Thankfully the academy had restoration techniques, or it would be incredibly expensive to constantly repair and rebuild the destroyed arena whenever we had a duel.

"…"

Narrowing my eyes, I peered through the cloud of dust. Despite using the full force of my Seismic Step, I knew that Qi Fu Ren was still alive. The b.a.s.t.a.r.d was incredibly st.u.r.dy, especially since his element was metal (same as lightning). I could barely make out his silhouette as he crawled to his feet, his head bleeding large rivers of blood.

"b.a.s.t.a.r.d…I"ll kill you…I"ll f.u.c.king kill you!"

Hidden amidst all the dust, Qi Fu Ren thought he was well-concealed from prying eyes. So he retrieved the thing that his master, Elder Hu from the White Tiger Sect, pa.s.sed to him in the preparation room from before the duel.

My eyes widened when I recognized the object.

"Qi Burst Pill?!"

To my horror, Qi Fu Ren popped the red, fiery pill into his mouth and crushed it. The powder floated around his tongue for a few seconds, bearing a spicy taste, but he swallowed it whole. Within moments, his qi ignited and surged exponentially, increasing several folds.

"That"s…!"

"Wow! I see…no wonder Qi Fu Ren was losing earlier. He was holding back so much power!"

"Is this Qi Fu Ren"s true strength?"

Many of the student spectators were unaware that Qi Fu Ren was doping and relying on cheats to artificially enhance his strength. Truthfully, I was pretty sure that such a move was illegal, and he could have invalidated the duel with this d.i.c.k move of his, but Teacher Cai Pan didn"t say anything, so I thought it would seem petty if I spoke up.

However, this was bad. This was really bad. Even though it was illegal, even though it was only temporary and such a move would have terrible side effects, the fact of the matter was that Qi Fu Ren right now was several times stronger than earlier.

I was in trouble.

A few students recognized that this was cheating, and they murmured amongst themselves, wondering what was going on.

"Why isn"t Teacher Cai stopping the duel?"

"He used a drug! That"s illegal, isn"t it?"

"That desc.i.p.able b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Resorting to cheating during an official match!"

Despite the outrage, Teacher Cai remained unmoved, for reasons known only to him.

*

"Yes, Teacher Cai. I am aware. But trust me, you don"t have to move. Just allow the match to proceed." Xiao Zhang paused for a moment as he listened to Teacher Cai saying something on the other side of the phone. "Yes, I know. I"m watching the match. I saw Qi Fu Ren cheating with a Qi Burst Pill. But even so, I want you to allow the match to continue."

He chuckled, a grin spreading across his wrinkled face.

"Trust me. Wait for the outcome, and you"ll see."

He then hung up his cellphone and turned to the other teachers.

"Is that wise?" Teacher Shu Xue asked, frowning.

"Wise? No. but I have faith in Fei Cai. And I suspect you do as well, right? Jiao Shi."

Teacher Jiao Shi said nothing, but his lack of protest was sufficient as a reply. Beside him, still lounging around, Teacher Yi Liao chuckled throatily.

"This will be very interesting," she agreed. Then she smiled at Teacher Shu. "Don"t worry…as long as neither party is dead, I"ll be able to fix them up. I did reattach Shi Bai Zhe"s arm in a surgery earlier, didn"t I?"

"I don"t doubt that," Xiao Zhang said drily, but he rose to his feet. Teacher Yi blinked as she gazed in his direction.

"Where are you going?"

"I"m thinking a change of venue is in order," Xiao Zhang replied with a disarming smile. "I think, for the next part of this duel, I want to watch it firsthand."

*

Laughing manically, Qi Fu Ren launched himself at me. Still half-confused by Teacher Cai"s lack of intervention, and half-intimidated by Qi Fu Ren"s sudden, exponential increase in qi, I almost didn"t react in time.

Tui!

I retreated with the footwork technique, but thanks to the Qi Burst Pill, Qi Fu Ren"s speed had multiplied several times. He actually overtook me with his Jin and punched me. Unable to duck, I crossed both arms to block his punch.

