Archfiend

Chapter 36: Battle Royale (1)

Jingle… A melodious bell chime was heard from some unknown place. Firecloud and Shadowslay slightly nodded.

“It’s happening, it’s starting!” In excitement, a youth leaned forwards as far as he physically could, his breathing rushed. “The first lineup is a clash between an A5 student and an A3 student! This is gonna be frickin’ awesome!”

“Heh, I bet the outcome will be decided in half an hour!” 

“I bet a low-grade spirit stone! It’s going to be finished in forty!” 

“Hehe, I bet Luo Sanfeng is going to be the victor!” 

“It’s obvious the A5 has the upper hand! What’re you thinking?!” 

“Brother, don’t you know? Xu Yangyi failed his breakthrough yesterday; you’re still cheering for him?”

Animated discussion flowed between all the spectators. With their attention focused on the gigantic arena, the two human bodies were the size of ants. 

“Aren’t you that wise guy that tried to break through?” Luo Sanfeng laughed coldly, “You’re luck really blows, huh… Who knew that there would be something like the Qualifier. But anyways… you ain’t got a ghost of a chance at that treasure.”

Xu Yangyi cracked his knuckles and glanced at him expressionlessly. In the next second, his figure could be seen no longer!

Just as Luo Sanfeng was in the middle of completing his sentence, he had no chance to finish his closing remarks as his words transformed into a cold gasp! Originally, the two of them would’ve spent some time trading stirring banter, then leading to a precipitous build up! The entire stadium had heard him say the last bit of his final declaration! 

His opponent was fast! His opponent was very fast!

Xu Yangyi had no intention of wasting words! Following the nods of Firecloud and Shadowslay, he had left with a swoosh, the only thing remaining where he originally stood was a cloud of dust. His silhouette was akin to a tiger leaving its cage, and he darted towards Luo Sanfeng like arcing electricity!

“What speed!” In the audience stands, a cry of alarm rang out from the endless crowd. An old man with white hair and a rosy complexion suddenly stood up at his seat, his hands clasped around his teacup and his mouth hanging widely as he looked at the scene on the arena stage, in shock!

“This speed…” A boy around ten years old who was wearing children’s clothing clenched the handrail firmly. Yet as he sat back down, gripping his seat tightly, his protruding veins betrayed his agitation.

Chu Zhaonan’s eyes flared to life, and he subconsciously stroked the gun at his waist. Ultimately, though, he ceased to continue touching it. He sucked in deeply and licked his lips in excitement. “I know… I fucking know… You’re fearsome… A fearsomeness that surpasses my imagination…”

“But you’re still not my opponent!” 

No one had expected the first matchup would be an A5 student versus an A3 student. They’d guessed it would possibly be a conflict on the scale of heavenly thunder and earthly flame, but by no means had they expected that the heavenly thunder would be so fast! [1]

Initially, everyone had believed that the two would still want to probe each other after the two Seniors hinted to start. They hadn’t expected that the first thing to come would be saber lights and sword shadows! Although they still hadn’t changed their thoughts, the situation on stage already had!

No one spoke, everyone was watching the arena in shock! Perhaps there were some that were still of mind to gamble moments ago, but after observing this speed they acted as if they were pricked and suddenly drawn up! If said that Luo Sanfeng was still a bit taunting before, his entire face right now had already become smeared with caution!

What speed… What terrible speed! This can’t be the goddamn speed of Qi Condensation! Where is he? 

All Luo Sanfeng could really capture with his eyes was an indistinct silhouette! Was this the Light Speed Fist of the Golden Saints? Was Xu Yangyi going to attack him from the left? The right? His chest? His stomach? [2]

In his sudden shock, a vast array of ideas frantically coursed through his brain. In a flash, his eyes saucered to the extreme! A half a second, it had only been a half second, but the sweat on his forehead cascaded down like rain! Half a second later, he was certain!

His opponent… was coming in hot like a bull! A full-frontal, head-on collision! It was a direct contest of spiritual force!

“Fuck you!” He suddenly snarled and crossed both his arms, his body in a half-squat, and he bellowed, “Solution Ninety-Eight… Tortoise Burdens!”

Rays of milky-white qi instantly flooded in from his surroundings to his arms. In the next second, a hazy tortoise shell appeared in front of him like an illusion. 

Of Heavens Law’s Hundred Solutions, there weren’t many that a student could learn. However, with the paltry amount of qi they possessed before they graduated, they were able to use the final ten solutions at best. Tortoise Burdens happened to be among one of the sole moves that could be used in a defensive style. Nonetheless, it could only be used to guard against frontal assaults. 

