Duel

"This kind of sword momentum?!" Ji Pingtian's standing figure shuddered violently. The force concentrated within his body erupted with a deafening roar, unleashing a terrifying power distinctly superior to that of an ordinary Martial Saint. This was not because his physique was stronger than that of a Martial Saint. Rather, his potent spirit intent allowed him to unleash a higher upper limit of power in a single instant than an ordinary Martial Saint ever could! Above his body, the phantom of a colossal elephant seemed to materialize, towering between heaven and earth with enough might to shatter the void. Its trunk swept toward the heavens as it roared in fury. A terrifying presence and the biological pressure of someone far surpassing the limits of the human body climbed steadily from Ji Pingtian. Even Zong Yan and Fang Lu, standing close by, as well as Grandmasters like Zhang Tianji and Yue Xingzhou slightly farther away, could not help but show looks of terror. As for the ordinary Martial Artists from Yaoguang's logistics team farther back—such as Lei Yun, Aili, and Bai Ya—the sight drained the color from their faces. It felt as if that terrifying, sky-roaring colossal elephant would leap across the void at any moment, crushing them all to dust beneath the overwhelming weight of Mount Tai. "Spirit intent?!" "Unification of spirit and force! The president... is actually going all out?!" What happened to having victory in the palm of his hand? What happened to not even needing gloves or a combat suit? How had he resorted to spirit intent right at the opening bell? *Rumble!* Before the two physically clashed, the clash of spirit intents collided first in the void, sending out ripples like thunderclaps. This was a thunderous resonance born from the spirit intent shaking the minds of other cultivators. The sword in Yaoguang's hand was like a meteor blazing across the sky, slashing boldly into the colossal phantom elephant formed by Ji Pingtian's spirit intent and momentum. The moment they collided, the incisive sword light instantly ripped through the near-solidified elephant. Fierce and soaring, its momentum was unstoppable! *Such tremendous explosive power...* Ji Pingtian could clearly tell that Yaoguang was definitely not in the Spirit Intent realm. Though he seemed to have grasped the profound mysteries of spirit intent, that intent was closer to raw talent... It was purer, yet also weaker. He had never patiently nurtured it. Moreover, his blood cleansing and marrow washing appeared to have only just begun; his physique was visibly inferior to Ji Pingtian's. Yet... Though his spirit intent was inferior, and his physique was inferior, the ultimate expression of his physical strength was not in the slightest below that of Ji Pingtian, a Spirit Intent Martial Saint! It was as if he were a natural-born martial prodigy who had long since trained the circulation of force and the eruption of vital energy and blood into pure instinct. With a single thought, his vital energy and blood ignited like a blazing flame. With another thought, it vanished without a trace like scattered dust. Such astonishing combat talent... "Treading Mountains and Rivers!" While his thoughts flashed, Ji Pingtian's movements did not slow in the least, and a chilling gleam erupted from his eyes. The instant Yaoguang broke through Ji Pingtian's momentum and Yaoguang's sword momentum was briefly halted, Ji Pingtian seized the opening and struck boldly. His fist force tore through the air, transforming into a towering colossal elephant capable of crushing mountains and rivers as it slammed down. *Boom!* As fist force and sword radiance met, an explosive clap of thunder seemed to roar through the air. The airflow across dozens of meters violently caved in, forming a visible vortex of shockwaves. This vortex lasted for only an instant before violently bursting apart the next second. It was like the shockwave of a detonation. A visible white wave of air swept outward in all directions from the point of their clash. The nearby flora was shredded to pieces on the spot by the erupting force. At the very center of the confrontation, the sword in Yaoguang's hand—obtained from a Martial Master, and far from top quality—was shattered to pieces by Ji Pingtian's brutal fist force. The shattered blade fragments exploded outward in all directions, gouging several one-meter-long furrows into the ground and splitting even the solid flagstones. However, while Ji Pingtian had forcibly shattered the sword with his bare flesh, he did not come away unscathed. The collision of fist force and steel, the clash of the blade and his fist aura, drew blood from his right hand on the spot. A Martial Saint broke the limits of the human body, achieving an inhuman physical toughness that blades could barely harm, but much depended on who was wielding the sword. Against a fellow Martial Saint... Even though Ji Pingtian possessed a slightly higher cultivation, meeting Yaoguang's sharp blade with bare flesh out of sheer overconfidence still caused him to suffer a bitter loss upon contact. Moreover, this was not the end. The moment the sword shattered under Ji Pingtian's savage force, Yaoguang lunged forward. Forming a sword with the fingers of his left hand, he thrust straight ahead like a beam of flowing light. Surging force continuously erupted from his internal organs, producing a high-frequency vibration. It was merely a palm-sword, yet if allowed to strike the body, its penetrating force would shatter the internal organs of any cultivator below the Martial Saint realm into dust. Even a Martial Saint with an inhuman physique would suffer severe tremors to their organs, sustain heavy injuries, and lose all fighting capacity. "Not good!" Faced with such a sword-palm and penetrating force, Ji Pingtian did not dare meet it head-on and was forced to withdraw at top speed. "What?!" The scene instantly left Zong Yan, Fang Lu, and the many members of the Jishi Society who had accompanied