"UGH!"

Gigantic currents of electricity fried and electrocuted me. There was a huge thunderclap and I was sent hurtling across the arena, my body scorched and smoking.

"Hah! Know your place, trash!"

Qi Fu Ren descended upon my position, punching and kicking me. Helpless, unable to evade, I could only curl into a ball and weather the first few blows. Red-hot agony stabbed into me, superheated lightning lanced into me and my body was slowly torn apart by the devastating electricity. In one final move, Qi Fu Ren kicked me like a soccer ball, sending me soaring across the arena and slamming into the wall.

Bam!

The impact was so great that I actually made a dent in the reinforced concrete. Grunting in pain, I slid down the wall, the breath knocked out of me.

"It"s not over yet!"

Qi Fu Ren surged forward to deliver another barrage of attacks. However, he had made a mistake by kicking me to a good distance away, and this time I was able to prepare myself and evade his attacks.

Duo!

Disappearing from his view, I appeared behind him. Spinning around, I threw a roundhouse kick that snapped Qi Fu Ren"s head to the side and almost caused him to topple over.

Almost.

Qi Fu Ren"s feet crunched firmly into the ground, leaving tiny craters as he lodged himself to maintain his balance. Not only was most of the force behind my kick dissipated by the lightning barrier that wreathed his body, I actually took damage from the fierce electric currents running around his head. Qi Fu Ren himself turned around with a smirk, and despite blood trickling from the new wound I dealt to his temple, he seemed otherwise unaffected.

My eyes widened.

Can he not feel pain?

Of course. The Qi Burst Pill dampened or shut off one"s sense of pain. I could deal as many devastating injuries to Qi Fu Ren as I like, but he wouldn"t feel anything…at least not until the effects of the Qi Burst Pill wore off.

On the other hand, he would suffer a lot once the Qi Burst Pill expired. Fortunately, Teacher Yi"s healing techniques would counteract most of that damage, but the side effects of the pill extended beyond physical damage.

Fortunately, Qi Fu Ren"s condition was none of my business. To be honest, I couldn"t afford to be concerned with his wellbeing. Not when I had to worry about myself trying to survive his berserk onslaught of crazed attacks first.

Qi Fu Ren punched at me again, but I evaded. Just barely. Thanks to the Qi Burst Pill, he was ignoring the damage and injuries that he sustained from earlier, which had slowed his mobility from the pain. But with his sense of pain being numbed, and his limiters off, his movements had increased to several times faster than his original speed. I was just barely able to keep one step ahead of him, and even that was overtaxing myself.

How do I beat him?

"Whoa!"

Never mind defeat him, I had to survive Qi Fu Ren"s barrage of punches and kicks first. Then only would I worry about trying to secure any form of victory. In fact, it was unlikely that I might be able to win this, unless I turned this into a battle of attrition and waited for the effects of the Qi Burst Pill to wear off.

That"s not practical. The effects of the Qi Burst Pill can last for hours.

So that was not an option. Then what was?

"Guh?!"

Another lightning strike from Qi Fu Ren sent me sprawling onto the ground, and I was forced to roll way before he stomped me to oblivion. As it was, his foot literally broke the concrete floor, carving a deep crater into it.

Pressing my palms into the ground, I sprang back to my feet with a single surge of energy while avoiding yet another punch from Qi Fu Ren. Panting, I widened the distance between us, but Qi Fu Ren used his accelerated Jin to lunge at me again.

This time, I met him head-on. Before Qi Fu Ren"s fist could reach and crush my face, I lashed out with a kick. My foot slammed into the crook of his arm, deflecting his fist away. Qi Fu Ren continued to advanced, undeterred, and threw a hook with his other fist. But I dodged it by a hair"s breadth before jumping off the ground and ramming my knee into his ribs.

Crack!

