Martial Arts Master

Chapter 650: Promise of Nine Knives

Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio

As Lu Yongyuan took steps forward, the entire Jiangxin Island gradually turned darker. It was only when he stopped at the predetermined position by the referee that the feeling of descending darkness subsided a little.

Lu Yongyuan stood silently at the spot. He lowered his vision and stopped at the hilt of the knife on his right arm. Following that magical curve, he looked towards the tip of the knife and the soil that the knife was pointing to.

When Lou Cheng approached, he finally raised his head. His gaze was like a piercing knife and reflected the figure of his opponent.

It was just a simple glance, and Lou Cheng felt as though there was a godly sharp knife pressed against his forehead. The hair on his back stood up and the surrounding environment seemed to have been sliced by the “knife’s intent”. Gradually, the space sliced by it started to contract and became an independent and sealed cage!

Although Lu Yongyuan hadn’t drawn his knife, it felt like he had already done so!

This was the first time Lou Cheng had experienced such a confrontation of aura. He couldn’t help but sigh secretly. He’s indeed as great as his reputation suggested!

At this very moment, he felt as though he was banished to the desolate Gobi desert and was left alone to face the long night. He had no way to shake it off and no way to run away.

As the thought flashed passed his mind, Lou Cheng quickly formed his “Ice Heart”. At the same time, he formed a ball of scorching red flames, a ball of golden flames and a ball of light blue flames that illuminated the darkness and resisted the aura of the knives that was enshrouding towards him.

Lu Yongyuan didn’t try to stop him but looked on calmly as he formed his “Five Flames”.

At this moment, the referee confirmed the situation, raised his right hand and announced, “The conversation time starts now!”

Lu Yongyuan raised his head and shifted his gaze away from Lou Cheng towards the clouds in the far away skies. In a low but charismatic voice, he said, “My knife techniques originated from the “Dark Infinite Sutra”. After six years of bitter battling and training, I’ve finally gained full mastery over it.”

As he spoke, his expression didn’t change. The Deep and three-dimensional facial features and the green eyes gave others the feeling that he was a human god or a human devil. That neatly combed back hair added the feeling that he had experienced a lot in life.

What is he trying to say? Lou Cheng knew clearly that the Guanwai League used the Dark Infinite Sutra as their core. In other words, they were based on the Dark Sect. At the same time, they had integrated a school of godly physical techniques.

Lu Yongyuan didn’t wait for his opponent’s answer. He focused on the skies and spoke as he wished, “Over the last few years, I’ve been feeling the existence of restraints. The unique skills by our predecessors are indeed helpful but they are also cages. My knife technique originated from it and should end right there.”

He retracted his vision and looked at the eyes of Lou Cheng once again. Smiling faintly, he continued, “I’ve taken five full years to reassess myself and knife technique. Finally, I have gained something. Previously, I’ve met strong opponents again and again. My instincts triumphed over my unfamiliarity and I hadn’t had the opportunity to use it. Nonetheless, the desire to swing my knife has gotten stronger and stronger. This match has come at the perfect time.”

Halfway through his speech, Lou Cheng could roughly understand what his opponent had wanted to say.

Lu Yongyuan had perfect mastery over what he had learned in the first half of his life. From it, he developed a set of knife techniques unique to himself. However, he was facing opponents of similar strength in the previous few rounds. Under the huge pressure, he habitually went back to the original moves and hadn’t found the opportunity to put his new martial arts into a practical battle for trials.

And now, he would like to test it out on me.

Before waiting for Lou Cheng’s reply, Lu Yongyuan shifted the weapon to his left hand while holding the knife’s hilt, that had been polished so brightly that one could see his own reflection, with his right palm. In a half-arrogant and half-composed tone, he said, “As long as you can withstand nine knives from me, this match will be considered my defeat!”

As he finished his sentence, the audience immediately exploded after listening to the broadcast.

“This... Isn’t this too disrespectful?” posted “Nie Qiqi” in the forum.

