Cao Yun could clearly see the shaft of the spear falling straight down toward his skull. With almost no time to dodge, he had to block or deviate the trajectory. But the entire weight of the armor with a lot of momentum was behind this attack. Keeping in mind the current state of his spear, he was even afraid that it would break in half under the attack. But as soon as this thought crossed his mind, he felt a burning sensation in his palm. Within the 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear', the scale of the Ebony Snake Dragon was screaming in frustration.
It was ready to risk it. No matter what, it didn't want to make the 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars' look bad. Maybe because of the dragon bloodline, but Cao Yun was convinced that there was a remnant of the dragon's pride within his weapon and it didn't want to disgrace the name of the Azure Dragon. As a spear, it wanted to be able to showcase the full might of this martial art, even if it were to cause its own destruction.
Once again, to win a bit more time, Cao Yun crouched down. Putting one knee on the ground, he raised his spear horizontally above his head. 'Mountain Under Thunder'. Yet another lesser move of his martial art. To lessen the blow of the falling attack, the main point was to synchronize the defense with it. He couldn't just keep his spear immobile waiting for the attack to fall down. Instead, he pushed his spear so that the shaft would meet the falling spear as soon as possible. The longer he would wait, the more powerful the blow was. Any advantage was good to take at this point.
Finally, his spear struck the armor's spear. Cao Yun's position was extremely stable while the armor was literally falling from its own jump. Thus, the armor was a bit unbalanced. On the other hand, Cao Yun had just enough time to activate 'Dragon's Heart'. Under the shock of the impact, his right knee got pressed against the metallic ground and left a deep impression. Even with his current physique, he felt the pain in his bones. Thankfully, 'Dragon's Heart' allowed his muscles to be powerful enough to bear the full attack directed against him. His position was perfectly still.
Immediately after, Cao Yun tried to use the armor's unbalance to his advantage and pressed on with an attack. Thanks to his posture, he redirected the force sent through his body by using his muscles as springs. The spear of the armor which had lost its momentum got bounced back from his spear as Cao Yun inclined it. When bouncing, the armor's spear was sent to the side with an angle, making it more difficult to move it back in position.
As the armor was not even fully on the ground, Cao Yun moved forward. With a knee still on the ground, he quickly advanced and swept with the full length of his spear toward his opponent. This time, he had finally used a main technique of his martial art. 'Dragon's Tail Sweeps the Sky'. It was a variant of the move as he was kneeling down. But it was just as effective.
Instinctively, Cao Yun still poured Qi in his attack as he had used it that way many times. Moreover, with the 'Dragon's Heart' activated, it felt natural to discharge the high-velocity Qi in his body. His attack collided with the armor at full speed. But all the Qi he had put into the technique got completely sucked into the air before it could even leave his spear. It did not affect the quality of his technique but he had just wasted energy for nothing.
In Cao Yun's mind, everything was going rather slowly. But in reality, the tip of his spear had broken the speed of sound. Before it could hit the armor though, it was able to twist its body and get its spear right in the trajectory of Cao Yun's. Both shafts collided with each other sending vibrations through the two of them. While the armor did not shake in the least, Cao Yun tensed his muscles and circulated 'The Son of Heaven's Spear and Shield' to redirect the entire force of the impact. He felt the shock circulate through his bones and flesh as it was sent toward his legs.
With all this, he kicked up and went backward, taking a lot of distance with the armor. Contrary to a human fighter, the armor showed no emotion at all. Because Cao Yun didn't even understand how it was animated since he couldn't feel any Qi in it, he had no way of knowing if it even got tired or not. Maybe it could fight for years without interruption. Even months would be a problem for Cao Yun. Despite his current cultivation, he still needed to take some breaks to sleep, drink and eat from time to time. Besides he was also using a lot of Qi and there was no energy around him to replenish his reserves.
Hell, he wasn't even sure whether he could use a spirit stone or if he would be forced to gulp down a pill. Thankfully, he had taken a few pills in his spatial ring. After what had happened to him in the Death Yellow World, he had learned his lesson. Besides food and water, he had also taken many pills to quench both his thirst, his hunger and even his sleep. Of course, taking too many pills was not a good thing and pushing his limits in such a way was unhealthy. But if he had to keep fighting for a long time...
For now, he still decided to try and save as much Qi as possible. Besides, he wanted to train his martial art and his Spear Aura right now, not his Qi Manifestation or his cultivation. And just this short fight had ignited his desire to see more. Contrary to his opponent's appearance, the armor was extremely agile and fast. Moreover, he had never seen the kind of martial art it was using right now. Although Cao Yun was not as addicted to fighting as Long Huafang, he loved a good fight because he loved martial arts and discovering more about them.
Well, he had what he wanted. At least, the Palace of Supreme Wisdom was true to both its name and its reputation. It had found exactly what he wanted and needed.
Barely had he taken a breath, the armor was already up and going straight for Cao Yun. For several minutes, the fight became more and more intense. Each one of their strikes was breaking the sound barrier. When their spears collided, this created shockwaves powerful enough to bend and almost break some of the spears around them.
They kept on attacking, blocking, evading. And Cao Yun's blood was boiling more and more. He was really enjoying himself and had almost forgotten about where he was. Because his goal was to improve his martial art, he was pouring everything in this fight. In the back of his head, he could feel the recently energized Chamber of Splendor. As he was lost in his fight, it was hard to tell, but Cao Yun had the sensation that he was getting more inspirations than usual. Maybe it was due to the techniques of the armor, or to the Chamber of Splendor. Maybe it was the both of them combined.