I had most definitely broken Qi Fu Ren"s ribs with that powerful Lunar Rabbit knee. However, Qi Fu Ren was unfazed by my attack. As I mentioned earlier, he was completely immune to pain right now, with the Qi Burst Pill shutting off his senses.

Instead, Qi Fu Ren grabbed hold of me with a roar. But I ducked under his grasp, only to parry his retaliation. Lightning clad his knee as he rammed it into me, and I grunted as electricity surged through my body while I was sent hurtling backward.

Screech!

I skidded back across the ground, unable to halt my momentum even as I left twin trails of broken concrete in my wake. Qi Fu Ren relentlessly charged at me, not even bothering to wait for me to regain my balance.

That was fine. I didn"t need to balance myself just yet. Infusing my feet with qi, I kicked off before I fell and disappeared the moment Qi Fu Ren reached my position, his Lightning Fist tearing through thin air and scorching the atmosphere.

Having used Duo to evade Qi Fu Ren, I appeared behind him again. But Qi Fu Ren was smart enough to antic.i.p.ate my movements, having seen me use it against him once. d.a.m.n, I didn"t think he would adapt as quickly as the artificial intelligence in the test dummy!

Wham!

I managed to parry his backhand, and was sent skidding back. Cursing under my breath, I lowered my trembling arms, which were tingling with electricity. However, Qi Fu Ren continued his merciless barrage, spinning around to throw another Lightning Punch.

Or at least I thought it would be a Lightning Punch.

Foolishly, I blocked it – then again, I wouldn"t be able to dodge it in time, so I had no other option – and Qi Fu Ren maliciously relished my mistake by executing his most powerful attack.

"Lightning Flash!"

"GUAAAAAH!"

The entire place blew up instantly, my body engulfed in a devastating golden pillar of lightning. Fried and electrocuted by the ma.s.sive attack and millions of voltage, I was almost incinerated into nothing. My body fuming, I staggered out of the highly destructive blast, only for Qi Fu Ren to punch me in the gut and send me flying.

Thud!

I crashed heavily onto the ground, wheezing and heaving. Electricity continued to crackle around my body, paralyzing me. Gritting my teeth, I ground my limbs against the earth and discharged the remaining electricity, trying to lessen the paralysis.

Unfortunately, Qi Fu Ren wasn"t going to give me the time to recover. He rammed his knee into my chest before I could get up, throwing me into the air. While I spun about helplessly in midair, he c.o.c.ked back his fist and punched me. Lightning detonated as his fist collided against me, golden electricity incinerating and scorching my body.

"Gaaaaah!"

I tumbled head over heels before crashing into an undignified heap on the ground.

"I told you I"ll kill you!"

Cackling madly, Qi Fu Ren launched himself forward, raising his leg to swing it down viciously. A lightning-clad axe kick, which would obliterate my skull the moment it connected.

"…as expected of the elite disciple of the White Tiger Sect, Qi Fu Ren," I murmured as I raised my head weakly. Blood dripped from my mouth and my vision blurred, but I refused to waver. Instead, I smiled as I pushed my gla.s.ses up my nose. "I"m impressed."

To be honest, I had already recognized Qi Fu Ren"s strength. I wasn"t like Lu Fu Chen, who constantly looked down on others with that condescending and arrogant att.i.tude of his, nor was I overconfident and abusive like Qi Fu Ren. I acknowledged someone"s power if he possessed it. It would be suicidal to underestimate my opponent otherwise.

Even so, Qi Fu Ren"s current level of power had far surpa.s.sed my expectations. Of course, most of this power was gained from cheating, from consuming that Qi Burst Pill, but even when taking that into consideration, I couldn"t deny that Qi Fu Ren was a highly formidable opponent. I couldn"t afford to hold back any longer.

d.a.m.n, to think he forced me to use this technique…I really don"t want to use it in front of everyone and reveal it so soon, but if I don"t, I might actually die.

There was no point concealing my strength to preserve an advantage for the future if I ended up dead. That would defeat the whole purpose of practicing these techniques to begin with.

