The phenomenon left everyone flabbergasted.
That anyone could hone his physical body to such lengths was truly extraordinary, if not unbelievable.
The opposing warriors too were amazed. Through all their years of fighting, they had suffered no rivals, like the anvil and its hammer—both equally formidable and tenacious to not back down and admit defeat.
On one hand, Ding Hao was feeling his arms going numb. Each and every jolt of shock from the blows he suffered shot up his arms, causing more and more concussions to his body like electricity shocks. His body was inching towards paralysis bit by bit and the shocks pulsed up his arms with wave-like impressions all over his finger, the back of his hand, his wrist, and up to his forearm before spreading all over him.
This really was the most primal showdown he had encountered ever.
He could feel virtually every cell, every marrow, and every bone in his body trembling to the high-frequency vibrations now gnawing at him. Any other common champion would have already been reduced into nothing but a sickening pulp of meat and viscera by such forces, but even with Ding Hao’s extraordinary physical endurance, sanguine beads of blood were already oozing out of the pores of his skin.
On the other hand.
Liao Juzhan himself was bleeding all over himself as well. The vibrations he was tolerating too were causing blood to percolate out from his pores and dribbled out of the chinks of his armor.
But that did little to make them stop.
Bang!
Another deafening strike.
The greatsword in Ding Hao’s right hand snapped and shattered like glass.
No time to grief over the loss, Ding Hao clenched the hilt of his last remaining greatsword with both hands, flailing it wildly at his opponent. Spasms of indescribable pain shot through his torso and limbs as if his spleen was going to burst.
An indescribable jolt of pain shot through him and Ding Hao felt his insides teetering on the edge of bursting.
This was the first time Ding Hao had ever met an opponent who could match him as an equal in a contest of primal strength since he has learned how to defend himself properly.
Am I going to lose?
Ding Hao’s teeth gnashed with rage at the prospect of defeat. Even so, he could tell that he was rapidly reaching the point of collapse. His limit was near and his strength was waning.
Bang!
With one final metallic groan, Ding Hao’s last greatsword too exploded into thousands of little white shards too, no longer able to endure the stress of the battle.
Ding Hao immediately spat a small gulp of blood, and Rusted Sword and Devil Saber both appeared simultaneously.
But he did not activate the powers of both the cursed weapons; instead, he used them only with his raw strength against Liao Juzhan’s pair of battleaxes.
This was a contest of raw strength and he would see it to the end without the use of Rusted Sword’s and Devil Saber’s magical capabilities. Liao Juzhan was an admirable and worthy opponent and Ding Hao did not want to win by merit of deceit.
“Hahahaha! Your weapons are going to break at any moment! I say we call it a day and end with a draw,” Liao Juzhan boomed with a burst of guffaws. After destroying five of Ding Hao’s greatsword, Liao Juzhan was disappointed to see Ding Hao remained only with a badly-rusted sword and a broken and battered saber. This was definitely not his idea of an end that befitted the thrilling contest they were having.
“We fight on!”
Ding Hao’s answer came crisp and direct.
At the same time, he lunged with lightning-quick speed, brandishing his weapons at the giant man.
“I’d advise you to not… Wait a minute!? Wow… I did not see this coming…” Liao Juzhan was about to persuade Ding Hao to stop. He did not want a victory over Dig Hao just because the latter has more inferior gear, but to his surprise after a couple of exchanges, not only did the rusted sword and the broken saber manage to survive, tiny hairline cracks were spreading all over his own battleaxes. That could mean one thing, the ironclad giant realized. Ding Hao’s weapons might look poor and battered, but they were no ordinary weapons.
Ding Hao gritted his teeth, struggling to keep up.
He could feel his arms drifting out of control…
His arms were growing bloodier by the minute. Both his hands were drenched in his own blood, and he could even make out his digits in the muck-drenched stubs that were his wrists. To make things worse, he could almost see the white of his bones.
Another while later, the men were starting to pant heavily.
Their movements were turning sluggish and their blows turned slower.
Clang!
Boom!
Their weapons clashed only after more than ten seconds of silence.
Determined to hold on, both men stubbornly refused to back down, even as blood was seeping out of their mouths, their eyes, their noses, and their ears.
Ding Hao drove his sword into the ground to keep himself steady. With his back arched and struggling with even his own weight, he panted hard while Liao Juzhan too was clinging on to his battleaxes for stability.
With what short time of respite they have, the two combatants quickly recovered themselves, all their while fixing each other in a wary glare as they both waited to catch their breaths and attack at once.
If one of them has yet to regain his breath when the other attacked, then he would lose.
Both men were at the end of their wits and physical limits.
With both men now so severely weakened, even a Great Martial Mentor Realm warrior could easily make short work of them.
“Meow… Looks like they can’t move anymore… Meow…” Evil Moon sniggered wickedly, circling around both men as it surveyed them both. Then it stood upright like a human would and rubbed its paws together. With a peal of laughter, it squealed, “Beg for mercy, you humans! Or I’ll eat you both for dinner!”
Ding Hao stared darkly at it.
“Of all times, this lousy cat has to choose now to misbehave! Is this what it had learned during its time with Tianshu?!”
Ding Hao knew what Evil Moon was doing. The cat was trying to buy him time by distracting Liao Juzhan. But it was not what he wanted; at least, he wanted an honest fight with an opponent he deemed worthy of respect.’
