I couldn"t help but roll my eyes at the highly cliché line. That sounded exactly like what a wuxia or xianxia protagonist would say – especially that arrogant Li Fu Chen, who often told his opponents that he could defeat them in three moves or something, and then went and did it.

Fortunately for me, Li Chun Long was not a G.o.d Mode Mary Sue protagonist like Li Fu Chen, otherwise he would really destroy me in just eleven moves just so the author could jack off to his self-insert wish-fulfilment main character.

"Who?!"

Li Chun Long bellowed angrily and dove at me, swinging his sword. I dodged to the side and deflected his blade before kicking him in the gut. However, Li Chun Long"s reflexes saved him and he twisted to the side to avoid the full impact of my kick before counterattacking with a vicious slash that scorched both the air and ground.

"!"

I jumped back to avoid his strike and then skidded across the ground after parrying his next riposte, which sent me hurtling back. Digging in my feet into the crumbling ground, I gritted my teeth and force myself to a halt.

"My turn."

Taking a deep breath, I infused both my swords with heavenly draconic meteor qi and charged at the calmly standing Li Chun Long, who observed me with great interest. He must have picked up something odd about my techniques, for he was mumbling to himself.

"Hmm, his qi definitely has some draconic qualities to it. However, within his st.u.r.dy yang qi, I can detect a huge amount of frosty yin qi. Is this the Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship, or has it been modified by his learning of other unorthodox techniques and merging them together? It looks like I have to be careful!"

He activated his Solar Celestial Dragon Formula at the twelfth level and infused his Sacred Dragon Sword with fiery green qi.

"Whoa…"

"Amazing…"

"I didn"t expect this…"

Up in the spectator box, the audience were watching in awe. To them, they saw two gigantic dragons clashing in the coliseum, one azure dragon uncoiling to lash out, and one green dragon that reared up defiantly to answer its enemy"s challenge.

"Hmph. Even if you use a similar draconic martial arts technique to my Solar Celestial Dragon Formula, you"ll still be unable to prevail over me!"

Confident and arrogant as ever, Li Chun Long raised his sword and parried my strike. He pushed me away, but I swung my other sword at what I hoped was his blind spot. Unfortunately for me, Li Chun Long had that angle covered as well, his reflexes reacting well ahead of time for him to parry that. He meet me blow for blow, the two of us exchanging several dozen strikes in half a minute. Gripping his sword tightly, Li Chun Long stood his ground and warded off every meteoric attack I delivered, not budging even an inch.

Using my footwork technique, I executed Duo and avoided a counterattack from Li Chun Long while dashing to his back. Li Chun Long quickly spun around to deflect a strike from the back, and he finally moved forward, pressing me back with a series of furious blows that I struggled hard to keep up with by deflecting them with both of my swords.

This guy…he"s effortlessly fending off every one of my attacks!

Even though I knew I had to be patient and rein in any reckless streak I might have, I was growing a little frustrated at how Li Chun Long nullified each and every of my strikes. My opponent was clearly above me in terms of swordsmanship.

Aware of this, Li Chun Long swung his Sacred Dragon Sword powerfully and knocked me back, flinging me several meters toward the wall. Panting, I made use of the momentum to widen the distance between us and take a breather.

Li Chun Long is strong! I thought. I knew that long ago, but having personally fought him, I could testify right now his incredible strength. His swordsmanship was flawless, his qi overwhelming and his spiritual strength st.u.r.dy beyond measure.

It would be extremely difficult to overcome him.

"What"s the matter?" Li Chun Long mocked me as he swung his sword, unleashing a faint wisp of green qi and beckoning me to approach. "Don"t tell me you"re already out of breath? Did you use up all of your strength earlier?"

That b.a.s.t.a.r.d was still looking down on me. Admittedly, he had every reason to be confident, having one-sidedly oppressed me so far. I couldn"t find a way to break through his defenses and land a decisive blow, and he was almost toying with me.

As I thought, even a few days" training wasn"t enough for me to make up the difference between our skills.

So what?

However, that didn"t mean I would definitely lose. I didn"t buy into this whole power levels bulls.h.i.t. I didn"t care what "level" or what "realm" or "stage" Li Chun Long was at, and if they were higher than mine. h.e.l.l, I didn"t even know what level or realm I was at. A weaker person still had a chance of beating a stronger person. I just needed to compensate for my lack of strength with tactics and creativity. That was all.

