Chapter 109: Battle of the Disciples
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor:
"What master just said is exactly what I have in mind. Fellow disciples, let us spar a few rounds!" Xiao Yan said while laughing.
Wang Lin glanced at Lin Feng with a tinge of surprise and with a twitch of his lips, said smiling, "Master, count me out please. They are already in their Foundation Establishment Stage."
Lin Feng shook his head and said, "No harm in that, we're just testing out our skills. It's not as if we are fighting for our lives." "I would fill you up with mana so that you could perfect your improved Finger of Styx."
Different spells had different power levels. For the casters, there were only two constraints: firstly, its difficulty of mastery and secondly, the amount of mana it would expend. If one could fully master a spell and possess enough mana to cast it, even a lowly practitioner could cast a powerful high-level spell and utterly defeat his enemy. It's possible to transcend the skill level of one's opponent.
Wang Lin thought about it for a while, looked at Xiao Yan and the other two and said, "Let us just practice our spells for a bit instead of actually fighting, alright?" Xiao Budian laughed, "Third Senior, don't you think that you are being too careful?" Wang Lin smiled and kept quiet. If necessary, his courage would exceed that of anyone else. However, this did not mean that he would challenge his seniors, who had already established their foundation. That's not called bravery or ambition, that's just being stupid.
Lin Feng nodded his head and smiled, "Then so be it." He turned his head towards Xiao Yan and the rest, "Which one of you would like to have a go at Wang Lin?"
Xiao Budian pulled his neck back and kept quiet. He thought to himself, "I'm not stupid, sparring with Third Senior is equivalent to asking for a whipping by letting him show off all that he had learnt and demonstrating all of his spells. I hope Master won't ask me to do such a boring task."
Zhu Yi furrowed his eyebrows slightly and sunk into a somber silence. "Apparently Third Junior's revelations are startling, but since his mastery is not there yet I could beat him without much effort in a fight."
Xiao Yan turned to look at his juniors and said while smiling, "So how? Are the two of you not fighting?" "That's fine by me. Let me start!" After saying that, Xiao Yan walked up next to Wang Lin and smiled, "Third Junior, please don't humiliate me." Wang Lin grinned, and replied with his hands raised in a traditional Chinese gesture, "I should be the one asking for leniency from Big Senior."
The five of them found a tranquil mountain valley. Lin Feng, Zhu Yi and Xiao Budian stood on the top of the mountain and looked at Xiao Yan and Wang Lin, who were on the valley plains. Lin Feng chortled, "Those not sparring better open up your eyes and observe carefully." Zhu Yi and Xiao Budian nodded their heads in unison and looked carefully at the two down on the valley plains.
With a flick of his fingers, Lin Feng directed a line of pure mana into Wang Lin. Wang Lin appeared to have been jolted, and said, "Big Senior, would you do the honors?" Maintaining a casual stance while chewing on a blade of glass, Xiao Yan replied with a smile, "I think you should start." Wang Lin nodded his head. He's not going to give any chance. He raised his right hand and extended his index finger and pointed at Xiao Yan. "Celestial Finger of Styx, destroy!"
With just a finger from Wang Lin, Xiao Yan immediately sensed danger. Within 3 meters of his surroundings, Xiao Yan felt as if he was encapsulated by a destructive force. Within this space, it appeared as if a huge black energy of death had appeared out of nothing. The grass beneath his feet withered quickly before his eyes as if their life energy had been stolen. The tiny bugs that danced in the summer sky fell shakily to the ground. All were dead. Despite the size of the insects, Xiao Yan could see clearly with his vision then that their bodies were unmarked. It was as if they had lost their lives in an instant. The place he was in appeared to have turned into a death zone. Someone appeared to have drained the life from it. Xiao Yan himself felt his body growing weak. He felt his organs withering and his lifespan shortening, as if he had been dipped into the Styx River in Hades.
Lin Feng took it all in from his vantage point on the mountain, and nodded his head in approval. Wang Lin's complete revelation was indeed different. Not only could he master the Great Celestial Way of the Eight Trigrams during his initial Qi Cultivation Stage and improved upon the original Finger of Styx, but with a little help from Lin Feng he advanced to his next level of mastery, allowing his spells to become more powerful.
His Celestial Finger of Styx derived its power from the all-consuming and all-destroying power of the River Styx Primordial Water, and together with the power from the Hidden Heavens-Crossing Way, Wang Lin was able to use powers within the realm of creation and destruction. Wang Lin casted the first finger of destruction by concentrating the death aura and then sending it through space, appearing as if out of nothing next to Xiao Yan. Without a trace and without any consideration for distance, the death zone could appear anywhere within Wang Lin's spell radius. There is no escape.
