Chapter 196 - Stunning Performance

"Go, take down the enemy." Chong Hai ordered from the three sand soldiers summoned by him.

The three sand soldiers nodded their heads and moved towards Hei. Since they had been created directly by Chong Hai's spirit power, they could move independently, receiving mental orders from their master.

"Spear Intent."

Hei condensed his spirit power even more on his weapon. After that, he sprinted forward to welcome the three approaching soldiers. Fortunately, Chong Hai was still injured from the attack before, thus merely controlling the sand soldiers from a safe distance.

Peng! Peng! Peng!

Even with the spear in his hands, Hei's movements were still as fluid as before. No, rather, because he was holding a spear, his body seemed even more flexible and sinuous than before. Just seeing his back, his neck, his shoulders, and every other part of his body bending into strange angles was a marvel to the eyes.

The purple spear followed the movement of the hands and arms effortlessly, increasing Hei's attack range. The weapon slid from hand to hand as it was rotated at high speeds. The shaft held up well to the blows of the sand soldiers while the sharp tip hit the weak points in the sand armor of the sand soldiers.

The latter could be called inanimate constructs; consequently, they didn't feel pain. Even if a part of their body or the whole body were to be destroyed, Chong Hai would only need to regenerate them by evoking more sand. However, the parts affected by Hei's spear weren't closing at all. On the contrary, the wounds were gradually widening. Not even by using further sand, Chong Hai managed to close the wounds. The reason for this was due to the specialty of the Poison Law. The Poison Law consisted not only in poisoning but also in dissolving, having strong acidic abilities.

Normally Chong Hai wouldn't have to worry so much since his understanding of the Earth Law was high despite being a mere Spirit Soldier. By adding his Desert Worm Bloodline, he would have to be able to tackle the problem more easily. The problem was that his opponent was Hei, a martial artist with an exceptional understanding of the Poison Law and with a Poison-type Bloodline. Therefore, it was only a matter of time before the sand soldiers were no longer able to move.

'Shit. Wounds don't heal. The solution would be to create more sand soldiers again; the problem is that creation itself consumes far more spirit power than repairing them by evoking more sand. And even if I create new ones, they would still end up in the same situation.' Chong Hai thought as he summoned more sand.

"Sand Wave."

A wave of sand was pushed in the direction of Hei; at the same time, the three sand soldiers surrounded Hei's sides and back, so as to close him in a vice. Despite being ravaged by holes in their bodies, the sand soldiers still managed to move.

"Sand Trap!"

At Chong Hai's cry, the sand soldiers exploded, releasing the sand that made up their bodies. The sand of the three soldiers plus that of the sand wave poured towards Hei creating an imprisoning sphere in which locking him up.

Watching this, Hei didn't panic. Instead, he moved his eyes until he found a spot where the sand was less thick as his poison was still circulating. Without thinking twice, he jumped in that direction.

"I screwed you, Desert Grip!" shouted Chong Hai, expecting such a move.

A lump of sand broke away from the forming sphere and landed on Hei's left leg, clinging it firmly. The additional weight of the sand caused Hei to drop to the ground, just ahead of the collapsing sand ball due to the release of the technique.

"Destroy!"

Crack!

The lump of sand closed its grip on Hei's leg. A sharp noise was heard as if something had been broken. There was no doubt that such an attack had destroyed not only the defensive layer of spirit power but also the bone of the leg itself.

'And with this, your mobility is gone. Now you can no longer dodge my attacks. I only need to hit you with one or two Desert Grips, and then the victory will be mine.'

Chong Hai now thought that he was close to victory and smiled in triumph. There was no way Hei had emerged unscathed from his attack; he knew very well the power of his attack. Although he was slightly inferior to Hei in cultivation - he was a beginner fifth-stage while Hei was an early fifth-stage- he knew that not even seventh-stage spirit soldiers could resist that blow with only their defensive layer of spirit power.

However, Chong Hai's smile soon disappeared because Hei's scream or grimace of pain he was expecting didn't come. Instead, Hei moved his left leg, kicking away the lump of sand that had stuck to his leg.

"What?" Chong Hai exclaimed in amazement. He could feel that there was still a remnant of something solid in the sand. Furthermore, he had perceived that his sand had made contact; there was no way he was wrong. Unfortunately for him, Hei had the Spider Carapace defensive technique that prevented his leg from being broken. The thing inside his sand was, in fact, the remnants of the carapace made of spirit power.

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"How the hell did he-" Chong Hai wondered but had to stop mid-sentence. Hei had sprinted at full speed towards him, taking him by surprise.

"Sand Wave." Chong Hai used the only technique that came to mind at the time. His sand was generated from his hands, using the remnants of spirit power he had kept aside for his plan.

"Spear Intent, Poison Law, Poisonous Crescent Blade!"

A blade of purple light was generated by Hei's spear. This crescent blade crashed into the wave of sand.

Sizzle!

The wave of sand seemed to stop the advance of the crescent blade; however, the sizzle of something melting followed soon after. The crescent blade had created a hole inside the wave of sand, dividing it in half. As the crescent blade advanced towards Chong Hai, Hei launched himself into the space created by his technique within the wave of sand. After that, he got up from the ground with a somersault and took off.

Peng!

Chong Hai was hit by the crescent blade. Hei's move had lost most of its power when it clashed with Chong Hai's technique; however, it was still able to drop the young sand user to the ground.