Taking a deep breath, I channeled my qi into my swords and lunged forward again. Li Chun Long grinned, confident that he could block my attack.

Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike!

"!"

That proved to be Li Chun Long"s undoing. When I suddenly unleashed my technique, he was overwhelmed by the immense qi pressure and forced back. I exploited the opening and knocked away his Sacred Dragon Sword with my left sword while slashing him with my right sword. Blood spurted from his chest and he staggered backward.

"You…!"

Snarling in fury, Li Chun Long lashed back in retaliation, forcing me to evade. Ducking under his next swing, I then slashed him from below, blocking his sword with one of mine and lashing out with the other, the meteoric strike cutting through my beleaguered opponent"s defenses and landing a grievous injury.

"Ugh! His strength has increased by bounds! Is this the true Heavenly Draconic Meteoric Strike?!"

Li Chun Long was struggling just to keep up with me, desperately flailing about with his sword to ward off my merciless strikes. Using my deft footwork, I outmaneuvered him and sliced into his flank, causing him to stagger.

"Argh!"

Crying out, Li Chun Long struggled to keep his balance. Meanwhile, I twisted around to face him once again. My qi surged once more and I swung both my swords at Li Chun Long, knocking him several paces back. He coughed out some blood and clutched at his injuries with his free hand, glaring at me hatefully as he wisely retreated.

Drip. Drip.

As he limped backward, he left a trail of blood on the broken arena floor. I didn"t wait for him to recover, though. I swung my swords at him, forcing him to deflect them. This time, Li Chun Long was the one who used the momentum to flip himself back and hurtle through the air to land quite some distance away from me.

"Huff…"

He wiped the blood from his mouth and glared at me spitefully.

I shrugged. It was his fault for beckoning me to attack in the first place, and underestimating me. Even if I was weaker than him, it didn"t mean I would be totally unable to hurt him.

"Impressive," Li Chun Long admitted grudgingly as he watched me warily. "I"m amazed that your current strength has surpa.s.sed even the pinnacle of the original Solar Celestial Dragon Formula! I can"t believe it!"

"Better start believing," I retorted as I met his gaze evenly.

"Hmph." Li Chun Long scowled. "Seems like you"ve really worked hard in order to make such a breakthrough. It"s a pity, though, that the likes of you will never be able to surpa.s.s me. Not with only a One Star Const.i.tution."

His fiery qi surged upward and wreathed him in a terrifying halo, shining so brightly it was almost as if he had turned into a miniature sun.

"Ugh!"

"That"s…!"

"Whoa!"

Above, in the spectator box, the spectators were forced to shield their eyes at the sudden flaring brightness. Thankfully, my gla.s.ses were sophisticated enough to react, the lenses automatically darkening to protect my eyes.

"I"m going to defeat you and teach you your place! Be honored, for you"ve forced me to use this power!"

Raising his Sacred Dragon Sword high into the air, Li Chun Long bellowed, his qi increasing exponentially as he did so.

"Solar Celestial Shock Formula!"

"What the h.e.l.l?" I murmured as I watched the fiery supernova coalesce around him in a blazing halo. "Isn"t that…?"

From some Singaporean wuxia comic I read when I was a kid, but I decided not to voice that out. Not that anyone would get the reference anyway.

Instead, I sighed and shook my head.

"So another one of your Green Dragon Sect techniques?"

"Hah!"

Li Chun Long brandished his sword. I pursed my lips as I watched him increase his qi tremendously. If I was any other opponent, I would be frightened out of my mind, but I had read way too many manhua to know where this was going.

"Regretting it now? Surrender and forfeit the final! Ning Xue will be the champion anyway! Stop struggling meaninglessly!"

"Oh, so powerful," I taunted with a roll of my eyes. "I"m so scared. Look! I"m quaking in my shoes right now!"

"Are you mocking me?!" with a swing of his sword, Li Chun Long unleashed a fiery blast of qi at me. I casually sliced it apart with my two swords. "I"m sure you"re aware that the twelfth level of the Solar Celestial Dragon Formula is its highest level, right?"

"Yeah, so what?"

Li Chun Long looked dismayed. It was as if he was expecting me to act all shock and demand to know how he could attain a strength above that of Solar Celestial Dragon Formula"s peak. Did the dude think I was an idiot?

Pushing my gla.s.ses up with my clenched fingers (I was still holding my sword, after all), I shook my head and sighed.

