Wu Xing stared at me for a few seconds, his brow raised. He studied my pair of swords for a few seconds, and then snorted in laughter.

"Those are just low-grade spirit swords at best. Do you really intend to challenge me with those? You should just give up."

"…"

I couldn"t deny that my swords were low-grade spirit weapons. They were the cheapest weapons I could get, or rather I got them for free while in the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect. as rich and resourceful as they were, they weren"t going to hand out high quality spirit armaments to a mere outer sect disciple such as myself.

However, the gap between Wu Xing and I was clear. Wu Xing was too strong. I had no choice but to use weapons, or I would be crushed one-sidedly. Weapons gave an overwhelming advantage to the wielder, and with Wu Xing armed as he was currently, I stood no chance of defeating him. That was the ironclad rule of combat – no matter what, a weapon would always confer its wielder an advantage over an opponent who was unarmed. With a pair of swords, I could at least attempt to bridge the difference. It was only just slightly, but that was much better than nothing.

Furthermore, I remembered the old rule of weapon combat. If I want to fight an armed martial artist while unarmed, I had to be at least three times stronger than him in order to at least be on par. While I had no idea what "three times stronger" meant exactly – how do you calculate and measure someone"s strength and then multiply that by three? I always upheld the notion that a person"s skill or strength cannot be quantified – I was at least aware of the fact that I couldn"t fight an armed person without weapon unless I was much more skilled than him.

Unfortunately for me, Wu Xing was more skilled than I was in terms of martial arts. He was more talented, stronger and more intelligent. The only advantages I had over him was my superior speed – because I wasn"t wearing c.u.mbersome armor – and experience. As talented as he was, Wu Xing most likely did not have as much combat experience as I did.

Then again, none of the students in Wu Ling Academy or anyone in my generation probably had as much experience as I did. I had survived the wilderness alone when stranded in Sen Lin Forest, I had endured the worst torture at the hands of the Chinese Parasol Tree Sect, and I had even ventured into the abysmal depths of the Void Ring. Few, if any of my schoolmates could boast that.

"Hey! What"s the matter?"

Wu Xing was glaring at me wondering why I stayed silent. He decided that it was pointless to provoke me and rushed forward to deliver a devastating punch.

I immediately took a step back, dodging it. With the sheer power Wu Xing had, I would prefer to avoid parrying an attack unless necessary. Since I had an advantage in speed and agility, I might as well make full use of it and my footwork techniques to evade all of Wu Xing"s attacks.

Sizzle!

Fire on one hand, lightning on the other. Wu Xing was wielding dual elements right now, trying to connect with me. I dodged, ducked and evaded fleet-footedly, relying on my superior footwork technique to stay one step ahead.

"You…!"

There was finally a tinge of frustration in Wu Xing"s voice. He swung his fist, unleashing a torrent of flames, but I dispersed it by slashing it with one of my swords and freezing the flames. However, Wu Xing succeeded in throwing a punch with his other hand at a speed too fast for me to evade. I brought up my other sword in reflex and parried it.

Blitz!

Electricity crackled ferociously as metal collided against metal. I stumbled back, the force of Wu Xing"s punch momentarily throwing me off balance. Even as I tried to regain my footing, I mustered my inner qi defenses against the electricity attempting to flow down my blade. It was a good thing my sword had acted as a buffer, or I would be electrocuted instantly.

This was why having a weapon of my own made a lot of difference. Furthermore, if I had been relying on freezing ice swords out of the air, they would have been smashed immediately and I would have gotten electrocuted anyway.

"!"

Wu Xing capitalized on my lack of balance to close in and deliver another punch. Putting his full strength into his fist this time, he stomped on the ground and created a little crater. Throwing his full weight behind his punch, he hammered against my swords, which I had crossed in reflex in order to parry his attack.

Bam!

I skidded backward, my feet almost leaving the ground. Struggling to regain my balance, I took a deep breath and tried to ignore the trembling in my hands. Wu Xing"s punch had been so powerful that my arms had gone numb just from trying to parry the blow. Right in front of my eyes, my pair of blades continued to vibrate violently, unable to shake off the kinetic energy.

"Hah!"

Before I could recover fully, Wu Xing threw himself forward, unleashing a second barrage of punches. Lightning and fire revolved intensely around his gauntlets, suffusing him and his full-body armor in a red-golden glow. He struck a regal, impressive figure that would have left anyone watching it in awe and envy.

