Book 4, Chapter 24 (1/2)
B4C24: One sky-piercing meteor; two high-hanging moons
The Conqueror’s Spear!
Close-quarters spear attacks!
“Really formidable.” With ice-cold eyes, Qin Yu forcefully swallows back a mouthful of blood in his throat. Just now he attempted to execute some close-quarters attacks using the Stellar Field, but Xiang Yang unexpectedly neutralized them right away with a Sweeping Away Thousands Of Troops strike.
A Xiuzhenist who uses close-quarters attacks?
This is truly strange. In general, Xiuzhenists attack using their flying swords, but Xiang Yang practiced pure martial arts and has reached his currently level by himself and thanks to his own experience therefore his way of practice is different from the other Xiuzhen schools and his method of offense is very individualized.
“Big brother, Xiang Yang is even much stronger than we expected. Who would’ve thought he’d be good at close-quarters combat? Not only does he have a suit of armor, he also has a long spear. Thanks to this, both his offense and defense are extremely formidable.” Xiao Hei says using his holy sense.
Qin Yu calmly says through holy sense communication: “Let’s find his weak points. If we can’t succeed, we’re going to have to use the last move in our plan.”
“The last move … alright!” Xiao Hei’s voice becomes resolute.
Qin Yu stares at Xiang Yang and suddenly says with a cold laugh: “Xiang Yang, at the beginning of the fight, you were able to save your little life thanks to your suit of armor. Just now I executed a fierce strike but you saved your life again with the help of this Conqueror’s Spear. Next time … I want to see how you’re going to avoid death!”
Qin Yu has struck his killing blows twice but Xiang Yang has negated them all using his secret trump cards.
Xiang Yang says with an unconcerned laugh: “Indeed, the 1st time you were so cunning that I almost got hit. The 2nd time your speed was quite frightening and really made me jump. But … do you really think I’ll give you one more chance? Qin … Qin Yu, just now you was most probably hit by my spear. It didn’t taste very good, right? I’ve got a word of advice for you -- don’t try to resist because it’s going to taste even worse later.”
A faint strange smile appears on the corners of Xiang Yang’s mouth.
A moment ago Qin Yu had to endure more than half of the power his Sweeping Away Thousands Of Troops strike so he thinks that Qin Yu’s body has been injured badly.
However, Xiang Yang has miscalculated Qin Yu’s power. Not only does Qin Yu have an extremely strong body, the ordinary-looking sleeveless undershirt he is wearing was forged by Lei Wei. It is no common item of clothing and is very comfortable to wear. Once Qin Yu is attacked, the undershirt will become hard from being soft and absorb more than half of the attack’s power in an instant.
“Oh? Your spear technique is pretty powerful but it’s not a threat to me.” The energy inside Qin Yu’s body starts to surge. When not moving it is as stable as a mountain and when moving it is powerful like rolling thunder. Qin Yu is very confident of his close-quarters offense because he has spent the most time and energy working on his close-quarters combat techniques.
“Pu!”
The air between Qin Yu and Xiang Yang begins to vibrate slightly.
Xiang Yang suddenly opens his eyes violently. His right hand, which is holding the spear, suddenly makes a twist. In an instant, the black head of the Conqueror’s Spear pierces through the air to come at Qin Yu extremely fast while spinning. The head of the spear follows an indistinct path of movements. At the same time, the air within the spinning area of the spear’s head is unexpectedly sucked away completely.
The spear comes at Qin Yu like a twirling black aquatic dragon.
“Hah!”
Qin Yu’s body moves like a breeze. Concurrently with this, he stretches out his right hand, suddenly forms a claw and makes a direct grab at the Conqueror’s Spear. Being protected by the Flaming Gloves, his hands can definitely crash head-on with the spear.
“Humph!”
Xiang Yang utters a cold humph. He slightly exerts the strength of his arm. The Conqueror’s Spear, which is stabbing at Qin Yu, unexpectedly changes its movement into a horizontal sweep in the blink of an eye!
No!
It is not a horizontal sweep. Rather, it is continuous high frequency sweeping attacks!
Qin Yu originally wanted to grab the Conqueror’s Spear using his right hand but the spear fiercely smashes into his palm. At the same time, it sweeps back and forth extremely fast, creating indistinct illusions. In a mere moment, it sweeps at his arm 5 or 6 times.
“The longer it is, the stronger it becomes. I gotta close in!”
Qin Yu ignores the pains in his arms and immediately charges at Xiang Yang again. However, because the spear is too long while he is relying on his arms alone, he simply cannot touch Xiang Yang while Xiang Yang can attack him at will using the long spear.
“Dream on.” Seeing Qin Yu approaching, Xiang Yang gives a cold laugh. At the same time, his body moves like an illusion. The spear in his hands turns into several silhouettes, which begin to come at Qin Yu.
Pa!
A flash of lightning strikes down squarely on Xiang Yang’s body. Xiang Yang cannot help shaking. His attacking movement thefore is slightly deviated as well. Seizing this opportunity, Qin Yu instantly closes in on one side of Xiang Yang. His agile hands quickly execute various kinds of attacks.
Once Qin Yu has approached his target, he will become extremely terrifying!
Using various attacks such as punches, palm strikes and finger strikes, Qin Yu aims for the places on Xiang Yang’s body which are not protected by the suit of armor, especially the throat, the waist and the upper arms, like a gust of wind.
A hint of disdain appears on Xiang Yang’s face.
