“This victory’s not mine either,” Ding Hao muttered, flicking a healing pill to his opponent.
At least to himself, he knew he would have long collapsed if not for the sudden mutation that he underwent. He would have looked far worse than Liao Juzhan. One way or another, the fight had ended in a draw and he could have not been any more amazed at the physical endurance of one of the Four Silver-armored Gods of the War God Hall.
Liao Juzhan unabashedly caught the pill and swallowed it without even a shred of hesitation.
He sat on the ground and began channeling his magic to heal himself.
In barely a quarter of an hour, the wounds all around Liao Juzhan had disappeared and he looked more refreshed.
He stood back up and hung his axes on his back. “What an incredible medicine,” he grinned, “Thank you so much, my friend. I’m your senior by at least thirty to forty years, and yet, you bested me in a contest of strength. Whatever you say, this is my loss and one that I admit freely. The Saber and Sword Addict, the young prodigy from the Northern Region, I admit that you are powerful and extraordinary. Well done!”
“You’re too kind, Liao Juzhan.” Ding Hao uttered meekly.
“Hahahaha! Today’s fight with you really was thrilling! I can feel that the end of the bottleneck that has bogged down the progress in the cultivation of my Blessing of War discipline is vanishing. Before long, I’ll finally achieve the breakthrough I needed. Let’s have another duel then!” grinned Liao Juzhan happily.
This has been a chastening experience and he had found a friend in Ding Hao.
“All right.” Ding Hao nodded.
He too would like another chance like today – a chance where he could once again surpass the limits of his physical strength and trigger the effects of the mysterious white liquid to enhance him further.
This fight had really bonded them instantly.
“Feel free to come visit me at the War God Hall, my friend. I’m sure we’ll enjoy talking more,” invited Liao Juzhan. Realizing Ding Hao’s power and potential and recalling the rumors about how this young man could be related to a certain order of great renown and power in the Northern Region only made him more interested to make friends with Ding Hao.
“That would be an honor.” Ding Hao grinned.
Then the same aloof and hollow voice boomed, cutting them off.
“The 87th round of the Holy War has ended. The victorious shall advance and the defeated withdrawn…”
The voice ended.
And there was a bright flash.
Liao Juzhan obviously still has much to speak to Ding Hao about, but he was abruptly transported away, vanishing immediately.
It would appear that the powers that be now governing this Holy War must have acknowledged that Ding Hao was the victor.
Ding Hao lowered an outstretched hand. There was still much he wished to discuss with Liao Juzhan—to find out what else he might know about this place at least. But before he could, the powers that be had taken him away.
Something barely the size of a thumb shone brilliantly like a star. Slowly, it descended from the sky.
Ding Hao took it.
As expected, it was another Jade in Stone.
“How wasteful. Are Jades in Stones so common here that the powers that be could easily distribute them around like they’re candies?” Ding Hao murmured to himself. The prize was just too rich, even for him. So if he could achieve more than seventeen straight wins in his Holy War, would that not mean that he would be able to amass more than seventeen Jades in Stones then?
As Ding Hao contemplated the possibility with wondrous amazement, he stowed away his newly-obtained prize carefully.
Just like before, he did not choose to synthesize the Jade in Stone immediately, for he could not be sure of his safety.
He changed into another new set of green robes. Then he realized that the crystalline barrier keeping him confined here was gone. Yet, here he was, still here in this place. So he decided that he would sit down and began training instead.
This place was a veritable utopian paradise.
Tendrils of white mist coiled lazily around the huge white granite column and majestic cranes flew around up in the air. He could sense that these celestial beasts must have awakened their near-human intelligence and sentience, allowing them to each embody powerful auras comparable to that of common Martial Kings and Emperors. Overlooking from up high was the vast sky and no matter how far and wide he looked, Ding Hao could not yet know where this place was.
He helped himself to as much natural energies as possible, assimilating the energies into himself.
After a couple of hours, a column of light shone down on Ding Hao, Evil Moon, and the little black puppy. With another flash, they were gone.
“What?! Another arena on a pillar?”
Ding Hao began surveying the surroundings carefully when they arrived.
Just like before, this was another rock platform at the top of a chalk-white column of rock. All around them, they were surrounded by the same vista of a cloud-dappled sky of blue. The only difference was, the area size of this arena was twice as large as the other two arenas he just came from and the crystalline barrier that kept them inside looked thicker and stronger.
Another fight was coming!
He could tell from his last two fights that the larger that the arena was, the more powerful would his opponent be. “So… Who is it this time…”
The air before him rippled once more as if the air itself was boiling right before his eyes.
His next opponent has arrived.
If Liao Juzhan was a man of giant size, then what he now saw stepping through the portal was something substantially larger and different.
