Against the Gods

Chapter 548 – Four Consecutive Defeats

“Wen Ji, you’re up!” Yun Qinghong said after he pondered in silence for a while.

“Ah… me?” Behind Yun Qinghong, a callow youth dressed in the attire of the Duke Palaces pointed at himself as he wore a lost and panicked look on his face.

Wen Ji was the son of Duke Xu, and his talent and strength were both uncommon. But taking account his profound strength at the second level of the Tyrant Profound Realm at the age of twenty-nine, he would be labelled as a bottom-feeder among the creme de la creme of the Illusory Demon Realm’s young elites that were gathered here… Even among the west wing, which was much weaker than the east wing, he was still at the bottom.

In the first round, Mu Hengyi had already suffered a crippling defeat at the hands of Zihuan. So for the second round, it stood to reason that a person who was sufficient to challenge Duke Zihuan should step up to the plate, because even if that person could not win, that person would still be able to retain some dignity in defeat. And if Wen Ji were to face an opponent who had completely dominated Mu Hengyi, he would only lose in a more spectacular fashion.

“Yes. Wen Ji, you’ll be the one taking the second round.” Yun Qinghong turned to face him and declared with sunken brows, “The one you are about to face is indeed an opponent that is hard for you to fight, but as both of you are dukes of the Illusory Demon Royal Family, even if you lose in battle, you would have simply lost in power. However, you cannot lose your fighting spirit even before you have not even lost yet.”

Wen Ji ground his teeth together and quickly regained his equilibrium. He simply stated, “Understood!”

“Even though you and Zihuan are separated by three levels, the two of you are still both Overlords. Even if he wins, he will still have to exert himself. Your goal is to exhaust as much of his profound energy as you can… Remember, concentrate thirty percent of your power on offense and the rest on defense and when you attack, only target his vitals when you are confident of delivering a critical strike. Also, no matter what he says, you must always maintain your cool! If you can do all of the above, then this match can be counted as a win.”

“I understand!” Wen Ji nodded his head vigorously and flew into the air to land inside the arena.

“Duke Xu Palace’s Wen Ji, please give me your guidance.”

“Ah, so it is Brother Wen Ji.” Duke Zihuan said as he narrowed his eyes and smiled, “It really looks like your side can’t find any proper candidates, because they actually sent you out as well. Ah, even I am filled with pity for you right now.”

Wen Ji, “….”

Duke Zihuan extended his finger towards him and beckoned him with an incomparably contemptuous crook of that finger, “Come, feel free to attack whenever you want. Because if I can’t subdue an amateur like you in ten moves, then I won’t have any face to continue living in this Demon Imperial City.”

Any member of the Illusory Demon Royal Family were individuals exalted above all others, so they would never have faced such humiliation before. So Wen Ji clenched both his fists tightly, he almost lost himself to rage, but he quickly recalled Yun Qinghong’s advice. There was a quick intake of breath as he sought to swiftly calm himself down, and after that, he did not speak as he planted both feet on the ground. A golden spear then appeared in his hands. As it pierced towards Duke Zihuan’s chest, it produced a golden afterimage; at the same time, his domain was opened at full strength.

“Explosive Flame Domain!!”

A deep red flame was concentrated at the tip of the golden spear as the gigantic energy of the domain suddenly explosively swelled up like a tsunami, amplifying the power of the spear as it streaked towards Duke Zihuan’s body… Scarlet flames might have been the lowest form of profound fire, but the scarlet flames used by the Illusory Demon Royal Family was the lowest form of the Golden Crow’s Flames and its strength was far superior to even the regular deep purple profound flames.

“See how this duke will shatter your lousy spear!”

Duke Zihuan roared out arrogantly as he swung his Scarlet Blood Blade, instantly producing seven blood-colored blade beams. These extremely sharp blades beams carried a scorching heat and easily tore Wen Ji’s domain apart. The sound of the blades splitting air was akin to a blade being scratched over glass; it was extremely ear-piercing.

At this time, the golden spear that was streaking towards Zihuan suddenly slowed down and after a violent shudder, it was instantly displaced. Four of Duke Zihuan’s blade beams that shot out of his Blood Blade struck empty air, but the other three clashed with the tip of Wen Ji’s spear. After a chaotic and ear-piercing shattering sound, the three energy blades were completely neutralized and Wen Ji was pushed ten steps back by the ensuing impact.

