Chapter 153: Betting on a Fight (2)

“Attack!”

Blade strikes began to fly left and right across the battlefield.

Battles between martial artists weren’t usually as flashy as battles between Origin Qi Scholars. Their confrontations were bloody and direct, and what determined the outcome of the battle was power and courage.

With the support of ‘Blood of a Warrior,’ Su Chen’s martial artists were filled with boldness. The battle had just started and blood was already flying through the air.

With but a single charge, the Lin Clan’s martial artists were forced back. Lin Fengtang felt his heart tighten.

He furiously tried to comfort himself. The Origin Qi Scholars were still there! The Origin Qi Scholars were still there!

Yes, compared to those Body Tempering martial artists, the twenty Qi Drawing Realm cultivators were his true source of hope.

He had personally chosen these twenty Qi Drawing Realm cultivators, and for their cultivation tier, they were the strongest ones within the whole Lin Residence. Some of them were even elites that had awakened their bloodlines.

At this moment, the Origin Qi Scholars began to move.

The twenty Origin Qi Scholars attacked, causing waves of thunderous sword light and freezing blade light to soar through the air. Illusory images of beasts also appeared; tigers howled and hawks shrieked. These twenty people had unleashed a wave of Origin Energy that was clearly much more powerful than what the other one hundred and eighty martial artists had been able to achieve.

Even Lin Fengtang was silently rejoicing. The combat strength of the subordinates he had chosen truly didn’t disappoint.

Even so, just a moment later, a stone shell suddenly appeared around those martial artists.

The Origin Qi Scholars’ attacks landed on that stone shell, chipping off shards of rock but ultimately unable to injure their opponents. On the other hand, those martial artists continued to furiously swing their blades like mad, attacking with such fury that the Origin Qi Scholars’ barriers were unable to endure. They were quickly forced back again.

Lin Fengtang’s expression sank. He turned around and asked Su Chen, “What is that?”

“Cliffrock Armor,” Su Chen laughed in response. “What do you think? Pretty good, right?”

Lin Fengtang harrumphed, “It seems pretty good, but wanting to fend off Origin Qi Scholars with just that isn’t going to be enough.”

As he spoke, those Origin Qi Scholars simultaneously raised their hands towards the skies. A vast wave of flames surged forward.

Even though the Cliffrock Armor could defend against the attacks of physical weapons, it was much less effective against elemental attacks. The martial artists didn’t dare fight this wave of flames head-on, and for the first time, the charge of these martial artists was stopped in its tracks.

When Lin Fengtang saw this, he sighed with relief and thought to himself, “Origin Qi Scholars are still Origin Qi Scholars. How could a bunch of martial artists, even with Origin Skills, defeat them?”

But yet again, the situation on the battlefield changed an instant later.

Those martial artists seemed to transform again. A wave of frost began to emanate outwards, slamming into the wave of flames and creating a strange contrast between the ice and fire.

The gap in strength could be observed at this moment. In terms of the Origin Energy’s purity, the Qi Drawing Realm cultivators’ were much stronger than the Body Tempering martial artists’. If it was a one-on-one battle, the Origin Qi Scholars would win without question.

However, Su Chen’s forces had two hundred martial artists and outnumbered them ten to one. He had forcefully seized the advantage.

In the blink of an eye, the frost suppressed the flames, not only completely extinguishing them but also continuing to surge forward and encasing a large number of Origin Qi Scholars in ice.

Next, a red glow began to emanate from the martial artists again as fireball after fireball appeared in the air.

Fireball Technique!

The simple and practical fireball technique appeared above these martial artists, but they burned with a shocking intensity.

Two hundred fireballs simultaneously flew forth, making it seem like they could cover the whole sky.

Those twenty Qi Drawing Realm cultivators howled simultaneously, activating their barriers.

They lost their previously scornful attitude and focused all of their attention on blocking this wave of attacks.

Boom, boom, boom!

