HSSB177: You do a two-combo, I’ll do a three-combo
The set of martial skills known as the Supreme Thunderbolt Trio exhibited the trademark swiftness and violence of the Heavenly Thunder Hall’s martial arts to the point of perfection.
The previous two stances, Thunderbolt Flash and Thunderbolt Quake, aside, the final stance, Thunderbolt Combo, deeply contained the essence of the Heavenly Thunder Hall’s martial legacies.
While possessing great power, it was also extremely profound, and thus extremely hard to cultivate in.
Even many Martial Grandmasters were unable to successfully master it. Those who were able to do so whilst only in the Martial Scholar realm, in the entire history of the Heavenly Thunder Hall, could be counted on one’s fingers.
Just based on this Thunderbolt Combo stance alone, it seemed that there was good reason for Xie Ziyi to have previously been dubbed by many as the strongest Martial Scholar beneath Heavenly Connection.
Looking at this move, Xie Youchan shook her head slightly.
In her earlier battle with Xie Ziyi, she had been defeated without him using Thunderbolt Combo.
If it was Liu Shengfeng, the result would most likely also be the same, with him unable to force out this supreme trump card of Xie Ziyi’s before being defeated.
As Thunderbolt Combo was unleashed, even Xu Fei, Tang Yonghao and Song Chao had to pay more attention to it.
Him having fallen a step behind Xu Fei and the others had always been one of the things plaguing Xie Ziyi. In his eyes, he was definitely no weaker than Xu Fei and Tang Yonghao.
This move had originally been kept in reserve by Xie Ziyi as a killer trump card for challenging them.
It was only that facing Yan Zhaoge at this moment, in just a few short exchanges, Xie Ziyi had already realised that this was an enemy that he might not be able to defeat even unleashing his full strength.
Xie Ziyi did not dare to hold anything back whatsoever as his two-sword combo that rather defied common logic chopped out, aiming straight at Yan Zhaoge.
Xie Ziyi’s low-grade spirit artifact, the Vapour Sealing Sword, merged with his sword-intent, transforming into two purple streaks of lightning, forming a ‘十’ character as they sliced apart the heavens and the earth.
Seeing this, Yan Zhaoge smiled slightly. The Jade Dragon Sword within his hands shook, the roar of a dragon seemingly resounding as jade light flashed, meeting Xie Ziyi’s Thunderbolt Combo.
A streak of jade light first struck the purple cross of lightning in mid-air.
Similarly not pausing in the slightest, a second streak of jade light shot into the air, closely following the first as it too struck the purple cross of lightning.
Xie Ziyi’s pupils abruptly dilated, “How is it that he also knows my Heavenly Thunder Hall’s Thunderbolt Combo?”
Chen Lin and the other Heavenly Thunder Hall disciples were all in an uproar.
His gaze like lightning, the Martial Grandmaster of the Heavenly Thunder Hall who had led his clan’s disciples here abruptly turned, staring at Fang Zhun.
The others were also all stunned and lost for words. But before they had regained their wits, Yan Zhaoge’s third sword had already chopped out.
Xie Ziyi’s jaw dropped, “Impossible!”
The Heavenly Thunder Hall’s Thunderbolt Combo could only strike out a two-hit combo.
Attacking at full strength like this, if a third blow was struck, the martial practitioner’s own meridians would first collapse instead.
But however hard it was for Xie Ziyi to accept, under his horrified gaze, Yan Zhaoge’s third sword let out a roar of extermination as it easily shattered the remnants of his already scattered aura-qi.
The world-dominating cross-shaped sword-light, collapsed.
The next moment, a massive fist quickly expanded in Xie Ziyi’s field of vision.
It had completely enveloped the world before his eyes!
Blood spurted out within the air!
Yan Zhaoge’s heavy punch landed a direct hit on the bridge of his opponent’s nose, causing it to bleed heavily.
Xie Ziyi’s entire body flew backwards, a stream of light flickering on his body.
A jade pendant around his neck shattered. If not for this precious treasure having protected his body in time, this blow of Yan Zhaoge’s would have directly splattered out his brains.
Even so, he smashed into the ground, unable to move for a while.
Everyone stared at the incomparably messed up Xie Ziyi, really finding it hard to believe that this was that same high-spirited Heaven’s favoured son of earlier.
But following that, their attentions were no longer on Xie Ziyi as they instead turned to look at Yan Zhaoge.
