Chapter 236

For the first time, a look of astonishment appeared on Zhang Zongyuan's face. The long stick in his hand lost control in an instant, and the stick end was smashed fiercely onto the ground by the suddenly arriving force, sending shattered stones flying.

Having exposed his long-hidden trump card so directly, Yang Yan showed no signs of gloom over his previous efforts being wasted. He stepped on Zhang Zongyuan's stick with one foot and slashed his long blade fiercely at the hand the man was using to hold his forearm.

This was the true form of a mindless fighting style—how dare you step on a Sixth Life Realm expert's stick?

Zhang Zongyuan twisted and shook, and Yang Yan immediately lost his center of gravity. At the same time, the man pulled his arm, placing Yang Yan's own arm on the path of his own blade.

In an instant, his lower body lost stability, his upper body was fighting itself, and Zhang Zongyuan's stick had already stabbed over mercilessly again.

In the first round of letting himself go, Yang Yan fell into the same perilous situation as just now—and even worse, because this time his blade did not have a massive force constrained within it.

The whistling stick end made Yang Yan's hair stand on end. Without time to think, his tilted body stepped on the ground, and he flipped and flew up.

It was true that he had dodged this stick, but his arm was still in Zhang Zongyuan's hand.

Sure enough, the next moment, Yang Yan's body suddenly lost control. Zhang Zongyuan, holding the person with one hand and the stick with the other, crashed the two together fiercely.

This was truly a perilous situation.

Zhang Zongyuan crashed the stick heavily toward Yang Yan's abdomen. The youth's fighting style had suddenly changed, and he also needed two or three rounds to adapt. At this moment, this stick was prepared to be received by that strange blade technique again.

But no blade met it—a moment earlier, Yang Yan had already slashed his blade fiercely at the man's head.

Yang Yan didn't think about why he had to launch this blade strike, didn't know what to receive in the next move, and didn't even have the brain to think about what impact this move would have on the enemy. Seeing Pei Ye's earnest sharing had long been thrown to the back of his mind.

The battle entered such an intense and dangerous rhythm that the so-called game theory in Yang Yan's brain had long been covered over, leaving only what was seen in front of him.

There was a gap here, so he slashed it anyway!

Zhang Zongyuan lifted his head, the bright blade light pressing against his eyes, and the man's pupils shrank slightly. This was a very strange and unpredictable angle for a blade strike, because the youth's body was in the process of being pulled by him, and he hadn't made any precautions.

The youth's eerie sensitivity to the blade path did indeed startle him, but the force and speed were just like that after all. The man leaned to the side, and the blade missed suddenly. But the youth had already closed in, and the long stick in his hand was not easy to exert force with. Zhang Zongyuan immediately and decisively released Yang Yan's forearm and lifted his elbow, striking a fist directly at the face that was close at hand.

Yang Yan leaned back abruptly and returned the blade, meeting this fist with the edge.

Under the wrapping of true Qi, this fist was not afraid of the iron edge. It should have pressed this blade with a fist and crashed onto the youth's collarbone, but the force vanished again the moment it touched the blade edge.

This strange situation happening on his own fist was even more horrifying, but Zhang Zongyuan still had no pause. While feeling astonished in his heart, a knee had already been lifted fiercely to strike at Yang Yan's abdomen.

But what this knee met was not a soft abdomen, but a force that was equally massive and fierce. It was precisely Yang Yan turning his long blade back again, and the force that had been swallowed and disappeared before poured out toward the knee.

It was also at the moment of feeling this familiar fist force that Zhang Zongyuan had his first preliminary judgment on this strange means—Dou Zhuan Xing Yi?

Thinking in his heart, facing the force of his own full-strength fist in front of him, Zhang Zongyuan did not have any hesitation or retreat. He moved forward without looking back, then broke through it by bearing the counter-shock, and continued to lift his knee fiercely.

Yang Yan dodged the center by leaning to the side, but was still struck on the side of his body by this knee. Just now, the blade was clearly nearby, but what Zhang Zongyuan struck was not the blade body that had been padded, but the real flesh.

