Chapter 204 – Burning both jade and common stone
Jun Mo Xie was keenly watching the Solitary Falcon’s new style, and felt that even though the style was still unrefined, and not even properly linked yet, but the individual strokes of this style were extremely sophisticated; maybe not as good as the ones he had studied in his previous incarnation, but it was still more powerful in its make! Since this style used the martial artist’s Xuan Qi, it was capable of producing an amazing amount of power, which had left Jun Mo Xie both mulling over its merits, and admiring it at the same time!
What was even more mesmerizing was that, even though the Solitary Falcon was repeating the same moves again and again, he was making subtle changes in each successive round, and was gradually eliminating the weakness of this new style. Therefore, once he was able to practice this method for a sufficiently long duration, he might actually be able to eliminate the flaws in the system, and might actually be able to get the style battle-ready!
It must be mentioned that learning and creating a martial arts are completely different from each other. Creating a martial arts style from a scratch requires a great amount work, since the style needs to be revised again and again, and the creator cannot even skip a single step in its process. This whole process takes several decades, and can sometimes take the effort of generations together before the complete and polished technique is finally ready.
This concept was no different in this ancient world either, but the Solitary Falcon had still abandoned the traditional martial styles, and was working on creating his own custom style at a very quick pace, which clearly exhibited his expertise and wisdom in the world of martial arts, and this feat of his’ was something the future generations to come would benefit from. The style he was trying to create could be regarded as an epoch-making breakthrough!
Just this one aspect alone was enough to regard the Solitary Falcon as one the ‘Eight Great Masters’, but moreover, a genius craftsman and scholar!
From another perspective, although the man was already regarded as one of legendary Masters of his time, he was still willing to drop from his status, and descend to fighting a man who could only be described as ordinary and unworthy in his eyes, just so he could improve and perfect this style he was trying to create; a feat which not many people would be capable of doing!
Hang on a second!
An idea sprouted inside Jun Mo Xie’s mind.
The Solitary Falcon is trying hard to find suitable opponents, but hasn’t been able to….. the Xue Hun Manor and the Silver Blizzard City would surely qualify as suitable opponents, right?
The Solitary Falcon is wracking his brain to improve his style right now….. but I’ve also learnt some similar styles in my previous life…..
The pouncing Eagle, the Hissing Eagle, Nine Eagles transformation…..
If I don’t use these resources, then wouldn’t they just go waste? That truly would be a real waste of them!
Jun Mo Xie’s apprehensive mind suddenly eased up a lot.
The Solitary Falcon on the other hand, was constantly altering his strokes, but was still keeping the battle in equilibrium. However his mind was completely occupied in figuring out new ways to make his strokes more linked and coherent. Moreover, casting out the same moves again and again was slowly making him more and more familiar with them, along with gradually improving his style and its efficiency; although the process was extremely slow, but the man was still enjoying it to the utmost.
This world was very different from the one Jun Mo Xie had come from since martial strength revolved around Xuan Qi in this world. Although Xuan Qi was quite powerful and intense in its own merit, but its explosive nature and delicate functioning limited the styles one could practice, which is why a vast majority of the martial artists used basic moves supplemented by their Xuan Qi to contest a battle, and would rarely use more complex styles; in essence, unless a martial artist had a large arsenal of tricks, he would continue to use the same strokes again and again.
If one pursued speed and power at the same time, then Xuan Qi was unlikely to keep up; and in case one focused on endurance, then they couldn’t use complex or bulky moves.
However, even though the Solitary Falcon’s style was still quite raw, but it was very different from this general approach. Once this technique was gradually improved and perfected, it would emerge as a pioneering work in shaping the future of martial arts! In fact, it could even be said that his work could even pave the way to bridging the gap between the present and the future!
On the other hand, Hai Chen Feng was abnormally calm while his sword continued to hack, chop, cut, slash….. he was vividly demonstrating some of the most exceptional moves of the Blue Master himself, and would often suppress his enemy on occasion; but the man in black would always stabilize himself again.
With the passage of time, Hai Chen Feng started to realize that his initial advantage of having a better arsenal of tricks had actually reduced, while the initially-abundant flaws in the opposition’s style were now becoming hard to find. Moreover, the opposition would once-in-a-while counter heavily, and would completely destabilize him.
Their battle had reached a point where the situation had completely reversed, and now Hai Chen Feng was doing his utmost to fight, and was in turn sweating all over, while his breathing was becoming increasingly unstable. On the other hand, his opponent was breathing far more stably, and his style was becoming more and more efficient, and it seemed evident that the man was capable of finishing off Hai Chen Feng anytime he wanted to, but still wasn’t. It seemed as if this man in black was some heavenly steed soaring across the skies with no purpose at all, else Hai Chen Feng would’ve already died several times by now.
This battle between these two experts was becoming more and more dangerous with every passing minute. It must be mentioned that danger and intensity are two completely different concepts with respect of a martial battle. Intensity is a term used to define a fierce battle between two equally matched opponents, where each side is doing their utmost to win, and in such a case, unless the fight reaches its climax and both sides start taking risks to win the fight, the fight is unlikely to result in causality. However, in a general case, the probability of fatality is extremely small since both the parties are likely to have already exhausted their energies before reaching the climax, making them both in effective in delivering a fatal blow.
