Apotheosis – Ascension to Godhood Chapter 253: The Antique Gentleman Sword

Chapter 253: The Antique Gentleman Sword

Seeing the demonic fist dashing towards him, Vale raised his eyebrows, and waved his hands to summon his own weapons. Hundreds of lotus flowers fluttered in front of him, products of his own martial skills.
This was far from their first fight. At one point, Vale was attacked by Zen's fists on Hell Mountain. At that time Zen was just a half step into the nature level, but his fists helped even the odds. It was a reckless move, though.
The little boy, a novice only a half step into the nature level, had the nerve to start a fight with him! Vale was stunned and bewildered. Why would Zen do such a thing? But still, he had to admit those fists were a pretty impressive feat, especially for one so young.
When Zen was only half-step into the nature level, he could use life energy to throw those powerful fists. Now that Zen stepped fully into the nature level, his life energy had been transformed into life vitality. So his fists were bound to be more compact, heavier and more powerful!
Vale Wang was also a rare genius, and now he was the pride of the Wang Family. Not only was he a personal disciple, he stood head and shoulders above those other personal disciples. How could it be easy to fight him?
And he'd come up with a way to defend against Zen's Heavenly Ogre Fist.
The lotus flowers floating around him formed a triangle, and there was a big gap between any two of the hundred lotus blossoms. With his power, he sent the triangle rushing headlong at Zen's fists.
The moment the fists met the lotus flowers, the phantoms began to devour the blossoms in the front row. Immediately, the gorgeous red, lotus arrangement was transformed by the demonic life vitality, one flower after another.
In fact, in the previous competition between Zen and Dick, Zen had shown off the devouring power of his demonic life vitality. But, back then, most of the audience saw nothing out of the ordinary. Dick was the only one who saw everything clearly.
Back then, Zen's demonic phantom was transformed into life vitality to consume the life vitality powering Dick's Righteousness Song, making many people believe that they were using life vitality to compete with each other.
Only Dick himself understood what was going on—the horrible power of Zen's demonic life vitality. The truth was that Zen's life vitality was devouring his Righteousness Song. It took a bit to get through the golden layer of righteousness on the surface. If it didn't have that protective layer, it would be swallowed by Zen's demonic life vitality within a second!
The spectators weren't aware of how the demonic life vitality was used, but now they had a first hand education, as the red lotus flowers were devoured by the demonic black phantoms, turning them into black, twisted versions of themselves.
“What? Black lotus flowers?” one disciple asked doubtfully.
“Those lotus flowers seem to be the same color as Zen's life vitality! Oh, no, Zen's controlling the lotus flowers!” another disciple yelled anxiously.
“It's true! But what's really going on is that Zen's life vitality is devouring the lotus flowers. How did Zen manage that?” his fellow disciple said. “Why his cultivation method so weird—Not only it can reshape life vitality automatically after it is shattered, but also it can use his life vitality to devour other people's life vitality. Anyone who has this kind of power is invincible.” “That's incredible!” one more disciple added, astonished.
“I thought Zen would suffer a crashing defeat when his rival was Vale, but now it seems that I jumped to that conclusion too early! Still, Vale's technique is pretty solid. He knew Zen's life vitality could devour his lotus flowers. You see the big gap between each lotus flower in the back of the arrangement? That makes it hard for Zen to devour them all at once.” One more senior disciple made his analysis. He was obviously thrilled.
As the saying goes, laymen watch what's going on, while insiders figure out why. Some only saw the lotus flowers changed color; some could see that Vale's lotus flowers were devoured by Zen's life vitality while others figured out Vale had a way to deal with all this.
“If I hadn't studied your technique, I probably would have fallen to it. But now? A wise man learns from his mistakes. A wiser man learns from others!” Vale said in a cold tone, gesturing at the lotus flowers in front of him. At the same time, all the lotus flowers abruptly bloomed.
“Boom...”
When a single red lotus flower burst, the energy it generated was terrifying. Now that dozens of lotus flowers burst at the same time, the turbulent red lotus fire immediately enveloped Zen's fist phantoms and the black lotus flowers which had been devoured by his phantoms. The flames eagerly curled each flower to ashes.
Detonating his own lotus flowers and Zen's fist phantoms together was also Vale's last ditch. He was really out of options. Zen's black fist phantoms were too evil and too powerful. After Vale thought about it for a bit, there was no other way to break through.
Now even after he had come up with a solution, Vale just managed to hold Zen to a draw.
If he hadn't done this, the life vitality contained in Zen's fist phantoms could have devoured all of his lotus flowers. And if that happened, he would definitely be defeated!
“I've broken through your fists. Got any more tricks up your sleeves?” Vale said lightly, as more lotus flowers started blooming next to him. Zen's cultivation method was a rare one. But Vale's knowledge of the Lotus Scriptures was considerable, and he also had the advantage in the cultivation level. So, Vale was very confident right now.