The blade had turned into a stream of light.

After releasing that force, Yang Yan didn't look at all to see if he had forced back that knee. Following the man's knee-lifting action, a gap appeared again, and he slashed directly at it.

Zhang Zongyuan dodged this slash by leaning to the side, and the force on his knee was inevitably halved. The next moment, his knee was grabbed by a palm, and the previous means seemed to be returned to himself.

Of course, the Fifth Life Realm could not restrain the movements of the Sixth Life Realm. Zhang Zongyuan's true Qi exploded and shook him away. But in this shock, Yang Yan had already used the force to support himself and flew forward. The long blade suddenly changed moves and swept horizontally from a strange angle. With a flash of bright light, Zhang Zongyuan leaned back abruptly, but a long, scarlet gash was still cut open on his chest.

A thunderous exclamation came from the spectator stand.

Zhang Zongyuan lifted his hand to restrain this blade, but the long blade swallowed this force directly again. The man's lifted knee did not retract and continued to strike fiercely upward. This time, the force swallowed in the blade was finally far from enough to block this attack, and Zhang Zongyuan crashed into Yang Yan's lower abdomen with full force, facing the blade body.

Such a strike was enough to seal Zhang Mozhu's defeat, and Yang Yan's expression was also hideously fierce, but it was in such a state of being struck that he could actually still make his abdomen retreat from the blade body first, creating a narrow space, and then the blade edge flipped, opening another blood gash on Zhang Zongyuan's knee that absolutely could not be ignored!

This extreme sensitivity to the opportunity to strike was simply as strange as that blade technique, and this move made Zhang Zongyuan's heart shrink for the first time—if not for the timely protection of true Qi, this blade would probably have severed his tendons.

The lingering fear in his heart also made the man feel real anger. Taking advantage of the opportunity to temporarily knock Yang Yan away from his front, Zhang Zongyuan flicked his foot, and the long stick he had just abandoned flew back into his hand.

The youth in front of him clearly had a talent for attacking that far exceeded his defense, but Zhang Zongyuan had never been afraid of competing in offensive momentum with others.

As soon as the long stick was in his hand, Zhang Zongyuan was about to catch up, but Yang Yan had already leaped up first. Even though the pain on his face had not yet dissipated, the blade in his hand was already prepared for an offensive stance.

Greeting him was Zhang Zongyuan's whistling stick.

The long blade circled away the stick momentum, Yang Yan flew up close, and the next moment, Zhang Zongyuan was bleeding again!

Neither of them held back or retreated in the slightest. In the extremely short and narrow gaps, they poured their offensive momentum toward each other violently. In Zhang Zongyuan's tiger-like fists and stick, Yang Yan's body was perilously swaying like a paper boat, as if it would be torn to pieces the next moment.

He was in perilous situations, but he had always been in perilous situations, and was still in perilous situations!

It was unknown when the youth would suffer a fatal strike, but in any case, during this process, the blood flowers on Zhang Zongyuan's body were already becoming more and more numerous.

When all restraints were removed, Yang Yan returned to the rhythm he was most familiar with—fighting, which was supposed to be heart-pounding! Where would he have the brain to think so much?

See what you hit, I don't care what is hidden behind it. Anyway, when it arrives in front of my eyes, it's just another blade strike!

This was also precisely the anger that made Zhang Zongyuan gradually bite his teeth tightly.

He could launch countless killing moves at the youth in front of him and set countless traps, and the youth would always fall into them, but when the trap tightened, he could always escape by a hair's breadth and return a tricky blade light.

Dodging, swallowing, spitting back, exchanging injuries, risking his life... the youth's offensive momentum was like a dense rainstorm, without method or train of thought, just like an agile and crazy leopard. Whether it was useful or not, as long as there was a gap, he would definitely grasp it fiercely.

The suppression in Zhang Zongyuan's heart gradually accumulated to an unbearable degree, and the stifling feeling of having strength but nowhere to exert it filled him. However, in this stifling and anger, the man instead forced himself to calm down.

