Chapter 3751 — Fooling You Once

With the might of the Life-Reaping Chain Sword, Twenty-Fourth Stance, let alone Wei Zhao—a mere peak early-Foundation Establishment expert—even a mid-Foundation Establishment expert would not still be standing here, not unless the sword qi had diced him to pieces!

Yet Wei Zhao, drenched in ghastly, glaring blood, answered with a faint smile: "Terribly sorry about that. I anticipated your second burst of sword qi long ago. The reason I deliberately let you hit me was simply to fool you one more time. I'm just that fond of a good joke—sorry to disappoint you. My apologies."

Before the words had even faded, Wei Zhao gave his opponent no chance to react. He drove the true qi he had long been gathering and struck the man's chest with a single palm—his strongest, most lethal killing move, amplified by the Essence Necklace: the Frenzied Fire Eight-Trigram Palm, Twenty-Second Stance!

At that very moment, Yu Jiang had just finished unleashing the Life-Reaping Chain Sword, Twenty-Fourth Stance, consuming a vast amount of true qi. He was wholly spent, with nothing left in reserve, and was utterly unprepared for Wei Zhao's palm.

A full-fledged mid-Foundation Establishment expert was sent flying a full ten zhang by that single palm. His chest gave a series of crackling reports and caved in; blood sprayed ceaselessly from his mouth, tracing a gory arc through the air. He could not even manage the most basic protective tuck as he fell, crashing to the ground, dead or alive unknown.

"Before absolute strength, all schemes and tricks are nothing but jokes—there's truth in that saying. I'll take it as advance praise from you." Watching the motionless Yu Jiang from afar, Wei Zhao drew a sharp breath and forced himself upright, then gritted his teeth and raised his hand to inspect the mangled flesh beneath his left armpit. Not bad—the wound was serious, but not overly so; it would not be too troublesome to recover from.

The wound had appeared beneath his left armpit precisely because Wei Zhao had foreseen the attack and prepared for it in advance.

In truth, he could have dodged the second sword strike and withdrawn unscathed, but doing so would have cost him the perfect chance to deal the enemy a grievous blow—and finding another such opportunity would not come easily.

So he had improvised this bitter-flesh stratagem on the spot, deliberately adjusting his body so that the opponent's second burst of sword qi would pierce through beneath his left armpit, creating the illusion that the sword qi had run him through in a fatal spot—when in fact, this wound was nowhere near enough to kill a man like Wei Zhao!

And once he had deceived the other's eyes, what followed was simple. One palm of the Frenzied Fire Eight-Trigram Palm, Twenty-Second Stance, and the world fell silent.

Given Yu Jiang's caution and cunning, Wei Zhao would have found such a killing opportunity very hard to come by no matter how much scheming he employed—for at the slightest sign of trouble the man would respond at once, and even if Wei Zhao landed a killing move, it might not have been enough to end him.

But after the Frenzied Fire Fist had burned him into a fury of humiliation, he abandoned thought of his own accord and chose to crush Wei Zhao with sheer strength—and that was the true root of his tragedy.

When the two sides' actual strength was roughly equal, a war of minds was the key to determining who would have the last laugh. After all, with strength so evenly matched, what did one have to crush the other with?

So the moment Yu Jiang abandoned thought, the outcome of this duel had in fact already been decided.

Wei Zhao let out a long, foul breath. After briefly steadying his breathing, he at once walked toward Yu Jiang.

Though today's battle had been a victory of the war of minds, it had been anything but easy. As the saying goes, to uproot evil one must be thorough and tear out the roots—having come this far, he would naturally not leave his opponent alive.

If the man had already died outright, so much the better. If not, then he must finish him off while he lay grievously wounded and unable to move—for if he were allowed to find a chance to slip away, endless trouble would follow.

He drew closer slowly, all the while watching and guarding against the slightest movement from the other's body. Yet even when Wei Zhao had come within less than two zhang, Yu Jiang still lay face-down on the earth without the slightest stir, not a trace of living sound about him—he gave the impression of being thoroughly dead.

Something was wrong! Wei Zhao's heart was instantly on guard. Against a peak early-Foundation Establishment expert, his single Frenzied Fire Eight-Trigram Palm, Twenty-Second Stance, might indeed kill in one blow—but against a mid-Foundation Establishment expert like Yu Jiang, that was pushing it.

Even with the Essence Necklace amplifying that strike, it could at most leave him grievously wounded and near death—it was hardly likely to kill him outright, much less leave him as he was now, not emitting the faintest whisper of sound.

Given the cunning this creature had displayed before, playing dead at such a moment—lulling him into carelessness and then striking back at the first opportunity—was not merely possible. It was highly likely!

Anyone else might have thought to step a little closer to confirm whether the man was dead or alive. But Wei Zhao halted his steps directly at two zhang's distance, using the jade pendant's space to replenish the true qi within his body while secretly gathering qi to prepare the Frenzied Fire Eight-Trigram Palm, Twenty-First Stance.

Though the might of the Twenty-First Stance could not compare with the Twenty-Second, in a situation like this it was more than enough to finish the job.

Wei Zhao had made up his mind: whether or not this creature was feigning death, he would first land one palm here and settle the matter. Once that palm landed, it would not matter if the thing wanted to play dead any longer—for it would surely be dead beyond doubt, with not the slightest chance of surviving.

Sure enough, upon sensing Wei Zhao's intent, the "corpse" on the ground that had seemed so thoroughly dead could hold still no longer. It abruptly rolled over and to the side to escape Wei Zhao's palm and, in the same motion, flung out a handful of silver-gray powder from its grasp.

Lime? That was Wei Zhao's first thought, and he was immediately caught between laughter and tears. A full-fledged mid-Foundation Establishment expert, and when he could not win a fight he resorted to flinging lime to escape—the resemblance to a street-corner thug was a bit too strong and a bit too ridiculous, wasn't it?

But Wei Zhao grasped at once that this handful of "lime" was no ordinary thing—not only could it obscure sight, but more importantly, it could explode.

Boom! The earth shook and the mountains trembled. That tiny handful of "lime" somehow produced a small mushroom cloud, giving Wei Zhao quite a start.

Had he not gathered qi in advance and readied the Frenzied Fire Eight-Trigram Palm, Twenty-First Stance—and promptly used it to cancel out most of the head-on impact—and had he not fortunately been standing somewhat far off, that single explosion alone would certainly have wounded him further while he was caught off guard. In that case, the opponent might truly have found a chance to turn the tables and kill him.

This was nothing short of a man-made high-powered dust explosion!

Wei Zhao, his face smeared with grime, patted the dust from his clothes and looked at the empty, bare patch of ground before him. The man's figure was long gone.

(.)