Unfortunately, I couldn"t afford to bother with such nonsense right now.

Even though I hadn"t totally regained my footing, I kicked off and partially executed a clumsy footwork technique. Even though it was hasty and not ideal, my Duo succeeded in ferrying me a few meters out of range of Wu Xing, and to his side.

"!"

Wu Xing spun around without even looking, his sharp intuition guessing accurately where I would dodge to. He swung with a backhanded blow that almost took me by surprise, but my reflexes saved me. Crossing my swords, I parried his blow again and was hurled off my feet and toward the wall. Flipping my body in midair, I slammed both feet into the reinforced material and inadvertently cracked it. Landing on the ground, I leaned against the slightly damaged wall to recover.

"Phew…"

My arms were still shaking horribly from that well-timed strike. If I hadn"t blocked Wu Xing"s backhanded blow with my swords, he would have broken my nose. Taking a deep breath, I then shot off the wall just as Wu Xing barreled into me.

BOOM!

Wu Xing"s flaming fist struck the wall, smashing a crater into the already cracked material. Small chunks of debris shook themselves loose and fell onto him, only to vaporize the moment they came into contact with his electric-fiery qi.

"Whoa…"

I swallowed as I regarded Wu Xing warily. He had only wielded two of his five elements so far, and already his attacks were so potent.

Wu Xing swung his arm, firing a lightning bolt at me, but I dodged that successfully before whirling away from a torrent of flames. Wu Xing sought to close in on me, but I had grown wise to his tactics and used my footwork to escape out of his reach. With my swords, I could easily shut down any ranged attacks he threw at me.

"Tch."

Clicking his tongue when he realized that, Wu Xing glared at me before he dispersed the flames on one of his arms. He then smashed it on the ground and suddenly the training room was once again filled with plants.

Growing wildly and rampantly, the berserk plants crept forward with flailing vines and curling wood, whipping in my direction and trying to ensnare me. I tried to dodge, but there was way too much foliage in the vicinity for me to properly evade. Left without a choice, I slashed the thicket apart with my swords, leaving a trail of ice in my wake.

"!"

While I fought to free myself, Wu Xing capitalized on his success in slowing me down by charging forward. I twisted around and parried his punch with my crossed swords while simultaneously trying to keep his lightning at bay. Once again, the weight behind his powerful punch carried me off my feet and sent me right into the awaiting vines of his wood technique.

"d.a.m.n it…!"

I stumbled and struggled, but the vines wrapped themselves around my limbs and firmly held me in place. While I fought against the wooden restraints, Wu Xing wasted no time charging forward and punching me.

"Gah!"

I felt as if a truck had hit me. Blood spurted out of my mmouth as I doubled over, the vines helpless to stop that as Wu Xing"s strength was too much for them to bear. I struggled to raise my head, and Wu Xing noticing that I was still conscious, punched me in the face, knocking my gla.s.ses askew and breaking them.

Crack!

I swear, he broke my nose or something. Either way, I heard the audible snap and pain exploded across my face in a red haze. I almost blacked out there.

"Hmph."

Wu Xing regarded me coolly, confident that he had won. I hung my head loosely, my mind still in a haze, but I continued to resist stubbornly.

Compared to what I had been through in Ba Yun"s torture chamber, this amount of pain is nothing.

Gritting my teeth, I gathered as much qi as I could in my body. Noticing that I was still conscious and still resisting, Wu Xing reared his arm back for another punch, but I beat him to it. With a yell, I released the qi I had acc.u.mulated inside me in a single burst, freezing the wood around me and even entombing Wu Xing in a huge block of ice.

"Ugh…"

I dropped to my knees and threw up another spurt of blood. Wiping my mouth and staggering to my feet, I turned to look at Wu Xing. Already he was breaking free of the ice, lightning and fire crackling all over him.

I didn"t give him the chance to. Running forward, I smashed him out of the ice with a Shadow Kick, sending him tumbling outward in a shower of ice. While Wu Xing fumbled around and retaliated with a vicious hook, he suddenly realized that I had disappeared.

"f.u.c.k," he swore furiously as he glanced around. Smacking the ice in the air away with a huge sweep of his hand, he spun around with a thunderous holler. "Where did you go?!"

I resisted the urge to tell him where I was and merely showed him by stepping on his helm. Wu Xing"s eyes widened, but before he could knock me away from his head, I unleashed a powerful Seismic Step.

Boom!

