Supreme of the Heavenly Realm
Chapter 421 - 418: 90% Strength

Chapter 421: Chapter 418: 90% Strength

"I merely stated the facts, and you already want to kill me, which shows how murderous you are. No wonder you committed such outrageous acts. Go ahead and attack!"

Ye Xuan’s expression remained calm, seemingly oblivious to the murderous intent radiating from Gui Qingluo. He flipped his hand and flicked the Dragon Abyss Ancient Sword, decorating it with sword light that flowed slowly in a golden hue along the blue blade, moving from the hilt to the tip.

"Rest assured, killing is not permitted during the grand assembly. I’ll just use some techniques to turn you into a half-dead puppet. That way, you’ll never be able to utter those words again," Gui Qingluo said with a chilling smile at the corner of his mouth, hinting at cruelty.

"We’ll see if you have the capability."

Ye Xuan’s expression remained calm. Though the Puppetry Technique was tricky, it was not unfathomable. In his past life, he had battled expert puppeteers of the Martial God Level, which were incomparable to the technique Gui Qingluo used.

"You’ll find out soon if I have the capability."

Gui Qingluo’s smile remained eerie. As soon as he finished speaking, his fingers moved as if playing a musical instrument, manipulating nearly invisible thin threads at his fingertips. Simultaneously, the originally rigid puppet slowly opened its blank eyes and began to move.

Whoosh!

The instant the puppet was activated, Ye Xuan swiftly flicked his wrist and struck with his sword, swiftly and sharply slashing towards Gui Qingluo’s face.

Bang!

The sword light did not hit Gui Qingluo’s body; instead, the puppet swiftly blocked it, holding a hook-and-sickle with a chilling glow that seemed like a visitation from the Grim Reaper.

The sword light Ye Xuan released was precisely deflected by the hook-and-sickle.

Squeak, squeak, squeak...

After deflecting Ye Xuan’s sword light, Gui Qingluo’s fingers suddenly intensified their movements. The almost invisible threads surged, creating waves in the air. The puppet holding the hook-and-sickle suddenly leapt from the platform, moving even faster than Mr. Iron Hand.

As the puppet surged forward, it seemed to pause mid-air in front of Ye Xuan, and its hook-and-sickle abruptly swung towards Ye Xuan’s throat, aiming to end his life.

The puppet moved so quickly it left only afterimages in the spectators’ view, leaving them astonished at the swift display.

Clang!

However, the puppet, no matter how fast, could not outpace Ye Xuan’s reaction. The deathly hook-and-sickle clashed with Ye Xuan’s Dragon Abyss Ancient Sword, and intense sparks flew everywhere.

But at that moment, Gui Qingluo’s mouth curved again into that eerie smile, and as he moved his arm, a black, sharp, and extremely pointed chain shot out from the puppet’s other sleeve, targeting Ye Xuan’s vital throat area again.

Clang!

Yet, the next moment, what sounded was another crisp sound. Ye Xuan’s left hand had unexpectedly drawn the Spiritual Edge Sword, and the chain could not harm him, only managing to entangle the sword.

"Let go!"

Gui Qingluo coldly shouted, and the chain wrapped around the Spiritual Edge Sword suddenly yanked, forcibly pulling the sword from Ye Xuan’s hand.

"This is bad."

Nangong Yao and others’ faces changed color. They had not expected Gui Qingluo to be so tough to deal with. The battle had barely started, and Ye Xuan had already lost a sword.

The current situation seemed ominous for Ye Xuan.

"You’re finally going to lose, it seems you and the Golden List are destined not to meet."

On the other side of the platform, Elder Lu’s face showed a smile. Although he couldn’t personally deal with Ye Xuan, he did not wish to see Ye Xuan advance and be selected by the Spirit Martial Continent’s Sect Envoys.

On the battle platform, seeing the successful removal of Ye Xuan’s Spiritual Edge Sword, Gui Qingluo’s chilling smile intensified. However, just as he was preparing his next move, Ye Xuan suddenly shifted his body, evading the puppet’s entanglement with a speed that surpassed normal reactions, and fiercely slashed his sword in the space between the puppet and Gui Qingluo.

Hiss, hiss, hiss!

As the sword Qi passed, something in the air made a sound of being cleaved, visible only to those who strained their eyes. What was being sliced was not something else but the nearly transparent thin threads manipulating the puppet by Gui Qingluo.

At the moment those fine threads were cut off, the puppet’s movements also suddenly slowed down.

At the same time, Ye Xuan’s left hand also struck out with a palm, hitting Gui Qingluo’s body directly.

"Was he pretending to be weak on purpose?"

