Against The Heavens 90 The Demon's Smile.

"Don't think that just because you countered my soul cultivation that you have the right to look down on me. Like I said earlier, let me show you the might required to be one of the top five outer disciples!"

Yuan Yijun stretched out her arms as she spoke, the robes that covered her arms and legs suddenly bursting and revealing her fair limbs. But right now the veins on her arms and legs were protruding and wriggling like worms, the sound of blood rus.h.i.+ng through them clearly audible in the arena. Mixed with the sound of blood rus.h.i.+ng was the sound of bones creaking and sc.r.a.ping against each other, Yuan Yijun's face turning deep red in color, a few veins in her eyes popping and turning her eyes crimson.

Li Yang's eyes narrowed faintly when he saw her current state. She had clearly activated some sort of strengthening technique, but Li Yang had no idea what type of strengthening technique it was, nor did he know the exact strength of the technique. He wasn't surprised that she had a strengthening technique, as one of the top five outer disciples, she clearly had one or two tricks up her sleeve.

He was good at improvising and acting on the spot, but he disliked it when unexpected things or things he didn't understand happened, they would often cause the situation to leave his control so they made him uneasy. And because of that, Li Yang decided that the best course of action right now was to beat down Yuan Yijun before any more unknown things appeared.

Li Yang took a step forward and turned into a blur, the sound of m.u.f.fled thunder rumbling over the stage as he dashed towards Yuan Yijun like a furious bolt of lightning. While he dashed, tall walls of ice rose up from the ground around Yuan Yijun, blocking all sides except the one that Li Yang came from.

Yuan Yijun completely ignored the walls of ice, her eyes fully focused on the approaching Li Yang. She suddenly punched out with her fist, the attack so fast that her arm nearly vanished from sight. Her attack seemed like it would just strike empty air, but just as the audience thought her attack was a fluke, Li Yang arrived in front of the fist.

Both of them moved so fast that they appeared as little more than blurs, but both were still able to keep track of the other one. Yuan Yijun knew that if Li Yang wanted to finish his dash, he had to pa.s.s by the place where her punch was headed, so she perfectly calculated the timing needed for the das.h.i.+ng Li Yang to reach the spot where she was punching, forcing him to meet her attack head-on.

But just as she thought her fist was going to make contact with Li Yang, he suddenly vanished. He didn't dodge or dash away, he simply vanished, completely dumbfounding her. But Yuan Yijun didn't let her shock stun her, moving into action immediately. The moment Li Yang vanished, while her arm was still in its punching motion, she used her law of motion to kick her own legs out from underneath her, resulting in her falling face first towards the ground.

She opened her punching fist and dug her fingers into the stage, supporting her body and preventing her from falling onto the stage. As she did this, Li Yang popped out from the wall of ice he had set up behind her, now wearing an icy blue robe. He aimed a punch at her spine, but as Yuan Yijun had thrown herself towards the ground the moment he vanished, his punch ended up pa.s.sing over her.

Using the hand dug into the stage to support her body and with her law of motion as support, Yuan Yijun did half a front flip that raised her lower body and aimed an upward kick at Li Yang, her heel smas.h.i.+ng into Li Yang's solar plexus. Her Qi and law of motion flooded into his body, two of Li Yang's ribs twisting and shattering themselves before he was able to force her Qi out of his body. When her kick connected, Yuan Yijun's lips curled into a slight smirk.

"Did you think that I hadn't gathered any information about you? I already know that you used a similar technique on the mission you took with Xiang Wuying, dodging using the surrounding flame. I guessed that since you were able to do that with fire, you would likely be able to do the same using ice."

Her words weren't wrong, but what she didn't know was that Li Yang had only recently become able to turn his entire body into cold and use surrounding ice to rebuild it. Her words weren't meant as a sign of arrogance, they were meant to sow unease and worry in the mind of Li Yang, causing him to constantly question which of his techniques she might already know about.

When faced with normal cultivators, her tactic might prove to be somewhat useful. But when had Li Yang ever been normal? He completely ignored her words and the pain coming from his shattered ribs, grabbing onto Yuan Yijun's leg and pus.h.i.+ng it away from him, forcing her to take half a backflip and return to a horizontal position, with only her one arm supporting her body.

Li Yang then did half a frontflip, leaning down so far that his forehead smashed into the back of Yuan Yijun's head, fire and lightning scorching her hair and scalp, horribly cold ice flooding into her mind as he gave her a mighty headb.u.t.t. Jinwu's eyes could freeze immaterial things, so even the enemy's mind and thoughts could be frozen if Li Yang was strong enough.

The attack didn't come without a price though, as any contact with Yuan Yijun would allow her to flood Li Yang with her law of motion. The short moment he had grabbed onto her leg was enough for Yuan Yijun to break three of the fingers on his left hand.

The force of the attack smashed Yuan Yijun into the ground, her forehead cras.h.i.+ng into the stage and cracking it. Right now Yuan Yijun was using one of the aspects of her law of motion, the speed of motion, to drastically increase all her abilities, even the speed at which her thoughts moved. This allowed her to easily keep up with the speed Li Yang could reach thanks to his law of lightning.

But even with that, Yuan Yijun now felt her thoughts slow down, a glacial feeling flooding her mind and even drowning out the pain she felt from having her head crash into the stone stage. She quickly flooded her own mind with Qi, forcing out the glacial feeling and allowing her mind to return to its forcibly heightened state.