“Ar rooff! Woof!” the little black puppy seemed to have guessed Ding Hao’s intents and it dove out and locked its jaws on Evil Moon’s tail, dragging it away.
“MEOW! How could you bite me!? How dare you!?” Evil Moon struggled to break free but it could not. The little black puppy pulled Evil Moon to the edges of the white granite platform.
“Hoo… Hoo…” Ding Hao exhaled and inhaled heavily.
The rivulets of blood mixing with sweat obscured much of Ding Hao’s line of sight. Even the slightest movement could elicit the most excruciating of pain. The Rusted Sword and Demon Saber, both of which would have weighed no more than a feather normally, felt like a tonne in his grasp.
A huge wind came sweeping into his face.
Liao Juzhan was coming!
With an arduous grunt, Ding Hao lifted his sword and saber.
Clang!
An incredible force slammed into Ding Hao, throwing him backward that he nearly crashed down. He wobbled unsteadily and coughed up a mouthful of blood.
No more… I can take no more… Ding Hao thought. For the first time in his life, DIng Hao had never really put his limits to the test. The last slivers of his strength were gone with the exchange just now and his head was spinning. Everything around him turned dark and his knees buckled. He was falling backward.
“Am I losing?
“No. That can’t be.”
His determination could do little wonders in such dire straits. Ding Hao had done all he could.
He did not know what Liao Juzhan was experiencing at the same time.
But he only knew that he was falling. He could not even stand, and his mind was going dark.
Only, he did not realize that something huge was going to happen.
A strange sensation of warmth coming from whence known surged through every vein in him, rushing into every part and every limb of his body. What should have been a complete numbness and loss of control of his own body had disappeared. Everywhere that this inexplicable flow of heat passed through, it restored strength and vigor back into him.
Immediately, Ding Hao reacted. He stopped himself short from falling and stood back up. He could feel the warmth coursing him as if he had just fallen into the steaming waters of a hot spring. The feeling of comfort that he never before felt soothe not only his body, but also his soul that he could practically moan with ecstasy.
Immediately, Ding Hao reacted. He stopped himself short from falling and stood back up. He could feel the warmth coursing him as if he had just fallen into the steaming waters of a hot spring. The feeling of comfort that he never before felt soothe not only his body, but also his soul that he could practically moan with ecstasy.
Then before he knew it, the strength that was being regenerated back into him by the warm sensation gave birth to an immeasurable amount of power.
“Such power… I knew it from somewhere…” Ding Hao thought as he recovered from his initial disbelief and surprise.
He remembered how he first came to this world, how he had gone to the garbage cliff of the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect to look for herbs, then how he had stumbled upon his first fortune when he fell into the secret cave, and how he would have this same sensation of warmth whenever he fell back into the secret cave and injured himself. Every time he felt the warmth surging through him, he would feel stronger and more powerful.
That was after he had bathed himself in the unknown milky-white liquid in that secret cave. Immersing himself in that mysterious pool of liquid must have allowed him to absorb its powers.
But it has been so long. Ding Hao’s powers had grown much since that day and all this while, Ding Hao had believed that the powers that he absorbed from the strange cream-like liquid must have been fully assimilated into his own powers. Yet now, right at this moment, Ding Hao realized that there was still more; he has never fully demonstrated the full power that he had imbibed from the liquid before.
Was it this fight? Has this fight with Liao Juzhan pushed me past the limits of my physical strength and endurance?! That I have finally triggered the effects of the power that the strange liquid had imbued into me?
Ding Hao finally understood what was going on.
The effects of the strange white liquid would occur whenever he was at his weakest and most vulnerable moment.
As he improved gradually and matured through the combat experiences he gleaned from his many fights against other warriors, he rarely became as weakened as he was now. He had hardly pushed himself – or rather his physical body – to the utmost limits and this deprived him of the opportunity for the effects of the mysterious white liquid to trigger.
This fight had turned out to be a boon for him.
As the waves of warm sensation engulfed him, Ding Hao could feel his powers spiking rapidly at an exponential rate.
This was power way beyond that of four- or five-apertured Martial Emperors. In fact, he could feel that he was grazing the threshold of becoming a seven-apertured Martial Emperor.
And the growth was still skyrocketing.
Globs of the warmth were still accumulating in various parts around him as if they were rebuilding him at a cellular level.
Ding Hao lowered his gaze. Little shoots of flesh were peeking out the ends of the digits on the bloody pulp of his mangled hand. A new layer of skin was beginning to spread and grow all around him and in just mere moments, his hands, his arms, and every other part of him were as good as new, if not better, with zero injuries. His skin glistened with the same pale marble-like sheen of a masterpiece sculpture.
At the same time, he could feel that the pain coming from the wounds he suffered internally was gone. He was fully healed.
All that was left were his green robes which had been reduced into tattered rags during the fight. All it would take was just a gale and the clothes would easily crumble in the wind.
He looked around and there was Liao Juzhan, falling into a sitting position on the ground with his battleaxes lying beside him. He could barely lift a finger, never mind holding on to the axes. The blood-drenched giant glared at Ding Hao with what remained of his strength with evident amazement and disbelief ats Ding Hao’s sudden transformation stupefying him.
“I’ve lost.”
Liao Juzhan said at last to the fully-rejuvenated Ding Hao. The fight had come to an end and a victor has emerged.