He had always been good at bear-and-tiger-like attacks, but when he discovered that he really couldn't take advantage of a youth at a lower realm, he would not be overwhelmed by anger.

A calm brain had always been the thing he relied on most.

The youth opposite him had only the blade and stick in front of him in his eyes, but Zhang Zongyuan's brain still held the overall situation—since he couldn't win by attacking, then he would change his method.

Up to this point, all the strengths and weaknesses of the youth had actually been thoroughly understood by him. The reason why he could occupy all the advantages in the first five moves and why he fell into this strange rhythm later was that the key lay in one place—the youth released that means of spitting force.

Otherwise, with his strength and speed far exceeding the other person's, no matter how agile the other party was or how sharp the blade path was, there would be no space to support him under his hands.

It was just because the other party could resolve two of his moves with one blade strike, one in and one out.

So the key still lay in the blade. He had tried to snatch this long blade, but the youth was very vigilant and swallowed his force.

Then, he would change to another method.

Zhang Zongyuan's anger was blocked firmly by him, and his hand was still a stick strike that did not avoid anything. Yang Yan's long blade swallowed the force mysteriously again, and he had already leaped up along the stick that had lost force.

Zhang Zongyuan already knew that exerting the stick to strike again at this moment was of no use, because the youth's blade was waiting to pour out. Thus, he retracted the stick to the back and probed with his fist, intending to connect with a stick move in the next move.

This was the situation they often had when exchanging offensive momentum just now. Sometimes Zhang Zongyuan could graze Yang Yan a little, and sometimes Yang Yan would add a blood gash to Zhang Zongyuan.

But this time, as if the accumulated injuries finally had an effect, the man's fist strike was a moment faster.

Or rather, the stick in the other hand was a beat slower.

This was an extremely narrow gap that many Sixth Life Realm martial artists might not be able to grasp, but in Yang Yan's eyes, this was a clear and bright opportunity!

As long as he was given an opportunity, he would definitely launch a blade strike!

The force gripped on the blade sprayed out suddenly. Zhang Zongyuan's fist was crashed open, and his long arm flew away. This strike must have suffered a shock injury, and the long stick in the other hand was slightly slow. Thus, the left shoulder's empty gate was already exposed for an instant.

Yang Yan was fast and precise, like lightning. The long blade drew a light like a swimming fish, flashing and disappearing.

With a "puchi" sound, accompanied by the sound of scraping bone, it entered the flesh solidly.

A look of joy bloomed on Yang Yan's face, and unprecedented cheers sounded from the spectator stand. But when the youth's gaze moved to Zhang Zongyuan's face, his heart sank—in that painful, biting, and tense state, there was a trace of dangerous ruthlessness.

At the same time, the youth, who was sensitive to momentum, suddenly felt something was wrong.

Something was condensing and rising.

The stick in his right hand had not yet stabbed out, and Yang Yan withdrew his blade in a hurry.

But the long blade was like being poured into a wall, motionless.

The blade body was locked firmly in the body.

Only then did Yang Yan discover that the reason why this blade strike was so smooth was actually not his own credit—Zhang Zongyuan had used his own bone gaps to meet the edge of this blade actively.

The youth was completely unaware of this small action at the Sixth Life Realm.

He immediately wanted to abandon the blade and retreat, but he still did not succeed—the man's hand that had just been shaken away had already firmly gripped his shoulder.

The blade was already in the cage, and the person was already bound, so other things were about to come out.

Yang Yan's heart was gripped fiercely by something, and he already faintly heard a tiger's roar in his ears. He turned his head abruptly to look, and the sound was coming from the long stick in the man's right hand that had been a beat slower.

It was not slow; it was accumulating.

Yang Yan had heard this sound before, but this time, it did not come from the whistling of the long stick breaking the wind. It was clearly held still in his hand, yet there was still a violent surge being transmitted.

That was the sound of massive true Qi squeezing and colliding within it. This angry roar, held firmly in his hand, was like a tiger king trapped in a cage, tearing at the cage door in a rage.

