Chapter 220 - Not So Special
Not many cultivators had seen the Shadow Destroyer Strike, and nobody under five-star returned prime level had managed to counter it.
The initiates were under the impression that Ye Wei would manage to be listed after the first exchange, but now they were just worried for their fellow cultivator’s safety after seeing and feeling Jin Kui’s amplification stance and spear.
“I am sorry. Qing Mu said I have to round this up.” Jin Kui was completely focused; his gaze was neutral but he meant harm. “He said three blows, but I am not as nice as he is.”
“Swoosh!”
Jin Kui’s spear struck the Qi cones with a few circular, stirring strokes. The unbloomed flower shapes flew down like a rain of arrows, a vast majority propelling towards weak spots of Ye Wei’s body.
Each of the cones had the stopping force to drop even a four-star returned prime Warrior, but Ye Wei was not startled, nor was he scared.
The young Runemaster was staring at Jin Kui through the swarm. Despite his opponent’s devastating strike, his eyes glinted with energy and felt eager to retaliate.
“This is at least twice as powerful as the last stance he used!” He quickly licked his dried lips and let his primal instinct take over. “But keep it coming. I like the pressure.”
From training at the Supreme palace, Ye Wei had learned that the power in his blood and the Eternal Star stance functioned better under pressure. He was ready to take the pain and sacrifice a few moments of comfort for strength.
Pressured by the force of a thousand shards of condensed Qi, a new meridian path opened up inside him, and Ye Wei’s Eternal Stance stance began to transform without end.
“Come on then!” Ye Wei clenched his fist while staring at the spear strikes; a layer of runes around him pulverized and that nebulous energy twinkled like stars, covering his whole body from head to toe.
“Well fought, now you will taste defeat!” Jin Kui’s spear appeared sentient as the rapid strikes slithered towards Ye Wei from all directions.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
With great precision, Ye Wei’s fist caught up to the spear strikes. Although the aggressor, he couldn’t gain advantage. He felt a numbing sensation as his fist connected, while the layer of runic energy around his body vibrated vigorously and loosened up.
The runes immediately started to vibrate in a complex but repeated frequency, causing the energy from Jin Kui’s strikes to simply melt into the the starlight and soften around the young Runemaster’s body. In a few breaths of time, Ye Wei began absorbing the warm surges of nourishing energy.
“My Eternal Star stance is evolving, and it is evolving me!” Each time the cones and his fist connected, Ye Wei was pushed backwards. Notwithstanding the pressure, his worry subsided as he felt the energy in his veins begin to invigorate and protect him.
“Bang!”
Although his feet sank and dug two trails into the ground, Ye Wei did not take his intense gaze off his opponent for a moment. He took the impact of spear strikes and neutralized it with the Eternal Star stance’s effect.
“This kid is crazy!” Jin Kui’s face became twisted as Ye Wei’s extreme recklessness, to confront instead of evade, made him scream.
The young Runemaster’s robe was shredded to ribbons of green, his face as white as paper. After a few frail coughs, drops of blood began to drip out of his mouth.
Jin Kui, being a black dragon lister under the effect of an amplification stance, had the kind of power that was superior to the least talented five-star returned prime Warriors. Therefore, even when running the Eternal Star stance, Ye Wei was not able to absorb the entirety of the Shadow Destroyer Strike.
The young Runemaster handled the first hundreds spear strikes perfectly, but when the count when up to a thousand, his body was inevitably covered in scars.
‘Hahaha, this is strangely pleasurable. I am almost thirty percent stronger than I was before fighting Jin Kui!’ In contrast to his beaten up appearance, Ye Wei was feeling fresh. The pain and the blood did not bother him, as a sense of fulfillment rushed through his body in juxtaposition.
‘I clearly have the upper hand, so why isn’t he surrendering already!?’ Jin Kui clenched tightly onto his spear and thought to himself, worried about the Spiritualist’s wrath.
“Why are you smiling? Shameless creep!” The three-star returned prime Warrior’s face turned red, glaring at Ye Wei as he injected an enormous deluge of Qi into the spear.
‘Fourth level, ten-thousand shadows!’ In spite of Jin Kui’s dense, amplified Qi, it was still difficult for him to power the mid-level Earth stance’s final form.
A runic flare shot out of Jin Kui’s spearhead, condensing into ten-thousand energy cones. With astounding speed, he stabbed out with his spear and marked each of the cones.
“Zoom! Zoom!”