Once her mind was no longer slowed down, she noticed that Li Yang had already changed his position, having front flipped over her during the short moment her thoughts were slowed down. He was standing in front of her with his back turned to her, so he had clearly just landed from the frontflip. He gave a quick spin of his body, raising his left leg as high as he could, bringing it down mid-spin, aiming to stomp Yuan Yijun's head into the stage.

Yuan Yijun swiftly reacted by activating her law of motion and causing her body to slide backward, causing the stomp to shatter the stage in the spot where her head had just been, fire, ice, and lightning mixing together to create a deep hole. She was confident she would be able to survive if that attack hit her, but it would instantly render her unable to continue battling.

She continued to slide backward until her feet touched the wall of ice Li Yang had set up behind her. The moment her feet touched the wall, spikes grew out of it, aiming to pierce her feet. But Yuan Yijun had been prepared for this, so the moment the spikes touched her feet, her law of motion caused them to curl up and shatter.

She pushed off the ground with both her arms and used her law of motion to return herself to a standing position. But just as she was standing properly again, a fist arrived in front of her face and smashed into her nose, causing the back of her head to crash into the wall of ice and shatter it. She responded by flooding Li Yang's right hand with her law of motion, causing the bones in all his fingers but his thumb to twist and shatter.

She then kicked off the ground and used her law of motion, as well as the force of Li Yang's punch, to support her body as she did a backflip, rolling over the shattered wall of ice. While doing the backflip, she also used the chance to once again kick Li Yang, delivering an upwards kick to his outstretched right arm.

Her foot crashed into his arm a little above his elbow, the bone at the spot she touched trying to curl itself up, shattering as a result. Normally, when somebody's bone was shattered like that, they would be unable to move their arm. But Li Yang was different, he simply used his law of lightning to control the electrical signals in the nerves in his arm, forcing the arm to move as he wished.

After rolling over the shattered wall of ice, Yuan Yijun dashed forward, jumping over the remains of the walls and charging at Li Yang. Her strengthening technique could not last forever, so she had to swiftly crush Li Yang in the one department where she had an advantage, close combat. Thanks to her law of motion, the more times she came into contact with Li Yang, the weaker she would make him.

He could freeze and scorch her with each attack, but each time she came in contact with him, she would shatter his bones and even tear his flesh, so she would weaken him faster than he could weaken her. Or so she believed and hoped at least.

She instantly reached Li Yang's front, using the momentum of her movement to aim a punch directly at his chest. The attack was meant to force Li Yang to back up, giving her the chance to chase after him and giving her the advantage of being the one to initiate a barrage of attacks, forcing Li Yang into the defensive.

But once again Li Yang completely betrayed all her expectations, not even making an effort to dodge. Her fist smashed into his chest, shattering another six of his ribs, the skin and flesh on the right side of his chest starting to wriggle and twist, tearing itself. But she wasn't pleased that her attack landed, because she caught a glimpse of Li Yang's eyes, of the mad glint that flashed in those fiery crimson eyes.

As fast as lightning, Li Yang's right arm stretched out and grabbed onto the wrist of Yuan Yijun's arm, clamping down on it like a vice. She tried to use her law of motion to force him to let go, but Li Yang simply ignored the pain of the bones in his fingers repeatedly shattering. Lightning flooded into her arm, robbing her of all control she had over her right arm. And then, while she was punching out with her left arm to force him to let go, she heard his soft and calm, yet oh so terrifying voice.

"Now there won't be any running away."

Right after she heard his voice, Yuan Yijun felt his knee smash into her abdomen, knocking the wind out of her and causing her to lean forward and vomit, interrupting her attack. The knee to the abdomen was only the start, Li Yang lowering the knee that had smashed into her abdomen and then raising it again, this time having it crash into her face and shattering her nose.

Her head was forced up from the attack, but before she even got to respond, Li Yang gave her another headb.u.t.t, her skull creaking slightly from the force behind it. He then used his left arm to punch her in the abdomen again, this time hitting her directly where her dantian was located. When his fist made contact with her dantian, fire, ice, and lightning flooded into her dantian, surrounding her runes and the Ascended Road that she had created.

Now, with just a quick thought, he could completely shatter her runes and Ascended Road, crippling her cultivation and forcing her to start from scratch. Realizing this, Yuan Yijun hurriedly spoke out, her voice drenched in fear.

"You can't! It's against the rules of the clan!"

The clan was fine with the disciples fighting and competing, it promoted growth, but they strictly forbade killing or crippling other disciples. After she spoke out, she saw Li Yang's now b.l.o.o.d.y lips curl into a smile as he nodded his head to show that he understood the rules of the clan. But just as she was about to let out a relieved sigh, Li Yang spoke up.

"Don't look so relieved. The rules aren't your ally here, they are your enemy. The rules state that we are forbidden from killing or crippling each other, but that means as long as I don't kill or cripple you, I am free to do whatever I please."

Looking at the calm and even somewhat charming smile that Li Yang held as he spoke those words, Yuan Yijun couldn't help but feel like she was looking at the smile of a demon. He was right, as long as he didn't kill or cripple her, the clan wouldn't really bother with what he did to her.

Yuan Yijun wanted to shout out her surrender, but before she got the chance, Li Yang once again punched her abdomen, once again forcing her to lean forward and vomit. Then, in front of the stunned and shocked audience, Li Yang proceeded to viciously beat Yuan Yijun, just like he had done to Kong Lingxin and Yuan Ruogang.

The two hadn't been quiet when they spoke, so the entire audience had been able to hear their exchange. And watching him viciously beating Yuan Yijun, the audience felt much the same as Yuan Yijun, that his smile was truly the smile of a demon.