Chapter 171: Fun

Who says dueling can't be close-quarters combat?

"Good!"

"Go up and hit him!"

"Huang Hao, what are you running for?!"

It seems everyone enjoys close-quarters combat, after all, the subtlety of techniques is hard for ordinary Lianqi Phase cultivators to see, so getting straight to hand-to-hand combat is more exciting.

Yan Buji didn't want to reveal his Martial Dao cultivation; otherwise, he'd subdue the opponent right away, which would be too deliberate.

He wanted to make a name for himself on this stage, needing to progress step by step.

This Yansong didn't give him enough pressure. Moreover, after failing to produce the quality of dueling he wanted and resorting to close-quarters combat, that wasn't the performance Yan Buji needed.

"Besides, this person doesn't conceal his magical power flow when he attacks; is it that Lianqi Phase cultivators normally don't notice this, or is there simply no time to release spiritual sense to investigate during a fight?"

Yan Buji pondered; his spiritual sense couldn't see spiritual aura and magical power flow, but the Three Flower Pupil could be passively seen.

A flash of crimson-gold crossed his eyes; Yan Buji saw the iron spear in Yansong's hand suddenly gather a large amount of magical power!

Instantly, Yan Buji condensed magical power with one hand, raising a spiritual shield before him!

"Get down!" Yansong shouted; his earlier grappling seemed just a feint to cover this sudden move!

The yellow light emitted from the iron spear formed a nearly three-meter-wide bright yellow torrent, striking Yan Buji's spiritual shield!

In the blink of an eye, Yan Buji's body-protection spiritual shield showed signs of imminent collapse!

Yansong laughed loudly: "Admit defeat, Huang Hao, you're no match for me."

"You're getting happy too early, Daoist friend—look at your feet."

"Huh?!"

Yansong originally thought it was Yan Buji's delaying tactic, but suddenly he sensed a surge of fire-attribute magical power, his whole body instantly grew hot and unbearable, and he lowered his head to look.

"Damn!!"

Boom!

Who knew Yan Buji had hidden a fireball at Yansong's landing point at some point, detonating it the instant no one noticed!

Immediately, Yansong, who was controlling the iron spear, was slammed by a fierce blast and blown off the stage; meanwhile, after Yan Buji's spiritual shield in front of him shattered, he was slightly grazed by the escaping bright yellow torrent, suffering a minor injury.

"The victor, Huang Hao!"

Yan Buji cupped his fists toward Yansong below the stage and smiled: "I accept your concession."

Yansong took a deep breath: "I underestimated you, Daoist Friend Huang; may you succeed in defending the stage!"

"Thank you for the kind words."

The surrounding cultivators froze for a moment, not reacting.

"No, when did Huang Hao bury a thunderbolt under Yansong's feet?"

"Just now, when Yansong charged forward, I saw Huang Hao pinching a spell seal, but wasn't he using the Spiritual Shield Technique to block?"

"You guys seem braindead; you still haven't seen that Huang Hao's spiritual fire is obviously an innate ability of his cultivation method— isn't that just the basic cultivation method's Spiritual Fire Technique? It's not a technique."

"Ah? Was the earlier motion of pinching a spell seal and spitting spiritual fire meant to confuse us on purpose?!"

"I thought everyone had figured it out, you guys....."

"That's not right either—how could the spiritual fire attached to his cultivation method possibly hide from our spiritual sense?"

"It's simple: use Qi Guiding Technique to shift the breath, then use Object Control Technique to wrap a clump of spiritual fire and bury it in place, then detonate it via the cultivation method—wouldn't that work?"

"......"

The surrounding cultivators fell silent.

"So it turns out it's just a method I can understand? A complete reversal relying on lowly techniques?"

The surrounding cultivators looked at Huang Hao, for the first time feeling that even those lowly techniques weren't completely useless.

Yan Buji glanced at the spectators below the stage, not expecting anyone to actually have figured it out.

However, basic techniques are like this—any use leaves obvious traces of magical power. But Yansong, in order to operate the Accumulation Device, didn't have much time to release his spiritual sense to scout the surroundings, and earlier, to seize the opportunity, he also planned a one-hit kill, so this gave Yan Buji the chance to win this battle.

In short, defending the stage is quite fun.

Yan Buji tried to use various basic techniques to pull off a comeback victory, relying not on deep magical power but entirely on his own movements to catch the opponent's mistakes, then easily win.

After three successful stage defenses, Yan Buji also stepped down, saying he needed to rest for a day.

After all, he couldn't possibly stay on the stage all the time, or else he wouldn't look like an early-stage Lianqi cultivator.

After returning to his residence, Yan Buji began organizing the information he'd gathered today, analyzed it, and felt that his impulsive decision to go on stage and duel earlier was correct.

"I need to intensify the conflict, so I must step onto the stage. Losing is okay, but before I meet those people again I can't lose, or else I won't even have the qualifications to see them... but an early-stage Lianqi cultivator meeting the people on the list is unlikely; from now on I should steadily display my dueling strength, showing mid-stage Lianqi cultivation, which makes sense." Yan Buji calculated; roughly, the process is like this.

However, one shouldn't underestimate those cultivators; maybe I'll run into someone hiding their strength and get a lesson.

"I have Golden Foil Pattern; I can try practicing those high-quality techniques... even if I can't master them in a short time, they might still be useful later."

However, judging the grade of techniques is difficult; basics are basics, everyone can learn them. But one can't say that profound, intricate techniques are definitely useful—it depends on the cultivator's own development ability.

Yan Buji originally intended to rely on the Magic Power Golden Wheel to stand out on later stages, but if the person on stage holds an Accumulation Device, he honestly isn't sure the Magic Power Golden Wheel can compare with those devices.

Perhaps it has ample killing power, but the Magic Power Golden Wheel only has this advantage.

Accumulation Devices differ; no one knows what other cultivators' Devices are capable of, making them hard to deal with.

Therefore, studying more techniques has been put on Yan Buji's agenda.

Yan Buji indeed has many Technique Jade Slips in hand, but their origins are unclear and he dare not cultivate them, so he might as well go browse the roadside stalls.

In Lingyu there's no shortage of vendors; the whole realm is huge, cultivators setting up stalls can be seen everywhere. Occasionally Yan Buji can see some precious spiritual materials, but alas he can't afford them.

"I currently need anti-enemy techniques, preferably ones that restrict movement. Looking at my four types of magical power, earth- and wood-attribute techniques are more suitable."

Yan Buji doesn't consider fire-attribute techniques; his Spiritual Fire Technique is just like that, and even a fire-attribute technique boosted by spiritual fire wouldn't be much stronger.

His spiritual fire is neither the heavenly-earth spiritual fire nor the divine fire refined from some profound cultivation method; it's just ordinary flame.

At most, ordinary flame burns firewood; his spiritual fire burns magical power.

After making a round, Yan Buji stopped in front of a stall and carefully sized it up.