Martial World (Web Novel)
chapter-252

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“My Seven Profound Valley’s Soul Alacrity Law definitely has less backlash than yours! We’ll see just who can hold out longer!”

Bi Tinghua was also ready to make any sacrifice necessary; this was a battle he couldn’t afford to lose.

Once his soul was damaged, at worst he would have to spend several months recovering in bed. He could just spend some of his sect points and use his connections to obtain a few bottles of the best soul recovery pills, and he’d be back in no time.

But if he lost this match, not only would he lose all his face, his spirit would be so frustrated that it would negatively affect all of his future cultivation.

Like this, the battle between Lin Ming and Bi Tinghua suddenly became extremely bitter and violent. Lin Ming’s Samsara martial intent was just like the ocean tide that never stopped; Bi Tinghua’s monsters and ghosts, even after being shattered, were endlessly birthed from their remains!

“I defend, you attack, and you consume three times the soul force that I do. Coupled with the side effects from the secret soul skill you are using, I don’t believe that your soul is made of iron! Let’s see how many lives you have to handle this!”

In Bi Tinghua’s opinion, Lin Ming was using some sort of forbidden soul technique, and the side effects of that technique would certainly be more dangerous than the one he was using. After all, Lin Ming was just some small country side bumpkin martial artist, there was no way he had adequate or decent training in understanding the consequences of soul damage. If he can’t get medicine in the future, his cultivation might even decline!

Thinking this, Bi Tinghua was suddenly in an jubilant mood. He had originally been depressed after having been forced to use the Blood Sacrifice Soul Alacrity Law, but now he was finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Now, it didn’t matter how miserable he would be. What was more important was how miserable his opponent would be!

If a man faced death alone, then he would feel extreme terror. But if faced with the end of the world together, then there wasn’t anything to fear.

At this moment, Bi Tinghua’s expression changed. In the dreamland world, the massive black vortex that had been giving him a headache suddenly disappeared. In its place a mass of Hungry Ghosts swelled up, thin bones protruding all over. These Hungry Ghosts had distorted limbs as if they were emaciated, and their heads were incomparably massive. Their mouths were twisted sideways, and sharp teeth glinted in the dark. Their blood-red tongue drooped downwards, constantly leaking saliva.

“Could this fellow actually have figured out the concept of using illusions to attack?” Bi Tinghua’s face darkened. Up until now, Lin Ming had only been using that massive black vortex to attack. But now he had summoned a horde of Hungry Ghosts; he thought that these Hungry Ghosts stemmed from the wilds of Lin Ming’s imagination.

“Ashura King!”

After Bi Tinghua used the Blood Sacrifice Soul Alacrity Law, Bi Tinghua’s soul force had experienced an increase in strength. He was able to directly summon that Ashura King that was usually difficult to call down!

Bang!

The Ashura King smashed into the piles of Hungry Ghosts. The Hungry Ghosts threw themselves on the Ashura King, frenziedly biting its body. Then, Bi Tinghua’s face became extremely ugly. The Ashura King managed to resist for a while, before being slowly chewed apart…..

………………………………

After the first half an hour, another quarter of an hour passed!!!!

The two were still standing on stage, a winner not yet decided!

At this point, the Mirage Faction disciples that were watching began to feel anxious and doubtful; if the match had reached this point, it could only mean that the situation in their soul battle was extremely dangerous!

A physical injury would only take a few days to heal. Something like a fracture would take a few months. But if the soul was damaged, it might possibly take several years or even a lifetime to recover from.

Even with the support of top quality pills and medicines, it would still take several months to recover.

The two individuals had been standing on stage for almost an hour, and yet there was no victor yet. Had they two of them gone all out against each other?

“Senior-apprentice Brother Bi has probably used the Blood Sacrifice Soul Alacrity Law; if you look at his eyes you can see they are completely bloodshot. He’s already reached his absolute limit! If he continues any longer, there’s a chance his soul would be extremely hurt!

