Huang Ying and the two others immediately became the centre of attention. One arrogantly challenged and crushed all others, the second was on his way to enter the stage to take down the arrogant challenger, and the third one had stepped forward to stop the second one, coldly proclaiming Huang Ying as her's.
Huang Ying moved his gaze between the two people, one was the short yet muscular and handsome man from the Burning Cloud faction, his head filled with unruly blonde hair that even hung slightly over his green eyes, Dao Zenjin. The other was the tall and curvaceous girl from the Silver Cloud faction, a few strands of her pitch-black hair hanging over her crimson eyes.
The two people locked eyes, Dao Zenjin's brows furrowing slightly as he didn't know why this newcomer to the academy was stopping him. But he could sense the flavour of danger from her body so he didn't immediately speak up, letting his gaze suspiciously roam over her body for a bit. It was actually Huang Ying who spoke up first, his gaze turning away from his two enemies and landing on the black-bearded headteacher Gang Yongye as well as the two people standing at his side, Song Yi and Chen Hong.
"You guys wouldn't happen to have a pair of reinforced gloves that you'd be willing to lend me? Things were a bit hectic in the forest so I ended up losing sight of my gloves, probably would have lost sight of my spear too if it wasn't so large."
The gloves Huang Ying received from Yang Anju while they were on their way to Burning Clouds city were among the few items he brought along when they headed to Skyreacher Forest. But he couldn't even keep his robes safe within the forest, much less the small gloves, leading to him sadly losing them. They weren't of much use in battles against weaker people, but they were quite suitable for fights against stronger opponents where he would need to utilize a far wider variety of attacks.
Chen Hong shrugged his shoulders and Song Yi shook her head, reinforced gloves weren't exactly weapons that fell under their area of expertise so they had never had any reason to carry any around. But Gang Yongye looked at Huang Ying's small smile with great interest, chuckling as he swiped one of the golden orbs on his belt and tossed a pair of silver gloves to Huang Ying.
"You can borrow these, they're just about decent so you shouldn't have any reason to complain. And if you do somehow manage to break them, don't worry, I'll fleece you for everything you own to pay for them."
Gang Yonge didn't look the slightest like the exalted headteacher of all the first-years as he chuckled in a slightly devious manner, he seemed more like a bored conman sizing up his next target. But Huang Ying didn't mind it in the slightest and caught the silver gloves, which seemed to have been forged from steel-like silk.
He found it far better to have a frank and easy headteacher like Gang Yongye, he was definitely leagues better than the teachers that had teamed up with the Silver Cloud and the Burning Cloud factions during the excursion to the forest. Huang Ying slid on the gloves and assembled his two-headed spear, the 70kg spear as light as a feather as he pointed one of the tips at Dao Zenjin and then at the girl, cutting her off just as she was about to interrupt him.
"The two of you can just come on up at the same time. 2 versus 1, a nice free for all, I'm up for both. And don't you bother refusing and complaining. I know that you want to engage in a battle to the death now, but you and I know exactly why we can't do that here. So rather than waste your breath and time, you should first see if you can even beat me in this state."
Huang Ying and the girl had a secret that they could not show off here, the blood of Baku. It might have given her the same law of devouring that it had given Huang Ying, but they could not show off that law in front of all these people, not while their own strength was still so low. The law of devouring was too grand and terrifying, if people didn't try to kill them to prevent them from turning into a calamity they might just capture them and try to extract the blood of Baku for themselves. So they couldn't engage in a battle to the death as that would lead them to inevitably having to use that law and ousting them in front of everyone.
Dao Zenjin rubbed his stubbled chin for a short moment while wearing a pondering expression, casting a glance at the slender girl. She looked coldly at Huang Ying and Dao Zenjin, letting out a chilly snort after a few seconds and stepping onto the stage while commandingly waving for Dao Zenjin to follow her onto the stage. Huang Ying was right, this wasn't the best place for a battle to the death so she might as well take this chance to test her strength, if she couldn't even beat these two people here now then she could forget about killing Huang Ying right away.
Dao Zenjin's eyebrow rose slightly when he saw the girl's commanding manner, his expression sinking ever so slightly. True, he had waited to see what she would do but that didn't mean that she could act so haughtily. The same was true for Huang Ying, his actions made it exceedingly clear that he hadn't taken Dao Zenjin seriously from the very start. He too let out a cold snort and stepped onto the stone stage, sliding two bronze brass-knuckles onto his fingers.
"It seems like my calm nature has given both of you the idea that I'm just a pushover, but the day I let some first-years beat me around is the day I'll start spelling my name backwards."
Dao Zenjin had his brass-knuckles, Huang Ying had his spear and gloves, and the girl pulled out two curved daggers that resembled claws from within her feathered robe, the three people facing each other with their weapons ready. Huang Ying's gaze drifted across the body of the girl, nonchalantly talking while waiting for either of the opponents to make the first move.
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"Don't think I've caught your name yet, were you given a name or did you choose one for yourself?"
Only Huang Ying knew the true identity of the beautiful girl standing there with a cold expression, she was the child of a Dragonfire Eagle that had placed her egg in a nest filled with numerous strong bloodlines. She had freely absorbed these bloodlines, even a bit of his own, and had she gotten to be born naturally she would undoubtedly be an incredible powerhouse the moment she was born.
