After passing one more day with constant practice, work, and getting used to his new capabilities, Qing Shan met Qian Yong in the Inner Ring arena. The fight was going to take place at six o-clock, and Tang Hua had gladly let Qing Shan off the hook when the battle was explained to him. The man had absolutely nothing against a friendly spar, especially if it was a rematch. Even though they had not agreed on it in advance, Qing Shan decided to make the battle official.
"I, Qing Shan, challenge Qian Yong to an official duel with our rankings on the line."
As Qing Shan's words loudly rang throughout the entire Inner Ring, many people began to cause a commotion, and disappeared into their respective buildings, before coming back out with a lot of people. Qing Shan was especially thrilled to see a few familiar faces from the Top Eight buildings appear in the crowd.
Even as Qing Shan noticed all of this, he also paid full attention to the words coming out of Qian Yong's mouth.
"I, Qian Yong, accept this challenge. May the superior cultivator be victorious."
One of the Elders of the Inner Ring stepped up onto the side of the stage. The man had a curious glint in his eye, and was most likely wondering when these two had become Origin Soul cultivators. Their quick evolution was entirely unexpected. He raised his arm, and declared that the two may begin their match.
"Fight!"
As soon as the battle started, Qing Shan did not move, and calmly watched Qian Yong's spear approach. While the girl was his friend, he did not plan to hold back. If the fight needed to be stopped, that would be the Elder's call. Qing Shan would attack without hesitation as soon as he saw an opening.
With the spear still moving towards him at a great speed, Qing Shan whipped his spear from his back, and used Sky Bane's hooked blade to pull aside the blade. The motion was fast, and by the widening of Qian Yong's eyes, Qing Shan could tell that even she had not expected Qing Shan to have changed so much since the mission.
However, Qing Shan could not forget that Qian Yong was also an Origin Realm cultivator. Without losing composure, she shifted her weight forward, and sprinted in the same direction that Qing Shan was pulling Sky Bane. Like this, the girl easily released her blade from Qing Shan's control.
The small clash was over in an instant, and only those with an equal or higher cultivation could have seen exactly what happened.
"Are they, in the Origin Soul realm?"
The voice of a curious bystander clearly sent ripples of excitement throughout the crowd. For them, who were mostly Peak Foundation Soul Cultivators, watching a battle in the Origin level was quite the privilege.
After meeting each other's gaze for merely half a second, the fight resumed at the same speed as before. Qian Yong dove in, and began showing off her talent with the spear. Her fast attacks sent sparks flying as they were barely blocked by Sky Bane's body. With Qian Yong's unrelenting string of consecutive attacks, it was quite clear who was better with the spear. The girl danced like the wind, as if she leaned more towards that attribute than hers of flame.
"I think that girl may win this!"
"You're right, she's got him on the back foot!"
*Sigh*
"Fools. Look again. In a fight like this, just blinking can cause you to lose sight of what is in front of you."
Even though Qian Yong was unrelenting, that did not mean that Qing Shan was relenting. He was holding his ground, not exactly relying on, but utilizing his reaction speed and newfound speed to deflect each attack with the least strain on his body. Even though he was fast, it was true that there was not an opening. So, Qing Shan had two options.
'I could sit here blocking her attacks until she slips up and leaves an opening, or, I could make my own!'
Right as this thought crossed Qing Shan's mind, he switched things up a little. With his perception, he could easily manage to do two different things in a very small time frame. In this case, It was not a problem for Qing Shan to play defense and offense at the same time. Qing Shan blocked the slice that was coming from the side, again catching it in the hooked blade of his spear. Qing Shan did not waste any time, and cut downward, right towards Qian Yong's foot.
In the girl's desperate attempt to dodge the attack and stand firm, she lost her balance, and stumbled backwards. Qing Shan pushed forward, changing the flow of the battle.
Up until now, more than one hundred attacks had been fended off by Qing Shan, and Qian Yong had sent out the same amount. However, this balance was beginning to tip.
Qing Shan began stringing together his attacks in a way that was very similar to Qian Yong's way. In fact, this was easily noticed by bystanders.
"No way! Isn't that the same style as his opponent?"
The same haughty voice that had ridiculed the crowd just moments earlier rang out once more.
"It may appear to have the same base, but the actual styles are much different. While the girl dances like the wind and attacks with a burning passion, the man moves like lightning, and his attacks carry the roar of thunder. He is much faster than we could have possibly imagined while he was the one on the back foot. While it seems as though his spearmanship is weaker than the girl's, that is only because his has had much less practice behind it."
While the people began to think about the pompous man's words, The battle changed once more. It appeared than an ending would soon approach.
Qing Shan struck hard and fast, giving absolutely no chance for Qian Yong to recover. He pushed her further and further back, until she was right on the edge of the arena. Unknowingly, Qian Yong had been pushed backwards while facing Qing Shan's attacks. Because there was little room to block and counter, she had been backing up, keeping her distance from Qing Shan's spear.
Unfortunately, she was not like Qing Shan, who could easily see every blow coming and move with perfect timing and positioning. Because of this, Qian Yong had suffered from a lot of Qing Shan's attacks. She had shallow cuts on her face and arms. And her clothing was even torn on her legs and sides where Qing Shan's thrusts and cuts had been barely evaded.
