Chapter 101: Five Elements Spells

“That’s fine, I also have a few classmates, plus friends from Shushan Sword Heroes who also switched to Far Shore, altogether we have more than thirty people. Also, with your prestige, Yijian, if you announce in Qingcheng that you want to start a Faction, are you afraid there won’t be a lot of Players willing to join?”

Ye Rong was stunned for a moment; he hadn’t thought that so many Players from Shushan Sword Heroes had switched to Far Shore.

Because of life pressures, Ye Rong had not considered starting a Faction at all before. This matter would really take up too much personal energy and did not match his plans.

Establishing and maintaining a Faction in Far Shore required a huge amount of effort, not much different from running and controlling a large company in real life.

Now that Pecking Chicken mentioned it, he felt a little tempted, but at least for now, it wasn’t the right time.

“Let’s talk about this later. Starting a Faction also requires a Black Iron Order. When I have that intention, I will definitely invite you to join.”

Ye Rong waved his hand, stopping Pecking Chicken’s desire to continue speaking. The round of 16 to 8 duels on the Dueling Stage was about to begin.

At that moment, the chessboard Dueling Stage changed again. The eight sections rearranged and combined to form one complete giant stage.

“First group, Houdao Xiaosheng versus Changkong Wuhen!”

Houdao Xiaosheng, Qingcheng Disciple, Level 33; Changkong Wuhen, Qingcheng Disciple, Level 35.

“Damn, why are the first two that come up both higher Level than me? Could it be that in the top 16, I’ve actually become the one with the lowest Level?”

Ye Rong had recently placed more importance on practicing Dao Scrolls, with Experience Distribution taking up the majority, which slowed down his character’s Level progress a lot.

Looking at the list again, the few who posed the biggest threat to him were all above Level 35. Sure enough, these people had pulled ahead of him in Level.

“After the small competition, I need to focus hard on leveling up. Anyway, I’ve already mastered the second layer of Chongxu True Scripture, and I don’t have the third volume of the Qian Scroll in hand. Even if I wanted to continue practicing further, there’s no way.”

The Qingcheng Qi-Refining Art and Qingcheng Sword Art required little experience in the early stages, and progress in practicing them was very fast. But when they reached over ten layers, the experience needed to fully master one layer was already not much less than that for Chongxu True Scripture.

On the stage, one person had a grudge with Ye Rong, and the other had collaborated with him before. Between the two, he of course hoped Changkong Wuhen would win.

However, Houdao Xiaosheng was one of the Seven Great Disciples of Qingcheng during the Closed Beta, and was now the leader of one of Qingcheng’s two major Player forces. The resources he could mobilize were not something Changkong Wuhen could match. At the very least, he could gather a thousand people’s efforts during the small competition to get himself the best set of equipment.

Ye Rong knew Changkong Wuhen’s strength because he had cooperated with him before. If he hadn’t improved rapidly recently, it could only be described as average. For a Closed Beta Player, his opportunities or luck were really too poor; his entire set of equipment was hardly presentable.

“Yijian, who do you think will win?”

“Their strength should be about the same. Houdao Xiaosheng’s equipment might give him some advantage… Wait, no!”

Ye Rong’s gaze sharpened. He noticed that the Flying Sword in Changkong Wuhen’s hand had five-colored light constantly shifting and gathering. With a casual swing, Five Elements Spells like Golden Light Halberd, Green Wood Pillar, Soft Water Bind, Fire Feather Arrow, and Stone Thunderbolt actually formed, crashing down towards Houdao Xiaosheng.

Each spell’s power was ordinary, but they were numerous and cast extremely quickly.

Every time Changkong Wuhen swung his hand holding the Flying Sword, a row of Five Elements Spells blasted out, forcing Houdao Xiaosheng to retreat repeatedly. He used three Magic Treasures in a row but still couldn’t turn the situation around.

“Bastard, how dare you!”

Houdao Xiaosheng, ashamed into anger, reached out and actually formed a vicious black giant hand in the air, grabbing towards Changkong Wuhen. Before practicing the Qingcheng Qi-Refining Art, he had trained in a Demonic Path technique called the Profound Yin Mind Art, which was extremely sinister and poisonous. It could add negative effects like bleeding, mental confusion, and True Qi reduction to a Player’s attacks.

Everyone thought that after Houdao Xiaosheng became a Formal Disciple, he must have focused on the Qingcheng Qi-Refining Art and abandoned the Profound Yin Mind Art, since this Demonic Path Mind Art had no advanced Dao Scrolls later on, offering little development potential.

But now it seemed that was absolutely not the case. Houdao Xiaosheng had actually secretly practiced the Profound Yin Mind Art to a very deep level; otherwise, he couldn’t have developed a supernatural power like the black giant hand.

The vicious black giant hand, substantial as if real, enveloped Changkong Wuhen completely and lifted him into mid-air. Just when it seemed he was about to be crushed to death, five interlinked beams of light suddenly shot through the black giant hand, piercing it full of holes and scattering the Demonic Qi.

“Evergreen Divine Wood!”

Changkong Wuhen threw the five-colored Flying Sword into the sky. Vast Five Elements power converged towards the Flying Sword, quickly transforming into pure wood-attribute spiritual power. It formed a green wood over ten zhang long that fiercely smashed forward.

Houdao Xiaosheng couldn’t mount an effective resistance at all. He was directly hit to the ground by such a massive green wood, dying without a whole corpse.

“Good Flying Sword!”

Ye Rong praised. He didn’t expect that after not seeing Changkong Wuhen for a few days, he had obtained such an impressive Flying Sword, probably not much worse than Manzhu Lver’s Huan Xisha.

So many Five Elements Spells, basically covering all types—a single Player would need a very long time to learn them all, let alone the fact that the final Evergreen Divine Wood was already a quite advanced wood-attribute Dao Spell. It could only have come attached to the Flying Sword.

Ye Rong wasn’t just watching; he was also thinking about how he should deal with such an attack if he encountered it. If he were in Houdao Xiaosheng’s position, what means could he use to break the Evergreen Divine Wood and defeat Changkong Wuhen.

Comparing and summarizing like this was very beneficial for him, greatly enhancing his ability to adapt.

After Changkong Wuhen, the Players who advanced to the small competition’s top eight were Mo Feng, Manzhu Lver, Red Dust White Hair, Ethereal Green Robe, Long Wushuang, and Yu Shuangxue. The last remaining spot would be decided between Ye Rong and Jianggong Wangyue.

It was worth mentioning that Manzhu Lver, without using a single spell from Huan Xisha, fought hard for a long time before defeating her opponent. With this trump card, it wasn’t impossible for her to reach the top four. Besides her, the other female Player in the top eight, Yu Shuangxue, had a much easier path to advancement. She had a needle pouch at her waist; with a pat, a set of Flying Needles shot out, sharp and unstoppable.

Also, Red Dust White Hair and Long Wushuang were also strangers in Ye Rong’s memory. Their names were on the list Dongliu Cangshui gave him, and they were near the top, but he hadn’t seen them fight before.

Especially Long Wushuang, who used almost the same tactic as Ye Rong—relying solely on a Flying Sword to reach the top eight, without using a single Magic Treasure or Dao Spell, and with only one Flying Sword.

“Damn, this guy hid himself really deep. If he had been willing to fight during that day’s Emei faction duel, aside from Tianshui Yifang, he had a good chance of winning against anyone else in the Tianshui Division.”