98 Their second figh (1/2)

Zhang Zi and Bai Yun ran at each other. Zhang Zi knew that Bai Yun was better than him at close combat so he couldn't let him get too close. So just as Bai Yun got close to him, get swung his spear to make Bai Yun stop in his tracks.

Bai Yun returned the attack with his sword. The two of them exchanged a few attacks, but neither of them could gain the upper hand. After a while, Bai Yun grew frustrated. He then suddenly used his full strength to jump backwards and create some distance between them.

It was time to use the secret technique he had been developing just to deal with Zhang Zi.

Bai Yun took a deep breath. Suddenly Zhang Zi had a weird feeling. He felt hat Bai Yun was not really there, even though he could see him. Zhang Zi was having a difficult time telling where to strike.

Suddenly Bai Yun took a step to the right. The moment he did so, Zhang Zi thrust out his spear and it pierced exactly where he was standing at a moment ago. For a moment everyone was confused because it felt as if Bai Yun had moved even before Zhang Zi struck out.

The spectators were not the only ones confused. Zhang Zi was too. He had no idea what just happened.

But he was not too easily discouraged. Putting it out of his mind, Zhang Zi thrust out with his spear again. But a weird thing happened again. Bai Yun had moved before he had even attacked. Once again he missed.

Bai Yun smiled at Zhang Zi. Then he suddenly knelt to the ground. The next moment Zhang Zi's spear passed over Bai Yun's head harmlessly.

One after the other Bai Yun took steps in the arena with a smile. Right after he moved Zhang Zi would strike at the place Bai Yun was at. Each and every one of his attacks were being completely useless. Zhang Zi roared in frustration while attacking. He could tell that Bai Yun wasn't simply dodging his attacks, that there was a trick involved. He just couldn't see it.

It wasn't just Zhang Zi who was frustrated. Even the crowd had gone quiet. Even Song Hui had stopped waving her flag. The entire crowd and the referee watched the show on the arena in stunned silence. And as far as they were concerned, it was a show.

For every time Bai Yun moved, Zhang Zi would attack the place he had been at. If Bai Yun moved to the right, Zhang ZI would then strike at the left. If Bai Yun tilted his head, Zhang Zi would then strike past him. They were even more clear than Zhang Zi that his attacks were coming after Bai Yun had already moved. It looked as if the two of them were putting a play or the audience.

But they were wrong. It wasn't a play. It was a puppet show.

A puppet show set up by a masterful puppeteer.

What they were seeing was the result of Bai Yun's special training. The special weapon he had come up with just to deal with Zhang Zi.

What Bai Yun was doing was studying his opponent and predicting his moves. But not just predicting his moves. He was moving just before Zhang Zi struck. But just doing this alone won't be enough to confuse Zhang Zi.

The more difficult part laying in confusing the opponent. People like Zhang Zi had ample fighting experience. Just moving at the last minute won't be enough to stop then. What Bai Yun was doing was tricking that fighting experience.

When someone is fighting, they take in a lot of information. The pose of the opponent, their breathing, which muscles are tense and so on. One might not even be aware of all that information he is receiving. But it is not possible to calculate all of this information to come to a judgment quickly. So the subconscious mind takes over analyzing all that information. So what one calls fighting intuition is the judgment given by the subconsious by analyzing all the information in front of it.

And Bai Yun was giving Zhang Zi's subconsious wrong information. By posturing wrongly, he was making Zhang Zi calculate wrongly. It was this posturing that gave Zhang Zi the feeling that there was something wrong with his eyes. It was incredebaly difficult to master this skill. Bai Yun had been beaten up to an inch of his life when he was training to remaster this skill. Even training dummies used the same kind of information to judge how to fight. Except they had formations instead of a subconsious brain. But once he mastered it, the training dummies could no longer hit him. In fact, some of them even overheated due to the problem with the information and reality and broke down.

And this skill was also only useful against people like Zhang ZI who had a good amount of fighting experience. If one had no fighting experience, like Song Hui, there was nothing to fool. At the same time, if their fighting experience was abundant, like Bai Yun, it was impossible to fool. Unfortunately for Zhang Zi, he fell in the narrow gap where the fighting experience was just enough to be fooled.

And thus the fight continued for a while. One step at a time, Bai Yun slowly closed in on Zhang Zi. He could not go too fast as otherwise, his technique would fail. But Bai Yun finally got withing Zhang Zi's range. Zhang Zi was no longer able to strike at Bai Yun. With a loud roar, Zhang Zi finally crashed his spear into the ground. But Bai Yun easily dodged the attack. The next second, Bai Yun rapidly closed the distance between them and then drove his sword through Zhang Zi's right shoulder.

Zhang Zi stood there panting as blood slowly trickled out of his shoulder. He pointed to his shoulder. ”You never attacked anyone else before. What is this, a special treatment just for me?” He asked.

”You're too dangerous. I can't take any chances.” Bai Yun replied. He put his other hand on Zhang Zi's spear and held it in place.

”You know, I thought that you are too dangerous too. Thats why I prepared a trump card to deal with you.” Zhang Zi said grabbing Bai Yun''s arm tightly and holding him in place.

”What?” Bai Yun said. But the next secoond his eyes flew open. His god sense was screaming. There was danger close by.