HSSB332: Turning the tables
Yan Zhaoge looked calmly at the moonlight world.
Earlier, conversing with Elder Mo, there was a situation which he had actually not told him.
Currently, due to not having become sufficiently familiar with her supreme Extreme Yin Arts, Feng Yunsheng actually had a deficiency in fighting with the other Maidens of Extreme Yin through the Extreme Yin Crown.
That was not being able to hold through protracted battles.
Only a few people knew about this, and they all kept it a firmly guarded secret.
Afterwards, along with the passage of time, when she became sufficiently familiarised and proficient in her supreme Extreme Yin Arts, this would no longer be a problem.
However, for the current Feng Yunsheng, it would be best to end battles speedily, for protracted battles would gradually decrease the strength that she would later be able to draw out.
But it was just that her current opponent, Turbid Wave Pavilion’s Fan Qiu, whether it was the martial arts she cultivated in or her personal combat style, was a slow, grinding type.
Fan Qiu didn’t know Feng Yunsheng’s problem, but her combat method was inadvertently precisely targeted against Feng Yunsheng’s deficiency.
And in terms of resonance with the Extreme Yin Crown, Fan Qiu was even superior by a bit.
This way, it would be even harder for Feng Yunsheng to obtain victory.
Yan Zhaoge was not worried about this. Having successfully entered the second round, Feng Yunsheng had already achieved her given target. He too wanted to see how Feng Yunsheng would perform under this kind of disadvantageous situation.
The current battle was still in a stalemate.
Under the umbrella, the light dragon was still fearsome and mighty, slamming into the umbrella as it shook unceasingly, leaving behind continuous rips on the surface of the umbrella.
However, as the umbrella spun, a large amount of the light dragon’s strength was dispersed. As moonlight fell from above, the rips were quickly repaired.
Having been in a heated battle for a long time, the power of the light dragon finally began to deteriorate.
When the light dragon had been at its peak, the boundless darkness below the umbrella along with its extreme coldness and desolation that could extinguish all objects had found it hard to invade, but was now beginning to unceasingly deplete the light dragon’s strength.
The light dragon that flickered with black and white forcibly jolted its mind and raised its spirits, waves surging as it rushed mightily at the umbrella once again.
The umbrella spun at an increased rate, dispersing the power of the light dragon.
After a few more rounds of attacks, the aura of the light dragon fell once more.
However, Feng Yunsheng’s will was firm and her tenacity extremely high. Even despite this, she still forcibly stimulated and unleashed her power, not willing to give up.
Low, surging, irrepressibly falling once more, before exerting great effort and surging once more.
The light dragon rose and fell in strength, resembling a flickering candle flame within the wind, persisting as it just refused to be extinguished.
But everyone could see that faced with Fan Qiu’s dragging on of time and slow grinding methods, resembling gentle water, Feng Yunsheng’s strength was gradually being depleted.
She unceasingly unleashed strength, but after a short and temporary eruption of force, she would fall even deeper into the abyss.
While it unceasingly rose even as it fell, on the whole, the power of that black and white light dragon was gradually going downhill.
Fan Qiu’s situation was actually not ideal as well, her depletion of power extremely great.
While this current combat method was precisely her speciality, as well as the speciality of her supreme Extreme Yin Art, at the same time that the explosive power of Feng Yunsheng was high, her resilience was also extremely great.
Unceasingly clashing, Fan Qiu’s power was also deteriorating rapidly, far from its earlier peak.
Towards the end, the speed of rotation of that paper umbrella had already become very slow, the regeneration of the rips on its surface no longer as fast as before.
In this protracted battle, the two gradually spent all of their energies.
Based on her deeper foundation, also being proficient in this type of battle, Fan Qiu stably retained the upper hand, but even if she obtained victory, it would be a tragic one.
Elder Mo looked at the eternally unyielding light dragon within the darkness, a look of worry on his face, “She won’t be like that little maiden of the Sacred Sun Clan surnamed Yun.”
Yan Zhaoge similarly gazed at that light dragon, “She won’t; Elder Mo can relax.”
Looking at Feng Yunsheng and the similarly exhausted Fan Qiu, Elder Mo looked like he wanted to say something, yet was holding himself back.
