Chapter 274: Flood Dragon Bone Spear
More than a hundred dragon scales were activated simultaneously, generating even more power for Zen's body like flood peaking between canyons. The energy that flowed through his body was so intense that his shoulders became swollen, and his blood vessels were distended as if dragons were flying on the surface of his skin.
As they were about to collide, Jacques laughed and then roared, “I will smash you to pieces!”
However, Zen managed to avoid the sharp horns of Jacques' white bone armor and directly hit him on the shoulder!
“Thud!”
With the strength of the two opposing forces, their collision created a loud thudding sound that echoed.
To the surprise of everyone who witnessed the violent impact, Jacques, in his white bone armor, was knocked down and then thrown from one edge of the fighting ground to another. And finally, he slammed into the light curtain of enchanted barrier!
In the past, some disciples also crashed into the same barrier with the force of a single punch.
Designed to protect disciples from collisions that usually took place during such contests, the light curtain of enchanted barrier was very soft.
Its primary function was to separate disciples from viewers during competitions, so it was not built to withstand powerful collisions. But Zen summoned all the explosive forces from the dragon scales as he slammed into Jacques.
If Jacques, in his white bone armor, was referred to as a war chariot, Zen was then regarded as a ferocious beast.
Such powerful and pure force was unleashed on Jacques, causing him to hurtle backward. This collision force exceeded the limit the enchanted barrier could bear. Spectators could only see from outside the barrier when the light curtain shook a few times and were aghast when they noticed cracks in the structure like those in a broken mirror before it finally burst into pieces.
While it helped absorb some of the collision force on Jacques, it could not prevent him from flying out into the field. Without any sign of slowing down, he was thrown into the crowd, crashing into any object along his path.
Fortunately for Jacques, he was headed towards the area where Skytop Peak disciples were. They saw what happened to him, so, Rocher, Sheeny, and even Wing, who was still in recovery, immediately stretched out their hands to catch the flying disciple. It was the only way to halt the oncoming Jacques and help him to get up.
Once Jacques was finally upright, the disciples from other peaks felt relieved and relaxed a bit. But they were still somewhat fearful that it could happen again.
It was fortunate there were several powerful disciples from Skytop Peak. There might not have been fighters strong enough to hold him back if Jacques hurtled towards the direction of either Drizzle Peak or Vulture Peak. And that would have resulted in many being injured or worse, killed.
Though Zen had displayed innate superhuman strength since the very beginning, he had never discharged all his ultimate power before that collision.
So, at this point, everybody was still shocked by the energy he had thrown at Jacques, nor could they understand what took place.
Not everyone was fortunate to have innate superhuman strength, which made them extraordinarily powerful. For martial artists, being born with superhuman strength might give them an edge, especially during fights, but people usually did not take this advantage seriously.
Strength was a fundamental component in battle. A fighter with innate superhuman strength would have a distinct advantage during competitions. However, the body's physical strength was limited, unlike one's life vitality, which had the potential to grow. The strength derived from life vitality was usually dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of times greater than the normal body's strength.
In that case, no matter how great the power derived from human body was, it was still not enough to knock down Saint Viana with a single punch from a long distance, much like what Kenneth did.
And this was the reason why martial artists were all focused on refining the life vitality and paid little attention to pure body refinement. They did not think that body refinement did much to enhance their refining life.
With little opportunity for progress in pure body refinement, why even give it importance or attention?
So how was Zen able to do what he just did? Everyone who witnessed this was astonished.
How could he overthrow Jacques who wore white bone armor? He didn't even have any protective gear and only used his body to make the collision. So, how did he manage that? Did their minds play tricks on them just now? Was it an illusion that they saw?
They all looked at one another, only to find similar confused expressions in everyone's face. If only one person witnessed it, the scene might have passed as an illusion. But many saw it at the same time, so it had to be real.
If that was what precisely happened, then what came to mind was the enormous power Zen had showed just now, and everyone was suddenly terrified. The talented disciple had done exceptionally well to the astonishment of the entire Cloud Sect in this All Peaks Competition.
While most of those present were confused and scared, Jacques, who was one of the heroes in the scene, had even more mixed feelings. He finally stood up with the help of his companions. Before colliding with Zen, he had been very excited, expecting to see this arrogant young fighter get smashed to pieces before his eyes. But as they crashed into one another, the excitement was replaced by confusion. No one knew better the power Zen used to fight than Jacques. Being hurled out of the battlefield, he was no longer confused but fearful. Now, there was only a look of helplessness on his face.
He knew in his mind that Zen was a tough fighter. Prior to their meeting, Jacques also considered himself fierce with sufficient strength to defeat his opponents. To his surprise, Zen was more ruthless and tougher than himself. Confident in the capacity of his white bone armor, Jacques threatened to crush Zen to pieces. But Zen, without a hint of fear, didn't even dodge his attack but instead met him head-on with hard crushing power to overwhelm him and then finally had the upper hand.
At this point, Jacques still had not lost the fight. Under the rules, the fight would be over only when one of the fighters admitted defeat or could not fight again. Otherwise, the competition did not stop. Although he had been thrown out of the field by Zen, it might be because the light curtain of enchanted barrier was not sturdy enough to absorb the impact of the collision and thus, cracked. Unless Jacques admitted himself beaten, he had to continue the battle.
