Chapter 281: Wind, Fire, Mountain, Forest (2)
Outside.
Zheng Hong coughed a mouthful of blood while Su Yu turned deathly pale with beads of sweat forming on his forehead.
All the spectators were astonished.
The gold and green on the ball were churning against each other. Clearly, the fight was getting very intense. All this had happened too fast.
"Is Zheng Hong being pushed back?"
A lot of people found that unbelievable.
Just a short moment ago, the gold on the ball had gained a slight upper hand, occupying a part of the space previously occupied by the color green. The crowd was in disbelief.
Su Yu had actually gained an upper hand against Zheng Hong. Looking at how pale he was and the mouthful of blood Zheng Hong had coughed, the fight was obviously very intense. That caught the interest of many people in the crowd. Everyone had thought that Su Yu would lose, so this reversal had naturally caught everyone by surprise.
Even the researchers were getting curious. They all focused on the ball before looking at Zheng Hong. One of them said, "His Divine Character was damaged. Su Yu's offensive prowess is incredible. The two are evenly matched."
"There is no need to come to a conclusion so fast. Zheng Hong has nearly 90 percent willpower. His willpower is stronger and he can last longer—"
Right at that moment, the gold on the ball churned, constantly invading the space that was previously occupied by the color green. The researcher stopped speaking mid-sentence, astonishment on his face.
Yet another intense clash had just happened.
Zheng Hong coughed more mouthfuls of blood. At the same time, blood was dripping out of the corner of Su Yu's mouth. His face turned more and more pale.
Clearly, the two were fighting intensely and both had suffered some injuries that were definitely not light. The fight was also rapidly draining both of them of energy. Just what was happening inside the ball?
...
Inside the grotto.
With a giant black saber in hand, Su Yu was cleaving the world apart, severing both mountains and fire in front of him. The gale continued blowing fiercely while the fire raged.
A clump of black flame seemed to have erupted from Su Yu's body, but that was actually the aura of the kill character. With his thick killing intent, he assaulted Zheng Hong constantly.
Zheng Hong had an unsightly expression. Su Yu was using his character technique. But since this character technique had yet to be filled, it wasn't too destructive. But that was only in comparison with proper multiple character cultivators. This incomplete technique had still merged Su Yu's characters, granting him more strength than before.
"Four Divine Characters, and two second tier characters! Damn it!"
Zheng Hong cursed.
Was this fellow spending all his time nurturing his characters instead of forming more characters? Even so, this was too fast! He had two second tier characters! The killing intent was constantly assaulting and eradicating his willpower.
The illusions were constantly messing with his judgment. Of the two second tier characters, he could see that one was blood and the other was kill. Both were human characters. This fellow had actually nurtured two human characters into the second tier.
Zheng Hong clenched his teeth. The gale vanished. The raging flame vanished. The towering mountain vanished. The three Divine Characters reappeared before him. Then, they came together and turned into a spear.
Bang!
He grabbed the spear and charged toward Su Yu. The wind character increased his speed, the mountain character enhanced his strength, and the fire character continued burning. The charging human felt like a charging mountain to Su Yu's senses. And the charging mountain was moving with an incredible speed.
Fusion!
Zheng Hong had actually found a way to fuse his characters. Su Yu roared. Even though no sound could be made in the grotto, he still performed the action before swinging his saber with the Lightning Source Blade.
Boom!
Their willpower bodies clashed, and both bodies started dispersing.
...
Outside.
Both combatants were trembling. Su Yu coughed a mouthful of blood, his brows furrowed deeply. Zheng Hong was also coughing blood, dying the floor red.
A few researchers walked over. One of them said, "Let's stop this. These kids are fighting so intensely their Divine Characters are on the verge of breaking apart."
The two colors on the ball were still churning violently.
None of them seemed to be holding the upper hand.
Liu Hong frowned. Beside him, Wu Qi indifferently said, "Why stop them? As geniuses, they have their pride. They can lose as long as the defeat is not unfair. As for injuries, which cultivator has never been injured before?"
As a genius, she was absolutely qualified to say those words. If the two kids were really afraid of injuries, they would have withdrawn themselves. Xia Chan and the other freaks had already stepped forth with solemn expressions.
Zheng Hong was absolutely not weak. Even among the eight of them, he wasn't the weakest. But Su Yu was able to fight him to such an extent. In fact, there were even moments where Zheng Hong was being pushed back.
Yes. They could see that despite the violent struggles between the two colors, the color gold was much more stable in comparison. The color green, on the other hand, looked to be weakening.
Su Yu was akin to someone with inexhaustible energy. He had unending willpower that could constantly be sent into the ball. Meanwhile, Zheng Hong's transfer of willpower was only happening in bursts.
Suddenly, a Cloudbreach researcher from the Weaponsmithing Faculty asked, "Does Su Yu know my teacher?"
Liu Hong glanced at the researcher and said, "He minors in weaponsmithing. Senior Zhao is his teacher."
The Cloudbreach researcher was a middle-aged man. He was surprised to hear that. He had never paid much attention to the students minoring in the faculty.
And he had been quite busy lately. He just happened to have some free time today, so he decided to come take a look at the tournament. When he heard Liu Hong's words and saw that the pale Su Yu could still send a steady flow of willpower out, he said, "This is Su Yu's victory. If Zheng Hong continues fighting, he will only hurt himself more. That is all I have to say. You guys are free to decide what to do."
Many people turned to look at him after hearing his words. Those students were the most surprised. Had Su Yu won? But the two were clearly still fighting. And it still wasn't clear yet who would ultimately win. The middle-aged man did not elaborate.
