Chapter 71 – Xie Tian VS Xu Miao (1)
Being used while using the others was Xu Miao's low-key lifestyle. He didn't care about his reputation, fame, or glory since it was superficial in this world.
The only important thing was strength. Without absolute power, fame and reputation were meaningless.
As of now, Xu Miao was still too weak to contend against giants like Xu Xiuying, Jia Shan, or Wei Huang. He could only bow his head and accept their orders.
However, Xu Miao never hesitated when he had an opportunity to use them.
'I doubt Wei Huang will follow my advice. Well, I can just pretend to fight without using all of my skills. After that, I'll think about how I will separate Xie Tian from Luo Cheng and Jia Shan.'
In novels, the plot armor of many protagonists was very strong in early stories. Despite the strength disadvantage, they always slipped through the radar of various powerhouse families. Strong antagonists, such as Wei Huang, always used indirect methods to harass the MCs, which usually ended up making them stronger.
Xu Miao didn't want to repeat that. He wanted to manipulate a 6th stage masters to kill Xie Tian without letting him getting stronger.
Jiang Lan, the berserk pill, and Wei Huang, chess pieces had been gathered on Xu Miao's board game, but the preparation was far from over. Overcoming the protagonist's plot armor was not a simple task.
"Alright, I'll spar with Xie Tian, but it won't be a deathmatch."
Xu Miao concluded the deal, so all elders could back away from the center of the arena.
Wei Huang, Jian Meng, Jia Shan, and Xu Xiuying withdrew from the stage, leaving only Xie Tian and Xu Miao at the center. As for Wei Feng, he hid behind his older brother, praying that both of them could kill each other.
The two men sighed and looked at each other with apological smiles.
"Sorry to get you involved in this, brother Xu."
"It's alright. It won't hurt sparing with good friends, right?"
"Hahaha! Sure! Please give me some pointers!"
"Likewise!"
Xie Tian and Xu Miao laughed as they cupped their fists, respectfully saluting each other.
The protagonist summoned a 1-meter-long red saber from his inventory ring. Xie Tian awakened his weapon. A shadow of a small fire dragon vaguely appeared and coiled around the saber.
"Brother Xu, this is a heaven-grade saber that I got from the monster realm. I refined it a bit, so please be careful!"
Xu Miao was shocked that Xie Tian suddenly took out his trump card and revealed it in public. That wasn't what protagonists usually did.
"Wait a second. Why are you using a heavenly treasure against your friend?"
"Isn't it disrespectful to go easy on friends? Even though we won't kill each other, we should go all out and learn our limits! Don't worry. We'll hold back our moves and try not to hurt each other as best as we can, right?"
"What about your next match? Don't you want to kill Wei Feng?"
"Eh, it's fine. I'll deal with him sooner or later. I can just withdraw my challenge and save it for another time."
"Then, what's the point making me fighting you!?"
"Err, I'm sorry. Hahahaha!"
Xie Tian was a battle freak. As he never had a cheating training room like Xu Miao, he didn't get many chances to spar against friends.
A protagonist was a lonely creature. Everyone around him wanted him dead. Thus, when he met a friend, he invested his faith and trust in that person.
Xu Miao felt bad for tricking this innocent protagonist, but the latter's attitude frustrated him. He grabbed Killer Queen's handle and swung it to the side, waking her up.
"If you want to spar that much, fine! My weapon is also a heaven-grade katana. Be careful."
Yang qi and yin qi circulated within Xu Miao's body and some of them entered the black katana. KQ woke up because of the hot and cold qi. Then, her demonic aura expanded.
Aura was a basic art that all cultivators could use. By simply releasing their qi strands to envelop their bodies or their weapons, cultivators could generate a weak barrier around them, protecting the weapons and the users.
Aside from increasing durability and protecting the users, talented fighters could manifest a shadow of their wills or imagination to increase their overall power output. These aura silhouettes could only appear when a user invested at least 10,000 strands of qi, which was something that only cultivators beyond the 3rd stage could do.
Although the technique was categorized as "aura", it was still pseudo-aura in the eyes of elites with 4th stage strength or stronger. The real aura required essence to operate, and they contained the will or dao of the users, which was more sophisticated than coating their weapons and bodies with qi strands.
In before, Qing Zhong, Nie Ping, Xu Miao, and Wei Yuan used the pseudo-aura to increase their weapon durability, power, and sharpness. None of them had used the "real" aura.
Yet, KQ wasn't using ordinary qi strands to generate her aura. She was using her demonic essence, which was the unified energy of yin and yang essence. Just one drop of demon essence, it produced the same power of 20 drops of yang and yin essence.
Cloud gathered behind Xu Miao as KQ's killing intent formed a dao of slaughter. Unfortunately, it lacked the user's synergy or similar killing intent, so the dao of slaughter didn't take form other than creating dark mist.
The burst of energy intimidated all outer disciples, including Wei Feng and Kang Yan. All elders paid attention to Xu Miao's weapon.
*ROAR*
*SCREECH*
When the flame dragon shadow detected the vague killing intent of KQ, it roared. KQ also screeched in response as if both weapons wanted to destroy each other.
Black mist from KQ rushed toward the fire dragon shadow while the latter also created red fog to counter the mist.
The aura and essence clashed. A gust of wind circled around the two men as two forces collided, causing a windstorm.
Xu Miao and Xie Tian's long hair fluttered, but none of them cared. Xie Tian was grinning from ear to ear as he mistook KQ's energy as Xu Miao's power. Meanwhile, Xu Miao had a wry smile on his face, having a complicated feeling after experiencing the intimidating presence of a protagonist first hand.
'Oh, my, motherfucking, MC! Did you inherit dragon blood or what!? What's with that little dragon avatar around your saber? Are you a fucking stand user!?'
