Chapter 215 – Precursor (1/2)

Chapter 215 - Precursor

“You? You think you deserve to fight a lister? It amuses me how shamelessly ignorant one can be!”Zhou Kuang said coldly as he disdainfully glared at Ye Wei.

It seemed to Zhou Kuang that not only was Ye Wei not interested in contending with him, but that Ye Wei had somehow learn his failure to enter the list despite three years of best efforts. The more he engrossed himself in his own thoughts, the more twisted his face became..

“That’s a no? May I ask how I can fight one of them?” Ye Wei had no desire to pose a threat, as he just didn’t see the point in it. To him, it would be excessively inefficient if he had to fight all twenty-nine thousand weaker cultivators before he gets to learn from the thousand elites.

“I have been here for three years, and I must say it’s my first time meeting a person as arrogant as you are. You want to fight a cultivator on the black dragon list? Fine, if you ever manage to beat me, I will personally arrange the fight for you!” Zhou Kuang’s face turned ashen, his knuckles cracked and rattled, and his urge to kill the person stood in front of him grew.

Zhou Kuang did not consider the chances of himself losing; he believed wholeheartedly in the hard work he put in the three years he had been in the palace. That the sweat and blood had made him undeniably stronger than any newbie he could think of.

“You have a strange way of answering questions.” Ye Wei nodded, ignoring the aggressive urge he could feel in Zhou Kuang’s Qi presence, and seemed to be in his own world.

“If that’s the case, let’s fight. Your inefficiency in communicating has cost us a lot of time already.” Ye Wei slowly lifted his head, looking at Zhou Kuang dead in the eye.

The young Runemaster’s calmness and indifference had angered and intimidated Zhou Kuang even further.

“Fine, very fine. I am interested to see the strength that fuels your pitiful arrogance. It can’t be much if you have to compensate it with this little show you are putting on!” Zhou Kuang gritted his teeth, his words sounding harsher and colder as he spoke.

“Bang!”

Zhou Kuang clenched his fist and channeled his Qi, the golden ball of energy in his dantian glowing brightly. His meridians stretched and all three purple fissures on the ball widened as a rush of his Qi squeezed through.

‘Low-level Earth stance, Shadowless Finger Strike!’ He flipped over his palm, and his hands were suddenly bathing in an intertwining sequence of runes. He then flicked his fingers, shooting three invisible and silent bolts of Qi at three of Ye Wei’s most vulnerable parts.

“Humph!” Ye Wei coldly grunted. All three invisible bolts were immediately picked up by his sharp Soul Sensitivity.His muscles and bones made a clattering sound as his energy pervaded every part of him. He made a fist and converged his strength into his right arm.

His arm quickly shook, bending backwards to a bizarre angle. He swung his fist back and forth three times, and his punches soared like cannons.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Three dull explosions echoed in the square, but none could see the source.

The force of Ye Wei’s punches and Zhou Kuang’s bolts were undetectable before the clash, the explosion of energy expanding in waves. The solid blocks of rock that made up the square’s ground began to crack under the immense pressure. The tiles over them quickly turned into dust.

‘Low-level Earth stance, Blood Shock Claws!’ Zhou Kuang was surprised that Ye Wei could detect his invisible strikes with great accuracy, but he did not flinch. He made a series of changing hand seals, in which a blood colored claw appeared and came flying towards Ye Wei’s neck.

In the ring, Ye Wei narrowed his eyes at the sharp claws. With a quick stomp, a river of runes condensed under his feet. Melted into a star-like lightbeam, his figure became unpredictable, swaying unstably.

“Swoosh!”

He shook three times in quick succession, narrowly avoiding the viscid, Qi-empowered claw.

“Such ruthless strikes.” Ye Wei quickly dropped his feet onto the belt of runes, letting the stream of energy carry his body back and forwards out of harm’s way. He stared at Zhou Kuang’s evil smile and his face turned stern.

Behind a screen of debris, Ye Wei’s gaze turned cold, quickly identifying his opponent's whereabouts, and quietly pushed his body through the small dust storm. His fist carried a few gusts of wind, flying directly for Zhou Kuang’s head.

The young Runemaster struck with a silent lethality as a reciprocation to Zhou Kuang’s vicious intent.

“How naive. Bring it on then, boy! Now I don’t even have to make an effort to catch you!” Zhou Kuang screamed, provoked by Ye Wei’s reaction. He did not plan to evade, but rather match Ye Wei’s intensity.