148 Chapter 147: Might of the Battle Puppe (1/2)
The earth-shattering might of the terrifying qi hurricane…
Okay, never mind. That sounded unnecessarily pretentious.
Anyway, the earth-shattering explosion resulting from the collision of two enormous waves of qi (that still sounded pretentious, but whatever) blasted across the mountainrange, flattening all the trees within a hundred-meter radius. In just a single instance, the tiny part of the forest nestled at the foot of the mountains vanished, leaving behind a barren land.
Swoosh!
Golden lights enveloped the horizon, and one of the figures was sent hurtling downward, crashing into an unaffected portion of the beleaguered forest. Smashing through several huge trees, the figure continued to tumble downward for a few moments before finally coming to a stop.
”Ugh!”
Zhu Jiao slowly rose to his feet, throwing up a mouthful of blood. He leaned unsteadily against an unbroken tree, his complexion frightfully pale. Despite his injuries, his eyes remained vigorous and defiant as he glared up above.
It looked like Zhu Jiao was actually enjoying the fight. No doubt this was one of the toughest battles he had ever faced before.
Likewise, in the air, golden light dissipated as the other figure was hurled backward. However, he managed to halt his momentum with a visible effort after barreling several dozen meters away. With a determined yell, he seemed to plunge his spear into empty space, and despite there not being any ground or whatever to anchor himself to, he was able to stop skidding and slowly straightened to steady his violently trembling body.
Despite his best efforts, a kinetic blast of wind continued to surge in the direction he was thrown in, obliterating a boulder below.
”Unbelievable!”
Spitting a glob of blood, Jiang Jun Hao wiped his mouth and glared downward, looking a little green. His fingers tightly gripped the Heavenly Spear as he glared at the person standing in the forest, so far away. He did not expect that Zhu Jiao would be so difficult to deal with, surviving not one but two strikes from his treasured sect weapon.
His eyes wide in disbelief, he shook his head. He was unable to wrap his head around the fact that a kid several years younger than him and belonging to a lower stage could survive everything he threw at him. He vowed to kill Zhu Jiao, no matter the cost.
As for me, I couldn't help but bury my face in my palm. What the fuck was wrong with these people? Killing, killing, killing. Is that all they can think of? Common sense dictated that you befriended people with potential and do your best to avoid pissing them off, but this guy was so arrogant and crazed that all he could think of was killing.
Ths must be one of the so-called arrogant young masters that populated the landscape of wuxia and xianxia stories.
”I'm curious to see how many spear attacks of mine you can endure today!”
Jiang Jun Hao roared, his eyes gleaming maliciously. Dense murderous intent was emanating from him. Even though Zhu Jiao's earlier attack had been fearsome to the extent that he could match Jiang Jun Hao blow for blow, the latter could sense his strength and qi waning slightly. He was confident that Zhu Jiao wouldn't be able to sustain attacks of such a magnitude and would run out of qi before long.
The guy evidently hadn't factored in the artificial qi that Zhu Jiao received. What an idiot.
Boom!
For some reason, Jiang Jun Hao was expending immense amounts of qi…probably to show off or to intimidate his opponent, but it was a ridiculous waste of qi if you asked me. He infused his qi into the golden spear in his hands and it jerked violently in his arms, as if desperately resisting the intrusion of its owner's qi. Man and spear became one as they transformed into a golden flash that streaked across the heavens.
”Wow…is that Man and Sword as One?” I asked, impressed, as I watched the golden flash acr toward Zhu Jiao. Currently, Jiang Jun Hao was emanating an overwhelming spear aura that saturated the entire mountain range with suffocating killing intent, drowning every living thin in his qi and paralyzing them. Even though he seemed unaffected, Zhu Jiao merely stood still as he watched Jiang Jun Hao fiercely charge at him with his spear.
Baaaam!
The destructive power was so potent that even though he was so high up in the sky, Jiang Jun Hao left a trail of broken ground in his wake, carving a ravine into the solid rock below.
Clearly Jiang Jun Hao was determined to kill Zhu Jiao no matter what. Probably based off some bullshit reasoning that Zhu Jiao's performance had convinced him that it was best to eliminate such a terrifying threat before he could become too strong and caused a lot of problems in future.
Such a way of thinking was illogical and stupid.
No, seriously. If Zhu Jiao was that strong, then you should befriend him. Why was the first thing in your mind to kill him? What kind of fucking logic was that? If you know he would be someone powerful and probably influential in future, why was your first thought ”he must die”? Wouldn't it be more rational to befriend such a promising person and reap the benefits in future? Who the fuck resorts to killing every single person he meets?