Xu Yangyi charged forward at top speed, murderous will filling the expanse of his heart! He had arrived in front of that door. A painstaking process of ten-odd years and he had been ruthlessly pulled away by someone on his first breakthrough. 

He didn’t say a word, but this didn’t represent that he wasn’t going to take action!

Fear? What was there to be afraid of? The strong had never cared to inspire fear in others! The strong had always forced reverence!

Since you’re scared… then display your sincerity before me! Or… just be even more scared!

At this instant, Xu Yangyi’s speed had already exploded to his utmost limit! Besides his ears, he could even hear the wind’s roar! Luo Sanfeng hadn’t chosen to attack because he sensed that Xu Yangyi’s speed surpassed his wildest imagination. Thus, he had withdrawn his entire body in defense!

A cold sneer played at the crook of Xu Yangyi’s mouth, and he ruthlessly clenched his teeth. With a tremendous charging force at mach speed, he condensed a majority of his power into his right foot, which was followed by an ear-piercing swish that thundered throughout the arena! His foot was followed by a gale as he kicked forward!

Shattered rock bloomed outwards in flight! As Xu Yangyi streaked across the ground… his qi caused his combat boots to carve a half-foot trench in his rampage!

At this moment, Chu Tianyi’s opened eyes frostily gazed at the two people on stage. 

At this moment, no cultivator said a word, watching Xu Yangyi charge forth with tremendous momentum as they looked at Luo Sanfeng who was on complete defense.

At this moment, Firecloud’s and Shadowslay’s eyes narrowed.

At this moment, Lilac, Vulture, and Hibiscus tightly wrapped their hands around the handrails. Not many knew people knew of Xu Yangyi’s graduation grade… but they knew! It was because they knew that they summoned their attention to him!

It was a kick without the least bit sophistication, a clash of power absent of the slightest style. Would the spear pierce through the shield, or would the shield resist the spear?

Boom! A seemingly heart-shaking sound echoed through the entire arena. The wind came to a halt and the people froze.

Causing hearts to soon take flight, the wind’s whistling moments ago ceased to scream. Xu Yangyi’s right leg had already made full impact against Luo Sanfeng’s tortoise shell! Time seemed to stop at this instant! 

What would be the conclusion?

Before this thought even turned within everyone’s minds, a blood-curdling wail like the muffled sound of striking leather followed in the next second. Luo Sanfeng’s body was sent flying back in a straight line!

“AAARRRGGHHH!!!” A mournful shriek came from his mouth as he was sent flying back! It was a result of being kicked and sent soaring away at head-spinning speeds, which led to his broken screaming in the wind! He seemed to have been forged into a shooting star! With a tremendous bang, he suddenly slammed into the front-facing stone wall of the rear audience seats!

Crash! A full ten meters of limestone appeared to have been struck by an artillery shell. The heart of the impact had completely caved in! In a flash, spider web-like cracks covered the full ten-meter expanse. 

“Puh!” Luo Sanfeng’s face was covered in shock, but before he could even finish cooling his nerves, he couldn’t restrain the mouthful of blood that sprayed out from between his lips! Not only had the limestone cracked… but everyone’s bloodshot eyes seemed to be covered in spider webs, as well! The arena had become deathly silent!

In that space of time, Firecloud’s and Shadowslay’s gazes suddenly flashed. Firecloud immediately raised his hand. “Yuyang City, Xu Yangyi wins.”

The arena was grimly muted, still dreadfully quiet.

Lilac’s gaze had just been lit aflame, but now took a sudden turn for extreme solemness. Hibiscus and Vulture mirrored her actions, as well. Moreover… the three of them, late Qi Condensation cultivators… had already stood up!

It wasn’t only them. There were quite a few people who had wordlessly stood up with their mouths hanging ajar. There was an old man entering his golden years, and there was a woman in the prime of her youth. There was a middle-aged man who was turning over two walnuts in his hand yet had already forgotten about them. There was a boy with a lollipop hanging suspended out from the corner of his mouth...

Each one of them looked at the gigantic limestone depression like they had seen a ghost, and Luo Sanfeng who was dripping blood in the middle of it, powerless to even budge.

What… had just happened? A kick? A mere kick?! The opponent was also an A3 student! In the same vein, his branch evaluations were high! But the result had been delivered with only a single kick?

The long-awaited clash between the flaming star and the earth had resulted in the flaming star battering the earth. And yet, the earth had been disposed of with a mere kick? A defensive art had been utilised, but it had still been defeated by a kick?

