578 Exchanging Questions (1/2)
Wang Siyuan's gaze sharpened. Before he even managed to utter a word, Meng Qi's sleeves flapped vigorously! Meng Qi's palms were like a saber thrusting at Wang Siyuan with blinding speed, channeling powers that summoned bolts of purple lightning with tremendous force and destruction!
Is he serious?! Wang Siyuan could hardly believe that Su Meng had indeed struck his palm at him. Based on his divination and his grasp of Su Meng's temperament, Wang Siyuan had truly not expected this.
There were no signs that warned Wang Siyuan of Meng Qi's sudden assault, nor were there any variations in his emotions, not even in the aura that radiated when he channeled his powers. And he attacked with such hastiness?
Meng Qi had been channeling his powers with the Eight Nine Mysteries technique, using it to conceal the fluctuations of his Inner Spirit while his Vital Spirit operated the Heavenly Golden Script to suppress any variation from the energies focused at his apertures when he had first entered the chamber. With all signs and discernible fluctuations suppressed, Meng Qi was able to strike abruptly before his host had realized like sudden stroke of lightning from the sky!
With only a table between them, it reached Wang Siyuan in an instant.
Crack!
The bolts of purple lightning crackled so furiously, even the air around them quivered and shook violently. Still, as if Wang Siyuan was not actually seated before Meng Qi, the former was unperturbed by the angry cracks of thunderclaps. Meng Qi's stroke slashed through him as if he was a mere mirage!
His voice, his breath, the substance of his body can be felt. How is it possible that it is a mere mirage?
He is here, but why did I fail to hit him?
The strange phenomenon that had unfolded before Meng Qi's eyes would have rattled any common man. Any of the uninitiated would have sprung to their foot, their thoughts spinning wildly as they projected their spiritual powers to scan all around them with their senses. They would be convinced that the mirage was a mere deception - a simple parlor trick. But Meng Qi was hardly one of the uninitiated. Although his extensive experiences in dealing with the unknown and his widened perspective had not prevented his wonder at the unexpected turn of events, he did not slacken the pace of his attack. He swiftly slashed through the air, the bolts of lightning rolling with his motion as they crackled furiously as if in protest. The force of the lightning-imbued stroke imploded and the tongues of bolts extended like limbs into all corners of the chamber.
CRACK! Bolts of lightning snapped with ravenous hunger at Wang Siyuan's mirage. It flickered, vanished and then reappeared. Still, he was not hit by any of the bolts of purple lightning, neither had he been forced to take a defensive stance. He sat serenely, unfazed by Meng Qi's assaults.
A little bit more... Just a little bit more... Meng Qi thought with heaviness creeping into him.
Is this a Body Movement technique derived from the discipline of the 'Ebbing Flash' of the Wang Clan? Or had he already foreseen the strokes of my attack? In a flash, Meng Qi had already made calculations. Within him, the silhouettes of his Dharmic Forms: the Golden Crow and the cosmic stars all converged upon his Inner Celestial, forming a dark void - the precursor to the conjuration of the Big Bang technique.
With the aura emanating from the chaotic void, Meng Qi struck at Wang Siyuan once again! Another barrage of lightning bolts wrapped around his outstretched palm like the blade of a sword, hurling forward with the intensity of a torrential flood!
With an air of indifference, Wang Siyuan maintained his composure. He no longer waited for Meng Qi's attack but instead, he extended his index and middle fingers and pointed swiftly at Meng Qi's incoming strike as if he was attacking the eye of a storm.
Poof!
The blade of lightning dissipated into nothing. Once again, Meng Qi's palms, without the imbuement of the lightning shafts, passed harmlessly through Wang Siyuan's ethereal form.
Meng Qi was rather pleased by the developments. Wang Siyuan had been forced to counteract against the aura of the chaotic Void that he had channeled. That much was sufficient to tell Meng Qi that he had been right in deducing that the mysterious technique Wang Siyuan had employed was a combination of the Voidness Swordsmanship and the Ebbing Flash, discounting the possibility that Wang Siyuan had evaded his strikes through divination.
He would now strike swiftly! He would allow Wang Siyuan no opportunity for countermeasure or evasion!
Meng Qi struck again, his palm enfolded by purple lightning shafts. Only this time, his palms attacked from overhead with forceful speed and intensity. Common warriors who have only unsealed their Apertures would not have been able to follow his rapid movements. The blinding flash of purple would only reach their eyes after the blow had fallen upon them.
Wang Siyuan's figure shimmered, evading Meng Qi's strike by a hair's breadth. His fingers thrust straight at Meng Qi's wrist, forcing his assailant to withdraw.
