Chapter 181: Green Dragon Extends Its Claw
Yuwen Yao’s words carried a peculiar undertone, as though she proposed that they reach an understanding—friendship first, competition second.
Let us not harm our rapport, she implied. Each should preserve some strength, lest the victor of this round be at a disadvantage in the next.
Were it an ordinary person, such inexplicable goodwill might have bred carelessness, even a willingness to hold back.
Unfortunately.
The one standing before her was Song Yan, a sword cultivator.
Moreover, this was the most perilous opponent he had faced today. He naturally intended to fight with everything he had.
Sword qi surged about his body, ready at any moment to evade or to deploy the Green Snake Within the Sleeve. His flying sword, the Untethered Vessel, was already summoned and hovering.
Against such an opponent, so long as he could weather the first strike, he could weather the second, and the third…
“Begin.”
Song Yan focused his attention. Yuwen Yao’s aura shifted as well.
Threads of jade-green spiritual energy gathered swiftly between her palms.
“Junior Brother Song Yan, brace yourself.”
“The first palm…”
She raised her gaze slowly.
“Green Dragon Extends Its Claw!”
Whoosh—
A streak of emerald light flashed past. Yuwen Yao’s form vanished entirely, leaving behind only an afterimage.
Song Yan’s pupils contracted as a pale, slender hand tore through his protective spirit-garment and lunged toward his face.
“Fast!”
Song Yan’s heart lurched with astonishment.
That hand was wreathed in a churning layer of fierce green spiritual qi, resembling the talon of some fearsome spirit beast.
A triumphant smile played across Yuwen Yao’s lips.
Song Yan sensed the danger—the distance was too close for his flying sword. He was about to invoke the Cloud-Traversing Intent to evade when the palm snapped downward and seized the collar of his Daoist robe.
Then an immense force yanked him, and the world spun wildly.
“Urgh—”
Song Yan was slammed savagely to the ground.
Pain lanced through him, but before he could move, his vision darkened.
Above his head, a colossal green handprint was plummeting toward him.
“Boom—”
A deafening explosion erupted from the central dueling platform, sending pillars of dust billowing outward and obscuring much of the arena.
The might of Yuwen Yao’s Green Dragon Seal was formidable indeed.
Murmurs of astonishment rippled through the surroundings.
“Oh…”
“Senior Brother Song Yan—has he lost already?”
“Senior Sister Yuwen Yao is truly formidable.”
Everyone had known Song Yan’s chances were slim, but none expected such a swift conclusion.
After all, he was the one who had defeated Senior Brother Kong You head-on…
Could the gulf between late-stage Qi Refining cultivators truly be so vast?
Discussion rumbled below the platform.
Yet on the stage, Yuwen Yao did not relax. She stared fixedly at the far side of the dust cloud, her expression wary.
“Senior Sister Yuwen…”
From within the billowing dust, a pair of golden eyes slowly gleamed to life.
“You have two palms left.”
Song Yan emerged from the haze.
The arena erupted in uproar.
Song Yan cast his gaze downward. Where the handprint had struck, the dueling platform bore a conspicuous depression, its surface cracked and shattered.
The platform was forged from extraordinarily durable materials. Had this been ordinary stone, it would have been utterly pulverized.
This was only the first palm, yet its power was already so terrifying?
It was nearly inconceivable.
He marveled inwardly, though now was hardly the time to ponder the nature of her cultivation technique.
“Well done. Junior Brother Song Yan is no ordinary cultivator.”
Yuwen Yao’s heart was startled, though her face betrayed nothing.
“Take my second palm!”
Before her words had faded, brilliant green light blazed around her body.
Her palms pressed together. Azure spiritual luminescence, accompanied by streams of transparent water, coalesced rapidly before her chest. Within it, the shadowy form of a green dragon flickered—scales and claws barely visible.
Soaring Sky!
With a fierce push, two enormous handprints materialized, one on each side, and hurtled toward him.
Song Yan’s great sleeves billowed. Jade-green sword qi surged forth completely, coiling around the blade of the Untethered Vessel.