Wu Xing disappeared in an explosion that carved a crater into the ground and sent debris flying all over the place. Weaving through the shower of debris, I managed to land on a relatively safe spot free of rubble.

"Curse you!"

"!!!"

I tried to evade, and only succeeded by a narrow margin, as Wu Xing burst out of the cloud of dust and debris. This time, he was executing water moves, with large torrents of water washing the dust and debris away and splashing toward me.

Sidestepping the first punch, I then brought up my swords to block the other. Gritting my teeth as I was shoved back and struck by a wave of water, I then froze the violently swirling currents, surrounding us both in glacial walls. Unhindered, Wu Xing smashed the glacial walls aside with huge swings of his gauntlets, intent on hitting me.

Water swirled around one gauntlet, taking the form of a whirlpool, while lightning crackled around his other. He hit me with both fists and sent me tumbling back despite my best efforts to freeze the water and parry the strike. Again, my swords shook violently, the blades almost unable to handle the impact and my arms ached from the blow.

At least it"s not as bad as when I tried to kick him…

Realizing that I couldn"t be on the defense all the time, I switched my stance and slashed at the incoming Wu Xing. He allowed the blades to strike him, confident in his armor as always. Other than my Seismic Step, he didn"t seem to have received any damage at all.

There"s not even a crack in his armor…he repaired it with his qi, I see…

This was going to be troublesome.

Taking a deep breath, I thrust one of my swords at him, but it merely sc.r.a.ped past his breastplate. Wu Xing smirked and then countered with a punch that I barely blocked with my other sword. Sparks flew as electricity ran through the blade.

"Kuh!"

I jumped back to avoid getting electrocuted and discharged the electricity. While I did so, Wu Xing stepped forward to slam his fist into my chest. I managed to just barely block that one and freeze the water around it, but he suddenly switched the element to wood. Thorns and vines lashed out, absorbing the water and whipping straight at me.

"Ugh…!"

Freezing the wood, I sliced it apart, only to bring up my other sword to block Wu Xing"s fist. His punch smashed my sword into my chest, causing me to cough and fly backward again. Already a new growth of plants had replaced the one I had cut down earlier, quickly ensnaring me and trying to pin me in place for their owner to punch me.

"Kuh…"

Even as blood dripped down my mouth, I gritted my teeth and executed my Heaven and Earth Yuan Yin Frost technique again. Wu Xing stopped just in time, remembering the last time he got over-zealous when trying to pummel me when he thought I was cornered.

Smart guy.

On the other hand, while I was still freezing the plants all around me, Wu Xing realized that he had a chance to execute another of his attacks.

Withdrawing all of his wood, he then slammed his armored palm onto the ground. Dozens of earth spikes erupted from the ground and stabbed into me. Since I was busily trying to eradicate the entwining foliage, I wasn"t able to evade this new attack.

"Argh!"

Despite blocking a few of them with my swords, the rest slammed into me, impaling me in several parts of my body. I coughed out blood and writhed helplessly on the earth lances, momentarily incapacitated.

Wu Xing clenched his fist and created two earth hammers that smashed me from opposite sides, crushing me between them and driving the earth spikes deeper into my body.

"AARRGHH!!!"

Howling in pain, I almost blacked out. The two gigantic earth hammers grinding on me on either side, trying to obliterate my existence…

"You should just surrender," Wu Xing warned.

Like h.e.l.l…!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"

The earth hammers and earth spikes froze, turning into ice before shattering. Even as the icy fragments rained down on Wu Xing"s position, I was descending like a meteorite, azure qi blazing around my body.

"!!!"

Wu Xing almost didn"t react in time, raising both his gauntlets to block my slashes. I didn"t care. Even as blood dripped off my body, I relentlessly a.s.saulted him with multiple swings and strikes of my swords, moving at a speed so fast that my movements were little more than azure blurs in the eyes of spectators.

"Kuh!"

Wu Xing actually found himself being pushed back. To his credit, he gave as much as he took, countering with precise punches and even adding several well-placed kicks on top of that, forcing me to jump. I retaliated with dual strikes that swung down from above, and he raised both arms to catch the blades, only for me to kick him in the chest.

Wu Xing staggered back, but then threw out a torrent of flames that I dodged. I kicked his knee, exploiting the small gap in his armor to cause him to stumble, and then slashed at his chest. While his armor held, his face turned pale and I could sense the barely concealed pain underneath his shocked expression.

"You…!"