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With normal eyes, it was almost impossible to see their spears. Moreover, they were also moving extremely fast all over the place. Spear against spear. One would stab, the other would deflect and counter only for the first one to dodge and send a faint to manipulate his opponent. Right now, Cao Yun could tell for sure that this armor was a bit stronger and faster than he was. He could compensate with 'Dragon's Heart', however that needed to be activated for the entire fight.
As he was losing a lot of energy because of that, Cao Yun slowly learned to activate it faster and faster and only when he needed to. The difference was not yet prodigious, but he had realized that he had not yet fully mastered this technique. In fact, Cao Yun was realizing that although he had understood the gist and the fundamentals of his techniques, he was nowhere close to what the armor was doing.
Even in very simple moves like a straightforward stab, it had more comprehension of the way of the spear than Cao Yun did. Each move had been refined almost to the point where there were no more imperfections. Of course, there had to be some as nothing was perfect, but Cao Yun was just not good enough to see through its flaws. If he had been fighting a human being bent on killing him, Cao Yun would have been dead in less than ten moves. And if his opponent had a higher cultivation than him, or even equal, he would have barely survived one move.
In spite of that, or maybe because of that, Cao Yun was thoroughly enjoying himself. It was as though he was being taught. However, he had no idea whether the armor would stop if he were to be hit. Apparently, the Palace of Supreme Wisdom would teleport him elsewhere if he were about to die. But if he had his arms and legs broken or even cut off, would it? Those ideas had gone through his head but he had preferred to push them aside for now. He had to be fully focused on this fight. All of his mind cultivation was on this fight.
After several hundreds of moves exchanged, Cao Yun heard a crack. Afraid, he tightened his grip on his spear. His 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear' had been badly damaged and he was afraid of seeing it being destroyed. In his spatial ring, he had taken another spear just in case, but he was attached to this one. Besides, his other spear was not as good because it didn't have any connection with the dragon bloodline. This black spear was perfect for his current level and considering his martial art.
Thankfully though, it wasn't his spear that had creaked. The armor's spear had lost a small piece of its shaft. When Cao Yun's spear collided with it again, the rusted spear literally blew up in all directions. Small shards were sent toward both the armor and Cao Yun. Of course, the armor did not mind, but Cao Yun was forced to circulate 'Dragon's Chest' to protect himself. Putting a sleeve in front of his face, no shard penetrated his skin. Still, some flew into his robe. Although they were not able to pierce through this robe, they still marked Cao Yun's skin underneath.
But now, his opponent had lost its weapon. Without any hesitation, Cao Yun decided to press forward. 'The Son of Heaven's Cavalry'! This was his most powerful technique yet as all of his strength was focused on a single point. And this point happened to be the armor's waist. Because he had no idea how that thing was moving, he had decided not to target the neck. Even without a head, there was no reason for it to not keep moving. For the same reason, hitting the chest was probably not a good idea. On the other hand, if he could take its legs out, it just couldn't fight anymore.
And if it could reform itself, then no area was a good choice anyway. Hopefully he would had least buy some time.
Unfortunately, it didn't happen as he had envisioned. He knew that the armor was strong but he had still not realized how durable it was. With a perfect 'The Son of Heaven's Cavalry', Cao Yun's spear hit the armor right in its right hip articulation. Although he had not used any Qi Manifestation, for obvious reasons, this attack could have cleaved the leg right off of an early Mortal Warrior. And yet, there was only a small dent with a bit of smoke coming out of the armor's hip.
The only thing Cao Yun truly achieved was to push the armor further back. Under the shock, Cao Yun took some distance. Even with his most powerful technique, except the use of Qi Manifestation, the armor had taken almost no damage at all. If he were to chip away at it like that, he would have spent all his Qi and its limbs would still be attached to its body. Even the loss of its weapon was nothing. There were hundreds of other weapons all around, some even better than that rusted spear that had just exploded.
But if it was a test by the Palace of Supreme Wisdom, there had to be a way to pass it. And brute force was not the way. Somehow, it had to be related to martial arts and the way of the spear. Maybe he had to defeat not the armor but the vortex overhead. Maybe the goal was to strengthen his Qi Manifestation by forcing him to resist the pull from the vortex, but that seemed almost impossible. The suction force was just beyond his imagination. Besides, it was targeting the Qi he could use in the fight but not his Wei Qi. No, that was so specific that it was clearly here to prevent Qi Manifestation. Thus, he had to pass this test without it, that had to be the point of it.
Maybe he had to beat the armor in a certain manner. Maybe he had to destroy all the spears he could use, one by one. Looking around he realized that that would take at least several months, if not years. After all, he couldn't see the entire place. But what he could see was filled with hundreds of spears. Besides, some might even appear in their stead. Or worse, the ones he would destroy could reform, just as the armor had formed itself from scraps.
Anyway, for now, Cao Yun decided to still go forward and attack the armor again. There was still the possibility that it had a weakness and the test was to find it.
At the last moment though, Cao Yun stayed his hand. The armor had completely stopped fighting. Now, it was kneeling on the other extremity of the ring as though it was recovering. But it wasn't at all. It didn't need to.
The only explanation that made sense was that the armor was not taking some time to recover, but to let Cao Yun recover. This had to be part of the test. Maybe the test was simply to best the armor's martial art in some way. Cao Yun had not bested his technique, he had only succeeded in breaking its rusted spear. Ending a fight like that would be too disappointing. Even Cao Yun had to admit that this wasn't an end he would be happy with.
With the fight, he had become more used to the armor's fighting style, but he was still a lot of steps behind. Still a bit suspicious, Cao Yun decided to copy his opponent. He knelt down on the metallic ground and began meditating.