limited.
That was something no one could change. Even Cloud Sect had no books on soul cultivation method other than a few manuals on the use of soul attack!
It was just too difficult to cultivate one's spirit. Accordingly, to nurture one's spirit with the soul-nurturing herb was a very difficult and expensive project in the first place.
But Zen's spirit had been refined by the giant mysterious smelting furnace.
It could be said that the inhuman suffering thoroughly remolded Zen!
Although there were ways to strengthen one's soul and some ascetic practitioners would adopt very drastic measures to prepare their souls, a human soul was a fragile thing. Any carelessness might damage it, and if the injury was severe, the man would become an idiot.
But when Zen's soul was being refined by the black fire, it was also being repaired by the seven-colored lights of the huge furnace!
After being tempered like that Zen's soul was indeed quite resilient.
In comparison to Zen's soul, Johanson's soul seemed weak and fragile!
Therefore, when targeted by Johanson's attempt to kill, Zen merely felt a little alarmed. The moment Johanson's soul attack reached him, Zen's eyes widened a little, but he did not react at all.
The result of a battle between souls would often come out in one second.
According to legends, some mighty practitioners could battle in the spiritual space. Two peerless martial arts experts could determine which was more powerful solely by combatting with their souls. In that case, the power of the soul attack would practically equal the attacker's strength. However, that kind of contest was not something that Zen or Johanson could try at present.
“A soul attack?” Zen sneered. After warding off Johanson's murderous soul attack, a grayish spike was formed in his mind. The spike shot out from between Zen's eyebrows and lunged straight at Johanson.
At the same time, the broken flying knife also appeared in Zen's hand.
A broken flying knife!
Zen's attack strategy was very similar to Johanson's two-step assassinating method!
They both exploited the soul attack to unsettle the mind of their opponent, and then, took advantage of his disoriented state to assassinate him with a knife.
Zen had chosen not to use this method until now because, on one hand, he hoped to hide his ace card till the final stage, and on the other hand, this method was Zen's killing move.
In light of the sharpness of the broken flying knife, Zen was afraid that he might lose control and kill someone by accident!
It was true that the contenders in the arena would try their best to win. In such competitive situations, some participants would occasionally be seriously injured or even die.
However, given that the arena was not a real battlefield, Zen let his values and morals guide him.
In this situation, however, Zen had decided to use his killing method, as from the start, he had sensed that Johanson was determined to kill him. The minute the battle began, Johanson had established that he was not aiming at defeating Zen, but he wanted to kill him.
As to how to distinguish good from the evil, Zen had a simple belief—if others treated him well, he would also be friendly toward them. However, if others intended to murder him, he would return the favor!
'Being kind to your enemy means being cruel to yourself!'
Although Vale, his opponent in the previous fight, was very obnoxious, Zen did not detect any trace of murderous intent from Vale! Vale was merely seeking to subdue Zen and to thwart his martial arts aspirations. Thus, Zen decided to be merciful toward Vale, and even gave him a helping hand when he deviated into madness!
In contrast, Johanson had decided to kill Zen. And so, Zen had no scruples anymore!
In fact, Zen had been on his guard for Johanson's killing intent since the very beginning. And Zen could tell that Saint Zara and Saint Viana were behind all this. Nonetheless, he couldn't be sure. Therefore, he would not point it out in front of all the disciples of Cloud Sect as he had no evidence yet.
While keeping a lookout for Johanson, Zen also figured out what he was thinking. If Johanson wanted to have a prolonged tangle with Zen, Zen could do nothing about it.
However, now that Johanson was enraged by his one remark, Zen knew that despite his great power, he was not a very skilled assassin. And that was why Zen just flopped onto the ground and said offensive things that would lead the disciples of Cloud Sect to provoke Johanson further.
As Johanson felt that Zen had blocked his soul attack, his expression changed!
He came to realize that he had made a huge mistake!
'The soul attack of Zen that Vale just described is definitely one of his trump cards!
