Chương 52: Men battle for victory. Beasts battle for hegemony.

After explaining to Song Hui, and all the others who were eyeing him like prey, that it was not a technique, but rather an innate ability to modify parts of his body, Bai Yun managed to calm them down. They accepted this as they could tell that Bi Yun was hiding his identity but there was no way for the soul step cultivators to see his real face. They accepted that this was due to an innate ability, as there was no technique that could hide an identity this well known to them. After this, he was given some medicine to stop the bleeding and given some time to rest before the finals.

Before the finals of the third round started, the rest of the positions were to be filled. Since there were some differences in the rewards from three to eight, they fought a small battle to figure out the standings.

In the end, Meng Qi took the fifth spot comfortably. After her, the rest of them fought and won in an idiotic manner. What surprised Bai Yun was that the fist moron he defeated fought properly from then on and took the sixth spot.

The last battle was between Song Hui and Gong Ming. Gong Ming used his strength to blow away Song Hui's whips and then defeated her with a quick blow. Song Hui didn't seem to be too much affected by the loss and was back to her cheery self in a short while.

Finally, it was time for the winner to be chosen between Bai Yun and Zhang Zi. This was a fight that had been delayed since their first meeting in the first test.

Zhang ZI was already waiting for him by the time he reached the ring. Zhang Zi pointed his spear at Bai Yun when he finally entered the ring.

A thrill went through Bai Yun, and he grinned in response.

This would be his first proper battle since he had reincarnated.

It's not that he had not fought before. But each of these fights were under very different circumstances. None of them could be called a true battle.

With Bai Shan, it was an Assassination. And with Bai Qing, he was simply running away. All of his other fights were with demonic beasts. And all the fights in this matchup were quite useless.

So when he stepped into the ring, a long-dormant battle intent woke up in Bai Yun. His sword appeared in his hands and it started to hum in anticipation.

Seeing the two fighters take their positions, the judge declared "Begin."

The two of them immediately ran towards each other at full speed. Zhang Zi thrust his spear at Bai Yun the moment he came in range. But Bai Yun only smiled in response.

Just as the spear came close to Bai Yun, he finally used the trump cast he had been hiding. Bai Yun immediately sped up by using wind motion.

Zhang Zi was surprised by the sudden change in Bai Yun's speed. He realized that it was too late to pull his spear back. Not wanting to let Bai Yun get close enough to use his sword, Zhang Zi closed the distance by stepping into Bai Yun's path.

Bai Yun smiled when he saw Zhang Zi's response. "Good, but not perfect." He murmured. Zhang Zi was a little shocked when he heard this. Next second he was surprised to see an elbow covering his vision.

Bai Yun's elbow smashed into Zhang Zi's face harshly. Thankfully Zhang Zi was able to take a step backward at the last moment and escaped his nose being broken.

Zhang Zi took a step back to make some distance for his spear. But he was surprised to find that Bai Yun was no longer in his vision. "That's not the optimal move." He heard a voice coming from his right side.

While swearing, Zhang Zi send all of his qi to his left side in a desperate attempt to defend. But it was half a step too late. A sharp pain tore through his ribs as Bai Yun's fist landed. But his last-minute attempt was useful. At least no ribs were broken.

Bai Yun unclenched his fist, which was throbbing from the backlash. He frowned as he felt the pain. Even though his attacks were perfect, the difference in cultivation was a big problem. Even bigger was the problem of his big mouth. If he hadn't warned Zhang Zi, he wouldn't have have been able to muster any defense at all. His annoying habit from the time he spend as an instructor for the Grand War was rearing its head.

Zhang Zi tried to use his movement technique to once again make some distance between them. But the moment he tried to do so, a voice reached his ears "That's just stupid Zhang Zi." Suddenly a foreboding feeling went through Zhang Zi's body. 'Shit.' He cursed and immediately stopped the movement technique, and at the same time, he solidified his legs. And not a second later. Bai Yun's leg collided with Zhang Zi's. If he had cast the movement technique, the collision would have happened when he was moving his legs, which would have certainly caused him to lose his balance and fall.

But before Zhang Zi could be happy, a sharp hit landed on his hips. Bai Yun had retreated all the strength in his legs when Zhang Zi stopped his movement technique. He then used the rebound force to drive his knee into Zhang Zi.

Everyone who was watching this fight was stunned. When the fight began, they all had their own ideas on how this fight was going to happen. But nothing could prepare them for what was happening in front of their eyes.

Bai Yun frowned as the fight continued. The amount of energy he expended in each move was far lesser than Zhang Zi, and yet he could not allow this to continue, or else he might not be able to maintain this for long. His total qi quantity was far less than Zhang Zi after all.

'I need to drop my sword.' Bai Yun thought. He had to maintain a very close distance to Zhang Zi to maintain the balance. Any further and he would not be able to react fast enough. If he was to widen the distance to make it appropriate to use a sword, he would be unable to make use of his ability. He only pulled it out to mislead Zhang Zi anyway.

'I need to lose the spear.' Zhang Zi thought at the same time. He had realized two things from the fight. His enemy was not going to let him widen the distance between them, and he had no chance to use his spear. Thus the only use of the spear was to tie down one of his arms.

The eyes of the two crossed the moment the thought passed through their minds. With a grin, they realized what the other was thinking. The next second, the two people who doggedly followed the path of weapons threw them outside the ring without hesitation, shocking everyone. This was their determination for victory.

The next second the flow of the fight changed once again. Zhang Zi smashed his palm into Bai Yun. He saw the glow on Zhang Zi's arm but took no motion to dodge. He adjusted his poster so than the palm fell on his right shoulder. The moment the palm fell, Bai Yun felt as if an explosion had occurred on his shoulder. His entire internal body was shaken up by the shockwaves. If he hadn't completed the skin sewing of his right shoulder last night, this could have been deadly.

