Ye Chen calmly said, “In the True Spirit Continent, nothing matters except one’s strength. If he isn’t as strong as others, what does that have to do with me?”
“You say that only strength matters, huh? If that’s the case, does that mean that it is okay for me to kill you?” Cui Shiming narrowed his eyes and spoke emotionlessly.
“If you think you have what it takes, feel free to challenge me, but I need to ask you something first. Let’s say I grievously wound you. Can you guarantee that one of the other top ten Inner Disciples of the Emerald Martial Palace won’t come and try to fight me?
Cui Shiming seemed a little mad, even if he was dumb, he would still get the sarcasm in those words, so he replied scornfully: “You? Don’t be crazy. Today I will destroy you and ruin your martial arts ability in front of everyone! I will let people know what happens if you mess with the disciples of the Emerald Martial Palace.”
Ye Xuan realized that they were on the verge of fighting, so she tried to dissuade them, “Brother Cui, it was all a misunderstanding! Please don’t make a big fuss of it!”
“Sister Ye, leave this to us, okay? It is not that I don’t respect you, it is just that this Ye Chen here is way too arrogant. He doesn’t know who he is messing with and he thinks that he can do anything he wants, just because he happened to reach the Condensing Reality Realm. If people learn about your loss in the future, then what will happen to the reputation of our Emerald Martial Palace?” Cui Shiming was always thinking about the bigger picture, so that when he beat his opponent, it would not only give them physical wounds but also mental ones, which would break them down badly.
Taking a huge step forward, there seemed to be a little tornado forming under Cui Shiming’s feet. The next second, Ye Chen was assaulted by a gale of wind. Ye Chen’s clothes were blown up in the air, making a loud sound; the tables and chairs near them were also blown off the floor and out of the windows.
Ye Chen’s feet seemed to be glued to the ground and his body did not move at all. He looked like a rock in a river, which had not moved for centuries. No matter how strong the winds or the waves, it would not move an inch.
Cui Shiming’s face changed. A shadow separated from his body. Though it was a thin shadow, it was made of large amounts of Qi. The Qi was as sharp as knives and was heading straight for Ye Chen.
“Shadow Cuts! That is the secret skill – Shadow Cuts! Brother Cui is going for the kill! This Ye Chen is going down for sure.” The disciples from the Emerald Martial Palace could not help but yell.
A secret skill referred to a martial skill that had never been told to or shared with another person. It was a type of martial arts that was extremely hard to defend against, which was why they are mostly used for killing. This type of skill worked better when one caught the opponent off-guard. Even when the opponent was at a higher cultivation level, they would still get badly wounded. They might even die. However, a secret skill was very hard to train in. Such skills were known to be ten times harder to train in than a normal martial skill of the same rank, plus, there are not that many secret skills out there, most of them were passed on from ancient times.
The secret skill that Cui Shiming was training in, Shadow Cuts, was a top rank Mortal Realm skill. The skill was separated into three stages. At the first stage, one could create a blade of Qi, which could be used to slice the target. At the second stage, which was the stage Cui Shiming was on, one could combine multiple blades of Qi into a large morphable shadow. It could easily cut people like cutting vegetables. According to a rumor, when the skill was trained to the third stage, the user could form a human shaped shadow that could confuse one's opponents and could be detonated at will, which made it a terrifyingly powerful move.
With the use of Shadow Cuts, Cui Shiming had once killed a Late Condensing Reality Realm warrior, which greatly increased his reputation in the world.
Facing the shadow attack, Ye Chen raised his fist and punched out.
The punch brought up another wave of wind, which smashed a table to the side into pieces.
The shadow seemed to have sensed the vibration of the air flow, and changed its form ahead to avoid the deadly attack, then it immediately attacked towards Ye Chen from a different angle.
Ye Chen frowned: what a weird martial skill. It is ten times, no, a hundred times faster and more flexible than a human body. It also has a great sensitivity for air flows. It will probably be really hard to break it.
