Chapter 273 – Sonic Attack
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Lin Ming and Qin Wuxin’s match caused the audience to seethe with burning excitement.
Qin Wuxin was a very popular and well-known figure within the Seven Profound Valleys. Out of the seven great direct disciples, two were women. One was Qin Wuxin of the Zither Faction, and the other was Huan Xiaodie of the Mirage Faction.
Compared to the small and exquisite, eternally child-like Huan Xiaodie, Qin Wuxin had grown up as a slender and magnificently proportioned women in all aspects; she was more popular by far. Many of the Seven Profound Valleys’ disciples had already unconsciously taken Qin Wuxin as their heart’s forbidden dream crush.
“Zither Faction disciple Qin Wuxin, please advise.”
Qin Wuxin stood still on the martial stage, her white gown floating gently around her, her appearance graceful and elegant. Because she had reached Large Success of her Zither Heart, she had a sort of speechless ethereal quality that couldn’t be touched upon. She calmly took down the zither on her back and gently waved her long sleeves. The zither suspended itself in front of her in midair, as if it had been placed on an invisible platform.
The audience’s cheers for Qin Wuxin were like an overwhelming tide that wouldn’t end. However, Qin Wuxin only silently played her zither, as she sat there seemingly unaffected by anything else.
“Sky Fortune Kingdom’s Lin Ming, please advise.”
The first course of action that Lin Ming took was to stimulate the azure true essence to protect his body. Lin Ming didn’t know much about the Zither Faction’s types of attacks, so it was best to be overly cautious.
As the referee elder announced the start of the match, Qin Wuxin’s ten fingers plucked on the zither strings, and a magnificent melody flowed from them like a sweet spring mountain stream. This melody seemed simple, but Lin Ming felt a trace of true essence dissolved into the notes, as if it could shock the entire martial stage.
Although Lin Ming had great confidence in himself, he wouldn’t let Qin Wuxin play her weird little zither tunes. He clearly remembered that when Qin Wuxin had fought Jing Chanyu, she had only needed to pluck a few strings in order to shatter Jing Chanyu’s earth-attribute protective barrier as if it was some frozen brittle glass, immediately causing it to burst. Not only that, but Qin Wuxin hadn’t even allowed a smidgen of true essence to escape, to the point that Jing Chanyu hadn’t even realized that Qin Wuxin had attacked.
The young lady of the Zither Faction was no weakling. It was also because her nature was to remain low-key, so no one had realized the depth of her skills until now.
The Heavy Profound Soft Spear came out, and Lin Ming thrust forth straight towards Qin Wuxin’s chest.
Azure true essence howled in the air, and the strength of the True Dragon endlessly gushed forth, mixing with Flow like Silk’s power of vibration. With these two forces superimposing upon each other, this spear of Lin Ming’s was seemingly impossible to resist. Even if it were Jiang Lanjian he would have to move.
Qin Wuxin turned her fingers, and her pinky plucked a string. Suddenly, an invisible sound wave shot forth like an arrow, smashing into Lin Ming’s spearpoint!
Zhi—
Lin Ming only felt an extremely high-frequency true essence shock his Heavy Profound Soft Spear, fiercely clashing with the azure true essence.
Both true essences contained an extremely powerful vibration. After they impacted, a shrill grating sound rang through the air, just like a sharp knife running across glass!
The martial stage’s protective light curtain was unable to isolate sound. Many of the lower cultivation disciples on the edges could only cover their eyes and run backwards, their faces pale.
‘Mm? A note blocked my spear?’
Lin Ming was slightly surprised. At that time, although the azure true essence that was contained within his Heavy Profound Soft Spear wasn’t scattered, the force of vibration was cancelled out. Even if this spear continued forth, it would no longer have the same striking power unless Lin Ming stabbed out again.
Qin Wuxin had only let loose a single sonic wave through her note, and she was actually able to keep off his attack. This method of approach was much calmer than Jiang Lanjian!
However, Lin Ming knew that the reason Qin Wuxin could do this was not because she was stronger than Jiang Lanjian, but because her soundwaves contained an intense vibration.