Xu Miao didn't realize that KQ took a portion of his essence, and those drops of essence contained the hatred toward Xie Tian. Because of the resentment, it synergized with KQ's dao of slaughter. The black mist slowly formed a silhouette of a young girl with a katana, but the figure couldn't move.
.
Xie Tian gazed at the silhouette and dropped his jaw. He had goosebumps as his eyes met with the dark mist silhouette's for a moment. His legs trembled, and his hands couldn't stop shaking.
Yet, Xie Tian admired how terrifying Xu Miao's presence was.
'Brother Xu, you're awesome! You're only a first stage cultivator, but your control over the heaven treasure is so refined! You must have trained hard to reach this level. Very well, I won't lose!'
Xie Tian decided to send his few drops of essence into his flame saber. Then, he activated a body strengthening skill to increase qi circulation efficiency.
Draconic Body Strengthening, Fire Dragon Skin
*ROAR*
A dragon roar came from Xie Tian's heavenly weapon. He gathered his strength into his flame saber, and the weapon ignited in dragon yang flame, increasing the surrounding temperature. Yet, Xie Tian didn't break a sweat from the heat.
Xie Tian's muscle and skin also revealed its luster. Sparks of flame covered his body and took shapes of dragon scales, covering his fleshly body.
.
*SCREECH*
Killer Queen instinctively responded to the dragon roar. She screeched and unleashed her demonic qi, which amplified Xu Miao's essence inside her blade.
In response to the overwhelming energy in the surroundings, Xu Miao decided to reveal one of his hidden cards to survive. Or else, he might be crushed under the pressure of colliding essence.
Demonic Body Strengthening, Unified Yin Yang
This was the body strengthening ultimate skill, which consumed 10,000 strands of yin and yang qi. It was costly to activate, so Xu Miao avoided using it. Unfortunately, Xie Tian's OP presence forced him to use stronger power. Without it, he might die from heart attack before they started using real attack arts.
Xu Miao's body was now covered in a black and white mist, which exuded mild warm air. Though they looked soft, soothing, and harmless, these specks of cloud were the condensed form of yin and yang qi. If someone were to inspect it closely, they would have found out that the cloud was a material form of demonic qi.
The shadow silhouette behind Xu Miao slowly merged with his incomplete aura. Meanwhile, the small dragon shadow also merged with Xie Tian.
The blue eyes of Xu Miao became red, while Xie Tian's black eyes became yellow. Both of them stopped being humans after they added more chips to the table. Their strength was now comparable to an early 4th stage cultivator.
Xu Miao completely abandoned his goals as this fight had become a fight for his life. He understood why the tutorial quest wanted him to survive.
He might really die in this fight if he let his guard down!
…
The display of body strengthening techniques exhibited the two men's potential. Outer disciples, inner disciples, and even 4th stage elites among the crowd were in awe.
None of them had ever thought that Xu Miao and Xie Tian's real strength was the same as an early 4th stage cultivator. These men were monsters among men.
Kang Yan's jaw dropped.
Wei Feng's eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
Even Wei Yuan broke a cold sweat, realizing that Xu Miao went easy on her.
"Unbelievable."
All elders watched over them in solemn. Jian Meng, Luo Cheng, Qi Hong, Qi Ning, Wei Huang, and Xu Xiuying were on stand-by, preparing to jump in and stop the match at any moment.
At this point, a simple weapon swing could easily kill a 3rd stage cultivator who was using his full-strength. The fight might be too dangerous for nearby spectators and other disciples in the area.
Jia Shan summoned a dome shield around the stage arena, protecting weak disciples from a possible stray bullet. While he was at it, his eyes didn't move away from the two men.
The sect master made his decision. He wanted both of them as his legacy disciples.
'It's such a waste to leave these two to Xu Xiuying or other elders. They are unpolished diamonds! I can't entrust them to weaklings, or they ruin their future!'
Unbeknownst to Xu Miao, another plot armor was at work as if Xie Tian's guardian angel wanted to thwart this newbie villain's future plan.
…
"Brother Xu! En garde!"
"Come!"
Xie Tian made his move first. He wielded the flame saber with his right hand, but he pointed his left palm toward Xu Miao's face.
After having fought so many clones with this posture, Xu Miao knew what the protagonist would do. He immediately kicked the ground and moved away from where the palm was pointing.
A long head of a dragon fireball rushed out from Xie Tian's left palm. It flew straight, missed the target, and hit Jia Shan's dome barrier behind Xu Miao.
*BOOM*
The speed of the dragon fireball was as fast as a bullet. Xu Miao could only catch a glimpse of a flying dragon head passing by his face.
However, the transmigrator ignored the protagonist's casting speed. Xu Miao's left hand also summoned a high-level skill.
Using the info that he had gathered from Qi Hong, Xu Miao was aware that Xie Tian's body could resist fire-based attacks. Therefore, the best attack in this situation should be yin-based, aka ice attacks.
But there was an exception to that.
Dual Flame, Yin Flame!
A dark ice lotus at the size of a soccer ball appeared on Xu Miao's left hand. The temperature around him sharply dropped to minus 50 degrees Celsius despite being influenced by Xie Tian's skill.
Yet, Xu Miao didn't toss it at Xie Tian. He let the ice lotus floated freely. As if the lotus understood Xu Miao's intention, it flew toward the protagonist.
Xie Tian widened his eyes as he sensed a bad omen. He gathered his forces and slashed toward the floating ice lotus.
But that was a trap. The floating ice lotus consumed the flame energy and yang qi from Xie Tian's sword and converted them to its energy automatically. Then, it transformed and showed its appearance.
There was a reason why it was called "Yin Flame" instead of an ice lotus.