Chapter 85 - Mei Yuneis Ocean Piercing Thread (1/2)

Ye Tehzu let out a powerful technique from the get go.

As soon as he was within fighting range, Cold Smoke mist darts shot out towards the two girls. Wrapped around each incapacitating snake was a light purple bolt of condensed lightning.

Hearing the technique being unleashed, Xing Jing turned around rapidly.

For the event that was the Cross Branch Arena, she naturally had prepared against Cold Smoke. It was the most basic attack from the Cloud Arts taught at the Cloud-Formation Pavilion after all.

But Ye Tehzu's version was much different from what she had prepared against.

The bizarre electrified attacks shot straight at her. She wanted to evade but the pain in her t.h.i.g.h from Mei Yunei's Piercing Heavens forbade any swift movement like before.

Despite her injury, Xing Jing managed to avoid most of the snakes but three of them.

She fell to the ground, tethering on the verge of unconsciousness as the purple lightning entered her body, her muscles altering between numbing pain from the Cloud Arts first form and devastating electricity.

Blood was gushing out of her gritted teeth as she held onto her fighting will.

”You're going to regret forcing me to hold Fu Xue in my arms,” Ye Tehzu mumbled right before condensing more Shinsoo for a second attack, ”Blast Arrow!”

”Ocean Piercing Thread!”

Due to Xing Jing having to force herself to deal with the boy's previous barrage of attacks, she had unwantedly let go of Ocean Needle, allowing Mei Yunei to get back her blade and her control over it.

Mei Yunei had swiftly cut through the remaining Cold Smoke snakes, those that were targeted at her and not at Xing Jing.

Now that the latter was on the floor, her priority was stopping Ye Tezhu. She was clear on the danger that Xing Jing represented but she also knew that her arsenal of techniques was not adapted to fighting multiple opponents at the same time.

Unlike Ye Tehzu who she knew had a lot of large range techniques.

And one of them was Blast Arrow.

From Ye Tehzu's right hand, a parchment talisman burst into flames, birthing a large bolt of purple lightning in the shape of an arrow, at the same time as Ocean Needle started to extend like a wire.

”Turning a needle into a thread... This attack is very dangerous” Ye Tehzu could feel the powerful fluctuations coming from the blade in Mei Yunei's hand.

The latter's eyes burned with a cunning flame, as if she already knew her attack had connected perfectly without having fully unleashed it yet.

Without feeling the condensed Shinsoo that wrapped the needle blade, Xing Jing was much more focused on the bright arrow shooting out from Ye Tehzu's side. She knew it was a large range attack, which could only mean one thing.

As she was getting up, forcefully enduring the pain of lightning in her body, there was only one option remaining in Xing Jing's mind. She had to go towards him in order to evade his Blast Arrow.

Mei Yunei breathed out calmly. Xing Jing was pushing herself off the ground and started running towards her opponent. The purple Blast Arrow was flying towards them both.

Mei Yunei blinked, her heart and dantian calm like the summer sea. All of it didn't matter.

She was the fastest in the Star-Sword Pavilion. In comparison to her Ocean Piercing Thread, her opponents attacks were slower than turtles while she herself was flying like a sparrow overhead.

When Mei Yunei opened her eyes, time had slowed down considerably. In exchange for a large portion of her Shinsoo, she had the ability to enhance her technique's speed, giving her a few seconds more.

Ocean Needle's blade shot forward, its speed surpassing that of a third step Liquid Realm practitioner by far.

The wire-like weapon went straight towards the purple arrow, piercing it along its length, its accuracy terrifying. Continuing to push forward, Mei Yunei's Ocean Piercing Thread turned sharply, directed at Ye Tehzu.

In the fraction of a second, the boy's arms were both pierced by the wire.

”One more second. Just one!” Mei Yunei concentrated harder, forcing the wire-like blade to undertake another sharp turn, this time revolving around Ye Tehzu to pierce his side.

Her grip still tight around Ocean Needle's carved handle, Mei Yunei ignored the progressive blur taking over her vision.

The tip of her attack was only a few centimeters away from Xing Jing's abdomen.

Sending even more Shinsoo from her hand into her weapon, Mei Yunei emptied her dantian. Without a sound, the black needle tip went through Xing Jing without encountering much resistance.

Mei Yunei didn't even see the end of the wire come out of her opponent. Her vision had turned dark and her consciousness was drifting away.

”Heh, I couldn't even accurately target the right organs. But I'm still the fastest...”

From Mei Yunei's reality defying point of view, three seconds had passed but on the outside of her pseudo-domain, it was only a blink.

She went from standing up calmly with a sword in her hand to falling unconscious in the briefest of times, all the while unnoticed by both her opponents.

The first reaction from Ocean Piercing Thread came from the Blast Arrow which had been touched first. The insanely condensed Shinsoo from Mei Yunei's attack had gone through its middle, forcefully destroying the large range technique.

A rain of purple lightning exploded from the arrow in all directions.

They had not even realized what had happened yet, but holes were in their bodies.

Ye Tehzu's last thoughts were that his heart had been missed by only a few centimeters.

Xing Jing who had just endured Ye Tehzu's Cold Smoke Lightning at point blank range was even worse than him. Her organs were already burnt and mangled from the inside when Ocean Piercing Thread took her out.

She didn't realize she was already unconscious.

In the time it takes to blink, all three fighters went from attacking to losing consciousness with heavy injuries. Such was Mei Yunei's reality defying pseudo-domain, Ocean Piercing Thread.

”Breaker, could you-”

”Sure, the girl is yours. Please take good care of her” Master Breaker already knew what the woman in charge of the Shinsoo-Medicine Pavilion wanted.

Patriarch Sen calmly stroked his beard as the crowd went wild behind the rows of Elders, ”How unexpected. A three-way tie. That girl from the Star-Sword branch sure took them by surprise.”

Rising from his seat, his voice carried over the entire Underground Arena.

”All three Pavilions will now send their next fighters.”

The whispers among the crowd revealed that almost nobody had understood what had really happened in the arena. Mei Yunei's strike was simply too strange and unpredictable.

”Big Sister Xing lost?!”

”Mei Yunei fell down just like that... Did she use some kind of special suicidal technique?”

The excitation of watching their peers fight was at an apex. Some disciples were in the midst of realizing the difference there was between them and the chosen fighters, the top of their respective pavilions.

Some other disciples were highly motivated or inspired by the high level of techniques displayed.

In any case, everybody was watching intently, not wanting to blink in case they missed even the slightest move that could decide the issue of a fight.

After the surprise of Ocean Piercing Thread, all three pavilions suddenly lost one fighter. At this point, the Light-Breaker branch and the Cloud-Formation branch both were down to their sixth and last fighters while the Star-Sword Pavilion held the advantage.

The only hope of winning for the other Pavilions was to beat, in succession, Mua Lin and Bai Fulong.

Not many people had ever seen the latter fight, but almost everybody had heard about his instant victory over Mua Jin who was still in recovery since then.

Taking her down would already be quite a feat, and who could hope to do so but the Cloud-Formation Pavilion's last fighter, ranked second.

Chu Erlong was walking towards the center of the arena, looking at Mua Lin and Sei Shian in the distance.