As Qi Fu Ren descended upon my position, my eyes flashed and azure and black qi began to coalesce around me.

Boom!

The explosion rocked the arena, the entire area reduced to rubble as Qi Fu Ren"s kick pulverized the concrete and carved a deep crater into the ground. However, his foot never landed. Instead, I was raising a bleeding hand, wisps of black and azure qi smoking from my wounded right arm. Opposite me, Qi Fu Ren had landed on one knee. He gritted his teeth in frustration, even as fumes billowed from the leg he used to kick.

He stood up instantly and looked down on me with scorn and disdain.

"You barely deflected that kick, Fei Wu!" he sneered as he closed in, towering over me and getting ready to deal the finishing blow.

c.o.c.king his right arm back, Qi Fu Ren acc.u.mulated all of his electric qi and got ready to throw another devastating Lightning Fist.

"Let"s see you try and deflect this attack again!"

I merely glanced up and glared at him.

"!!"

Qi Fu Ren immediately felt a chill when he caught sight of my gaze. He jumped back on reflex, widening the distance between me and him.

I slowly rose to my feet, ignoring the pain that throbbed throughout my body. Straightening my back, I stood in a more dignified posture as I faced Qi Fu Ren.

He leered at me, his lips curling into a mocking grin. "What"s up with your glare? Do you think a bluff will work against me?"

"Why aren"t you charging at me already?" I asked, smiling provocatively. "You continue to amaze me, Qi Fu Ren."

"What?" Qi Fu Ren growled, but he didn"t deny that he felt a chill earlier when he saw my glare. He instinctively knew that I did something, but couldn"t place his finger on what I did. "You think I"m afraid of you?"

"Now, I never said that, did I?" I c.o.c.ked my head and then beckoned him with a hand. "Since I"ve already played my trump card, I might as well go all out and ask you to use yours. What"s your most powerful attack? Lightning Flash, was it?"

Qi Fu Ren narrowed his eyes, but didn"t deny it. I smiled and curled a finger.

"Go ahead and use it. Your Lightning Flash. I"ll show you how easily I can crush your most powerful attack with mine."

"Ha ha! Funny!" Qi Fu Ren chortled, his features twisted in cruel amus.e.m.e.nt. "I"ve no idea what you"re trying to achieve, blabbering nonsense like this…do you intend to buy yourself some time or something?"

Golden lightning exploded all around Qi Fu Ren, the most concentrated, and the largest amount of qi that he had ever acc.u.mulated thus far in this fight. The ground around him was blackened and scorched from the sheer volume of lightning dancing around his body, incinerating and disintegrating rubble and debris.

His lightning technique was so potent that I was forced to shield myself with a hand, and even then I could feel the intense electricity numbing my limbs and sending deadly tingles throughout my body. Clenching my teeth, I focused on bringing up my qi to defend myself.

And this was but a mere display of Qi Fu Ren"s power. He hadn"t even launched his attack yet.

"But time is not the only thing you need! Is it, Fei Wu?!"

Jumping forward, he thrust his fist forward, lightning crackling and leaping off his arm in tempestuous torrents.

"Lightning Flash!"

"Are you seriously shouting out the name of your attack?" I grumbled as I rolled my eyes, but Qi Fu Ren ignored me as he was illuminated by golden lightning.

Up in the spectator box, the spectators all reeled back and shielded their eyes from the blinding display. So bright was the illumination from Qi Fu Ren"s intense display of lightning that it seared into their retinas, causing them to shut their eyes in reflex. Even I was no exception, but fortunately the lenses on my gla.s.ses automatically darkened, filtering out the bright light and protecting my eyes.

Shortly after my return to Wu Ling Academy, I had approached the spirit armament division and requested that they teach me to modify my gla.s.ses. Since I no longer suffered from myopia, I didn"t actually need my gla.s.ses, but I thought it would be useful to do some modifications that would help me in combat.

I was so glad I made that choice.

However, even with these modifications, it wasn"t as if my gla.s.ses could stop Qi Fu Ren"s full-powered a.s.sault.