Inwardly, he was greatly shocked. Had this kid cultivated the Soul Expanding Art? Had his teacher finally taught someone the Soul Expanding Art? Even he had not been taught that cultivation method.
"Would Teacher pick an inheritor so easily? Perhaps Teacher had only helped him expand his willpower instead of teaching him the cultivation method...This kid doesn't even have a 60 percent willpower but he seems to have better endurance than even a 90 percent cultivator. In that case, how many hammer strikes had he endured?"
Thus, his willpower was at least 1.5 times stronger than his opponent's. And his sea of willpower was at least one third larger than Zheng Hong's. If Su Yu's willpower had really been expanded, then he had definitely received a lot of hammer strikes.
The middle-aged man thought of all that in silence. Nobody dared to rashly end the match. Everyone watched silently, everyone thinking their own thoughts. Su Yu...was actually capable of defeating Zheng Hong?
It had been nearly three minutes since the match started. And both had been fighting at maximum intensity since the start. The gold and green boiled in the ball, constantly overtaking each other.
But Zheng Hong seemed to be slightly out of steam. Meanwhile, Su Yu looked like he could keep going on forever. Just what sort of a monster was this?
Some of the researchers who had heard of some rumors before looked toward the researcher from the Weaponsmithing Faculty. Was this the unique cultivation method of Zhao Li?
...
Inside the grotto.
Both Su Yu and Zheng Hong looked badly injured.
None of them was willing to concede.
Su Yu's battle intent had been growing stronger while his killing intent was growing thicker. The battle and kill characters were clearly characters that required combat to grow. The more he fought, the more excited the two seemed to be.
The tiny grotto was filled with a thick killing intent while a powerful battle intent raged on.
Zheng Hong was very exhausted. When he looked at Su Yu, he frowned. Not only was Su Yu's willpower shockingly tenacious, but it was pretty powerful as well. This was most definitely not something a 50 percent student was supposed to be capable of. His willpower was near the level of someone with 70 percent willpower or more. And coupled with the character technique, Su Yu was actually not weaker than him.
"Is it the Soul Expanding Art?"
Suddenly, Zheng Hong thought of something. His grandfather had once said that to grow stronger and last longer in combat, it would be better for him to cultivate the Soul Expanding Art. But unfortunately, Zhao Li would not teach the method to outsiders, so he had never gotten the chance to learn it.
But clearly, Su Yu had learned it.
"No wonder he can nurture four Divine Characters, with two of them being second tier characters..."
Suddenly, the world before Zheng Hong's eyes turned dark. This was not an illusion. Rather, the world had really turned dark. But this was a willpower body, not a body of flesh and blood. How could he suddenly lose his vision?
And illusions would only be able to create something like a dark night but not completely rob him of his vision. What was going on?
Zheng Hong was alarmed. Once again, his willpower erupted and broke through the darkness. Once again, he saw light.
But Su Yu was already charging at him with a saber in hand. Zheng Hong was about to react when he recalled something. This was the Secret Character Grotto. The bodies in this grotto were fake bodies. In that case, why was there a shadow?
Yes, a shadow. There was a shadow under Su Yu. And Zheng Hong had noticed it too late. He was alarmed, but he didn't know if he should attack Su Yu or the shadow. During that split second of hesitation, Su Yu's shadow rose up and wrapped around him.
At the same time, the saber in Su Yu's hands descended.
Bang!
Zheng Hong's body fell apart. With indignation and doubt, his willpower started withdrawing from the grotto. But before that happened, his gaze was fixed on the shadow on the ground. Damn it! Su Yu actually had one more Divine Character!
That bastard actually had five Divine Characters! Just how long had this fellow been in the academy? How was this possible? Wasn't it said that this fellow had only started learning about Divine Characters a few months ago? And this Divine Character had been kept hidden until now.
"It's related to shadows..."
With a sense of helplessness, Zheng Hong vanished from the grotto.
...
Splurt!
Yet another mouthful of blood was coughed out of Zheng Hong's mouth. When he opened his eyes, everyone was dumbstruck. The ball had been completely covered in gold. Zheng Hong had left the grotto and Su Yu had won.
Next, Su Yu opened his eyes. He gasped for breath. The two looked at each other without saying anything.
Su Yu had actually formed five Divine Characters. And two of them were second tier characters.
Zheng Hong had formed three Divine Characters with all three being extremely powerful. He was probably planning to form a fourth character to create a unique system for his characters. But he was clearly still in the process of doing so.
After a few seconds, Su Yu, who was still panting for breath, cupped his hands and said, "Thank you for the match."
Zheng Hong nodded silently. He was somewhat disappointed with his defeat, but he wasn't too discouraged about it. He had yet to reach the peak of his strength. Only after forming the forest character would he start his climb of the Top100 Ranking. He had full confidence he would be able to enter the ranking then.
For now, his series of Divine Characters were still incomplete. He could accept losing to Su Yu now. And if they really had to fight with all their strength, he was a seventh-stage Great Strength cultivator. His cultivation level was higher. He would not necessarily lose to Su Yu.
"He's a fifth-stage Great Strength cultivator...Without blood essence abilities, he won't be my match. And at the Infinite Strength Realm, his blood essence abilities would be rendered useless."
Zheng Hong did not bother uttering threats to Su Yu. These were not the words that should come out of the mouths of geniuses like that. The strong would always remain the strong. Due to his heavy injuries and exhausted willpower, Zheng Hong did not stay for long and left directly.
Defeat.
But a single defeat did not matter. As long as he could stand back up from his defeat, the future would still be as bright as ever. What was truly scary was the inability to stand back up after falling.