There was hardly any finesse in this stroke!
It was like an ordinary person, untrained and uninitiated in combat skills, who was carelessly flailing the blade!
To the naked eye, that move could even be a random, reflex movement when one was stretching to shake off all weariness.
Everyone below the dueling ring was so astonished that they could hardly breathe. But only a few, such as Li Lan, Li Muyun, Liang Feixue, Lyu Kuang, Chen Sheng as well as a few of the best disciples among those who were listed, felt a sudden tingling sensation.
All of the young prodigies all felt the same inexplicable excitement when they witnessed the careless stroke.
Farther away from the arena.
High above the stands sat the greatest disciples of the three generations, Guan Feidu, and a few others. At the very same moment, they too were so shocked that some even rose to their feet with disbelief, staring blankly at the amazing boy clothed in green who was standing in the ring!
Up upon the arena.
Sun Jiutian was paralyzed, his eyes trembling in their sockets.
In that fleeting moment, from the feint of the stroke from the Swimming Dragon Sword Style, Ding Hao’s rusted sword had so strangely glinted, sending a hint of cold fury.
Boom!
There was a strong, but yet not too loud noise of two objects colliding reverberating from the center of the ring.
A most peculiar scene had unfolded before everyone on hand to watch the fight.
One might have thought if the two combatants had instead struck and shattered an iceberg into bits and pieces. White tendrils of cold mists began coiling lazily around the center of the ring, and no one could clearly see what happened in the arena, as if everything had been veiled by a cloak of freezing fog from the ice-filled wastelands of tundra. The stinging winds of chill blew around the point where both swords had met and gnashed together before blowing towards all direction like a huge icy wave!
A cold chill!
A chill so intense and deathly!
This was the very same thought that almost everyone below the ring shared at that very moment.
The warm and humid weather of the summer was suddenly overrun by a torrential deluge of spine-chilling frost.
Some of the audience began to notice their breaths coming out of their mouths in white puffs. Even the hair in their nose began to freeze and harden.
Like ravenous vines of white, a layer of frost began to curl outwards from the center point between where Ding Hao and Sun Jiutian was standing like a wave, coating the entire dueling ring in white.
Bright shafts of sunlight shimmered upon the translucent surface of the ice that glazed the floors of the arena, giving off a mystifying luster that resembled a large and beautiful mirror.
Flakes of ice glided in the air, buffeted by the lethargic breeze that swirled around Ding Hao, shrouding him like a charming garland of glittering gems.
The thing standing before Ding Hao was an ice sculpture, unmoving and still.
Sun Jiutian was frozen to the spot, awe-struck by the sudden and unbelievable change around him, with himself completely encased in an ice cell.
The sweltering heat of his Qi, which he had always been proud of, had been rendered utterly useless in the face of Ding Hao’s frosty Qi. His entire self was covered in a layer of thick ice.
There he stood, frozen in stasis, still holding his sword like a proud statue of a swordsman.
Through the ice, it was evident that Dong Yi, the fourth strongest pugilist of the Honorable Alliance of Seven of the Central Academy of White Shirts, was terribly afraid and frightened before he was trapped in the ice.
Nobody, at the very moment, would doubt that Sun Jiutian had lost entirely.
With one single stroke, Ding Hao had completely defeated Sun Jiutian by imprisoning him in ice?
What a breathtaking display of his might!
Simply unbelievable!
The entire arena plunged into silence, save for the sounds of the audience breathing the fresh, cool air.
The deathly stillness and quietness lingered for seconds, before a sudden uproar of exclamations of shock and awe like the eruption of a volcano, followed closely by the detonation of the din of applause. In a split-second, the entire arena had gone from an eerie reticent into a riot of pandemonium and chaos.
Screams and howls cheering for Ding Hao came chiefly from the female disciples of every Academy, including even those from the Central Academy who had instead scorned any remaining regard for Sun Jiutian, despite being of the same academy.
Needless to say, Zhang Fan and Wang Xiaoqi, as well as the rest of the Eastern Academy, were all leaping with euphoric joy.
