Chapter 36: Cowardly Duel
Cold Steel Gorilla, or Da Yuan was a practitioner of an old body of arts produced by the Jungle Path series, deviation of the original cultivation barely amounted to 70%.
The Fist that are produced by such a monstrous ability could tower over the simplest of power heavy warriors even to those in the next tier. The reaction of splitting soul energy provides combustion for the soul and used as a source of power to fuel. Soul energy was basically just a running engine with power limited to that of their generator. And Arts of Body are usually similar to that of circuits to somehow drive the power into meaningful ways.
The heat around his fist was blazing eternally after just one punch, to think a second generation martial arts would pierce through his original martial arts, but then again, he was barely a novice in using such.
Bai Li gritted his teeth, if he were to take on another attack, internal injuries were the least of his worries as of now. He wiped the blood coming from his mouth onto his hand and rubbed it on the stainless blade created by the cowl.
His bones were screaming from the immense impact of falling and soul energy infiltration into his own. The fiery aura was burning his reserves, but at the least his soul energy kept on replenishing.
"To think you can defend against my power, but what would happen if I were to attack again?"
Da Yuan fashioned a devilish grin, his large robust body kept on its strong power which would be assumed would attack very soon.
"Pft, keep on trying, but don't blame me if you rant about its nothingness."
Bai Li was trying to psyche the gorilla of trying again.
"You're ten years too young to be speaking with that tone."
Bai Li shook, does he know him? Did his facade not work and his voice change with the aid of the cowl inefficient?
But he soon regained back his composure, his body stature is quite small for an average adult and his extremely lean but flexible body showed he was still a fledgling.
Mo Tian was very close in the back wanting to interfere against the confrontation but the Fiery Ape God Fist created a strong force which pushed him far away, he was discombobulated from his surroundings and fell into a tragic sand pit spider.
"AHHHHHHH! Help me!"
Da Yuan who just created a cold devious aura was removed of his composure, the sudden signs of Mo Tian, who was still a Novice could barely operate his soul armor as if it was new. The bow he controlled was of much simpler design since the bow string power could go up to 3, but his actual strength could most likely only amount to 1. His attempts to fight would be meaningless and was already in danger with the impending spider biting away at his feet.
Mo Tian was disrupting a fight between warriors and the one who turns his back against his opponent provided many openings.
"Let's get this over with," charging his fist once more with the blazing aura, charging forward with a strong gusto.
Bai Li took notice of his change of expression and dispersed a heavy black miasma with the material of the cloak.
The true power of the cowl was not its defense, or even its speed that was given a strong increase, the cowl's true strength was its versatility.
The soul ability caught him off guard as he charged forward, the miasma of black somehow provided a cushioning to reduce the impact as he treaded further in before going through the other side.
Which gave Bai Li enough time to strike with a small dagger, digging it into the back of him.
The primordial armor he wore provided much resistance to the strike but the Saint armor blade was enough to penetrate with efforts.
The strike would allow his opponent enough time to retaliate as he swung his elbow back towards him, by default reactions, when digging in the wound of the man, they would remain stationary as the cowl dug deep. But the blade dissipated quickly and came back with the large pool of miasma, dispersing before compressing once more.
Bai Li jumped backwards just in time, the blazing heat from his body seared his reasonably long disheveled hair, and he had some minor burns.
He was very confident in injuring his opponent but killing was very hard, Arts of Body or any martial arts tend to bring much power once near death, Bai Li did not want to mess with someone who could.
"You're more than a pesky runt.."
Da Yuan was very agitated on why he couldn't catch the fellow, if he could only keep him still would he unleash a stern strike.
But as a seasoned warrior, his emotions did not overtake him as Bai Li would wish for him to overtake.
He calmed his breathe and stood still.
Most of the miasma was gone as of now as Bai Li gathered his mind and reformed the cloak portion of his cowl.
Standing on the calm sands provided a strange scenery one would usually see in action movies.
But what broke the silence was a very concentrated punch from the gorilla!
He punched forward and unleashed a blast of heavy air towards Bai Li.
Perturbed from the sudden attack, he protected his face from the large heat wave. He gritted his teeth, bracing his body and actively used his Poison King's Body.
What came as instinct came true and a kick came flying towards his abdomen, he flew quite a distance, flipping a couple times before regaining composure in a kneeling stance.