By now, Jacques' emotions were complex and indescribable. It was akin to one skilled Chinese go player being matched up with a chess player, but this chess player also had the skills to play go and ultimately won over the go player using the latter's strategy.
Being defeated in what he considered his jurisdiction was far more frustrating and humiliating for Jacques than any loss he had suffered in the past.
Still, he had to return to the fighting field regardless of his feelings and thoughts. Now, his previous arrogant face was replaced by a serious look when he stepped back on the field. Jacques stared at Zen, knowing he must go all out in the coming battle.
Although he had prepared to fight, there were still doubts in Jacques' mind. He had tested the strength of his white bone armor. Zen slammed into the armor with extreme force. If his body were not tough enough to endure such force, his bones would have broken like the enchanted barrier.
But when Jacques returned to the field, he saw Zen standing calmly, without any visible injury. 'How did he do that?' Jacques wondered. It confused him more. Unlike the jumble of emotions that Jacques was feeling, Zen was very much relaxed. After his opponent's return, he just waved his arms, rubbed his hands to prepare, and with a taunting smile, said, "Another hit?
I'm ready for that!"
The daring words left Jacques speechless, his heart nearly plummeting. He nearly felt blood rise to his throat and come out of his mouth. At the same time, what initially seemed like tiny misgivings now turned into incredulity.
His white bone armor could easily withstand the attack from a high-level spiritual weapon. It was impossible to penetrate this armor unless it was a fairy weapon. But now with Zen standing there without any injury after colliding with his metal covering sent a frisson of fear down his spine.
Did that mean that Zen's body was as tough as that of a high-level spiritual weapon?
If that was the case, was he still human?
Too many thoughts and possibilities were popping up in his chaotic mind. Before facing Zen in battle, Jacques enjoyed challenging people of a higher level and always came out victorious. He attributed this to his tough white bone armor. But now that he was defeated by a person who only made use of his physical abilities, Jacques felt lost. Any confidence he gained from his previous achievements now seemed insignificant.
Unknown to Jacques, he was the first to test Zen's physical strength. Before this competition, no one knew the limits to Zen's physical abilities. He was only injured once, and that was because Tracy, with the power of Blue Phoenix, stabbed him. Other than that episode, no one came close to testing his limits.
In their battle, Jacques overestimated the toughness of Zen's body.
The strength of Zen's body was similar to that of a mid-level spiritual weapon. It was only recently when he entered this level, and then he reached the peak of this spiritual weapon level after these days' refinement. Anyway, there was still a huge gap between his body and the high-level spiritual weapon.
But it was Zen's experience and combat expertise that was a crucial factor in this encounter. He bumped into Jacques' white bone armor with his shoulder. When they slammed into his opponent, his tight and powerful shoulder muscles eased some of the collision force. On the other hand, the force Jacques unleashed towards Zen's body was automatically transformed into warm currents, which his seemingly mystical body absorbed.
Even though Zen was only a middle-level spiritual weapon, he possessed a magical power which other spiritual weapons lacked, and which was not easily understood.
As far as the spectators were concerned, they had witnessed Jacques in many successful fights with his hard white bone armor, and this defeat by Zen was his first. Seeing his serious face now, they understood that Jacques would be trying his best in the next round.
“You surprise me, Zen! You really are interesting. It seems I have underestimated your strength. It is unrealistic to vanquish you with pure strength alone,” Jacques sneered.
His remark had Zen raising an eyebrow. He answered, “Or you can also say that is a naive way of thinking.”
“I have to admit that yes, I was too naive before.” Jacques didn't care for the sarcasm in Zen's words, so he gave him a cold smile. "But now, you will have a taste of my real power. Just a reminder, you will later regret this.
You will regret standing here to fight me," he said menacingly.
After issuing the threat, Jacques began to generate a mass of blood fog in his hands. Compared to the previous blood fog, this one had more strength and intensity. It was almost like the blood left by some wild beast from an ancient savage land with highly unusual blood vessels.
When the cloud of blood gradually dissipated, a bone spear appeared in his hands. The spear shone with a pale green light, and on top of the bone were layers of complex runes.
He raised the bone spear and stabbed it towards the sky. Instantly, a dragon's roar emanated from the weapon.
“This is the bone spear made from a section of a flood dragon's spine. You are very lucky to be the first to taste its power in the All Peaks Competition!” With a glint in his eyes, Jacques enunciated each word.
Flood dragon...
Flood dragon was a category of the dragon, although it was far from being a genuine dragon. It was neither a super legendary beast nor even a normal legendary beast. And it would never come close to Tracy's Blue Phoenix.
Unfortunately, while Tracy might have the blood of the Blue Phoenix, her current strength was still not enough for her to master the total power of the Phoenix.
In Jacques' hand was a part of the dragon's spine. Just how powerful the flood dragon bone spear was, no one knew for sure.
But right after Zen heard the dragon roar from the bone spear, he felt subtle changes in his mind. He sensed the cyan dragon on the giant furnace in his mind shook a little, which was followed by a barely perceptible roar from the creature.
The dragon language was strange and complicated, and one Zen did not comprehend. Many of its syllables were barely audible or were undetectable by human ears.
So, it took him by surprise that right this moment, it was clear to him what the dragon's roar meant.
'What?
You want to eat that bone spear made of the flood dragon's spine?' he asked in his head. Once he understood the dragon's intent, a strange look came over Zen's face.