Chapter 41 - Victory (1/2)

Once he heard what his punishment would be, Hei nodded his head that he had understood. Although he was curious about the sect's manuals, his priority was first to learn the spider and snake style moves. Besides, three months would quickly pass as he would be busy in training.

Noting that he had accepted the punishment, the regulation division guards lowered their weapons pointed at Hei and left the ring. Fortunately, everything worked out for the best, and they hadn't had to intervene.

Since they were part of the regulation division, the guards were usually unrelated to conflicts between inner disciples. So they didn't see Hei as a threat to their future. But they was him instead as a potential asset for their sect.

The situation was resolved, and the second opponent had been taken away to be medicated. So, all that remained was to continue with the next fight.

Considering that Hei's first two opponents had been brought into a state of unconsciousness, this match would also be the last one, unless one of them would recover in time. But, due to the previous matches, the audience wondered if Hei's third opponent would be put K.O. and unable to continue.

The guards, therefore, went to call the third participant, the man from the cockscomb who showed up shortly after leaving the corridor that bound the ring to the waiting room.

When he appeared, his face was visibly twisted by nervousness and doubt. If Hei's first victory without damage could be understood in some way, the scene in front of him was incomprehensible - Hei was, in fact, without wounds, and from his appearance, he didn't seem to be short of spirit power.

It was inconceivable for the man with the cockscomb - the second match should have been exhausting for Hei. Even if he had won, he would have done so by a narrow margin, consuming almost all his spirit power.

However, despite giving the impression of being well and ready for combat, there was no doubt that Hei had consumed much of his spirit power. As a second stage, his ability to manage spirit power consumption was already above average.

'I have little spirit power left. If I had to fight like before, I would end up losing. I have to finish it here with one move.' Hei thought as he worked out his battle plan.

One of the reasons he had consumed a lot of spirit power was because, in the previous matches, he wanted to use his opponents as targets for his techniques to hone his skills. Now instead, rather than training using the enemy, he would end the fight as soon as possible.

Once he made his decision, Hei went to the ground and placed the spear near his boots. Making sure the tip of the spear was resting on his boots, he climbed back into the ring. This detail had also been performed in previous matches but had gone unnoticed until now. The sect leader looked at that detail curiously but kept her thoughts to herself.

When even his last opponent got into the ring, Hei positioned himself.

'Spider Lance'

If he had to end it in one move, the only way was to use his most powerful technique. Even if Spider Lance was a move to kill the enemy, he believed that if he hit an enemy at full strength, avoiding a vital point, he could prevent killing him on impact.

Hei then began to bend the left elbow back as far as possible, keeping the forearm parallel to the ground. To give more power, he also bent the left shoulder backward, accompanying the movement of the arm.

Snake Fist and Spider Lance were both piercing attack moves, but the difference consisted in the method of execution and the damage produced.

Snake Fist consisted of bending the forearm on itself and then stretching it forward. This contraction, combined with a further contraction with the wrists, would give speed and power to the Snake Fist. Instead, joining the fingers served to direct the attack to a precise point and make it difficult to predict where it would go to strike.

Spider Lance, on the other hand, was a straightforward move to guess, since it took some time to load the momentum. But this didn't mean that it was easy to block or dodge. Bringing his elbow and shoulder back and keeping his arm parallel to the ground, Hei would then snap his arm forward once near the enemy, while his fingers were aligned to resemble a spear's head.

The principle behind Snake Lance was similar to that of a spring - the higher the force used to contract the spring, the greater the energy released would be. And with the same principle, more spirit power was used to contract the muscles, the higher the penetration force of the blow would be.

This move would become even stronger when he learned beast claws that would make Hei's nails capable of tearing his opponent's flesh.

Seeing Hei getting ready, the man called Xue also did the same while shortly after that, the start signal was given. With a quick dash, Hei charged against his opponent, who tried to hit him with a sword cut to prevent him from approaching.

Hei, who was using the two-legged mode, used his toes to stop and make a small jump backward and then head forward again, moving slightly to the side.

Xue, noting that his blow was unsuccessful, stepped back as he placed his sword horizontally in front of his chest to block Hei's attack.

However, his speed wasn't at the same level as Hei's, and in spite of himself, he discovered that Hei was aiming to his chest but to lower point.

His sword ended up defending the wrong area, and he was unable to parry the Spider Lance, which snapped towards his abdomen.

Suddenly, a shocking pain pervaded his body from that point. It looked as if a huge spear had impaled him, and his innards were writhing inside him.

Immediately after the impact, he began coughing blood from the mouth mixed with saliva and fell to his knees on the ground while breathing with difficulty until he lost consciousness.

The impact was too strong to resist. His spirit power defense did no good and was cut like butter in front of a knife.

Fortunately for him, Hei had aimed at the center of the abdomen just above the navel. If he had hit his heart or another delicate organ, he would have killed him without a doubt.

And so, in the audience's astonishment who expected a difficult battle for Hei, the third match of this final phase ended.

The winner was Hei.

Even though they came specifically for him, most people didn't believe he could win. Even those who had speculated that he could actually do it, after his performance at the preliminary phase, were appalled.

Knocking down three third stage opponents, one after another, so quickly was truly stunning for someone in the second stage, considering he came from the outer sect.

From his strange fighting techniques and his talent, people realized that Hei's background shouldn't be insignificant, and they couldn't help but wonder how such a person ended up in the outer sect.

Meanwhile, Hei, who seemed to be okay, was breathing quietly to resume his breath. Although he hadn't suffered any injuries, he had been almost completely drained of his strength. If his opponent had resisted the blow, he would have been the one on the ground now.