Roaring in rage, Wu Xing stepped up his attacks. Water, lightning and wood now flowed along his arms as he hammered away at me, switching elements on the fly and making full use of his versatility to stay ahead of me. I compensated for my lack of adaptability with single-minded determination and a cold ferocity that allowed me to trade blows with him, my swords clashing with his gauntlets and sending new sprays of sparks with every collision.

We exchanged hundeds of blows, the shockwaves from the collisions of our spirit weapons. .h.i.tting the room and shattering the reinforced ground. Wu Xing indulged in a myriad of elements, switching from fire to lightning to wood to water, often utilizing two simultaneously. Whatever he used, I merely froze with my overwhelming Heaven and Earth Yuan Yin Frost technique, turning the s.p.a.ce within the room into a blizzard.

"You…who the h.e.l.l are you?!"

Wu Xing could scarcely believe that a One Star Const.i.tution cultivator such as myself was holding my own against him. I ignored him and continued to exchange another dozen of blows with swift, sharp strokes of my swords, forcing him back on the defensive. Gritting his teeth, Wu Xing countered with a vicious punch, but I blocked it with my sword and dismissed the pain that shot through my arm even as the blade vibrated fiercely.

I was going to need to maintain and repair my weapons after this. It was a miracle that both my swords had lasted this long. Any more and they would both break.

Just a little longer…

"Your movements…why are they so different from before?" Wu Xing growled. Shaking his head, he mustered more of his qi. "Not only did you force me to use my trump card, you"re also cornering me into this…!"

Whoosh!

"!!!"

A sudden wave of qi buffeted me and knocked me back, despite my aggressiveness. I skidded a few meters backward and raised my head to glare at my opponent. To my surprise, I could see an arcane diagram of the five elements materializing behind him.

"Five Elements Esoteric technique: Metal-Fire Fusion!"

Golden flames erupted around Wu Xing and he drove forward with his glowing gauntlets. Blending fire and lightning together, he amplified his strength by several times, and a single punch knocked me off my feet and hurled me against the wall.

"This is…?!"

Blood trailing down my lips, I bent down to catch my breath, and then glared at him. Wu Xing wasn"t waiting for me to recover. He was already charging forward, the esoteric golden flames blazing around him and basking him in an arcane illumination.

This was completely different from before. Earlier, he was dual-wielding two different kinds of elements, but separating them on each arm. This was akin to me wielding two swords. Right now, he had combined two different elements to produce a much stronger effect, which was a lot more destructive and potent than before.

If I were to describe it, it would be like me combining my two swords into a single, ma.s.sive broadsword but still somehow able to wield it as effortlessly and weightlessly as before.

Boom!

Another metal-fire punch blasted me off my feet and knocked me across the room. I hit the ground, rolled and staggered back up with a curse. Trying not to fall, I raised both my swords up and kept my eyes on my opponent, who slowly turned around, still wreathed in those golden electric flames of his. Admittedly, he struck a terrifying sight.

Looks like I don"t have a choice…

Sighing, I shook my head and lowered my swords a fraction.

"Man…I really don"t want to use this, but…you forced me into this."

"What are you talking about?" Wu Xing growled. I ignored him.

"I haven"t fully mastered or perfected these techniques yet, so I really don"t want to use them if possible. But if I don"t, my defeat is certain. I guess I might as well give it a shot, since I have nothing to lose."

"I asked you what you"re talking about!!!!" Wu Xing bellowed as he charged forward, his metal-fire fist raised and ready to smash me into oblivion.

I replied by swinging my swords at him before he could reach me. A powerful wave of qi struck him and stopped him in his tracks, causing him to stumble back.

"That"s…"

Wu Xing"s eyes widened when he saw the ma.s.sive dragon materializing behind me. Rearing its head back, it roared silently before swooping down to coil its gigantic frame around both my swords and bestowing an azure glow on them.

"Why…why is his qi increasing so exponentially? He should be injured…he should be exhausted, yet his qi is growing even more powerful…even more potent?"

Wu Xing shook his head in disbelief. I couldn"t care less about his disbelief and merely advanced forward with Jin. The dragon growled silently as it wreathed around my blades and I appeared right in front of the shocked Wu Xing.

"?!"

Swinging both my swords down, I slashed at him. Wu Xing raised both arms up to defend himself on reflex.

Boom!

This time, it was Wu Xing"s turn to be blown back. His golden flames were extinguished in a second, his armored form hurtling through the air as if he had just been struck by a meteor. He slammed into the wall, almost demolishing it.

