"Blame you?" Huang Xiaolong was stunned for a second. He gently shook his head. In fact, he did not put this matter to mind at all.
Seeing Huang Xiaolong shaking his head, she suddenly relaxed as if a great burden was lifted off her shoulders.
In the next moment, Cui Li's head turned around towards Cheng Jian, "This match, I give up."
Give up!
This action instantly fazed the crowd, raising another commotion.
But no one ridiculed Cui Li. What a joke, even Yanggang was not Huang Xiaolong's opponent not to mention Cui Li. Her throwing in the towel was expected.
While the crowd was still in a hoo-hah, the match ended simply with Cui Li giving up on her own volition.
Huang Xiaolong entered the top three.
What followed was the battle between Pang Yu and Dai Shanni.
Both Pang Yu and Dai Shanni had an average grade eleven martial spirit, thus the talent and strength were similar. Furthermore, their cultivation was at the same level: peak late-Xiantian First Order.
Both were evenly matched overall, hence it gave the crowd a thrilling match. In the end, Dai Shanni won over Pang Yu, taking the last spot for the top three.
Next was the battle for the first, second, and third place between Huang Xiaolong, Xie Puti, and Dai Shanni.
In between the three, Dai Shanni could be said the weakest. She too gave up voluntarily, taking the last place of the three.
With Dai Shanni out of the picture, it was down to Huang Xiaolong and Xie Puti.
"The final battle, Huang Xiaolong and Xie Puti please enter the battle stage!" When Dai Shanni withdrew from the competition, Cheng Jian stood up and announced the next round. His voice became more sonorous than any other time he had spoken.
Huang Xiaolong vs. Xie Puti!
In the blink of an eye, everyone turned to look at Huang Xiaolong and Xie Puti. The noisy Duanren Square came to an abrupt silence.
At long last, the final battle!
The last fight for this year's Imperial City Battle. The battle for the first place, and the most blood-tingling battle of all!
Both Huang Xiaolong and Xie Puti stood up from their seats at the same time.
Xie Puti looked at Huang Xiaolong, breaking into a small chuckle, "Frankly speaking, three days ago I did not expect you were capable of lasting until the end to fight with me. I had thought it would be Yanggang!"
Three days ago, Xie Puti indeed thought this way. So did everyone else present.
"As I just said, I will battle you with everything I have. I hope you will too!" Xie Puti said, and after he had finished, the fire-red glow around Xie Puti's body ablaze vibrantly, and in the next second, the flames surged into black flames and a large phoenix hovered behind Xie Puti, spreading bursts of black flames out in the four directions.
From afar, it looked as if a sea of black flames was swirling around Xie Puti, and above them was a blazing phoenix of black flames.
The emergence of the Black Flames Phoenix brought an instant rise in temperature in Duanren Square. Powerful heat wave spread out—one thousand meters, two thousand meters!
Outside the battle arena, Pang Yu and the rest that were eliminated immediately initiated their battle qi to counter the assaulting heat, barely withstanding it. Even so, they could feel immense heat prickling their skin.
On the outside, other experts were also startled and quickly run their battle qi to counter the surging hot air as well.
On the main platform, a trace of appreciative splendor flickered across Duan Wuhen's eyes watching Xie Puti's Black Flames Phoenix martial spirit, "It has been so long since a grade thirteen martial spirit appeared!"
From the beginning until now, this was the first time Xie Puti summoned his martial spirit.
Cheng Jian nodded in agreement, "Yes ah, Black Flame Phoenix, grade thirteen martial spirit. It was said this Black Flame Phoenix's black flame could incinerate everything, even our Martial Spirit World's most adamant Milky Yellow Steel Kernel melts instantly! An elite existence in the Phoenix family martial spirit."
Duan Wuhen nodded: "This battle is something to look forward to!" He looked in Huang Xiaolong's direction, "Cheng Jian, who do you think would win? How about we make a bet?"
Cheng Jian paused in surprise and then laughed, "A great idea. How would Second Imperial Prince like arrange the bet?"
"Who do you think would win?" Duan Wuhen asked a question instead.
