“If you want to fight then let’s cut the crap!” Fang Zhengzhi completely ignored Kong Qing’s words and replied without a care as usual.
Kong Qing clenched his fist again, but this time, he wasn’t as agitated as before.
“Show me your weapon!” Kong Qing glanced at Fang Zhengzhi’s empty hands. He was purely bent on slaughtering Fang Zhengzhi a moment ago, but now, he wanted to retrieve his dignity as well.
“Against you? There’s no need for a weapon.” Fang Zhengzhi shook his head.
“You’ll regret this, brat!” Kong Qing stopped his bickering just as Fang Zhengzhi had said – speak with actions and not words. He wanted to use his strength to force out Fang Zhengzhi’s weapon.
Shuffling his feet to another side, Kong Qing decided to strike again. But this time, he was a lot slower than before despite still maintaining an adequate level of speed. In an instant, he arrived in front of Fang Zhengzhi again, shortening their distance of five steps immediately to one.
He swung his plain-looking sword out. It looked nothing out of the ordinary, yet it vibrated with a faint piercing sound as dots of light flickered from the tip of the blade. He then thrusted it straight for Fang Zhengzhi’s throat.
However … just as Kong Qing thrusted his sword out, the entire space quaked, as though the surrounding air was all being engulfed and absorbed by this sword.”
“Reusing the same tactic again, is that going to work?” Fang Zhengzhi didn’t seem to notice the changes in the surrounding air, and still continued leaning his head to one side.
The long sword brushed right across Fang Zhengzhi’s neck.
The scene didn’t look too different from their previous confrontation. Both Kong Qing’s attack and Fang Zhengzhi’s dodging motion looked around the same as before. However, just as the sword brushed right past him in the instant that Fang Zhengzhi tilted his neck to one side, the expression he made completely changed.
“What’s going on? I can’t move!” Fang Zhengzhi gasped frantically. His body was completely immobolized.
“You can’t move? Hahaha …. I just warned you, didn’t I? Now, I’ll let you die with the knowledge that my Dao has almost achieved the Heaven Dao’s existence!” Kong Qing finally chuckled after hearing Fang Zhengzhi’s desperate gasps.
From the humiliation he faced below the Heaven Dao Pavilion, to the shame he felt on the Sword Peak cliff, and finally to the rage he endured after being chided and mocked by countless people in the Heaven Academic Altar – he finally released all his pent up frustrations.
He wasn’t hasty to strike, because he knew that the moment the tip of the sword brushed across Fang Zhengzhi’s throat, he had won the match.
The Falling Flowers Sword Technique was a move that relied on an instantaneous explosion – weak before the moment of discharge, but extremely formidable at the point when the energy is released.
For an attack, it wasn’t considered an overly extravagant or overwhelming move, but Kong Qing still chose this sword technique without any second thoughts, simply because this technique could best capitalize on the strength of his Dao of All Creation.
What was the most important thing of an instantaneous explosion?
Chance!
But then again, how could he rely so much on chance in a battle between two true powerhouses? If he couldn’t gain the upper hand early in the battle, how could he then force his opponents to reveal gaps in their defenses?
This was the flaw of the Falling Flowers Sword Technique, but this did not affect Kong Qing at all. His Dao of All Creation has virtually attained the level of the Heaven Dao, and hence could create countless chances to strike by relying on his masterful manipulation of air and Qi.
“He won! That’s Senior Kong Qing for you!”
“That’s right, that brat underestimated Senior Kong Qing. If he distanced himself further from Senior Kong Qing, he wouldn’t have been immobilized so quickly!”
“No matter how fast he is, he’s dead meat once he’s immobilized!”
The surrounding Heaven Dao disciples began to smile. They naturally knew very well that the immobilized Fang Zhengzhi was not a conjured shadow. In other words … he has really been immobilized by Kong Qing, unable to escape.
Then, how can possibly evade the Falling Flowers Sword Technique’s instantaneous explosion?
“Die!” Kong Qing didn’t wait for his opponent’s last words. He has done everything in his power to make Fang Zhengzhi aware of the reason for his imminent demise.
He twisted the sword with his hand and swung it across. Boundless amounts of resplendent blue light burst forth from the blade, morphing into countless swirling blue petals glowing gorgeously under the sunlight.
It was a breathtaking sight, yet it was a chilling scene surging with sinister murderous intent, turning the surrounding air cold.
“Kong Qing, spare his life!” Third Elder and Fifth Elder finally came to their senses after noticing the countless blue petals aiming straight at Fang Zhengzhi.
They knew that the battle would turn ugly after Kong Qing regained his composure, but they did not expect Fang Zhengzhi to lose the battle … or his life so quickly.
