Chapter 503 Mental Warfare!
just looking around. Why are you so angry" Hao Ren asked her indifferently.Zhao Yanzi didn't respond, perhaps because she couldn't think of a proper reply."If you don’t want me here, I’ll leave," Hao...Chapter 503: Battle of the Minds! (Votes, votes, votes...淒厲的叫喊...)
I'm rolling on the ground begging for votes~~ Except for that time during new book promotion when I asked for monthly tickets, this is the first time I’m pushing for them. Wah-wah-wah...
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Hao Ren didn't manage to stand steadily and felt a strong force pulling his body towards it, lifting him up into the air.
The dark clouds covering the sky above the island quickly dispersed, turning the blackness bright with clear daylight.
This meant that Zhao Kuo had successfully broken through and refined the Dark Crystal.
The demonic beasts scattered in all directions. The lower-ranked demonic beasts fled at top speed upon seeing Zhao Kuo's imposing aura. Higher-ranked demonic beasts, having developed intelligence, knew about the agreement between the demon kings of the Sea of Demons and the Dragon Palace of the East Sea not to invade each other.
The foolishly-minded lower-ranked demonic beasts attacking the islands of the Dragon Palace wouldn’t be involved in this. With all heavenly anomalies now gone, these higher-ranked demonic beasts needed to return to the Sea of Demons as soon as possible.
Swish-swish-swish...
The seawater surged. Regardless if they were lower or higher-ranked demonic beasts, they rushed toward the Sea of Demons in a chaotic rush. In this crowded environment, many lower-ranked demonic beasts were directly swallowed by the higher-ranked ones who were either annoyed or injured.
Zip-zip-zip...
The 1280 sword beams returned to Zhao Kuo's side and slowly rotated in a circular pattern.
Hovering high up in the sky, Zhao Kuo’s sword beams buzzed as they changed colors, flashing five different hues.
Hao Ren flew into midair with an air sword stabilizing his figure. He looked at Zhao Kuo and felt this was truly a master's aura
Wind Rank
Through the Inspector’s token, Hao Ren immediately sensed Zhao Kuo’s realm.
Before refining the Dark Crystal, Zhao Kuo was at Upper Grade Exchange Rank. Using that instant when he broke through his realm to refine the Dark Crystal, it was also the immense energy from the Dark Crystal that allowed him to break through smoothly.
Zhao Kuo now appeared imposing and mighty, but breaking through his realm and refining the Dark Crystal must have been very perilous, like the sudden gusts of wind and surging waves around the island.
"Hurry up"
Seeing Hao Ren standing still on an air sword in midair, half of Zhao Kuo’s sword beams suddenly shifted.
640 sword beams rushed towards Hao Ren.
"You can't beat Uncle Three. Beg for mercy," Zhao Yanzi shouted from the beach.
Hao Ren's hands gently moved, sending all 320 sword beams out.
Sizzle...
The sound of friction was somewhat piercing as the sword beams collided with each other.
Zhao Kuo's 640 sword beams, along with Hao Ren's 320 sword beams, trace out an arc.
In a split second, Hao Ren feels that he can't control his own sword beams; Zhao Kuo's sword beams seem to stick to his, making it impossible for him to escape.
"Too weak," Zhao Kuo scolds.
His sword beams suddenly release Hao Ren's and rapidly retract into his body. The sword beams circling around his body are reduced to 120.
Though he started cultivating the "Divided Light Sword Shadow Technique" later than Hao Ren, Zhao Kuo's recovery of his cultivation realm and application of the technique far surpass Hao Ren’s.
Zhao Kuo may seem rough on the surface but is actually not foolish at all; furthermore, he’s a genius in cultivation.
He pulls out a piece of black gauze and wraps it around his head twice to cover his eyes.
Hao Ren looks at him in shock… Could it be that this Uncle Three plans on fighting blindfolded
Just as Hao Ren is still uncertain, Zhao Kuo's 120 sword beams suddenly launch an attack.
"Here they come."
Hao Ren’s 320 sword beams all fly towards Zhao Kuo’s sword beams in unison.
However, Zhao Kuo’s sword beams brush against Hao Ren's and directly head for Hao Ren’s location as soon as they touch.
"Watch out," Zhao Yanzi standing on the beach can't help but warn.
Zhao Yanzi watches them with frustration—Hao Ren and Zhao Kuo really act like archenemies, squabbling endlessly in the Dragon God Temple’s examination hall and now fighting fiercely around this Purple Bamboo Island.
At the moment of contact, Hao Ren realizes that Zhao Kuo isn’t completely blindfolded but instead uses his sword beams as eyes.
Hao Ren had once sat inside a cave and controlled his sword beams to spar with Little White. The method Zhao Kuo is using now is identical.
Given Zhao Kuo’s strength, even with just 120 sword beams, he has more than enough to handle Hao Ren’s 320.
Hao Ren mobilizes all his spiritual energy within him in one explosive movement.
The power of the 320 sword beams surges dramatically.
"Ouch…" Zhao Kuo, blindfolded with black gauze, feels Hao Ren's change and is slightly surprised. He didn’t expect this kid to still have some tricks up his sleeve.
On the air blade, Hao Ren unties his own black sash and covers his eyes as well.
The Zhao Yanzi left on the beach is truly dumbfounded—what kind of strength does my Uncle Three possess Why do you have to blindfold yourself too
"Uncle Three, please teach me," Hao Ren, now blindfolded, sincerely says as he focuses on sensing his surroundings.
“Alright,” Zhao Kuo loudly shouts in agreement. His 120 sword beams attack Hao Ren from three directions.
The speed of these sword lights was incredibly fast, each one rivaling a personal life-bound treasure.
Ding ding ding...
