Exchanging Blows

"This isn't getting us anywhere. Why don't we make an agreement—neither of us uses time stop?" Having finished inspecting Shenshang Chai's skills, Yu Xian looked at his opponent and made the proposal with outward confidence. His own time stop consumed a massive amount of the power of Grand Dao Myriad Phenomena, meaning he couldn't actually sustain it for very long. Shenshang Chai's skill was entirely different: its consumption was minuscule, yet it could freeze time for an exceptionally long duration. Therefore, the best course of action was to convince Shenshang Chai to agree to forgo time stop altogether. "Deal!" After weighing the pros and cons for a moment, Shenshang Chai agreed. After all, as far as he was concerned, both he and Yu Xian possessed the power to freeze time. If they kept the freeze going now, neither could land an attack on the other, resulting in nothing more than a waste of time. In that case, they might as well abandon time stop entirely and clash head-on with bare steel and raw power. At present, tens of trillions of viewers across the Myriad Realms were watching their match. Shenshang Chai knew full well that neither he nor Yu Xian needed any binding contract. Once the words were spoken, neither would back out. If there had to be a reason, it was pride. If either went back on their word at this juncture, they would lose face in front of the entire multiverse, and everyone would know them as someone who broke their promises. "Great. Then let's release the freeze!" Seeing Shenshang Chai agree, Yu Xian smiled. A second later, both lifted their time stops simultaneously. Immediately, a fireball collided with a serpent of fire midair, erupting with a resounding boom. Shenshang Chai's right arm blazed with flames. Seeing his initial strike miss, his entire body instantly dissolved into fire as he swept toward Yu Xian at blistering speed. Everywhere he passed burst into flames, coalescing into two colossal fiery palms that lunged right behind him to slam toward Yu Xian. Earth Mastery! Watching Shenshang Chai charge forward with murderous momentum, Yu Xian immediately manipulated the ground beneath him, raising an even more gargantuan earthen palm that swept out directly toward Shenshang Chai and his flaming hands. *You fell for it!* A smirk touched the corners of Shenshang Chai's lips. The instant he made contact with the earthen palm, he decisively activated Tilling Art. At first, he too had assumed Tilling Art was merely a support skill. However, during his late-night monster grinding over the past few days, he had discovered that he could exert a degree of control over the tilled land created by the skill. This was likely an effect of his Enhancement +1, so he had kept the move hidden up his sleeve. He had known Yu Xian possessed Earth Mastery, which was why he had deliberately avoided using Tilling Art throughout his earlier battles. Now was the exact moment for Tilling Art to strike as a surprise trump card. In the blink of an eye, a square opening materialized right in the palm Yu Xian was controlling. Surging with torrential flames, Shenshang Chai darted through the square gap and drove a palm straight toward Yu Xian. This palm strike was no ordinary blow; it was a technique Shenshang Chai had developed entirely on his own using his Origin Flame Form. The moment Yu Xian moved to intercept it, a relentless onslaught of raging fire would swallow him whole. Naturally, Yu Xian was not about to fall into the trap. Facing Shenshang Chai's attack, he decisively activated Forward Light Shield. A golden shield snapped into place before him, colliding squarely with Shenshang Chai's palm. The flames trailing behind Shenshang Chai swirled violently, sweeping up his arm and continuously bombarding the Forward Shield. The strike failed to break through. Shenshang Chai showed not the slightest hesitation, pulling his body back immediately while more flames surged forth to cover his retreat. At that exact moment, however, Yu Xian decisively triggered Bullet Time. Bullet Time was not a time stop; the distinction between the two was stark. A time stop acted upon the external world, freezing external time, whereas Bullet Time drastically amplified Yu Xian's own reaction speed, creating an effect akin to time slowing down. "Water Control: A Brook Flows Alone!" Yu Xian materialized instantly at Shenshang Chai's flank, releasing a mass of pure water from his inventory. Gripping the swirling stream in his right hand, he saw the water transform in a flash into a long blade, its edge revving and vibrating at hyper-velocity like a chainsaw. A single blue slash cleaved Shenshang Chai clean in two. Shenshang Chai was not idle either. With a low roar, a bolt of lightning crashed down from the sky, striking Yu Xian dead-on. Both were injured simultaneously. Shenshang Chai spun backward amid a shower of sparks while Yu Xian stumbled back several paces. One had a slash across his abdomen that exposed bone; the other was charred black all over, trailing wisps of white smoke. "What a shame about Yu Xian's strike." "He was so close to an instant kill on Shenshang Chai. What a pity." Only then did cheers erupt across the spectator stands, accompanied by collective sighs of regret from Yu Xian's many supporters. Yu Xian's blade had not been aimed at Shenshang Chai's abdomen, of course; he had been aiming straight for his head. Yet Shenshang Chai possessed astonishing control over his own body. In the nick of time, he had retracted his head down into his torso, pulling it all the way behind his buttocks to dodge Yu Xian's terrifying slash. Because of that evasive maneuver, he hadn't had time to defend properly, taking the strike across his abdomen and suffering serious wounds. Reverting to human form, Shenshang Chai used blood manipulation to stem the bleeding while keeping his guard raised against another attack from Yu Xian. On the other side, Yu Xian's charred skin was rapidly flaking away. With the passive skill Hard to Kill, he was extraordinarily difficult to slay, and his injuries healed at incredible speed. Of course, this did not come without a price; his stamina drained steadily to fuel the regeneration process. *Shenshang Chai's most dangerous abilities are still his class skills,* Yu Xian thought, wiping the black soot from his face. *Both Time Amber and Spear of Slowness are lethal. He's clearly holding them as trump cards and won't deploy them lightly without guaranteed certainty of hitting.* Yu Xian was searching for an opening to kill Shenshang Chai in one hit, and Shenshang Chai was doing the exact same thing to him. What was worse, Yu Xian was actually at a disadvantage right now. The reason was simple: the overwhelming power of that earlier slash had been largely fueled by his passive skill, Iaidō Slash, which granted a massive boost to the first strike. Having already expended that initial burst, replicating the sheer lethality of that blow in his subsequent attacks would be nearly impossible. It was a real shame. He had intended to catch Shenshang Chai off guard, unleashing a lethal trump card while his opponent thought they were still probing each other out to end the match in one fell swoop. But Yu Xian had underestimated Shenshang Chai's reaction time and counterattack speed, ultimately falling just short of success. Summon Wild Wolf! At that moment, Shenshang Chai activated a skill, and a meter-tall wild wolf materialized on the arena floor. Seeing this, Yu Xian activated his own summoning skill. Around him, Eight Hundred Deathsworn instantly sprang into being. This was a brand-new batch, not the group that had been made to eat feces earlier, so their gazes were razor-sharp, completely unlike the hollow, lifeless stare of their predecessors. "Attack!" Shenshang Chai commanded. The wild wolf hesitated for a brief second before the sea of eight hundred deathsworn, then charged decisively forward. As Yu Xian's eight hundred deathsworn sprang into motion, Shenshang Chai watched them and quietly triggered a skill: Hallucinatory Hypnosis. The deathsworn charging forward suddenly turned traitor as one, pivoting to unleash a barrage of attacks against Yu Xian. Bullets, darts, throwing daggers, and poisoned needles rained down toward him in a frantic swarm. A look of triumph crossed Shenshang Chai's face. His summons might not match Yu Xian's in numbers, but what did that matter? In the blink of an eye, every last one of them had become his own minions, fighting for him.