"I know the Green Dragon Sect has several techniques. The Solar Celestial Dragon Formula, while the most famous technique, isn"t the only one. And it"s far from being the most powerful one. In fact it"s just the basic foundation technique for the Green Dragon Sect, a prerequisite to learning the other more advanced techniques. Such as the Solar Celestial Shock Formula you"re executing right now. Am I mistaken?"

"H…how do you know?!"

Apparently these were closely guarded secrets of the Green Dragon Sect or something, because Li Chun Long was astonished by my knowledge of them.

"…"

Wait a second, if they were closely guarded secrets of his sect, why the h.e.l.l was he trying to show off and tell me about them? Okay, maybe it was possible he just wanted to mock me by showing off his power but he never intended to tell me from the beginning. He would just laugh at me and deny me the answers if I asked him, keeping me in suspense. It sounded like the kind of thing he would do, but the joke ended up being on him.

"Where did you learn that from?!" Li Chun Long roared. Clearly he was appalled that I knew about the secret Green Dragon Sect techniques and sought to stop the leak, wherever it might be coming from. I tilted my head and considered for a moment.

"I read a lot."

"No way!" Li Chun Long"s face was ashen. "There"s no way our sect"s great secret techniques can be found in books! They shouldn"t be published for public knowledge! You"re definitely lying! Tell me! Where did you learn that from?"

"If you don"t believe me, you can go to the library to check," I replied before pondering. "Hmm, if I"m not mistaken, it"s the book t.i.tled The History of the Green Dragon Sect."

"No way! That"s impossible!"

I sighed, getting tired of his shouting. This was supposed to be a tournament match, yet he still got distracted by such a stupid thing. Shaking my head, I pointed my swords at him and conjured up my azure dragon.

"Whatever. Let"s settle this. Let"s see if your Solar Celestial Dragon Formula and Solar Celestial Shock Formula are superior to my Heavenly Draconic Meteor Sword."

Taking a deep breath, I channeled my qi throughout my body, forcibly increasing my strength and speed. Using Jin, I dashed forward and slashed at the awaiting Li Chun Long with both swords. Even though he was momentarily distracted by my revelation, his reflexes were still G.o.dlike. He managed to execute his technique.

"Solar Celestial Shock Formula, level 2!" he hollered as he raised his Sacred Dragon Sword to parry my strike.

Again, an azure dragon soared behind and above me as I charged straight at Li Chun Long, who was flanked by an overlooking green dragon. Both of us met in the middle of the arena, the clashing of our swords sending violent shockwaves reverberating throughout the structure. Despite taking the initiative, my swords were almost torn out of my grip.

"Ugh!"

I retreated, both my arms trembling from the violent clash. The shockwaves from the collision of our blades had numbed my arms. Cursing, I jumped away just as Li Chun Long swung his sword down to cleave me in half.

He"s certainly a lot stronger than before! Even with my Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship, I"m barely a match for him!

Gritting my teeth, I used my footwork techniques to evade his next hail of blows, parrying and deflecting whatever strikes I wasn"t able to avoid. Again and again, as I blocked his sword, I almost felt my weapons yanked from my grip. Tightening my fingers over the hilts of both my swords, I desperately fought him off and disengaged, using Duo or Tui to strategically withdraw.

With such overwhelming strength, I can"t win in a head-on duel. I"ve no choice but to rely on my superior speed and footwork!

Perspiration dripping down my face, I ducked under another slash from Li Chun Long before thrusting a riposte forward. Li Chun Long rammed his elbow down to deflect my blade and slammed my head with the pommel of his sword. Fortunately, I had sensed his intentions somewhat and I was able to yank my head away in time.

"…kuh!"

Despite my evasive maneuver, the pommel of Li Chun Long"s Sacred Dragon Sword grazed my temple, causing blood to spray. I felt my head rock backward from the blow, my mind suddenly going blank from a haze of pain, and I staggered back.

"It"s over!"

Crowing triumphantly, Li Chun Long slashed me with his sword. I crossed both of my swords and parried his blow, grinding my teeth as my knees buckled from the immense force. With a determined yell, I deflected Li Chun Long"s strike and counterattacked with all of my might.

"Heh! You fell for it!"

Li Chun Long smirked as he struck me away. I staggered back, but managed to react just in time to block another of his strike.

