Chapter 283: Blood Burning
Surprisingly, the battle between Zen and Rocher was less ferocious than that between Zen and Jacques. At least for the moment, it looked like that.
After all the cyan dragon's roar during that particular event had been terrifying, shocking, and destructive. It was the sort of thing that Zen would never forget.
Although Zen's horrible strength had erupted fighting with Jacques, his battle with Rocher was more fascinating. This was because most of the previous battle had been fought secretly.
Zen had used his demonic life vitality to shroud the fighting pit in mist and not let anyone see. Though the audience had heard the terrifying roars of dragon, they had no idea what was going on inside that mist.
But this battle, between Zen and Rocher, was something else!
Both of them were swordsmen who had a thorough understanding of the sword intent. They were considered one of the best sword masters in Cloud Sect and the battle between them was extremely balanced; so much that it could have ended in a stalemate.
One of them was a once-in-a-century genius who had already penetrated deep into the supernatural mysteries inside the Heavenly Sword Illustration. Therefore, he was capable of using the power of the heavens against his enemies. The other man, a simple and noble practitioner, wielded his sword in a mysterious but basic way. He refused to cower even while confronting the heavens' power. His sword was held smartly and he fought back effectively.
Seeing this, all the disciples of the Cloud Sect were unimaginably excited. After Rocher's failed Heavenly Sword demonstration, they were now looking forward to seeing something much bigger and more shocking.
The elder disciples of the Cloud Sect had already witnessed the All Peak Competition many times in their lives and they had, at times, even been able to anticipate the outcome. However, none of the previous competitions could have been compared to this.
“Rocher's abilities in wielding a sword are unbelievable. I mean he is the first guy ever to enter the fourth level of the Heavenly Sword. And he is the first in eight centuries. And Zen... Zen's more than that. He has even been able to confront the forces of the Heavenly Sword with some basic sword methods. I have never seen anyone defeating mystical things with basic skills all my life.”
“It's unfair. When I was practicing the sword, the wizard in my village told everybody that I was born to be a great and successful swordsman. But it turns out that I'm just a joke compared to these two guys.”
“Zen is the sort of person you'd call crazy. He succeeded in making use of such ordinary things to defeat such superpowers. How could he manage to exert enormous power by wielding his sword in some basic ways.”
While the disciples discussed the battle, the elders and the saints who were watching the battle from outside the fighting pit sighed that their time was now gone. This era now belonged to these young and talented disciples. So many talented and excellent disciples had shown themselves in this All Peak Competition, each with their own area of expertise. One of them would surely grow up and start a glorious, new era.
Rocher wiped the blood from around his mouth. He stared at Zen coldly, surprised.
He had thought that his Four-in-One art of fencing was powerful enough to beat Zen and had never expected Zen to survive that. However, he had clearly underestimated his opponent and his fighting capacity.
Zen just flicked his sword, which had exerted a simple but extremely powerful force, in which the force of the stars was hidden. It had been strong enough to shield him against heavenly forces.
What surprised Rocher the most was that Zen had created the force of stars merely with his life vitality instead of borrowing its power from other places.
Even after that, how could he defeat the Heavenly Sword?
In contrast to Zen, practicing the art of Heavenly Sword and trying to learn from the Heavenly Sword Illustration had allowed Rocher to communicate with the heavens. It was a rare thing to accomplish but Rocher had succeeded, despite all odds. Therefore, he had become the real master of the Heavenly Sword.
This way, his powers just now had come from the heavens themselves. He had actually borrowed the heavenly forces for this attack.
None of them were his.
However, the forces of the stars were the ones Zen had artificially created through contemplation. How was that even possible? Did he accomplish this by looking at the stars?
It was rumored that some warriors from the Eastern Region had once tried to look at the stars and contemplate to enhance their martial arts.
After they had entered the nature level, all of them were known to be trying so desperately to find some strange things for their contemplation.
They would carefully look at sword, knife, bow and arrow, stone, tree, house, picture or other strange and seemingly unrelated things.
Some had even gone further and tried to look at the stars, the moon, and the sun.
But the stars were far away and subtle. How could they succeed in borrowing power from stars? How could they turn their life vitality into the force of stars?
And even if some of them had managed to make some progress, none of them had actually succeeded in figuring out the spirits of the stars. When they had tried to turn their life vitality into stars, all they had got in return was useless stones. There was no force near the stars to find. Nothing.
Therefore, those warriors had abandoned the seemingly powerful but actually useless things like the moon, the sun, the stars, the sea and the mountain. These things only looked impressive or even imposing. However, time and time again, they had failed to empower the warriors.
It was worth mentioning that some talented folks had accidentally figured out how the star force worked but those were just legends. And none of them had ever risen from the Eastern Region.
Rocher had no idea that Zen didn't have to contemplate and search for the stars in the sky. He just needed the Sun Moon Stars Picture, which didn't belong to this world at all.
The strength of the masters who had drawn and produced the Sun Moon Stars Picture had been unimaginable.
“I thought that I had no rival at the same level with me. Even the warriors who have reached the Illuminating Soul Realm would have surely suffered defeat at my hands. I have only one rival, Patrick. If I was fighting with him right now, I would have stood a 50-50 chance of success. However, if I, with strength of the nature level consummation, had reached the Illuminating Soul Realm, it would have been impossible for me to lose!” Rocher remarked slowly.
Patrick remained motionless and showed no emotions on his face, sitting cross-legged and with his eyes closed.
