Chapter 2371 — A Formidable Opponent
"Hiss..." Piao Huotai was fine. He watched the battle between Wei Zhao and Piao Laoliu impassively, but Gambler drew in a sharp breath, feeling uneasy all over.
He was only an expert at the peak of the late Yellow Rank stage, yet when Wei Zhao and Piao Laoliu released their martial techniques, the invisible searing gale in the air was more than Gambler could bear! This was what they meant by gods fighting and devils suffering!
Earlier, when Wei Zhao had killed the two hidden Zhao clan experts in an instant, Gambler hadn't thought much of it, but when Wei Zhao unleashed his strongest move in that not-so-large private box, Gambler could hardly withstand the oppressive might of the two of them.
"Mr. Piao... may I... leave first?" Gambler looked cautiously at Piao Huotai.
"Mm..." A single sound hummed from Piao Huotai's nose. His attention was entirely on Wei Zhao and Piao Laoliu; he paid Gambler no mind at all. As for whether Gambler left or stayed, it made no difference to him—a minor character, nothing more.
Hearing Piao Huotai's permission, Gambler felt as though a great amnesty had been granted. He hurried out of the Tianzi No. 1 private box, but the moment he stepped through the door, he saw the two corpses by the entrance and gave a violent shudder. Not daring to linger, he fled the place in a panic.
In his view, whoever won or lost, it was someone Gambler could not afford to provoke, so it was best to leave first.
Seeing Wei Zhao's martial technique, a flash of disbelief crossed Piao Laoliu's eyes. Perhaps he had not believed that Wei Zhao, at the mid Earth Rank stage, could unleash an eleventh-style martial technique—plainly a move only an expert at the early Heaven Rank stage could bring forth!
Had he been hiding his strength? Piao Laoliu was startled, yet he found it unlikely. The level of true qi on Wei Zhao was clearly mid Earth Rank; if he had unleashed an eleventh-style martial technique, it should have been impossible to conceal his strength, and yet the situation before him was utterly bizarre!
Wei Zhao had indeed used mid Earth Rank strength to unleash the eleventh-style martial technique that only an early Heaven Rank expert could produce! This was simply inconceivable!
Even so, Piao Laoliu was merely astonished in his heart; he was not afraid. His own martial technique was a superior one, not the low-grade techniques of some ordinary hidden clan. He had now brought the tenth style of his Heaven-Splitting Earth-Rending Claw to full mastery, so in his eyes there was no reason to fear Wei Zhao's fifth style of the Mad Fire Eight Trigrams Palm—even though that fifth style carried the might of an eleventh-style ordinary superior martial technique.
The distance between them had never been great to begin with. In the small box, the gap between the two closed in the blink of an eye. Wei Zhao met Piao Laoliu's Heaven-Splitting Earth-Rending Claw with both palms—a situation that left Piao Laoliu somewhat puzzled. Martial techniques were generally one-handed; could Wei Zhao unleash his with both hands? This truly was more bizarre than ordinary!
In theory, mastering a martial technique with one hand was already no easy feat. Unless it was a technique designed for both hands to unleash in concert, one could not bring it forth with both hands at once; ordinary martial techniques were one-handed, and only those rare individuals who had studied a technique to utter familiarity could unleash it with both hands simultaneously!
Of course, even if both hands could unleash at once, it was merely the same technique in the same style—its might increased only slightly, not doubled! That was why Piao Laoliu was not particularly afraid; what he felt was only a thick, surging will to fight!
It had been a long time since he had met a true opponent. As an expert at the peak of the late Profound Rank stage, cultivated both internally and externally, it was no rarity for him to fight those at the early Heaven Rank stage above his own level, but seeing Wei Zhao, a flicker of excitement crossed his eyes.
Because he knew that Wei Zhao was a man like himself—one who could fight above his level!
And was it not the same for Wei Zhao? Wei Zhao had been stuck at the bottleneck of the mid Earth Rank stage for some time. Although he had only just broken through at the Hidden Clan Summit and it seemed not long ago, he had undergone no small amount of trials in the interim, and was now but a hair's breadth from the peak of the mid Earth Rank stage.
Leveling up in battle was Wei Zhao's tried-and-true ultimate trump card. So this time, though he found his opponent troublesome, he still made his move—only Wei Zhao had kept a card in reserve, having Old Man Pi come to support him.
Palm and claw collided violently. A dull impact boomed at the point where fist and claw met, and from that origin erupted true qi fluctuations like towering waves, surging wildly outward in all directions!
Yet Piao Huotai sat before the gambling table without the slightest change in expression, utterly unaffected by the spread of true qi from the two men's battle, as though none of it had anything to do with him!
In truth, none of this had anything to do with Piao Huotai at all. The demonic art he cultivated was a mutated gu poison of the Diamond Gu variety. Though it was not yet at great completion, fluctuations of true qi at this intensity truly could not affect him in the slightest!
"Boom!"
Wei Zhao's other palm struck Piao Laoliu's chest with a dull thud, yet Piao Laoliu seemed to take no harm at all. His figure merely swayed slightly as he weathered Wei Zhao's Mad Fire Eight Trigrams Palm head-on!
It was Wei Zhao himself who suffered: the true qi burst forth by Piao Huotai's unknown martial technique injured the meridians of his right arm and right chest. After staggering back several steps, Wei Zhao spat out a mouthful of fresh blood...
"A cultivator of both inner and outer arts!" Wei Zhao stared at Piao Laoliu in disbelief. He had never imagined that Piao Laoliu was a cultivator who trained both internally and externally, and by the look of it, his external hard-body skills were defense-oriented, akin to the body-protecting arts of the Golden Bell Sect!
"Clever!" Piao Laoliu had also been struck by Wei Zhao's fifth style of the Mad Fire Eight Trigrams Palm, but as a cultivator of both inner and outer arts, though the powerful clash of true qi had brought him some minor harm, his meridians and five viscera were undamaged—he had merely been shaken!
"Your external skills—are they of a high-defense nature?" Wei Zhao, having fallen to the ground, did not hurry to rise. Instead he swiftly circulated the Xuan Yuan Dragon-Taming Art to recover from his internal injuries; his question was merely a way to stall for time.
"Indeed!" Piao Laoliu nodded and said, "You are also the first low-ranked cultivator to survive under my hand."