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Host’s note: Host here, not the author. I must insist this every chapter lest you forget or don’t notice.

BOOOOM!

When the two opposing forces clashed, it generated a large wind pressure, instantly scattering the surrounding building tiles. Fan Boqin and Meng Pao Zhan were both blown back after making contact for a few seconds with Jin Xia’s attack.

They were each pushed back onto a separate roof tile, where they had to continue struggling to maintain their balance as they retreated. Two ugly trenches, measured around 3 meters, were left behind by the elders, marking the distance in which they were forcefully pushed back from the impact.

On the other hand, when Jin Xia sensed the strong resistance energy pushing him backwards, he quickly manipulated a few arm movements in order to “lessen” the shockwave around him.

Upon exhibiting a series of strange movements with his arms, Jin Xia managed to forcefully disperse the residue force generated from the impact.

He was only pushed back half a step.

Having spent aeons on studying martial arts, Jin Xia had a much deeper insight into the relationship between one’s body and its surrounding. Each movement has a cause and effect consequence. And by knowing what each set of moves could produce what effect, Jin Xia was able to combine them into a series of movement used towards “guiding” the shockwaves away from himself.

For example, when there is a sudden blow of dust in front of someone’s face, what would that person normally do? They would of course wave their hand in front of them, in an attempt to scatter the dense cloud of dust!

Jin Xia’s movements were basically used to achieve a similar effect, except for the increased number of moves required to do so. In short, it is like a playing chess with the world. By making the correct moves, one could easily manipulate the energy and law around them; this is also very closely linked to how cultivators at the Emperor realm, and above, could control and use their elemental Qi!

“Tch…seems like I was really getting a bit too greedy. My attacks actually didn’t finish them off in one strike just as I thought…” Jin Xia muttered as he clenched and unclenched his hands.

But this outcome was somewhat to expected, given Jin Xia’s current level. He hadn’t even started using this body to “re-learn” any of his personal techniques from the time when he was deity.

He only had the ex-low grade skills to work with. Thus, even though the techniques went through an upgrade, it was not a lot; causing Jin Xia’s battle prowess to somewhat diminish.

If Jin Xia was still at the Xing Profound realm like before back in Tian City, he could have simply relied on his manifested Qi attacks to deal with the two elders easily, but him currently being at the Spiritual Dan realm had restricted this ability. He was forced to use his techniques in order to match up to the advantaged battle strength of two Xing Profound experts.

On the opposite twin buildings, although Meng Pao Zhan and Fan Boqin did not die, they had sustained internal injuries from Jin Xia’s counterattack. Especially for Meng Pao Zhan, who had taken on Jin Xia’s [Rising Over Heaven] palm; a Quasi-Soul grade technique!

Having both used Mid-grade attack skills against Jin Xia, this outcome was naturally to be expected.

RIght now, Meng Pao Zhan could feel that several bones in his bone were broken at various areas around his chest and even his arms. A few muscle tendons had also been somehow severed, causing his legs to slightly trembled as he struggled to maintain his footing. There was currently a sweet, bubbling feeling at the back of his throat.

If Meng Pao Zhan’s strength was even a bit lower, perhaps that one attack from Jin Xia would be enough to finish him off!

Forcing himself to swallow down the blood that was about to spill from his mouth, Meng Pao Zhan had a dark expression. In his eyes, there was rage, humiliation, shock, and even an indescribable fear.

Meng Pao Zhan would have never thought that a junior at the Spiritual Dan realm could have injured him internally to such an extent; he was practically deprived of his mobility from just one exchange!

“Is…that an Upper category skill?! B-but what grade would it have to be, to be so….” Meng Pao Zhan muttered under his breath as he looked at Jin Xia with a barely visible dread in his eyes.

Although items and martial skills are set into grades, among the Grades, there is a further division of Lower and Upper. But while it was only a mere word difference, the gap in power and effectiveness was huge.

For example, while Mid-Grade items were relatively rare and expensive in the Great Azure Country, almost all of those Mid-grade items were of Lower level. There were few Upper Mid-grade items.

In other words, to find a Upper Level Graded item or skill was several times harder than merely obtaining a Lower Level Graded artifact. The strength that it gives its user would naturally be greater as well, with some rumors claiming that a few Upper Level Graded artifact could even compare to another item that’s a Grade higher than itself!

For example, it’s said that a truly powerful Upper Top-graded item could exhibit the strength that’s comparable to a Lower Jade-graded item!

One has to remember that the gap between a higher Graded item to a lower one is already like a whole new plane, so to be able to even compare to a higher rank’s ability while being of a lower rank…

Fan Boqin, who had sustained a much lighter damage compared to his counterpart, likewise had an ugly expression on his face. From just one simple bout, he had instantly lost all face within Red Sun City.

To have been pushed back by a junior and even slightly injured…this was a shame that Fan Boqin could never hope to erase from his heart!

Ignoring the tingling pain in his hands, Fan Boqin’s eyes went red as he let out a savage roar and began madly dashing over towards the other building where Jin Xia was standing. He did not even consider how Jin Xia had been able to injure him, or what exactly had transpired in detail.

Blinded by the rage and shame that he had never experienced prior to today, Fan Boqin had completely went insane. All he could think of now was to kill Jin Xia and eliminate the source of his humiliation!

