Fang Yuan vs Ju Kai Bei (3)
Ju Kai Bei steadies his scattered thoughts and reminds himself he has not lost yet: he holds rank four initial stage cultivation, an edge in primeval essence, and a killer move still in reserve. The two resume trading blows, and the fight can no longer be called merely intense; it has turned desperate, Ju Kai Bei’s ivory armor breaking and mending over and over while he coughs blood, Fang Yuan restraining self-reliance Gu so his own wounds keep bleeding and his bones keep cracking under the pain. The worse his injuries, the stronger he grows, and before long he can hold five beast phantoms at once. ch. 319
Ju Kai Bei is not weak either: his own healing Gu holds up, and dragon guts Gu, dragon travel tiger steps Gu and dragon-elephant Gu share similar law fragments that resonate together, raising the odds his dragon-elephant phantom appears when he needs it. Furious at being outmatched by someone he calls too arrogant, Ju Kai Bei sweeps his arms and erupts with three dragon-elephant phantoms at once, a force that overwhelms even five beast phantoms and sends Fang Yuan flying with both arms fractured, his left folded into a right angle with the broken bone exposed and bleeding. Fang Yuan grits his teeth, activates self-reliance Gu, and heals one arm before wrenching the other back into place to force the break shut, bone knitting first, then flesh, then skin. He heals mid-fight while dodging with horizontal charge Gu and vertical crash Gu at the same time, calm and evasive though he was ferocious moments before, and uses the black stone forest so well that Ju Kai Bei’s faster dragon travel tiger steps Gu still cannot catch him. ch. 319
As the fight wears on, Fang Yuan’s phantom count climbs from five to six, then seven, then eight, and the once-vocal crowd falls silent, unsettled by the two fighters’ terrifying stamina. Even Fang Yuan’s iron body strains under eight phantoms at once: sweat pours off him, his muscles ache and go numb, and holding that many phantoms signals injuries severe enough that a single hit from three dragon-elephant phantoms could kill him. More than two hours into the fight, both men are visibly slowing. Even so, the match only grows more gripping to watch. ch. 319
Ju Kai Bei loses patience: his three-dragon-elephant strike depends on luck and can land at the wrong moment for Fang Yuan to simply dodge, and he cannot understand why Fang Yuan’s primeval essence still has not run dry when his own, despite being rank four, is running low. He recalls a secret letter from Shang Yan Fei and wonders whether Fang Zheng truly owns a heavenly essence treasure lotus, cursing his rival’s heaven-defying luck if so. He is right about the lotus, and does not know Fang Yuan also holds blood skull Gu and four flavors liquor worm besides. Deciding he cannot afford to lose, Ju Kai Bei retreats abruptly with dragon travel tiger steps Gu, too fast even on this terrain for Fang Yuan to catch, and the crowd realizes at once what is coming: his killer move. ch. 319
Ju Kai Bei activates djinn heart Gu, djinn body Gu and djinn mind Gu together for djinn transformation: his body triples in size, a white aura wraps him, and both his physical strength and mental energy triple, turning his three dragon-elephant strength into nine. The growth splits his ivory armor apart, since the Gu cannot stretch with him, leaving him briefly and completely defenseless at what is otherwise his strongest moment. Wei Yang, watching from the crowd, sees the opening and shouts for Fang Yuan to strike, but the sound-isolating barrier around the stage keeps his voice from reaching anyone, and Fang Yuan does not move. Ju Kai Bei had, in fact, activated hard qi Gu just before the transformation, a Gu that looks like formless, undefended air but in truth gives him a solid defense, and he even slows his armor’s regrowth to bait an attack he is confident of winning. The armor finishes regrowing before Fang Yuan attacks, and Ju Kai Bei is left wondering to himself whether Fang Zheng somehow detected the ruse or simply held back for another reason. His own djinn transformation, meanwhile, is burning through his primeval essence and mental energy three times as fast, and cannot be sustained for long. ch. 319
Djinn-sized, Ju Kai Bei charges with dragon travel tiger steps Gu, and Fang Yuan retreats and dodges with horizontal charge and vertical crash Gu instead of engaging. Ju Kai Bei reads it as a stalling tactic and dismisses the danger: his stride is now three times longer, his speed under dragon travel tiger steps Gu even faster, and by this point his djinn-scale strength has flattened most of the black stone forest, so the terrain no longer helps Fang Yuan. ch. 319
