Book 1 Chapter 48: Ninefold Fist Force vs. Glacial Palm
While regreting this in his mind, Zhang Zhenshan was unwilling to give the enemy a chance to take a breather. He raised his right fist, his eyes glittered with ferocity, and charged at Bai Yunfei!
When Bai Yunfei had just made his decision, he saw Zhang Zhenshan coming at him first. His expression slightly changing, he shook his right arm, which had almost fully recovered. After taking a deep breath, he charged up holding the spear in his hands.
When fighting this time, both of them were obviously much more careful than before. Bai Yunfei had to watch out for the opponent’s strange body-maneuvering technique and arms, which could lengthen anytime, while Zhang Zhenshan was extremely afraid of the Fire-tipped Spear in Bai Yunfei’s hands. He even almost no longer smacked the tip of the spear away with his palms when it was thrust at him. Instead, he dealt with it by dodging. And Bai Yunfei’s Wave Treading Steps also gave him trouble.
However, after twenty something bouts, Bai Yunfei was gradually put at a disadvantage again and was hit by several palm strikes from Zhang Zhenshan in a row. Luckily, these palm strikes were much less damaging than the earlier palm strikes. As Zhang Zhenshan did not have much soulforce left, he did not hastily use his elemental force to attack, and Bai Yunfei was protected by the Goldsilk Soul Armor too. These were the reasons why Bai Yunfei had been able to cling on until now.
Although Bai Yunfei was in a disadvantageous situation, there was no trace of panic on his face at all. While he was defending and attacking, his eyes glittered slightly, looking like he was secretly planning something…
Zhang Zhenshan lowered his body, avoiding a horizontal sweep of the spear. Taking advantage of this opportunity, he attacked the enemy’s legs with a sweep kick. Bai Yunfei retreated half a step with a shake of his body, avoiding this attack.
Taking advantage of this moment, Zhang Zhenshan did not pause at all after standing up. Using the Ice Treading Steps, he slid forwards and went up to Bai Yunfei’s face in the blink of an eye when Bai Yunfei slightly lost his balance after backing off. Reaching out his right hand, forming a claw, he made another grab at Bai Yunfei’s throat!
Bai Yunfei had no choice but to lean backwards again, avoiding this claw attack and making the Fire-tipped Spear disappear simultaneously. Just when he wanted to take the Glacial Piercer out to fight the enemy with it, in front of him, Zhang Zhenshan gave a cold snort and turned his claw into an open palm. At the same time, his arm suddenly became longer by more than two inches, throwing a palm strike at Bai Yunfei’s left shoulder!
The sudden change of moves made it impossible for Bai Yunfei to dodge. He was hit by a palm strike again and his body turned left uncontrollably. At the same time, because he had been retreating just then, now it seemed he could no longer control his balance. He staggered two steps and unexpectedly turned his back towards Zhang Zhenshan instead of using the Wave Treading Steps to continue to dodge!
Zhang Zhenshan’s eyes flashing with ferocity, he slightly lifted his right arm and threw a palm strike at Bai Yunfei’s back without pausing at all. This was an extremely heavy blow. He was certain that its impact would injure the opponent again and unbalance him even more!
As expected, Bai Yunfei let out a grunt and staggered another half step. It looked like he was about to fall to his knees because of being unable to endure this palm’s force of impact!
The killing intent in Zhang Zhenshan’s eyes intensified. He took a step forwards without hesitation and slightly halted his right arm at the same time. Almost in an instant, a layer of frost was formed on his right palm. His whole palm unexpectedly changed until it looked as if it was made of ice. Various strands of cold air were spreading out from it, sending a shudder through anyone who would take a look at it.
Soul technique, Glacial Palm!!
He had used this soul technique in the beginning of the battle as well, but at the time he had only gathered up a small amount of ice elemental force. And the second time he used it, because of Bai Yunfei’s dodging, he had to forcefully change it midway into the Arm Lengthening Fist.
This time, when he threw this palm strike, he used up half of his already scarce remaining soulforce, after saving it for quite some time!
The coldness was intense!
Even the air around the palm seemed to be frozen. This palm strike stirred through this area of air to came straight at the back of Bai Yunfei’s head with short buzzing sounds!
However, he, who was preoccupied with grabbing this opportunity to chase and attack the opponent, did not notice that when Bai Yunfei had been hit by that palm strike earlier, his eyes had flashed with a trace of shrewdness. He also did not notice that Bai Yunfei appeared totally composed after turning around, and that he was hiding a right arm with bulging muscles and popping veins in front of him!
The moment he threw this palm strike, Bai Yunfei suddenly stopped leaning forwards. He no longer swayed or staggered. Using his right leg, which was in the front, as the axis, he turned around. His eyes glittering, he stared hard at the incoming palm and struck a blow with his right fist, which also carried buzzing sounds with it!
Overlapping Waves Art, Ninefold Fist Force!!
“Bang!!”
The palm and the fist collided, unexpectedly creating a resounding explosion. Afterwards, both men were sent flying backwards almost simultaneously!!
While Bai Yunfei was in midair, a trace of a forced smile appeared on the corners of his mouth again. Clenching his teeth, he managed to do a flip. After landing on the ground, he had to take ten something steps backwards continuously in a shaky manner before being able to steady himself.