"Did you think you can win a contest of strength with me? Hah! Naïve! You"re mistaken if you think my power is only of this level!"

"!!!"

The aura of fiery qi surrounding Li Chun Long suddenly blazed more fiercely and brighter than before, and his strength increased several folds.

"Solar Celestial Shock Formula, level 3!"

Do you honestly think I care about all these stupid levels? I thought, resisting the urge to roll my eyes. Thankfully, I was forced to pay more attention to Li Chun Long"s current attacks, so I couldn"t muster a retort.

The sudden surge in his fiery strength almost caught me off guard. Li Chun Long broke through my defenses, knocking both of my swords out of my grip. While I was reeling from the sudden strike, my opponent seized the advantage and struck with his palm.

"!"

"Dragon Palm!"

With his free hand, Li Chun Long slammed his palm into me. Red and green fire exploded, searing through my body and throwing me back. I was sent hurtling across the arena, blood spewing from my mouth.

"Ugh…!"

Crashing onto the ground and rolling helplessly to a stop, I could only raise my head and watch as Li Chun Long dashed toward me. With a triumphant yell, he swung his sword down to cleave me in half.

"It"s over!"

BOOM!

His sword eviscerated a huge chunk of the coliseum, his fiery blade carving a crater into the reinforced concrete and scorching it black. However, his grin vanished when he saw no sign of his intended victim.

"!"

Glancing around, he let out a bellow.

"Where the h.e.l.l are you?!"

I replied with a kick, my foot grazing the back of his head when his reflexes saved him again. Snarling, he spun around with a swing of his sword, but I had already ducked down under his vicious blade. Twisting my body in midair, I delivered another Shadow Kick, this time to his gut. Fortunately, my second kick landed true.

"Kuh?!"

This time, it was Li Chun Long who was sent hurtling across the coliseum before he slammed into the wall behind him, cracking the concrete. He swore as he slid down the crumbling wall, raising his sword vengefully.

"You"re still able to move?!"

"A little," I confessed as I swayed unsteadily and winced. Clutching my chest, I coughed out a wad of blood. d.a.m.n, but that blow did quite a significant amount of internal damage. My lungs and stomach still felt as if they were rattling against my bones. Not to mention the various other injuries that I had acc.u.mulated over the battle.

Even so, Li Chun Long was still able to stand despite taking my kick. Well, I didn"t expect him to go down from just that.

"Surely even you can see the differences between our strengths," Li Chun Long sneered as he pointed his sword at me. I shrugged.

"Yeah, but superior strength is not necessarily the decisive factor in winning a fight," I replied as I bent down to retrieve my two swords.

Li Chun Long sneered. "Spoken like a sore loser."

"I haven"t lost yet," I reminded him. "If you want to win, you"re gonna have to earn it, not demand it. You"re not ent.i.tled to a free win. Besides…" I grinned. "I might surprise you and win."

"f.u.c.ker!"

The green dragon reared up behind Li Chun Long again as he executed level 3 of his Solar Celestial Shock Formula. I watched him quietly, and then beckoned for him to attack. Even though Li Chun Long stayed still, the giant green dragon above him writhed and roared soundlessly, responding to its owner"s will.

Li Chun Long"s lip curled.

"I"ll show you the difference between our strengths," he declared before raising his Sacred Dragon Sword and getting ready to thrust it forward.

"I"m sure you"ve demonstrated that plenty of times throughout the match," I a.s.sured him cynically. Then I smiled. "And I"ll be demonstrating to you and everyone how it"s possible for someone weaker to win against a stronger opponent."

Then I fell silent. Whatever came next, I was going to prove it with my actions, not words.

"Loser who doesn"t know his place!"

Bellowing, Li Chun Long surged forward and stabbed me with his sword, his blazing blade smashing through both my swords bfore sinking deeply into my chest and unleashing a scorching wave of fiery yang qi that incinerated my body.

"Hah! So much for demonstrating that you can win! You deserved it! If only you"ve wisely chosen to surrender, you wouldn"t have to die!"

I merely smiled at him, then my form rippled and disappeared right before his astonished eyes. Startled by the unexpected outcome, Li Chun Long stumbled back and pulled his sword out from the fading figure.

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

I merely replied with a counterattack from behind. Li Chun Long, sensing it with his incredible battle sense, dodged on reflex and retaliated with a riposte that tore through me…only for my figure to shimmer and disappear again.