The shadow sometimes turned into a human figure and tried to attack Ye Chen, then the next second, it would change into a sharp awl, trying to stab at Ye Chen’s head. Sometimes it would extend its body and attempt to whip Ye Chen, then it would change into a sword and perform a sword art, emitting a bright sword light.
“Break!”
After struggling for a long time with the shadow, Ye Chen pulled out his sword and stabbed right into the head of the shadow.
“Such a fast sword move!”
Cui Shiming was surprised, then he sneered, “Don’t even think about breaking my Shadow Cuts. Anyway, I also don’t want to fight any longer. Shadow Rain Kill!”
Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!...
The shadow lost a little of its substance, after being stabbed in the head. Its body flashed in the air, then countless needles of sharp Qi rained on Ye Chen with an inhuman speed.
Swoosh!
Ever since Ye Chen had reached the Condensing Reality Realm, this was the first time he had used the Golden Swallow Art. His body shifted and floated into the air, it was like he had a pair of wings on his back.
The next second, the ground Ye Chen was just standing on was full of all kinds of holes, from which you could see how powerful that attack was. Each of those Qi needles was comparable to a bullet in the twenty-first century.
“If I guessed right, there should be a connection between you and the shadow, so I will break that connection.”
A sword light flashed past people’s eyes. Ye Chen’s sword sliced through the air between Cui Shiming and the Shadow. Although he encountered resistance, he managed to cut all the way through.
The sound of several strings being cut in half resounded. The shadow changed its form a couple of times, then, eventually, it broke off and melted into the air, disappearing completely.
“Bastard!” Cui Shiming looked very pale. The shadow was formed from one-third of his Zhen Qi, which was controlled by thirteen Zhen Qi strings. Right then, when Ye Chen cut off all the zhen qi strings, Cui Shiming had lost more than one-thirds of his zhen qi which made his remaining Zhen Qi fluctuate.
“What?! Cui Shiming’s Shadow Cuts was broken?!”
“This is one of the thirteen secret skills from the Emerald Martial Palace! How could it be so easy to break it? Had he encountered it before?”
“So that’s the secret of the Shadow Cuts? How could he know?”
All of the Emerald Martial Palace disciples looked shocked.
After he cut off all the Zhen Qi strings, Ye Chen looked at Cui Shiming, “A secret skill with its secret known is no longer a secret skill. I am afraid that all your fellow disciples have also learned of the secret now.”
“Brother Cui, don’t listen to him. We will keep your secret.”
“Yes! I will swear on my pride that I will not tell another living soul about the secret of Shadow Cuts.”
Hearing them, Cui Shiming had a bad look on his face, “You are definitely going to die. You really think I only have Shadow Cuts? I will tell you this, it is only one of my many skills. Now I will show you my real power.”
“Cracked Jade Claw!”
All of a sudden, the floor was cut open. Five scratch marks stretched all the way to the other side of the room.
His clothes floating in the air, Ye Chen effortlessly avoided the attack. His body flew backward rapidly, his right foot lightly touched the wall.
Boom!
The wall was shattered. Ye Chen, seemingly, turned into a bird and flew towards Cui Shiming, stabbing out with his sword.
The amazingly bright sword light compressed into a dot, slicing through the air without any restraint. Even the sound of fast movement through the air could not be heard anymore, making people wonder if they had just lost their sense of hearing.
Cui Shiming growled, his claws reached towards the tip of the sword.
Chin!
The unbelievably bright spark flashed in front of the crowd and then disappeared from their sight. An explosion rushed out from where Ye Chen and Cui Shiming had clashed.
“The Twisted Road!”
While his body was still in the air, Ye Chen twisted his body then dived towards Cui Shiming, in an inhuman way. His sword pierced through Cui Shiming’s shoulder and came out behind him.
Right then, everyone present was in shock. they could do nothing but stare at the scene.