Zhou… Zhou
Even though Ximen Ye was able to resist Ning Fan’s Sword Finger technique with his incarnation, he still suffered a great deal of damage. Amazement filled his eyes for the very first time.
“Sword Finger! You actually have the Sword Finger inheritance from the Sword Ancestor!”
It was really beyond Ximen Ye’s expectations that his Art of Seven Sounds which allowed him to defeat all of his rivals in the same cultivation realm as him would be destroyed by Ning Fan with just a single finger.
Besides, he had never imagined that the number of secret arts that Ning Fan had was not any lesser than him who was a prodigy of an aristocratic family.
“Ximen Ye, continue to fight me!”
Ning Fan kept both of his swords. Even though his whole body was stained with blood, his robes remained intact.
On the other hand, although Ximen Ye did not have any external injuries after he withstood Ning Fan’s attack using his incarnation, his robes were tattered and he looked worn out.
Ximen Ye had used his incarnation which was the incarnation of night. Ning Fan made a step forward. His body gave out masses of black qi and turned dark like concentrated black ink, gradually becoming illusory.
When Ximen Ye saw what was happening to Ning Fan, his pride was crushed!
The thing that made him proud the most was that he managed to comprehend the Incarnation Technique and constructed his incarnation of night when he was just at the Void Refinement Realm.
Ning Fan, however, was able to use the Incarnation Technique while he was at the Divine Transformation Realm. It immediately made Ximen Ye feel that his achievement was rather insignificant.
“Ximen Ye, continue to fight me!”
Ning Fan had grown tired of showy and stylish techniques. He stepped forward and disappeared into black smoke with a puff. In the next second, he was already right in front of Ximen Ye, swinging his fists.
Ximen Ye was also enraged. His cultivation realm was obviously higher than Ning Fan’s but he was surpassed by the latter in almost every aspect. He disliked this feeling!
“Zhou Ming! You certainly can’t be my opponent!”
*Rumble*
Abandoning all kinds of fashionable techniques, the both of them battled against each other with only their fists.
Both of them were cultivators with the Jade Life Body Refining Realm. Each of their punches and kicks carried force that could break mountains and lands.
While alternating between striking and guarding, Ximen Ye conjured a giant black sword with his void power. He wielded it and cut the sky in half, suppressing Ning Fan with his mighty strength.
While alternating between charging and dodging, golden purple mist coiled around Ning Fan’s body. Wherever the mist passed by, the giant sword would be eroded and disintegrate. Even Ximen Ye could not avoid suffering serious damage from this.
Both of them revealed their incarnations. Even though they used their incarnations to receive most of the damage during their fight, they were still unable to avoid being wounded.
This kind of hand-to-hand combat lasted for an entire day. During the first few hours, Ning Fan’s body techniques were inferior to Ximen Ye’s. Thus, he did not go on the offense a lot and only played defensively most of the time.
In the following few hours, Ximen Ye’s injuries got more severe and his strength weakened. Ning Fan, on the other hand, was as spirited as a dragon and as fierce as a tiger. Each of his punches was powerful!
Ximen Ye finally realized why Ning Fan’s courage went up as the battle progressed.
It was because Ning Fan’s incarnation had already reached the state where it could heal itself while his own incarnation was still at the initial stage.
Currently, Ning Fan was covered in blood from head to toe. However, he did not seem to recognize pain. He continued to throw his fists, just like an insane devil who could annihilate the world.
With a single step, his incarnation dispersed. With another step, his body recondensed.
In between the dispersal and recondensation, he carried the spirit of the saying which goes: It’s better to be a shard of jade than a whole tile. As he continued to battle on, his body refining realm which was on the verge of achieving the next breakthrough had finally broken through!
Now, his Jade Life Body Refining Realm had advanced to the Fourth Level from the peak of the Third Level. All it took was just a bloody physical battle with Ximen Ye!
*Bang*
The force of Ning Fan’s punches grew stronger for every punch he unleashed . To Ximen Ye’s surprise, his strength was completely at a disadvantage.
It wasn’t merely because his strength had been greatly depleted or he lacked a self-healing ability like Ning Fan, but also because Ning Fan had broken through the bottleneck of his body refining realm during the battle!
Seeing Ning Fan’s punches which got stronger to the point where his incarnation could barely defend himself against his punches, Ximen Ye’s eyes turned grim. He had no choice but to admit that he had lost to Ning Fan once more in a prolonged physical combat!
For the first time, he began to contemplate.
If Ning Fan breaks through to the Void Refinement Realm, how strong and powerful would he be?!
If Ning Fan attains the First Heavenly Layer of the Void Fragmentation Realm, would he, Ximen Ye, be able to become Ning Fan’s rival?!
He did not have a clear answer!
For the first time, Ximen Ye who had always been arrogant and proud failed to see any hope of winning against Ning Fan!
*Rumble*
Just as he was distracted by his own thoughts, Ning Fan hurled one of his punches towards him, hitting him right on his chest.
The strength of Ning Fan’s punch gave him a wrong impression. The pain was extremely excruciating as if he had been slammed by a ten thousand zhang* (3.33m per zhang) tall mountain.
His 24 ribs were all broken by this punch.
His original body was beaten out of his incarnation which was surrounded by darkness.