Everyone’s faces were filled with incredulous expressions as they watched Yan Zhaoge.
A Sacred Sun Clan disciple asked Tang Yonghao quizzically, “Senior apprentice-brother Tang, was that a Thunderbolt Three Combo just now?”
Frowning, Tang Yonghao shook his head, “It only looks similar to the Heavenly Thunder Hall’s Thunderbolt Combo, but it is actually quite different. However, I too cannot glean the profundities within in a short period.”
Yan Zhaoge retracted his fist, reciting a long chant, “An instant’s production, Finger Flicking Shocking Thunder.”
Keeping his Jade Dragon Sword, he looked calmly at Xie Ziyi, “I said earlier-I don’t have to receive your fist; you just have to receive mine.”
Currently, Xie Ziyi still looked rather dazed, the entire group of Heavenly Thunder Hall disciples also looked rather dazed, and even the Martial Grandmaster expert of the Heavenly Thunder Hall was frowning deeply, having fallen into deep thought.
Everyone present had looks of shock and admiration on their faces.
Regaining her wits, Chen Lin glared at Yan Zhaoge, “Where did you steal and learn my Heavenly Thunder Hall’s Thunderbolt Combo from?”
Yan Zhaoge looked at her a little pitifully, “It’s fine if you do not know; but since you are ignorant, you should speak less. Not knowing but pretending to know; you will only make a fool of yourself.”
“Go back and ask your clan’s Elders whether that really was your Thunderbolt Combo.”
“As for stealing and learning martial arts, I have always been pretty curious about where your clan’s Lin Zhou learnt One Line Edge from.”
Chen Lin ground her teeth, wanting to persist all the way, first accusing Yan Zhaoge of thievery and then sticking to that stance before anything else.
However, her clan’s Elders not having said anything up to this point, she found herself lacking of confidence.
Them not having spoken meant that Fang Zhun, Shan Shiweng and the others had all determined that the martial art Yan Zhaoge had executed was truly not Thunderbolt Combo.
But such a result was even harder for Chen Lin and the other Heavenly Thunder Hall disciples to accept.
Ah Hu secretly sent a sound transmission over to Yan Zhaoge, “Young Master, that three-sword combo of yours just now, what exactly…”
Not having to hide anything from him, Yan Zhaoge answered leisurely, “It is not a sword art, but a force exertion technique just like Thunderbolt Combo. Swords, fists, even sabres-it can power all of those.”
“The essence of Thunderbolt Combo lies in being able to get back force after having unleashed a blow at full force, so as to follow up by immediately unleashing a second sword not inferior in power to the first in the slightest.”
Ah Hu nodded. Even facing an opponent who possessed a slightly higher cultivation base than them, martial practitioners would be able to counter and defeat them with such a combination of killing moves.
If the opponent was of similar or inferior cultivation to the user, it would very be possible for this Thunderbolt Combo to achieve an instakill.
“Not having cultivated in Thunderbolt Combo, I am not familiar with the specifics of its force exertion techniques. However, I still understand the general principle, the crux of its consecutive force exertion lying with the circulation of true qi,” Yan Zhaoge explained, “This is a move which requires the investiture of all the body’s force, with the aura-qi within the dantian and the pores of the body having to erupt simultaneously.”
“After the user’s first sword, the true qi should originally circulate a cycle through the body’s meridians, returning to the dantian before force can be exerted once more, the true qi once again being emitted through the meridians with the dantian as a starting point.”
“The martial arts which use Thunderbolt Combo require forcibly breaking off the usual flow of true qi within the body after the first force exertion, preventing the true qi from circulating back to the dantian, pushing it back in reverse as soon as possible following the breaking off of its flow, from this unleashing the force behind the second sword.”
Yan Zhaoge said, “In becoming a Martial Scholar, cultivating out aura-qi is achieved from tempering inner qi by circulating it in reverse. However, circulating aura-qi in reverse about the entire body is still not a common practice, and is more like a life and death struggle, because this places a very huge burden on a martial practitioner’s body. Let alone inner aura and outer aura Martial Scholars, even Xiantian Martial Scholars and Heavenly Connection Martial Scholars would seldom be able to achieve it.”’
“Therefore, few Martial Scholars ever manage to successfully cultivate in Thunderbolt Combo.”
Here, Yan Zhaoge shrugged, “While this may sound a little rude, this supreme martial art of the Heavenly Thunder Hall that is famed throughout the entire world actually holds a great defect.”