Chong Hai felt another pang of pain as he fell to the ground. But that wasn't enough to knock him out. He raised his head sharply to look around but didn't find Hei. Thinking about the situation just before, he looked up and saw Hei swooping against him.

Even though the situation was the same as before, the circumstances were different. Chong Hai was injured and almost completely exhausted his spirit power. He had enough left to keep his defensive layer active. He had no way of hitting himself as before, not to mention that this time, the time available to react was much less. The only thing he could think of was horizontally interposing his sword to block the spearhead that was plummeting over his head.

Crack!

A sharp noise was heard. Hei's spear didn't hit but stopped when he touched the blade of Chong Hai's sword. It was Hei's foot that went to sink on the stomach of the young sand user, breaking the defensive layer of spirit power and making him unconscious.

Clang!

Chong Hai's sword slid into his hands. Becoming unconscious, the young man no longer had the strength to hold the sword. Hei moved the head of the spear to hit the downhill sword and prevent the weapon from scarring the unconscious master. The sword, therefore, fell to the ground with a metallic noise, declaring the end of the fight.

"The winner is Hei." Song Yazhu declared while he had expected such a result. As their teacher, he knew roughly how strong his students were. Although Chong Hai was definitely a genius, Hei was a genius among geniuses. Not only that, but Hei was also a person who trained assiduously without sparing himself. Unless it were another super genius like Hu Jie, Feng Chen, or Long Tian, Hei would hardly have lost.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

The audience applauded Hei's victory while the supporting martial artists took to the stage to pick up the unconscious Chong Hai. Although he had lost, Chong Hai had undoubtedly performed well. The elder of the Chong Family was satisfied with how Chong Hai had fought. He could only resent their bad luck for giving Chong Hai such a strong opponent in the first round.

"Hey, am I wrong, or-?" Luoyang asked Feng Qing while using his spirit power to communicate with their minds.

"Yes, there is no doubt. It is an unknown bloodline. And in addition to that, it is a Royal Bloodline." Feng Qing replied while looking intently at the young man who had just won the fight and was leaving.

It happened that the spirit power of each martial artist was different from each other. It was as if it were a kind of personal imprint that distinguished one person from another. After spending a lot of time with a person, this imprint became familiar, thus allowing martial artists to recognize the spirit power of their companions even from a distance.

Among martial artists, bloodline users were particular. When activating one's bloodline, the imprint of a person's spirit power would be influenced by the bloodline itself. For this reason, if you came across a user of a known bloodline, it was possible to recognize what type of bloodline it was. Besides, Spirit Emperors with a high purity bloodline could sense the degree of purity of another bloodline.

Hu Luoyang and Feng Qing were the heads of the Hu Family and the Feng Family, belonging to the Eight Big Families. During the long years of their life, thanks also to their prestigious positions, they had known all the families possessing bloodlines. None of these corresponded to the bloodline used by Hei. Not only that, when Hei activated his bloodline, but they could also feel their bloodlines stirring in their bodies with excitement. It was something they had only felt in front of other Royal Bloodlines.

Principal Long Jing was also watching Hei closely. As a member of the Imperial Family, he also possessed a Royal Bloodline. He had felt everything Hu Luoyang and Feng Qing had perceived.

'Long Tian, apparently you found an interesting subject. A Royal Bloodline and a person with no background. The competition will be strong, but if you can do it, then you may have a chance.' the headmaster thought as he looked away to watch his grandson Long Tian. He knew what Long Tian had in mind and supported him wholeheartedly, yet Long Jing also knew how difficult it was to accomplish what Long Tian wanted to do.

'Congratulations big brother.' (Xing)

'You showed it to that guy.' (Ye)

"Congratulations on your win. Hei,"

"Hahaha, that Chong Hai certainly couldn't believe he would be thrown out in the first round."

"Hei. Are you okay? You're not hurt, right? "

His little sisters and companions congratulated him on his victory. They had joyful expressions on their faces as if they had won themselves. Hei smiled back and let himself be carried away by their enthusiasm.

"Congratulations on the victory, Hei. I did not doubt that you would win." Long Tian expressed his congratulations along with Feng Chen and Hu Jie, who nodded respectfully. They knew Chong Hai and knew how strong he was. The fact that Hei had maintained absolute dominance during almost the entire fight wasn't something to be ignored.

"In the next match, we will see Malcolm Hammond against Feng Chen of the Feng Family." Song Yazhu announced the next two challengers.

Hearing his name, Feng Chen started to go towards the stage. As a representative of the Feng Family, he intended to bring home a quick victory to show the strength of his family. But above all, it was that Hei's fight had awakened his fighting spirit.

'You are strong, Hei. But are you strong enough to beat Hu Jie too? I hope so, because in that case, if you defeat Hu Jie, you and I will be at the semifinals of Block A.'

Feng Chen had no doubts that Hu Jie and Hei would win the next round as well, thus coming to challenge each other. And Feng Chen knew he could make it to the semifinals even though there were strong opponents in his way. As a result, in the semifinals of Block A, Feng Chen would find one of the two to challenge him. He had fought many times with Hu Jie, so he knew how strong he was. But he felt that Hei had all the capabilities to defeat him. No, he hoped he would do it so he could fight Hei without limits. He wanted to see how far the strength of this martial artist came from nowhere and if he was able to match the Eight Big Families.