Chapter 135 - Second Match Against A Gold Fighter

As I stepped on the sandy fighting ground, I could see the arena crowded. Not just me, it appeared that three more gold fighters were having a match today. That explained the cheers which were reaching even the outside of the arena.

I actually had to wait some more to fight as there weren't that many gold fighters here. The judges first assigned me a silver fighter and I got an easy 76th win.

Someone had been counting my consecutive wins all this while and shouted ''Seventy-six!'' when I defeated my opponent.

That made more people realize that I hadn't lost a single fight. Within just a few minutes, I saw shocked faces as if they couldn't believe what was happening. 

The arena was packed today. It appeared they had come to see the fight between gold fighters and my arrival was a pleasant and shocking surprise.

I saw Lingling sitting there at the last seat of the second row. Her attention was on me only. I waved at her and she hesitantly waved back. Now, people started to flock towards her, their mouths asking various questions.

Too bad, she scared most of them away by trying to draw her sword. Of course, unauthorized fighting was forbidden and she was not a registered fighter of this arena, so she sat back after they went away.

She could've talked with a few people. Not everyone was out to take her blood or something. I sighed and looked ahead.

At this moment, a practitioner entered the fighting ground. She had a yellow band on her forehead, a gold fighter.

I squinted my eyes and focused on the sword she had. Her body was at the fourth rank of Viscera Purifying.

'Too low… Well, let's see what she can do…' I thought and cupped my fists.

There was no judge here. I mean, not on the fighting ground. Instead, a cultivator was floating above us. Fights above silver rank were regulated by Qi gathering cultivators instead of practitioner judges.

Oftentimes, the fighters were just as strong as the judges and they might not listen when the judge called them to stop. With a cultivator here, nobody could go overboard.

''I'm Humble White,'' I said. ''It would be an honor to thrash you on this ground,'' I humbly added.

''I've heard of you. I am Drifting Sea.'' She unsheathed her sword, not liking what I had said.

When we were ready, the cultivator waved his hands, producing a loud sound for us to start. ''Fight!''

At the far left corner of this large fighting ground, our battle started. Dust spread behind our backs as we ran to clash with each other.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The cheers of the audience heightened. A gold fight was watched by at least a thousand people and this arena was perfectly capable of occupying ten thousand watchers. At present, almost five thousand people were in this arena. This was a huge number compared to the other days.

When we reached near, our bodies didn't clash. I kept a distance from her sword and opted to target her blind spots while she directly started by slashing my front.

Her attacks were quick and concise. Wasting little to no movement, she thrusted her sword at me at any chance.

This opponent had a small pony tail and was wearing a white skirt and blue T-shirt, tied together by a black belt. She had worn her clothes in a way that it didn't hinder her fighting and I had no advantage to take from that.

''What? How can you move so fast?'' Drifting Sea suddenly backed away after taking a glance at my feet.

She got lucky. She had seen what I was about to do. However, it didn't matter as with a shining rush, I came before her again.

Evading the vertical right slash, I twisted my feet and jumped. I had planned to jump just over her head but this strength made me jump way higher, to the point her sword could only barely swipe my feet.

I looked down and saw her standing figure. My gaze went to the top of her head. When I fell, I cracked my knuckles and rested my palm on her head, standing upside down.

A loud sound boomed and dust spread radially outwards from Drifting Sea's position. She felt her head become weak and dizzy after being hit by a Gold Bending Palm in such a bizarre way.

However, she still managed to direct her sword tip towards my body. I spread my legs and it went just over my balls.

Pushing her head, I landed beside her. Without giving her a rest, I punched her waist and she wasn't so lucky to evade it. My earlier attack was still making her dizzy.

Drifting Sea's legs scraped the ground as she stepped backward, trying to stabilize herself. My attack wasn't that strong as I was just checking out how well she could do.

Drifting Sea rubbed her waist and waved her sword. She was using a technique there as sounds of cutting air echoed. The speed of her waves increased more and more. Her sword turned into a shiny line of light that moved around her body.

''I thought you were faking it. It isn't possible to gain such strength in such a short time but you really are more powerful than me even without a weapon. If I don't use this, then I have no chance of winning.''

I didn't know what the name of this sword technique was but at a glance, it looked tricky. She was using a defense technique here actually. Those sword lights were meant to block or cut the attacks of her opponents. However, with a movement technique, she could go near her opponent and use it as an attack method as well.

''Cool,'' I commented and adopted a relaxed posture.

I would be lying if I didn't say I wasn't wary of her sword, now that it was moving at a speed which was hard to discern with human eyes. But, that was where my spirit sense came handy. I had heightened reflexes and most likely could dodge those sharp attacks if I put myself into it.

A tense atmosphere followed, now the real fight was starting. Like a gust of wind, I moved from one position to another using Yellow Wind Steps. One second I was here and another second I was five meters away.

Drifting Sea soon noticed that I was circling her and squinted her eyes. My mastery of Yellow Wind Steps had increased so much that I could temporarily get into the condition of being 'One With The Wind.'

The audience waited in nervous silence and anticipation. From the spectator's point of view, Drifting Sea was like a ball of electricity standing at the center of her sword lights. I moved around her with quick, unnoticeable but powerful steps.

With every circle, I was getting nearer and nearer.

Shhhh… Fwuuu~

My whole body blurred and it looked like I was being attracted to her like a piece of iron towards a magnet.

Whoosh!

The moment I came behind her, Drifting Sea automatically turned her body, directing her sword at me. The thrust threatened to injure my belly and legs while the slash could cut my shoulders, neck, and chest.

'Let's try this.'

Tiiinnng!

I hit the flat surface of her sword with my two fingers and slid them over it until I reached the handguard. Drifting Sea was shocked to find that the rhythm of her attacks had broken.

The sword lights were starting to fade away but she got back to waving the sword, using more strength to stabilize her posture.

I moved towards her as she moved back. Her sword's edge went just past my right ear as I moved my legs in a peculiar manner. Sometimes, I would hit the ground with my feet as if I was dancing. Sometimes, I would push myself to a different direction with the help of my legs.

As such, I evaded her sword. Every time I got the chance, I would disrupt her attacks by using the same way I did earlier. As I had a higher strength, she was alway pushed back by a few steps and that got me room to advance.

All of this was happening so quickly that the viewers couldn't tell just what we were doing. I heard a few ''experts'' analyzing the battle and concluding that there was ''no definite answer'' this early. However, they had a ''strong feeling'' that Humble White was winning.

Right now, we were moving very fast and it didn't seem as though I was pushing Drifting snow back. It looked more like we wanted to fight by going further backward.

''Kuh!'' My opponent grunted after some time.

I had seen a flaw in her technique and landed a palm attack on her shoulder. During this intense slashing and evading session, she had only managed to make two cuts on my robe.

Being two ranks lower than me in the Meridian Opening stage, it was actually impressive that she lasted so long before I hit her with an actually damaging attack.

Yes, that palm attack was no probe but a lethal move. Drifting Sea's shoulder was starting to swell and it seemed that it was partially dislocated. She switched hands and held her sword in her left hand.

However, that was a bad move which would cost her more than one mouthful of blood to recover.

"Cool."

Her irises reflected my masked face, a face she would soon start to fear.