Not just Xu Yuan, everyone there seemed to have made up their mind about Ye Chen. Even warriors who had come from the same place as Ye Chen, such as Li Daoxuan, Yan Chihuo, and Bing Ling, thought that the chance for him to win were too small. It was not because Ye Chen was weak, but Du Gujue was just way too powerful. He and his blade could beat Xiao Chuhe, one of the top five young warriors, leaving the other with no chance of fighting back. This kind of power had already exceeded beyond the top five young warriors. Even Bai Wuxue might not be able to win against him, not to mention Ye Chen.
Bai Wuxue stared at Du Gujue with a serious look on his face and then shook his head, but did not say anything.
Ting!
Lu Shaoyou's sword was vibrating, and a crispy sword tinging sound was heard. The second Du Gujue had beaten Xiao Chuhe, that sword tinging sound reached its peak as if it was about to jump out of its scabbard.
"Ah…We have all underestimated Du Guje. Who knew he could grow to this level after just one year? Right now, not to mention Ye Chen, I don't think anyone under the age of forty can beat him." Hai Wuya glanced at Ye Chen and sighed.
Yan Fengfeng said, "The battle has not even started yet. There might be an opportunity."
"Let's hope so!" Hai Wuya looked over at Ye Chen again.
Being stared by everyone, Ye Chen stood up. A mad breeze blew over, bringing up his blue robes and long black hair.
"Du Gujue, you have the power to challenge me now."
The first sentence uttered after he stood up had caused a great deal of shock in the audience.
"Have I heard it right?" Someone thought he was hearing things now.
"I have the power to challenge you?" Du Gujue squinted his eyes. He was not like the others; if it were someone else, then that person might not care about whatever Ye Chen might say. But, Du Gujue actually thought about this and started to get threatened by the latter. He could sense that a great sword was about to come out of its scabbard.
"This Ye Chen…?"
Lu Shaoyou frowned. Xiao Chuhe had lost to Du Gujue, so there was not much for him to do today anymore. He thought that he did not have one hundred percent confidence in winning against Du Gujue. But, he and Ye Chen were both sword artists, and what Ye Chen just said sounded just too arrogant.
"Ye Chen, today is the arranged date for you and Du Gujue to battle. But, I would like to see exactly how powerful your sword arts have become."
Ye Chen nodded, "Alright…Three attacks for the result…How about that?"
"Yeah, three exchanges it is."
Lu Shaoyou jumped into the air, looking like a white flying dragon as he shot out toward Ye Chen at an extreme speed. Before he even arrived, that sharp sword qi had already reached the other.
"Lu Shaoyou is fighting with Ye Chen as well!" A lot of people were shocked once again.
"Sky Slay Sword Art!"
Lu Shaoyou was known for his speed, power, and accuracy. And his deadliest attack of all would be his Sky Slay Sword Art. Once he performed his sword art, the space seemed to have shortened just like Xia Houzun and Ye Chen's Void Shattering Finger Attack, which would ignore distance and space. However, this martial art of Lu Shaoyou did not look like it used the space profound. Instead, it was actually the profound of wind which was everywhere in the air. The second he waved out his sword, the whole area was covered by a torrential wind, which then turned into sword qi and attacked Ye Chen.
"No wonder Xiao Chuhe had lost to him before."
Ye Chen looked serious, as he would not dare to underestimate his opponent. Since they were only going to exchange three attacks, the result would still be against him even if he only lost a little bit.
Taking out his long sword, Ye Chen took a step forward and something strange happened; Ye Chen looked like his soul had come out of his body. A sword was waved into the air before he changed his step art drastically. With that, another Ye Chen walked out of his body, doing the same.
Three!
Five!
Seven!
All of a sudden, Ye Chen took seven steps and formed seven Ye Chens. Although they were all waving in an orderly manner, it gave people the feeling that all of them were doing it at the exact time.
Pooh! Pooh! Pooh!
The sword qi filled out the whole space, twisting it drastically.
"So fast!"
Everyone watching the fight was shocked by Ye Chen's sword art, all of them having their mouths and eyes wide open.
"One Sword Skill!"
Lu Shaoyou's expression changed as he poured all of his Zhen yuan into his longsword. Sword artists' Zhen yuan was known for its purity; plus, Lu Shaoyou had already trained to the peak level of Late Sea of Souls Realm. So, when that huge amount of Zhen yuan poured into his sword, it started to twist, looking like a twisted light beam. With his hand grabbing the end tightly, he stabbed at Ye Chen.
Pop!
Once this sword attacked out, it looked like it had just broken some kind of barrier. The mountain where Ye Chen was standing started to twist. Glancing over, it looked like there was a mirror there, and was going to break any second. Being "inside" the mirror, Ye Chen would not be able to walk out unharmed.
"He is not that far away from shattering space."
Xu Yuan knew clearly how powerful this attack was. Normally, only Life and Death Realm warrior could break space. But of course, Life and Death Realm warriors were too powerful; even if it were just a normal fist attack, it would be enough to shatter the space. Warriors below Life and Death Realm, such as the Semi King warriors, would have similar power as well. But, if one wanted to enter the surreal space, it would still be a long way to go.