“The enigmatic stroke he had unleashed and its rapturous and mystical effects, notwithstanding the cool and calm composure of the lean swordsman who had sealed his opponent in ice… Look at this everyone! This is Ding Hao, our Senior Brother from the Eastern Academy of Green Shirts!”
Never would anyone dare belittle the Eastern Academy by branding it as the weakest of all Academies!
Li Lan began to wear an ugly look of disgust on his face.
Ding Hao had let loose a power well beyond his expectations.
He full well knew that he would never be able to perform such a carelessly smooth and graceful stroke, more so to release such extraordinary powers.
The intensity and strength of the prickly winds of ice generated by Ding Hao’s icy Qi had sent a shudder down his spine. At that very moment, he realized that the incompetent fool that he once belittled and despised with contempt and hate had finally grown to possess powers equal to his!
With his easy defeat of Sun Jiutian of the Honorable Alliance of Seven in such a delicate and quaint manner, Ding Hao’s fame and prestige had soared to heights heretofore unknown!
This was a sudden development which had undoubtedly caused a dent in Li Lan’s visions for his future.
Scowling with anger and jealousy, Li Lan turned on his heels with a whisk of his sleeves and shuffled away with his lackeys, Zhang Tianlun and Ge Yin in tow, fading into the midst of the crowds from the Eastern Academy who were still in a reverie celebrating Ding Hao’s triumph.
But he was hardly the only one who was now wary and concerned about Ding Hao’s rise. Not far away from him, Li Muyun, Liang Feixue, Lin Xin, along with some other young prodigies, all wore the same worried and tense expressions.
In this fight, Ding Hao had proven that he was hardly a dark horse in their race to prominence. Instead, he was a potent competitor who could threaten and foil their hopes!
Never would anyone dare underestimate him because of his origins from the Eastern Academy!
Finally recovering from his shock, the judge announced Ding Hao’s victory loudly, shouting. “The Eastern Academy of Green Shirts, Ding Hao wins!”
With this final declaration came another furor of cheers and screams.
Suddenly, blurry silhouettes of figures leaped onto the stage. It was the remaining six of the Honorable Alliance of Seven. They stood around the ice-imprisoned Sun Jiutian.
Liang Feixue gently touched the ice with a lean finger.
Crack!
Slowly, cracks began to form in the ice, tiny fissures like spider’s webs fanned out, and pieces of ice began to fall from Sun Jiutian.
Surprised, Ding Hao eyes narrowed.
This was the infamous Liang Feixue, the pugilist whose powers and strength he still could not yet fully comprehend.
What might have seemed to be a simple graze on the ice with his finger was, in fact, a demonstration of his impeccable control of his Qi. With just a light touch, he had able to undo the magic that held Sun Jiutian in ice without endangering him.
“Wah…” Sun Jiutian grimaced weakly in pain, spatting a mouth of blood that had turned black.
Li Muyun frowned with displeasure and extended a hand that patted twice on Sun Jiutian’s shoulder.
One could distinctly notice a hint of purplish aura flowing from the hand into Sun Jiutian’s body.
Immediately, Sun Jiutian’s pale and frail self began to look lively and spirited once more. His heavy pants gradually subside and he no longer needed help to stand on his own. Even his Qi began to flow smoothly.
“Don’t you think that what you did was a tad too harsh, boy?”
Feng Xingjun, the fifth of the Honorable Alliance of Seven was widely known to be a firebrand who was hot-headed and impatient. Seeing Sun Jiutian so heavily injured filled him with rage as he turned to glare angrily and snarled bitterly at Ding Hao.
The rest of the seven stared at Ding Hao with seething wrath and malice.
Ding Hao felt a sudden chill, but he said nothing.
The tense atmosphere was filled with hostility before Li Muyun waved his hands to gesture to his fellow comrades for composure.
He stepped towards Ding Hao and held him in a brief stare before he spoke calmly, “We will not begrudge you for our fourth brother’s defeat at your hands. That was a contest of combat skills after all. But I sincerely hope that I will have the opportunity to test my skills against you in the ring in the following rounds!”
With that, the brotherhood of seven turned and disappeared into the crowd.