"DIE!"

Roaring gleefully, Qi Fu Ren descended upon my position, his fist hurtling forward while clad in tremendous amounts of electric qi and explosive energy.

It never reached me.

"!"

All I did was move my right hand slightly, swinging it almost casually. Qi Fu Ren didn"t realize the danger, even after it had occurred, barreling past me as I neatly dodged his attack. The next moment, a single arm flew into the air, followed by a spray of blood.

"What…what….what?!"

Qi Fu Ren staggered around, but the lack of pain meant that he didn"t realize what had happened until he had seen it for himself.

His right arm was gone. Rather, it was lying a few meters on the ground, detached from a few inches above his elbow.

"Ah…AAAAAAAAAH! My arm!"

More from shock than pain, Qi Fu Ren screamed as he dropped to his knees. Clutching his bleeding stump in disbelief, he shook his head and bellowed.

I merely turned back to face him, my expression a cold, indifferent mask.

"What did you do!? What was that technique?!"

"Oh, you didn"t see it?" I shrugged. "Then too bad."

"You cheater!"

I shook my head, wondering if Qi Fu Ren comprehended the irony of his accusations. This was from a guy who cheated by doping, by illegally consuming a Qi Burst Pill in the middle of a match. And he had the cheek to accuse me of cheating?!

"That wasn"t Shadow Steps! There is no technique in Shadow Steps that can cut off an arm! Even if you"ve changed it or improved it, that"s definitely not a Shadow Steps technique!"

"So what?" I stared disdainfully at him. "I only said that I specialized in Shadow Steps. I never said it was the only martial arts I learned and created."

"…created?"

"Did he say created?"

"Ah, right…he"s an Experimentalist."

"Yeah, it"s not that weird."

"Even so, did you see what technique he used?"

"Yeah, I"m curious to know what Fei Wu just did."

Above, the spectators were whispering and murmuring amongst themselves. Of course, since the reinforced gla.s.s was soundproof, I actually couldn"t hear them. This was something I pieced together after hearing Tong Xue"s account later.

"f.u.c.king b.a.s.t.a.r.d! I"ll kill you! I"ll f.u.c.king kill you!"

Qi Fu Ren hadn"t surrendered yet, surprisingly enough. Therefore the match was still not over. I couldn"t let my guard down. Even with an arm cut off, Qi Fu Ren was still a wounded tiger. He could potentially be more dangerous.

As it was, he was executing another Lightning Flash with his other arm, relying on the effects of the Qi Burst Pill to preserve his power and dampen his pain. Even if he couldn"t avoid defeat now, he would ensure that this match would result in mutual destruction.

The only way left for me was to uh…disarm him again.

This time, everyone could see a visible, almost transparent blade slice through the air and severed Qi Fu Ren"s other arm. Qi Fu Ren wailed and crashed downward at the sudden amputation, blood gushing out of both stumps.

"You…you…!" he cried, tears leaking from his eyes. "That"s definitely not Shadow Steps! Shadow Steps has no sword or qi blade techniques like that!"

"Oh, so you saw it this time." I glanced at my right arm, where the azure and black qi was fading away. I guess it was inevitable. I had use ice qi to freeze the air into a frost sword, so both Qi Fu Ren and the spectators would eventually be able to see it. I couldn"t keep hiding it forever. With a sigh, I shrugged. "As I said, this is a martial art technique I created myself. Ghost Shadow Sword."

"You…!"

Qi Fu Ren turned pale as he scrambled back, an impressive feat for someone who lost both his arms.

"So what do you intend to do now?" raising my right hand, I conjured another ice sword, the translucent frost blade barely visible in the dust-filled and half-wrecked arena. "Do you want to keep on fighting?"

Qi Fu Ren"s shoulders slumped down when he realized that he was utterly cornered. Hanging his head, he miserably whimpered in a voice so soft that the audience, Teacher Cai and I could hardly hear him.

"…I surrender."