Chapter 452: Ye Chen’s Battle (Part One)

Translator: 3heryl Editor: Hitesh_

If the regions could be separated into three different levels, then all of the young warriors could all be put in three different levels as well. The first level would be comprising of the ones without a martial spirit; the second level would be the warriors who had already formed some degree of martial spirit; while the third level would be warriors who had not only formed a martial spirit, but also attained unachievable advantages, such as top martial arts and Zhen Yuan, or a completed martial spirit.

Without a doubt, Li Daoxuan belonged to the second level now, and he would not be one of the weak ones in that level; he could be regarded as being in the middle. As for whether he would be able to move forward, that would depend on what he would do soon.

Li Daoxuan was not weak, and Shi Yan as his opponent was not weak either.

Perhaps, the Black Gold Region was a little bit weaker than the Snowy Region and Wavy Cloud Region, but the gap of difference would not be huge; it would be only a difference of one or two warriors. In other words, if a warrior was ranked third in the Black Gold Region, then he or she would be ranked fourth or fifth in the Snowy Region and the Wavy Cloud Region. Of course, it would not be a certain thing since there were a lot of exceptions, as the growth of a martial genius was extremely odd and unpredictable. The ranking two years ago would mean nothing after two years; otherwise, there would be no point for the tea gathering to be held one after another, since people would just judge from the last one.

"I think I have underestimated your South Rudra Region. How high were you ranked in the South Rudra Region?" Shi Yan used a Dragon Killer Stick. With the weapon in hand, his aura contained to grow; his already tall and lean body seemed to be able to touch the sky as he looked at Li Daoxuan seriously.

Li Daoxuan glanced at Ye Chen and Sikong Sheng, then smiled, "Top five at best!"

"Top five? Are you joking? Are there that many powerful warriors?" Shi Yan froze a little, then laughed out loud. He thought that Li Daoxuan was just being humble and trying to talk up the South Rudra Region.

"It doesn't matter if you believe it or not. Let's begin!" Li Daoxuan was not the kind of person who would down-talk himself for no reason. Amongst all the warriors in the whole South Rudra Region, he did not think that he would be able to compete with Ye Chen and Sikong Sheng. Besides them, Murong Qingcheng and Tuo Baku both looked quite mysterious as well. Therefore, he listed himself as top five, which was something he had thought about seriously. He was a little bit frustrated that even if he were telling the truth, other people would still think that he was trying to be humble. But, he himself knew for a fact that as a powerful sword artist, there would be no point in talking himself down to be humble pointlessly.

"Regardless where you rank, take my attack first!"

As he took one step forward, Shi Yan's aura grew madly while he threw out a single but powerful stick art attack with his Dragon Killer Stick. The light it brought up seemed to puncture through the air and arrive right in front of Li Daoxuan's chest within seconds.

Chin!

Facing that beam of light, Li Daoxuan looked exactly the same as he took out that longsword within a second. Cold sparks shot out as he cut through that beam of light and shattered the attack completely.

"Eh? You have got something up your sleeve indeed." Shi Yan looked rather serious now. That attack of his was designed to test Li Daoxuan's power. But, even though it was just meant to be a test, its power was not weak at all. He thought that it would at least take Li Daoxuan some effort to process it; but he did not foresee that the attack would be shattered so easily.

"Now, you will have to take a sword attack from me as well."

After cutting down the stick light, Li Daoxuan shook his right wrist, causing six sharp sword lights to stab out. As that sword attack was thrown out, the air seemed to be frozen; the sword light traveled in extreme speed. The sound from the "outside" world and the sword light's movement had disappeared completely.

"Impressive! I cannot believe that I had misjudged you."

That six beams of cold light blossomed right in front of Shi Yan, which forced him to back out for three steps. If it were not for him reacting fast enough and using his stick to block out the attack, the six beams would have been sufficient to break through his protective layer and wound him severely. This sword attack was odd, but undoubtedly powerful.

Soundless sword attack!