He pressed sword fingers together and slashed horizontally—Tide Severed.
The same sword technique he had wielded within the Grotto-Heaven realm reappeared, yet this time his sword qi was far more refined than before, sharper and more condensed than ever.
Ink-splashed sword qi erupted from the Untethered Vessel and collided head-on with the two colossal handprints.
On the spectator platform, Kong You had already concluded his own match. Watching that sword strike, his heart churned with a tangle of emotions.
Li Yi gazed excitedly at the two combatants on stage, gripping his great halberd tightly.
“I can’t wait to spar with Junior Brother Song Yan.”
On the dueling platform, the surging sword qi annihilated the handprints in an instant, yet was itself expended entirely, posing no further threat to Yuwen Yao.
The azure spiritual energy and green sword qi shattered together like mist and dispersed on the wind.
“One palm remains.”
Song Yan reminded her, his wariness and vigilance reaching their peak.
The might of the second palm had exceeded the first by an entire tier.
If the third proved even more powerful still, how would he contend with it?
The shock in Yuwen Yao’s eyes was impossible to conceal: “You actually withstood the second palm…”
She had seen this sword technique before in the Ancient Vine Forest of the Grotto-Heaven realm, yet to face it in person felt entirely different.
Suddenly, she slapped open the wine gourd at her waist and took several deep swallows, droplets trickling down her chin.
Beneath his Observant Void perception, Song Yan noticed that her spiritual energy—already showing signs of waning—surged violently back to boiling.
“If you can withstand this final palm, I concede.”
Her azure spiritual energy raged around her, surging toward her palms.
In a single motion, she pressed her palms together.
To the surrounding spectators, judging by the opening stance alone, Senior Sister Yuwen Yao’s third palm appeared far less imposing than the previous two.
But Song Yan dared not let his guard down.
Because at this moment, the spiritual energy had been compressed to its absolute limit.
At a certain instant, Yuwen Yao’s palms pushed forward toward Song Yan with an almost mundane simplicity.
Kuang Ye!
“Boom—”
A torrent of azure spiritual energy erupted like a cataclysmic detonation.
Countless streams of green qi and water coalesced at the very forefront of the handprint, forming an enormous dragon’s head.
In that instant, a dragon’s roar rang through the arena.
Rooaaar—
The palm encompassed nearly the entire central dueling platform.
Song Yan sheathed the Untethered Vessel in his grip, then plunged it deep into the platform as sword light blazed forth.
Beneath the Sword-Suppressing Dao Residence, his Dao seed hummed faintly.
Every last wisp of sword qi poured outward, enveloping his body.
Golden eyes lifted toward the oncoming dragon, and he felt an overwhelming sense of insignificance.
The dragon’s maw gaped wide and swallowed Song Yan whole.
Roooar—
The torrent of azure spiritual energy shredded the surrounding sword qi relentlessly, and he found it increasingly difficult to hold.
“If I continue to hesitate, I will surely lose…”
Song Yan slowly exhaled.
The dragon’s roar grew ever clearer, as though a claw were about to tear through everything and cast him from the arena.
Hummm—
At that very moment, beneath the dragon’s roar, a sword’s resonance rose.
The sliver of sharpness within his Dantian shattered rapidly.
A faint spiritual light began to gather along Song Yan’s right hand.
In moments, a thread of sword qi—refined to its utmost purity, solemn and keen—coalesced at his fingertip. There was no spiritual energy fluctuation, only pure, unadulterated sharpness.
There was no time to spare.
The sword essence pierced through the air, tracing golden cracks along its path. Even the air above the central dueling platform emitted sounds like shattering glass.
In a single instant.
The sword essence bored through the center of the Green Dragon Spirit Seal and grazed past Yuwen Yao’s ear before vanishing into the distant sky.
The azure dragon collapsed like clouds pierced by a swift bird, rapidly disintegrating into nothingness.
All of its spiritual energy dissipated between heaven and earth.
Clouds parted. Wind stilled. The entire arena sat in silence.