The Gap

The moment the bell’s final note faded, Duong Quang vanished from where he stood.

He drew no weapon, summoned no flying sword, and cast no technique. With nothing more than one step against the stone, his tall frame shot straight forward. The hem of his black cloak had not even fallen back into place before his fist was already in front of Hao Nhien’s face.

There was no time for probing.

Hao Nhien stepped forward with his left foot, turned his shoulder slightly, and drove his right fist straight ahead.

Boom!

Their fists collided in midair. A ring of white air exploded from the point of impact, while cracks spread simultaneously beneath both men’s feet.

Hao Nhien retreated three steps, numbness racing from his fist all the way into his shoulder.

Duong Quang moved back only half a step.

The instant he steadied himself, he laughed.

“Not bad body cultivation.”

The corner of his mouth lifted.

“Worth a few more punches.”

Before the words had fully fallen, he was already upon Hao Nhien again.

The second fist drove straight toward the chest.

Hao Nhien twisted aside from the punch, immediately brought his elbow down against Duong Quang’s wrist, and swept his right leg low toward the knee at the same time. Duong Quang merely raised his leg enough to block the sweep with his own knee, then turned his waist and sent an uppercut surging upward from below.

The two immediately became locked together within less than one zhang.

There was no brilliant swordlight and no spectacular technique, only extremely short movements of fists, elbows, knees, and kicks colliding continuously at close range.

Duong Quang’s fighting style was so simple that it almost looked crude.

Yet the longer they exchanged blows, the more uncomfortable Hao Nhien became.

His opponent made almost no wasted movements.

Every punch followed the shortest possible path. Peak Foundation Establishment spiritual qi remained compressed deep within Duong Quang’s body rather than spilling outward wastefully, only erupting at the precise instant when fist, elbow, or foot reached its target.

One punch brushed past Hao Nhien’s face.

The force of it still tore open the collar of his robe.

Hao Nhien immediately slipped into the opening and drove his left fist hard into Duong Quang’s ribs.

Thud!

Duong Quang slid sideways two steps, and a tiny line of blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.

But almost at the same instant, he turned his waist and returned a punch.

Boom!

The fist struck Hao Nhien’s left shoulder directly.

The inner armor beneath his robe lit up at once, dispersing most of the impact, but the remaining force still spun him half a turn. Blood and qi surged immediately into his throat.

Hao Nhien forced it back down and used the rotation itself to launch a kick into the center of Duong Quang’s chest.

Duong Quang raised both arms to block.

Boom!

The two separated at the same time.

A single beat later, they crashed together again.

The collisions continued in rapid succession, but Hao Nhien was no longer focused only on defending. With every exchange, he was quietly measuring the gap between them.

After several dozen exchanges, the answer was clear enough.

There was no need to test further.

Duong Quang’s physical strength was greater than his.

His spiritual qi was stronger.

And in their current conditions, there was even less reason to compare.

Hao Nhien had just survived a life-and-death battle against Mac Ta. His dantian had recovered very little, and the wounds across his body had not even had time to stabilize. If he kept trading blows using the very areas in which Duong Quang held the advantage, he would only be helping his opponent drag the battle exactly where he wanted it to go.

Hao Nhien immediately changed his footwork. Wind qi gathered beneath his feet as he retreated rapidly, intending to open the distance, but Duong Quang stepped diagonally across his path and cut off the retreat, forcing him back into close range.

Duong Quang laughed.

“Trying to pull away?”

A fist came down from above.

Hao Nhien raised an arm to block.

Smack!

His forearm went numb.

The second fist had already slipped through the opening and struck the center of his chest.

Boom!

Hao Nhien was sent flying more than ten zhang. The instant his feet touched the ground, he bent forward and finally coughed a mouthful of blood onto the stone.

This time, Duong Quang did not pursue immediately. He stood in the middle of the arena and slowly rotated one wrist.

“Is that all?”

Hao Nhien wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand and stood straight again.

“You talk more than you fight.”

Duong Quang laughed coldly.

“If you still have strength to talk, I clearly have not hit hard enough.”

He rushed forward again.

But this time, Hao Nhien did not continue exchanging fists.

Just before the punch reached him, the invisible Spirit Wings behind his back suddenly burst for one short beat.

Whoosh!

Hao Nhien slid sideways out of the attack path, Wind qi simultaneously pulling his shoulder and waist off line so that he slipped directly beneath Duong Quang’s arm.

One fist drove into the abdomen.

A kick immediately followed across the ribs.

Boom!

Duong Quang was forced back two steps.

