While all the sect leaders were discussing amongst themselves, I waited patiently for my opponent to show up. Typically of these arrogant young masters, they only showed up at the last minute.
No, wait…the tardiness was a characteristic typical not of antagonists but the protagonists. In fact, almost all cultivation story protagonists were arrogant – more arrogant than even the antagonists, so they had no qualms keeping everyone waiting and arriving in a flashy manner.
Jin Lei was no exception to the rule, suddenly landing in the newly repaired arena from the heavens. A peal of thunder followed a bright flash of lightning, and he crashed down onto the stage, leaving a scorched crater.
"Oh, wow. Cliché superhero landing!" I applauded him sarcastically. That only served to inflate his ego and he preened as he rose to his feet. He then turned to the audience and spread his arms, as if waiting for them to clap.
Nobody cheered. They simply glared at him, annoyed that he was late.
"What took you so long?"
"Take your own sweet time, eh? You think everyone is as free as you, is it?!"
Jin Lei, being the typical thick-faced protagonist, ignored them. No, he did worse than ignore them, he actually taunted the spectators and waved his ass at them, as if beckoning for them to come on stage and kick him.
I kicked his ass.
"HEY!" Jin Lei bellowed, waving at the referee. "The match hasn't even begun yet! How dare you attack me!?"
"Hei Ye didn't attack you," the referee said calmly, though I could tell from his tone that he was also annoyed by Jin Lei's behavior. "He was simply responding to your taunts."
"What kind of logic is this!?"
The spectators booed and jeered at him, drowning out his protests. In the VIP seats, the various sect leaders chuckled.
"Look at what a good disciple you have, Jin Shan Dian," Xing Chen remarked with a chortle.
"At least we know that Bai Ning Shuang isn't the only arrogant one," Wu Xing said with a sigh. He raised his hand to his chest. "These youngsters should temper themselves with humility. They should realize that there will always be a mountain higher."
Jin Lei continued to remonstrate with the referee, which infuriated the already impatient spectators further. His master got fed up with him eventually.
"Lei Er, just shut up and let the referee begin the match!"
"Y…yes, Dad. I mean Master." Jin Lei stammered. It wasn't lost on me that they shared the same family name, so I wasn't surprised to learn that Jin Lei was the son of Jin Shan Dian. I nodded at the referee, who swung his hand and began the match.
Jin Lei immediately charged, lightning exploding out of his body in lethal forks. He clearly was incensed by my kick earlier, even though he was the one who asked for it. Throwing his hand forward, he blasted me with one of the three ultimate moves of Golden Thunder Sect. Golden Thunder Light Quake.
"Ugh!"
I was knocked over, my body convulsing from the deadly electricity. I coughed and spluttered, unable to get up. Before I could rise to my feet, Jin Lei was already on me, slamming his hand into my chest and executing another Golden Thunder Light Quake. Lightning blasted me off my feet and sent me tumbling away.
"Trash," Jin Lei sneered. "Couldn't even withstand a single blow."
"Technically that was two blows," I corrected as I rose to my feet shakily, the electricity still electrocuting my body. Damn, but that hurt. Jin Lei's eyes widened and he glared at me.
"How are you still able to stand?"
I shrugged. "Perhaps your Golden Thunder Light Quake is nowhere as powerful as you imagine it to be."
"You…!"
Jin Lei growled and charged forward, but I dodged his next Golden Thunder Light Quake, and then the next. His glowing hands scythed through the air ineffectively, unable to land a proper hit. I evaded his next few heavy and lethal but slow and clumsy strikes, my feet almost dancing away. I couldn't help but smirk at his frustrated expression.
"You've hit me a couple of times before. Now that I've gotten used to it, I'll do my best not to get hit again."
"You…!" Jin Lei gnashed his teeth and struck again, only for me to avoid his Golden Thunder Light Quake. Instead, I whirled around and kicked him, sending him skidding several steps back. He coughed and held his side, wincing at his bruised ribs. "You dare?!"
"Dude…of course I'm going to fight back. Otherwise, what, you want to one-sidedly beat people up while they are not allowed to retaliate? Where got such thing one?"
Jin Lei narrowed his eyes, but at least he wasn't spouting any more nonsense. Instead, he adjusted his stance. I could detect a change in the flow of his qi. He was switching technqiues.
Swift Lightning Fingers!
Blood spurted from my wounds as his Swift Lightning Fingers stabbed into me. I managed to dodge at the last second, so they were simple grazes. Nonetheless, I almost couldn't see the attacks coming.
"I see," I mused. "Swift Lightning Fingers trade power for speed. Even though I'm prepared, I'm still too slow to defend myself against it."
"Hah!" Jin Lei crowed. "Even if you know about it, what can you do?"
"What indeed?" I responded, and caught his fingers. His eyes widened. To his credit, before I could snap his fingers, he quickly switched the currents of his qi and changed his technique, unleashing a tremendous thunderbolt at close range. I was forced to let go of his fingers and dive to the side to avoid getting fried to a crisp.
"How…?"
I didn't reply, instead dashing forward to hit him with Shadow Strike. Jin Lei countered my blow with Golden Thunder Light Quake and we both sprang apart in a huge explosion. Lightning collided against shadows, golden qi battling against black qi to smash a crater into the ground. Shaking his arm, Jin Lei glared at me.
