章 45: Chapter 45
The sword-light resembled a majestic dragon, spreading its wings in phenomenal flight.
However, there were tens of thousands of golden snakes coiling around it, keeping it wrapped up and entrapped as they continued biting at its body unrelentingly.
The green dragon would struggle and flail about, jolting snake after snake to death, but these golden snakes just seemed to have no end to them.
Gradually, the green dragon lost all of its vitality. Unable to maintain its flight, it plummeted onto the ground below, where it was promptly devoured by the countless golden snakes.
The snakes' bodies being even more flexible than the dragon's, just slithering around, they had been able to continuously dissipate much of its strength till none of it remained.
Having tempered it incessantly and painstakingly, the aura-qi that Chao Yuanlong had externalised was now completely at his fingertips; he had actually even been able to contend with Yan Zhaoge's Coiling Dragon Sleeve with it.
The green sword-light was gradually expelled, as the bamboo branch within Yan Zhaoge's hands regained its original form once more.
A shocking light erupted from within Chao Yuanlong's eyes, "Yan Zhaoge, today, even if you change your weapon to a real sword, your defeat is all but inevitable!"
"This bamboo branch of yours; this one won't destroy it. Rather, this one will leave it for you. If your face is not beaten bloody, this one's rage cannot be extinguished!"
Yan Zhaoge did not speak, only looking at Chao Yuanlong rather strangely.
Feng Yunsheng also stared at Chao Yuanlong, "The Heavenly Snake Silk-Binding Hand? That's even more non-mainstream than the Piercing Sun Needle Art, and he actually managed to master it."
As its name suggested, the Heavenly Snake Silk-Binding Hand was a soft and supple technique which possessed many variations. Able to bind opponents with silk as well as perform some subtle actions, it was one of the top martial techniques with which to skilfully capture an opponent.
Having been unwittingly obtained by some Sacred Sun Clan martial practitioners, it had then been dumped in the clan's martial repository.
This was because the technique was incompatible with the Sacred Sun Clan's orthodox martial arts, requiring the martial practitioner to first reach the outer aura Martial Scholar realm and gain the ability to externalise their aura before being able to cultivate in it.
Some martial arts indeed complemented or suppressed one another.
In cultivating this martial art, Chao Yuanlong had achieved success in one go, and it had truly worked wonders with its suppressive effect on Yan Zhaoge's Coiling Dragon Sleeve, being even better to utilise than his own clan's Seven Great Sun Arts.
Yan Zhaoge swivelled his head to look at Feng Yunsheng, "Its name is the Heavenly Snake Silk-Binding Hand?"
Feng Yunsheng looked at Yan Zhaoge who appeared as though he was trying to hold back an urge to laugh yet not really succeeding, as she nodded her head despondently.
"Haha…" Yan Zhaoge just stood there smiling at Chao Yuanlong, no longer speaking.
On seeing that smile of his, Chao Yuanlong was infuriated to the point of his breathing being affected, phantom stabbing pains emanating from the non-existent scars on his face which had actually long since healed completely.
With a piercing howl, he waved his hands, and the tens of thousands of golden snakes once more resumed their offensive.
Xiao Shen stood in mid-air, looking down on Yan Zhaoge from above, "You can switch for another, better weapon."
"I suppose you do have a spirit artifact? Go ahead if you wish; take it out and let me have a look."
"However, since I am here today, I can lend a weapon to junior apprentice-brother Chao if the need so arises."
"If you believe that you can still gain an advantage on that front…"
Even before his words had landed, he saw. Standing in his original position and not moving an inch, Yan Zhaoge waited for Chao Yuanlong to get right in front of him before abruptly making his move.
Not a sword!
But a fist!
In that brief instant, the entire world turned dark.
As if the sun was being corroded, the aura-qi around Chao Yuanlong's body roiled, the rays of the sun instantly losing their radiance.
As Yan Zhaoge thrusted out his fist, his entire wrist seemed to have turned into an enormous python with twelve pairs of wings on its massive back, the length of its body unquantifiable as it lay coiled within the boundless sea of stars.
The Heavenly Snake King!
Legend had it that this being possessed power even superior to the many dragon races!
With that one fist, Yan Zhaoge's aura-qi surged, resembling a Heavenly Snake swallowing the sun as it instantly engulfed Chao Yuanlong!
As the incomparably soft and supple force erupted, the gusting of a wind did not follow, yet it seemed as though the very sky was collapsing, the very earth breaking apart.
In the blink of an eye, the Chao Yuanlong who had been lunging towards Yan Zhaoge was knocked flying by him with a single punch, blasting off at a speed even greater than when he had come!
Xiao Shen and Feng Yunsheng were both stunned.
They could only watch as Chao Yuanlong's body flew in a long arc, before it finally lost to the effects of gravity and smashed straight down on the hard ground below. There he lay on his back like a dead fish, twitching uncontrollably, yet unable to let out a single noise.
