Chapter 2372 — Mutually Reinforcing
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"Foolish!" Piao Laoliu sneered. "Fine. I had no wish to kill you, but since you mean to ruin Mr. Piao's grand design, I have no choice but to send you to the Western Heaven."
Wei Zhao's expression shifted slightly. His opponent's strength was steadily bearing him down. If he still had Fireflow Divine Pellets, he would have been a hundred percent certain of victory; unfortunately, two of them had gone into the Chief Guard and one into Tagan Long—all spent. Now he could only fight it out head-on.
A straight collision was the worst possible way for Wei Zhao to fight, but he had no choice. At the Profound Rank, contests were decided by level of strength; at the Earth Rank, by the strength of one's martial techniques; only Heaven Rank experts could channel true qi into divine weapons, so their contests came down to technique and weapon alike. At the Earth Rank, carrying a weapon was merely a burden.
"Frenzied Fire Eight-Trigram Palm, Fifth Style!" Wei Zhao once again triggered the Frenzied Fire Eight-Trigram Palm—only this time his target was Piao Laoliu's head. He was hunting for a flaw, hoping that Piao Laoliu's head was his weak point.
But the contempt that flickered in Piao Laoliu's eyes told Wei Zhao otherwise. This man, like Ma Zhu whom he had fought before, was an external-school cultivator built for high defense—one could hardly find a gap anywhere on his body!
And since the man had also trained in the internal school, becoming an internal-school expert capable of attacking as well, he was more troublesome still! So in an instant Wei Zhao made his decision. As the saying went, to catch the bandits, catch their king first. Wei Zhao simply stopped attacking Piao Laoliu—after all, it was a straight clash of force, and since his blows had no effect on the man, he might as well leave his back exposed and let him strike; Wei Zhao shifted his target to Piao Huotai!
Suddenly, Wei Zhao's body, hurtling at Piao Laoliu, twisted in midair in an inconceivable reversal, and both palms shot out at Piao Huotai, who sat beside the gambling table! In his days as an assassin Wei Zhao had learned a footwork technique that, once applied, made him faster than ordinary cultivators, and it could produce movements that seemed utterly impossible—like this one!
Neither Piao Laoliu nor Piao Huotai had expected Wei Zhao to wheel about so abruptly and fix his aim on Piao Huotai!
"Boom! Boom!"
"Bang!"
Wei Zhao's palms landed squarely on Piao Huotai's chest, and Piao Laoliu's Heaven-Splitting Earth-Rending Claw, wreathed in flame-red true qi, clamped onto Wei Zhao's back!
"Pff..."
At the very moment Wei Zhao struck Piao Huotai, he was struck by Piao Laoliu; a mouthful of fresh blood sprayed across the gambling table, dyeing a spread of playing cards red... Yet what Wei Zhao found inconceivable was that Piao Huotai neither dodged nor flinched—he took Wei Zhao's blow head-on, his face placid as ever.
Given the speed of Wei Zhao's movement technique, Piao Huotai certainly could not have dodged—even an early Heaven Rank expert could never have evaded Wei Zhao's sudden change of move; the private box was simply too small. But to be unable to dodge did not mean he could not evade—turning his vital parts aside, that is.
Yet Piao Huotai did not evade at all. He took the Fifth Style of Wei Zhao's Frenzied Fire Eight-Trigram Palm squarely on the chest, and afterward his expression remained utterly calm, as though the man Wei Zhao had just struck was not him at all.
"You... you're an external-school cultivator too?" Wei Zhao started, a flicker of incredulous dread passing through his eyes. That Piao Laoliu was a high-defense external-school cultivator had already astonished him; he had never imagined Piao Huotai would be one as well!