"This minister thinks it should be Xie Puti!" Cheng Jian pondered for a moment and then answered.
Although Huang Xiaolong defeated Yanggang without summoning his martial spirit, in Cheng Jian's mind, he was more inclined towards Xie Puti.
Huang Xiaolong's martial spirit was a top grade twelve Divine Black Dragon whereas Xie Puti's Black Flame Phoenix was a top grade thirteen Black Flame Phoenix.
The higher the martial spirit's grade, the stronger the talent would be, and the bigger the power gap.
At the moment, Xie Puti was already an early Xiantian Second Order expert. Unless Huang Xiaolong's battle qi reached late Xiantian Second Order, it would be hard for him to close the gap in martial spirit grade difference.
Late Xiantian Second Order? In Cheng Jian's view, this was simply impossible. After all, Huang Xiaolong is but a seventeen-year-old.
A seventeen-year-old Xiantian realm expert was daunting enough.
On the battle stage, Huang Xiaolong looked at Xie Puti and his Black Flame Phoenix in a nonchalant manner. A coruscating black light burst out from Huang Xiaolong's body and a heaven-shaking dragon roar emitted from within his body, undetectable by anyone else.
"This is?!" On the main platform, a sharp glint flashed in Duan Wuhen's pupils as a giant black dragon emerged above Huang Xiaolong.
The suffocating pressure of a being originating from the Primordial Dragon Clan swept out in all four directions.
At this time, a clear phoenix cry pierced through the sky as if it were capable of covering the might of the black dragon.
A dragon's roar and a phoenix's cry!
Every person on the square stared at the Primordial Divine Black Dragon and Black Flame Phoenix that were lingering in the sky with manic expressions and astonishment.
Top grade twelve martial spirit!
First ranked grade thirteen martial spirit!
Either one was a top grade rare superb talent martial spirit yet both appeared at the same time here today. The person who possessed the Primordial Divine Black Dragon and the owner of the Black Flame Phoenix were about to have the most brilliant battle on the stage!
Summoning the black dragon, a powerful aura of slaughter exuded from Huang Xiaolong's body as he initiated the Asura Physique, extending the Wings of Demon behind him.
Huang Xiaolong knew very well that Xie Puti was not Yanggang. He easily defeated Yanggang, but as someone who had a first rank grade thirteen martial spirit and whose battle qi had reached the Xiantian Second Order level, Xie Puti was twice stronger than Yanggang.
Thus, Huang Xiaolong called out his Divine Black Dragon martial spirit from the beginning.
However, even though Huang Xiaolong summoned his martial spirit and initiated Asura Physique, judging from the surface momentum, Xie Puti seemed to have the upper advantage.
Xie Puti nodded appreciatively when seeing Huang Xiaolong summon his Divine Black Dragon. In the next moment, he suddenly shouted: "Black Flames, Soaring Phoenix!" The Black Flame Phoenix behind Xie Puti issued a lilting cry, flapped its wings and launched an attack on Huang Xiaolong's Black Dragon.
Huang Xiaolong connected with his Black Dragon, and with a resounding roar, the Divine Black Dragon lifted its sturdy claw to meet the Black Flame Phoenix's attack.
Xie Puti seized this opening. His body flashed, appearing before Huang Xiaolong.
"Void Mirage Finger!"
One finger stabbed towards the center of Huang Xiaolong's eyebrows.
No single finger was different under the rain of finger afterimages, blending truth and surreal to a point that one could hardly distinguish between the fake images and the real attack.
Wings of Demon flapped and Huang Xiaolong's silhouette vanished from the spot.
Xie Puti's finger attack fell on empty space, landing in a corner of the stage causing the entire battle stage to shake. Sharp-eyed individuals in the crowd saw the terrifying finger-sized hole that very corner of the stage!
One could not help but wonder how deep the finger-sized hole went.
But, what made the crowd even more astonished was Huang Xiaolong suddenly vanishing into thin air!
Vanished into thin air!
Even Xie Puti was dumbstruck when his finger attack missed. He spread his spiritual sense out covering the entire battle stage, yet he was unable to locate Huang Xiaolong.