Chapter 2137 — Something Strange!

"Both sides ready—take your positions, prepare to begin!" Old Master Zhao announced once Wei Zhao and Han Xiaopo had climbed onto the platform. "Three, two, one—begin!"

And so, on the heels of Old Master Zhao's words, the final championship battle began...

Woking Blade gave Wei Zhao no chance to condense a true-qi bomb; the instant the match started, he and the spirit wolf charged at Wei Zhao and Han Xiaopo together!

Woking Blade's target was Han Xiaopo, and the spirit wolf's opponent was Wei Zhao—the most sensible arrangement, and the one hardest for Wei Zhao to deal with!

During the Ice Palace trial, Woking Blade had been an early Earth Rank inner-family expert; now he stood at the peak of early Earth Rank. His rate of advancement was hardly swift—it seemed the Qianshan Sect truly did devote its main efforts to communicating with spirit beasts, and its members' individual strength did not climb at the monstrous pace of those hidden clans.

Wei Zhao frowned. He could not let Woking Blade land a blow on Han Xiaopo—even an early Earth Rank at its peak against an early Earth Rank like Han Xiaopo would be a one-sided rout. In his urgency, Wei Zhao circulated his inner-energy cultivation method and unleashed the second stance of the Wood Forest Illusion Thousand Transformations with a single strike!

None of Wei Zhao's other martial techniques could strike two opponents in one move—unless it was a true-qi bomb—but the Wood Forest Illusion Thousand Transformations was different: one punch of its second stance was worth two punches!

"Boom—boom—" Wei Zhao's figure hurtled straight at Woking Blade and the spirit wolf, mighty true qi bursting forth, condensing upon his fist, then splitting into two phantom fists that smashed toward Woking Blade and the wolf!

Originally, Woking Blade had assumed that if Wei Zhao wanted to attack, he could only choose one target—either him or the spirit wolf. The wolf's hide was thick and tough; ordinary men could not even wound it. And if Wei Zhao slipped past the wolf to strike at him, Woking Blade could simply communicate with the wolf and send it wheeling around to attack Han Xiaopo instead!

Such was the advantage of the rapport one built with a spirit beast—constant communication. But what Woking Blade had not foreseen was that Wei Zhao's single punch, once launched, became two! Had his eyes deceived him, or what?

He did not believe Wei Zhao's one punch could truly become two. One real, one illusory—that was common enough in martial techniques—but one turning into two was unheard of! This was not because Woking Blade was ignorant; it was simply that he had truly never heard of such a thing!

And not just him—even Old Master Han, possessor of the Wood Forest Illusion Thousand Transformations, had believed before Wei Zhao first unleashed it that the technique was all feints and tricks, that in each stance only one punch was real and the rest were illusions meant to confuse. Only after Wei Zhao brought it forth did he learn that a single punch truly became two, even three!

So Woking Blade, thinking along these lines, made up his mind. Swiftly, in the spirit wolf's tongue, he communicated: "Pay it no mind. Of those two punches, one is real and one is false. We charge together, take whichever is real head-on, and when we find the false one, push straight through it and knock that Han Xiaopo off the platform!"

"Awoo..." the spirit wolf howled once to show it understood, and so man and beast charged forward without slowing, straight into Wei Zhao's technique!

Woking Blade had once been wary of that vacuum-wave fist technique of Wei Zhao's, but what Wei Zhao was using now was plainly not that technique. Judging by its energy fluctuations, it was fairly strong—but certainly not overwhelmingly so!

Naturally, the second stance of a martial technique would not be overly strong. Even if Wei Zhao wielded it with consummate skill and purity, it could not possibly cripple an enemy in a single blow! In that earlier battle he had traded countless blows with the Earth Rank man in black before finally killing him—and that had required the extreme third stance.

"Bang!" "Bang!" Two tremendous crashes, and Woking Blade and the spirit wolf were both blasted away by Wei Zhao!

Though man and wolf were not badly hurt, a flicker of disbelief still crossed their eyes—not disbelief at Wei Zhao's strength, but disbelief at the technique itself! Wei Zhao had clearly thrown only one punch, so how had it truly become two?

What kind of martial technique was this? Who had ever heard of such an outrageous technique—one punch becoming two?

Wei Zhao sighed. Even if he summoned the fourth stance of the Wood Forest Illusion Thousand Transformations, it would do nothing but waste his body's true qi—it could not kill Woking Blade and the spirit wolf. Against an opponent of the same rank, no single technique could simply slay the other; the true-qi bomb was a cheat of sorts, and it was not something he could use at will.

"You... this technique is bizarre!" Woking Blade scrambled quickly to his feet and ordered the spirit wolf: "Keep your distance from me—one left, one right, flank him. His technique can turn one punch into two, but it absolutely cannot reach far!"

It had to be said, Woking Blade had a sharp mind—he had found the way to break Wei Zhao's technique in an instant!

The platform was vast. If they split left and right, then even if Wei Zhao used the fourth stance of the Wood Forest Illusion Thousand Transformations—even four fists—the fists to left and right could not strike both of them at once! Unless he could summon the tenth stance, there was no way to unleash an attack of such wide range!

But that was impossible; Wei Zhao did not even entertain the thought. All he could do now was protect Han Xiaopo. So as Woking Blade and the spirit wolf pressed in from left and right, Wei Zhao swiftly flashed backward to stand before Han Xiaopo, shielding him!

"Awoo..." The spirit wolf lunged at Wei Zhao from the left...

"Han Xiaopo, prepare to die!" Woking Blade bore down on Han Xiaopo from the right...

Left and right, two directions—Wei Zhao simply could not bring his martial techniques to bear! And the platform was a round arena, with no corners or blind spots to exploit; whether he stood at the edge or the center, he could no longer use the Wood Forest Illusion Thousand Transformations against them!

"Wild Wolf Fist!" Woking Blade swung his fist at Han Xiaopo. His martial technique was a set designed to complement the spirit wolf, conjured from the wolf's own methods of attack. Its power was not especially great, but what it sought was the union of man and beast!

If the Wild Wolf Fist were used in concert with the spirit wolf's assault, its power would naturally be another matter altogether—but used alone, it fell far short.

Yet to avoid clashing head-on with Wei Zhao and to finish Han Xiaopo first, he had no choice but to separate from the wolf—for if the two of them stayed together, a single devastating move from Wei Zhao would blast them both and that would be the end of them!

In truth, Woking Blade was guarding against Wei Zhao's great killing move. That one strike was too powerful; if Wei Zhao had used it from the start, Woking Blade would have fled without a moment's hesitation!

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