Above all, Qian Yong was exhausted. It had only been about a minute, but she had already exhausted her mind. It was terribly difficult to keep up with Qing Shan's flurry of attacks, which seemed to be appearing in the sides of her vision almost instantly after the last attack was evaded. Qian Yong had to focus all of her attention on the spear every single time this happened, and push her reaction speed to its limits in order to evade unscathed. Just the smallest mistake would lead to a loss of blood.
Once Qian Yong had finally started to grow accustomed to Qing Shan's unrelenting offense, she realized something. While his attacks did not exactly follow a pattern, and he hid the tells for each attack relatively well, they were somewhat simplistic. Qing Shan seemed to be focusing mostly on stringing simple attacks as fast as he could. On top of that, Qing Shan would prioritize any attacks on her openings. Even the smallest cracks in her defense would be targeted. There was just no way around this.
So, Qian Yong soon adopted the tactic of misguiding Qing Shan. She would open up one part of her body, While preparing to counterattack. She found that Qing Shan was not accustomed to trickery like this in battle. He struck right towards the crack, with an obvious intention of breaking it open. However, something strange happened. It was as though Qing Shan had spotted Qian Yong's trick exactly at the moment that she executed it. Qing Shan easily blocked the blow with his spear, and seamlessly connected that block into a counterattack. With this move, Qian Yong was stuck on the edge of the arena, with Qing Shan blocking her way.
'Whew. That was close.'
Qing Shan had not expected Qian Yong's trap. He would have fallen for it if not for noticing the slight shift in her posture while he was executing his attack like normal. Still, it was incredibly difficult to change from an attack to a block after committing. In order to do this, Qing Shan had had to use his lightning Qi to shock some of the nerves in his arms, causing him to jolt. Because of some practice that he had done with this before, he had been able to use the shock in just the right place so that his hand would turn in the right direction. Of course, this did not count for all of the movement. After moving Sky Bane about half way to where he needed it with the shocks, Qing Shan had been able to take advantage of Qian Yong's surprise to finish moving his spear into a position that would set him up for blocking and counter attacking.
'Yeah… That was definitely stressful. I hope things die down from here, but I guess I'd be lucky if that did happen.'
Sure enough, after a moment of silence after stopping at the edge of the arena, the fight started back up. Even though Qian Yong was pretty much stuck, she seemed to still have some more up her sleeve.
Qing Shan watched Qian Yong, waiting for her to surrender. While he did not think she was the type of person to do such a thing, he did not really think of anything else she'd be able to do in this situation.
It seemed like Qian Yong picked up on this. Taking advantage of Qing Shan's distraction, Qian Yong Sprang forward, and punched Qing Shan in the chest. At this moment, Qing Shan felt a small explosion of fire Qi coming from Qian Yong's fist. He doubled over, feeling a hot burn on his stomach. Luckily, Qing Shan's Qi wall had blocked any of the Qi from invading his body.
That said, Qian Yong had still got a good hit in on him. Now that Qing Shan had doubled over, it was quite easy for her to pick up her spear and slam it down at him.
However, just when she thought that Qing Shan was finally about to collapse, she realized that that Qing Shan had managed to position his hand with his palm facing upwards just before her attack landed. Because of this, Qing Shan managed to negate most of the attack. The rest of the spear shaft that slammed against Qing Shan hit him in the back.
*Thud*
Surprisingly, Qian Yong felt as though her spear had hit a wall. This was naturally because Qing Shan's back had the largest number of strengthened muscles. In the face of the enhancement of Qing Shan's body, the spear attack was not too difficult to deal with.
Even though her attack had failed, Qian Yong did not allow herself to be caught off guard. She wrenched her spear out of Qing Shan's grip by moving around his body in the same way his wrist was pointing.
Qian thought that she would get away in time, but she had not expected that Qing Shan also had a hidden card. While she was moving around him, Qing Shan had quickly, yet inconspicuously thrown his left arm across his torso, and skimmed Qian Yong's leg with his finger.
Although no sound or any indication of an attack had registered, Qian Yong new something was wrong as soon as she felt Qing Shan's fingers. The girl was in such a panic that she did not even notice that Qing Shan's hand was up her skirt. If she had time to notice this, she would have probably come to the conclusion that this happened in the midst of battle and was uncontrollable. Eventually. Luckily for Qing Shan, the girl was far too focused on getting away from his hand. She felt a sense of extreme danger. If that hand stayed on her for another second she would lose!
Qian Yong tried to evade with every fiber of her being, but it was already too late.
"It's over."
Qing Shan sent a pulse of Lightning Qi out of his fingers.
Qian Yong's eyes opened wide in alarm as she felt a strange sensation enter her body. It was absolutely unlike anything she had ever felt before. As Qing Shan's hands were on her thigh, the whole upper part of her leg began to spasm. Her muscles tensed so fast that she found that she was unable to move her leg for about a second. Because she had been in a hurry to get away when the shock entered her body, the sudden loss of control in her leg caused her to stumble.
Like lightning, Qing Shan sped over to her location, and, using his spear as though it was an extension of himself, he hit the girl on the back of the head, causing her to fall unconscious.