Mythical Three Kingdoms

”Boom!” A mushroom cloud erupted directly over the West Gate of Ye City.

”...Ma Chao is getting stronger,” Chen Xi said, even as he shielded his face with his sleeve from the wind and sand; his fragile body couldn’t withstand the impact and he almost toppled over.

”This guy’s probably here to pick a fight,” Fa Zheng said with slight headache. ”I wonder if General Zhang is okay.”

”He’s fine, not just fine, but couldn’t be better,” Zhao Yun appeared behind Fa Zheng, saying, ”Meng Qi’s attack didn’t break through his defense at all.”

As the dust settled, Zhang Fei still stood in the same spot. Despite Ma Chao’s control, the fierce explosion created a massive droplet-shaped crater tens of meters in diameter, with the scorching lightning even transforming parts of the earth into pottery.

Yet, Zhang Fei, placed at the core of Ma Chao’s attack, seemed completely unaffected, with electric sparks erupting all over his body, leaving no mark on him even as the shattered lightning struck.

”How is this possible?” Ma Chao was dumbfounded, he could clearly feel the intense heat left behind by the lightning mixed with Inner Qi across the ground and air. But Zhang Fei remained standing unaffected; how could this be?

”Meng Qi, next I will throw a punch; feel it well. Even if both are Inner Qi Manifestations, the massive difference in strength,” Zhang Fei stood at the ground, somewhat helpless. He knew he couldn’t continue sparring, as his unmatched strength was something he simply could not perfectly control given his current state.

If he unleashed it fully, he might accidentally hit Ma Chao, leaving him bedridden for a month. Actually, it wasn’t even a matter of fully unleashing; Ma Chao’s previous attack bounced off Zhang Fei just as he let go of his aura and resisted the attack.

The attack, which was enough to cause fatal harm to the Ultimate Inner Qi Manifestation, was counteracted partially by the force of Zhang Fei’s aura, followed by his resilient muscles enduring the hit without taking a step back.

More importantly, after the move, Zhang Fei clearly felt how the lightning had enhanced his muscles.

After Essence, Qi, and Spirit all reached the Inner Qi Manifestation, in a mutual enhancement situation, Zhang Fei found it difficult to determine his own strength. Still, based on his performance in resisting Ma Chao’s attack earlier, Zhang Fei was certain that taking him down would require none other than Lyu Bu.

”Feel it well,” Zhang Fei roared as he threw a punch in Ma Chao’s direction.

Essence, Qi, and Spirit perfectly fused into that punch; the formidable fist force nearly created a vacuum instantaneously upon swinging, forming a milky white ring in the air around, forcibly pushing outward.

The originally invisible, shapeless fist force further formed an enormous flaming fist on the periphery, and the surrounding environment seemed to undergo invisible distortion due to the power channeling Essence, Qi, and Spirit.

Minute cracks spread across the land due to such distortion, those distortive traces spread limitlessly towards Ma Chao, eventually locking in his position.

In that instant, in the eyes of observers like Xuu Chu, Zhao Yun, Huang Zhong, Ma Chao’s entire person appeared slightly distorted, and then the fist force, even bigger than Ma Chao with clearly outlined textures, blasted towards the distorted Ma Chao.

”Not good!” Zhao Yun, who entered the Eight-Rotation Strong Breakthrough once, understood what this distortion meant. Unlike his and Lyu Bu’s method of tearing through space along its pattern, Zhang Fei’s way relied entirely on the connection of Essence, Qi, and Spirit to forcefully distort space.

This spatial distortion visibly affects normal life reliant on space, and when the distortion is slightly larger, anything relying on space gets drawn into it. Now, Ma Chao was plainly caught in the channel of Zhang Fei’s fist force due to the spatial distortion, given the current situation, it seemed Ma Chao had no escape.

Although Zhang Fei’s method of warping space surely doesn’t stem purely from brute force, being able to achieve this effect through other influences definitely means the raw power is enough to explode Ma Chao.

