Red eyes, swollen muscles and veins popping out from the skin, bloodied orifices..
"Ahh.. there goes my dashing figure.."
Duan Li felt like he wanted to cry.
As the clone had copied practically a hundred percent of his appearance, forming an exact replica of him, whenever Duan Li would look at the other party, it was akin to staring into a mirror and looking at his own self.
Therefore, as he watched the Clone turning its body into something monstrous, he couldn't help but to feel quite disgruntled about it.
"Your strength only increased by a mere 10 percent.. and you traded your appearance for this fraction of power?" Duan Li said helplessly with a disapproving tone.
As he himself had not use the Warring Intent ability before the Clone yet, the latter was not able to execute it to its full potential, therefore unlocking only about a tenth of its boost power.
"You..!!"
Seeing the original shaking his head as if it had done something totally useless, the Clone felt so angry and agitated that it really wanted to push itself even further!
But alas, without Duan Li showing it how its done, there was no way it could enhance its battle prowess any further.
Furthermore, what is with this damned original of his?
Usually, people would gladly exchange something else if it meant gaining more power in times of their need, and appearance was the least of their concerns. Perhaps, it was even the most cheapest price to pay for it!
In fact, the Clone had even heard before that others needed to pay quite a hefty sum for a meager increase in power, such as their lifespan or inner potential that may never recover once again!
At the thought of this, the clone was beginning to have some serious doubts about its original.
Is this original of his really a cultivator?
Oblivious to the inner thoughts of his clone, Duan Li beckoned the other party provocatively, "Let's see if this newfound powers of yours will help you! Come!"
Hmph!
You are indeed a little bit stronger now, but as long as I can recover my spiritual Qi, overtime, you will only overexert yourself!
With a loud bellow, the both of them began to exchange blows once more as the sky rippled with devastating waves of explosions one after another.
BOOOMMM!! BOOOMMM!! BOOOMMM!!
...
After a while..
BOOOMM!!
A figure was blown away and crashed to the ground, creating huge cracks and massive depression on the land!
Puu!!
"Damn it.. I underestimated his 10 percent increase in power!" Duan Li said to himself as he wiped off the blood trail from his mouth.
Right now, his body was already riddled with numerous minor injuries, and his robe was starting to get drenched with his own blood even though he actually possessed the means to instantly recover from such a predicament, given how well versed he was in the field of medical arts.
This was because boosting natural rate of regeneration took quite a bit of spiritual Qi to perform.
Normally, this wouldn't be an issue to him, but the one he was fighting with right now was essentially a personification of his own self, complete with all of his abilities!
Thus, against such a person, he didn't dare to be lax and wasteful at all, for he knew full well the extent of the other party.
Furthermore, since he planned to save as much spiritual Qi as he can in this battle of attrition, he only used that 'almost instantaneous' regeneration ability of his to cure the major injuries from each clash they made. As for the superficial wounds on his body right now, he couldn't care less about it and decided to just suck it up.
On the contrary, his Clone that was previously all swollen up like a red-colored monster has started to show signs of being able to control the rampaging power within it, looking a lot less revolting than how it was before.
In addition, to Duan Li's surprise, the Clone was already able to utilize 20 percent of the Warring Intent ability!
This was something that he hadn't expected to happen before, and right now, it was clear that he was the one at the edge of the table right now.
"Hahahaha! You think that I would be unable to learn how to use your skills properly even after so much time has already passed? I told you to not look down on me! If you keep this up, you will die here today!" the Clone laughed out loud with a shrill of satisfaction apparent in his voice.
You've got to be kidding me, I've been playing this role for countless of years! Given so, it was only natural that I would be able to unlock the secrets behind each of your skill arts and techniques by myself!
Hmph!
"Although the situation is turning into my favor right now, I still couldn't help but to be baffled by how I could not absorb some of the spiritual Qi here while he could.." the Clone thought to itself warily.
At the rate of which they are battling right now, it was apparent that the Clone had a clear advantage in terms of pure battle power. Duan Li however, was only able to hold out on his own thanks to both of his Elemental Origin Spirit dragons working tirelessly to absorb spiritual Qi directly from the essence around them!
Kuh! Must I also activate the Warring Intent?
"But.. that hideous look.." he almost threw up as he thought of this.
Upon reaching this dilemma, Duan Li swiftly turned his attention towards both of the dragons beside him that only he could see.
"How long will you guys be able to hold out? Are there any maximum time limit for you guys to do this?" he asked.
Dilong then replied, "We can actually hold on like this forever if you want master. After all, this is as easy as us breathing in in our sleep!" she chuckled before continuing, "However, the same could not be said about the surrounding.."
Upon which, Zhulong then quickly intervened with a sense of urgency in his voice, "Dilong is right. While we could humbly do this until the Heavens itself split apart, the spiritual Qi of the essence in this place will eventually run out!"
Hearing this, Duan Li's countenance turned grim. "What do you guys mean?"
"Young Master, extracting spiritual Qi directly from the essence essentially means that you are sucking out their life force directly instead of cultivating their by-product of respiration!" the Little Sword suddenly spoke out.
"Eh? I'm sucking out their life force? They are alive?" Duan Li replied in a panic as his eyes widened upon this revelation.
"Not technically. However, every living thing that exists, in order to live, uses spiritual Qi to reproduce and respire." the Little Sword said.
It then continued, "Take for example, Dilong is an Earth dragon and she absorbs the spiritual Qi mostly from the plants. If their life force was taken out, they will die. But due to their nature, they will still grow back one day. However, that takes real time!"
Duan Li thought for a while before nodding in realization.
"So what you mean is that, the plants blown away and were currently under all these rubbles below me, will eventually all disintegrate and Dilong will not be able to absorb spiritual Qi anymore?" he asked.
And then added, "But Zhulong can just extract spiritual Qi from all the explosion then?"
"Young Master, Zhulong can indeed extract spiritual Qi from those fire elements, but those are merely temporary fragments! They don't compare to real live fire and doesn't amount to much!" the Little Sword answered.
"Yes Master, the Little Sword is right. Right now, the ratio of absorption between me and Dilong, is honestly only at about 1 to 8 respectively. If only there was something that I could burn other than the plants, I could then convert those live fire into spiritual Qi!" Zhulong said.
"Huh? You dare call me Little Sword? Impudent chicken! Call me Little Sword once more and I'll cut off those pair of wings of yours and barbeque them!"
"Ahh?! You rusted damn cheap metal! You picking a fight?"
...
Ignoring the sudden chaotic dispute between his team members right now, Duan Li gave it a little more thought as he cupped his chin.
"Zhulong needs to burn something in order to produce what they call as live fire.. that means, in order for a fire to be alive, it needs something to feed on so that it could continuously burn, which means, he needs quite a lot of flammable materials.."
Eh? Flammable materials?
Turning his head around, he saw the exact replica of the Xuan village by the distance.
...
I'm giving you all a double release today since tomorrow is my birthday! Consider this as my gift to everyone! Next chapter is on wednesday! ;) Enjoy and thanks for reading!