“Let’s wait for another incense stick of time. If the match still isn’t settled, then we will ask the referee to force it to an end; even a draw would be fine. But I don’t think that the Lin boy will be able to last another incense stick of time. You can tell from his red face that something’s not right with him.”

“Mm. I felt his soul force suddenly shoot up a moment ago. He definitely used some sort of secret soul skill to boost his power, and its strength is much greater than the Blood Sacrifice Soul Alacrity Law. Normally speaking, the more potent a secret skill is, the greater its backlash will be.”

After Lin Ming galvanized the pure soul force that had been buried beneath his spiritual sea, it had caused the blood flow within his body to accelerate and thus his face had become flush red with blood. To a Mirage Faction disciple, it was just like the deathly redness that occurred after using a soul enhancing secret skill.

“Half an incense stick has passed, how can Lin Ming still persist?” A Mirage Faction disciple commented as he furrowed his brows.

“Something’s wrong….”

The Mirage Faction disciple felt something fishy was happening. Lin Ming had simply been able to last for too long a time. Moreover, his soul force power had suddenly experienced a great increase. Besides a soul enhancing secret skill, there was no other explanation as to how that could have happened. Did Lin Ming have a secret skill that somehow didn’t have any negative side effects?

This was absolutely impossible.

He immediately rejected this incredulous idea. If there really was a secret skill like this, then wouldn’t a martial artist’s soul force be all-powerful and endless?

At this a moment, a girl that was standing next to him raised a trembling finger and pointed towards the stage. She whispered, “Senior-apprentice Brother Bi….his….nose is bleeding….”

“Mm?”

The disciple turned around and saw that two streams of blood were flowing down Bi Tinghua’s nose, leaking past his mouth and unceasingly dripping down his chin.

“This is bad!”

“Stop the match! This other man is a crazy madman!”

At this moment, Bi Tinghua’s body trembled, and then he slumped face down on the ground…..

“Lin Ming, victory!”

With the referee’s announcement, most of the audience only had a tepid reaction. This silly little stupid match was finally over. From the beginning to end, the two of them had only stood on stage staring at each other for almost an hour! What could be more boring than this match?

Several disciples of the Mirage Faction rushed on stage. Bi Tinghua’s face was pallid, his eyes were bloodshot, and his nose was bloody. He had long lost consciousness.

“Let’s carry him off.”

The 20 year-old female disciple waved her hand, ordering everyone. She only had unpleasant feelings towards someone like Bi Tinghua, but for better or for worse, he was still one of the three top core disciples of the Mirage Faction’s younger generation.

She looked at Lin Ming deeply, wanting to find some consequence he suffered from using a secret soul technique. However, she was disappointed as she found nothing.

She didn’t believe that there was a secret soul technique that didn’t have any side effects. In that case, there could only be one possible explanation, and that was that Lin Ming had an extraordinarily overwhelming soul force capacity. He must have only prepared to be a weak soul force user, and then lured Bi Tinghua into a battle of attrition with him.

The woman’s voice was icy as she said, “You could already have won earlier, and yet you still deliberately led Bi Tinghua into fighting with you like this?”

Lin Ming had been walking off the stage, but hearing the woman’s question he stopped in his tracks and glanced backwards. He didn’t deny anything. After all, it would impossible for him to clearly explain about the pure soul force that had been slumbering deep beneath his spiritual sea.

He pointed at Bi Tinghua who was lying on the ground and said, “Believe whatever you want, but if I was the one lying on the ground right now, I believe that your Junior-apprentice Brother would have been very happy to see me in a miserable state. I hadn’t even used my full strength against him, and yet he turned out like this. Did he use some sort of forbidden secret skill? It’s only a friendly martial arts contest, there was no need to push through a secret skill with side effects in order to deal with me. Does he have that great a hatred with me?”

The woman was stunned, speechless. She couldn’t find the words to refute Lin Ming.

“I didn’t force him to use any secret skill, this was something that he brought down upon himself, and yet you are actually blaming me for harming him. Is this the logical reasoning of your Seven Profound Valleys Mirage Faction? Only you can bully others? Others cannot resist?”