“Good heavens…” A middle-aged man at the middle stage of Qi Condensation shakily grabbed onto his pulse. “T-T-This was ten seconds, right… N-N-No… Five seconds? Three seconds? H-How is this possible? The opponent is an A3 student!”

“The power of this kick… is actually so strong!” On the other side, a profusely sweating initial Qi Condensation woman looked at the stone tiles in astonishment. In her mind, she pondered many, many times, yet she discovered… that she wouldn’t even be able to accept 50% of the kick’s force! “Is the gap between initial-stages… really this great?”

This was a question that she herself dared not ask. Furthermore, she dared not answer it. 

In that stitch of time, Chu Tianyi, who had originally been sitting calmly, had drawn his back straight. He locked his eyes dead-on at Xu Yangyi! An A3 student… Wasted with a single kick! Such a direct exchange of styles, such an impossible transformation of methods, had actually unfolded beneath his eyes! 

At his side, Fang Tansheng had soundlessly stood up like many other people at this moment. Heavens Law was unlike the cultivation clans, possessing many training methods and resources aplenty, so much that even many clan cultivators were escorted off to Heavens Law for training. Among each city’s rank one, which one wasn’t an elite among elites?

But… could the worth of an elite actually be so simple? Coarse and barbaric, a lone force to shatter through countless methods! 

Chu Zhaonan sucked in deeply. His right hand stroked his gun for the first time. “You really are… really… deserving of me using it. I’m really aching to find out, right now. Between my bullets and your body, which is faster? Which is stronger?”

However, they weren’t the most astonished. The expressions of the remaining twelve champions at this moment besides Chu Zhaonan were incomparably complex! 

The students all had a rough understanding of everyone’s data. All of them were champions. Although Xu Yangyi had a branch evaluation of A5… wasn’t the branch evaluation criteria not allowed to differ? That was to say, even if it was the same, what were they scared of? Each one of them were at the very least A2 students. The branch evaluation wasn’t a comprehensive representation! 

None of them had expected that an A3 student like Luo Sanfeng would be defeated on first contact! It was practically a fight between an adult and a baby!

“This…” The pock-marked youth that had made fun of Xu Yangyi yesterday opened and closed his mouth several times. He wanted to say something, but in the end, his words transformed into gibberish. “This… This…”

“Is this a fucking joke?” At his side, there was a bald youth whose Adam’s apple was trembling fiercely. They could guess that Luo Sanfeng’s strength was unquestionably in the mid-upper levels of the champions, but it had gone beyond their expectations that he would be sent flying back with a single kick!

The dogfight they’d anticipated hadn’t appeared. The foundation of either side hadn’t been touched upon because one side… had crumpled with a single blow!

“Is he a tyrannosaurus rex in human form?” A woman gritted her teeth and said with her lips pursed and fists rigidly clenched. Extreme shock pervaded the bottom of their hearts; they were simply unwilling to believe in what they were seeing! If Luo Sanfeng met such an end… What about them?

“Investigate the degree of force he just exploded out with!” At this time, a hoarse voice suddenly rang out. It belonged to an old man with a flush over his entire face. He shouting like he was having a stroke. “Now! Right now!”

These words seemed to wake everyone from their reveries. Firecloud raised a brow as he regained his wits and looked at Shadowslay with some surprise, noticing his counterpart’s equally surprised gaze.

“This child…” Shadowslay seemed to deliberate his words. “Is exceptionally strong.” 

Not waiting for them to finish speaking, the clicking sound of keyboard typing echoed through the arena. Xu Yangyi cared for nothing else, only striding towards the ten-meter-long scar and extending his hand out.

“What does he want to do?!” This question wasn’t limited to only the audience, but also all of the students.

Xu Yangyi grabbed onto Luo Sanfeng’s throat, pulling him out, and Luo Sanfeng’s eyes were filled with bloody murder as he glared at Xu Yangyi. Luo Sanfeng himself didn’t believe that the strength of Xu Yangyi’s kick would be so great! He was basically unable to resist such power!

The sensation he had felt moments ago… was practically equal to a tyrannosaurus rex’s full-frontal collision! To be defeated in a single move… Under the focus of over ten thousand people, he wasn’t the last one standing, but rather the stepping stone of the last one standing!

1. 天雷碰地火 - I guess this is something the author came up with to describe the conflict. Since it’s a battle between an A5 student and an A3 student, the audience can kinda guess the conclusion. But that’s not to say that an A3 student is a scrub. Hence, the comparison.

2. Light Speed Fist is a Saint Seiya reference, an old anime from the 90s.