"What the f.u.c.k is this?!"

Howling, Li Chun Long allowed his fiery qi to surge and detonate, blowing up the area around him. Waving his sword around frantically, he slashed everywhere.

What a complete waste of qi and energy. Well, it was his qi and energy, so I wasn"t going to complain. Especially since this was advantageous to me.

"Come out, you coward!"

"Naw," I taunted. "I"m weaker, remember? I can"t beat you in a straight-up fight. Of course we who are weak have our own way of fighting…and winning."

"Coward!"

"Hey," I snapped. "We"re not obligated to fight your way. If everything can be resolved by brute force and superior strength, then there"s no need for us to learn martial arts. We learn martial arts because combat is a lot more complex than the simple "the stronger martial artist wins." Isn"t that right, successor of the Green Dragon Sect?"

"Shut up and come out and face me!"

Screaming, Li Chun Long swung his Sacred Dragon Sword and unleashed another destructive blast of yang qi that rippled across the coliseum and destroyed the ground. Several of my shadows jumped away, not stupid enough to stand still and get obliterated by his strikes. As if realizing it for the first time, Li Chun Long paused and stared at me.

No, at us.

"You…how…?!"

"What?" One of us asked. It wasn"t as if I didn"t understand his confusion, though. I might be stunned speechless if I saw that my opponent had multiplied himself.

As it was, there were about twelve of me standing around in different positions, adopting various stances or indulging in different postures. His mouth gaping open like a goldfish, Li Chun Long stared from one of me to another of me, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

"What is this demonic trickery?! This is definitely some sort of demonic martial arts! An illusion technique!"

"You"re not wrong. It is an illusion technique. But it"s an orthodox sect technique, unless you"re suddenly the authority who can decide whether Shadow Steps is a demonic martial art."

I shrugged nonchalantly. Or at least several of me did. Li Chu Long blanched and shook uncontrollably.

With a frustrated bellow, he swung his sword and unleashed another fiery wave of destruction. All my shadows moved quickly, using footwork techniques to evade. Unfortunately, one of us got caught in the blast and evaporated, the qi that made up his body returning to nothingness.

But there was still eleven of us left.

"What the h.e.l.l is this?! Shadow Steps? I don"t remember Shadow Steps having such a move?! No, it"s…a footwork technique?!"

"Correct. It"s Ying." Several of us clapped our hands gleefully. "But what do you think will happen if we combine Ying of Shadow Steps and Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship?"

A swarm of dragons appeared all around us. However, instead of being an azure dragon, all the dragons this time were black.

"T…this isn"t Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship!" Li Chun Long spluttered, as even his green dragon shrank back at the multiple black dragons.

"Correct. Iike I said, this is the result of me combining Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship with Shadow Steps. Hmm...I guess I"ll call it Shadow Dragon Meteor Strike Formula or something like that?"

"Y…you…!"

Li Chun Long attacked recklessly, but again, he only succeeded in destroying one of the shadows, and accordingly one of the black dragons vanished along with the crumbling form of me.

But there were still ten of me left.

"Huff…huf…huff…"

Li Chun Long felt perspiration drip off his face. Even though he was clearly superior to me in strength, all of that greater power was of no use if he couldn"t find the right target to hit. As it was, he was chasing…uh, shadows.

"Well, it"s my turn to attack."

Smiling, I took a step forward. All ten of me, anyway. And our corresponding black dragons followed, striking an intimidating pose as they challenged the flickering green dragon that shrouded the trembling Li Chun Long.

"I wonder, will you be able to tell which of us is real, and which of us are fake?"

Melding reality with illusion, all ten of my shadows rippled and vanished, attacking Li Chun Long from multiple directions. For an instant, it seemed that there were more than ten of us – no, there were almost a hundred of my shadows appearing, disappearing and reappearing, slashing and cutting Li Chun Long from many different directions with blows that packed the power of a meteor.

Even with his superhuman reflexes, Li Chun Long couldn"t keep up with so many attacks from so many directions. Blood spurted as he spun about, his body reeling and jerking from countless meteoric strikes.

"Guh…"

Falling to his knees, Li Chun Long"s eyes rolled up in his sockets and he dropped his Sacred Dragon Sword.

"So…"

I stood in front of him, my shadows all fading and merging with me until there was only one of me left. With a smile, I laid my right sword on his shoulder.

"In the end, were you able to tell which one was the real me?"