Furthermore, he was targeting Zhu Jiao and Zhu Jiao alone. I had the feeling that it was less Zhu Jiao posing an immense a threat in future and simply because he was the protagonist that Jiang Jun Hao was forced into trying to kill him. The author was trying to contrive all sorts of poor excuses to cook up reasons for an antagonist to attack his protagonist just to show off the protagonist's potential, and to write a fight scene. It wouldn't be a xianxia story if nobody fought and everybody chose to be peaceful and logical, after all.
The problem was that relying on such plot devices and illogical characters made the story so contrived and cheesy that it was difficult to suspend disbelief, and it was just poor writing and extremely unrealistic in general. I mean, why didn't Jiang Jun Hao go around killing everybody then? Why didn't he attack Lei Yong Chun or the other prodigies and geniuses? Why specifically aim for Zhu Jiao and only Zhu Jiao? The only difference is that Zhu Jiao was the protagonist, and thus for no reason the whole world was out to get him.
It became a vicious cycle. After getting rid of one enemy, the author had to find excuses for new antagonists to attack him, no matter how contrived, petty or stupid the reason was. And after those antagonists got stomped by the protagonist in the most epic fashion, he had to yet again find new enemies to attack the protagonist for no stupid reason, even though logically any sensible person should have learned the protagonist was not somebody you messed with. But no, nobody learned their lesson. I understood that they couldn't, or the story would just end there with nobody fighting the protagonist and him having nothing to overcome, but they should think of more creative ways than that.
Anyway, I digress. I should be focusing on the fight between Zhu Jiao and Jiang Jun Hao.
The golden light that filled the heavens continued to expand rapidly as it approached Zhu Jiao. However, the main character did not bother evading. Instead, he cocked his arm back and braced himself to confront it directly.
”Die!”
”Can you stop shouting that?!” I yelled, throwing my hands up in exasperation.
Jiang Jun Hao didn't bother to reply. He was already in front of Zhu Jiao, thrusting his golden spear forward in a deadly manner. His eyes narrowed sinisterly and a golden dragon aura enveloped him, seeming to lend him more power as he sought to pierce Zhu Jiao.
Zhu Jiao merely batted it away with a single hand, and then retaliate with a powerful strike that would have smashed Jiang Jun Hao's ribcage into bony fragments had the latter not pulled his spear back in reflex and parry the strike.
Bang!
The golden lights collided and exploded forcefully. Without any tricks, Zhu Jiao had thrown a lot of power into his punch, so much so that the air around him seemed to distort from the sheer amount of qi that swirled in a raging maelstrom. The golden qi seemed to condense and solidify around him, striking Jiang Jun Hao like a truck and detonating the air around them so powerfully that it felt like a supernova. The surrounding trees around them disintegrated from the sheer destructive force, simply ceasing to exist as the qi blasted through them.
For just a second, a sliver of fear flashed in Jiang Jun Hao's eyes. He was unable to react, and knew that if he hadn't blocked the terrifying punch with his Heavenly Spear, he would have died instantly on the spot.
Dong!
Beyond the circle of disintegrated trees, more of trees in the outer ring collapsed like bowling pins, swept off their roots by the hurricane of qi. Never mind the trees – even the demonic creatures inhabiting those portions of the forest couldn't respond in time, crushed instantly into bloody pulps as the destructive qi washed over them.
Bang!
The terrifying shockwaves sent both combatants flying in opposite directions, the two of them tumbling helplessly for almost a hundred meters before they finally stopped. Even as they skidded, they left deep furrows in the ground.
”How are you able to pack so much power, even though you're merely a Qi Fusion Stage practitioner?” Jiang Jun Hao scowled in disbelief and shook his trembling hands, trying to tighten his loosening grip on the Heavenly Spear.
Zhu Jiao shrugged. ”Who says I'm a Qi Fusion Stage practitioner?”
”Eh? You aren't? But the amount of qi you emit…it can't be higher than a Qi Fusion Stage practitioner!”
I snorted. ”This is the trouble with you martial artists. Why does everything have to be divided into stages and whatnot? How do you measure someone's level or stage or realm? Why do you judge people based on the amount of qi they radiate? You're so obsessed with levels that whenever someone from a supposedly lower level overpowers you, you get all upset. Don't you understand that all these power levels and realms are arbitrary? They are just stupid names people give to estimate a person's strength, but they are neither accurate nor binding.”
