Chapter 1998 — A Cut Above the Rest: In His View It Was Nothing; If a Sneak Attack Wasn't Possible, So Be It. Once Wei Zhao Was Taken Care Of, Wouldn't Feng Sanhuang and Xu Shilan Be as Good as in His Pocket?

The Earth-rank man in black stepped forward, his left hand sweeping through the air with a graceful flourish. A sheath of cyan mist coalesced around his left arm, radiating a deep, biting chill. From the look of it, the cultivation method he practiced was water-element, paired with a snow-mist martial skill.

"Water element... snow-mist..." Gazing at the Earth-rank man in black before him, a flicker of bewilderment passed through Wei Zhao's eyes. His memory seemed to hold a vague impression of having known someone—a man or woman, he could not say—who also cultivated a water-element method tied to the snow-mist school. But exactly who it was, Wei Zhao could not recall in the least.

In the instant of Wei Zhao's bewilderment, the Earth-rank man in black had already unleashed his martial skill!

Wei Zhao's eyes blurred slightly, and he saw the Earth-rank man in black charging toward him. The cyan mist around his left fist had grown even more distinct, with faint flecks of starlight appearing upon it—apparently the result of water-mist crystallization.

"Icy Snow Thorn!" With a furious shout from the Earth-rank man in black, the cyan mist around his left fist abruptly burst from his body and transformed into a pale cyan blade, stabbing at Wei Zhao's chest with terrifying speed.

Wei Zhao was badly startled and hurriedly snapped back from his recollections to reality. Had the jade pendant's warning not suddenly flared with overwhelming intensity, making him instinctively twist aside, that pale cyan ice blade would most certainly have struck him in the chest—if not run him clean through the heart, then at least dealt him a grave wound.

It was only thanks to that instinctive dodge that the ice blade was narrowly evaded—yet it still grazed Wei Zhao's arm, slicing through his clothes and carving a long, bloody gash across his skin.

"Ah!" Xu Shilan let out a startled cry. She had not imagined the attacker could be so formidable, sending forth an ice blade with his bare hand. To her, it was utterly beyond belief, like a special effect in a television drama.

"Miss Xu, please don't disturb Brother Lin. At a moment like this, distraction is the gravest taboo." Feng Sanhuang frowned and reminded her in a low voice. Though he, too, was not optimistic about Wei Zhao—the opponent was too powerful, his martial skill too fierce—even an expert of the same rank would have poor odds, Feng Sanhuang thought, let alone Wei Zhao, an expert two ranks below.

"Ah... all right." Xu Shilan nodded gravely. "What should we do? How can we possibly help him?"

"We can only wait..." Feng Sanhuang wanted to say that if things turned bad, they should make a run for it at once, but those words would not come out.

"That's right, Sister Han. I think since classmate Wei Zhao is risking his life for us, we can't run away on our own at a time like this—that would be far too disloyal!" Cheng Yiyi was a person of great loyalty; otherwise, she would not have agreed, this time, to come to the school for the freshman party at Boss Zhang's request.

"Mm!" Xu Shilan nodded too. She also felt that fleeing for her own life at this moment would not be right.

Having dodged that ruthless strike, Wei Zhao breathed a quiet sigh of relief, but a grave expression stole over his face. The opponent's mastery of his martial skill had reached the point of releasing and retracting at will. Wei Zhao could do the same, but his skills were fire-element, and fire and water are mutually countering. The outcome was truly anyone's guess...

If the opponent had been a cultivator of some other element, Wei Zhao's chances would have been considerably better. But of all things, the man wielded the very element that countered his own—which left Wei Zhao deeply vexed. The first time he faced a higher-rank opponent in earnest, he had to face one with a countering element.

"You've got some skill, haven't you? But that was only the first stance!" The Earth-rank man in black sneered. Once more, ice mist condensed around his left fist, but this time it looked far more fierce and imposing. Clearly, as he had said, what he had just unleashed was the first stance of his martial skill—there was more to come!

And since he was now a mid-Earth-rank master, he could at the very least unleash three stances, perhaps even a fourth!

Wei Zhao drew a deep breath and dared not show the slightest carelessness. He could tell that this move of the Earth-rank man in black was the second stance, for a bone-piercing chill came sweeping over him. Wei Zhao himself could bear it, but Xu Shilan and the others behind him felt as if they had been plunged into an ice cellar, shivering uncontrollably.

So Wei Zhao did not hesitate for a moment; he directly activated the second stance of Wildfire Fist to counter it...

In an instant, Wei Zhao's fist was likewise wrapped in a churning mass of crimson flame. The searing heat filled the frigid late autumn with warmth, and Xu Shilan and the others behind him all felt a cozy glow, as if standing beside a bonfire.

"Fire-element martial skill? If I'm not mistaken, that should not be the first stance... Could it be the third?" The Earth-rank man in black regarded Wei Zhao with some astonishment. He had never dreamed that Wei Zhao would be a fire-element cultivator—and, with the strength of early Earth Rank, could even unleash a third stance!

Under normal cultivation progress, one could generally only unleash a third stance upon reaching the peak of early Earth Rank, on the verge of breaking through to mid Earth Rank. And the man in black's current command of martial skills reached no more than four stances. That was only because, as a mid-Earth-rank master with a long-established reputation, he could unleash a fourth. Even so, he was a genius by the standards of his rank...

But Wei Zhao... could this fellow before him have been playing possum all along? Was his early Earth Rank a false front—had he been hiding his true strength?

At this thought, the Earth-rank man in black's gaze hardened. He resolved to trade a blow with Wei Zhao and probe his true measure.

Of course, a battle between Earth-rank masters carried far fewer concerns than one at Mystic Rank. In Earth-rank contests, martial skills carried enormous weight. He sized up Wei Zhao's Wildfire Fist and judged it to carry the force of a third stance, so in an instant he, too, shifted his Icy Snow Thorn to its third stance, meaning to clash with it head-on.

The Icy Snow Thorn was, in fact, a rather superior martial skill—one that could hold its own among the martial skills collected by the ancient Feng family. So he was confident that, when meeting a stance of the same rank and equal caliber, he could come out on top.

And so, the man in black's left fist drove straight at Wei Zhao's right fist!

Wei Zhao could not be bothered to explain at length. This Earth-rank man in black had mistaken his second-stance Wildfire Fist for a third stance. It seemed Uncle Qing's Wildfire Fist was indeed extraordinary—able, already in its second stance, to vie with the third stance of other martial skills.

What Wei Zhao had not anticipated, however, was that the Earth-rank man in black would, at the critical moment, switch his own second stance into a third. Wei Zhao had no time to convert his in turn. The two fists collided with a resounding boom...

The Earth-rank man in black rapidly retreated several paces, while Wei Zhao's body was sent flying backward!

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