Come and Fight!

Tu Zhongqiu furrowed his brows slightly and sent a quiet voice transmission to Gong Ze beside him. "That fellow named Lu Xingyuan doesn't seem simple..." Hands clasped behind his back, the old man's turbid eyes gleamed sharply as he stared at the two men clashing frantically on the arena, his voice solemn. "He is very strong. But... even we understand the significance of this battle; how could the two on stage not know? Watch. I'm afraid this fight won't be decided until the very end. Besides... heh, Brother Tu, do you think today's Great Xia Sword Sect would fear losing a few resources?" Hearing this, Tu Zhongqiu turned to look at the back of the young man standing straight as a sword, a faint smile surfacing on his face as he murmured, "Today's Great Xia Sword Sect does not." Even as the two spoke, two figures on the Dao platform clashed furiously, moving so fast they blurred. Shattered patches of ground on the Dao platform burst open one after another. *Boom! Boom!* Terrifying explosive sounds rang out as the two intertwined, each collision brimming with violent beauty. Wielding the Dark-Gold Wandering Dragon Staff, Lu Xingyuan's staff techniques were fierce and incisive, blindingly fast and ferociously powerful! Like Lu Wuhen, Lu Xingyuan practiced dual cultivation of spirit and martial paths, and his physical body had been tempered to be exceptionally robust. Yet Zhou Shiyu's physical strength was by no means inferior. Able to wield the three-thousand-jin heavy sword Edgeless with ease, his raw physical might was nothing short of terrifying. Both fought with sweeping, wide-ranging strikes, carrying momentum capable of cleaving mountains and severing rivers! *Thump, thump! Boom!* Zhou Shiyu spun his body, using the force of his opponent's staff to sweep his sword back across in a horizontal slash! The immense pressure of this strike directly hemmed in and restricted Lu Xingyuan's movements. Lu Xingyuan's pupils constricted. With no time to overthink, he bent low and flicked his staff upward toward Zhou Shiyu's wrist! The staff thrust forward like a spear, piercing straight through the void. Zhou Shiyu's expression remained unchanged. The moment he sensed his opponent switching moves, he twisted his wrist and brought the giant sword crashing violently down toward Lu Xingyuan's shoulder! As the greatsword fell, it bypassed the staff's strike, causing the thrust to rap harmlessly against the spine of the blade. Borrowing the force of that tap, Edgeless shifted its trajectory from his shoulder straight toward his head! This blow gave Lu Xingyuan quite a scare. He had not anticipated Zhou Shiyu would react so quickly. Moreover, his methods of borrowing momentum were nearly impossible to guard against, mastered to consummate perfection. Even the instant Lu Xingyuan shifted his staff offensive, the other man could still pinpoint the flaw in his technique and launch a swift counter. Lu Xingyuan's expression turned exceedingly grim. Clearly his own onslaught was fiercer, yet the other man still maneuvered with ease. Dressed in black robes, Zhou Shiyu moved like a wraith, agile and elusive. Though Zhou Shiyu appeared casual, he was inwardly just as shocked. For he discovered that in the span of just half an incense stick's time, his opponent had altered his offensive rhythm four separate times. Whether in stance or force, the shifts could only be described as unfathomable. The moment Zhou Shiyu grew accustomed to his shifting rhythm, Lu Xingyuan would alter it once more! *Bang!* A strike akin to a spear thrust from a retreating horse jabbed fiercely into his abdomen. Terrifying power erupted. Zhou Shiyu chopped his sword down into Lu Xingyuan's shoulder, but the downward momentum was blocked as the other man pulled his staff back to parry. Deflecting the staff, Zhou Shiyu retreated rapidly several hundred zhang. Looking down at the bowl-sized puncture wound in his abdomen, he could not help but swallow hard. Had he been just a fraction slower, the sweeping swing of that staff would have shattered him at the waist! At this moment, both men wore solemn expressions. Lu Xingyuan's right clavicle was completely shattered, a mangled mess of blood and flesh. His right arm hung limply down, yet he still maintained a death grip on his staff. Zhou Shiyu felt a lingering dread as well. If he had not chosen to