Ye Chen had recognized that sword attack, since Li Daoxuan had used it before in the Hidden Dragon Rank competition they both had participated in. Although Li Daoxuan had still lost to Ye Chen, Sikong Sheng, and Yan Chihuo, no one would dare to underestimate that sword attack. Now, after four years of time, that silent killing attack had been performed once again. But compared to back then, it had now improved in power by six times.

One sword and one stick, the two were battling at an almost same level; who would win and lose was still unclear at this moment.

"That Yan Chihuo from before was a blade artist, and this Li Daoxuan is a sword artist. Since when have there been so many powerful sword and blade artists in the South Rudra Region?"

"With these two's power, they would be able to be ranked in the top fifteen in our Thunder Region. If that Sikong Sheng is actually more powerful then these two, then the South Rudra Region might actually be able to get rid of the title of 'weak' this time."

"But, there is also the possibility of these two being the top warriors of the South Rudra Region."

"True."

Without hearing the discussions, Li Daoxuan was purely focused on Shi Yan, since the latter was just way too powerful. In the last tea gathering, it was not just luck due to which he managed to beat Sikong Sheng; it was because he actually had the power to do so. Li Daoxuan knew that he had already brought out almost all of his killing attacks, and the fact that he still was not able to wound his opponent by even the slightest bit proved the latter's power. On the contrary, he had been stabbed by that stick on the shoulder, and could feel the pain coming from there clearly.

"I cannot continue like this. I will have to end it quickly."

The wound on his shoulder reminded Li Daoxuan that the longer this battle lasted, the less opportunity there would be for him to win. Shi Yan was way more powerful than Yan Chihuo and he had imagined.

"Luckily, Li Daoxuan replaced me for this battle. Otherwise, I would have definitely lost within hundred attacks." Yan Chihuo could not imagine what would have happened if he had decided to push through before. It was not that he was afraid of Shi Yan, but he had already beaten three opponents just then, who were all not that weak. The battles cost a lot of his energy and Zhen Yuan. And, if he had used that imperfect condition to face Shi Yan, then losing after hundred attacks would already be an optimistic outcome; in fact, he was not even confident enough to last fifty attacks.

"Dao is heartless, but also heartfelt."

His robe danced in the air as he jumped into the sky, throwing his deadliest attack at Shi Yan. It was the last movement of his heartless sword art, which was just as powerful as thirty percent of a profound sense martial art attack which was way more powerful than the other sword arts.

The muscle on his arm tightened as Shi Yan shifted to holding his stick with both his hands. He then waved it in the air, forming layer after layer of counter-power that continuously shattered the powerful sword qi sent out by Li Daoxuan.

"Break!"

Waiting until Li Daoxuan's sword attacks ran out, Shi Yan yelled. His stick aura then increased drastically, shattering all of the remaining sword qi. He then threw out a stick attack towards Li Daoxuan.

Pooh!

Spitting out a mouthful of blood, Li Daoxuan was blown away.

However, just as his body was flying backward, a plum flower suddenly blossomed in front of Shi Yan, pressing onto his chest. It was gentle and full of emotions.

Cough!

Once the flower fell onto the ground, Shi Yan coughed out a huge amount of blood. When the flower first appeared, he told himself to not underestimate this flower, since it seemed rather odd. But then, his logical mind and subconscious seemed unable to settle on some differences, which resulted in him reacting one second slower and allowing that flower get close to him.

"It is indeed heartless but heartfelt!"

Shi Yan suddenly realized the meaning of Li Daoxuan's attack. This sword attack was nothing like the others, as it contained some kind of emotions amongst the feeling of heartlessness. And, just because of that little bit of emotion, it was effortless to distract the opponent, which made it the deadliest part of the attack; it was even more powerful than the heartlessness mentality.

Both of them were wounded quite severely, so it was regarded as a tie.

Tuo Baku praised, "After all those years, everyone seemed to have grown a lot. I thought only I had gone through hellish training."

Ye Chen said, "Perhaps, you should go on there for a battle then?"

"Hehe… What is the point in competing with these guys? At least, I have to find someone equal. Ye Chen, what about you?"