Initially, his spell would cause a gust of black energy to hurtle towards his enemy. This left a trace, and could easily be avoided. Only after Lin Feng fused his Dual Dimension Vacuum Charm did he manage to help Wang Lin make the improvement, allowing the death aura to merge with space itself and achieve this great feat of a silent, deadly killer spell.
However, the power to manipulate space drained one's mana much more quickly. If not for Lin Feng's assistance, Wang Lin would not have been able to pull off the complete version of the Celestial Finger of Styx, only the incomplete primal version.
Looking at Wang Lin cast his spells, Lin Feng thought to himself, "The Great Celestial Way of the Eight Trigrams is truly all-encompassing. Different practitioners would derive different benefits from it." Lin Feng's own Dual Dimension Vacuum Charm operated on the principle that within the radius of the spell, he could perform a position swap. Hence, regardless of how fast Gao Long could ride on his Feilian, as long as they were within Lin Feng's spell radius, he could teleport them to immediately to the position in front of him. However, there were limitations on the size that could be teleported. By carefully controlling the size and outer limits of the teleportation target, one could form a deadly force akin to a tear in space. Gao Long's death from a severed waist was through this charm, rather than from any knife or sword spell, as his top half was forcibly detached from his bottom half through teleportation. However, this charm is too taxing on one's mana and Lin Feng did not dare to overuse it. During his battle with Gao Long, he planned to practice his spells. If not, Gao Long would have been felled by the first blow. Unless one's opponent could also manipulate space, or possessed mythical equipment, all those who faced Lin Feng's spell unprepared would die.
"The Great Celestial Way of the Eight Trigrams is a spell created by me. I would carefully delve into its secrets and fully understand it. It would be embarrassing to not do so, " Lin Feng thought. "Furthermore, this is only the first chapter of the The Heavenly Classic of the Way's Virtues. Subsequently, there are more complex spells."
Just as Lin Feng was thinking, the course of battle began to change. Xiao Yan, still trapped in the death zone, began to emit mana from his body, resisting the death aura's assault on his body. At that moment, he did not dare to be careless. Rather, Wang Lin managed to stimulated his heroism.
"I wonder how many fingers could you use, " Xiao Yan laughed. His right hand clenched into an odd fist, as massive amounts of energy concentrated on his right fist." Xiao Yan punched forward, and a formless wave of energy spread out before him. Wang Lin squinted his eyes, and saw suddenly that with this punch, the space around Xiao Yan had moved. The formless energy continued to vibrate, and began to form a protective layer around Xiao Yan in the death zone. The black death aura was like boiling water, gurgling nonstop. The death aura that touched Xiao Yan's formless energy wave dissipated ceaselessly. The dissipated black aura shattered, as if devolving back into the most primitive of spiritual energy. From within the death aura spell, Wang Lin's spell was reduced to nothing.
Xiao Yan laughed and said, "Third Junior, take one of my Crash of the Eight Trigrams." With that, he punched and a gust of powerful energy hurtled towards Wang Lin. All that the energy passed by, such as grass, clouds, mud and even air, were destroyed and reduced to nothing. Destroy, destroy, destroy everything!
Wang Lin kept his composure, took a deep breath and pointed another finger. "Celestial Finger of Styx, circle!" With this finger, the eight symbols for Heaven, Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, Thunder, Mountains and Ponds appeared before Wang Lin in the form of an octagon and formed a circle of light. The circle of light began to spin, and blocked Xiao Yan's seemingly invincible Crash of the Eight Trigrams. Round and round it spun, shredding away Xiao Yan's attack. The circle of light did not fade, but instead engulfed the Crash like a hungry River Styx.
Xiao Yan's eyes twinkled, "Interesting, " he said. As the spell cascaded forward, he prepared to cast the third Crash of the Eight Trigrams. Smiling bitterly, Wang Lin removed the circles of light and said, "I only have these skills, if we continued to fight there would surely have a slip up. Thank you Big Senior for going easy on me."
"Ah?" Xiao Yan gaped disappointingly. "Such a pity." From the mountain top, neither Zhu Yi and Xiao Budian could also believe that it had ended. Zhu Yi sighed, "Third Junior's spell is indeed one-of-a-kind. Too bad his mastery is not there yet, aish!" Xiao Budian nodded in agreement.
Lin Feng casted a sweeping gaze at them and said lightly, "A man changes much after a while. Perhaps Wang Lin's mastery may dramatically improve after a while? The three of you started first and for this I must warn you, if Wang Lin overtook you in the future please don't come to me and cry about it."
Zhu Yi and Xiao Budian were shocked, and after thinking about it for a while their expressions became serious and sincere. With a deep bow, they replied, "We were arrogant, thank you Master for your reminder."
Lin Feng nodded his head and said smiling, "So? Are you satisfied? If not, go down and the second round of sparring shall be between the two of you." Zhu Yi and Xiao Budian looked at each other and smiled. "We look for to your guidance, Master!"