The smile on Gui Qingluo’s face immediately stiffened, and then quickly faded. It turned out that Ye Xuan had not been disarmed by him, but had been feigning weakness on purpose, just to find this opportunity to sever the connection between him and the puppet.

"Do you think with a bit of cleverness that I’d be out of options?"

Contrary to what was expected, Gui Qingluo’s expression remained calm. He suddenly bit his finger and quickly drew a Blood Seal in his palm. As the Blood Seal squirmed, the puppet that had stiffened rapidly regained its ability to move and picked up the sickle to launch a fierce attack on Ye Xuan’s back.

Feeling the sudden cold wind on his back, Ye Xuan had no choice but to withdraw his attack. The Dragon Abyss Ancient Sword was transferred to his left hand, bringing up a fierce sword wind, and collided again with the sickle of the puppet.

Ding ding ding!

Ye Xuan and the puppet’s figures continuously interchanged, Qi Force and sparks flying. In a short time, Ye Xuan’s body was already marked with several bloodstains, but though the puppet bore even more sword marks, as a being that could not feel pain, these injuries were essentially irrelevant.

"This puppet is too troublesome."

Seeing this scene, many Martial Artists’ expressions also turned extremely grave; it was their first encounter with such sophisticated Puppetry Technique. Even though Ye Xuan had cut off those puppet threads, they still couldn’t break the opponent’s puppet manipulation.

"Indeed troublesome, fighting two against one, it’s simply an insolvable existence unless one can defeat Gui Qingluo himself with a thunderous force; otherwise, you will only be trapped by this puppet until death."

"Ye Xuan is really unlucky to meet such an opponent. If it were someone else, he might not lose."

Many began to lament Ye Xuan’s bad luck. With Ye Xuan’s strength, entering the top ten wasn’t out of the realm of possibility; rather, it was very likely. But meeting Gui Qingluo made Ye Xuan’s progression very difficult. After all, this was an elimination round—there had to be a victor, no chance for a draw.

"Kid, how about now? Can you tell me if I have the ability to turn you into waste? But it’s too late for regrets now, no one can stop what I’m going to do!"

Gui Qingluo’s face showed a cruel smile. In his view, it was only a matter of time before Ye Xuan was worn down to death by the puppet, which had a higher defense than even ordinary half-step Martial Venerate experts. However, a half-step Martial Venerate was still a person, unlike a puppet; while Ye Xuan could easily cut through a half-step Martial Venerate’s defenses and tear apart the puppet’s flesh and cause injuries, he couldn’t completely destroy it.

So the end result would definitely see Ye Xuan slowly dragged to death, a foreseeable outcome.

"Regrets? Sorry, except for a single incident, I have never really had regrets. Do you think you qualify?"

The incident Ye Xuan referred to was something he had done in a past life, the very thing that led him to be ambushed and fall into a desperate situation, the only thing he regretted.

This guy wanted to make him regret?

It seems he has hidden too much. Now that it’s almost time to enter the top ten, it’s time to gradually unleash his hidden strength.

Swoosh!

Retreating ten meters, Ye Xuan’s body suddenly vibrated and then the fluctuations emanating from within surged like boiling water exploding forth. His originally employed seventy percent strength suddenly surged to eighty, eighty-five percent, and finally stopped at ninety percent.

With the rise in strength, Ye Xuan’s momentum also surged tremendously. A sharp light flashed in his eyes, and then he swung the Dragon Abyss Ancient Sword fiercely. Accompanied by a piercing noise, under those astounded gazes, the puppet was directly blasted away.

"What?"

Gui Qingluo’s gaze shook fiercely, as he could distinctly feel the overwhelming aura emanating from Ye Xuan, whose strength had suddenly surged in that instant. Clearly, this guy had held back until then, only choosing this moment to fully unleash his power.

Without giving him time to think further, Ye Xuan already charged forward with his sword, swiftly arriving in front of him. A powerful Hand Seal was already striking towards him, forcing him to quickly mobilize his True Qi to form a Hand Seal, instantly defending his body tightly and forming a thick layer.

To his great surprise, when Ye Xuan’s palm struck towards him, it suddenly changed direction, crashing directly into the ground and mysteriously disappearing from the platform’s surface.

A ripple of unease stirred in his heart. As Gui Qingluo was about to strengthen his defense, he suddenly felt a tremor beneath his feet, and it was already too late to react—the floor beneath cracked open, and a majestic Handprint shot upwards, striking Gui Qingluo.

Pfft!

His body was completely engulfed by the Handprint, and as Gui Qingluo was still bearing an incredulous expression, he was sent flying high into the air, blood scattering in midair, directly out of the Battle Platform.