them in utter disbelief. "The president backed away first?!" In a life-and-death struggle between Martial Saints, whichever party retreated first not only suffered a loss of momentum, but also surrendered the initiative, turning the tables from offense to defense. In this head-on clash between Yaoguang and Ji Pingtian, the first to retreat was not Yaoguang—who days ago was only a young Grandmaster who had not even secured the status of Revelator—but Ji Pingtian, a Divine Realm Martial Saint whose fame had lasted decades and who undeniably ranked among the very pinnacle of the East Continent! Never mind the spectators; the moment Ji Pingtian was forced into a rapid retreat, his own expression turned bitterly cold. As the president of the Jishi Society, a Divine Realm Martial Saint, he had been forced back by a nineteen-year-old Martial Saint?! Recalling how he had just spoken of Yaoguang's arrogance and conceit, claiming he would teach him a lesson, those words now struck like giant slaps across his face. If he could not turn the situation around, the final sound... Would be deafeningly loud! With that thought, Ji Pingtian drew a deep breath. "Armed with a powerful secret technique to unlock your potential, and possessing such exquisite swordsmanship, no wonder you act so insolently. But... it is useless!" The next instant, a secret technique designed to stimulate physical potential began running within this Divine Realm Martial Saint. Under the amplification of the secret technique, his entire vital energy and blood seemed to ignite, turning into a blazing inferno that surged toward its peak with boundless heat. The air around his body warped, as if a blazing furnace engine were churning inside him, feeding limitless power to his frame. "Dragon-Elephant World Suppression!" Halting mid-retreat, he channeled the savage force stimulated by the secret technique, ignited it with blazing fighting will, and unleashed an absolute strike that seemed capable of sweeping away everything under heaven, punching straight forward! This punch was not remarkably swift. Yet it carried the force to topple mountains and overturn the seas. As the fist pushed forward, the surrounding space and light seemed to warp and contract around it, locking down the surroundings and leaving no room to dodge. It seemed less like a punch and more like the descent of a mountain, an entire world. Everything in the path of this fist would be crushed to powder by the destructive force within it. Every single characteristic... *A fist technique of the Heavenly Being realm?* Yaoguang saw through the true core of this martial technique. The so-called lockdown of space that left one nowhere to dodge was simply another manifestation of the Heaven and Earth Furnace. A fusion of illusion and reality, interfering with and confusing the perceptions of others on the level of heaven and earth. It was far more subtle and refined than mere interference from spirit intent. As the thought crossed his mind, he shifted his palm into a fist. His fist force vibrated, his spirit intent erupted, and a miraculous sensation akin to substituting his own will for the will of heaven rippled steadily from his frame. "Dragon-Elephant World Suppression! That's the Dragon-Elephant World Suppression Fist, one of our Jishi Society's three supreme martial arts! It's a fist technique meant only for life-and-death combat—the ultimate finishing blow of life-and-death strikes! This was supposed to be a sparring match; why is the president using such a lethal move?!" Zong Yan looked horrified. He stepped forward urgently, shouting at the top of his lungs, "President, hold your hand—" The moment he moved, Fang Lu, who had been waiting for a chance to kick Yaoguang while he was down, lunged forward as well. "Zong Yan, be careful! Don't disrupt them—" *Rumble!* Just as Zong Yan and Fang Lu moved, the near-peak strikes of Yaoguang and Ji Pingtian finally collided. It was like two massive celestial bodies capable of warping their surroundings intersecting and crashing together. On a cosmic scale, the movements of celestial bodies seemed agonizingly slow, yet when they truly met and collided, the resulting cataclysm—especially to the living beings upon them—felt like nothing less than the end of the world. The flagstones beneath their feet instantly shattered under a violent shockwave. The ground within a three-meter radius cracked visibly and caved in. The blast wave, mingled with the dust of shattered stone, battered outward in every direction, carrying grit and sand dozens of meters away. Nearby saplings were snapped in half by flying shards of stone, sending wood chips flying everywhere. A frontal clash! This strike was a completely unadorned, solid, direct collision between the two! Although Yaoguang's own ability to substitute his will for heaven's fell far short of a true Heavenly Being, Ji Pingtian's fist technique was likewise only able to draw out a fraction of the Heaven and Earth Furnace's surface. Consequently, Yaoguang's fist shattered Ji Pingtian's Dragon-Elephant World Suppression almost immediately. A ferocious recoil traveled up their punching arms in wave after wave, tearing through their bodies and violently shaking their flesh, bones, and internal organs. Even though both were Martial Saints with physiques surpassing human limits, they still felt the violent rebound grinding mercilessly through their bodies. Every corner of their frames groaned under the unbearable strain, as if in the very next moment... Their physical bodies would completely collapse under this extreme state. Right at that moment... A roar of shock and fury erupted from Yaoguang's flank. "Fang Lu! How dare you!" Yaoguang caught sight of her out of the corner of his eye. Fang Lu was lunging forward with incredible speed, taking advantage of the deadlock between him and Ji Pingtian to pounce like lightning. A glint of cold light gleamed from the dagger in her hand, thrusting straight toward Yaoguang's throat.