The kick, though holding more power usually, was actually more weak compared to the Fiery Ape God's wrath on his upper body. Da Yuan did not care much for his situation of footing, he was like a boxer and did not practice any kicking arts.
If he did not defend against the heat fist, he would receive much more damage than intended.
A stream of blood was being let out at that moment.
Truly fighting someone on a whole new stage of measurement was difficult enough, when one grows accustom to their martial arts, they tend to know their weaknesses.
His bones were now screaming from his extended abuse of his body, countless bruises and definite internal bleedings pressured his body, but he treaded on, but if he were to endure another strike that was as fatal as the first, he wouldn't be able to defend the next.
Bai Li picked up his body and threw shrapnels from his cloak, his blood soaked hands were using most of his body capabilities throwing the cowl's versatile nature.
So his speed wouldn't be affected during combat, he neglected the armor, which already held a large tore right across the back plate and some of its side.
The projectiles were very minimal as small needles fell upon his body, defending his face as he treaded closer forward.
"Is this all you got? You should've just surrendered your goods and none of this would ever happen."
Bai Li had already suffered enough injury and his speed was definitely affected from damage. Da Yuan was already 50 meters closer as the gap slowly came to an end.
The gorilla was growing very complacent after crippling his opponent of his capabilities.
He took negligible damage from his opened areas of his armor.
But what came to a sudden realization was a clog in his soul energy, the extremely delicate process of splitting soul energy was halted and the heat residing in his fist was gone.
"You..What did you do!"
The first moment he became mad was tolerable as he would be able to take care of his opponent, but a sudden halt of his ability to use martial arts were now gone, any approach to the problem would come as a sudden surprise and might even break their concentration.
"Heh, why don't you figure that for yourself?"
The moment he spoke those words, a constant cough of blood was coming from his mouth.
He used his hands to cover his loss of blood, but as he observed closer.
"Is this..Poison?...you brat!"
"All's fair in love and war."
Da Yuan was losing focus from the response of the so called poison, the large body of the man started crumbling the moment he started to rummage his pack.
Mercenary parties usually follow certain models when delivering to each other's needs and personal equipment and tools. Inventory were usually handled by roles or were just given a small amount each to work with. The latter was usually followed to save money giving the minimal amount of equipment to each mercenary at work. Da Yuan's group was never in dire needs of money and were actually more wealthy due to their contract, they designated each other a role to work with and was very effective in usage.
But as of right now, the arrogance and wealth was aiding in his downfall. Each strike from the projectiles were all coated in Bai Li's blood, to which was explained a gradually producing poison from his body.
Poison King's Body not only created a faucet to help give ease to his bodily systems, it even gave utilization of poison itself from his body. His resistance to such poisons were not great as of now, the poison ingested was a double edged sword which could work against him. But in the situation, the accumulated low density poison contained in his blood was being used heavily. And to top it all off, using the ancient cultivation method, he was able to pinpoint valuable points more detailed than the soul energy drive depicted in school, the strike from the back tore through his body circulation which gave rise to his poison accumulation.
The poison meant to destroy you in just a year with just a small dosage worked its magic from the large amount from his body.
Poison was not uncommon in the Union, but was generally disliked by its underhandedness, the occupation of poison martial artists were also seen as cowardly in the other realm, Fan Tong obviously depicted his hatred of such along with the Righteous Sect.
"To think...I would fall to a mere brat. No..never! I won't accept it!"
Da Yuan was barely awake and knew already of his fate.
He dove straight forward towards Bai Li, but that expended all of his energy, to die such a way was already gruesome.
"Well, you just did."
The body's energy to lunge forward was used instead to prolong his body from the poison, with the usage of his muscles increasing the spread of the poison and towards his brain.
Da Yuan's body fell forward onto Bai Li, but was pushed aside, his facial expressions remained the same as from the moments of death, eyes of defiance, challenging the gods who gave him death. Was he trying to defy death by simply ranting towards the gods?
He concentrated his spit onto the pale cream colored sand. The color of spit and blood did not mix well as it slowly absorbed into the sand, creating a much more red hue.
The fight was over with which lead more to be desired for.
He used a syringe to help aid his soul energy, which naturally accelerates the natural body healing and bandaged accordingly, the emergency aid was not permanent which created straits in his fight potential.
But before the conclusion could end, he still had matters to work with.
He walked away from the corpse of Da Yuan and traversed to the pit to his left.
Mo Tian was still there and needed to be dealt with to sate his quest for the slight convenience.
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