But his hand snapped downward and caught Hao Nhien by the ankle.

Hao Nhien’s gaze shifted slightly. His body, still suspended in the air, immediately rotated with the momentum while his other leg swept straight toward Duong Quang’s temple.

Duong Quang was forced to let go.

His arm rose to block.

Smack!

The two separated again.

Hao Nhien landed, and the sharp pain spreading through his shoulder and chest told him that his old injuries had begun tearing open again.

Across from him, Duong Quang now carried several bruises of his own. The blood at the corner of his mouth was more visible than before, yet his aura remained steady and his spiritual qi had barely diminished.

Hao Nhien looked at him and quickly reached a conclusion.

Duong Quang was deliberately dragging him into a war of attrition.

Every collision was being used to force his old wounds open again.

From that moment onward, Hao Nhien stopped initiating direct exchanges.

He began guiding attacks aside, slipping through angles, changing direction, and countering only when a clear opening appeared.

Duong Quang adjusted immediately.

Each time Hao Nhien managed to open three to five zhang of distance, Duong Quang’s steps would already appear in the exact direction Hao Nhien intended to move next. He did not need to be faster than the Spirit Wings. He only needed to read Hao Nhien’s movement before the burst of speed began.

After another stretch of fighting, the balance of the battle became increasingly obvious.

Hao Nhien was still landing hits.

He was still forcing Duong Quang to defend.

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But he was taking more damage in return.

Blood began seeping through the cloth over his left shoulder. The front of his robe slowly turned red. His right arm was gradually losing sensation after too many hard collisions, while every surge of peak Foundation Establishment spiritual qi that penetrated his defenses made his already-injured meridians tremble again.

Any one blow would have meant little.

But after dozens of them accumulated, the gap between the two men began turning into real injuries.

During one rare moment when Hao Nhien managed to create space, he caught sight of Tieu Nhan standing in the front row, both hands gripping the railing.

“Why doesn’t he pull away?”

Quan Nha kept her eyes on the arena.

“He is.”

Tieu Nhan froze.

“Duong Quang won’t let him.”

Her voice remained calm, but the hand at her side had already tightened into a fist.

Hao Nhien had no time to look again.

Duong Quang was already there.

A fist surged upward from below.

Hao Nhien blocked with both arms and was immediately lifted from the ground by the impact. He followed the force instead of resisting it, twisting his body as the Spirit Wings behind him burst more strongly for one beat.

Whoosh!

For the first time since the battle began, the distance between them stretched beyond twenty zhang.

Duong Quang stamped down and pursued.

But at that exact moment, a silver flash appeared behind Hao Nhien’s shoulder.

The Tieu Dao Sword shot straight toward Duong Quang’s chest, almost seamlessly connected to Hao Nhien’s retreat.

Duong Quang only narrowed his eyes.

His right hand reached behind him.

Hum!

A pitch-black spear appeared.

Small scale-like patterns covered the shaft, while the long spearhead gleamed coldly beneath the formation light.

Duong Quang turned.

Clang!

The Black Dragon Spear struck the Tieu Dao Sword and sent the silver flying sword rebounding sharply to the side.

But Hao Nhien had already arrived.

The Fire Spirit Sword came down from above, orange-red Fire spiritual qi covering the blade.

Boom!

Sword and spear collided.

The stone beneath Duong Quang’s feet immediately sank.

He merely lowered one shoulder, twisted the spear shaft with both hands, and drove upward.

Hao Nhien was thrown back again. His feet touched the ground, but he still had to retreat three more steps before regaining balance.

Duong Quang lightly stroked the Black Dragon Spear.

“I was beginning to think you planned to punch me to death.”

Hao Nhien called the Tieu Dao Sword back.

“You are half right.”

Duong Quang raised an eyebrow.

“Which half?”

Hao Nhien lifted the Fire Spirit Sword.

“Someone will die.”

The smile on Duong Quang’s face faded.

The Black Dragon Spear trembled.

Both men moved at the same time.

The battle instantly shifted from fists and feet to sword and spear, but the pressure did not lessen. It rose another level.

The Fire Spirit Sword repeatedly cut down from short angles.

The Black Dragon Spear thrust, swept, and spun into dark circles before Duong Quang, each collision carrying even greater force than his punches had.

The Tieu Dao Sword did not engage head-on.

It continuously circled beyond the spear’s immediate reach, seeking the back, the armpit, the base of the skull—places that were hardest to defend.

But Duong Quang had clearly expected this.

A black streak shot from his storage ring.

Clang!

