Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio
Lou Cheng was sure that Liang Yifan would target his left shoulder. considering that his injuries hadn’t fully recovered. If he didn’t consider this and take the easiest approach, others would doubt the genuinity of his super-class status.
Because of this, Lou Cheng had thought specifically about how to deal with this problem. He wasn’t a deity of legends and couldn’t possibly remove this weakness by recovering from the shoulder injury immediately. So if Liang Yifan continued to attack this spot, it would be a matter of time before Lou Cheng gave an opening and lost the match.
This was an outcome that both parties could agree on silently.
The only way around it would be to set traps based on this weakness. Before the real problem emerged, Lou Cheng wanted to use a false image to hook his opponent so he could deal a heavy blow and win the match directly, or at least get the upper hand.
However, Liang Yifan was also an experienced expert and would definitely guard against this possibility. If Lou Cheng was to plainly show an opening, his plan might very well fail and even allow his opponent to take advantage of the opening.
Therefore, Lou Cheng’s plan was to defend with all his might and look for ways to dodge. When he “failed” time after time, before the real risks truly set in, he would then make use of a moment to lure and misdirect his opponent. That meant he needed to reduce Liang Yifan’s alertness as much as possible.
Having already had such thoughts, Lou Cheng didn’t have time to think about it further. He pulled his left shoulder back and followed through the momentum, twisting his waist to throw a kick covered in purple flames towards his opponent’s knee.
Liang Yifan’s footwork might have seemed ordinary, but he was extremely fluid and allowed him to move as he wished. Facing Lou Cheng’s whipping kick, it was as though he was engulfed by the waves as he shifted away to avoid the attack before making a detour to the left side of Lou Cheng. After which, he threw his right punch directly towards Lou Cheng’s shoulders.
Pa pa pa! Bam bam bam! Lou Cheng attacked furiously as he attempted to push back his opponent or slow down Liang Yifan’s attack on his left shoulder. However, Liang Yifan was always able to dodge before attacking back incessantly, as he fully demonstrated the saying, “Constant effort brings success.”
He had long gained full mastery of the seventh move of Water Sect, Lake and Mirror-Like Wisdom. Although it might have been as good as Enemy Heart Freezing Move for stabilizing one’s emotions and reflecting the surroundings, it was better for improvisation and accurate judgement.
Bam bam bam!
Fists and forearms clashed incessantly, and Lou Cheng could feel his left shoulder start to ache. He acted accordingly and jumped a small step back as he lifted his right forearm to guard and covered his left arm in ice frost before punching out. When Liang Yifan defended, Lou Cheng made use of the recoil to open up some distance by jumping back again. While he was suspended in the air, he exploded his Fire Force to shift sideways and avoid the relentless attacks.
Shifting his waist slightly, Liang Yifan made a turn and chased ahead. However, the moment Lou Cheng landed on his toes, he exploded Fire Force once again and drifted diagonally away.
Bam! While moving in the air, he didn’t continue to use the last directional change propelled by Emperor Yan Force. Instead, he lifted both of his hands and pushed forward.
Faint blue flames spewed from his palm as he accelerated and broke away from his opponent like a phantom.
With this opening, he created a scorching red fireball behind him and shot it towards his opponent like a cannon, as he took on a fighting stance for long range battle.
Liang Yifan ejected his dark blue Force. He absorbed the surrounding moisture and turned it into a beautiful flowers that stopped the fireball perfectly.
Rumble!
The explosion wasn’t loud and the light dissipated after a flash. The water droplets evaporated into a white fog and lingered in the air.
Following which, Lou Cheng entered the usual state of Nine Rotations of Five Flames as he shot out cannonball after cannonball. He always maintained three fireballs that rotated around him, faint purple, scorching red, golden, light blue, or dazzling white, in no particular order.
Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!
The fireballs were completely stopped by the blue water flowers and dissipated together into heat and water vapour. With the assistance of Lake and Mirror-Like Wisdom, Liang Yifan’s defence surprisingly had no openings. But facing this special, human-shaped cannon tower, he couldn’t keep up with his firing frequency and therefore could only defend passively, unable to make his counterattack.
“This battle reminds me of a shooting game,” an unknown commentator laughed lightly. After which, he said, “At this rate, the concentration of water vapour will get denser and denser, and the temperature will get higher and higher. Are they intending to make a sauna? Just imagine how great it would be to steam for a while before dipping into ice cold water! Hmm. It’s about time for Lou Cheng to use Ice Spirit Holy Light.”
