I Can See Your Combat Power - Chapter 198:
Chapter 198: Chapter 194: Xiling Cao Family
Translator: 549690339 J
If blocking a single arrow meant he could confront the real boss, then Cao Yi didn’t mind playing the good guy for once. He approached a young martial artist who had just dropped down, took his badge and spoke coldly, “This round is mine, beat it.”
As if granted a royal pardon, the young man handed his badge to Cao Yi, bowed his head, bent his body and sprinted out of the combat arena.
Just as the two stewards were about to intervene, they were stopped by Yuan Zun’s yell from the stage, “Let them switch.”
The purpose of the stage martial artists was to help the defending champion sift out suitable challengers, to block those unfit for combat. To massacre average Mortal Realm martial artists wasn’t for amusement, but a warning. A bunch of Martial artists, none of whom had reached the peak of the Mortal Realm, dreaming of making a name for themselves in one fight – they were delusional! On getting a badge, they thought they could easily stand up against the current champion of the Xu Clan!
At least the few who showed up today were respectable, all of them had reached the peak of the Mortal Realm mastering the unity of spirit and intent. Their imposing aura made them worthy adversaries.
Nor did Cao Yi find anything surprising, he took the badge and stepped onstage without introducing himself, for he believed that the majority of martial artists in Xiling knew him!
Xiling had many mid-sized families with a complex web of relations and alliances. Only the knights and ladies of the Cao family were ignored. This was due to their family’s innate technique – The Corpse Refiner, a particularly formidable technique that required a martial artist to immerse themselves in evil Qi and upon mastery, their bodies would be as hard as stone and their spiritual energy poisonous.
Mastery of this technique required one to draw upon the evil Qi. Consequently, the Cao family, in order to facilitate their practice, had constructed their ancestral mansion near the chaotic burial grounds of Xiling. However, those who practiced the Corpse Refiner had difficult childbirths and early deaths, regardless of whether they were men who married into the Cao family or women born into it.
Over time, the Cao family stood alone, unaligned with any of the mid-sized families of Xiling. Fortunately, their formidable combat strength made up for their lack in numbers, making them one of the renowned families of Xiling.
And Cao Yi was the son of the Cao family, 36 years old, at the peak of the Mortal Realm, deeply proficient in the Corpse Refiner technique. His body emitted a ghastly black color, invulnerable to weapons, possessing immense strength.
While the others feared Yuan Zun, he did not. He just didn’t want to lose more energy than necessary during his match against him which would affect his following confrontation against the pompous young master of the Xu Clan.
But all he needed to do now was to deflect one arrow to challenge the young master of the Xu Clan, so he was the first to rush to the stage.
A black aura enshrouded Cao Yi’s body. He stood immovable, calmly waiting for Yuan Zun to shoot his arrow.
This was the first peak Mortal Realm challenger in two days, so Yuan Zun had to show him due respect. However, Yuan Zun, witnessing such arrogance, could hardly contain his anger. If it wasn’t for his promise to only shoot one arrow, he would surely unleash a barrage upon the brash challenger standing before the Falling Star army.
The condition of shooting only one arrow limited Yuan Zun’s performance; therefore, he could only select an arrow technique to use.
When angry, there was no better way to vent than to use Sky Burning Arrow. Yuan Zun let the anger roar within him. His spiritual power surged, filling his dantian, pouring into the Falling Star bow in his hand like a tsunami, a red glow covering the original purple longbow.
He drew his arrow and pulled on his bow, perfectly integrating his mind with the intention of his arrow. He released the bowstring, and a dragon of flames furiously lunged towards Cao Yi. Amid the vigorous burning of spiritual power, there was a faint echo of a dragon’s roar.
“Well shot!” Cao Yi praised with no expression. He gathered Corpse Refiner energy in his right arm. With a “riiip,” his sleeve tore from the cuff to the shoulder, revealing an arm as thick as a dark pillar, bulging with muscles and popping veins carrying the eerie black sheen of Corpse Refiner- it was a terrifying sight.
With his bulky right arm, Cao Yi threw a heavy punch, executing the “Ghostly Evil Fist” towards the dragon’s head. His black energy formed a ghastly face, colliding with the fire dragon!
“Boom!” The dragon head and the ghost face exploded simultaneously, a ring of greenish-black spiritual energy emerged. Cao Yi originally thought he had easily blocked this hit and was about to retract his fist when he saw the red ring mixed with the smell of decay had not yet dispersed, but was sweeping toward him with astonishing heat.
Normal warriors would want to retreat in the face of this fire ring, but not Cao Yi. The ferocious man advanced instead of retreating, turning his fist into a palm, intending to break this fire ring!
Seeing Cao Yi’s move, Yuan Zhun snorted disdainfully. His hawk-like eyes were full of contempt, scoffing at the opponent’s overconfidence.
What made Burning Sky different from other arrows was that it did not rely on the spiritual power condensed by the spirit-locking form to cause direct damage, but the intense heat and the spiritual power of fire locked within the dragon body after the spirit-locking form exploded.
This flame, besides having extremely high temperatures and being difficult to extinguish, it also had a characteristic of using spiritual power as fuel.
Except for water and ice attributes, this fire of spiritual power can use any other spiritual power to further increase its temperature.
The more vigorous the spiritual power triggered by the opponent, the more astonishing the temperature when in contact with the fire ring. Yuan Zhun actually wanted to see how a warrior without armor could resist the high temperature that could melt gold and Iron.
An unknowing Cao Yi, swung his bulky arm that resembled an iron pillar, at the fire ring. As soon as he made contact, the iron-like bulky arm caught fire, and the greenish-black Evil Qi became the best nourishment for the fire of spiritual power.
The iron pillar turned into a pillar of fire, and Cao Yi let out a painful howl, a fierce light flashed in his eyes!
As soon as the Spiritual Fire touched his arm, he gathered the Evil Qi to try to explode the flame in one go, but the decayed Qi erupting from millions of pores in his right arm did not extinguish the Spiritual Fire, but made it burn even more intensely.
From this, Cao Yi understood why these flames were burning. If he had just swung his hand from the start without attaching spiritual power, the flames would not have reached the present fierce level.
If left unchecked, his right arm would be reduced to ashes. Out of necessity he could only reveal the trump card he had kept hidden for the Xiling Martial Arts Tournament!
The originally bulky right arm shrank instantly, and the burning Spiritual Flames followed the shrinking arm onto Cao Yi’s body. In an instant, he was wrapped in Spiritual Fire and incinerated. In the raging Spiritual Flames, only a faint shadow stood straight and tall.
A warrior engulfed by twice-heated spiritual flames would be doomed unless he had practiced some earth-shattering body training methods, because such spiritual flames have a temperature high enough to melt metal!
And the moment when these Spiritual Flames disappear would be the moment when Cao Yi loses his life. Yuan Zhun was very confident about this.
The Spiritual Fire was burning intensely but extinguished at a speed visible to the naked eye, because this fire, energized by spiritual power, would disperse after no further spiritual power supply, leaving only mortal fire that can burn wood and fabric, which isn’t a threat to the strong body of a warrior.
Yuan Zhun watched the spiritual fire that covered Cao Yi slowly go out, lowered the Falling Star Bow to his side, and shouted, “Next!”
Because the extinguishing of the spiritual flame means it no longer has enough fuel, and most of the time, it also means that the warrior covered by the flame is dead.
The flames weakened, and Cao Yi’s clothes had been burnt to ashes, revealing his naked body. His tungsten-like, greenish-black muscular body was full of strong lines and stood firmly on the spot like a tall jade pillar