[Gonna die, thankfully Physician Hua and Dr. Zhang are here, maybe there’s hope for rescue.] Zhao Yun could only watch wide-eyed as Zhang Fei’s fist force blasted towards Ma Chao; at least for now, he had no way of stopping it but wait for Ma Chao to endure it, then call for help.

”Block it for me!” At this moment, Ma Chao’s entire body was covered in lightning, totally different from the previous pale blue radiance; this time, the lightning emanating from Ma Chao was close to the natural blue-purple glow.

This power equivalent to natural lightning caused a scorched condition the moment it appeared on Ma Chao, even hair previously immune to lightning became dried, turning to ash.

However, with this power’s appearance, Ma Chao showed astonishing changes in strength, speed, and reaction, enduring the pain from spatial distortion, sprinting with a blood spurt out of the distortion’s scope, desperately evading the core attack from Zhang Fei.

At this moment, Huang Zhong, Hua Xiong, Chen Dao, Xuu Chu at Ye City’s West Gate were all watching that streak shooting back into the atmosphere like a meteor, burning with scarlet flames in broad daylight.

As for Ma Chao, though he dodged the fatal spots, given the current situation, he might well be knocked into the stratosphere.

”...This could kill someone,” Chen Xi mumbled, trembling, pointing with shaking fingers at the meteor crashing down in the sky.

”Rest assured, initially I planned to call Physician Hua and Dr. Zhang, but Meng Qi performed quite well earlier, managing to break free from spatial distortion before danger struck, avoiding a lethal hit. This move will probably just leave him down for a while then he’ll be fine,” Zhao Yun watched with satisfaction at the two meteorites already separated, speaking from afar.

”What I’m saying is, if Ma Chao seriously injured and potentially unconscious now, falls from at least ten thousand meters high, won’t he die from the fall?” Chen Xi asked expressionlessly.

Zhao Yun was shocked immediately, whistling, and the Night Illuminating Jade Lion turned into a stream of light flying over. Zhao Yun mounted swiftly and, as white light, charged towards the meteor at ten times the speed of sound.

”I think our military generals tend to be the type that handles killing but not burying. If I hadn’t spoken up, Zilong might watch his own brother-in-law fall to his death, and there’d probably be unrest in the household,” Chen Xi remarked expressionlessly while patting Fa Zheng’s shoulder.

”Meng Qi, this moron,” Fa Zheng said speechlessly, now it seemed he wouldn’t even need to attend his wedding feast, might even need lifting over.

Zhao Yun finally caught Ma Chao before he hit the ground, but when Zhao Yun returned Ma Chao, from Chen Xi’s viewpoint, Ma Chao seemed like he could be seasoned with spices and cooked.

Apparently some places were scorched, and his hair had become a mess.

”Third brother, were you trying to kill someone?” Chen Xi asked, slightly headache-stricken, glancing at Ma Chao, supposedly with a third of his bones broken, and muscles near cooked from the intense electric current, then turned to look with an odd face at Zhang Fei.

At this moment, Zhang Fei looked extremely awkward, Chen Xi’s question left him not knowing how to respond.

Is he supposed to say he didn’t expect such great power?

No, no, saying that would be utterly shameful.

”Ahem~” Zhang Fei coughed heavily twice, capturing everyone’s attention, then speaking with a rather frustrated and helpless tone, ”I went easy on him, okay? I warned him just to feel, not to block; how was I supposed to know he’s this weak! Couldn’t even smoothly escape the residual wave of fist force.”

At this moment, Ma Chao had just awoken, Zhang Fei’s frustrated and helpless tone was crystal clear for Ma Chao, who was about to curse Zhang Fei for being despicable; he could guarantee after this punch Zhang Fei’s stance appeared totally emptied, but now pretending like nothing happened.

However, as soon as Ma Chao opened his mouth, a roasted charred smell mixed with black smoke emerged, making it hard for him to breathe; he could only wide-eyed at Zhang Fei like a corpse refusing to shut its eyes.