Chapter 3750 — The Long Wait
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
Wei Zhao was still quietly disappointed, but Yu Jiang by now had been driven to such fury by the torment of pain that his face was twisted with it. What in the world was this wretched sorcery of a martial art? Its destructive force was not the most heaven-defying part—no, it was that lingering burning residue. Even channeling true qi could do no more than suppress it; for the moment, at least, it could not be rooted out.
"Fine! You went to all that trouble just to enrage me, didn't you? Well, let me tell you now—you've succeeded!"
Yu Jiang fixed his gaze coldly on Wei Zhao, who had withdrawn the instant his fist fell and was already in retreat, and spoke through gritted teeth: "But unfortunately for you, that's hardly good news. Because I've decided I'm done worrying about whatever top-grade Foundation Establishment Breakthrough Pill you're carrying. What I'm going to do next is cut you into ten thousand pieces!"
With that, Yu Jiang forced down the searing agony radiating through his chest and took one step forward. In an instant the heavens and earth around them, the mountains and the forests, all changed color; every thing, animate and inanimate alike, gave forth a rustling hiss as though a storm were about to break. The commotion was far more violent than when he had gathered the Life-Reaping Chain Sword, Twenty-Third Stance.
So the creature means to bring out his bottom-of-the-box killing move, does he? Wei Zhao's heart tightened. He circulated the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art to swiftly replenish the true qi he had spent on the Roaring Fire Fist, Twenty-Third Stance, then held his breath, gathered his spirit, and stood at full alert, waiting quietly for what would come next.
Had they been of equal grade, Wei Zhao might well have chosen to strike first and seize the upper hand—waiting to be slaughtered had never been his style. But as things stood, he was the acknowledged "weakling" here, and to make the most of that advantage, he had to endure for now.
Only after finding a one-hundred-percent opening could a bottom-of-the-box killing move truly deliver its decisive, final blow. To spend it needlessly in a contest of attrition against the opponent's powerful martial arts would be to expose one's own hidden cards ahead of time—and to no end whatsoever.
Seeing Wei Zhao braced like a man facing a great enemy, every nerve drawn taut in vigilance, Yu Jiang gathered an aura of unprecedented power and sneered in contempt: "A weakling is a weakling. So you schemed and scraped together a bit of the initiative—what of it? Before an absolute gap in strength, no amount of plots and tricks amounts to anything but a joke. Today, before you die, I'll show you what it means to be someone you cannot afford to provoke!"
Were it not for that ceaseless burning agony in his body, he might still have played a game of wits with Wei Zhao. But now, plainly, he had lost the patience for it.
In the end, it was strength that truly decided the course of a battle. Once one had strength sufficiently great, one need only crush the opponent to death outright—no need to waste any elaborate scheming at all!
The words had scarcely fallen when Yu Jiang's figure shot toward Wei Zhao once more like a cannonball, far faster than the speed he had displayed a moment before. In the blink of an eye he was already upon him.
Wei Zhao's heart lurched. The creature had indeed been hiding his strength. If that earlier strike had not been the Roaring Fire Fist, Twenty-Third Stance, but instead he had rashly spent the Roaring Fire Eight-Trigram Palm, Twenty-Second Stance—his single strongest killing move—then once his true qi was exhausted and the creature saw he had nothing left, the consequences would have been unthinkable.