Chapter 1458: Soul Dueling

For Elder Ning’s side, this duel was somewhat disadvantageous. However, since it was a gamble, if you felt it was unfair, you could simply choose not to participate.

In the square, Mu Guyue just stared coldly at her opponent, not speaking a word.

After the beast-hide youth spoke, his aura surged violently. He didn’t say any harsh words like he was going to kill his opponent.

They were both non-soul cultivators, and both were Soul Slaves. Even though he was living quite well now, with plenty of cultivation resources, the beast-hide youth knew that he would eventually die in some Soul Dueling match. Even if he only participated in win-or-lose duels from now on, the outcome would be the same.

The people he had killed were all people who wanted to take his life. So, winning and losing, life and death, were all things he had to experience. It was better to fight first.

Just as the aura on the beast-hide youth began to surge, Mu Guyue suddenly stomped her foot on the void.

Thump!

A wave of air instantly exploded from under her foot.

At the same time, she spun her body swiftly, bringing up a fierce gust of wind. With her other leg bent, she swept it back behind her.

The moment her leg began its motion, it brought with it a dull whistling sound.

Whoosh!

The force was immense, like a thousand-jin weight cutting through the air.

Thump!

Instantly, another muffled sound exploded as Mu Guyue’s long leg swept into something—a giant tiger claw that had suddenly appeared behind her.

This tiger claw had appeared very abruptly. Just as the beast-hide youth’s voice fell, it had suddenly flashed out of the void, its five sharp claws closing in on Mu Guyue’s back.

The tiger claw was covered in bristling black fur, like a series of sharp spikes, all of which glinted with a cold, dark light.

The five extended claws were bent like hooks, each over a foot long. As they curved out from the black fur, they tapered from the base, giving a sense of streamlined fluidity like flowing water.

The five claws were yellowish-brown, their tips bearing sharp barbs, as if they could easily tear apart heaven and earth.

And just as this tiger claw silently swiped, with arcs of white light flashing between its five claws, and was about to seize Mu Guyue’s back, her body also, without any warning, stepped and slid to the side, spinning rapidly. A whirlwind of fierce wind was generated as one long leg, in an instant, heavily whipped the web between the tiger claw’s thumb and forefinger.

This caused the tiger claw, which was already swiping down fiercely, to pass through Mu Guyue’s original position at an even faster speed after being struck on the side of its mouth.

With the acceleration from her kick, the tiger claw could no longer remain silent as it cut through the space.

The five sharp claws tore five long, void-like scratches in the space they passed through, simultaneously creating a sharp shriek.

On the surrounding stands, a wave of gasps erupted. The people inside the formation below could not hear the sounds from outside, but they could see and hear any movement in the square perfectly.

“Storm Tiger” had actually taken the initiative to attack today, and he had launched his attack while distracting his opponent with words.

This was quite rare in his past fights! This meant that “Storm Tiger” was not very confident that he could win against this female cultivator named “Moon Demon” in a direct confrontation.

“As expected of a Demon Clan cultivator. After losing their divine sense, their instincts have become even sharper!”

On the viewing platform, Elder Ning said softly.

Great Master Lan’s face was expressionless, but a hint of appreciation appeared in her eyes. Mu Guyue’s opening move had not disappointed her.

‘I hope you don’t disappoint me. Otherwise, when you get back, you will know what punishment is!’

Great Master Lan silently watched the square below.

On the other side, Xiong Tianba’s eyes shone with a strange light as he watched the beautiful arc drawn by that flowing curve—a natural combination of power and beauty.

‘What a harmonious body, a perfect combination of strength and speed. Such a person, no matter what kind of ‘battlefield’ they are on, would be the most exciting opponent…’

As he thought this, he could already feel the hot blood in his body begin to surge.

After her leg struck, Mu Guyue used the momentum to press down forcefully with her calf. The giant tiger claw was forced to claw at the empty space below.

She, in turn, used the force of this press to launch herself into the air, swiftly pouncing towards the beast-hide youth.

The beast-hide youth’s attack had missed, but his face showed no surprise, leaving his thoughts unreadable.

With a muffled sound, Mu Guyue had already appeared above the beast-hide youth’s head, her entire body leaning forward in a pressing posture.

Her left arm was bent sharply at the elbow and raised above her head. The black armor bracer on her arm glinted with a cold light.

Immediately, it brought with it a heavy, whimpering whistle, like it was pressing down on heaven and earth, as she ruthlessly smashed it down towards the beast-hide youth’s celestial crown.