Sparing Fang Zhengzhi’s life was definitely not because they felt that Fang Zhengzhi’s crime was unworthy of death. They just needed to clarify Fang Zhengzhi’s true motive for entering the Heaven Dao Pavilion.
Third Elder and Fifth Elder yelled, but it seemed like they were too late. Kong Qing’s sword was so quick and merciless as the pent-up rage suppressed in his chest exploded all at once, and the number of falling petals increased instead.
“Boom!” A thunderous blast.
All the blue petals finally morphed into spots of light, dissipating into the air and enveloping the sky in a peculiar shade of blue, forming a blue vortex-like air current.
There was silence. A temporary silence.
And after the silence, came an eruption of cheers!
“He won! Senior Kong Qing won!”
“That shameless bastard is finally defeated!”
“He still died in the end, didn’t he?”
The surrounding Heaven Dao disciples cheered as they gazed upon the man sprawled on the ground beside Kong Qing who was still standing.
“Thank you, thank you all, my fellow disciples. I knew he was too weak. Do you believe me now?” Kong Qing’s voice rang above the commotion.
Then, he kicked the person on the ground twice.
“Cough!” A mouthful of blood spurted out from the victim’s mouth, staining his pale face with blotches of blood. He looked incredibly pathetic, but he wasn’t dead.
“You, you …” The person lying on the ground shuddered with his eyes bulging out furiously. His body was stained with countless streaks of blood of varying sizes, looking completely ghastly and unrecognizable.
“Third Elder, Fifth Elder, I followed your orders and spared his life. Shall you two Elders now honor your promise?” Kong Qing cast his eyes on Third Elder and Fifth Elder not far away, cracking a bright smile.
“Promise? What promise?”
“Hold on, what isn’t Senior Kong Qing … holding a sword?!”
“Where’s Senior Kong Qing’s sword? Why is it in that shameless bastard’s hands?”
“What’s going on?”
Upon hearing Kong Qing’s words, the crowd’s cheers died down as the disciples gazed at the figure standing in the distance.
Very soon, they noticed something wrong. The sword in Kong Qing’s hand was gone! And the person lying on the ground covered in blood … has a sword in his hand, and it’s the same sword that Kong Qing was wielding.
“Brat, you …” Fifth Elder looked at the blood-covered individual sprawled on the ground, then gazed up at ‘Kong Qing’ beaming brightly from ear to ear. He could not believe his eyes.
Third Elder also refused to believe what just happened. Even the emperors and princes sitting in the Heaven Academic Altar stood up one after the other, with everyone focusing their attention on ‘Kong Qing’ at the centre of the battlefield.
“Father, could that be …?” Lin Yun asked Lin Mubai.
“Um, no doubt about it!” Lin Mubai nodded slowly. He knew what Lin Yun was asking, and he also knew what the emperors from the other three kingdoms were thinking.
“Who exactly is this brat?”
“There’s nobody like him in the Radiant Moon Empire!”
“Not in the War Pinnacle Empire either!”
The emperors of the other three empires exchanged glances and shook their heads. Finally, they turned their gaze to Lin Mubai.
“He shouldn’t be from the Great Xia Empire either.” Lin Mubai shook his head and replied after noticing the curious looks from his peers.
All of the emperors shook their heads. They then looked back at the old man donning long white robes sitting behind them on the stone chair sculpted from white jade – Mu Qingfeng, the Pavilion Leader of the Heaven Dao Pavilion.
Mu Qingfeng opened his eyes slowly after sensing the gazes directed at him by the four emperors, and glanced over at ‘Kong Qing’.
“Hm, that is indeed the Heaven Dao.” Mu Qingfeng spoke slowly, seemingly mumbling to himself yet also answering the emperors’ queries.
“The Heaven Dao?!”
“Senior Kong Qing has already achieved the Heaven Dao? It can’t be … unless, unless Master is saying that ….”
“It’s that shameless bastard! He … actually achieved the Heaven Dao?!”
The Heaven Dao disciples were flabbergasted after hearing Mu Qingfeng’s answer. The Heaven Dao? That shameless bastard has mastered the Heaven Dao of the Six Rebirth Dao Techniques?
Then … who’s the person lying on the ground?
Kong Qing!
But, why is that the case?
That scoundrel didn’t even move. Kong Qing already immobilized him and unleashed the Falling Flowers Sword Technique.
Even if he did master the Heaven Dao and was able to escape from Kong Qing’s grasp, it still doesn’t explain why the Falling Flowers Sword Technique would attack Kong Qing instead and leave that bastard unscathed.
“Right, I forgot to answer your previous question. Of course I have mastered the Heaven Dao!” Fang Zhengzhi glanced down at Kong Qing lying on the ground after recalling the question.