The environment here was still suitable for training as before.
He waited for some time and yet no one came, and finally, he found a spot to sit down and trained.
He has a Jade in Stone in his possession, but Ding Hao decided against synthesizing the item now. The process would not only take time but also his powers too. For that, he would need a safe and secured location and this place was definitely not it. Too many variables abound in this location and he would be in grave danger if any lurking enemy were to attack.
A powerful surge of energy pulsed from inside Ding Hao’s body.
Silver-white flakes of snow with rains of burning grains of ember swirled around him like a miniature cyclone, circling around in dazzling trails that strangely, the streaking ice and fire did not collide. They twirled around him like a pair of fairies, shrouding him in their cocoon of frost and flame.
Ding Hao had long solidified his grasp of the Martial King Realm – Two Aperture since surviving the blowback from the Devil Saber. Channeling Invincible Fighting Method now, he could feel every pore on his skin yawning open to absorb the rich and pure natural energies around him. The energies coagulated together into a gigantic mass overhead before trickling into him like a funnel as the eddying energies overhead spun like a vortex.
At this rate, Ding Hao would need a couple of hours or more to ascend into another Realm.
But he did not continue.
His eyes blinked open all of a sudden.
At the same time, not far away, the air rippled like the churning surface of a pool of water and a tall and hulking man stepped out of the portal.
“Hahahah! That was fun! So who’s my next opponent?!”
The lumbering figure guffawed loudly.
Clad in nickel-steel heavy armor, the huge man carried a pair of large and terrible battleaxes the size of a set of big doors. Morbid droplets of blood and flecks of white fragments that could only come from splintered bones stained the blade of the axes. His foot slammed on the ground with an earth-shaking boom and the man stood there, as proud and imposing as a monumental statue made of silver that all could tremble just by beholding the very sight of him.
“Wait… Isn’t that…”
Ding Hao was amazed. He did not expect to meet Liao Juzhan, a champion of the War God Hall.
Ding Hao has had the chance to meet Liao Juzhan before, back at the tavern in Huining, Orchid Province. The veritable giant of a man was one of the Four Silver-armored Gods of one of the Divine Central Continent’s most powerful orders, the War God Hall. He had once fought against Zhong Qing, the first student of the God-slaying Sect where it was made known to everyone that he not only has a set of fighting skills that belied his girth and ponderous outlook, but he was also a very powerful warrior.
“Huh? It is you? You’ve changed quite a lot!? Hahahaha! Nevertheless, this is good! Ding Hao, the Supreme of Saber and Sword. I have always thought it a pity that I failed to find the chance to duel you at the Bone-burying Forest. This is an answer to my prayers!” Liao Juzhan bellowed, recognizing Ding Hao’s aura almost immediately.
Ding Hao employed his magic and slowly turned back into his original appearance.
The series of fights he had earlier had seen his black iron armor broken and mangled, and he no longer saw the need to keep himself disguised.
“You’ve come this far; you really are as I expected.” “You’ve come this far; you really are as I expected.”
Liao Juzhan’s eyes – each as large as bells – stared at Ding Hao with blazing excitement. He wrapped his arms around and grasped the hilts of the battleaxes that matched almost his height and drew them forward. He clashed the blades of his giant weapons together and elicited a fiery spurt of sparks amidst the loud ringing of steel that reverberated far and wide.
Ding Hao reached his arm to his back and undid his armor. The misshapen armor fell to the ground in a clatter, breaking into two pieces, but not before he magically put on a set of green robes. Once again he looked every bit a dashing and suave scholar with long flowing black hair.
With another flash of light, Tian Que and Supreme Evil appeared in his hands.
The sizes of both weapons put together could easily dwarf Liao Juzhan’s set of battleaxes. That the gigantic weapons were wielded by a mild-mannered and meek-looking young man like Ding Hao looked surrealistically awkward and odd.
“So begins the Holy War. May triumph befall the victor and ruin to the defeated”
The ever-so noble and majestic voice echoed in the air overhead.
Flames of silver swept around the whole gaol of crystal, suppressing their powers to the same level.
Let the games begin!
Nothing else was needed. No sympathy or banter was needed. Only a battle.
Liao Juzhan began by letting loose a thunderous roar and he flailed an arm, sending his battleaxe spinning through the air at Ding Hao.
The huge battleaxe spun rapidly like a swirling vortex of silver, screaming through the air as it flew.
In its wake, winds churned and ripped anything in their path into shreds.
Violent belligerence blazed in Ding Hao’s eyes. He raised his sword and aimed an energy bolt at the incoming axe. The blow elicited more fiery particles like the trails of a comet and the battleaxe was sent flying back. But Ding Hao did not dawdle; he charged immediately and by the time the axe returned to Liao Juzhan, all the latter saw was Tian Que falling down on his head.
The giant, ironclad man grasped his flying battleaxe and gave a vicious upward swing.
BOOM!
The collision evoked another peal of deafening din and more geysers of dazzling sparkles.
The battleaxe locked against the huge blade of Tian Que.
Still hanging in midair, Ding Hao hacked with his left arm, bringing Supreme Evil down as quickly as he could.
Liao Juzhan grunted with rage and raised his other battleaxe to defend himself.
CLANK!
Another eruption of noise and force both equally ample enough to squash any other warrior swept forth in pulsing waves.