In fact, in the depths of his heart, Vale was a bit scared about how fast Zen was improving. His martial arts skills grew by leaps and bounds.
'It only took 6 months for Zen to have the strength to fight against me. If he had three years to practice, it would be impossible for me to catch up with him!' Vale's mind was racing wildly.
This time, Vale had to pull all his trump cards, techniques and weapons in order to defeat Zen calmly and easily, striking a blow to his confidence and crushing him.
Martial arts depended upon the will to improve. But when a warrior was defeated, his will could be diminished. If the blow was too much to bear, then his will could be shattered. He would be haunted by this, and unable to improve anymore.
In Vale's view, Zen's strength played a major role in helping him overcome all the obstacles, and walking to the current stage of All Peaks Competition. However, no matter how powerful Zen was, his top ability was only at the second grade of nature level. His main advantage was that creepy purple-black life vitality!
As long as he came up with a solution to deal with that, he'd have Zen on the ropes.
Zen, who only had the power of nature level, was nothing more than a clown. So, he figured he had plenty of time to play with Zen in the ring.
“Tricks?” Zen didn't answer his question but repeated his word. Meanwhile, a faint smile made its way across his face.
So far, Zen had many cards that had not been used. However, he didn't plan to use these on Vale. While Vale was indeed powerful, he was not the most powerful. If he were to win the first place at the All Peaks Competition, he should keep calm and exercise restraint.
He would not, of course, show his cards simply because Vale taunted him. Only the mindless would be irritated by words.
“What can you do to me, if I don't have any tricks?” Zen asked defiantly.
'To be honest, Vale's approach is really good. We had only one fight at Hell Mountain. Yet, he managed to remember what happened there and even come up with that approach to block my life vitality attacks.
Generally speaking, the strong people seldom pay attention to the weak. At Hell Mountain, I was just half-step into the nature level. To Vale, whose level is Illuminating Soul Realm, I'm not worth mentioning. If I weren't Yan's brother, he wouldn't even look at me.
Just like an ant, no matter how special it is, human beings don't care if they step on one.
But strong as Vale is, he was able to figure out my special ability and come up with a way to deal with it. From this aspect, he is extremely meticulous.
Though he can cope with my demonic life vitality, what can he do to me?' So many thoughts had come to Zen's mind all at once.
With Zen's perfect physical condition comparable to the strength of a medium grade spiritual weapon, Vale could do nothing to him. Though the red lotus fire was quite lethal, and though it could bring real harm to Zen and even defeat him under the condition of the burning of life vitality, his demonic phantom was not weak, and shouldn't be regarded as a useless decoration!
As for the super gravity which Vale created by using the “murderous intent of lotus”, it could only keep Zen firmly on the ground but not harm him. From Vale's perspective, Zen was just a copper pea that he could not chew or shatter.
“What can I do to you? Hum... You really think you're invincible? I'll show you the difference between your power and mine,” Vale said with a slight smile, drawing a sword from his sleeve.
Vale's sword was special. Its body was only two fingers in width, but 3.6 feet in length. The long, narrow sword was also engraved with many simple and ancient lines, obviously an awesome and ancient sword.
It was known as the Gentleman Sword, a very popular sword in ancient times. In particular, high ranking officials, emperors and generals all wore such a sword. The key to its beauty was its thinness. Yet, due to the extreme thinness, it could be easily snapped. Gradually, the Gentleman Sword lost its popularity, and now everyone in the Eastern Region only regarded it as a useless decoration, fit more for a wall than a war.
But not all Gentleman Swords were easily broken, and the elite Gentleman Swords, made from top-of-the-line materials, could be fashioned into spiritual weapons and even fairy weapons!
The Gentleman Sword in the hand of Vale was such a fairy weapon, handed down from the ancient masters. Generation after generation kept it well. It was far more than just a charming, ancient sword and its shining blade was still extremely sharp!
When Vale held the sword, his whole vitality changed.
Standing among the white lotus flowers earlier before, Vale had the aura of a domineering emperor looking down upon his subjects. But now, when he held the antique sword in his hand, it made him look like a resurrected emperor, looking down at the lands he ruled with great ambition and arrogance!
“Wow, it's an antique fairy weapon! An antique fairy Weapon!” one disciple exclaimed. Recognizing Vale's sword, he was excited.
“Oh, my goodness, he didn't dig up the grave of an ancient monarch, did he? How did he get that antique fairy weapon?” one of the disciples asked in a surprised tone.
“I feel strong emanation of power! It's just a sword, but I can feel the great power of an ancient monarch. This antique fairy weapon is by no means an ordinary object. In ancient times, the owner of this sword must have been a strong master!” one senior disciple said.
Everyone was stunned by the Gentleman Sword wielded by the hand of Vale!