"Me? I will go when the right moment comes."

Ye Chen did not plan to be the last warrior going onto the stage like a big boss. He planned to go on there at the right moment. Even if the opponent were a bit weak, he would play fight a bit in order to make the South Rudra Region look good.

Li Daoxuan managed to fight Shi Yan and got an even result, which was something that a lot of people had not expected, since the latter was ranked top three in the Black Gold Region after all. He would be able to make it into the top fifty or even top thirty in the whole southern region. On the contrary, the South Rudra Region was nothing; in the last tea gathering, only Sikong Sheng managed to show up. However, in this year's tea gathering, sixteen times more warriors had shown up. But still, in everyone's eyes, South Rudra Region had still been one of the weakest regions. What was shocking for them was that these "weakest" warriors somehow managed to fight back one of the most powerful warriors.

"South Rudra Region is different now. Do not underestimate them."

"Indeed! South Rudra Region is way more powerful than the Slashing Mountain Region. Do not mix them up again."

The night slowly arrived, but the whole garden was lit up just like daytime. There would be a daylight crystal column at every ten steps, which was three meters tall and emitting a bright but gentle white light. Because of these lights, the martial tea gathering could continue uninterrupted.

Boom!

Blood spilled everywhere!

The last countable warrior from the Slashing Mountain Region, Race Star Mountain, had fallen. It was not because he was weak, but because his opponent was just too powerful. That was why almost all of the warriors from the Slashing Mountain Region had lost. The remaining warriors from there would not be able to make a difference at this point.

"It will be time for the Slashing Mountain Region to remember this shame." Xu Jiang closed his eyes painfully. Before, there was always the South Rudra Region to wear the title of the weakest one, since the Slashing Mountain Region was slightly stronger than them. That had made a lot of warriors from their region fool themselves into thinking they were already powerful enough. But now, South Rudra Region had become so powerful and managed to get rid of their "weakest" hat, while the Slashing Mountain Region was still struggling.

At that moment, even the Thunder Princess and the Edict Prince both shook their head. "The Mountain Region is just too weak. Besides the Cold Moon Spear and the Racing Star Mountain who can be put into the second level warrior category, the other ones are only at the first level, and they are not even the powerful ones..."

"Apologies! I would like to excuse myself."

A young warrior from the Slashing Mountain Region stood up and greeted the Thunder Princess.

The Thunder Princess looked at him with the eyes like lightning as she said slowly, "If you cannot handle this kind of pressure, then you will become nobody. Leaving or not, you can decide for yourself… I will not stop you."

Race Star Mountain, who had just lost, said with a low voice, "Sit down! Do not embarrass the region anymore. We do not have more to lose now."

Hearing him, the teenager sat down shamefully.

The warrior who had beaten Race Star Mountain was the third ranked warrior amongst the young generation in the Wavy Cloud Region, named Wang Lin, just below Duan Linyun. However, those rankings were already from two years ago. After two years now, he did not think he would lose to those powerful ones.

After killing the last hope for the Mountain Region, Wang Lin suddenly changed his target to the South Rudra Region. Yan Chihuo had burned out a lot of his energy and Zhen Yuan, so he would not join the battle again; Li Daoxuan had wounded his meridians during the battle with Shi Yan, so he would sit out as well. Wang Lin wanted to see who else in the South Rudra Region still stood a chance.

Revealing a smile, Wang Lin pointed at where the warriors from the South Rudra Region were sitting, "I wonder who in the South Rudra Region would dare to take on my challenge?"

"Hehe… This guy is full of it!" Tuo Baku licked his lips.

Shaking his head, Ye Chen surprisingly stood up, "It will be good for me to warm up my body after all."

　"No way! Are you for real?"

Ye Chen chuckled, "Why not? It is a tea gathering after all. Don't be so serious. It is better to be relaxed."

It was not only Tuo Baku who was shocked. Everyone who knew Ye Chen was stunned. It included everyone from the South Rudra Region, as well as Feng Yanrou and Ling Hanye from the Snowy Martial School.

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