Chapter 173: Battle! The Might of a Body Refining Martial Artist
Chapter 173: Chapter 173: Battle! The Might of a Body Refining Martial Artist
Zhu Ge’s heart stirred at his words.
’So Su Feibai really did come prepared!’
Ever since their clash began, Zhu Ge had found Su Feibai to be far too composed.
WHOOSH!
A streak of light, impossibly fast, shot from Su Feibai’s eyes.
The light was a vibrant, dripping green, like the tenderest leaf of spring or a piece of imperial green jade freshly mined from the depths of a mountain.
It was translucent and pure, possessing an unnatural beauty not of this world.
The streak of light shot straight toward Zhu Ge’s body.
Zhu Ge’s pupils constricted.
There was no way he could let this bizarre streak of light hit him.
The name "Jade Body Stabilization Technique" alone sounded ominous. Who knew what would happen if it struck?
There were countless Cultivation Techniques in the world, and some bizarre methods were designed specifically to counter Body Refining Martial Artists.
Since his opponent was using this move after seeing he was a Body Refining Martial Artist, he absolutely had to dodge it.
Without hesitation, he wrapped the Purgatory Star Rod in his Blood Qi.
The thick staff was instantly enveloped in a layer of crimson energy, like a cloak of fire.
He swept his rod horizontally, attempting to block the streak of light.
Thirty-Six Paths of the Giant Pendulum!
In that instant, the Blood Qi and the streak of light collided.
In the next moment, however, Zhu Ge’s expression changed.
The streak of emerald light seemed incorporeal, passing straight through the barrier of Blood Qi.
The Blood Qi failed to stop it in the slightest. Instead, like water being parted, it simply flowed around the streak of light.
The Purgatory Star Rod itself was equally useless. The light seemed to phase through empty space, striking Zhu Ge’s body directly.
"A hit," Su Feibai said, swinging his saber as the corner of his mouth curled into a slight smirk.
Zhu Ge felt a sudden jolt, and a bone-chilling cold spread from his chest to every corner of his body.
In a single moment, his skin began to turn a shade of emerald green at a visible rate.
It wasn’t a bruise or the effect of poison. Instead, his skin, muscles, and even his bones were undergoing a bizarre transformation, as if his entire body were turning into jade.
’Is this the Jade Body Stabilization Technique?’
Zhu Ge registered the thought.
Stiffness.
It began in his fingertips, then spread to his wrists, elbows, and shoulders.
It even reached his spine, his knees, his ankles.
The rigidity washed over him like a tide, and everywhere it passed, his body no longer felt like his own.
Zhu Ge could even feel his heartbeat slowing, his blood turning thick and sluggish.
But Zhu Ge did not panic.
Heart of Martial Arts Origin!
The Blood Qi within him surged, like a dormant volcano suddenly roaring to life.
This was a power that stemmed from the very source of life, a physique forged through countless days and nights of arduous training.
In that instant, his formidable body erupted with astonishing power. The emerald green layer, like a spider web on his face, was swept away with a single, effortless motion.
From the moment he was immobilized to the moment he broke free, only a single breath had passed.
But that single breath of paralysis was more than enough time for Su Feibai to act.
The tip of the Jade Great Saber was already before his eyes.
The saber was emerald green from hilt to tip, its body long and slender. A living light seemed to flow along its edge.
Su Feibai’s grip on the saber was steady as a rock. The tip was aimed precisely at Zhu Ge’s left eyeball, without the slightest deviation.
Before the blade even arrived, its aura pricked at Zhu Ge’s cornea.
This strike was meant to pierce straight through his skull.
CRACK!
The tip of the Jade Great Saber struck Zhu Ge’s eyeball, but it didn’t pierce through as Su Feibai had anticipated.
Instead, there was a sharp crack.
The Jade Great Saber, imbued with Su Feibai’s True Meaning of Martial Arts, began to splinter from its tip.
The cracks spread like a spider’s web across the entire blade, which then shattered from the hilt into countless tiny fragments, clattering to the ground.
The sound of the fragments hitting the ground was crisp and melodious, like a fine jade statue being smashed to pieces.
Su Feibai’s pupils constricted violently.
His eyes went wide with disbelief as he stared at the scene before him.
’What kind of physique is this?’
Zhu Ge’s eyeball was completely unharmed. In fact, energized by his circulating Blood Qi, it now glowed with a faint red light, looking for all the world like a flawless gemstone.
Zhu Ge gave Su Feibai no time to stand there in a daze.
Wild Boar’s Charge!
Zhu Ge raised his rod and lunged forward.
Though its name was crude, it was one of the most explosive techniques born from Zhu Ge’s Heart of Martial Arts Origin.
Just as the name suggested, he became like an enraged wild boar, crashing forward in the simplest, most direct, and most savage manner possible.
There were no frills, no feints—only the pure, overwhelming crush of power.
As he struck, the air boomed.
BOOM!!!
The rod landed squarely on the bridge of Su Feibai’s nose.
Su Feibai could not react in time.
Or perhaps, his expression had already changed the moment he realized his Jade Body Stabilization Technique had failed to hold Zhu Ge and his Jade Great Saber had failed to pierce his eye.
As a Magic Martial Artist who also practiced the Martial Dao, his close-quarters reaction speed and combat experience were no match for a pure martial arts fanatic like Zhu Ge.
The blow was too fast and too fierce; he didn’t even have time to back away.
The crunch of his nasal bone breaking was sickeningly clear.
Su Feibai was sent flying backward, his feet carving two deep furrows in the ground.
Blood gushed from his nose like an open faucet, splattering a trail of crimson dots across the bluestone ground.
An expression of disbelief was still frozen on his face, his eyes wide and his mouth slightly agape, as if he wanted to say something.
"How is your body so strong? I..."
He staggered to his feet and turned his head to speak, but a massive silver shadow of a rod caught his eye, closing in fast.
In Zhu Ge’s hands, the Purgatory Star Rod seemed to come alive.
Its movements were fluid and unpredictable, at times an upward thrust, then a coiling strike, then a wide, sweeping arc.
The rod swept toward him with a whistling shriek, its shadow blotting out the sky, threatening to smash Su Feibai into a bloody pulp.
And just at this moment, an excited voice came from the sky.
"Hahaha, I’ll strike you down while you’re weak!"
Guan Julan moved.
All this time, she had been hovering in mid-air with her arms crossed, watching the battle below like a spectator enjoying the drama.
As prodigies of the Human Race, each had their own pride. They wouldn’t easily team up with others—that was not the act of a person of honor.
She had originally resolved to simply watch Zhu Ge and Su Feibai duel. No matter who won or lost, it was no loss to her.
But when she saw Su Feibai getting thrashed, she couldn’t just stand by.
’Besides, it’s not like I’m a person of honor!’
Thus, Guan Julan raised her hands, and a sky full of rain-like needles materialized from thin air.
Each needle weighed over a thousand pounds, as if it bore not rainwater, but the weight of entire rivers and seas.
"Harness the rivers and seas, command the myriad streams!"
Tens of thousands of needles poured down like a torrential storm, cutting off all of Su Feibai’s paths of retreat.
The attack enveloped Zhu Ge as well.
However, fewer needles flew toward Zhu Ge.
Seeing this, Zhu Ge didn’t press his advantage. Instead, he withdrew his Purgatory Star Rod and took a few steps back.
He stood a short distance away, his chest rising and falling gently, a thin sheen of sweat beading on his forehead.