The moment it rushed out, everything in front of it would be torn into pieces.

The last move of the "Tiger" chapter in the "Tiger-Rejecting Stick," 【Emerging from the Cage】.

A tiger is most majestic not when pouncing on prey, nor when descending the mountain. The explosive power of a tiger in its natural state has a limit. Because it is the king of the mountains and forests, catching sheep and eating deer is naturally better than walking in a leisurely courtyard.

Only by trapping it in a cage, desecrating its majesty, and provoking its emotions, letting it watch the weak things that could be shattered with one claw kick the cage and wave whips in front of it, shouting and scolding, can you truly see the terror of the "tiger" the moment the cage breaks.

This is the core principle of writing the "Tiger-Rejecting Stick." Its profound power has already reached the realm of "Vein Transmission."

At this very moment.

At the very moment Yang Yan realized the heart-pounding power within it, the cage door shattered suddenly. Everything that had accumulated to overflowing—force, true Qi, rage, stifling—crashed out like a raging wave.

The long stick raised a wind wave that swept across half the arena, and the tiger's roar could be heard by the entire arena.

Many people realized at this moment that they had underestimated this man. In previous discussions, most people thought he was a notch lower than Qijiao Shang Huaitong, but with this stick strike in front of them, even those who had seen the "Grass-Pulling Chapter" dared not stand up for Qijiao Shang Huaitong.

Still three feet away, Yang Yan's chest and abdomen had already been pressed in by the wind explosion.

This sudden move made his whole body's skin and flesh shrink tightly, and his hair stood on end. Having always wandered on the edge of danger, he finally fell completely into the cage net.

Yang Yan knew this was a situation he could not handle.

Because he was extremely familiar with this feeling; it was the feeling of falling into an irreversible situation suddenly after taking wrong steps one by one while sparring with Seeing Pei Ye.

Looking back, the killing move that could not be dodged was already in front of his eyes, and the next step was failure.

The so-called "certain victory of a smart person over a reckless person like you."

Zhang Zongyuan was clearly a smarter person who was stronger, and the long stick had already pressed onto his body.

But.

Before the result of a serious injury and defeat, in the state of boiling blood, Yang Yan suddenly thought.

He was not without victories.

Although the number of times he had turned defeat into victory in desperate situations was small, he was extremely familiar with that feeling.

It was precisely in such an absolute desperate situation that that feeling would rise from the depths of his body, just like now—his heart door was crashed open, his chest and lungs were pierced, and then his blood flowed, his whole body felt cold, and then his muscles slowly trembled.

Yang Yan did not abandon the blade, did not leap up, and did not make any struggle or evasion.

He held the blade hilt, and his whole body suddenly stopped. His boiling blood and surging true Qi, everything calmed down.

This youth, who had just been moving like a crazy leopard, was now as quiet as if he had merged with the air.

In the void, something seemed to be wandering over. No one could see what it was, but the water ripples raised by its tail were already enough to submerge the entire arena.

Right in this imprisonment, right in Zhang Zongyuan's bone gaps, the long blade made no movement, but the suddenly formed vortex suddenly began to swallow everything.

It was no longer just force, nor was it confined to moves. All the elements that made up the momentum of this 【Emerging from the Cage】, everything condensed in this move, were suddenly absorbed by the long blade on his shoulder.

But if one were to look from a sufficiently large perspective, one would discover that it was not actually anything "sucking."

It just opened its mouth, and the water collapsed into it violently. The tiger emerging from the cage was not facing a weak and thin upright creature; behind it was a giant beast as vast as a mountain.

"Swallowing the Sea" Second Chapter · 【Whale】

The giant beast closed its mouth and vanished from the void.

Zhang Zongyuan's body lost all strength in an instant. Yang Yan pulled the blade out easily. There was blood on the water-bright blade. He flicked it, placing the edge against the man's neck.

I have won all the way here by relying on things that work sometimes and don't work other times!

Still owe 29 chapters!

(End of chapter)