“MEOW! All that noise! It’s unbearable!” Evil Moon squealed, covering its ears with disgust at such brutal and crude manner of fighting.
The black puppy cleverly kept the flap of its ears down to keep away the noises. It too clearly disliked such a savage and straightforward way to fight.
In mere seconds, Ding Hao and Liao Juzhan had exchanged numerous heavy blows.
The earth shook and trembled at every throb from the shock caused by their blows.
The clamor of the fight rumbled out of the top of the white column as if a god was hammering on steel at his forge, the noise spreading far and wide in deafening pulses. The few celestial avians who were unfortunate to be near enough to be caught by the blasts of the destructive noises plummeted down from the clouds.
The noises, now sweeping everywhere in sonic waves, penetrated the barrier and dispelled virtually every plume of cloud within a thousand meters of the white granite column.
Ding Hao fell into a whirl of frenzy.
Never had anyone been able to resist him in a contest of brute strength for so long. Even the young hunter Zhang Fan, who embodied the sturdiness afforded to him by his mastery of the Supreme Kung Fu Devoted by Ten Emperors could hardly match him. Yet here he has finally found one in Liao Juzhan of the War God Hall. With blows traded by both sword and axe, this was a clash of power and strength, not a contest of wits.
Liao Juzhan’s physical endurance and capabilities really were extraordinary.
The War God Hall must be a warrior order that specialized in the path of training physical strength. Few often did.
This turned out to be a fight thrilling enough that Ding Hao literally felt his blood boiled.
Until…
Bang!
After what felt like countless blows, the huge Tian Que could take no more; with one last attack, it crumbled and burst into a magnificent supernova of infinite white shards.
Ding Hao had six oversized greatswords altogether. They were all forged from the very bones and melted weapons of the four great beasts he encountered at the Sage Battlefield. He had lost the Moon-cutting Saber during his fight against the Black Demon Patriarch after he had employed Beast Transform in tandem with the Baleful Devil White Ape. To think that Tian Que would finally come to its end too on this day.
All six oversized weapons of his might be on par with the class of Precious Weapons, but they nevertheless ranked among the highest of the Magical Weapon class due to their uncommon properties. He did not expect that any one of them would fail to weather the abuse he inflicted today.
In comparison, Liao Juzhan’s pair of battleaxes looked as if they had hardly suffered a dent. Whatever class the axes belonged to, they must be unique and a treasure to a force as formidable as the War God Hall.
“Hahahahaha! Your weapon failed you, Saber and Sword Addict!” Liao Juzhan guffawed proudly.
Ding Hao placidly tossed aside the broken hilt of Tian Que and groped into the air, and Vast Desert, another one of his oversized greatswords, materialized in his grasp.
FIGHT WE MUST!
AND I WILL ENDURE!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Sparks drizzled around everywhere as the savage battle went on.
The frenzied clash mutated into a whirl of violent ferment. Nothing else mattered to the fighting warriors. So engrossed in their duel, they stood head-to-head with everything else detached from them both. The weapons felt weightless in their grasps and they stood within several feet of each other, refusing to budge even an inch while engulfed in a flurry of their own afterimages of their rapid movements that not even eyes could keep up as they furiously swung their oversized weapons with rabid zeal at each other.
Bang!
Supreme Evil shattered all of a sudden, bursting into incalculable little splinters.
Knowing this would happen, Ding Hao was prepared; he conjured his next greatsword, Long River, and continued hacking wildly.
“Attaboy!”
An exhilarated Liao Juzhan bellowed.
The fight had turned out to be extremely thrilling, if not immensely amazing for him.
The Aegis of War, the War God Hall’s secret discipline of techniques was the Divine Central Continent’s premier skill that enhances its user’s physical endurance and strength. Liao Juzhan’s cultivation of this mystical and powerful technique has reached Level Eight and during his trips of pilgrimage, he came upon another incredible discipline from the former epochs, Colossus Might. It granted him physical sturdiness that placed him the greatest among the Four Silver-armored Gods and never had he encountered any opponent who could fight toe-to-toe against him in a contest of brute strength.
The battle went on.
Bang! Bang!
Even Long River and Vast Desert eventually yielded to the incredible stress of this battle as both greatswords crumbled and broke.
“AGAIN!”
Ding Hao did not even bat an eyelid at his weapons breaking down. He ignominiously tossed away the pair of broken hilts and drew his last two remaining greatswords, too eager to keep the fight going.
“I expect no less from you, Saber and Sword Addict! I like your temperament! I’d gladly make your acquaintance!” Impassioned by the adrenaline of this fight, the giant man roared in a peal of laughter, his puffy chest heaving heavily with every swing and thrust of his axes.
Barely moving an inch from where they stood, every thrust of the sword was reciprocated with a hew from an axe; a crude and brutal fight that involved zero techniques or magic.
Fortunately for both men, the strange column hewn from rocks of unknown nature was strong enough to withstand the forces resulting from their clashes. Any other venue of battle would have long been thrashed and ravaged as if a typhoon had passed by.
Eager to bring this fight to its finale, Ding Hao’s body blazed with a shroud of purplish flames and his spine groaned with a cry that sounded as real and sonorous as a dragon’s roar.
The gargantuan mirage of a silver-backed tiger loomed over Liao Juzhan from behind with its back arched as if ready to pounce as the ferocious beast bared its fangs menacing at Ding Hao.