How can it be? How is it possible? His body is already formidably strong for a man at the second-grade of the nature level, but how can his soul be so tough as well? My soul attack didn't hurt him at all? Is he a human being?'
Just as Johanson was trying to rationalize his opponent's abilities, Zen had launched his counterattack, the Spiritual Thorn.
In an instant, the soul thorn pierced Johanson's brain. Johanson felt a powerful force assault his soul, and the pain caused nearly sent him into a coma.
But compared to Zen's prior opponents, Johanson's performance was fairly great.
As Johanson had been nourishing his soul since childhood, his soul was far stronger than that of a normal practitioner's. Hence, Johanson's soul managed to withstand Zen's Spiritual Thorn.
As a result, even though Johanson was in excruciating pain, he did not pass out. He might have lost the match on the spiritual level, but he still had his snake-shaped short sword.
'Once this snake-shaped short sword penetrates Zen's body, there is absolutely no hope for him.'
However, precisely at this moment, he saw the broken flying knife emerge in Zen's hand.
'A broken knife?' Johanson snorted. 'He wants to repel my snake-shaped short sword with that thing?'
His snake-shaped short sword was a fairy weapon!
Even if Zen's broken flying knife were also a fairy weapon, after being damaged, the heavenly essence it contained would disperse as time went by. The more severe the damage, the faster its heavenly essence would dissipate.
At the sight of the broken flying knife in Zen's hand, Johanson assumed that it was, at best, as powerful as a low-grade spiritual weapon.
And he had no chance of stopping Johanson's snake-shaped short sword.
However, the moment the two weapons clashed, Johanson was dumbstruck.
The broken flying knife in Zen's hand knocked the snake-shaped short sword into the air. And Johanson's eyes widened when he saw that the clash left a distinct dent in the blade of his snake-shaped short sword!
What surprised him more was that the dent had not been caused by a right-angled collision of two flying blades. It was merely an outcome of the snake-shaped short sword flitting across the broken flying knife from one side.
If the two had collided head-on, Johanson's snake-shaped short sword would probably have broken!
'What is that broken flying knife? How can it still be so powerful even when it's damaged!'
Johanson was stupefied. While he was frozen in place by the shock he felt, the broken flying knife soared toward his forehead. When Johanson realized what was happening, he was scared out of his wits. If the broken flying knife injured him, he would die.
The instinct for survival suddenly surged inside Johanson. He leaned back to dodge the broken flying knife. The escape was narrow as the broken flying knife did scrape Johanson's forehead as it skimmed over his face. Fortunately, the gash wasn't too deep.
When Johanson drew himself back, he hid among the shadows in mid-air.
Zen jumped to his feet with a jeer, beckoned with his left hand, and the broken flying knife flew back to his hand.
The two fought at top speed. This time, it happened in a blink of an eye, but it was way more dangerous than any previous battles.
The disciples also realized that Zen and Johanson were risking their lives in this battle!
The seriousness of the contenders and the stakes were so high that the disciples watched the fight with bated breath! Then, they were dazed for quite a while before they began to discuss it.
“How risky! I never knew that Zen has a weapon! His weapon is a broken flying knife!”
“That knife is definitely not a normal knife. The snake-shaped short sword that Johanson is holding is a fairy weapon. But when Zen's damaged flying knife clashed into it, the snake-shaped short sword got a dent, while the broken flying knife was still intact. This means the broken flying knife is at a much higher grade than the fairy weapon!”
“Zen is indeed hiding his true potential and his attack strategies. I wonder what else he's got!”
“Humph, you're so ignorant! Let me tell you what else Zen has got. Just now when Zen and Johanson attacked each other with their weapons, they were also engaged in another fight—a battle on the spiritual level. It seems that Johanson lost to Zen, and he suffered from that soul combat.”
There was a large assembly of talents at the All Peaks Competition. Although a moment ago Zen and Johanson concluded an attack in just one second, only a handful of people had caught on to what had really happened.
“What?”
At those words, many disciples showed disbelief on their faces.