”Oh, shut up!” Jiang Jun Hao snapped at me. He then turned back to the grinning Zhu Jiao. ”It's just a fluke! I'll definitely kill you! There's no way you can keep up attacks of such power with the pitiful amount of qi you have!”
This idiot clearly did not realize that Zhu Jiao possessed three sexagenaries of qi. In other words, he had a hundred and eighty years' worth of qi. Compared to Jiang Jun Hao only having cultivated for a thirty-odd years at most, he had several times more qi.
Of course, quantity of qi meant nothing. Even if Zhu Jiao had more qi, Jiang Jun Hao had more combat experience and had more time to hone and perfect his skills. As I said, a weapon was only as good as its wielder. It didn't matter how much qi you had, or what treasure weapon you wielded. If you couldn't use it well, you would still lose to an opponent with a better grasp of combat and techniques or his weapon than you did.
The whole idea that people could win with brute force concepts such as overpowering their opponent with more qi or having a better weapon was outdated. No, it wasn't even about being outdated – it was completely wrong to begin with, no matter the era. That was why Wu Ling Academy did not automatically become a superpower even after being able to synthesize artificial qi. The students weren't able to perfect their control over all their qi, and they still needed to polish their techniques and gain combat experience before they could challenge elders with decades of fighting experience and battle knowledge under their belts.
If it was a simple matter of more qi equaling automatic victory, Wu Ling Academy would have reigned supreme two years ago.
”Heavenly Shattering Dragon's Roar!”
With a yell, Jiang Jun Hao threw himself forward again, getting ready to pierce Zhu Jiao's chest. The latter merely brushed the dust off him, which had fallen on his body during the earlier explosion, and stifled a yawn.
”You know what…I'm bored of fighting you. I'll leave you to my new toy.”
”Eh?” I blinked, surprised. Now I didn't expect this…even though I should have. Oh well, I guess I couldn't always predict everything correctly. Well, that was life. Things never went the way you expected, even if you had read a lot of xianxia or wuxia novels. I was half-expecting Zhu Jiao to pull a Li Fu Chen or Lin Feng and just beat poor Jiang Jun Hao up blue and black without breaking a sweat. Again, reality was never that easy.
The golden light that was Jiang Jun Hao's spear swept forward in a flash, crossing the distance between the two in a split second. Just before it was about to hit Zhu Jiao, the latter merely waved his hand dismissively.
”I'll let you handle it.”
At first, I had no idea what he was talking about. Was he asking me to step in? What the hell, why would I take over and fight your duel for you?
Then a massive figure suddenly appeared in front of him. As its silver body glowed ferociously, it threw out a devastating punch that emanated deadly rays of qi.
Boom!
It was just a simple punch, almost identical to Zhu Jiao's earlier strike with his Heavenly Golden Draconic Gauntlets. But this time, it seemed almost more powerful. Releasing massive amounts of wildly rampaging qi, it seemed to condense into silver crystals that hung in the air before razing the entire area around them, disintegrating trees again.
Dudes, you guys really had to stop leveling the landscape. This was deforestation, pure and simple. The environmentalist in me couldn't help but cringe.
”Na…nani?!”
Yes, Jiang Jun Hao actually said that. He must have been watching too much Japanese anime like me, but I doubted he had reached my level of weeabo (though those levels were absolutely meaningless, as always). His jaw dropped as his mind fought to comprehend the sudden development, his reflexes unable to react in time to the terrifying punch. Fortunately, the silver punch, for whatever reason, wasn't aiming for his chest. It smashed into the tip of his golden spear in a fearsome fashion, effortlessly repelling him.
Dong!
Once again, a crater was carved into the earth and both Jiang Jun Hao and the new figure were hurled apart. I am not going to bother with describing with the destruction of the poor forest because it was getting pointless at this stage, or the trails and furrows in the earth that both combatants left in the crumbling earth, because it would be downright repetitive.
”What is this?!”
After he steadied himself and rose shakily to his feet, the color drained from Jiang Jun Hao's face. He stared at the silver figure in shock, his eyes narrowing. Then he gasped.
”Battle puppet!”
Jiang Jun Hao recognized the figure, clearly having encountered it before in the ancient tomb. Apparently, during that time, he had joined hands with Lei Yong Chun and the other prodigies, the group of them working together to defeat that damaged broken puppet (which was coincidentally in my spatial device at the moment). At that time, he really desired one of his own, but unfortunately that battle puppet was programmed by Spirit Engravings belonging to the Nascent Soul Stage practitioner, and unless he could find someone to decode, erase and rewrite the Spirit Engraving, he had no choice but to give up on the idea.