In her eyes, even if Lou Cheng was to face an expert with a title at full strength, as long as the expert wasn’t Dragon King or Warrior Sage, Lou Cheng might eventually lose miserably but still wouldn’t be defeated in nine moves. There wouldn’t be a problem to last twenty or thirty moves. In fact, lasting five to six minutes would be the norm!

“Yeah!””Eternal Nightfall” Yan Xiaoling and “Brahman” couldn’t find other reasons and could only second Nie Qiqi’s post.

This guy is too arrogant!

The “Unparalleled Dragon King” answered, “[Laughing sheepishly expression] You guys have fallen for “God Slaying Knife’s” psychological trap.”

“Eh, that’s true. [Scratching head expression]” said Yan Xiaoling. “In that case, if senior really last more than nine moves, would Lu Yongyuan admit defeat?”

“Definitely! He said it in front of the eyes of everyone! He can’t go back on his words unless he doesn’t want his face anymore!” replied “Unparalleled Dragon King” without hesitation.

Which martial artist didn’t care about how people look at them?

Yan Xiaoling continued questioning, “[Curious expression] If senior doesn’t fall for his trick, wouldn’t he be setting a trap for himself?”

“Uhm. This shows that he is very confident with the knife technique he has created!” answered “Unparalleled Dragon King” resolutely.

“You see! As you said, he is overconfident and looks down on others. That’s too arrogant!” Yan Xiaoling changed the topic back.

“...””Unparalleled Dragon King” was speechless. After a moment of pause, he finally replied, “Girl. Your brain is actually working today...”

...

This was the first time Lou Cheng encountered such a thing. If he said that he wasn’t angry or pissed, it would definitely be lying. However, he quickly subdued these agitated thoughts using his “Ice Heart” and started to doubt Lu Yongyuan’s true intentions.

Is he trying to agitate me?

To make me lose my cool and act rashly?

That can’t be. He should know clearly that I have mastered “Enemy Heart Freezing Move”. Such psychological strategy wouldn’t be very effective...

Could it be that he really meant it?

As different thoughts popped up, Lou Cheng’s eyes turned dull like the night skies. In a calm and composed tone, he said, “In that case, I’ll be waiting to see the knife technique of senior.”

He didn’t agree to the promise of nine knives but did not reject it either. He had chosen to deal with it in an ambiguous way.

Lu Yongyuan nodded his head slightly, closed his eyes slightly and did not speak another word. It was as though he had turned into a stone statue.

Shorty, the referee who has reached the edge of the island gathered his breathing and announced loudly, “Begin!”

Zheng!

Lu Yongyuan’s scabbard suddenly let out along and distant noise. It sounded like a dragon’s roar from deep within the sea and resounded beside Lou Cheng’s ears and heart.

When the howling of the knife sounded, Lu Yongyuan flicked and relaxed his left hand while his right hand unsheathed the well known “God Slaying Knife”.

He twisted his waist and pulled his shoulders. The light from the knife slashed across the distance of over thirty meters towards Lou Cheng.

The cut seemed to have absorbed the surrounding light as it sliced through the air, making it shine brighter and purer. With Lou Cheng at the centre, the surrounding area of twenty meters started to get darker and darker with various kinds of danger hidden within it.

Zi zi zi! The surrounding gold, scorching red, faint purple and other fireballs were “corroded” by the darkness and shrank rapidly. Lou Cheng was on the verge of losing control over them as though the fireballs were snow that encountered the fierce afternoon sun.

And in his eyes, that “Heaven’s Ray” was brilliant and dazzling. As it approached Lou Cheng, it was throbbing. Each pulsation seemed to be hiding a change to react to different ways of dodging.

In this instant, Lou Cheng hesitated. All he felt was that it wouldn’t be fine to dodge or defend against it directly.

If he executed his dodging manoeuvres, he might be able to avoid the cutting light but he wouldn’t be able to escape that horrifying darkness.

This was a duo attack that made full use of its coordination with the natural environment!