The fireballs exploded in rapid succession, and those twenty Qi Drawing Realm cultivators were blasted flying away. The Lin Clan’s other martial artists were even more doomed. A couple of the martial artists who were causing trouble were killed immediately, serving their use as cannon powder.

Lin Fengtang’s face couldn’t be any paler. “How...... how can they have so many Origin Skills? How many do they know?”

Su Chen smiled slightly. “Not too many. Only seven or so. There are two more that they know - one is a position-swapping technique, allowing them to teleport short distances, and the other is a regeneration technique, allowing them to recover from their wounds faster.

When he heard this, Lin Fengtang felt a chill run up his spine. He knew that he had completely lost this battle.

A normal Qi Drawing Realm cultivator only controlled three to five Origin Skills and wouldn’t learn too many all at once.

The martial artists before him, on the other hand, who hadn’t even yet become fully-fledged Qi Drawing Realm cultivators, possessed seven Origin Skills. How could they possibly fight these people?”

“What skill is that?” Lin Fengtang asked.

Lin Fengtang had initially been too invested in the outcome of the battle, but it wasn’t until he knew that he was going to be defeated that he realized the shocking power of Su Chen’s “secret technique”.

Giving a normal martial artist seven Origin Skills was basically equivalent to directly creating an Origin Qi Scholar. This really was shocking news.

“Hemolytic Totem,” Su Chen replied calmly. “This is a kind of supplementary technique that utilizes the Ferocious Race’s Totemic Inscriptions and medicine.”

“So it’s the Ferocious Race’s Totemic Inscriptions!” Lin Fengtang was enlightened. “You actually deciphered the Ferocious Race’s Totemic Inscriptions!?”

“It wasn’t very hard. The difficult part was improving it.” Su Chen explained the observations he had of the Ferocious Race’s Totemic Inscriptions while he was in the Goldwater Ruins.

The battle was still ongoing, but he and Lin Fengtang had begun to chat.

Lin Fengtang’s attention was completely captured by Su Chen’s words, though he didn’t notice that at all. Instead, he said, “So that’s how it is. So you were trying all along to make it so that humans could rely on these Totemic Inscriptions to control Origin Energy...... Wait a minute!”

Lin Fengtang thought of something and yelled, “These martial artists obviously aren’t Origin Qi Scholars! How can they use Origin Skills?”

“That’s one of the flaws of the Hemolytic Totem. Unless the totems are formed from refined Origin Substances, a Hemolytic Totem has to be activated by blood Qi. I spent a lot of time researching this without any breakthroughs, but one day when I was growing impatient from failing to succeed with Origin Energy, I just used it on normal martial artists. Perhaps they would become a trump card at some point in the future. In reality, that line of thinking was the same as admitting defeat, one born out of desperation.”

“So these martial artists are just failed byproducts of your experiments?” Lin Fengtang was stunned when he heard this.

“Not completely. Three years ago, I finally made a breakthrough in my research of the Hemolytic Totem. I succeeded in constructing a Hemolytic Totem that consumed 90% blood Qi and 10% Origin Energy. Originally, I didn’t think that my totemic martial artists would be of any use, but now there was a ray of hope. However, this also posed a problem, which was how could martial artists possibly utilize Origin Energy. How do you think I resolved that problem?”

“...... Origin Stones?” Lin Fengtang asked.

“That’s right,” Su Chen chuckled. “A single Origin Stone was enough. After this, my research became much more straightforward. At this point, 50% of the energy needed is Origin Energy, and the martial artists you see before you are perfect examples of this. They have the Hemolytic Totem drawn on them, and are expending their own blood Qi and Origin Energy in equal measure.”

“So that’s how it is,” Lin Fengtang understood.

Having reached this point, he no longer had any suspicions, and he also no longer had any confidence in continuing to do battle.

He yelled loudly, “Stop! Let’s all stop fighting! We surrender!”