But sadly for her, Huang Ying had thrown her egg out of the nest to cause a distraction, tearing her down from her promised grand heights and casting her down to the earth. She was forced to leave her egg early and had thus been unable to absorb the rest of the blood in the nest, it had also resulted in her not being able to perfectly merge the various bloodlines yet, which was why she was still only at the 9th Mortal Step. The girl's expression remained chilly as she spat out her name, Huang Ying involuntarily bursting out laughing.
"Ying Feixu."
"Hahaha, Ying Feixu, the ruiner of heroes? Come on now, that's just uninspired and a bit too on the nose, isn't it?"
Huang Ying laughed and completely disregarded the fact that Song Yi and Chen Hong had also laughed at him for his terrible naming sense when it came to Hei Ya and Hong Yi. The girl's expression, Ying Feixu's expression, turned a shade colder as Huang Ying laughed, but it was actually Dao Zenjin that took advantage of Huang Ying's laughter. He kicked off the stage and shot forward like a cannonball, immediately crossing the distance between him and Huang Ying, his fist thundering forward.
But Huang Ying's vigilance had never wavered while laughing, his body taking a step to the side to dodge the punch. Dao Zenjin simply changed the punch into a sweep, Huang Ying responding by leaning back so far that it seemed like his spine would snap. He held his spear with his right hand and Dao Zenjin was on his left so Huang Ying slid his hand up to one of the spearheads and then pushed the spear underneath his bent back, the other spearhead stabbing at Dao Zenjin's knee.
Dao Zenjin was forced to take a quick step back to avoid having his knee crippled, Huang Ying not letting go of the chance this presented. He leaned his bent body to the left and placed his free hand on the ground, he then pushed himself into the air and into a sideways somersault. His right hand retained its position at the base of the spearhead, his arm whipping forth as he spun so that the other spearhead came crashing down at Dao Zenjin's head the moment he finished stepping back.
Dao Zenjin's right hand was still occupied with the sweeping motion so he only had his left arm to defend, punching upward at the spearhead while a thin layer of speckled metal covered his fist. Bright sparks scattered through the air as the metal fist and spearhead collided, Dao Zenjin's arm actually getting pushed down a little before Huang Ying's spear bounced back.
Huang Ying took advantage of this rebound to reverse the direction of his spin, a gust of wind pushing him down to the ground the moment his spin placed him into a downward-facing position. A burst of intense crimson flames shot through the air where Huang Ying had just been, singing the back of his robe as he rapidly approached the ground.
The muscles on his right arm bulged as he forcibly halted the movement of his spear while his left hand reached out and touch the ground, halting his descent. He immediately spun his wrist when he touched the ground, his entire body spinning around like he was a gyroscope. He stretched out his spear the moment he started spinning, one of the spearheads cutting through the air and leaving a small cut on the delicate legs that had approached Huang Ying while he was engaging Dao Zenjin in their short exchange.
Ying Feixu had taken a quick step back the moment Huang Ying started spinning around so the attack only left a shallow cut that would quickly heal, but there was no denying that it was Huang Ying who had succeeded in drawing first blood. And he wasn't done with his attack, pushing himself up off the ground again while still spinning, shifting his momentum into a somersault while once again lashing out with his spear in a manner similar to what he had done against Dao Zenjin.
But this time the spear came crashing down on Ying Feixu's head, who responded by raising her right arm in a circular motion. The side of her palm made contact with the side of the incoming spear, a few small currents of water protecting her hand as she gracefully deflected the spear so that it crashed into the ground next to her.
Huang Ying angled the spear forward slightly so that the speartip sank into the stage, preventing it from bouncing up like it had when Dao Zenjin blocked his attack. The spear then bent slightly as Huang Ying transferred his momentum into it, using a quick burst of wind to push himself toward Ying Feixu. The spear straightened up as Huang Ying approached Ying Feixu, actually vaulting over her while using the spear as support.
He stretched out his left arm as he vaulted over her, flicking his fingers to unleash a few small blades of wind that forced Ying Feixu to hurriedly step forward while ducking. The blades missed her body and collided with the chest of Dao Zenjin, who had stepped forward to launch an attack against the open Ying Feixu. He hurriedly created a defensive layer of speckled metal, but a few of the blades still reached him and drew blood before his defence was set up.
Huang Ying finished his vault and landed on the ground, sliding back a bit while bending his knees and lowering his body, resembling a jaguar preparing to pounce. His spear was ready at his side, his eyes practically blazing with fighting intent and excitement as he looked at Dao Zenjin and Ying Feixu.
Complete silence ruled the area around the stone stage, the various students looking dumbly at the three people standing there. Most of their gazes were focused on Huang Ying, none of them quite certain what to say. He had shown fluid movements earlier when he dodged Qing Moyun's attacks for an entire minute, and every battle after that had been brutal domination that ended in a single attack so they knew that Huang Ying was strong.
But this was the first time they actually saw how he truly fought, the ferocious and relentless fighting style that didn't seem to give him or his opponents a single second of rest. The way he bounced, spun and hopped around while lashing out with attacks from strange angles made his fighting style seem less like a human's and more like the style of a beast.