As for warriors below the semi king warrior, no one had been heard of one being able to shatter space. It would not be hard to imagine how exactly powerful this sword attack of Lu Shaoyou was.
"Thunder Devour!"
With silver lightning accumulating at the tip of his sword, Ye Chen stood straight while throwing out a slightly tilted sword attack. With that, a perfectly shaped thunder ball appeared out of nowhere.
Boom!
The space shattered, and the sky turned into bright blue. Under the bright reflection, Ye Chen and Lu Shaoyou looked like two twisting shadows that would be torn apart at any second.
"Alright…I did not think that your power had already reached to this level. I admit that I have underestimated you. Everyone has, I assume."
Lu Shaoyou had been shaken intensively, as his qi and blood started to boil inside his body; a mouthful of blood was almost puked out by him. This sword attack of his had only just touched the edge of shattering space, and had actually still a long way to go. Since the space was not actually mirror-like, it was not that fragile. Even though it looked like it was about to shatter, it could actually handle a couple times more power than that. This step would be harder than stepping into the sky.
"This powerful!"
A complicated look appeared on Xiao Chuhe's pale face. Earlier on, he was still dwelling in the battles with his fellow top five young warriors while Ye Chen and Du Gujue had managed to catch up. It was really shocking for him to learn this, and it basically denied his basic sense.
"The third attack, it is my turn!"
Ye Chen ignored the shockwave and his body shook slightly, as countless vague shadows appeared again. When he reappeared, he was already right next to Lu Shaoyou.
"Spiritual Sword attack! Three in a row!"
The sword attack was so fast that all people could see was the sword light bouncing about.
Ting!
Ting!
Pooh!
Shoo!
Lu Shaoyou's sword was also famous for its speed. He was able to block out the first two sword attacks, but on the third one; he could no longer handle it. It was not that he was not fast enough, but that he could not find the right timing. As long as his sword speed did not exceed Ye Chen's, all that was waiting for him would be his loss.
His right arm went numb and he flew backward.
Standing in midair, that burning blue light on his right arm was still there as Ye Chen said lightly, "Three attacks done."
Lu Shaoyou looked at the sword mark on his right arm and was shocked.
"Ah!"
Xu Yuan had never expected this would happen as he looked at Xia Baiting in shock. Both of them had no idea what to say anymore.
Xie Baiting opened his mouth a couple of times but he still did not know what to say. Eventually, he said after a long while, "Ah…we are getting too old. We could not even see the power of a young man anymore."
Xu Yuan said bitterly as well, "It is not us getting old. It is these young men just being too freaking powerful. They don't show it on the outside anymore."
It was not just these people that were shocked. Naturally, everyone who thought that Ye Chen would never win was surprised at the outcome. The two young warriors had displayed such power that no one had ever seen before in warriors of this age. Du Gujue was still rather okay, since he had been confirmed by many already, Ye Chen was the one whom no one thought highly of for the longest time. Everyone always thought that after Du Gujue had beaten Xiao Chuhe, there would be nothing more to see. In their perspective, Ye Chen could never be as powerful as the top five young warriors.
But now, the reality was telling them otherwise.
Du Gujue was insanely talented, and so was Ye Chen.
Within a year, Du Gujue had managed to increase his power by a couple times, and so did Ye Chen. There was really nothing he could not do.
"No wonder he said that Du Gujue had the power to challenge him!" Someone just realized what Ye Chen meant.
"Right now, it is still too early to tell. We will have to see what happens with the battle between Du Gujue and him. But, there is definitely something to look forward to now. Luckily I did not leave earlier on."
"THIS is the epic battle of the year!"
After Ye Chen winning against Lu Shaoyou in three attacks, no one dared to underestimate the former and waited calmly for the next battle.
Naturally, it would need no words to explain what Li Daoxuan and the other two were going through. Their mouths were still wide open, feeling like they were in a dream. The light around Ye Chen was getting brighter and brighter; they felt like they could not recognize him anymore.
Whoever they knew before was not the man standing in front of them. The man standing in front of them was the real Ye Chen.
"I have been waiting for the right one all along. You are indeed my real opponent." Du Gujue looked excited. He did not care about the top five young warriors or the top blade artists. He knew that there was only one warrior that he needed to win against —Ye Chen.
"Let's do this!"
After that quick warm up, Ye Chen could feel his blood boiling. That destructive sword intent exploded inside him and the sky went dark immediately. It was like a pitch black night seeming to reach the end of the world.
Du Gujue's blade intent gave people despair while Ye Chen's sword intent was oppressing the other completely, leaving him no chance of fighting back. Wherever Ye Chen was, a realm for the swords seemed to manifest, with all of the sword intent pointing directly toward hell.
"Although my despairing intent cannot do anything to you, but it can give me power."
Du Gujue knew that he could not win against Ye Chen with his martial intent alone. Only by allowing himself to drown in the despair and absorb all the power would he have a winning chance.
He flashed his body once and held his blade with both of his hands as he pushed his blade intent to the maximum and threw it at Ye Chen with an extreme power.
Xiao Chuhe realized it now that this blade attack Du Gujue had just performed was even more powerful than the one he had received. It was obvious that the other did not use all of his power while fighting him.