Wang Siyuan had since recovered from his surprise. With a manic glint in his eyes, he was enjoying their bout, eager to see if Meng Qi would surpass his predictions and amaze him!
Not fast enough? Meng Qi cursed to himself. His expression turned serious and stern as he rose to his feet and attacked Wang Siyuan again with another overhead strike! His palm bore down on its quarry with lightning speed!
The gloom of the void enveloped them. Suddenly, a flash of light tore through the shadows. The shaft of light seemed to cut the darkness in half! With unstoppable viciousness, the light smote at Wang Siyuan with the intensity and speed of a falling star!
The Ebbing Flash does not escape the laws of Nature and the laws of Enlightenment!
Meng Qi's palms had nearly struck Wang Siyuan's face when the latter's body flickered wildly. Only this time, it did not have the surrealistic and unearthly aura that it had exuded before, nor did it have the vanishing presence that it had previously demonstrated.
His aura changed drastically as if his entire self was in the most incongruent conflict with the workings of the Dharma and Logos of Nature and the order of Enlightenment! With a most illogical stroke, Wang Siyuan's finger pointed like a sword into empty space in the gloomy void.
Everything happened in an instant. Meng Qi felt a sudden sensation that told him that his attunement with Nature had been severed. The same had happened to Wang Siyuan. Without the ability to draw upon the forces of Nature and attune himself with its Dharma and Logos, Meng Qi's palm struck down with no less quickness. However, as the powers of the Big Bang technique had dissipated, his stroke was just a common stroke without any imbuement!
Wang Siyuan took a quick step backward and evaded Meng Qi's palm. His robes fluttered from the force of the attack. Once again he had nullified Meng Qi's attack by triggering an anomaly!
Having gained the upper hand, Meng Qi hurled himself forward, stretching himself. Once again, the Dharmic Forms he conjured within himself converged as one as his body and limbs grew and elongated. His palms struck forth again, his powers concentrated on a single point, throwing forward the force of a falling mountain. The air around them groaned like rumbling thunder.
The Back to Basics technique! A stroke from the discipline of the Virtual Purity Sabersmanship!
With all the essences of all disciplines of the blade that he had learned fused as one, the stroke hewed viciously with the exactness of the Judgment of Heaven and the terrifying force of utter destruction.
”Open!”
Meng Qi bellowed with a maniacal frenzy as if he were the true God of Thunder, dispensing judgment upon Wang Siyuan with a swift and heavy stroke.
With all powers and forces of Nature as one, Meng Qi's palm tore through the air with a shade of gloom enveloping his fingers, snapping ravenously at Wang Siyuan. Having evaded the Big Bang technique earlier, Wang Siyuan could only feel himself being drawn closer to the strike of his assailant which now commanded the force of a powerful vacuum, costing him his best chance at evasion!
With no more tricks up his sleeve, Wang Siyuan again pierced into the space between them with his fingers, severing their connection to the pool of Nature's energies. The shade of darkness that shrouded Meng Qi's palms vanished and the vacuum that he had employed to draw his adversary to him disappeared as well.
Nevertheless, this did not stop Meng Qi from continuing his attack. The muscles of his body swelled as his booming voice resounded.
”Open!”
Wang Siyuan pointed his left hand forward, trying to parry Meng Qi's stroke like he would a sword.
Thud!
The palm and the finger struck each other like true weapons of steel and Wang Siyuan staggered backward. The floor beneath his feet cracked at the force of their clash and red patches of throbbing soreness swelled on his fingers.
You can sever the forces of Nature from me, but I have brute force at my disposal! The very true crux of my strength! Meng Qi broke into roaring laughter. He withdrew and returned to his seat.
Meng Qi and Wang Siyuan both knew that they would not be able to restrain themselves if their brief but intense bout had escalated. The mere shockwaves that rippled from the clashes of their little spar would have decimated the magical barriers around them and put the lives of many innocent people at risk. At this point, not even the black and white pieces on the chessboard in front of Wang Siyuan were scattered despite their short but vivid skirmish.
Meng Qi therefore elected to stop their duel. At least I have finally been able to give Trickster Wang a good thumping!
Wang Siyuan coughed hard and flicked his slightly bruised wrist. Slowly, he lowered himself onto his seat. The manic glint of pumping adrenaline was still in his eyes as he recalled how Meng Qi had surpassed his anticipation and the performance of the Ebbing Flash.
He subsided and gave Meng Qi a look of indifference. ”I would not take this any further if I were you.”