Chapter 4144 — The Turn Comes Too Fast

"Di Xingdao, I really have to wonder whether you were injured for so long that even your brain has gone bad! Killing opponents above your level in a single blow—that is nothing but an inflated reputation. Do you truly believe that with nothing more than the strength of Nascent Soul Grand Perfection, you can come and deal with me? Hmph, you really don't know how the word 'death' is written!" Nan Tian Liuguang sneered before the crowd.

"Why say so much? Just start fighting. If you don't know how the word 'death' is written, I'd be glad to take the trouble to teach you." Di Xingdao worked his neck and the joints of his hands and feet as he walked straight toward Nan Tian Liuguang.

Teach you, my ass! Nan Tian Liuguang choked on his words, his expression darkening further. With a savage look on his face, he leaped and charged straight at Di Xingdao, his whole body wreathed in true qi so dense it seemed to have taken physical form, endlessly shifting through every kind of technique.

Now a palm, now a claw, now a fist—and even all manner of weapons. Whatever ordinary people could imagine, and much they could not, could be found within that materialized true qi. With such unpredictable, ever-changing stances, onlookers felt the difficulty of it just from watching.

"They say Nan Tian Liuguang is a master of the Formless Divine Art. Seeing it today, the reputation is well deserved," a knowledgeable expert in the crowd remarked in admiration.

"Indeed, the Formless Divine Art can replicate any martial technique. Before he strikes, you cannot even tell which school he will use or which technique he will employ—there is simply no guarding against it."

"Truly formidable! Judging by Nan Tian Liuguang's stance, he must have mastered at least twenty or thirty martial techniques. He served as the academy head of the cultivator academy for so many years—clearly he put in no small amount of hard work!"

"I'd say Di Xingdao is in trouble this time. Nan Tian Liuguang is plainly no ordinary expert of the Xuan Ascension stage. If Di Xingdao were in his former prime, he might still have some chance to test his strength against him. But after so many years injured, his vital essence surely has not recovered. Heh heh..."

While the crowd debated, Nan Tian Liuguang and Di Xingdao had already come to blows in the arena. With but a single exchange, Di Xingdao was directly swallowed whole by dozens of powerful martial techniques, shown no mercy.

Nan Tian Liuguang's attacks were not delivered one move at a time as the crowd had imagined, but all at once. He was an expert of the early Xuan Ascension stage, his reserves of true qi far more abundant than those of a Nascent Soul Grand Perfection like Di Xingdao—naturally he could sustain such expenditure.

Those years as academy head of the cultivator academy had not been spent in vain. The principle that even a lion must use its full strength to catch a rabbit was one Nan Tian Liuguang understood far better than most. Why had so many powerful experts been undone in the gutter? There was only one reason: underestimating the enemy.

Though Nan Tian Liuguang had never crossed hands with Di Xingdao, he needed no thought to know that if Di Xingdao could challenge opponents above his level, he must possess some heaven-defying martial technique of extraordinary power.

Once given the chance, he might well succeed in a counterattack. So the safest course was to suppress him with full force from the very start and leave him not the slightest, tiniest opportunity.

In an instant, Di Xingdao's whole figure was submerged. The crowd exchanged looks, and the eyes they turned on Nan Tian Liuguang now carried a measure of dread.

No wonder this man was a ruthless character capable of contending for the position of deputy island lord—dozens of martial techniques unleashed at once. Were they in Di Xingdao's place, they would likely have been blasted to dust by now.

Having seized the initiative in the first exchange, Nan Tian Liuguang pressed his advantage without mercy, pinning Di Xingdao down with dozens of powerful martial techniques for a full half-incense's worth of time.

The onlookers could not help but glance sidelong. Beneath the shroud of materialized true qi, they could not clearly see Di Xingdao's present state of ruin, but from the ground crumbling and caving in beneath his feet, they could tell that even if he was not dead, he was surely not far from it.

With an assault so ferocious, an ordinary Nascent Soul Grand Perfection expert would die almost at a touch, and even experts of the early Xuan Ascension stage at the same level could not withstand Nan Tian Liuguang's desperate barrage of martial techniques.

"Dead or not? If you're not dead, open your mouth and beg for mercy, and perhaps I'll be merciful and spare your little life. You are, after all, a legendary figure of your generation—and a former deputy island lord at that. If I just killed you like this, I'd fear others would say I am narrow-minded and cannot tolerate others. So I might consider leaving you a way to live, ha ha ha!" Nan Tian Liuguang laughed wildly in triumph.

The crowd, too, wore expressions of inability to watch. Though Di Xingdao had once been formidable, he was now a thing of the past; before Nan Tian Liuguang he had no power to strike back at all.

"Leave me a way to live? Then I must thank you, Tian, for that?" Di Xingdao's voice suddenly rang out. The whole crowd was startled into doubt, and turned in disbelief toward that little patch of ground at the center, still being savagely bombarded by dozens of martial techniques.

"You're actually still alive?" Nan Tian Liuguang's face changed drastically, and he instinctively retreated several steps.

"Heh heh, your question is strange indeed. You think these techniques of yours, which feel like scratching an itch, can finish me? You underestimate Tian far too much!" Again Di Xingdao was heard but not seen.

"Hmph, putting on an act. You think that can frighten me? You are too naive!" Nan Tian Liuguang came to his senses at once, then threw caution to the wind and bombarded him with all his strength, determined to put Di Xingdao to death in one stroke.

But the next moment, Di Xingdao merely threw a single bare-handed punch, plain and unadorned, and all those dazzling powerful techniques instantly dissolved like smoke, as though they had never appeared at all.

As for Di Xingdao himself, never mind wounds—not even a speck of dust clung to him.

"Impossible! Impossible!" Nan Tian Liuguang retreated again and again in terror. He could never have imagined that his prized Formless Divine Art would have not the slightest lethality against this Di Xingdao. Had he not witnessed it with his own eyes, no one would believe it if told.

"I said it long ago—the Xuan Ascension experts who have died at my hands are not one or two. As for an early Xuan Ascension like you, save your breath." Before Di Xingdao's words had faded, he threw a bare-handed punch at Nan Tian Liuguang from afar.

Boom! No leaked true qi was seen, no unusual power was felt—yet Nan Tian Liuguang, as though struck by a hammer weighing ten thousand tons, was blasted backward, driven clean off the peak of Zhongding Mountain!

With a wail, Nan Tian Liuguang, like a kite with its string cut, fell straight down from the sea of clouds beyond the peak, vanishing from sight in an instant.

The whole arena fell into dead silence. Everyone could not help but exchange glances, and the looks they turned on Di Xingdao were both shocked and fearful. This turn of events had come far too suddenly, far too fast! R1152