With a sinewy frame with the height of at least three meters tall, the bona fide giant now looming over him looked like a marble-hewn colossus of a sculpture. Ding Hao could not help but admire the admired the well-chiseled muscles of the glistening torso of his new opponent that reminded him so much of the bodybuilders flexing their oiled muscles and bodies onstage from his previous life, and this giant could even put Arnold Schwarzenegger to shame!
What was more unbelievable was how naked the giant. Aside from what looked like short breeches attached with tassets and boots that reached up to his calf, there was nothing else. Numerous tattoos sprawled virtual y over every inch of his bare-chested torso, reaching up even to his bald scalp and his face. Strangely, the tattoos looked hardly ordinary; their motifs and designs looked more like cryptic runes and glyphs than just ordinary and frivolous decorations that glimmered with an odd glow.
One look at the giant and anyone might think that he was a barbarian berserker from the Dark Ages.
Ding Hao might have his fair share of encountering opponents with such crude and rough outlook. In fact, Liao Juzhan looked hardly better. But this giant was a wholly different equation and the mere sight of him could easily give anyone the jitters.
This giant must be a champion from the Southern Wilderness.
Ding Hao quickly drew up some plans.
“So, you meek little thing here is my next opponent?” the heavily-tattooed giant bent down sardonically to peered at Ding Hao, his voice booming like a cascade of lightning rumbles that echoed far and wide.
At one-eighty, Ding Hao was nowhere near a dwarf. But even with his lean and tall figure, standing before the giant now made him look like a child.
“You are no match for me, little one. Do what’s best for yourself and surrender. I don’t want to kill nor wound you,” said the giant, heaving wearily. Despite his outwardly brutish nature, the giant was not wicked or cruel at all. In fact, his doltish and oafish ways reminded Ding Hao about all those adorable square pegs in a round hole.
But anyone who could make it this far could never be truly oafish or doltish.
And Ding Hao knew better than to let his guard down.
“What’s your name?” Ding Hao asked with a jovial smile.
“My name is Arnold,” said the giant clumsily, “I’m from the Peak of the Solemn Moan of the Southern Wilderness. Now listen, you crybaby. Surrender now before it’s too late.”
“The Peak of the Solemn Moan?!”
Ding Hao stood there, dumbstruck.
In the map that Golden Cicada had given him, not only did the map recorded much of the details about the terrain of the Central Region and the Southern Wilderness, but also the names of two powerful factions, which did not include the name Peak of the Solemn Moan. Even so, to be able to produce a champion like Arnold, this particular group must be powerful in their own right.
And why was the name so oddly familiar?
“You talk too much, crybaby. I’ll make this quick; I need to regroup with the daughter of the house I serve!” As he spoke, Arnold delivered an immensely powerful punch that came rumbling towards Ding Hao.
That was no punch, as far as Ding Hao was concerned. That was a mountain! The punch with the force of a mountain bearing down on him.
“Good Heavens?! What strength is this?!”
Ding Hao’s heart took a skip.
The punch came with the same destructiveness as Liao Juzhan’s pair of battleaxes!
In that split-second, Ding Hao retaliated with a punch of his own too.
Rumble!
The forces collided once both fists – one giant and the other small – met elicited a huge shock wave.
The force propelled Arnold backward a few paces. He staggered, struggling to remain steady until he could finally stand again.
Shock and awe filled his face as he stared at Ding Hao just like how a child would if faced with a freak, “Good Heavens! You! A crybaby-like weakling with such power?! Come, let’s try another one from me!”
Rumble!
Arnold the giant fired another punch at Ding Hao.
The punch blasted away the air in front of him and launched a jet of compressed air at Ding Hao like a bullet.
“Well done,” observed Ding Hao with a thin smile and he too, delivered a punch.
Rumble!
His fist barreled forward and the sheer force that it delivered made the air rippled as if in resonance to the power of his blow.
“It’s lucky that I managed to surpass my limits during the fight with Liao Juzhan, or I could never match this bumbling giant’s strength!” Ding Hao realized. This Holy War really was incredible. Anyone opponent who had made it this far were all powerful champions.
And this Arnold wields power even beyond Liao Juzhan, the future heir to the leadership of the War God Hall.
In mere seconds, both man and giant had exchanged more than a hundred blows.
“Dammit, crybaby. You’re really amazing! Your fists are as hard as stone!” Arnold squealed, waving his wrists as if to shake off the pain. His hands were utterly bloodied from the impact of the blows they traded and one could even make out the white of his bones.
But as he shook his wrists, the tattoos in the area gave off a strange greenish glow and the wounds healed automatically.
“I gotta admit, you’re powerful too, big guy,” Ding Hao grinned.
His hands might look fine, but his hands were throbbing with pain too and he could barely lift up his arms.