From the moment the beast-hide youth spoke to Mu Guyue’s counterattack, it took less than three breaths for their figures to intertwine.

The beast-hide youth below had just sensed someone approaching when his figure became slightly blurry and distorted. Just as Mu Guyue’s elbow came crashing down, he had already appeared to her left.

A foot-long, pitch-black short spike had suddenly appeared in the beast-hide youth’s hand. The spike was thick at the back and thin at the front, its entire body glinting with a cold, dark light. The fine, needle-like tip at its front flashed with a point of cold light.

While his figure was still blurry, the short spike had already turned into an afterimage, stabbing towards Mu Guyue’s long, slender neck like a bolt of lightning.

As her downward attack continued, Mu Guyue suddenly felt a stinging pain in her neck. This was a sense of extreme danger, yet the beast-hide youth’s figure was still in its original place.

‘Such speed!’

This was the thought that immediately arose in Mu Guyue’s mind. But her entire body was already committed to the downward pounce, all her center of gravity and force concentrated on the tip of her left elbow. It was already too late to change her form.

At this moment, the formidable physical body of the Demon Clan was demonstrated. The moment the thought appeared in Mu Guyue’s mind, her body had already reacted a step ahead.

Her spine, like a swimming dragon, suddenly exerted force and rotated. Even though she was wearing armor, the soft armor on her waist and abdomen expanded slightly at this moment, as if two long, bat-like wings had suddenly grown from the sides of her waist muscles.

This was a short burst of physical strength. At the same time, a muffled thump sounded from within her body.

Tiny bone spikes suddenly grew from all her bones. Inside her body, these bone spikes, like rows of oars, plunged horizontally into her own flesh.

As the force from these bone spikes erupted, it immediately caused all the muscles in her body to tremble and violently swing.

Then, Mu Guyue’s body, which had been crashing down heavily and seemed impossible to change course, was as if lifted by a formless, immense force, and it immediately rose up in a slanted rotation!

At the same time, her downward-smashing left elbow also rose in a rotation with the momentum, blocking her long, slender neck on the left.

Clang!

Almost at the same time her left elbow rose, a crisp sound echoed by her ear.

And as Mu Guyue’s body rose in a slanted rotation, her right hand, hidden from view, quickly trembled. A crescent-moon-like water light shot out from below her left elbow, hugging her left waist.

The beast-hide youth felt a jolt in his hand. His sure-hit strike had been blocked by her again.

‘What a strong physical body, what a keen reaction!’

The beast-hide youth, almost like Mu Guyue, also felt a sense of surprise at her reaction.

Just as this thought flashed through his mind, the beast-hide youth suddenly felt the hairs on his body stand on end. Without thinking, he let out a roar towards his front.

Following his roar, a mottled tiger head instantly appeared a few inches in front of him.

At the same time the tiger head appeared, it let out a furious roar towards the sky, and a powerful stream of air spewed from its large mouth.

Swish!

A crescent-moon-like water light flashed and arrived in an instant.

Spinning rapidly, it cut into the stream of air, instantly slicing it in two and continuing its destructive path downward.

In the blink of an eye, it had already reached the front of the giant tiger’s head. But the spinning crescent-moon water light was also dimming at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Just an inch from the giant tiger’s nose, it could no longer continue to cut in while spinning. At this time, the stream of air in front of the tiger’s head had also been almost completely consumed.

At this moment, Mu Guyue, using the force from the opponent’s spike hitting her elbow, had already slid several li away from the beast-hide youth.

At the same time, she beckoned with her hand, and the spinning crescent-moon water light immediately flew back, circling once before appearing in her hand. It was one of her crescent moon handguard sabers.

Then, the two figures in the void faced each other from a distance. The lightning-fast exchange from a moment ago had instantly turned into a state of stillness.

At this time, as they looked at each other again, their eyes were filled with deep vigilance. They both knew they had met a formidable opponent.

The two had only exchanged blows for no more than five breaths, but it was already fraught with danger. If either side had been a fraction of a second slower, they would have been seriously injured by the other’s strike.

“Storm Tiger, a body cultivator who also cultivates wind-attribute arts!”

Mu Guyue’s phoenix eyes narrowed slightly as she thought about the information on her opponent. Before, she had thought he was just a strong body cultivator as others had said. When it came to cultivating the physical body, the Demon Clan were the natural experts.

Mu Guyue felt that she needed to pay more attention to his wind-attribute arts.