"Kuh…! Ugh!"

Coughing out blood, Wu Xing stumbled to his knees and raised his head to gape at me with wide eyes.

"What…what the h.e.l.l is that!? What the h.e.l.l was that technique?!"

"I have no obligation to tell you," I replied before I swung one of my swords at him. Wu Xing caught the slash with his arm, but the meteoric impact pa.s.sed through his armor and slammed into his body with wanton violence.

"Ugh!"

Wu Xing was hurled off his feet and thrown into the other side of the room again. He managed to flip himself up and land somewhat elegantly, but the trail of blood ruined his mask of calm composure. He wiped his mouth and calmed down.

"I see…so this must be the Heavenly Draconic Meteor Sword. I did hear that you were learning it, but no one has ever seen you use it until now."

"You"re the one who forced me to." I was in no mood to converse and I was already advancing onto Wu Xing"s position. He merely smiled and shook his head.

"I must apologize. I"ve truly underestimated you. Five Elements Esoteric technique: Earth-Water combination!"

Walls of earth materialized to stop me from pa.s.sing through. I smashed through them, only for them to bend fluidly and soften attacks like the flexible barriers they were. So this was the quality of a defense that bore both the st.u.r.diness of earth and the fluidity of water. A terrifying protection almost equal to that of Wu Hei Gui"s Black Tortoise Unbreakable Sh.e.l.l.

Unfortunately, it wouldn"t be enough.

"!"

I tore through all the barriers and reached the stunned Wu Xing, but to his credit, he splendidly deflected my attacks away with his gauntlets and even counterattacked with a punch that would have knocked my head off if I hadn"t parried it. We exchanged furious blows, meteoric slashes against unyielding strikes, the colossal shockwaves buffeting the training room and ruining the beleaguered structure.

"Five Elements Esoteric Stratagem: Wood-Water Unification! Countering hard with soft!"

The blue-brown aura surrounding Wu Xing changed into a verdant, bluish green. His defenses became more supple, his attacks flexible, and he managed to knock me back just when I was about to overwhelm him with sheer force.

This Five Elements Esoteric Technique is really troublesome…!

Wu Xing had proven himself to be one of the most formidable opponents I had ever dueled, and with my injuries I knew I couldn"t last long. Furthermore, Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship expended frightening amounts of qi, which was why I was reluctant to use it in the first place. If I wasn"t careful, I might collapse before I could overwhelm Wu Xing.

Best to end this match as quickly as possible!

Calling forth another dragon, I slashed down with another meteoric strike that pulverized Wu Xing"s supple defenses and almost cleaved his armor apart. Wu Xing coughed out some blood, clearly suffering heavy internal injuries from that strike, but he gritted his teeth and pressed on.

"Five Elements Esoteric Stratagem: Metal-Earth Merger!"

Golden barriers of electric rock erupted from the ground, spikes with the tenacity of earth and the speed of lightning. They lanced toward me, forcing me back, but I ruptured them with a swing from one of my swords.

Draconic Meteor Strike.

An azure dragon blasted off my sword and obliterated the incoming golden earth spikes, dissipating the electricity and disintegrating the rock. Bellowing, it charged right at Wu Xing, who gritted his teeth and punched it with his qi-wreathed gauntlet.

Boom!

The resulting explosion was so large and violent that it even threw me off. I tumbled helplessly in midair, and then rolled before landing on my feet and skidding on the broken ground. Huffing, I glanced up and squinted through the smoke. With my gla.s.ses broken and lying somewhere in all the rubble, I couldn"t see through the smoke.

"Let"s finish this."

His body smoldering, Wu Xing stepped out of the smoke. His face was charred and bloodstained, and he was clearly limping, but he was still standing strong and defiant, his armor unbroken despite the various cracks and damage now visible on its once pristine surface. Evidently he wasn"t going to last much longer either.

I grinned. "I concur."

Wu Xing grunted and then gathered as much qi as he could into his armor. Red and brown qi melded and mixed together, emanating a suffocating aura that saturated the entire s.p.a.ce of the training room with heat and gravity.

"Five Elements Esoteric Eradication: Fire-Earth Amalgamation!"

A volcanic eruption. That was the only term I could use to describe the phenomenon that was occurring in the room. A gigantic mountain had emerged from the ground and was spewing molten lava down its sides. Everything it came into contact with spontaneously combusted and disintegrated into soot and ash instantly.