This is bad.
Fresh blood violently gushed out from his mouth. He knew that he had already shown signs of losing when he was caught off guard earlier.
However, it was not anybody else’s fault but his own as he lost his composure and focus in the middle of a battle!
*Dong* *Dong* *Dong*
Heavy and vigorous punches landed consecutively on his chest. This time, his broken bones and internal organs were pulverized altogether. Even though his physical body was at the Peak Jade Life Body Refining Realm, he was completely mutilated.
The bones and tendons of his whole body were like a rack that had broken into pieces. He could no longer move a single muscle on his limbs.
Ning Fan lifted his leg and stomped on him with an imposing manner, sending him crashing into the ground from midair.
Mercilessly, he turned into a ray of lightning which flashed to the ground and made another stomp on Ximen Ye’s chest. The force of his foot broke all of the latter’s defenses!
*Boom*
After that, the broken sky within the heavenly dwelling space shattered. Within the southern tower, two men whose robes were soaked in blood appeared.
Ximen Ye was already so badly beaten up that he fell on the ground with a thump. His eyes were filled with resentment.
As for Ning Fan, he stepped on Ximen Ye’s dantian with his foot that was stained with pieces of flesh. As long as he exerted enough force, the latter’s clone would certainly die!
*Hiss*
Every Divine Transformation Realm cultivator in the southern tower was filled with disbelief. None of them batted their eyes as every single one of them was completely stunned by what they had seen.
They originally thought that it would take just a matter of seconds for Ximen Ye to get rid of Ning Fan with his superior capabilities. However, the victor and loser of the fight was only determined after an entire day. It was enough to show how difficult the battle was and that the both of them were almost on par with each other.
The cultivators of the Ximen Family already found it difficult to believe that the battle would actually take such a long time.
However, what filled them with even more disbelief was that their dignified ‘Emperor Xi’, Ximen Ye, would be in such a terrible state after the fight. He was now like a half-dead dog being trampled upon on the ground by Ning Fan.
A gust of cold wind blew across the hall.
Ning Fan’s eyes were bloodshot. He was already in a frenzy. He did not even conceal any of his baleful qi. With just a single glance, the cultivators of the Ximen Family retreated in unison. Some of them even had their jaws clattering in fear. To them, he was just like an invincible ferocious beast.
What kind of aura was that? It even carried the pride of defeating Ximen Ye!
“Don’t hurt my lord!”
“Impudent! How dare you hurt my Young Master Emperor Xi?! If you ascend to the Northern Heaven in the future, you will certainly be hunted down by our entire Ximen Aristocratic Family!”
The cultivators of the Ximen Family gradually recovered from the shock and began to spit harsh words and threatened Ning Fan, trying to save Ximen Ye.
However, no one there was bold enough to step forward and fight against Ning Fan. The current him was just too terrifying!
“S-Shut up! Get lost! Everybody, get lost!”
Ximen Ye kept coughing out blood while he was beneath Ning Fan’s foot. He could not accept the fact that he had lost to him. He could not accept that his subordinates whom he despised would use the most low-class method – threatening others to save him.
In the past, he was the one who trampled upon others. There was never once he was under anybody’s foot!
He was discontented. However, he was unwilling to rely on the Ximen Aristocratic Family to oppress Ning Fan!
He wanted to wait. He wanted to wait until the day when Ning Fan truly attains the Void Fragmentation Realm and defeat him to clear himself of all of the shame and humiliation that he suffered today. Otherwise, this humiliation would haunt him for the rest of his life!
“Ximen Ye, you’ve lost.” Ning Fan’s tone was flat and his words were simple but they made Ximen Ye unable to refute them.
Ning Fan could have crushed Ximen Ye with his foot. However, the latter did not use any Void Fragmentation Realm divine ability to suppress Ning Fan from the beginning until the end of the fight. He only used his Half-Step Void Refinement Realm strength. Therefore, Ning Fan did not take the life of his clone.
“Why didn’t you kill me?! Why?! The loser should die!”
The fact that Ning Fan did not kill him was indeed much more humiliating.
He mustered up whatever strength he had left and forcefully moved his palm and slammed it on his forehead!
The body of his clone then disintegrated. After all, he was more willing to die than be humiliated.
“Zhou Ming! Today, you humiliated me. I will remember this. You are my only target. I won’t hurt any innocents. I, Ximen Ye, am a person who keeps his words. As promised, Bei Xiaoman is yours! However, if you dare to lay a finger on my subordinates, I will certainly make you pay for it and make sure that you regret it. Mark my words!”
“Humph!”
Ning Fan let out a cold snort. Before this Ximen Ye ‘died’, he still wanted to displease Ning Fan by threatening him. It was indeed loathsome.
From the start, he did not harbor the thought of eradicating the cultivators of the Ximen Family. If this group of cultivators are killed in the Rain World, it would then be a serious matter.
Besides, this battle was just a personal grudge between Ximen Ye and Ning Fan. It had nothing to do with this group of Divine Transformation Realm cultivators at all.
“Get lost!”
Ning Fan bellowed coldly. The 48 Divine Transformation Realm cultivators of the Ximen Family almost jumped out of their skin and hurriedly left, returning to the Northern Heaven.