"Heart and spear as one…"
When his heart-piercing voice echoed, Yueshi could feel a thrill of anticipation spread through his body. "One spear thrust erases all under the heavens!"
Yueshi's spear lacked momentum and might; it appeared like an ordinary attack that could be released by any person under the sky.
However, if someone that was well versed in martial arts was here, he would be able to see the endless power accumulating on a single point – the spearhead.
This was a true example of someone pursuing extremity – all energy, power, might, and qi coalesced in a single point, aiming to destroy anything that dared to stand in front of it.
On the other side, the Second Prince's spear was fast and strong, but above all stead. It gave people the image of an absolute monarch that cared not for the myriad existences, only aiming for a single place – the heavens itself.
It was a cold, apathetic spear that would not hesitate to pierce man and beast, innocents and villains alike.
At that instant, Yueshi had a glimpse of it.
Like an illusion, he saw the proud and aloof second prince standing above Northern Wang's subjects with cold eyes and an unfeeling heart.
However, before he could react, a boundless force crashed against him, sending him flying far away.
Immediately after getting up, he coughed blood. Because he had gotten distracted he had paid a heavy price, but he did not care about that. Instead, his blood was boiling and his heart beating furiously in excitement.
Wang Xizhu's spear was one that 'would pierce anyone in his path toward his dreams'. The image he had of his spear was of a cold, merciless weapon that would not hesitate to drench the heavens and earth in blood.
At the same time, his heart matched his spear – he was a cold and unfeeling person, one that saw all beings in the world as no more than ants to step on.
This was the realm of heart and spear as one!
Matching one's image of his spear with one's own heart!
And as such revelation struck him; Yueshi finally understood why he had not been able to advance yet, despite all the training.
It was not that his talent was lacking – on the contrary, he had a superb talent for martial arts. What he had been lacking was comprehension of his own self and the right mindset to move forward.
What was the image he had of his spear?
When he had been training with Mu Qiang, his spear was one that 'would vanquish anything that dared to stand in his way'.
In that sense, his spear and Wang Xizhu's were fairly similar.
However, at heart, were they the same? Could he look at the world with the same placid, apathetic eyes that the other young man had?
No, he couldn't. That was why his heart and his spear were not in synchrony with each other. He was not a cold-blooded person willing to slaughter anyone and anything on his way without remorse – he was not like the young prince in front of him.
Fortunately, he had noticed soon that he was walking along the wrong path - and as his mindset started to change, something inside of his seemed to follow along.
As he stood back up, his spine straight, it was as if he was a new man.
Wang Xizhu seemed to have noticed it too, his eyes glowing. However, instead of immediately attacking, he stood still, waiting for Yueshi – waiting for his following movement, as if waiting to see what his spear would look like.
Why? Simply because the proud and aloof Second Prince recorded by the pagoda was also a spear fanatic - one that would go to great lengths to study it.
During the battle against the Frostbite Ape Queen, Yuan Yue had comprehended the first realm of the martial arts, understanding her fist arts as something that 'would protect anything she held dear'.
Today, standing before the second prince, Yueshi followed on a similar but different path.
From now on his spear arts would not be meant to vanquish anything on his one-way road. Instead, thinking about it, he smiled.
"Anyone that dares to threaten me, threaten those I love and threaten our peace… they all will have to pay a price." He spoke to no one in particular.
Yet, in answer, Wang Xizhu nodded and smiled in approval for the first time – as if he had his own conscious and as if he had acknowledged Yueshi and his words.
To align one's mentality and comprehension, that was the path to the second stage!
With that said, the two young men once more rushed toward each other.
Xizhu prepared the same spear move from before, the chilling coldness and apathy of his heart and spear seeming to freeze the world around him solid.
Meanwhile, Yueshi's spear was plain and simple, boorish, even; however, as it moved forward, it was as if the heavens and earth were torn apart by that single point of extremity.
"Heart and spear as one!" His shout echoed far and wide. "One point of extremity subjugates the heavens and earth!"
Because as long as everything belonged to him, who would dare to threaten those he held dear?
As long as he ruled over the heavens, who would be able to threaten him?
Such matchless confidence and pride seemed to sip on his bones and soul at that moment. And while most would not be able to spot any difference in his bearings, Yueshi had gone through a vast change.
Their spears then finally clashed and, at that moment, heavens and earth seemed to be turned upside down.
When dragons fight, the landscape in tens of thousands of miles is bound to change – Yueshi experienced that at first hand that day.
--- - -
In the blink of an eye, three days had gone by since Yueshi challenged Northern Wang's Second Prince for the first time.
In the following days, he had gone once again to challenge him, making sure to lay a good foundation and fuse all his new experiences from the missions in his combat style.