But Bai Yun did not pause. With the added strength of the explosion, he rotated rapidly and his elbow smashed into Zhang Zi's temple, blowing his head away. Then he gripped one hand over the other and drove his elbow straight into Zhang Zi's abdomen. But before he could rejoice, his left shoulder shook as Zhang Zi drove his elbow down on him.

Zhang Zi was blown back by Bai Yun's attack. He had barely stabilized himself before he saw Bai Yun's fist flowing straight at his face. Without waiting, he send his fist back, while moving forward at the same time. The two fists collided with the two faces at the same time. The two of them, even though they were blown back, did not even take a step back. Instead, they went back to fighting without pause.

The two of them fought as if they had forgotten the word defense. A punch was countered with a punch, a palm with an elbow, a knee with a kick. On by one blood and bruises racked up on both of their bodies. And yet they both had a grin on their faces.

Even the people who were watching this battle had stopped doing anything else and had their eyes completely focused on them and them alone. One by one the soul step cultivators who were watching the battle in special viewing rooms moved to the windows to get a better look.

"What kind of fight is this?" One of the servants in the viewing rooms asked.

"You are wrong. This isn't a fight at all." The soul step cultivator in the room replied. But he had sad it loud enough that every else, even the participants of the gold test, could hear him.

"I am sorry my lord, I don't understand?" Gong Ming said, confused by the statement. This sentiment was shared by pretty much everyone else in the room.

"This isn't a fight." The soul step cultivator continued. "Thoughts like winning or losing or the gold test has long since disappeared from their minds. Right now its kill or be killed for them. If they stop to think even for a moment they would die. All of you, watch carefully. This isn't a battle for victory between cultivators. What you are seeing is a battle between two wild beasts fighting for hegemony. If you are to walk on the path of cultivation in this world, one day you will encounter a situation where you will have to fight like that."

As he watched the fight, the soul step cultivators could not help but remember their younger days They felt their blood boil as they watched the two young men on the stage. A terrifying pressure descended upon the entire group as the hearts of the soul cultivators stirred.

The boss who was acting as the judge frowned when she felt their presence descending on the stage. With a wave, she isolated the ring from their pressure. 'Men.' She thought while rolling her eyes before turning back to the stage.

But even as she looked at them, she found herself remembering the days she lived as a mercenary, hunting in the blue moon mountains and the evergreen hills. For a moment, she thought she should take a vacation after this was over and get her old team together again.

That night was a restless night in Yellow City. Many people who were there or saw the recorded fight later started to challenge others for a fight.

While all this was happening, on the stage the two of them were continuing their assault.

'This won't do.' Bai Yun thought. He was running out of qi. By now only half of his qi was left. If he continued he would certainly be defeated soon enough.

A similar thought was running through Zhang Zi's mind at the same time. He had noticed that Bai Yun's control over energy was bordering over impossible. When Zhang Zi attacked or defended, the area he would reinforce with qi was much greater than the area that would come into contact with his enemy. But when Bai Yun did the reinforcement, the area he covered was almost exactly the area that came into contact with Zhang Zi. This meant that he was using far less qi that Zhang Zi. Thus Zhang Zi also figured that he would run out of qi first. After all, no one would expect that there would be someone who would fight this well at only the third stage of qi condensation.

'I need to end it with one big attack.' The same thought went through the minds of both of them at the same time.

Bai Yun leapt up before Zhang Zi could make a move and headbutted him. Zhang Zi took a step back but was met with a sharp kick from Bai Yun. He used his arm to punch back at Bai Yun. Instead of retreating, Bai Yun coiled his leg around Zhang Zi's arm, hoping to break it. Of course, his leg was nowhere near flexible enough to do so, so he had to rely on his soul tendrils for help. Instead of retreating, Zhang Zi send a shockwave from his palm once again. Being hastily made, it lacked any real power, but still damaged both of them.

The two of them untangled a second later. Then they separated. A second later Bai Yun thrust both of his arms at Zhang Zi. On his right hand, a small spherical glow representing Lion's Roar was visible. His left hand was clenched with two fingers protruding, generating a finger sword.

Bai Yun had comprehended rain in the moonlight a day ago. From then on, whenever he was resting, he would use at least one soul tendril to understand the technique. Once he understood the core concepts, it was easy for him to even improve the technique. What he was doing now was using his fingers as swords to cast the technique, while at the same time using his soul tendrils to keep the explosions contained. Once released, the combined might of all these attacks would be considerable, even with its strength being lowered due to the finger sword.

At the same time as Bai Yun, Zhang Zi also thrust his right arm forward. On his hand, a gigantic white shockwave glow could be seen. He had also spent the last few minutes preparing himself.

A second later the three hands collided.

For a moment there was no sound coming from the ring. Then, under the shocked eyes of everyone, the area between the two exploded.

Both Zhang Zi and Bai Yun were sent flying backward simultaneously.

Both of them fell and rolled on the ground before landed on their feet, but it still took them a while to stabilize themselves. The two of them stared at each other, battle intend shining in their eyes.

They were a sight to see. Both of Bai Yun's sleeves had exploded up to his elbow. While Zhang Zi's entire right sleeve was gone. Bai Yun's hands were bloodied, and his blood vessels seem to have exploded. While Zhang Zi's arms seemed to have countless tiny cuts on them. Both of their clothes had dozens of tears. And at least a third of their skin had turned purple from bruises. And yet the two wanted to continue the fight.

"Winner, Zhang Zi." The judge's voice resounded within the area.

For a moment both of them were confused. Then Bai Yun looked at his feet with a start. He saw the line showing the boundary of the ring just a single foot in front of him.

When he looked at Zhang Zi, he still had one foot inside the ring.