The other Sacred Sun Clan disciples who had followed Xiao Shen and Chao Yuanlong here were once again left staring blankly and slack-jawed, at a total loss for words.
What kind of situation was this?
Hadn't senior apprentice-brother Chao already mastered a martial art specifically aimed at suppressing Yan Zhaoge's techniques?
Hadn't he said that even while Yan Zhaoge was also now an outer aura Martial Scholar, he was still absolutely certain of obtaining the eventual victory?
Hadn't he just been holding the advantage, and not just a small one at that?
How was it possible then that, in the blink of an eye, things had turned out this way?
Yan Zhaoge looked at the Chao Yuanlong collapsed on the ground a distance away, finding it funny yet also somewhat irksome at the same time, "Heavenly Snake Silk-Binding Hand; now that's why I thought it so familiar upon first hearing that name."
"It obviously stems from one of the side branches of the Heavenly Snake King Fist, one of the Six Spirits Demonic Fists."
"You only began cultivating in the Heavenly Snake Silk-Binding Hand recently, after having managed to reach the early outer aura Martial Scholar realm. I, on the other hand, began cultivating in this fist technique of mine immediately after having come to this world."
"Huh, my Heavenly Snake King Fist beating your Heavenly Snake Silk-Binding Hand, is just like a father beating his son."
"And you say you aren't here to feed?"
Yan Zhaoge retracted his fist, then spread out both his hands in a helpless gesture as he looked towards Xiao Shen, "Um, it seems like he can't accompany me to play anymore."
The stunned expression on Xiao Shen's face vanished, a previously unseen seriousness now residing within his gaze with which he looked at Yan Zhaoge.
However, there was also a previously unseen iciness within it.
"They all say that the Broad Creed Young Master's sword resembles a dragon, but apparently, that was all just a mirage. I never expected that you would have hidden yourself so deeply."
Xiao Shen said slowly, "Sadly, you were still not smart enough, and ended up exposing your abilities too quickly. If you had kept them hidden for just a while longer, perhaps you would really have grown to be a huge threat to us."
"Now, even if I have to bear all the responsibility for inciting a war between the two great Sacred Grounds, I really do feel a little like killing you here today."
The coldness within Xiao Shen's gaze skyrocketed, as the aura-qi within his entire body was completely released, causing him to resemble a huge sun.
Amidst the hundreds of kilometres between the sky and the earth, countless rays of golden light which resembled sharp blades began circling between the air above Yan Zhaoge's head.
The pressure emitted by a late outer aura Martial Scholar was revealed in its true glory.
Ignoring Yan Zhaoge who was bearing the brunt of it, Feng Yunsheng and the others around him and even the other Sacred Sun Clan disciples as well all experienced a suffocating feeling.
Yan Zhaoge, however, just nodded his head as if nothing was up, "Not bad; of the martial practitioners at your current cultivation level, you can be considered as elite."
Xiao Shen said mildly, "I now admit that you becoming one of the Four Young Masters was not just a mere filling up of the numbers. If our cultivation bases were at a similar level, even I wouldn't be confident of winning against you."
"However, currently, the distance between us is too great. If you had reached the mid outer aura stage, perhaps you would still be able to escape from my hands."
The black-clothed martial practitioners alongside Yan Zhaoge all fell into a deep silence.
Their Young Master had only just broken through to the outer aura Martial Scholar realm a short while ago. Although he had quickly finished the second purification of the marrows within his bones, if he wanted to make another breakthrough right away, that was really not too possible.
The crowd of Sacred Sun Clan disciples, on the other hand, all let out relieved breaths.
While senior apprentice-brother Chao had been defeated, the good thing was that they still had a senior apprentice-brother Xiao.
About there being a suppression of realms or whatnot, they also couldn't bother to care about that now.
At this time, Yan Zhaoge's line of vision was instead on Chao Yuanlong, currently being supported by some of his fellow disciples.
"I was nice and gave you a chance, thus fighting you at the same level. Never would I have thought, though, that the result would be so pathetically laughable."
Hearing this, Chao Yuanlong's eyes opened wide.
Yan Zhaoge shook his head, "Mid outer aura Martial Scholar realm; how hard can it be?"
Saying thus, the acupoints on Yan Zhaoge's entire body began to rumble and shake. Streams of white qi could faintly be seen rising from them, resembling ice dragons soaring into the skies.
All the qi and blood within his entire body, resembling molten mercury, surged, as the metallic lustre flickering on the surface of his externalised aura grew more and more dazzling!
Yan Zhaoge randomly punched out a stance of the Heavenly Snake King Fist within the air. The roiling aura-qi began to distort and spiral, twisting into a single mass, before finally transforming into a single thick, black whip!
The black whip shuddered in mid-air, and a thunder-like explosion resounded!
Condensing qi into a weapon, a tangible, corporeal entity!
Xiao Shen's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, "Mid outer aura stage?!"
"Impossible!"
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