"You've been holding back this whole time?!"
"What makes you think so?" I asked dryly, also shaking my right arm and discharging the electricity from my limb by force. Infusing my hand with qi, I restored the feeling to it and got ready to attack, but Jin Lei was already retreating.
No…this was a new technique.
"Three Thousand Lightning Illusionary Steps!"
I had no idea why the hell he was yelling out the name of his technique, but whatever. I watched as he divided himself into three thousand copies, spreading out to confuse me. Every single duplicate was moving at high speed, almost disappearing into a blur.
Then I understood. These weren't lightning clones or whatever. They were afterimages generated by Jin Lei moving at incredible speed. They spread out and surrounded me, a dizzying array of blurry pictures charged with static.
"Ha ha ha!" Jin Lei's laughter echoed throughout the arena. "You can't tell which of these is the real me, can you?"
"Um…are you sure you want me to?" I asked dryly. Jin Lei muttered a curse, and all three thousand copies of him lifted their hands. Countless lightning bolts converged on my position, scorching rock and destroying the arena.
Jin Lei continued moving about in incredible speed, closing in on me in an instant. Then he struck with his Golden Thunder Light Quake from all directions, almost from three hundred degrees. Without being able to tell which was the real one, there was no way to escape. If they were all real, then I would be hit from every direction without mercy.
Unfortunately, there wasn't such a technique that allowed one to duplicate himself so easily.
Closing my eyes, I waited for Jin Lei to draw near, then my right hand suddenly darted out and grabbed hold of his wrist.
"What?!"
Jin Lei was unable to believe what just happened. He tried to move, tried to run away, but I tightened my grip and held onto his wrist firmly, refusing to let go. My opponent jerked and thrashed about, to no avail. Now that he was pinned down firmly in place, his three thousand illusionary bodies vanished, the afterimages fading like a light drizzle.
"How did you know…?!" He demanded, horrified. My only reply was to hit him with a Shadow Strike from my left hand, causing him to double over and cough out blood.
Damn, I probably made a mistake. I was right handed, so attacking with my left hand was a bad idea – my Shadow Strike wasn't as powerful as it would have been otherwise.
Jin Lei spat out some blood, but he whirled around to kick me, lightning bolts wreathing his leg. Not wanting to get smashed apart by the electrifying kick, I finally released him and backed away, ducking his foot by just a hair's breadth. Even so, I could feel the static discharge making my hair stand on end and causing my flesh to numb.
Dropping to my hands, I spun my body about to kick him back, knocking him several paces back despite his successful block. He grunted and launched another Golden Thunder Light Quake, but I was already propelling myself backward and out of reach. Instead, his strike smashed another smoking crater into the ground.
Exhaling, I used Shadow Step when he struck with Swift Lightning Fingers, circumventing his speed with my own esoteric techniques. Jin Lei snarled in frustration and spun around to shoot a lightning bolt from his fingers at the location I emerged, but I dropped backward to duck under it. Flipping myself over, I then met his Golden Thunder Light Quake with my own Shadow Strike.
Lightning detonated against shadows and the both of us were blown away from each other because of the sheer impact. I skidded to a stop, managing to make use of my superior amount of qi to halt my momentum. In contrast, Jin Lei hit the ground and skidded clumsily, coughing out blood. He somehow spun himself about and hopped back to his feet, but he clearly came off worse than I did in that last exchange.
"Just what the hell are you!?" he demanded.
"Clearly Xiao Ye has a higher cultivation realm than Jin Lei," Bai Yao Cai said, by way of explanation. None of the other sect leaders contradicted him. Even Jin Shan Dian nodded grudgingly.
"Lei Er may have the Divine Thunder Body, but he isn't used to fighting against opponents stronger than him. This will be a good experience for him. He'll learn a lot from this exchange."
"Oh? Admitting defeat?" Cheng Kun smirked. Jin Shan Dian snorted.
"You wish. Lei Er will still win this match. He has yet to show his full strength."
"So why doesn't he just use his full power from the start?" Wu Xing asked, unimpressed. Jin Shan Dian blinked, taken aback by what was an obvious question.
"Well…I don't know! Because it's more dramatic that way? Who the hell fights with full strength at the get go? Wouldn't the fight scene end too quickly?!"
Everyone stared at him and he recoiled defensively.
"What? I'm just stating the truth. Never mind, just watch the match!"
Jin Lei was attacking me several times from different angles, lightning splayed from his fingers and thunderbolts ferociously launched in my direction. I evaded and weaved through them, using Shadow Steps to get close to him and planting a Shadow Strike on his back to send him sprawling on the ground. He cursed and kicked out, but I had already withdrawn to a safe distance. Rolling back to his feet, Jin Lei glared at me.
He drew a sword and placed a hand along its edge.
"Electrocute, Divine Thunderbolt!"
A blinding flash filled the arena, and a golden spear took the place of the formerly plain blade. Jin Lei had just executed Man and Sword as One to unseal the true form of his treasure weapon.
The sharp edge crackling with lethal electricity, Jin Lei rushed forward and thrust his deadly weapon at me, intent on finishing the match once and for all.