“Elder is worried that whoever the victory goes today, having used up a great amount of strength, they would be hard pressed to face Meng Wan who secured an easy victory,” Yan Zhaoge seemed to know Elder Mo’s thoughts, “This way, it would equivalent to us falling alongside Turbid Wave Pavilion whom we have no tensions being with, making things easy for our enemies the Sacred Sun Clan, right?”
Hearing his words, Elder Mo sighed, “As martial practitioners, striving for victory is a natural thing. Life and death battles aside, whether it is for strategy or benefits, as long as one thinks of giving way to the opponent in a battle, it would damage their will as well as belief in their martial dao somewhat.”
“This old man naturally understands this principle, and is of no mind to ask that child to let her opponent win. It’s just that this current situation truly causes one to feel regretful.”
Yan Zhaoge said, “I understand. You perhaps hold other considerations: since we are unable to win this time, we might as well conserve our power, not letting others see through our depth. This way, it might be more beneficial to us in the next Bout.”
Elder Mo sighed but did not speak.
Yan Zhaoge said quietly, “For the first question, yes, candidly speaking, for this year’s Extreme Yin Bout, after looking at Meng Wan’s battle with Jade Sea City’s Junior Sister Chen just now, in my eyes, there was already a clear answer to who the Extreme Yin Crown would fall to this time.”
Elder Mo swivelled his head to look at Yan Zhaoge, who nodded, “Unless Meng Wan was like before, a problem having cropped up with herself, whether it is junior apprentice-sister Feng or Turbid Wave Pavilion’s Junior Sister Fan, even if they were at their peak condition, they would also be unable to defeat Meng Wan this year.”
“Opponents of flowing water, a Meng Wan forged of iron,” Yan Zhaoge smacked his lips, “As Elder Mo said just now, in the Extreme Yin Bout, Meng Wan truly has the style of my father in his martial path when he was young.”
“If by what you say,” Elder Mo knit his brows slightly, Yan Zhaoge surveying the moonlight world as he said softly, “However, some paths have to be walked; some things have to be done. All of these are things that one must go through.”
Yan Zhaoge suddenly smiled, “In the process of a battle itself, one can be intelligent and agile with many changes, temporarily avoiding the sharpness of the enemy’s blade before suddenly rising up and clinching an unexpected victory. However, for a battle, to fight or not to fight is sometimes actually not a question. Even knowing that you are no match, you must still stand bravely for battle.”
Hearing his words, Elder Mo’s gaze flickered as he turned back to look at the moonlight world.
There, he saw that black and white light dragon which had originally already gradually deteriorated, seemingly out of paths to take, suddenly erupt with shocking power.
It was an even greater strength than its flourishing times at the start of the battle, having surpassed its earlier peak.
Fan Qiu was slightly stunned for a moment.
Before this, she had also been staying vigilant against Feng Yunsheng making a final counterattack with all her remaining strength.
However, as time passed, while Feng Yunsheng had not shown any signs of giving up whatsoever, unceasingly launching assaults, never even ceasing for a moment, the entire process had seen a decreasing of her momentum, indicating that she was gradually running out of steam, and this had formlessly pushed down Fan Qiu’s expectations on her final explosive burst of strength.
Despite having remained standing firmly throughout all those countless earlier attacks, that umbrella was currently already extremely weak, far from its earlier peak.
At this moment, Feng Yunsheng instead erupted with strength that far exceeded the norm, the white and black light dragon roaring as she directly ripped the umbrella apart.
Bathed in the moonlight, the light dragon traversed the sky, roaring arrogantly to the nine heavens, arriving before Fan Qiu.
Feng Yunsheng’s figure appeared. Her face was as pale as paper, no redness visible on it whatsoever, but her expression was calm and her gaze firm as usual, not wavering a single inch.
“Junior Sister Fan, thank you for going easy.”
While her face was similarly pale, Fan Qiu still said from the bottom of her heart, “Senior Sister Feng, you have my admiration. If this were not the Extreme Yin Bout, I would already have lost my life.”
The instant change in the battle left everyone here sighing in marvel.
They all focused on Feng Yunsheng, unable to shift their gazes away for a long time.
This was also true for Elder Mo, as Yan Zhaoge said to him, “This was also junior apprentice-sister Feng’s final blow, seeing either the extreme of success or destruction. Afterwards, she should not have any energy remaining to battle Meng Wan. Still, this final battle-what has to be done still has to be done.”
As Elder Mo gazed over, Yan Zhaoge said softly, “There are some very important things that junior apprentice-sister Feng have to personally confirm.”