Today was finally the time of the confrontation against the Heavens Will Association, just one week before the inner disciple examination.
To Yueshi's surprise, some familiar faces showed up when they should have been secluded in training instead – like the top two disciples in the outer court: Starlight Association's leader, Bai Yuanzhi, and Rising Phoenix Association's leader, Yu Fenghuang.
There was also Yi Dongfeng with whom Yueshi and the others had fought together against the Boa King before.
The relationship between their associations was fairly good, so they were quite friendly with each other, too.
A while before the battles started, the two association leaders came to greet him.
"Who would expect that you'd try to get revenge on the Heavens Will Association this soon?" Just like before, Fenghuang's voice was pleasant and her actions exuded great charm.
"Elder sister must be joking," Yueshi laughed softly, "this is just an aperitif. The main dish had yet to be served." His meaning was clear: this was not yet their revenge.
Hearing his words, both Fenghuang and Yuanzhi were surprised - not just because this was not yet their revenge, but because Yueshi sounded extremely confident, despite not sounding arrogant.
It was as if it was as clear as day that their Soaring Dragon Association would win.
"Hehe, little brother~" The first to break the dumb stares was Fenghuang as she interlocked her arms with Yueshi in an affectionate way. "Since you are so confident, big sister will bet all her savings in you~" Yueshi felt a bit awkward at her actions, but could not simply push her away.
Fenghuang smelled like flowers and her voice was like a heavenly serenade, and if his will had been weaker, he would have fallen for her right here and now.
Yuanzhi shook his head when he saw such a scene but, in the end, said nothing about her behavior.
There was nothing wrong with the way she acted, after all – although those that were more conservative would think that the way she behaved was improper, he did not think so.
"I will also be betting on you, then. If you bring me a fortune I will make sure to buy some wine for us to drink together." Smiling in an easy-going way, he said so. Then, just as Yueshi was going to nod, he continued. "So, when the time comes, make sure to invite Ling Tian Tian, too."
Yueshi immediately face-palmed – maybe he had been expecting too much when he thought they would tell him some inspiring words.
That made it clearer than ever that, while they were on the top of the outer court, they were still just youths.
"Okay, okay. Senior sister, senior brother, you can both rest assured. Our Soaring Dragon Association is not going to lose today." That said, he could not promise Tian Tian would like to go drinking in Yuanzhi's company.
After that, the two stayed for a while to chat about random things and also cultivation.
Yueshi found out that their personalities were quite compatible with his and, as they talked about a lot of things, the bond between them deepened a bit.
Then, as the time for the battle was arriving, they bade their farewells after wishing him good luck.
Yueshi also did not waste any more time and, after meeting with the others, parted toward the battle arena – it was time to show them what the Soaring Dragon Association was made off.
As they made their way there, they could see a lot of people also moving toward the arena where the battles would take place.
Today would be one of the rare occasions where disciples reunited as thousands of them decided to watch the battle – such gathering rarely taking place.
That did not matter for the group, however.
They made their way toward the stage with steady steps and with an almost lazy gait, though it did not take them too long to reach their destination – in their current stage, their movement speed was almost ten times that of a normal human.
The sect had built many arenas for disciples that wanted to spar or solve their grievances through a fight, or just acquire fame after defeating their peers.
Not only that, many of them were prepared while taking into consideration all sorts of scenarios and places, like jungles, swamps, snowy regions, and so on.
However the two sides decided to go with the mainstream, ordinary arena made out of bricks – or something akin to it – since the others were meant to simulate the many dangerous zones and were mainly used for practice.
When they arrived there, there were already thousands of disciples surrounding the gigantic main arena.
The enormous, square ring had a length and width of fifty meters and was built ten or so meters above ground, and was made with resistant and hard materials.
Thanks to that, it would rarely be damaged despite the conflicts taking place above it and did not required the sect to restore it.
There were also a few, smaller arenas around; however, using the main arena was one of the privileges the Heavens' Will boasted as one of the top associations – not that it made any difference other than being useful to inflate their ego.
To one side, a small cabin had been built, and a few people paced around inside of it.
This was the betting stand and a long line had formed in front of it already; fortunately, Yueshi and the others received preferential treatment as the fighters and had long made their bets about who would be the overall winner.
Someone would also be on standby close to them if they wanted to bet on the individual matches later on.
Their arrival did not cause any commotion, with only a selected number of people paying attention to them. Their faces were, after all, not that well know.
However, for good or for worse, that was going to change today.
After another while, things started to quiet down as people ended placing their bets.
Then, as if waiting for that, the judge sent by the Starry Sky Pavilion climbed on stage and announced the start of the combat.