The woman grit her teeth and said, “You obviously had ulterior motives and lured Bi Tinghua into this state! Your sly words and arguments are meaningless here. After entering the finals, you will encounter the Mirage Faction’s direct disciple, Huan Xiaodie. When that time comes, I hope you can fight like a man, and not immediately give up!”

“Naturally, that isn’t something you need worry about.” Lin Ming finished his sentence and then turned around to walk off stage.

The audience made room for Lin Ming to leave. In fact, to most people, Lin Ming’s battle wasn’t worthy of anything special.

The match had lasted for almost a whole hour, and though he had defeated Bi Tinghua, it seemed that he had only done so reluctantly. His face had whitened, and then it had flushed red. Obviously, this fight had been extremely difficult for him.

Lin Ming’s strength was recognized as a bit higher than Bi Tinghua’s. But how could this strength compare to someone like Jing Chanyu?

The odds of the gambling house had changed. Now Jing Chanyu’s odds were 1:1.8, Jing Chanshi’s odds were 1:2, and Lin Ming’s odds were 1:4.

Because of the match between Bi Tinghua and Lin Ming, Jing Chanyu’s odds had gone up whereas Lin Ming’s odds had gone down. But the odds still favored Jing Chanyu.

Throughout every single match so far, Jing Chanyu had maintained her calm. There hadn’t even been an opponent who had managed to force her into taking a single step; no one knew just how much of her strength she had used to defeat Zi Ling.

As for Lin Ming, he had already approached his limit in facing Bi Tinghua. Unless he had cards still hidden in his sleeve, then his chances of defeating Jing Chanyu weren’t looking good.

After the five total victory contestants in the seventh group finished their matches, the remaining matches weren’t so interesting. Although everyone that had managed to pass the first group stage could be considered a master, there was simply too great a difference compared to the first few matches.

Like this, the group stage advanced to the second round.

Fang Qi was the first one to go on stage, and his opponent was Zi Ling. As for who his opponent was: Zhou Yan or Zi Ling, there was simply no difference to him.

A single move, instant defeat!

“Fang Qi, victory!”

As the referee announced this, Zi Ling let out a sad, low-spirited sigh. She had been hoping to enter the first tier, but now that she had lost two straight matches, unless there was an accident, she would definitely lose to that Lin Ming fellow!

“Second round….second match….” The referee intentionally paused here, and all of the contestants pricked their ears up in attention. Because the matches were arranged completely according to the referees’ wishes, none of the contestants knew who would be the next one called up.

“Second match, Lin Ming against Jing Chanyu!”

With this sentence, the entire audience rose in an uproar. Lin Ming against Jing Chanyu was absolutely the most anticipated match of the entire seventh group!

The unbeatably Zi Ling and Bi Tinghua who both had complete victories in the first group stage had already been defeated. Now, there were only three people who were still undefeated, and two of those were Jing Chanyu and Lin Ming. As for Fang Qi against Jing Chanyu and Fang Qi against Lin Ming, truth be told, there wasn’t much interest in those matches. In everyone’s opinion, Fang Qi’s victory was inevitable; a direct disciple was simply too strong. With his peak Pulse Condensation period cultivation, his strength was already equal to a middle Houtian master’s; his position was simply unshakeable.

Thus, the most anticipated and the most suspenseful match was Jing Chanyu against Lin Ming!

The majority’s opinion was that as things stood, Jing Chanyu had a 70% chance of winning, and Lin Ming had a 30% chance of winning.

But how true this was, it could only be found out through a true battle.

Jing Chanyu’s clothes fluttered in the wind as she landed in the center of the martial stage.

Jing Chanyu greeted, “Grace Venerate Nation’s disciple, Jing Chanyu.”

She still had her thin gauze veil on; her voice someone unreal and nebulous.

Lin Ming cupped fists together in respect, “Lin Ming. Please advise.”