"Hm?"
Zhang Zhizhen was slightly surprised. His Escape Skill had been broken so easily, and his attack had been blocked just as effortlessly.
After all, every previous challenger had been toyed with by his Escape Skill, unable to exert even seventy percent of their imnse physical strength. That was how he had been able to defeat them with ease, completely unscathed.
However, against Zhou Yuanjue, his Escape Skill had been dispersed by the man's Heart's Desire Bursting Out in their very first clash.
'Such powerful Spirit and will…'
Zhang Zhizhen's eyes narrowed. Using the recoil from their clash, he retreated three steps before weaving back toward Zhou Yuanjue with exceptionally fast and uncanny footwork.
Even though his opponent had broken the Escape Skill, that didn't an the state had no effect on Zhou Yuanjue whatsoever.
As he dodged and weaved at incredible speeds, Zhang Zhizhen's body began to blur.
His Heart Intent was completely connected to the environnt, making it difficult to sense where his malevolence was focused and nearly impossible to predict his attacks.
During the swift exchange of probes and feints, Zhang Zhizhen seized a montary opening when Zhou Yuanjue hesitated.
BAM!!
He stomped, cracking the ground, and thrust a palm forward. A wave of air billowed out. Still as a statue one mont, moving like a Ghost God the next, he struck directly at Zhou Yuanjue's back.
However, at that very sa instant, the muscles all over Zhou Yuanjue's body bulged violently, turning a deep crimson as a blinding firelight seed to flash within his eyes.
Samadhi Lamp Burning Realm, activate!
The instant Zhang Zhizhen struck, he lifted his right foot—now massive, engorged with blood and swollen with muscle—and stomped it fiercely onto the ground.
BOOM!
A trendous crash echoed as dust and smoke billowed into the air.
Within a three-ter radius, the ground instantly caved in. A powerful shockwave, accompanied by fissures snaking through the earth, spread out over five ters.
The ground's tremor instantly shattered Zhang Zhizhen's balance as he attacked, turning him into a lamb walking into a tiger's den.
In the stands, Yan Hao, one of Zhou Yuanjue's "loyal spectators," was sitting by the side of the ring. His jaw dropped when he saw the move.
'Isn't that the sa move from the Dragon Elephant Unmoving Style I used when I fought him? How is it that when he uses it, the power seems even more terrifying than my own?!'
'When did this guy get so terrifyingly strong?'
'Right now, he probably wouldn't be at a disadvantage at all even if we clashed head-on. And to think, back then, his Physical Talent was so much worse than mine.'
This made Yan Hao recall the words Zhou Yuanjue had spoken during their battle.
The Martial Dao is a tool for transcending oneself, and Zhou Yuanjue had now well and truly transcended the limits of his own Talent.
'That's Zhou Yuanjue for you…'
A newfound sense of reverence for him rose in Yan Hao's heart.
HISSS!!
The pores on his palms opened, and his intense body heat instantly evaporated his sweat, creating a wreathing steam that made it look as if his hands had grown wings.
Both hands shot out simultaneously, slicing violently through the air to form terrifying Qi Blades that stabbed toward Zhang Zhizhen's chest.
RRRIP!!
Taking advantage of his unstable footing, Zhang Zhizhen bent backward to evade the attack. Still, the sharp Qi Blades tore through the chest of his Martial Arts Uniform, leaving two bright red gashes on his torso.
Pushing off the ground with his hands, Zhang Zhizhen released his power and shot both feet out in a vicious kick aid at Zhou Yuanjue's chest.
Zhou Yuanjue tapped his toes, choosing not to press his advantage. He dodged the kick and floated lightly backward, putting distance between them.
Zhang Zhizhen seized the mont to perform a kip-up, springing back to his feet.
The Martial Arts Uniform over his chest was torn and hanging loose, faintly revealing the two bloody gashes beneath. He cut a rather sorry figure.
The crowd erupted in an uproar.
Zhang Zhizhen, who had defeated three challengers without taking a single scratch, looked so disheveled and had even been wounded in the very first exchange.
Zhou Yuanjue!
At that mont, every single spectator realized this challenger was extraordinary.