Then, Rocher added, “I need to think bigger and go to a larger world. The Eastern Region is too small for me and discourages me to grow up or become stronger. I have the whole world ahead of me to conquer. I need to challenge the thousands of talents born in this world. I need to do better than this little Sect. After the All Peaks Competition, I don't care if I'm allowed to walk across the Cloud Road or not. I will go to the Central Region and find a bigger world to conquer.”
Hearing Rocher's brave and bold words, all the disciples took a deep breath.
None of them had ever thought that Rocher could be so ambitious.
Everyone had dreams. Warriors from humble backgrounds wished to reach high levels so as to help their family's survival and to seek better social status for themselves. Business minded folks wanted to make vast amounts of fortune in this world.
However, warriors from the noble clans dreamed bigger. They had to fight their way out among their brothers and sisters, contending for the position of the head of the whole family. Then, they would make great efforts and spend vast amounts of time in leading their family to a place where it could stand out among all the other clans and families. However, none of them had ever dared to compete with families from other regions.
The Central Region was much bigger than the Eastern Region. The top seven noble clans could ride roughshod in the Eastern Region but they would be a completely fool if they ever dared to do that in the Central Region.
Rocher was either remarkably brave, or foolishly bold. He thought that he could beat those families from the Central Region and from the other parts of the world.
The world was vast in size. Most of it hadn't even been explored yet.
He was more like a beggar from a small town in his efforts; a person who had no idea of how big his country was. However, all of a sudden, he had announced that he would be the king one day.
This sounded laughable. But, even an emperor, before founding the Burning Sky Empire, was born a beggar before he had finally become a ruler.
Anybody with such an ambitious plan was better than most of the disciples from the Cloud Sect.
“Meeting you before I leave the Eastern Region is such a surprise to me. Zen, do you know that? You, with just two steps into the nature level, used some basic sword techniques and beat my Four-in-One sword. I practice the Heavenly Sword and that allows me to strike a sympathetic chord with the heavens. I think our meeting is a gift from the God. Perhaps you're a test to me. If that is the case, then I simply have to defeat you and move further, because I can't defy the wish of God.”
The blood on Rocher's Blood-corroding Sword seemed to come alive and vibrated slowly on the blade itself. A few seconds later, a seed appeared between his eyebrows. He raised his sword slowly and calmly told him, “I have prepared this for Patrick. But now I have to use it to defeat you.”
Suddenly, the seed ruptured.
With a crack, blue light shot from inside Rocher's eyes, and his temperament changed fundamentally.
“My precious sword, I'm appealing on behalf of the heavens. Help me and drive the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth.”
“Bang! Bang!”
With the spell that Rocher had just used, the weather suddenly became more violent and fought itself restlessly.
“The wind rises!” Patrick remarked, eyes still closed.
Sitting outside the fighting pit, he could even feel the currents moving around him, which was the abnormal phenomenon Rocher had caused and now, those currents seemed to be in his command.
The wind got stronger as the vitality from the skies and the earth accumulated into one more and more quickly.
The sword technique used by Rocher in the last round was called Four-in-One Sword, which had gathered the power from the sky to strike Zen. It had looked like the sky itself was falling towards Zen, trying to crush and kill him.
However, this time it was different. Rocher had collected the sky's strength and was holding it in his sword.
A few moments later the wind stopped and Rocher stood there with his sword in his hand. The currents of a violent storm were now trapped inside his sword, begging to be released. At this very moment, he was extremely normal, except for his blue eyes.
He seemed like a regular sword man, standing there quietly.
However, this seeming silence was a great threat to Zen. He clearly knew that the strength behind his abnormal calmness was much more terrifying than his Four-in-One Sword had been.
That did not mean that Zen was afraid. At this moment, he found that his blood was racing around in his veins and his heartbeat was accelerating more and more quickly. He was getting extremely excited.
'I come from a humble family. Before joining the Cloud Sect, my biggest dream was seeing my sister one more time, though it hasn't been achieved yet. But my dedication to the practice of martial arts is no less than you, Rocher. I also really want to climb up to the top of the mountain and see the big world.'
Thinking about this, Zen's eyes suddenly became as red as burning fire. He wielded his sword, and the sword intents which were now being released, looked like lotus flowers in full bloom. The demonic life vitality he had hidden, was mixed with starlight and flowing on his sword.
Both of them gathered their strength for a long time before their swords finally clanged one more time. One more furious move about to decide the outcome of this battle.
However, only normal impacts were produced and limited power was released.
In comparison, the fencing in the last round had been much more terrifying and stunning. To be very frank, even the training of the disciples usually looked more stunning than this round of sword fight.
Two sword shadows met for a moment and then they separated. Not even a sound was made.
“What's happening? Much cry and little done? I thought the whole world would be turned upside down once again. Such a disappointment!”
“Is it over? Is it done? Who won? Is the referee saying anything?”
“What's he trying to do? Trick us? It's gonna be a total disappointment. I have been waiting for this for such a long time. I just can't believe that the game is over in such a simple and ordinary way.”
The sudden end of the competition gave rise to much discussion among the audience. None of them knew what had happened.
On the other hand, the saints of the Sect and even Patrick kept their eyes open, as they stared at the fighting pit, surprised and shocked.
Tracy, hiding in a corner, had to cover her mouth to prevent herself from screaming out, because she seemed to have figured something out. She also looked horrified.