This was the same result as Flow like Silk from a different method!
In truth, a soundwave was simply a vibration in the air. If one were to pour true essence into this soundwave, the true essence would naturally vibrate along with the soundwave, and the frequency of vibration could be changed depending on the intensity of the sonic wave.
‘It’s not that my azure true essence lost, but my Flow like Silk lost to Qin Wuxin’s power of vibration!’
Qin Wuxin’s musical note wasn’t able to scatter the endless azure true essence, but it was able to directly counter the azure true essence’s vibration. This caused Lin Ming to be extremely startled. There were many missing sections of Flow like Silk from the memory fragment of that Supreme Elder. Lin Ming was only able to deduce and comprehend the training method for Flow like Silk after meditating over the ‘Body Tearing Bone Shattering Fist’ for a long time. It had already been half a year since then, and his progress to reaching the next boundary was extremely slow.
And today, his Flow like Silk actually lost to Qin Wuxin’s music which contained the force of vibration.
The audience saw Qin Wuxin force back Lin Ming with a single note, and all of them suddenly went into a rabid frenzy. All of Qin Wuxin’s many supporters began to cheer at the top of their lungs, shouting out supportive messages to Qin Wuxin, wanting her to end Lin Ming’s winning streak.
Qin Wuxin ignored all of the audience’s deafening cheers as if she didn’t hear them. During this short fight, even she had been shocked. The vibrations of her zither music had always been able to go everywhere, they could penetrate any defense and destroy all. When Qin Wuxin had gone out adventuring to temper her Zither Heart, she had met many high level vicious beasts that were entirely covered in armor, and yet she had only needed a single note to easily slay them.
But now, her zither music had penetrated into Lin Ming’s long spear, yet hadn’t been able to scatter his true essence; she had only barely managed to counter his attack. No wonder Jiang Lanjian had lost under his hand.
Qin Wuxin spread back her flowing silk sleeves, and a gentle sound emitted from the zither strings, directly hitting Lin Ming.
This sonic wave attack was invisible with no form. By the time one heard the sound, they were already under attack!
This was the first time that Lin Ming had faced this sort of invisible attack, and he was caught off guard. The azure true essence in his body was violently agitated, and Lin Ming gave a smothered cough, retreating a few steps as the blood in his body surged.
“Good weird attack!”
If Lin Ming had ordinary true essence protecting him instead of the azure true essence, he might have already been crushed by that single note!
But even with the azure true essence, it could still only withstand two or three more of these attacks in such a short time. If it took any more, his true essence protection would break. When that time came, Lin Ming would have to face Qin Wuxin’s sonic wave attacks with his bare body.
Although Lin Ming’s body was physically tough, it still wasn’t as tough as a high level vicious beast. And even a high level vicious beast that came under assault from this sound wave attack would crumble apart. The outcome could be imagined once Lin Ming lost the protection of his true essence.
Qin Wuxin’s delicate eyebrows furrowed together. Her sound attack had actually been calmly met and taken by Lin Ming. The formidability of his defensive power had surpassed her imagination.
Her ten fingers flashed atop the zither and a series of notes howled forth; this was a full on invisible mass attack!
In the audience, Ouyang Ming’s eyes jumped as he saw this. The Zither Faction’s attack methods were too strange. Even if he was the one that was to face Qin Wuxin on the martial stage, this match would give him an incomparable headache. This sort of attack was invisible and formless, and was just too difficult to defend against. Not only that, but every soundwave contained a powerful attack power. Once hit, even one’s internal organs would be damaged.
How would Lin Ming respond to this?
It wasn’t just Ouyang Ming who wanted to know, but also the many elders of the Seven Profound Valleys were looking at Lin Ming with anticipation from the Grand Hall. They wanted to see just how he would deal with this. It was very obvious that this was Lin Ming’s first time facing off against someone from the Zither Faction. Otherwise, when he faced Qin Wuxin’s attacks a moment ago, he wouldn’t have just stood there without any reaction.
