Page 70: Mistakes

Ling Tian did the same tactics with the other opponents, blind them and render them unconscious by hitting their head or the back of their neck. There were some who tried to recklessly attack when they were surrounded by the cloud of dust but Ling Tian's movement was faster. Ling Tian's reason for fighting in such a way was for him to hide the movement skill he just learned. It won't be good when he would keep showing new skills in front of the elders. So far, he never had any defeat record. This applied to other three candidates, Li Xianliang, Mo Lan and Ah Mu.

These were the next matches seen from the notice board:

Platform 1(Ling Tian) vs (Li Xianliang)

Platform 2 (Mo Lan) vs (Ah Mu)

Platform 3 (Feng Bolin) vs (Hu Luli)

Unfortunately, Feng Bolin and Hu Luli had one defeat record which made them unqualified already to fight for the fifth place. In platform 3, the only thing they are fighting against is to see who is to be on the sixth place. Both platform 1 and 2 were already given the cue to start the match however it seemed that Ling Tian and Li Xianliang decided to pause and watch the fight on platform 2. These two knew that whoever will win in their match will fight whoever will win on the other side.

Ah Mu was facing Mo Lan, a silent young lady who uses cold type attacks with a bluish sword. Since she came from the merchant union and received resources from them, she was able to cultivate a unique type of skill that converts the essence in her body to an ice attribute. Being a merchant, they must have collected rare skills just for their youngsters to learn.

This is Ah Mu's first time fighting a female opponent in the whole duration of the competition. He felt a bit distressed on how to fight her since his manner of fighting was a bit inappropriate to use against a female. With his usual stabbing of the opponent's plexus to make them have a difficulty in breathing then ramming them with his big build so they would be thrown out of the stage. While thinking of a way, Mo Lan already started her attacks. A cold breeze was brewing on platform 2 and little by little, the place where Mo Lan was standing started to have thin sheet of ice. In all her fight, this was the first time that she used such skill. Ah Mu on the other hand has no idea what was going on. Since he can't think of any other way of fighting his opponent, he did just the same like before.

With the speed, he dashed towards Mo Lan and aimed at her plexus. Pointing the sword forward, his dash was like a bull with its horns aimed at the opponent.

Long Bai who was watching this faced palmed at Ah Mu's decision. This just mean that Mo Lan studied how Ah Mu fights and prepared a way on how to defeat him. Long Bai gave Mo Lan a thumbs up in his mind for thinking logically.

Back on platform 2, with a blink of an eye, Ah Mu was already in front of Mo Lan but before the sword reaches her chest, she has already swiveled towards the side causing Ah Mu to miss. Mo Lan was not really faster but instead, she already twisted her body just at the same time Ah Mu dashed causing the timing to be perfect for her to dodge the attack. She has already anticipated the attack so a counter was in play.

Because Ah Mu missed, he tried to take back his balance but his foot landed directly on the icy platform which Mo Lan created a moment ago. Due to Ah Mu's great momentum and the reduced friction between his foot and the ground, he contineously slid towards the edge of the platform. A second later, just when he thought he was able to save himself from falling, Mo Lan released a windy attack that finally pushed Ah Mu outside the platform.

Cheers for Mo Lan has echoed all throughout the area. The manner on how she won was witty that gained everyone's praise. This proves that sometimes, strength can become a weakness if used in the wrong way. Now, Mo Lan would definitely be fighting with the third place. Back on the first platform, Ling Tian and Li Xianliang had silently agreed to begin their match.

"Ling Tian, I'll definitely defeat you. Look at this weapon on my hand. This weapon has been kept in my family's vault for a long time now, Today, my victory is sealed!"

On Li Xianliang's hand was a grade 4 red blood sword, the Li household's heirloom. By its looks, it is a sword that holds a special attributes. It even made the holder even more fierce. The aura Li Xianliang was giving off was filled with a murderous feeling.