He had been hit and sent flying three times in a row with each time leaving him in a more difficult situation and forcing him to retreat farther than the previous. This also meant that each time he was injured more severely than the previous.
A chill spread up from his fist. Eventually it was stopped by him at his shoulder. His entire right arm was now ghastly pale, looking as if it had been frozen, and he almost could not feel it at all. Bai Yunfei forcefully poured a stream of soulforce into his right arm, regaining a little control of it. He opened his right fist slightly. The crimson Fire-tipped Spear appeared in the blink of an eye and he held it tightly.
A scorching heat then surged into his right arm from the handle of the spear. Bai Yunfei’s heart immediately relaxed a bit. He did his utmost to control his soulforce, channeling it back and forth in his right arm, cooperating with this scorching heat to disperse the chill in his arm.
Zhang Zhenshan was also sent flying by the impact, but his situation was much better than Bai Yunfei’s. He only needed to turn his body a bit while in midair to land steadily on the ground.
However, when he raised his head to look at Bai Yunfei in front of him, his eyes were filled with amazement and disbelief, and there was even a trace of… bafflement.
His entire right arm was trembling nonstop. A piercing pain came up from it. When he had been hit by that punch from Bai Yunfei, at first the force of impact had not been very strong. At least it definitely could not be considered strong to the defense of a Soul Sprite like him. But right afterwards, wave after wave of fist force suddenly exploded. Just like how a nail was driven into a wall when hit continuously, these waves of force spread out nonstop from the palm of his hand and surged straight up through his arm!
Wherever the fist force went through, the muscles and bones of his arm were attacked again and again. Two or three times would have meant nothing at all. Four or five times would have been endurable. But when attacked by seven or eight overlapping waves of force while he was focusing his entire mind on the Glacial Palm, even the body of a Soul Sprite like him could not withstand it!
His whole right arm’s muscles were hurting badly as if they were about to snap and the bones seemed to be giving off light crackles. And layer of fine beads of sweat had even appeared on his forehead.
“This is the soul technique that injured Wei Xu according to Zhao Ping, right? This power is at least several times greater than what he described!!” Zhang Zhenshan thought to himself while channeling his soulforce to heal the injuries in his arm.
“Plus, his defense is the most inconceivable thing! Those two palm strikes of mine obviously hit him, and judging from the defense he showed earlier, it’s simply impossible that he was only affected a bit! Yet he was still able to plot against me, showing signs of defeat on purpose then unleashing that focus attack in the blink of an eye! This means, at least when he took my second palm strike, he already knew that he could resist it without getting injured! Impossible… How did he do that…?”
No matter how amazed Zhang Zhenshan was and how he guessed, he could not figure out the answer, because this was a secret that only Bai Yunfei knew!
The moment Zhang Zhenshan had surprisingly turned his claw into a palm then hit his left shoulder by using the Arm Lengthening Fist, he indeed had intended to use the Wave Treading Steps to avoid the next attack, but the moment this idea had appeared in his mind, a strand of soulforce had flowed into the Goldsilk Soul Armor on his body uncontrollably. Then the force of that palm strike, which was surging into his body, became very weak!
Goldsilk Soul Armor’s additional effect: When attacked, it has a 5% chance of increasing defense by 50% for 3 seconds.
Trigger successful!!
The effect which he had been waiting for for a long time finally appeared. Bai Yunfei was immediately delighted inside. He abandoned the idea of dodging and instead took advantage of the force of this palm strike to pretend that he had lost his balance due to being overwhelmed by the impact. Then he turned around while staggering so that his back faced the enemy.
The moment he turned around, he began to focus his energy into his arm. At the same time, he calculated in his mind: Three seconds… the best chance hasn’t come yet!
Afterwards, Zhang Zhenshan continued to attack without pausing by throwing the second, even more powerful palm strike!
The next three seconds was the duration of the Goldsilk Soul Armor’s 50% increase in defense! Zhang Zhenshan was fully confident about this second palm strike but in fact Bai Yunfei did not have to endure too great of an impact force!
Then came the Glacial Palm attack. After focusing his energy for almost three seconds, Bai Yunfei counterattacked in a surprising manner and finally injured and knocked back Zhang Zhenshan!!
Had it been someone else comparable to Bai Yunfei in power, nothing unexpected would have happened in relation to the earlier attacks and this person would definitely have been killed by that palm strike as Zhang Zhenshan had expected.
However, this series of attacks from Zhang Zhenshan, which should have been able to kill the enemy violently, had failed, due to the additional effect of an upgraded item!
It was because his opponent was Bai Yunfei!
All of these factors had resulted in the current situation in which both men’s right arms were seriously injured!
Remaining motionless, Bai Yunfei stared at Zhang Zhenshan, who was also recovering from injuries, in front of him. When he felt that his right arm’s injuries had basically been suppressed, he secretly let out a sigh of relief. For the moment, he just did not have time to heal it carefully. He cast a glance around in an unnoticeable manner while his mind was working overtime.
“I can’t fight anymore! I don’t have much soulforce left. If I want to use the Wave Treading Steps to run away, I can’t use too much energy again! For every other bout I fight him, I’ll be in a bit more danger!
“Damn it!! Though I don’t want to abandon it, I have no choice but to do that!”