As the thought quickly flashed through his mind, Lou Cheng no longer hesitated and followed his final judgement to make his response.

He combined the scorching red, light blue, faint purple and other fireballs, which had shrunk greatly, into one “Star”. The “Star” did not explode and was still radiating light and heat.

In the instance where the darkness was illuminated, he raised his hand suddenly and slapped towards the cutting light from two sides. At the center of his palms, he injected deep and chilling force!

Pa!

That throbbing cutting light was just like a mosquito and couldn’t avoid the two palms. In the end, it was held tightly by them.

Zi zi zi!

The brilliance on the “God Slaying Knife” was about to erupt when it was devoured by the “Darkness” and disappeared without a trace.

Using light against the darkness and darkness to defend against the light!

In that split second, Lou Cheng made full use of the unique characteristics of his own “Cosmic Style”. Using “Star” as the exterior with “Darkness” hidden within, he finally barely withstood Lu Yongyuan’s first move.

However, before he could take a clear look at the God Slaying Knife and get a sense of the chilling metal, he heard a sound made by a knife vibrating at high speed. At the next instance, he noticed that there was nothing left between his palms!

The “God Slaying Knife” had mysteriously disappeared as though it had never existed!

At this moment, the long knife seemed to have merged into the surrounding lingering darkness!

Lou Cheng’s intuition for danger intensified suddenly. Exerting strength into his legs and flipping back, he opened a distance of several tens of meters.

At the same time, he switched between “Emperor Yan” and “Ice Spirit” and smashed towards the space in front of him frantically. The raging blaze of purple flames alternated with the hoar frost of ice crystals rapidly.

Bam! Bam! Bam! Dang!

After several collision sounds, Lou Cheng’s punch that was covered in heavy purple flames finally hit something solid. Sparks fluttered and the long knife that had vanished previously finally re-appeared in front of everyone!

As he did not land on the right foot while retreating, Lou Cheng swayed and staggered back after withstanding the “God Slaying Knife”.

At this moment, Lu Yongyuan suddenly bent his back and lowered his stance before jumping out. He moved at high speed around Lou Cheng and left nine shadows surrounding Lou Cheng at the same time.

Each and every shadow had a long knife with him and was slashing fiercely forward. The cutting light was dull and horrifying and rained like a downpour that had Lou Cheng enveloped within.

Lou Cheng only felt that the enemy had finally shown himself and revealed his “real form”. A black dragon with nine heads circulated from above before all nine heads swooped down with their mouths fiercely and voraciously open!

The shadows were definitely lingering images but the cutting light could truly be separated into nine strikes!

Facing attacks from all direction with dangerous vibes all around, Lou Cheng couldn’t find an opening to dodge to. All he could do was to rapidly form an Ice Wall to cover his entire body.

Dang dang dang dang dang! The cutting light shredded the crystals and caused them to collapse rapidly.

Grabbing onto this momentarily stop, Lou Cheng made his visualization and executed a Force Concentration.

Bam bam bam!

The Ice Wall had been shattered completely but Lou Cheng had exploded his Dan Qi and struck frantically with punches covered in purplish-white flames!

Dang dang dang!

With the assistance of the “All Seeing God” realm, Lou Cheng’s machine gun-like punches shattered the majority of the remaining cutting light and left the enshrouding darkness on the verge of collapsing completely. Following which, he took a few steps back to open up some distance while waiting to receive the fourth move from Lu Yongyuan.

At this point, Lou Cheng might have looked fine from the outside but the clothing behind his back had split open. There was a cut wound a foot long. The flesh had curled up and the blood on the wound was relatively black.

On the other side, Lu Yongyuan didn’t press ahead with the momentum he had. Instead, he stood at the same position and said with a faint smile, “The first three moves are known as “Utmost Darkness”, “Axeless” and “Nine Yin”.

“This would be the fourth move.”

He paused for a while before slashing his long knife again. Together with that low and charismatic voice, he shouted, “Boundary.”

The fourth move, Boundary!