The Tieu Dao Sword was stopped in midair.

A black flying sword appeared.

The two flying swords immediately tangled above the arena, one silver and one black, crossing through each other again and again in flashing arcs.

Hao Nhien’s gaze darkened.

Duong Quang had not only chosen the exact moment when Hao Nhien was weakened.

He had also come after thoroughly studying how Hao Nhien fought.

A spear thrust straight toward him.

Hao Nhien angled the Fire Spirit Sword and deflected it aside.

Clang!

Duong Quang instantly twisted his wrist.

The butt of the spear swept sideways.

Smack!

It struck Hao Nhien across the chest.

The inner armor had barely lit up before he was thrown away.

The black flying sword simultaneously circled toward the back of his neck.

The Spirit Wings folded and burst within a single beat, dropping his body suddenly lower.

Whoosh!

The flying sword skimmed past his hair.

But the Black Dragon Spear was already coming from the front.

Slash!

The spearhead cut across his left shoulder.

Blood sprayed immediately.

Hao Nhien twisted and slashed back with the Fire Spirit Sword.

Duong Quang blocked with the spear shaft.

Clang!

The blade was forced aside.

The black flying sword immediately swept downward.

Slash!

A deep line opened across Hao Nhien’s right arm.

Blood quickly ran toward his wrist, and two fingers around the sword hilt went numb for one beat.

Hao Nhien immediately adjusted his grip.

He did not let go.

But he understood clearly that the strength and control of his right hand had begun to decline.

Duong Quang gave him no time to adjust.

The Black Dragon Spear swept close to the ground.

Hao Nhien jumped.

The spearhead instantly changed direction and thrust upward from below as if it had been waiting for that exact reaction.

Hao Nhien blocked with the Fire Spirit Sword in both hands.

Boom!

Power erupted.

His body was blasted upward, blood trailing from the corner of his mouth through the air.

Duong Quang stamped down and pursued.

The Black Dragon Spear pointed directly at the center of his chest.

If that spear struck cleanly, Hao Nhien’s inner armor in its current condition might not survive.

While his body was still turning in midair, Hao Nhien’s eyes suddenly sharpened.

He did not force himself against the rotation.

Instead, he followed it.

The invisible Spirit Wings burst behind him, correcting the angle of his unbalanced body by just enough. At the same time, Wind qi began converging around the Fire Spirit Sword.

The instant Duong Quang saw the change, his expression shifted.

He did not retreat.

Instead, he accelerated.

The Black Dragon Spear stabbed straight through the still-forming Wind structure.

He knew Hao Nhien needed time.

And he had no intention of giving him any.

Hao Nhien immediately controlled the Tieu Dao Sword.

Clang!

The silver flying sword abandoned its opponent and slammed sideways into the shaft of the Black Dragon Spear.

The black flying sword instantly followed.

Boom!

The Tieu Dao Sword was knocked away by both forces, but that single beat of delay was enough.

The Wind around the Fire Spirit Sword rapidly closed into a temporary structure.

Fire entered first from the blade.

At the same time, Hao Nhien’s intent touched Thunder Burst in his left hand.

Hum!

Thunder Burst trembled.

The instant he opened an extremely narrow gap in the outer seal, agony far greater than before tore through Hao Nhien’s left arm.

The meridian routes that had only just carried Lightning during the battle with Mac Ta had not yet recovered.

This time, the first strand of Lightning had barely entered before pain like burning needles spread from his palm all the way to his shoulder.

Hao Nhien clenched his teeth.

He did not stop.

He drew only the exact amount he could still endure.

The external Lightning passed through the trained conduction routes, exited his body, and was guided directly into the Wind structure already containing Fire.

The three powers did not merge.

Wind merely forced them to remain inside the same temporary structure for an extremely short time.

The sphere before the sword tip gradually took shape.

It was smaller than before.

But the fluctuations inside were clearly more stable.

Duong Quang had already arrived.

The Black Dragon Spear pierced through the outer layer of Wind.

Only a few chi remained between them.

Hao Nhien immediately closed Thunder Burst’s seal and returned it to the storage ring.

The skin of his left palm had split open.

Blood quickly ran between his fingers.

A deeper pain raced up his arm, making one thing absolutely clear.

In his current condition, he could almost certainly not conduct Thunder Burst this way a third time.

But this was enough.

He gripped the Fire Spirit Sword with both hands.

The sword rose.

Duong Quang shouted:

“Break!”

The Black Dragon Spear thrust forward.

Hao Nhien slashed down.

“Shatter!”

Boom!