In a rapid sequence of clashing sounds,郝仁's sword lights stood upright and spun to knock away Zhao Kuo's sword lights.
In the darkness, whether it was his own sword lights or Zhao Kuo’s, each one could be seen clearly.
This is... Heart Mirror
Grand Elder Lu and Grand Elder Sun standing on the palace high platform both wore expressions of surprise.
The two practitioners were blindfolded during their sparring. This was something neither they had ever seen nor heard of before.
The soldiers stationed in various parts of the palace found it incredibly thrilling to watch 郝仁 and Zhao Kuo engage in a battle high up in the air, exchanging blows with each other.
They hadn't witnessed the trials at the Dragon God Temple, but seeing 郝仁 and Zhao Kuo's sword lights swirling around was quite unbelievable — no wonder they were the former and current grand generals; impressive indeed!
"Haha, Third Brother is looking for a 'Steady Crystal' match," Chancellor Xia said after observing for a while.
“Steady Crystal” Grand Elders Lu and Sun looked rather surprised.
"You both have refined the Mysterious Crystals; could you not know about this layer" Chancellor Xia asked them.
The two elders exchanged glances, feeling somewhat bewildered.
As Earth Level cultivators, they had their own water element Mysterious Crystals. After refining a Mysterious Crystal, besides the preparation before refinement and breakthrough during refinement, there was also stabilization after refinement...
A newly refined Mysterious Crystal wasn't stable yet and hadn’t completely merged with one's spiritual meridians. At this time, it needed to be stabilized. One way was to spend ten days or even months slowly integrating the crystal into one’s body. Another method was for a cultivator of matching attributes to nurture their meridians.
Grand Elder Lu and Sun had chosen the more stable former approach back then.
Pondering this, both elders immediately understood that Zhao Kuo wasn't challenging 郝仁 but using 郝仁's Sword Shadow Decision to polish his own Five Elements Mysterious Crystal.
In the millions of Dragon race cultivators, only 郝仁 had cultivated such a rare Sword Shadow Decision with the Five Elements cultivation method.
Looking at the sword lights in the sky again, they finally realized that these weren't fierce clashes but graceful interweaving dances, presenting an elegant combination of movement and stillness.
Spiritual energy being released externally, spiritual energy being released externally
Elders Lu and Sun marveled silently.
Compared to the method of regulating meridians through palm-to-palm contact, this external release and mutual regulation was much more advanced!
Zhao Kuo's unspent spiritual energy could be released to 郝仁, while 郝仁’s resistance against certain levels would feed back to Zhao Kuo.
This was akin to moving the adjustments from one’s small internal world to a large external realm. This technique was close to the minor神通of Body Outside Self that only those at the Heavenly Dragon Realm could achieve.
Grand Elders Lu and Sun had heard of a method used by monster beasts where they exchanged妖丹for healing and cultivation, with two matching屬性妖丹transferred out of their bodies for mutual nourishment.
Mature dragon cultivators have their dragon cores inside their bodies, and cannot be removed. For younger dragon cultivators like Zhao Zan Zi, dropping out their dragon core is both careless and dangerous.
However, Hao Ren and Zhao Kuo exchanged spiritual energy in a different manner, similar to how monster beasts exchange妖丹互煉 (mutual refinement of demon cores).
Bang...
The sword light entangled in the sky suddenly exploded.
Hao Ren and Zhao Kuo each flew backward十幾米 (over ten meters).
Zhao Kuo spat out a mouthful of blood, while Hao Ren had a trace of blood at the corner of his mouth.
However, compared to the surging meridians, what was more intense was that Hao Ren's sword light outside his body suddenly strengthened.
Zhao Kuo needed a "conductor" to transform the strong energy in the玄晶 (mystic crystal) that couldn't be refined out. Hao Ren's sword light was an excellent material for this purpose.
The majority of the unrefined energy dissipated into the universe during their battle, but a small portion was absorbed by Hao Ren's sword light. Even just this little bit of energy was a generous gift.
Hao Ren quickly retracted the sword light within a hundred-meter radius around him and felt his spiritual energy boiling inside him.
His dragon aperture hadn't changed, but there had been a qualitative improvement in the purity of his spiritual energy.
"Hahaha!" Zhao Kuo laughed wildly. After Hao Ren's sword light circulated back and forth within his body, the seven-heart five-color lotus he placed inside finally stabilized.
Endless surging energy flowed continuously into his limbs from the universe.
This tiny seven-heart five-color lotus was indeed a mystic crystal that balanced the Five Elements. An almost-bottlenecked dragon core, suddenly with an outrageous treasure's assistance, became lively and agile again.
Shoo...
Zhao Kuo casually released a beam of sword light from his finger.
Bang...
A small island several kilometers away was directly blown into pieces.
"Excellent, very good, superb!"
Although Zhao Kuo's dragon core hadn't changed yet, the quality of spiritual energy in his body had improved tenfold. It faintly possessed the power of heaven and earth.
This was all due to the effects of the "seven-heart five-color lotus" mystic crystal.
Seeing Zhao Kuo hovering high up and laughing arrogantly, Elder Lu and Elder Sun smiled contentedly too. From the strength of Zhao Kuo's finger just now, even though his realm had only just reached Xun-grade, his actual power was stronger than these two Kun-grade cultivators. This made it seem that Zhao Kuo breaking through to the Heavenly Dragon Realm would be highly likely.
The stronger Zhao Kuo became, the better it was for Hao Ren too. Just like how Zhao Kuo needed Hao Ren's help to stabilize his realm when he broke through, later on Hao Ren would also need Zhao Kuo's assistance when he reached a breakthrough.end”“Actually, he’s pretty good. And I know Zhao Yanzǐ as well; she’s also a very nice girl,” said Xie Yujia in her gentle defense of both Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzǐ.Hao Ren left the office door and walke...