Chapter 1449 (2/2)

Just as Shou made to shift to fight the new foe, Richter’s octopus monster surged forward and smashed its tentacles at his back. Snorting, Huang Shou brought his focus back around and unleashed another One-Thousand Palm. To his surprise, Richter’s bold attack crumpled rather easily; it seemed the Life is Suffering had inflicted more damage than he initially thought.

Which meant that Huang Shou could quickly overpower Richter if he gave him his full attention, but the new attack from behind would not give him that luxury. He glanced over with concern at the wounded Huang Li. “Grandson?”

“We see it, grandfather.” Huang Li straightened slowly. The wall of caustic energy rushed toward his face, but he didn’t even look at it. He simply nodded as though reassuring himself and raised his sword upward. The metal blade gleamed in the mid-morning sun.

The tip of the sword was perfectly upward. Huang Shou found the form reassuring, but there wasn’t a single image that hung over that slash. It was just a normal sword to Huang Shou’s confused eyes.

Huang Li spoke again before he attack. “I bet you can see it too, if you look. The True Dragon’s Shadow… Sky-Slaying Slash!”

The blade fell.

For a second, the sound of the wind drowned out everything else. Huang Shou’s eardrums ruptured and blood tricked out of his ears. He could only watch with wide eyes, as though he were watching one of the silent movies of his youth. Huang Li swung his sword gracefully downward and something began to stir.

Huang Shou’s eyes shot upward and he witnessed it for the briefest moment; an image even larger than the stadium, staring down at Theodora Greyman with disdain. The wave of dark energy rushed forward and was split without being able to resist at all.

Bringing his palms together, Huang Shou scraped together enough Mana and brought his hands together. He shaped the word with his mouth but heard nothing but the roaring wind. “Harmonious Resonance.”

The energy ran through Shou’s body and healed all his surface wounds. His eardrums were once more restored.

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!

Crack!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The collision at the end was so powerful that Huang Shou was knocked to his knees when the concussive aftershocks hit his body. He was breathing heavily, struggling to see the outcome through the dirt and debris. There was no way… that she would be able to block that, correct…?

As the dust cleared, Huang Shou’s expression twisted in unwillingness and bitterness. Theodora Greyman was still standing, seemingly unharmed. But then that grimace faded into confusion. Huang Li was panting and dropped his sword. The weapon hit the ground and shattered into a thousand minuscule chunks of twisted metal.

The strain of supporting that image had been too much.

Suddenly, a man with short black hair was standing between Huang Li and Theodora Greyman. His emerald eyes weighed them both equally, then he turned to Huang Li. “You need to be careful, utilizing vast images like that. She would have died if I hadn’t intervened, and you might have destroyed a portion of the stands in the process.”

Randidly Ghosthound rapped his knuckle solemnly against the large, thorny root that had cracked the Donnyton marble arena to interpose itself between Theodora Greyman and the attack. Huang Shou was intrigued by the glimmering golden roots across the root, but his eyes were drawn to the deep gash that oozed sap. Huang Li’s strike had almost bisected the root completely.

Huang Li blinked and then bowed deeply. Then the Ghosthound turned to Theodora Greyman and gave her another few seconds of scrutiny. “...anything you want to say? You almost died from two things, just now.”

The inky-blackness faded from Theodora’s eyes. But the whites of her eyes were lost in the deep bags that weighed her gaze down. “Why…. why do I always lose to you…?”

“Madam Greyman…” Randidly Ghosthound turned away from her. “We were never competing to begin with. The winners of this round… are Zone 7’s Huang Shou and Huang Li. Any objections?”

The Ghosthound glanced sideways at Richter, but the young man just sighed. Then the crowd began to cheer.

Heh, I appreciate the nod, but this time… Huang Shou looked at the silhouette of his adoptive grandson. It is not I that should have been announced first.