People who were on Xianliang's side were cheering but the rest were jeering at him telling that what he have is just cheating. However, according to the rules, there is no such thing as cheating if ots about equipment. Anyone can wear and hold any weapon they want as long as its within their power.

Ling Tian felt uncomfortable with the aura directed at him. It was as if a murderer was trying to kill him. If this was the case, Ling Tian have no choice but to be careful and use his hidden cards to prevent him from taking much damage from the opponent.

"Ling Tian, take this attack from me!"

!

Li Xianliang only used 2 seconds of injecting his inner essence into the blood sword and released a crescent shaped slash toward Ling Tian. The blood red beam of essence was making the many of the crowd shiver in fear due to the murderous intent accompanied into the slash. Ling Tian shot out a attack against it but the blood red beam was too powerful to be neutralized by his attack. Before the beam reached him, he activated the and made 2 steps to his right side and watched the beam scrape the ground where he was originally standing. Dust and tiny pebbles scattered in the area.

"Li Xianliang, what was that? You call that an attack? I wasn't even scratched by that. How can you defeat me in that case?"

Ling Tian was purposely taunting Li Xianliang. He noticed that after the attack, Li Xianliang lost a lot of his essence. The attack actually consumes too much essence and such way of fighting means that he was still inexperienced in using it. A flesh tempering at the 9th level has not much essence to support the sword's appetite. Ling Tian saw this flaw and felt at ease that the opponent was not really that scary. All he need to do now is to force a close combat to prevent another of that slash or continue to taunt him until he's out of essence.

"Ling Tian, that was just the beginning. Ha!"

Instead of giving one of that attack, Xianliang chose to have a close combat. With the first attack, he was supposed to use it to scare Ling Tian but it seemed to have failed. With no other choice, he dashed towards Ling Tian while covering his body with the sword's aura. His last resort was now to enhance his body with the sword's effects. He knew that this won't last long because he only have a limited supply of essence so he plans to finish the fight immediately.

Ling Tian noticed the change of aggressiveness on his opponent. With his instincts, he felt that Xianliang have his fighting power increase two folds which means that his capabilities is on the middle of levels of the visceral tempering. Compared to him, he's just on the 2nd level of visceral tempering so a fight of strength is not an option. His last resort is to dodge all the attacks until his opponent will be exhausted.

With the parrying skills of the heavy strikes were diverted mostly to the ground. Because of that, the platform was covered with scratches. While Ling Tian is parrying, he makes sure that his movement is just slightly faster than his opponent. Both were consuming their essence but Li Xianliang was three to four times faster. After parrying and dodging for almost two minutes, Li Xianliang stopped his attacks.

"Sh*t. Stop dodging! That's a cowardly way of fighting. Fight me directly!"

Li Xianliang was already exhausted but has still the energy to yell and demand what is right. Ling Tian scoffed at him in his mind but replied with something else.

"What's wrong with me fighting like this? You have your sword while I have my skills. But if that's what you want, I'll give you what you want."

Ling Tian finally decided to retaliate and dashed normally without fully intending to go all the way towards Li Xianliang. He purposely did such thing since he sensed that Xianliang was planning something. And he was right.

Li Xianliang squeezed all of his essence and put everything on his last crescent slash aimed at Ling Tian who was approaching. Just after he released the slash, it exploded on the location where he last saw Ling Tian.

Not aware of the man behind him, he kept laughing announcing his victory but then he felt a hard smack from behind his head. It was too quick for him to react and slowly lost his consciousness.

Smack!

Li Xianliang's last thoughts were full of questions.

'What happened? Didn't I win.....'

Thud!

After a loud sound from being smacked from the head, a loud thud was heard. Everyone was anxious to see the person who fell to the ground. The remaining dust cloud dissipated from the explosion and revealed Li Xianliang body laying on the ground.

Another shout was heard from the back.

"Yeaahh! Make me riiccchhh!!!"

Everyone felt a de ja vu.