Seeing the crazed Fan Boqin, Jin Xia slightly frowned as he said disdainfully: “Taking a little hit and already so displeased. What are you, a five years old kid? Utterly stupid.”

“AAHHH!! Devilspawn, I will kill you!!” Hearing Jin Xia’s provocative words, Fan Boqin became even more enraged as he promptly leaped over the rooftop towards Jin Xia’s side.

His left hand pulled back up near his face, while his right hands were outstretched in a palm towards Jin Xia. A deep blue glow could been seen emanating from Fan Boqin’s palm.

“So noisy!” Jin Xia said as his eyes flashed with a trace of annoyance. Using his Firefly Evasion movement skill, JIn Xia flickered away from his spot.

The next moment, he was in the sky, where he was almost right in front of Fan Boqin, in a leaping position.

“If one fist wasn’t enough for you, how about another one?” Jin Xia sneered as he shot out his right hand. A light blue colored fist shone as it directly landed right on Fan Boqin’s stomach, while the elder was caught off guard.

*Pfft!* Fan Boqin involuntarily spat out a bit of blood upon taking Jin Xia’s punch.

“And here’s one more!” Jin Xia shouted as brought up his left fist and furiously smashed it across Fan Boqin’s face.

*Bam!*

Fan Boqin’s body instantly flew horizontally to the right as it crashed into a nearby building.

In a single, fast mid-air exchange, Fan Boqin was easily defeated.

The crowd below who had witnessed this was in turmoil!

What? How was a late Spiritual Dan expert defeated so easily? What had happened to the superior senses of an expert?

But little did the crowd know that Jin Xia’s body, which had gone through reconstruction by the Twelve Dragon Transformation PIll, was much more powerful and complete than other practitioners.

Thus, even while Jin Xia was still merely in the Spiritual Dan realm, his body could already compete with the speed and strength of a late Spiritual Dan practitioner, inching ever closer to even that of an ordinary, early Xing Profound cultivator!

Even without strong skills, with just Jin Xia’s body alone, he could still withstand fighting against a 9th staged Spiritual Dan expert!

“O-old Boqin!” Meng Pao Zhan cried out as he looked towards the building where Fan Boqin had crashed into.

He could not feel the latter’s Qi presence anymore.

With his body sustaining serious internal injuries, he was unable to move, much less help Fan Boqin. Crazily circulating the Qi inside his body, Meng Pao Zhan tried to recover. But alas, the damage done was much more serious than he had estimated.

No matter how much he tried to recover with his Qi, the internal wounds were closing at a extremely slow rate. It was very unusual and was unlike anything he had experienced when he was healing himself.

Meng Pao Zhan could start to feel fear ruthlessly invading his heart. Never would he expect the one whom he have called a rival since ages, to be done like this.

This outcome…it, it wasn’t suppose to be like this…

Meng Pao Zhan could not even feel angry anymore. The strength of the youth before had long passed what he could process as logical anymore. Neither the crowd could conceive Jin Xia’s strength now.

But of course, given the isolation of these people in a small country like Great Azure, they did not have much world experiences to begin with.

*Whoosh!*

While Meng Pao Zhan was still in a daze, Jin Xia had already landed on a nearby roof and without a word, he quickly charged towards the other party’s side.

Noticing the approaching Jin XIa, Meng Pao Zhan felt the fear in his heart suddenly erupt.

“Ah..ah!” Meng Pao Zhan could barely utter a proper word, with his mouth opening and closing like a dying fish, before Jin Xia appeared in front of him.

“I didn’t pursue your clan for your disrespect, and just gave your sons a nice lesson. But you just had to come after me and even bought yourself, an esteemed elder, to my door.” Jin Xia said in a low voice. “Since that’s the case, I won’t be polite anymore. But don’t worry, seeing that it was only you two who truly attacked me with killing intent, I will spare your families.”

“I…I..” Meng Pao Zhan continued to try to find his words, his eyes widening at his impending doom.

In the next moment, Jin Xia struck with his right hand, stretching out all his fingers and forming a spear-like palm.

“Seven Luminous Spear, First strike!”

*Pshh!*

Jin Xia’s hand easily penetrated through Meng Pao Zhan’s defenseless chest as it came out the back of the latter’s body.

Even without an actual weapon in hand, Jin Xia’s familiarity with the arts of weapon had reached an unfathomable level. Fusing spear intent with his body was easy, once he had reached the minimum required Spiritual Dan Realm!

Meng Pao Zhan’s eyes widened even more, upon feeling Jin Xia’s strike, as he slowly sank into the eternal darkness…

There was no need to talk about the regrets of a dead man.

In one, fluid move, Jin Xia pulled out his hand as blood splattered the black roof tiles.

The audience below watched on in silence, each holding their breath in fear.

Initially, when the people saw two late Spiritual Dan experts go up against a mere early Spiritual Dan realm, they had expected the fight to end quickly.

Even though it was extremely rare for someone so young to reach such a high stage in the Spiritual Dan realm, it still could not compare to a person who had stayed in the 9th stage of the Spiritual Dan for several years.

No one was expecting the battle to last long at all.

And it really did not. Barely five minutes had passed since the fight began, and it was already over.

However, contrary to popular expectations, WuDang didn’t lost another early staged Spiritual Dan expert.

–it lost two late staged ones instead.