“Mn?” Zihuan’s eyebrows twitched, then let out a cold laugh. His body blurred and his blade danced like a dragon as he instantly unleashed a lightning quick slash at Wen Ji.

“True Flame Shield!!”

Bang!!

The Scarlet Blood Blade made contact with the flame vortex that suddenly materialized in front of Wen Ji, but it only took a breath for this flame vortex to be torn. With the flashing of two blood-colored flashes, the flame vortex completely disappeared. As the Scarlet Blood Blade plunged straight through, it smashed into Wen Ji’s golden spear with a resounding clash.

A heavy ring resounded in the air and Wen Ji’s body swayed as blood leaked out from the corner of his mouth. However, he stubbornly endured and did not retreat. The Scarlet Blood Blade had cut half an inch into the golden spear he had infused all of his might into, but it was still very far from cutting it apart.

Zihuan had arrogantly yelled that he wanted to shatter Wen Ji’s spear, but after five strikes, Wen Ji still managed to hang on… Wen Ji initially looked as if he had poured all his strength into a fierce assault, but he suddenly switched positions, avoiding Zihuan’s attacks and reverted from defense to attack as quickly as he possibly could. Even though he had been injured, he had yet to retreat a single step.

Zihuan’s eyes narrowed and he yelled in a low voice, “You punk, collapse!”

The flames on the Scarlet Blood Blade suddenly flashed and an enormous energy exploded outwards as Zihuan put all of his strength into this strike. Wen Ji’s face paled and his body was blown backwards, but Zihuan’s blade followed after like a striking viper. In a short space of time, three streaks of thick, eye-piercing blood-colored blade beams flew out.

Clang!! Clang!! Scree!!

After enduring the second blade beam, the golden spear finally flew out of Wen Ji’s hand. The third blade beam slashed into his chest, cutting apart the profound energy shielding his body and the breastplate wrapped around his chest… But after it had cut through both the profound energy and the armor, the Scarlet Blood Blade had no more power. Wen Ji flew through the air, but he managed to land solidly on his feet, and underneath the broken breastplate, his chest only had one thin red line drawn across it.

Wen Ji made a gesture with his hand and the golden spear was recalled into his hand. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and chuckled, “It has already been eight moves.”

Even though he had been beaten like a dog and only had the power to defend than attack, he had managed to solidly resist the attacks of the Zihuan who was three levels stronger than him in profound strength… And especially those last three blows, they were executed using Zihuan’s full strength.

And the boast that Wen Ji would be beaten down in ten moves was yelled out for all to hear by Zihuan himself. So if he could not win in ten moves, he would undoubtedly have slapped his own face.

“This bastard…” Duke Zihuan ground his teeth silently, but gave off an air of disdain, “This duke was merely showing you mercy just now because I did not want you to lose in too ugly a manner. Did you really think that you are worthy to grace this duke’s Scarlet Blood Blade for so long?!”

Duke Zihuan’s eyes gained a fierce focus. He suddenly let out a low roar as the bloody light on the blade suddenly exploded forth. In an instant, Wen Ji’s already unstable domain was directly shorn into two halves.

The profound art that Zihuan cultivated was the Blood Flame Blade and the weapon he used was also the blood-red Scarlet Blood Blade. Even his energy blades were blood-colored, and it was to the extent that even the flames that he released materialized as blood flames. After his profound energy had suddenly flared up and exploded, the air within a hundred meter radius of him was covered in blood-colored ripples of energy, and the entire arena seemed to be covered with a layer of dull-colored blood.

The complexion of Wen Ji, who was the closest to Zihuan, suddenly changed. He doggedly gritted his teeth and positioned the golden spear in front of him.

Duke Zihuan let out a deep, low yell as he raised the Scarlet Blood Blade horizontally across… And the aura of his blade was sufficient enough to manifest an astonishing power so it definitely had exhausted a suitably large amount of energy. But in order to defeat Wen Ji in two moves, he had no choice but to pay the price… the big words had already been spoken, so he had to defeat Wen Ji with this attack, no matter what.

“Nether Flame Strike!!”

Duke Zihuan yelled out as the Scarlet Blood Blade lashed out and in an instant energy blades crazily flew out as they enshrouded the entire area and rended it asunder.