But after just a short exchange, she discovered that the beast-hide youth was, like her, extremely skilled in close-quarters combat, not much inferior to her.

Moreover, his attacks were fierce and decisive, which immediately erased any advantage Mu Guyue might have had. On the contrary, the beast-hide youth had an advantage she couldn’t match—he was faster and more agile.

Under her storm-like attacks, the beast-hide youth had not only dodged, but in that fleeting moment, he still had the spare energy to launch a fatal counterattack.

The beast-hide youth also stood in place, not attacking immediately.

“I’ve long heard that the Demon Clan are naturally skilled in battle. This physical body is a masterpiece of heaven, the most perfect killing puppet in the world. Her control over every inch of her body is already quite perfect!”

He was also thinking the same thing in his heart.

Another three breaths passed. The moment their gazes collided in the air again, they launched their attacks almost simultaneously.

Looking down from above the square, the two stationary figures suddenly left two long afterimages behind them. These two afterimages, from two different directions, charged towards each other like two long rainbows piercing the sun.

The next moment, Mu Guyue and the beast-hide youth crashed heavily into each other.

The beast-hide youth clasped the sharp single spike with both hands and, with a flash of black light, pushed it forward towards the opponent’s chest.

Mu Guyue’s body, rapidly approaching, tilted slightly, narrowly avoiding the black spike’s tip. With the blade of her single-handed crescent moon handguard saber, she flicked it diagonally outwards, catching the side of the black spike.

Clang!

A sound of metal clashing rang out as the black spike was flicked aside, stabbing towards the side.

At the same time, Mu Guyue’s figure brushed past her opponent. The crescent moon handguard saber in her other hand, with a quick horizontal swing of her arm, was now protecting the outside of her arm.

In the instant she brushed past her opponent, her arm slashed fiercely across his neck. At this moment, the beast-hide youth’s body, from pushing the spike with both hands, was also pulled to one side.

His neck was wide open. And at this moment, his body suddenly became as if boneless.

One of his legs whipped up like a tiger’s tail, or like a scorpion’s tail hook. As his body leaned forward, he kicked it fiercely backwards.

The speed was incredible. In an instant, it kicked from bottom to top, striking the elbow of Mu Guyue’s sliding horizontal slash.

This caused Mu Guyue’s elbow, which was cutting across his neck, to be forced upwards.

And the beast-hide youth’s body, in the instant it crossed paths with Mu Guyue’s, had the single spike he held with both hands now held in one hand, the one closer to Mu Guyue’s side.

As their bodies crossed, the beast-hide youth’s single spike, with an upward flick, had already broken free from the hook of Mu Guyue’s crescent moon handguard saber.

Instead, like a venomous snake, with a swift, sharp turn, it stabbed fiercely towards Mu Guyue’s lower back.

Mu Guyue, at this moment, had one elbow kicked upwards and the other hand blocking and bringing it behind her. Facing such a fast counterattack, her face showed no panic.

The moment her hand, which she had brought behind her, sensed the spike break free from her blade’s hook, it was as if she knew where the beast-hide youth was going to attack.

The crescent moon handguard saber spun in her palm, like a rapidly unfurling flower of blades. It appeared at her lower back, transforming into a rapidly spinning crescent moon flywheel.

Clang!

The single spike, without any flourish, directly struck the crescent moon flywheel, immediately exploding into a shower of starlight points that dissipated.

Only at this point did the two of them truly pass each other.

But with almost no pause, Mu Guyue, without turning back, brought the crescent moon handguard saber on the outside of her raised arm crashing down like a thousand-jin weight, cutting straight down.

And the position the crescent moon handguard saber was cutting towards was precisely the base of the leg that had been raised like a tiger’s tail. Seeing the cold-gleaming crescent moon handguard saber instantly touch the clothes, the beast-hide youth, with one leg on the ground, suddenly erupted with power, and his entire body began to spin horizontally.

Holding the single spike, his body was like a horizontally rolling whirlwind, crashing fiercely into Mu Guyue’s side.

Immediately, a continuous barrage of sounds from colliding magical treasures erupted in the square. The two body cultivators, giving no quarter, brought forth a sky full of exploding light points…

On the viewing platform, a silence had fallen. The close-quarters combat of these two was simply sublime. Although there were only two people fighting in the square, at this moment, it felt as if a thousand-man army was clashing.

Even the Spirit Transformation cultivators, upon seeing this life-or-death close-quarters combat, also felt that “Evil Spirit Cultivators” were quite terrifying. The thought of being approached by these people made them involuntarily shiver.

