Chapter 402: Murderous Intent
Translator: Oneshotwonder Editor: Hitesh_
Wang Tong picked himself up to his feet and dusted his clothes while lamenting his careless slip-up.
Before the smirk on Li Shiming’s face faded away, Wang Tong disappeared and reappeared above Li Shiming, with his fists boring down on him.
Without any hesitation, Li Shiming lashed out Vayu to counter the attack. In a heartbeat, a dozen Blade Aura shot out at Wang Tong. However, Wang Tong easily evaded the attacks with phantom-like movement and closed in on Li Shiming. Wang Tong struck with a knee bash, but it was blocked by Li Shiming, and then he quickly followed with another Layered Fist of Tong. Li Shiming didn’t have time to react to the second attack and was blown in the air. Before Li Shiming thudded back to the ground, Wang Tong shouted as thousands of icicles materialized in his hand and flew towards Li Shiming.
“Kom!”
Wang Tong’s third attack struck home.
Silence fell into the arena after the audiences witnessed Wang Tong’s amazing speed. However, Wang Tong didn’t intentionally speed up his moment. After having been dealt a blow by the Tactics of the Vayu, the tactics of the Blade automatically gained the same speed capability.
Wang Tong finally understood the importance of the tactics of the Blade, and why Li Feng would leave these tactics for his true heir instead of any blood kin.
Li Shiming rubbed away the blood at the corner of his lips. He had registered that Wang Tong had copied his speed ability, but speed was only one of many abilities up his sleeve.
“Zzen!”
Li Shiming and Wang Tong both disappeared from the view simultaneously.
“Kom!”
“Kom, KOM!”
The audiences could see nothing but flashes of light on one end of the stage and occasional sparks on the other.
Cao Yi watched the fight with disbelief. Such speed would impose a tremendous burden on fighters’ body, so much so that it was impossible to pull it off for any ordinary human. What made the feat even more impossible was the constant violent impacts which would add more burden to their already overloaded body.
Apache watched the scene with a knotted face. Although he had been proud of his speed, he could only use the speed ability once during a battle, since any more usage would tap too much into his system and cause premature failure of his body. However, the Tactics of Vayu had sustained Li Shiming’s speed all the while, and so did Wang Tong using whatever tactics he was using.
“Kom!”
As a GN explosion erupted in the air, the two warriors finally appeared into everyone’s sight.
Judging from his tattered clothes, Wang Tong had received more blows than Li Shiming, who floated in the air with his usual pomposity. He didn’t seem to be impressed by Wang Tong’s ability to reach the same speed as him.
Seeing Li Shiming’s seemingly placid face, Li Ruoer shivered. Only his sister would be able to detect the tumultuous undercurrent inside Li Shiming. Wang Tong’s blatant copying of the speed ability of the Tactics of Vayu had infuriated Li Shiming. Such an insult would never be tolerated, and the punishment for him was death.
Li Ruoer could see the menacing luster inside her brother’s seemingly calm eyes, that held the thin edge of reasoning. If the situation continued to escalate, Li Ruoer worried that it would go out of control.
In everyone else’s eyes, Wang Tong had made history again for being able to catch up with the speed of Vayu. Although many people still believed that Li Shiming would claim the victory, in the end, they conceded that it would be a much harder battle for the heir of House Li than they had expected.
A curl hung on the corner of Li Shiming’s lips as his soul energy spread out to cross the stage like a blanket. Such powerful presence of energy could only be felt when veterans such as General Hu Ben were fighting on the battlefield. In fact, there was another name for such soul energy, the combat qi.
Surrounded by belligerent soul energy, people felt like time had been turned back, and it was Li Feng who stood on the stage instead of Li Shiming.
The energy started to gather and quickly formed a whirlwind beside the Vayu. By then the fight was no longer a tournament match between two academy students; it had turned into a battle of life and death between two deadly warriors.
Everyone in the audiences could feel the unmistakable sense of menace in the air. Li Shiming’s soul energy was infused with his intention to kill, seeping out of the energy barrier and digging its claws into some combatants’ old wounds.
It was hard for those audiences to imagine what it would feel like to face Li Shiming one on one like Wang Tong did. Such force and overbearing presence could only be achieved from hard training in the military. It was clear then that Li Shiming had endured hardship during his Norton expedition, and his enlistment was not just a perfunctory gesture.
With a turn of a wrist, Li Shiming poised Vayu closer to him, but the movement stirred up the soul energy which could be felt even by the audiences.
Only Patroclus and Lie Jian were unruffled by the flow of combat qi, as no one other than the two knew that Li Shiming had already become so powerful.
Zhang Zhongren, the fanboy, and Rockefeller both stared at each other in astonishment.
Although Li Shiming was a new level six fighter, he had already been exposed to many aspects of being an Einherjar. Such an advantage was unheard of among most level six fighters.
“With such Einherjar-level soul energy, Wang Tong would be hard pressed to win the game. That being said, Wang Tong has already offered us many memorable moments during his journey in this year’s tournament, and his defeat, although inevitable, would be a victory for him in a way. “
“Hehe, seems like Li Shiming worked hard while he was in the military. I used to doubt the news report about him saving an entire colony all by himself, but now it seems like that was not fake news at all.”
“Yes, of course, that was true. I doubt any of his would-be opponents could say the same about their military service.” Zhang Zhongren said with a smug.
“Maybe that’s true, but every fighter has their own merits and faults. We will have to wait and see how the fight turns out.”
Although Rockefeller felt sorry for Wang Tong’s imminent defeat, he had to accept the reality.
On the stage, Li Shiming had completely overwhelmed Wang Tong thanks to his immense and omnipresent soul energy. Another silvery glint flashed across the stage toward Wang Tong.
“Zzen!”
Despite the blood gushing out of Wang Tong’s wound, he didn’t evade the attack. Instead, he stared at Li Shiming and studied his move unblinkingly.
Li Shiming had hidden his murderous intent deep down to the finest detail of his execution. However, Wang Tong was keen enough to pick up the cue right away—Li Shiming wanted him dead.
It occurred to Wang Tong that he had miscalculated the great houses’ tolerance for his audacious moves. However, since Li Shiming had made the message clear, Wang Tong conceded that it was about time to stop fooling around.
Wang Tong drew a large gulp of air as the wave of energy surged through his body. Suddenly a golden light lit up inside Wang Tong’s body, sending a whirlwind of energy up into the air.
The golden energy clashed into Li Shiming’s sea of soul energy as Wang Tong quickly registered the malicious intend hidden under the flow of Li Shiming’s combat qi.
The combat qi that Li Shiming emanated out was much more potent than soul energy. It was usually used by veteran warriors on the battlefield while fighting against the Zergs. However, the minimum requirement of using the combat qi was level six soul energy, and therefore, the combat qi was rare to be seen. So far, only the Einherjars were able to master this technique.
It was said that the Einherjars could subdue a level six fighter by using only the combat qi alone, without even lifting a finger.
Opposite Li Shiming’s combat qi, Wang Tong countered it with his combat qi. It was immediately obvious to Hu Yangxuan that he had already encountered Wang Tong’s combat qi many times while sparring with him, although he didn’t know what it was at that time.
“Arghh!”
Wang Tong shouted as his combat qi shot through the entire arena. In half a heartbeat, Wang Tong’s combat qi was about to overcome Li Shiming’s.