trade injury for Lu Xingyuan's life just now and instead pulled his sword back to block... he likely would have been critically wounded by now! "This fellow... is strong!" Lu Xingyuan stared at Zhou Shiyu in the distance and forcefully pushed his broken collarbone back into place, his eyes filled with vigilance. "You are the strongest heavy-sword cultivator I have ever encountered... bar none! To master the heavy sword to your degree is far too rare." The Dao platform beneath their feet was now in utter ruin, its devastation a rare sight. Though the previous two battles had been equally brutal, they had not produced destructive power on quite this scale. Among the onlookers, those of weaker cultivation could not even follow their torrential exchange of blows. Moving at extreme speed, their shifts and strikes occurred in a single thought. Whoever was slower died! The tension and thrill of fighting at such close quarters made even Void Refinement cultivators hold their breath. "*Phew!*" Tu Zhongqiu clenched his teeth, his eyes glued to the two in the arena as he sighed, "What perilous combat!!" Zhou Shiyu sealed his wound with a wave of his hand and sneered, "In that case, let's stop probing and get down to real business." These words instantly drew gasps of astonishment from the crowd. Ji Yuchuan slowly turned his head, bowing slightly as he sent a voice transmission: "Pavilion Master, the way I see it, this Lu Xingyuan still has cards up his sleeve. According to my investigation, before Lu Wuhen was born, this Lu Xingyuan was hailed as the Lu clan's greatest genius in a thousand years! He and another member of the Lu clan were known as the Twin Holy Sons of One Clan, though it is unknown who the other was. Lu Xingyuan's strength should be far greater than what he has shown so far!" As his words fell, a murmur from Li Guanqi reached Ji Yuchuan's ears. "Mm." Ji Yuchuan looked up at Li Guanqi, only to find not the slightest ripple in Li Guanqi's eyes. Li Guanqi said softly, "Don't worry. Zhou Shiyu... isn't as simple as he looks either. His willpower... is formidable. Perhaps second only to Old Ye. A man like him either makes no promises or choices at all, or once he gives his word... in this battle, we will not lose unless he dies!" *Boom!* As they spoke, the situation on the stage shifted once more. Under the infusion of Lu Xingyuan's primal energy, the dark-gold staff in his hand seemed to shed its skin as its outer layer slowly peeled away! The profound aura of the spirit ruins swirled around Lu Xingyuan, and a layer of dense, dark-gold scales coated the surface of the staff. The scales rippled like a living creature! "Apocalypse: Dragon Flood Dragon!!" *Boom!* As the staff revealed its ferocious form, Lu Xingyuan locked his tiger-like gaze onto Zhou Shiyu, his aura soaring in an instant straight to half-step Body Integration! No longer concealing his power, Lu Xingyuan was noticeably more confident as he growled at Zhou Shiyu, "Come, then! Give it your all... and kill me!" Lu Xingyuan was a battle maniac to begin with. Having been kept hidden away by his clan for a century, the combat instincts within his body were completely unleashed under the stimulation of his throbbing wound. Zhou Shiyu licked his chapped, bleeding lips. Tasting the metallic tang in his mouth, his eyes burned with equal fervor. Gripping Edgeless with both hands, he glanced back at Gu Huai, whose eyes were filled with tears and worry. The old man's shoulders twitched slightly as he pressed his lips together. Zhou Shiyu grinned, and the violent aura around him erupted with a roar! A steady, mountain-like momentum burst from within him! His will to protect soared into the clouds; terrifying sword qi tore through the firmament, slashing fissure after fissure across the void above! "Apocalypse: Judgment!!" *Boom!* The pitch-black heavy sword underwent an earth-shaking transformation! The hilt reformed into the likeness of a roaring dragon head, and along the spine, the originally blunt heavy sword gleamed with cold light—its blade unsealed and honed! If the edgeless heavy sword was Zhou Shiyu's protection, then the Sword of Judgment before him now was the fierce resolve to slaughter all before him in defense of his convictions! Grasping Judgment, Zhou Shiyu reached the pinnacle of his momentum, roaring at the top of his lungs: "Come and fight!!"