Facing the blade beams and blood flames which seemed to cover the sky, Wen Ji heightened his focus to the extreme. With a loud yell, he retreated as swiftly as he could while concentrating all the profound energy he could muster into the golden spear. The golden spear began rotating rapidly and formed a giant flame barrier.

Bang!!

It was as if a blood lotus had bloomed in midair, and below the blood lotus, the Scarlet Blood Blade fiercely clashed together with the golden spear. The power of both the Overlords surged wildly as it erupted forth and a thirty-three meter wide curtain of flames spread at the center of the Demon Imperial Hall.

Wen Ji’s flame domain had completely dissipated and his entire body flew out from within the curtain of flames along with his golden spear, heavily falling onto the ground. It was only after he tumbled and rolled on the ground many times that he was able to force himself up to his feet. But blood was flowing rapidly from one of his arms and he had ended up outside of the arena.

“Wen Ji, you have lost. You may withdraw.” The Little Demon Empress declared expressionlessly.

As her voice fell, the people from Duke Xu Palace had already flown to Wen Ji’s side, and they carried him back to their seats. At the same time, they excitedly praised him, “You actually forced Duke Zihuan to use the Nether Flame Strike… Young duke, you put up a good fight.”

“Heh…” Wen Ji managed to croak out a laugh. After which he closed his eyes and promptly fainted dead away.

“This punk actually wasted so much of this duke’s energy.” After the Nether Flame Strike had been used, Duke Zihuan began to show faint signs of strain, but he could not blame anyone else, he could only blame himself for boasting too recklessly. And it was at this moment that a fierce sword wind suddenly descended from above.

“Duke Xi Palace’s Zi Feng, please give me your guidance!!”

Duke Zihuan was about to reply, but Zi Feng did not even give him an opportunity to open his mouth. What came at him instead was a series of rapid attacks that consisted of fierce flames and sword shadows. Zihuan had just used a huge skill so he suffered from a temporary deficit of profound energy. Under these series of rapid strikes, he hurriedly retreated from his opponent in a fluster. But in the end, he was still the one who was ranked fourth among the Illusory Demon Seven Scions. Moreover, the other party only had a profound strength at the third level of the Tyrant Profound Realm. His profound energy swiftly surged forward and the bloody light of the Scarlet Blood Blade radiated out, “Trash like you wants to win against this duke? Keep dreaming!!”

Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang!!

He chained together five strokes of his blade and a huge blood-colored wave of fire was blasted out. Zi Feng teetered on the edge of the arena as he was pushed all the way back, but he lifted his sword and charged forward once more as he fearlessly clashed swords with Zihuan. Twenty clashes later, he was inevitably sent flying nearly one hundred meters by Zihuan’s blade and vomited three arrows of blood in succession. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and raised his sword anew. He let out a wild yell, and thrusted directly towards Zihuan as the howl of his sword caused the entire Demon Imperial Hall to vibrate.

“Rainbow Rend!!”

It was as if a meteor had drawn itself across the space in the Imperial Demon Hall and even the ones in the corners of the hall could feel a shocking sword intent. Facing Zi Feng’s sword strike, Duke Zihuan let out a wild and arrogant shout. He did not dodge or duck, an instead, took it head on…

“Phantom Flame StrikeBlade!!”

Bloody light and sword shadows clashed chaotically, but the bloody light suddenly flashed, passing through layers of sword shadows and cut across Zi Feng’s body.

Zi Feng gave out a low moan and his long sword flew out of his hand as his entire person flew out as well as he landed in the seats which were more than six hundred and fifty meters away.

“Zi Feng has lost, it is still Zihuan who is victorious!” The Little Demon Empress said with furrowed brows.

Within the east wing, Zihuan’s ability was only in the middle of the pack, but the three people who had been sent forth from the west wing had all fallen under his blade! The expressions of all the people who were seated in the west wing had become uglier and uglier, and at this time, a person from the Duke Palaces flew up into the air and sent a blast of fierce fire towards Zihuan.

“Duke Gu Palace’s Cheng Yang, take this!!”

The fourth representative presented himself thusly and greeted Duke Zihuan with a fierce assault.

Flames clashed and profound energy rumbled, as the middle of the great hall was filled with endless explosions and roars of power. The two opponents clashed fiercely for tens of rounds, but following the explosion of a cluster of blood flames, Cheng Yang directly fainted due to his serious injuries.

The fourth representative of the west wing… had lost yet again!!