The cones were sculpted and sharpened, a runic bond was established in the process, and all ten thousand of them were unified, forming a large array.
“Swoosh!”
Directed by a mysterious force, the circular array shrunk to the shape of a stump and then stretched to a thousand-feet-long spectral spear.
“Rumble!”
The earth trembled as the spear emitted multiple suffocating shock waves.
“My body can’t take this, not even with the Eternal Star stance…” Ye Wei mumbled, and his muscles began to spasm under the redoubled pressure. The runic light surrounding his body was quickly fading. “I don't think I have a choice now.”
It quickly became apparent to all present at the square that Jin Kui’s strike was more powerful than Ye Wei’s seemingly indestructible body could take.
“You are not the only one with an amplification stance.” Ye Wei slowly clenched his fist while predicting the spear strike’s path. He relaxed his body and let the energy partially penetrate his body, causing the golden yin yang shapes on his bones to begin to twist and rattle.
‘Third Supernova evolution!’ Ye Wei groaned as all the individual golden patterns linked together.
“Boom!”
The Qi disturbance surrounding Ye Wei’s body went from inconspicuous to exploding in a mere second. He was excited that someone finally pushed him hard enough, through the brink.
‘Ten-star condensed prime, one-star returned prime…’
Everyone could sense Ye Wei was quickly becoming more powerful, shocked as none of them expected such a turn of events.
The audience, even a close friend like Jian Chen, couldn’t tell accurately what Ye Wei’s cultivation level was. They all assumed he was not showing his all before now, whereas only a few suspected the involvement of rare stances with amplification and body strengthening effects.
While considered as a feat anywhere outside the capital, ten-star condensed prime cultivation fell to being a minimum requirement in the Million Stars Palace. The veterans were therefore all shocked when Ye Wei revealed his level, unable to work out how the newcomer managed to defeat the returned prime Warriors.
Zui Yue, San Chan, and Qing Mu were all top ten black dragon listers, and even with their experience, they could not believe what they just saw.
“How is that possible!?”
“Is that an amplification stance?”
“It has to be a seal, some kind of energy storage. There is no way a newbie with no connection could learn an amplification stance like this! His Qi is becoming twice as dense!”
All three of them have had the chance to learn about myriad amplification stances as they sat on resources and knowledge the rest of the dynasty envied. However, they had yet to encounter a technique quite as powerful as what Ye Wei was showing.
All the veterans were in awe, discussing; San Chan and Qing Yue became more curious while Qing Mu was becoming increasingly frustrated.
“Impossible! This kid must have cheated!”
“Yea! Someone should check his sleeves for scrolls or mystic arms!”
“Can’t you see how strong Ye Wei is? Why would someone like that cheat!? Just because you don’t recognize the stances he used doesn’t make him a cheater!” Xue Er‘s anger boiled over before the other veterans had more to say.
“Yea, Xue Er is right. I kept my eyes on his hands the whole time. He didn’t cheat.” Qing Yao’s cold voice sounded from a distance. The veterans startled and kept their mouths shut, nodding apologetically.
Qing Yao returned her gaze onto Ye Wei. ‘This is such a powerful stance; not only did it absorb Jin Kui’s strike, it also transformed it into a nourishing energy…’
“I need to find out more about this kid…” She muttered to herself, her misunderstanding of the Supernova and Eternal Star inadvertently contributing to a more mysterious first impression of Ye Wei.
Meanwhile, the Spiritualist was becoming envious and could not bear seeing the powerful initiate’s history-shaking entrance, fearing what Ye Wei might become after the display of capability and potential.
Qing Mu was never content to be only the fifth best; the manifestation of his fear and jealousy suddenly became more real as Ye Wei’s presence grew stronger.
“Even if he isn’t cheating, this amplification effect is not strong enough. Jin Kui is strong enough to neutralize any ordinary five-star returned prime Warrior.”
“Indeed, or a four-star equivalent if the cultivator had been training in the palace.”
“The result will still be the same. He stands no chance against Jin Kui.” The Spiritualist smiled disdainfully. “Nobody will mess with the tradition!”
“We will see.” Qing Yao coldly gazed at the Spiritualist. Her lips were curled up slightly, to an awkward angle as she was not used to smiling.
The Spiritualist frowned and could not understand why Qing Yao was defending the newcomer. He grunted, looking away to prevent himself from arguing.
“What? His energy is still growing!”
“What kind of stance is that?”
The starlight around his body relit and glowed even brighter. His figure quickly became blurry as the belt of runes under his feet shone.