In the Grand Hall, an old woman was smiling, her grin spreading cheek to cheek. She was the Zither Faction’s Sovereign, and was also Qin Wuxin’s master. These past years, Jiang Baoyun had stood in the spotlight, completely overshadowing the accomplishments of all the other direct disciples. It wasn’t wrong to call Jiang Baoyun the Sword Faction’s greatest talent that they had seen in the last 100 years, after all, Jiang Baoyun’s talent spoke for itself. But as for Qin Wuxin, she was also a rare genius of the Zither Faction. It was only because she had been spending all her years wandering the deep valleys and adventuring to temper her Zither Heart that she had been relatively unknown. For an 18 year old to reach Large Success of her Zither Heart was rare throughout the entirety of the Zither Faction’s history!
Ding ding ding!
The clear stream-like sound was like beads falling on a jade plate. Lin Ming had already experienced that sonic attack once before, he wasn’t going to sit there like an idiot and suffer it again.
His powerful soul force penetrated into the air; the Concept of Wind began!
A soundwave attack was in the end a sound, and all of these zither melodies needed to be transmitted through air vibrations. Lin Ming was able to integrate his awareness into the wind, and by sensing the wind, he could subtly control all hidden dangers in the air.
In the moment that the sonic wave attacked, Lin Ming struck back, Flowers in the Storm!
Once the Concept of Wind was fused into the Heavy Profound Soft Spear, it was several times faster than before! Each and every note was accurately pierced to pieces by Lin Ming.
“Mm?”
The eyes of the elders that had been carefully observing the martial stage suddenly revealed an incredible look, as if they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. A soundwave attack was invisible and formless. When most martial artists faced this sonic wave, they would do everything they could to draw as close to their opponent as possible and make it a close-range fight. If they could rush to their opponent’s side, then they had basically won. After all, there were very few sound-based martial artists that were skilled in close-range combat.
If one only defended against the long-range attacks of a sound-based martial artist, then they were basically waiting to lose. This was because it was exceedingly difficult to detect the patterns of attack!
But now they saw Lin Ming on the martial stage, accurately crushing each note with a spear thrust without missing a single one. This left everyone staring, befuddled.
In particular, the female students of the Zither Faction had preposterous expressions, as if they had gone crazy. All of them were clear on just how strong Qin Wuxin was. Of course, Lin Ming wasn’t weak. If Lin Ming was able to close in on Qin Wuxin and defeat her, they wouldn’t have been surprised, But Lin Ming wasn’t even thinking of closing in on her, instead constantly defending against Qin Wuxin’s attacks.
They had been in the Zither Faction for so many years, and yet they had never seen a Zither Faction disciple’s fight be like this.
What the hell was this Lin Ming? Was he a bat?
“Isn’t a sound wave invisible and formless? How is Lin Ming deflecting Qin Wuxin’s attacks?” An elder asked with a inconceivable tone.
“Concept of Wind!” Shi Zongtian said. “Those sound waves must pass through the wind. Lin Ming is able to capture every note through the Concept of Wind, and then quickly react. But to do this requires an extremely formidable soul force foundation. Currently out of all the disciples present, only Lin Ming can achieve this.”
Shi Zongtian was right, even Jiang Lanjian didn’t have this ability. Although he was also proficient in the Concept of Wind, his soul force was too lacking. He didn’t have the massive soul force and control needed to permeate it through the wind and perceive the feeling of the situation.
“Hm, but I’m confused, I wonder what this Lin Ming is thinking. Since he can block the sonic wave attacks, why doesn’t he rush over to Qin Wuxin?” An elder shook his head. He thought that since this was Lin Ming’s first time facing off against a martial artist from the Zither Faction, his experience was lacking and he probably hadn’t even thought of this point.
Shi Zongtian remained silent. He knew that Lin Ming was young, but it was wrong for anyone to think that he lacked combat experience. Lin Ming was able to instantly come up with a plan to resist the zither music attacks by combining the Concept of Wind with his soul force; this clearly illustrated his inventiveness and adaptability.
If Lin Ming decided not to rush into close-range, he inevitably had other plans. But just what were these plans?