"The Escape Skill is a minor art. It might be a decent thod for escaping, but if you think you can defeat with that alone, you're sorely mistaken."
Zhou Yuanjue's body was massively swollen and crimson, with veins bulging all over. His hands were spread slightly, his broad shoulder blades and powerful back muscles forming a single mass that resembled a pair of unfurled wings.
His eyes were especially, frighteningly bright, as if flas were burning within them. An ordinary person who t his gaze would likely be so terrified their spirit would shatter, causing them to collapse to the ground, trembling.
After achieving Nascent Soul Returning to Acupoint, activating the Samadhi Lamp Burning Realm had caused his physical qualities to improve significantly as his internal power systems ran at high speed. He had reached a level comparable to soone with monstrous Talent like Yan Hao. Aside from his Spirit, which had not yet reached perfection, he was now flawless in technique, speed, and power.
"The Escape Skill isn't your strongest technique. Stop hiding and show your full strength. I've heard the strongest technique of the Celestial Heart Five Thunders Palm is called the 'Thunder Skill.' Let see what it's all about."
Zhou Yuanjue's body was completely crimson, and his voice had beco a low rumble. It bood like a great bell, vibrating the very space around them.
"The 'Thunder Skill,' you say…"
Zhang Zhizhen sighed softly. He grabbed a torn corner of his Martial Arts Uniform and, with a light tug, ripped it.
The garnt shredded like paper and fluttered lightly to the ground.
Two distinct bloody gashes were visible on his tall fra. His muscles contracted violently, settling into what seed to be a state of Free Will designed to complent his Escape Skill.
BAM!
The next mont, the concealing aura from his Unity of Heaven and Man state vanished. A series of piercing cracks echoed from his joints as his body—previously shrunken to facilitate his Escape Skill—rapidly expanded as if being inflated, before finally coming to a stop.
His figure was now burly, his muscles like blocks of stone. In that mont, Zhang Zhizhen resembled the legendary Giant Spirit God who guards the Celestial Court, radiating an incomparably fierce and domineering aura.
This was another state of Free Will.
The Escape Skill was indeed rely a minor art of the Celestial Heart Five Thunders Palm. The Thunder Skill, however, was the true, supre secret art of the Celestial Heart Sect.
To change size at will, to hide in the shadows or to stand magnificent and grand!
The transformation of Yin and Yang, the cycle of all things, perfectly harmonious and without flaw—this too is the Dao of nature!
With the disguise gone, Zhou Yuanjue could clearly sense a dazzling, jade-like light blooming from the man's five viscera, rapidly spreading throughout his body. His Jadeification had already exceeded ninety percent.
This man was only a hair's breadth away from the true Celestial Human Dao.
As Zhang Zhizhen's temperant and form shifted, a magnificent and boundless will began to radiate from him. It was suprely majestic, vast and without limit, as if it resided in the highest heavens, looking down upon all living things on earth. It was the will that held the authority of punishnt, the great power over Life and Death, and the strength to sweep away all the world's demons and evils.
This was the might of "Heaven"!!
As Zhang Zhizhen's eyes swept over Zhou Yuanjue, a suffocating pressure descended upon his spirit. It was the feeling of confronting the vast might of the heavens and the boundless expanse of nature—an overwhelming sense of being impossible to resist.
His entire body trembled slightly, his physical instincts screaming in fear, but his Spirit was incredibly excited and thrilled.
At that mont, stimulated by that imnse will, his mind beca unprecedentedly clear. A wave of pleasure he had never felt before washed over him from beneath the pressure.
'This is the intoxicating feeling I live for…'
The pressure of the heavens and earth collapsing, the suffocation of the Death God's arrival, a power that seed truly irresistible.
It was always at tis like these, amidst his body's instinctual trembling and his subconscious mind's denial, that his sense of self beca so transparently clear.
KREEE!
An irrepressible, joyous smile spread across Zhou Yuanjue's lips. His body straightened, becoming like a javelin that could pierce the heavens and split Yin and Yang. Beneath that magnificent and boundless aura, the giant Firebird behind him also let out a cry of elation.
This ti, he would contend with "Heaven"!
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