The commentator suddenly had an idea. In a half-doubting, half-guessing manner, he added,
“If this continues, it would be really disadvantageous for Liang Yifan. The water vapour around the arena will only get hotter and hotter, making it equivalent to a strengthened version of Lou Cheng’s High Temperature Hell. Under such conditions, Lou Cheng, who can enter and leave the Volcano Experiment Lab with ease, will be like a fish in water. However, Liang Yifan will have to divert some of his attention to guard against the heat or he might get cooked... ”
“He probably expects such a problem, given the fact that he didn’t resist and readily accepted a long range fight. He’s probably hiding something, too.”
Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!
As Talker explained, the area around Liang Yifan was already shrouded by white fog and boiling air currents. It was as though he was in a large steamer.
At this moment, Liang Yifan ignored the incoming scorching red fireball. He didn’t eject his Force out to gather the water vapour but instead had his hands placed in front of his chest, one above the other. After which, he suddenly made a “return” motion from tai chi.
Rumble! The surrounding water vapour seemed to have been stirred in that instant, forming a white fog ocean around Liang Yifan.
He seemed to have become the master of that water vapor ocean and the deity of the environment.
Rumble! As Liang Yifan straightened his back, he pounced towards his opponent. When he swung opened his palms, the ocean of water vapor flooded towards Lou Cheng like waves of the sea.
Surrounded by fog, everywhere around him was scorching hot. When Lou Cheng’s scorching red fireball entered the fog, it disappeared without a trace.
At the same time, Liang Yifan had disappeared too. What was left behind was the water vapour regaining its weight as it turned into droplets. The audience could feel the heaviness of the water and shivered from the bottom of their hearts.
The ninth move of Water Sect, Bipolar Fusion, Inundated Nation!
This was a version unique to Liang Yifan. He had intentionally endured so as to allow Lou Cheng to help him finish his preparation.
This move was a combination of mind and reality.
Rumble! Lou Cheng lost sight of his opponent, as all that was left was the white fog ocean that surrounded everything like a tsunami.
He understood that this was probably his mind being affected, but he didn’t dare execute a Force Concentration or the complete Nine Words Formula to resist. This was because Liang Yifan was hiding within, and he didn’t know when he would ambush him. Therefore, Lou Cheng didn’t want to give Liang Yifan an opening to take advantage of.
Changing his mind, Lou Cheng lowered his stance, tensed his arms, clenched his fist, and smashed diagonally across. The surrounding faint purple, light blue, and dazzling white shot out accordingly and merged into one.
He wanted to use the might of Three Flames to withstand the tsunami, create a temporary safety zone, and force Liang Yifan to continue to wait.
The moment his opponent paused, that’s when he would execute the complete Nine Words Formula.
This was what one would call relentless defense, paying no mind to exhaustion.
Rumble!
The white fog ocean couldn’t mask the brilliance of the light, and it swallowed the thunderous explosion. The raging air current forced the ocean into the sky or the surroundings like a giant fountain.
When he struck out his fist, Lou Cheng immediately retracted his breathing and blood blow and balanced them in his lower abdomen. At the same time, he allowed the brilliant stars to trace out the Nine Words Formula.
Confrontation! Army! Fighting! Swordsman! Wholeness! Formation! Dequeuing! Forwarding! Attainment!
He pushed his palms out suddenly and his vision immediately cleared. The water vapor lost its weight and no longer felt like a tsunami. As for Liang Yifan, he had made his way in front of Lou Cheng amidst the weakened shockwaves. His fist was covered in heavy, blue, fluid momentum as it shot towards Lou Cheng.
Wu!
Following the shockwaves, Lou Cheng drifted back at high speed. In his mind, he quickly traced out complicated visualization while making the respective reactions with his body.
Bam! When Liang Yifan’s fist was about to hit him, he finished his preparations. Lifting his right arm and clenching this fist slightly, he threw a palm strike out. The hidden stars within disintegrated in the process.
“Tilting Northwestern Skies, Sinking Southeastern Earth!”
Rumble!
Shockwaves stopped and the water vapour solidified. Other than the headache-inducing explosion, everything seemed to be engulfed by destruction and no longer existed.
After a momentarily vision black-out, the audience noticed that the white fog had disappeared with the shockwaves. There was a huge pothole in the arena, as though a small pond had appeared out of nowhere.
Lou Cheng and Liang Yifan both took several steps back. However, Liang Yifan was just like moving water as he rapidly adjusted himself and grabbed onto his opponent at the edge of the pond. He immediately launched a series of close combat attacks focused on Lou Cheng’s left body.
Bam bam bam!
Lou Cheng defended himself constantly. With his Fire Force not ready, it was hard for him to break off. The pain in his left shoulder intensified as he showed that he was clearly uncomfortable.
Pa!
His left shoulder and arm were slightly slower. It seemed that his effort to hold on bitterly while trying hard to maintain had finally come to an end.