Chapter 5209 — Withered Leaves Renew

Falling Leaf Tells Autumn and A Leaf Like a Mountain—the most conventional and most menacing combo, and Duanmu Yu's original plan. Yet like Falling Leaf Tells Autumn, the mighty and overbearing move A Leaf Like a Mountain also required time to gather power. Everyone knew the combo, and yet none could guard against it, because no one could tell from where or from when the attack of A Leaf Like a Mountain would come.

The problem now was that, affected by the bone-piercing cold of the Imprisoning Circle, Duanmu Yu found her true qi beginning to show signs of stagnation. If she kept dragging this out, she would never manage to unleash A Leaf Like a Mountain again.

Better to stake everything on one throw than sit and wait for death.

A thin iron leaf appeared out of thin air above Leng Leng's head, then came crashing down with an incomparably weighty, majestic force. A Leaf Like a Mountain!

Boom! The iron leaf was only palm-sized, yet it left a clear leaf-shaped imprint on the ground fully half a basketball court wide and a full man's height deep—a sight that left everyone staring open-mouthed.

"Ah!" Qiu Lingshan and the others screamed at the sight. At this rate, hadn't Leng Leng been crushed to death outright by A Leaf Like a Mountain?

But an instant later they breathed a sigh of relief, for Leng Leng had already burst out from the leaf imprint. Though clearly somewhat hurt, judging by her current condition the injuries should not be too serious.

"Is that thing made of iron?" someone could not help crying out in amazement, and the others were just as baffled. They had seen the might of A Leaf Like a Mountain with their own eyes—a peak Foundation Establishment expert had been blasted away on the spot. Even if Leng Leng was stronger than an ordinary peak Foundation Establishment expert, surely she could not take A Leaf Like a Mountain head-on and still come out skipping and hopping? This was absurd!

Xue Jianming snorted at this. The ordinary onlookers could not make sense of what they had just seen, but he, an early Golden Core expert, had seen it perfectly clearly. Duanmu Yu's A Leaf Like a Mountain was indeed formidable; for an ordinary peak Foundation Establishment expert to bear it head-on was practically suicide—and the same held for Leng Leng.

But Leng Leng had not taken it head-on just now. Instead, before A Leaf Like a Mountain could crush down, she had struck the ground first and dropped herself down; the force of A Leaf Like a Mountain had been borne not so much by her body as mostly diverted into the earth. That was why her injuries were so light.

Xue Jianming felt a secret pang of regret—he had been itching for Leng Leng to be beaten to death by Duanmu Yu, and never expected her to escape disaster like this.

"Damn!" Duanmu Yu's heart lurched. Falling Leaf Tells Autumn and A Leaf Like a Mountain had already consumed the greater part of her true qi, and with more than half her chips pushed onto the table, she had at the very least needed to leave her opponent gravely wounded to keep control of the match. As things stood now, it was a disaster.

A flaw! Leng Leng's eyes lit up, and without hesitation she rushed in and drove a kick straight at her. Bang—Duanmu Yu was sent flying backward.

"A pity," Wei Zhao murmured, shaking his head at the sight. Leng Leng had seized the opening well; Duanmu Yu's momentary lapse had indeed exposed a flaw neither large nor small. But Leng Leng, affected by her own Imprisoning Circle, was noticeably a shade slower than usual, which gave her opponent a chance to make a hurried defense. Otherwise this blow might well have settled the match.

Leng Leng thought it a pity too, while Duanmu Yu privately counted herself lucky. She had managed to raise her arms across her chest before her opponent's kick landed, and her protective true qi had surged to its utmost in that instant, yet she still took a heavy impact—and on her two arms, a thin layer of white frost had actually formed.

In this state, the longer things dragged on, the greater the Imprisoning Circle's effect would become. Her lapse just now had surely been partly due to it, and having taken Leng Leng's kick squarely, the freezing effect had been magnified without limit. The white frost was the sign—by now she could not even feel her two arms; they were frozen stiff through and through.

Phew! At the sight, Leng Leng let out a long breath of foul air and at once made to deal the final blow. Truth be told, even she could not withstand the Imprisoning Circle's powerful freezing effect; if this dragged on, she herself would likely end up following in her opponent's footsteps.

"Yield?" Leng Leng suddenly halted her movement. There was no grudge between her and Duanmu Yu, and she did not wish to strike hard unless necessary—otherwise, for Duanmu Yu, it would be more than a matter of being knocked out of the tournament. Whether injuries so severe could ever fully heal was unknowable, and if any aftereffects were left behind, the consequences would be endless.

No one knew the terror of the Imprisoning Circle better than she herself did; frostbite of this degree was truly not something that could be cured at will.

"What nonsense are you talking?" Duanmu Yu glanced at her, and a flicker of resolve suddenly crossed her eyes. "The duel has only just begun, hasn't it?"

As her words fell, a withered leaf slowly slid from her palm. The onlookers exchanged glances. Even at this point, did Duanmu Yu still intend to turn the match around with Falling Leaf Tells Autumn? Her perseverance was admirable, but surely this was hardly realistic?

Leng Leng was just as puzzled, yet her reaction was swift. From where she stood, offering her opponent the chance to yield was already the height of mercy; since Duanmu Yu insisted on fighting to the bitter end, she could only oblige her!

Without another word, Leng Leng at once delivered the final blow. By now Duanmu Yu's arms were frozen numb; even the motion of sliding out the withered leaf had seemed clumsy, let alone mustering a counterattack.

Yet before Leng Leng's strike could land, an incomparably mighty vitality suddenly erupted from Duanmu Yu's body—as though made tangible—and her whole person radiated a blinding light.

"The withered leaf... has turned green?" Wei Zhao watched the leaf drifting slowly to the ground with some astonishment. At this moment it was unmistakably a vivid, verdant green, brimming with life.

"This is Withered Leaves Renew!" Xin Yi'an cried out aloud. No wonder this early Golden Core junior uncle of theirs was so shaken—in fact, not only he, but even Bing Wushuang, watching from the stands, was visibly moved.

Withered Leaves Renew—like Falling Leaf Tells Autumn, one of the Leaf Spirit Sect's few signature moves. Only this was never something Foundation Establishment disciples could master; in theory only Golden Core experts had any hope of cultivating it. No one could have imagined that Duanmu Yu, a mere peak Foundation Establishment disciple, had already mastered this move!

In that case, even if this woman's strength and potential could not match startling prodigies like Leng Leng and Ling Tianyou, she was not far behind them.

As the name implied, Withered Leaves Renew miraculously restored depleted stamina and true qi to their absolute peak within a few short moments, while also healing the vast majority of injuries. Were it not for the terrifying aftereffects, this would be a divine technique beyond all doubt!