He brandishes the long spear in his hands. For the moment, Xiang Yang’s entire body is similar to a cannon’s barrel, shooting out countless silhouettes of the spear. He has utilized the Conqueror’s Spear to the utmost, making it sometimes look like an aquatic dragon that is coming out of a cave and sometimes look like an anaconda that is rolling in the air…
In fact, the speed of Xiang Yang’s spear is still slightly slower than Qin Yu’s. However, Xiang Yang only needs to slightly move his hands and the movements of the entire Conqueror’s Spear will change a lot. He can make use of the forces such as inertia, elasticity and so on to perform his attacks.
Pa! Pa! Pa! ……
Xiao Hei is whirling about in the sky, shooting one flash of lightning after another at Xiang Yang’s head extremely fast. These flashes are not very powerful and do not pose a serious threat to Xiang Yang at all but they can negatively affect the agility of his movements.
“Hah!”
Qin Yu’s eyes flash with ruthlessness. He unleashes the entire stellar energy in his body and concentrates it in his right hand. He then throws a punch at Xiang Yang’s chest. When the fist smashes into Xiang Yang’s chest, one of its knuckles suddenly protrudes. By channeling his entire offensive power through the knuckle, Qin Yu explosively sends forth a terrifying penetrating force. He intended to hit Xiang Yang’s throat with this blow but Xiang Yang dodged it very quickly.
“Humph.”
Xiang Yang’s face suddenly turns white. At the same time, he makes a waving movement with the Conqueror’s Spear and flies backwards at a very fast speed.
“You animal!” Using holy sense communication, he scolds Xiao Hei directly and furiously.
Xiang Yang has become angry because this black eagle has been like a spirit that just does not go away and even keeps shooting flashes of lightning at him nonstop. In terms of agility, he simply cannot compare with the black eagle in midair. Just now he should have been able to block Qin Yu’s punch using his spear but his movement somewhat deviated from the correct path because of a flash shot out by the eagle.
Qin Yu’s attack contained his stellar energy and the most powerful penetrating force he was capable of so even though the suit of armor partially neutralized it, after taking the blow, Xiang Yang still finds it hard to breathe and feels a hidden continual pain in his chest. His blood even has surged directly into his mouth.
“Xiao Hei, you did well.” Qin Yu gives Xiao Hei a smile. He then says to Xiang Yang: “Xiang Yang, you’re good at close-quarters combat so you can deal with my main way of offense precisely. Good, let’s see how you’re going to handle the attack of my flying sword!”
Qin Yu has understood.
Since Xiang Yang is skilful at close-quarters combat, what if he uses his flying sword to attack from afar?
A dark golden short sword starts to float above Qin Yu’s head. It is none other than the Flaming Sword. When leaving his body to attack, it becomes a flying sword. And when held in his hands, it is a short sword. With a thought, Qin Yu immediately shoots the Flaming Sword at Xiang Yang like a dark golden beam of light.
Hu!
The Flaming Sword emits a glorious light, astonishing the people who are watching the fight from below.
Bang! Bang! ……
When it comes to using the Conqueror’s Spear, Xiang Yang is absolutely a master among masters. On the Qian Long continent, it is extremely difficult to find someone with a better spear technique than his. Using the long spear, he can unexpectedly engage in combat both at close range and at long range.
However, it is still impossible for the Conqueror’s Spear to keep up with a flying sword in terms of agility no matter what.
Pu!
The flying sword hits Xiang Yang’s suit of armor. The blood-red energy on the suit of armor easily withstands the blow after shaking for a short while. It is not that Qin Yu does not want to attack Xiang Yang’s vital points, only that when Xiang Yang is on the defensive, he focuses his energy on guarding his vital parts such as the throat.
Pa!
Another flash of lightning strikes down on Xiang Yang’s head.
“Good, black eagle, you’re an animal. Qin Yu, you call this animal brother so you’re also an animal. You 2 animals, today I’ll let you know how formidable the Twin Dragons technique of the Conqueror’s Spear.” Xiang Yang has become really furious. With a bending movement of his hand, the Conqueror’s Spear is unexpectedly twisted for a while then splits into two. From a long spear it has become 2 short spears.
Xiang Yang holds a short spear in each of his hands.
“You scolded my big brother again. Screw you. Don’t you remember what I said?”
Hearing Xiang Yang’s words, Xiao Hei becomes furious again. His voice rises in Xiang Yang’s mind directly. At the same time, flashes of lightning keep sparkling on his wings. Qin Yu immediately becomes worried so he tells Xiao Hei using holy sense communication: “Xiao Hei, Xiang Yang’s single spear was already so fast. Now that it has become 2 short spears, he should’ve gotten even much faster. His offense is now definitely formidable so you mustn’t do anything rash.”
Xiao Hei however pays basically no attention to that.
“Big brother, don’t worry about me. I’ll let him know how formidable I am.” Xiao Hei tells Qin Yu directly using his holy sense. “Big brother, just now you were the main attack. Now it’s my turn. You can just attack sneakily from one side using the Flaming Sword.” The flashes on Xiao Hei’s body become even more dazzling.
“Xiang Yang, you bastard. You should be struck by lightning!”
Xiao Hei is furious. With a shake of his wings, various flashes of lightning shoot down upon Xiang Yang’s body in an instant extremely fast like a shower of rain.
“You animal, I’m going to kill you first.” Xiang Yang can no longer put up with the black eagle in front of him. Disregarding everything else, he charges at the black eagle like a beam of light while holding the 2 short spears. However, with a shake of his wings, the black eagle flashes away extremely fast.
Qin Yu’s eyes brighten. He immediately thrusts the Flaming Sword towards Xiang Yang.