"So this is your ultimate attack, huh?" I smiled quietly as perspiration ran down my face. Whether it was from the intense heat or because I was at a loss at what to do, I had no idea. "Pretty appropriate for the climax of this battle."

Unfortunately, I didn"t know any cool techniques like that. I was just a b.l.o.o.d.y side character, not the protagonist of some whacky xianxia story where the main characters always conveniently had access to some flashy, uber-powerful martial art. Well, I had Heaven and Earth Formula, but it wasn"t as showy as say, Gang Ryong"s Pacheon skills or Yi Shi Woon"s Black Heaven and Earth martial arts that he learned from Han Chun Woo.

So I just summoned everything I had into a single attack. The technique that I had learned from practicing Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship over the past few months, and which I had sort of used during my battle against the Void Whale and Ice Soul Python.

Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike.

Again, the gargantuan dragon materialized around me before it coiled around my blade, suffusing my entire being with azure qi. It wasn"t just the dragon. Stars also appeared above me, igniting like supernovas and getting ready to descend as apocalyptic meteors.

A dragon and his apocalyptic meteors versus the elemental force of a volcano. Who would win?

With a yell, I charged forward, still wreathed by the azure dragon and accompanied by the meteors. Opposite me, the volcano that Wu Xing conjured erupted, the molten lava flowing mercilessly toward me.

"UWOOOOOOOOOOH!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Both of us bellowed as we met each other in the middle of the volcanic eruption and meteor shower. Wu Xing riding the currents of the molten lava and me leading an army of shooting stars. Gauntlets clashed with swords, and the meteors collided with molten lava and volcanic earth.

BOOM!

The entire training room was ripped apart by the impact. The window actually blew out, the transparent but reinforced material shattering and showering the stunned spectators beyond, causing them to cry out. The walls bent and caved in, almost demolished by the shockwaves while the security camera was knocked off its perch and wrecked.

"Waaaah!"

"What the h.e.l.l?!"

"Ugh!?"

At some point during our duel, a ma.s.sive crowd of students had gathered to watch. I paid no attention to them, of course, having been so absorbed in my battle with Wu Xing. But apparently our match had piqued the curiosity of so many students, especially those who knew about Wu Xing"s esoteric five elements principle.

I wasn"t aware of it at that time, but apparently the longer the battle went on, the more curious the spectators grew, and so the crowd grew larger and larger. Especially as the battle heated up and Wu Xing used his Five Elements Royal Armor, more spectators including teachers and staff had joined in to watch.

Some would later tell me that this was a battle worthy of a final. Some would tell me that this match was on par with the one between Zhu Jiao and Yu Wen Tian. Some couldn"t wait to see me fight Zhu Jiao in the next round.

This match had completely changed everyone"s perception of me. Apparently I had proven myself to them, confirmed that I was no longer a One Star Const.i.tution trash who couldn"t absorb artificial qi and was thus left behind.

Whatever the case, it didn"t matter what people thought of my match with Wu Xing. Right now I was more interested in the outcome of our duel.

As the smoke cleared, both of us were still standing, my swords pressed against Wu Xing"s gauntlets. The both of us looked battered and severely wounded, with blood leaking out from dozens of wounds all over our bodies. Wu Xing"s armor concealed most of his injuries, but just from his face and agonized expression I could tell that he was in the same miserable state as I was.

Then Wu Xing"s Five Elements Royal Armor cracked and disintegrated, reverting into the normal breastplate that he carried everywhere with him. My swords also cracked, and the blades shattered, finally unable to withstand the sheer power.

"You…"

Wu Xing raised his head slightly to stare at me. I stiffened, but he made no move to attack. He merely grasped my shoulder weakly, on the verge of collapse.

"Promise me one thing."

I stared at him blankly, resisting the urge to just drop down and black out. My mind was wandering now, almost shutting down from the pain and exhaustion. If I hadn"t gone through worse during the Chinese Parasol Tree Sect abduction, I would have lost consciousness long ago.

"Promise me that you"ll win the tournament."

"…I can"t make any promises, but I"ll do my best."

Wu Xing smiled feebly. "That"s all I ask."

Then he crashed onto the ground and pa.s.sed out.

I stayed on my feet for a few seconds more, vaguely aware of Teacher Cai announcing my victory. Once I was sure that the match was over and I was officially designated the winner, I allowed myself to topple over into oblivion as well.