Rise of The Demon General

Chapter 220: Chapter 220. Respecting the Result

When Yang Li was about to decline, Amon said, ”If you can win against him, I will spar with you.”

”... If I win against him. We will fight for real in the arena,” Yang Li said.

”Very well,” Amon replied.

”All right. Let’s do this then,” Yang Li readied her stance.

Xin Wuming took his position. Amon moved back and served as the referee.

”Begin,” Amon said.

The two lunged upon the signal. Xin Wuming’s punch clashed with Yang Li’s palm. The collision resulted in a large sound. The two rebounded. Both were equal in strength. In this one and a half year, Yang Li had caught up to Xin Wuming’s cultivation level. She was at the Peak Strength Stage.

The others in the room looked at the two, including the tutor in charge of the room. Sparring was common for the students using this place. Sparring was not a real fight. If the students wanted to fight for real, they went to the arena. However, the sound from the collision just now didn’t show this was a regular spar.

Xin Wuming and Yang Li charged back at one another. This was the first time they clashed, but they had seen each other in action. They both came from the same hometown, and they both entered the White Cloud Tournament.

After one and a half years in the royal academy, Yang Li had received tutelage from multiple tutors. These tutors all thought that Yang Li’s fighting style was too raw and unbridled. They all gave her pointers to make her more refined. She underwent improvements. However, her fighting style still showed her feral side.

She fought with the ferocity of a violent predator. Her actions were mostly for the offense. She spared little attention to defense. This might make her appear reckless, but she was fast, and her reflex was swift enough to react when her offense failed.

In tune with her style, the martial art she had learned used claws. It was a free art available for her to learn in this academy. Hence, its grade was only a low-tier practitioner art. Even so, she executed it to almost perfection.

Her martial art was called the Savage Bestial Claw. The synchronization between the art and her fighting style drove her to quickly learn the art. By now, her mastery of the art was at the master level.

This art enhanced the strength of her fingers and nails. Her claw could easily tear through stone, much less flesh. The art gave her an explosive boost like a tiger springing an attack. Her leap attack could bring her to a distant target of ten meters away in a split second. Unsuspecting opponents might not realize what had happened until after her claws ripped their throats.

Upon her current mastery, the art also gave her arms superhuman speed and toughness. Her claws could clash directly with sharp weapons.

Yang Li spent most of her time in the cultivation pagoda and this practice building. Hence, many of the students who frequented this building knew her. Those who had sparred with her tended to no longer wish to repeat it. Aside from her ferocity, she tended to forget that it was supposed to be a spar. The tutors had to swoop in and stop the spar most of the time.

When the other students saw it was Yang Li who was sparring, they expected the student she was sparring with would learn this the hard way and would soon quit. It turned out her opponent was not a pushover.

Xin Wuming didn’t use her metal-element arts. Arcane arts were prohibited from being used in a spar. Other than when it was a spar against a tutor or a spar supervised by a tutor, students may only spar using martial arts. This was because arcane arts were more destructive. Inexperienced students might not have the restraint to limit the arts’ destructive force and could end up wounding their sparring partners.

Like Yang Li, Xin Wuming only used martial arts. His martial art was one using fingers. The art was given to him by Amon, who took it from the list of books available in the Pyramid library. It was another martial art with the grade of mid-tier practitioner.

Xin Wuming’s martial art was one grade higher than Yang Li’s, but he had only learned it to the skilled mastery. His art was called the Sword Finger of Mount Xia. The art was performed by thrusting two fingers. These fingers exuded sharp energy that could cut and pierce things as if they were swords.

While Yang Li’s claws were fierce and focused mostly on offense, Xin Wuming fought with precision and exhibited solid defense. He dodged most of her attacks using skilled footwork. His fingers poked at the claws he couldn’t dodge.

Although Xin Wuming was busy overseeing the organizations in the past one year, he didn’t neglect his training. Amon also made time to spar with him every week. Amon gave him pointers during their spar and honed his battle instinct. Amon explained to him that although he had an undying body, he shouldn’t rely on it, especially since he was still weak in the cultivation world. Amon even doubled down and instructed him to focus on refining his defense so as not to let anyone land a hit on him.

The training paid off. Xin Wuming was calm under the fierce barrage of Yang Li’s assaults. He dealt with each attack with precision and without wasting too much energy. His Hundred Misleading Steps had also improved to skilled mastery, allowing him to fool Yang Li every time he performed a dodge.

Yang Li was frustrated. The spar had gone on for quite a while. She was not used to a long fight. Her fight was usually decided in a minute if not seconds. Her reckless fighting style didn’t facilitate a long fight. Whether she won or lost, she thought it was a waste of time to drag out the fight.

Hence, her frustration when the winner and loser were still undecided even after several minutes of exchanges. None of her claws touched Xin Wuming. The guy just danced around her.

She suddenly stopped her offense and squatted down. Xin Wuming was just about to swap into offense, but he caught Amon shaking his head from the corner of his eyes. Due to the gesture, he jumped back instead, just as Yang Li’s claws exploded into a flurry of hurricanes.

Her claws swept everything around her. If Xin Wuming was still in range, there was no way he could defend against this flurry of attacks. This was not a martial art Yang Li learned from a martial art book. She created this martial art out of her battle experiences against the spirit beasts in the wilderness.

Yang Li didn’t let go of her offense when her assault failed again. She lunged at Xin Wuming with an explosive leap. Xin Wuming was startled to find the girl directly before him when he thought he had put a safe distance. Yang Li’s claw slammed into Xin Wuming’s head.

However, Yang Li felt no impact on her hand. Her claw went through Xin Wuming as if he was a mirage. That was because it was. What she hit was an afterimage created by the Hundred Misleading Steps.

Yang Li’s back was now exposed to Xin Wuming after he dodged her leaping attack. He didn’t waste it. It was time to make a counterattack. His sword fingers poked with lightning speed at the open back. He was sure his attack would hit when suddenly Yang Li ducked. Her leg came up from a blind angle and struck Xin Wuming’s chin.

The strike sent Xin Wuming reeling. He was surprised by this reversal but didn’t let himself lose focus. Unfortunately, Yang Li was again before him when he returned his attention to her.

It was too late to perform an evasive maneuver. His fingers stabbed forward as Yang Li’s claw came at him.

It seemed like they would fatally wound one another, but the two suddenly stopped. A hand was gripping Yang Li’s wrist, while another grabbed Xin Wuming’s. The hands were Amon’s.

The tutor in charge of the room had come to watch the spar with the other students. He was about to stop the spar just now. He was surprised Amon beat him to it.

Yang Li’s claw was touching Xin Wuming’s belly. Her sharp fingers had pierced into his skin a little. Blood trickled from the wound. Similarly, Xin Wuming’s fingers were only a hair breath away from Yang Li’s neck. If Amon stopped Xin Wuming’s hand a fraction of a second later, those fingers would have hit the artery on Yang Li’s neck.

”It’s a tie,” Amon declared.

Amon let go of Xin Wuming’s arm. Xin Wuming stepped back and respected the result.

Amon was still holding Yang Li’s arm. Her eyes still showed the ferocity of a beast. She was still under the battle lust. He only let go after her eyes returned to normal. She turned to Amon and stared at him for a while. She then turned back and walked away without saying a word.