Chapter 1709 — Wei Zhao Is Injured! "An Earth-Rank Martial Technique — Frenzied Fire Fist!" Wei Zhao was an assassin by trade, his eyes and his speed a cut above the ordinary expert, so when he saw Yushuixing suddenly turn to attack Chen Yutian, how could he fail to grasp the man's meaning?

Wei Zhao had meant to use Yushuixing for a little practice, but that no longer looked possible — so the moment he struck, he struck with an Earth-Rank martial technique! This Frenzied Fire Fist was a technique Uncle Qing had once used; it had only the first three forms, but for the present Wei Zhao that was already enough, for those first three forms had been made precisely for experts of the early Earth-Rank.

These past days Wei Zhao had been drilling the Frenzied Fire Fist on his own, but this was the first time he had turned it on an enemy.

Yushuixing's face froze. He had never imagined that Wei Zhao actually knew a martial technique! After all, the greatest difference between an Earth-Rank expert and a Mystic-Rank expert lay precisely in whether one commanded martial techniques. Yushuixing, that counterfeit Earth-Rank, had been force-fed up the ranks by pills — when had he ever learned a martial technique?

At most his strength had reached the early Earth-Rank; or, under the tyrannical potency of the pill, he could temporarily lift his power to match the peak of the early Earth-Rank. In a pure clash of brute force, Wei Zhao as he stood might not be Yushuixing's match — but with a martial technique in play, everything changed.

Martial techniques were not the same as plain fists and feet. Before the Earth-Rank, a contest between inner-school experts consisted of gathering true qi into one's fists and feet and striking the enemy purely with the quantity and the force of that qi.

A martial technique, however, could draw the utmost out of true qi. Put plainly, it converted true qi into moves, and was far more overbearing than true qi alone.

Yushuixing came of a great clan, so of course he had heard of martial techniques; likely only a loose cultivator like Wei Zhao had never heard of them. But now the latecomer had surpassed the master: a single ordinary Frenzied Fire Fist put Yushuixing on guard as though facing a mighty foe, and he no longer had the leisure to attack Chen Yutian. Hearing Wei Zhao's furious roar, he scrambled aside in terror, twisting his body away to escape the reach of Wei Zhao's strike!

But after Yushuixing had run clear, Wei Zhao's fist never came. Wei Zhao was still standing exactly where he had stood before, which left Yushuixing somewhat puzzled. Had Wei Zhao not just unleashed an Earth-Rank martial technique? Why did it look as though nothing had happened at all?

"Sorry — the move failed..." Wei Zhao sweated. The technique Uncle Qing had taught him — since Uncle Qing was no Earth-Rank expert and could not demonstrate it in person — could only be puzzled out by Wei Zhao himself, and this was his first time using it in live combat; one careless moment and it had come to nothing.

"Are you playing me?" Yushuixing assumed on instinct that Wei Zhao knew no martial technique at all and was merely boasting there to frighten him.

"No, no — I only advanced to Earth-Rank recently and just learned this new technique, so I'm not very practiced with it and couldn't get it out. My apologies!" Wei Zhao said, a little sheepishly. "Stand right there and don't move — I'll try another one and see if it works!"

"Damn it! Do you take this old man for a fool?" Yushuixing was furious at Wei Zhao's words. Did Wei Zhao think he was a three-year-old? Stand right there and don't move? Stand still and wait to be hit?

But Wei Zhao wasted no more words on him. Suddenly he thrust both fists forward and bellowed, "Frenzied Wild Fist!"

Yushuixing fled the spot in terror, quicker than a rat bolting! Hiding off to one side, he instinctively looked toward the direction Wei Zhao had attacked — only to find that Wei Zhao had still released no move at all!

Wei Zhao stood where he was, and the place he had attacked showed not the slightest damage!

"Wei Zhao, you bastard — are you playing me?" This time Yushuixing was thoroughly enraged. Once was forgivable; he believed Wei Zhao had only just learned the technique and was unskilled, and that was why it had not come out. But a second failure — what kind of nonsense was that? How was Yushuixing supposed to believe it? Anyone in his place would suspect that Wei Zhao was conjuring ghosts and gods purely to frighten him.

"I'm not playing you — it really didn't come out." Wei Zhao was in fact not lying to Yushuixing. Before this he'd had no target, so he had always simulated the technique's execution inside the space of his jade pendant; real combat was a first, and so he had botched it twice.

"I say you've got a death wish!" Yushuixing snarled.

"Wait a moment — this time it will definitely work!" Wei Zhao said, then bellowed at Yushuixing once more: "Frenzied Fire Fist!"

Though Yushuixing did not quite believe it, he still dodged to one side out of habit. That brat Wei Zhao was utterly treacherous — what if he really had been unable to release it before, and this time he did?

Unfortunately, this time too Wei Zhao released nothing! Once again Yushuixing had been "played" like a monkey!

And this time, Wei Zhao truly was playing him. This time Wei Zhao had no intention whatsoever of using the Frenzied Fire Fist again; having failed twice in a row, he had given up on it and begun compressing an energy bomb.

To be honest, Wei Zhao felt rather helpless about switching to this move. It was his only hidden card, and a somewhat pitiful one — he had used it from the Yellow Rank all the way up to the Earth Rank and was still using it! Wei Zhao was itching to unearth some new hidden cards, but the second stone gate had not opened, and every ability of the first layer of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art had already been studied and exploited by Wei Zhao to the very dregs; there was no other function left to wring from it.

So Wei Zhao could only begin compressing energy, preparing to attack Yushuixing with the Wave-Motion Fist.

On the surface, of course, he betrayed nothing, still bluffing Yushuixing for all he was worth.

"Only a ghost would believe you!" Yushuixing snorted, raised his fist and swung it at Wei Zhao. "Boy, today I'll kill you to pay my debt!"

Wei Zhao had already begun compressing energy within his body, but the time was too short and it had not yet reached the point where it could hurt anyone; seeing Yushuixing attack, he could only raise his own fist to meet it.

"Bang!" The two fists collided in midair with a tremendous report — the sound of true qi clashing between Earth-Rank experts!

Wei Zhao staggered back two steps, while Yushuixing stood rooted to the spot without shifting an inch!

Color flooded Wei Zhao's face in an instant, then turned to an ashen pallor, and a thread of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth...

"Pff—" Wei Zhao spat out a mouthful of blood, and everyone present who had been favoring him started in alarm! They had never expected that Wei Zhao, a true expert of the early Earth-Rank, would be unable to beat Yushuixing, a counterfeit of the early Earth-Rank propped up by pills!

In truth, Yushuixing was burning away his own life in exchange for that strength. In the early stage of the pill's effect, it could hold him in a state of great perfection at the early Mystic Rank — that is, a single step from the peak of the early Mystic Rank!

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