However, danger is a completely different concept in this regard; it pertains to a fight between two unmatched opponents since the weaker side is incapable of preventing any harm to himself, and such was the circumstance Hai Chen Feng had landed himself in at the moment!
His opponent was no other than the Great Master, Solitary Falcon himself, and even though the Solitary Falcon had his heart set on not injuring his practicing-partner initially, but as his mind was becoming more and more engrossed with his research, it seemed that he was beginning to fight more and more instinctively. Although he was still control his Xuan Qi, and was maintaining the same level as Hai Chen Feng in this regard, but he was still a legendary master, and Hai Chen Feng was simply no match for him in any respect!
Although Hai Chen Feng wouldn’t exactly perish in the blink of an eye anytime soon, but the difference in their expertise was becoming a bit too obvious now!
Hai Chen Feng had already given up on winning this fight by a fluke, and had moreover realized one very important thing; this man has been playing around with me from the very beginning….. since that’s the case, I’ll teach him a good lesson… even if I die doing it!
Hai Chen Feng was a Peak Sky Xuan expert in his own merit, and had rarely ever come across anyone worthy of being his match, which had obviously given rise to arrogance and self-esteem. However, at the moment, he found himself being transformed into a play-toy of another, which was bringing more shame to his name than he was capable of washing away!
In his eyes, this situation was very similar to that of a cat playing with a mouse, where the cat was just trying to exhaust the mouse before killing it…..
He could clearly sense that his situation was similar to that game of chess there even though his opponent was capable of finishing the game in one move, the opponent was still dallying around until the point where the weaker side was completely exhausted and humiliated……
Such a mischievous strategy was easy to play out against a novice player, but in case the man on the wrong end of the curve was an expert in his own right…… Such a situation was likely to drive the man mad….
Hai Chen Feng’s predicament was roughly the same, and it seemed as if he had no way out of his plight.
However, Hai Chen Feng still had a secret trick in his arsenal!
Hai Chen Feng unexpectedly started moving his sword back in forth in circle, and suddenly a starting building a hurricane-like structure around the Solitary Falcon. The winds constituting this air-storm started becoming blue in color slowly, and gradually started deepening in their shade! With each consequent circle he made, the hurricane became even deeper in shade, and slowly went from sky blue to blue, to deep blue, to azure, and then almost to the color of ink!
The Solitary Falcon had been extremely pleased with this experience so far since he had been able to achieve exactly what his heart desired. At this time, he suddenly felt an increase in the pressure around him, and before he could make a move, it seemed as if he had been surrounded by a sea of tides, almost as if the torrential rains had started pouring over a trapped boat, while the real storm lay approaching.
He suddenly realized what was happening as he remembered the Blue Master’s signature skill: The wave of the World!
This trick will cause destruction indiscriminately. It will burn both jade and common stone alike!
This maneuver was capable of exploding out one’s Xuan Qi, and could mobilize the entire Xuan Qi in one’s Dan Tian, and then turn it into one explosive and lethal strike. This particular skill was capable of assisting the user to surpass the gap in realms by at least one or two layers; perhaps even more! And with the help of this explosive attack, one could even kill an enemy much stronger than oneself in one swoop; even if the enemy was one or two layers ahead!
However, this maneuver had one basic drawback, that is, no matter the enemy’s injuries, the user would turn to toast!
Before injuring the enemy, the user would hurt himself, and whether or not the enemy survives the strike, the user would be foreordained to death!
The Solitary Falcon cursed out in shock: “You bastard, you’re courting your death! I’m Solitary…..” he wanted to say: “I’m Solitary Falcon, your brother-master!”
However, the Solitary Falcon’s words were interrupted but a burst of laughter from Hai Chen Feng, who shouted back at him in a grief stricken tone: “You old bastard! Now you’re afraid of it? You will now know the mistake you’ve made!”
He continued to rotate his sword around in circles, and it seemed like his sword was at the center of a turbulent sea, giving rise to monstrous waves. This storm had already started making ‘clank’ sounds, almost as if a legendary dragon was hissing his last and angry dying breaths!
His sword continued to move in circles, making the whirlwind’s sounds even louder and noisier! Suddenly, a white light flashed, which was shortly followed by loud sound, and it was evident that a thunderbolt had originated in the sky above, which was now piercing through the sky, and was decisively crashing downwards!
The Solitary Falcon was left dumbstruck!
The Solitary Falcon was left anxious and gloomy by this approaching strike, and violently cursed out: “You little bastard, quickly stop this madness! Or else, I’ll go and seek out Meng Hong Chen after I’m done with you! I will settle this score with him for giving his secret technique to a madman like you! You’re not just mad, you’re an idiot too!”
“I’m the Solitary Falcon! You need to stop this……” the Solitary Falcon’s intestines were already full with regret since he could sense that the situation had already gone beyond the point of reversal at this stage.