Chapter 5182 — Who Is the Stronger?
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 3
"Only our martial grand-uncle could do that. Anyone else would never dodge that lunge," Xin Yi'an remarked — and this was no flattery of Wei Zhao, but plain truth. The spined serpent's strike was so fast that even with his own movement arts he could not have slipped aside so calmly. In the whole gathering, there truly was no second man besides Wei Zhao.
"However fast your footwork, sir, can you dodge the Divine Dragon's Tail Sweep?" Ling Tianyou was utterly confident.
The spined serpent was needles from head to tail. Faced with such an assault, no normal person's first instinct would be to meet it head-on — not only for fear of pain, but far more for fear of poison. So Wei Zhao's response was entirely within his expectations. The spined serpent, fully unfurled, stretched more than three zhang, and in doing so had already soundlessly encircled Wei Zhao. However he dodged, there was no escaping this long-gathering, late-striking move.
"The Divine Dragon's Tail Sweep?" Wei Zhao smiled at the words and casually released a wisp of Five Elements killing qi. "Then why not see whose dragon is the stronger?"
A dragon's cry rang out, and the Five Elements killing qi met the spined serpent as it swept across. Then came a thunderous blast, and the spined serpent burst apart on impact, its flying needles scattering across the ground.
"How can this be?" Ling Tianyou could not help but blanch. He had utter faith in his move; even a cultivator of the early Golden Core stage would have found the Divine Dragon's Tail Sweep hard to handle. Yet Wei Zhao had broken it head-on with ease, and by the most domineering, force-against-force method at that — and what was more, with nothing but a single wisp of true qi. How could there be such terrifying true qi under heaven? Was this man really only at the great consummation of Foundation Establishment?
Only Wei Zhao himself was unsurprised. However great the lineage of the Thousand Blades in Flight, could it be greater than the lineage of the Five Elements killing qi?
"There is always a heaven beyond heaven and a man beyond men. Nothing strange about it, is there?" Wei Zhao smiled faintly, then added, "If the Thousand Blades in Flight has only this much strength, it is rather a disappointment."
In his view, the spined serpent Ling Tianyou had conjured was certainly no mean feat, and at first glance it seemed to accord with the Thousand Blades Sect's principle of weapons complementing one another. But that principle held only for ordinary disciples; for a genius of Ling Tianyou's surpassing gifts, it was far too mediocre. If the legendary Thousand Blades in Flight was truly meant to be used this way, it was a waste.
"Is that so? My skills are crude, then — I must have made a fool of myself before you." Ling Tianyou's expression was calm as ever now, without a trace of displeasure.
Yet his hands never paused. Once scattered, the flying needles did not gather again upon the ribbon; instead they simply held their own formations, so that at a glance they resembled a dense swarm of bees. Their attacks seemed chaotic beyond measure, yet they answered one another, as though secretly conforming to some profound art of war.
"Oh? Troop deployment and battlefield formation — now this is somewhat interesting." With keen interest, Wei Zhao directed the Five Elements killing qi to circle and contend with the swarm of needles, and the more he fought, the more startled he grew. Ling Tianyou's gifts were indeed exceedingly high. In raw power, the needle swarm was far inferior to the spined serpent of a moment before, but now that it had broken into parts, it had become all the more troublesome — striking here, striking there, capturing the very essence of sparrow warfare.