Not to mention the Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators, who, while watching with boiling blood, also personally felt the terror of body cultivators.

This was, in fact, another purpose for many of them to come and watch the Soul Dueling: to understand the attack methods of non-soul cultivators.

Some of them also knew about the capture of these two in the arena. It had taken a lot of effort.

Both of these Soul Slaves had been ambushed, their divine souls already injured, and were besieged by multiple cultivators of the same rank, yet they still managed to inflict considerable damage on their side.

Among those of the same rank, these soul cultivators, no one really dared to say that they could defeat either of these two single-handedly.

Although the Nascent Soul realm duel might not catch the eye of cultivators above the Mid-stage Spirit Transformation, these two, at their strongest, could at most approach the strength of an Initial-stage Spirit Transformation cultivator.

But when those experts thought back to when they were at the Nascent Soul realm, they couldn’t help but look at these two juniors with a higher regard.

“No wonder Great Master Lan has such confidence. Even knowing that my Nascent Soul realm Soul Slave is a strong one, she still dared to accept the bet. This female demon general is truly remarkable.

I think in the future, you can let her participate in Soul Dueling often. That would be a true return on investment. Otherwise, it would be too much of a waste.”

Elder Ning’s eyes also flashed with a strange light as he watched the duel below.

He had originally thought he had a sixty to seventy percent chance of winning. Now, it seemed the outcome was still uncertain.

This Great Master Lan, who rarely participated in the “Soul Dueling arena,” actually had such a powerful Soul Slave in her hands.

“Elder Ning is right. It’s a pity to keep such skills at home. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such an exciting Soul Dueling!”

At this time, another Void Refining cultivator not far away nodded continuously and said in agreement. The other few Void Refining cultivators also echoed with smiles.

Such an evenly matched duel was the true meaning of Soul Dueling. Otherwise, if the two sides were too far apart in strength, what was there to bet on, and the interest in watching would be lost.

This time, Xiong Tianba did not speak, but just stared quietly at the arena below.

And Great Master Lan, as if she hadn’t heard the suggestions of the other Void Refining cultivators around her, did not object, nor did she show any agreement.

…

“How can this female demon general be so formidable? I hope she doesn’t win. I just placed a bet with that scoundrel Hu Xiaoqi, betting a high-grade magical artifact…”

At Li Yan’s side, after this duel began, Tang Feng had reappeared like a ghost. But at this moment, his face was full of nervousness.

He had bet with others that “Storm Tiger” would win this match. He had staked a rare, high-grade thunder-attribute magical artifact. The other party had put up a talisman obtained from a perilous land.

After carefully examining the talisman, he found that it would be of great help to his artifact refining. That’s why he had not hesitated to stake a rare thunder-attribute magical artifact.

Li Yan listened to Tang Feng’s mumbling without a word, just quietly watching the duel below.

‘The outcome is really hard to say. Both of them are top-tier body cultivators at the Nascent Soul realm. Without divine sense here, many predictions will fail. The fight can only be more brutal, and victory or defeat will be decided in an instant!’

Li Yan stared intently at the arena, his mind racing. For a moment, a thought arose in his heart. He somewhat hoped that the female demon general would win.

And as the two below engaged in short, fierce, close-quarters combat, most of the soul cultivators above the square stood up from their seats. All sorts of roars and shouts continuously echoed, shaking the surroundings…

A quarter of an hour later, Mu Guyue held her crescent moon handguard sabers tightly, fresh blood dripping continuously from their bright blades.

Her breathing was somewhat rapid. The armor on her back was shattered, revealing a fist-sized bloody hole. Blood had soaked more than half of her back.

There was also a large patch of crimson on her right leg, the blood staining her battle armor and turning the originally dark black armor into an eerie brownish-red.

At this moment, although her breathing caused her body to rise and fall, her pair of phoenix eyes stared straight ahead, her face showing no trace of pain, as if she wasn’t the one who was injured.

And in front of her, the beast-hide youth had already lost an arm. The beast hide on his upper body had long turned to ash. His entire body was bathed in blood and trembling, his pair of eyes fixed deadly on Mu Guyue.

He was still trying to gather the last of his remaining magical power for one final struggle, but in the next moment, Mu Guyue’s figure suddenly disappeared again.

Bang!

With the sound of a heavy impact, the beast-hide youth’s sturdy body turned into an afterimage, flying high into the air at an extremely fast speed!

After sliding for several hundred zhang, it crashed heavily onto the ground, sending dust flying up and obscuring his figure!