The red-violet sphere left the sword tip.

The distance was too close.

Duong Quang had no time to evade.

But he had no intention of evading.

The Black Dragon Spear immediately came across his body, while the black flying sword shot back from behind. Two layers of defense closed almost simultaneously before his chest.

Shatter struck.

For one instant, all sound seemed to disappear.

Then the Wind structure exploded first.

Boom!

Rotational force tore hundreds of deep grooves across the arena floor.

The openings it created immediately became channels for Fire to surge inward, while Lightning almost simultaneously pierced through the unstable points formed by the collision.

Crackle! Crackle! Crackle!

The Black Dragon Spear shook violently.

The black flying sword emitted a sharp cracking sound.

Duong Quang was swallowed by red-violet light.

Boom!

The arena barrier bulged violently outward.

The first auxiliary defensive layer shattered, forcing all four formation masters to pour in spiritual qi and direct the remaining force upward.

A pillar of red-violet light immediately shot into the sky.

Dust and smoke covered the arena.

No one in the stands spoke.

Hao Nhien landed near the edge of the formation.

The instant his feet touched the ground, one knee buckled. He had to plant the Fire Spirit Sword against the stone to keep himself upright.

His breathing grew ragged.

Blood still flowed from the wound on his right arm caused by the flying sword. His left palm was scorched red, while the meridian routes that had now carried Lightning from Thunder Burst for a second time burned deeply from within.

Only a thin layer of spiritual qi remained in his dantian.

If that still was not enough—

A sound from within the smoke cut off the thought.

Knock.

Very faint.

But within the silent square, it was clear enough to make countless eyes change at once.

Then came a second sound.

Knock.

A figure slowly stepped out of the red-black dust.

Duong Quang.

His outer cloak had almost completely burned away.

The long hair that had once been neatly tied was now disheveled, his face covered in small cuts, blood running from the corner of his mouth all the way down his chin.

The Black Dragon Spear was still in his hand.

But the forward section of the shaft glowed red-hot, many of the black scale-like layers had peeled away, and the right arm holding it was visibly trembling.

The black flying sword fell behind him.

A crack ran across nearly half its body.

Its light had dimmed to the point of nearly vanishing.

Duong Quang took another step.

Then his body swayed.

He immediately planted the Black Dragon Spear into the stone.

Clang!

Only then did the torn cloth covering his chest slowly fall away.

The black inner armor beneath it was no longer intact.

The dragon-scale patterns across the chest had almost completely gone dark. A large section over the left shoulder had shattered entirely, while the center of the chest now held a charred hole nearly the size of a palm.

Two cracks extended outward from it.

Crack.

A very small sound rang out.

The entire front section of the armor separated from Duong Quang’s body and fell to the ground.

Clang!

The black armor broke into several pieces.

The inner armor had been destroyed.

Duong Quang lowered his head.

Beneath the broken armor, a large patch of flesh across his chest had been burned black, surrounded by deep tearing wounds carved by Wind. Several remnants of Lightning still flickered occasionally beneath the skin, causing the muscles across his chest to spasm.

He coughed hard.

Spurt!

A mouthful of blood splashed onto the stone.

This was no longer merely a thin line at the corner of his mouth.

The peak Foundation Establishment aura around Duong Quang immediately fluctuated violently, dropping noticeably before barely stabilizing again.

It took him several breaths to stand straight once more.

He wiped the blood from his mouth, then stared at the red across his fingertips for a long time.

After a while, he laughed.

His voice was far hoarser than before.

“Good.”

He glanced down at the shattered inner armor beneath his feet.

“If I had not been wearing this…”

Duong Quang raised his head.

“I might not still be standing after that.”

He lifted the Black Dragon Spear again.

The movement was slower than before, but the spearpoint remained steady.

“Fists, sword, flying sword, Wind, Fire, Lightning…”

He paused for a beat, his gaze turning colder.

“Even Shatter.”

His bloodstained lips curved.

“Quan Hao Nhien, how many cards do you have left?”

Hao Nhien did not answer.

Duong Quang stepped forward.

That single step caused fresh blood to seep from the wound across his chest, yet the aura of peak Foundation Establishment still slowly spread around him.

Much weaker than at the beginning of the battle.

No longer stable.

No longer overwhelmingly dominant.

But compared with the spiritual qi that was nearly exhausted inside Hao Nhien, the gap still remained.

The Black Dragon Spear slowly rose.

Its point aimed directly forward.

“If that was the strongest move you can still use…”

Duong Quang looked at him.

“Then this battle can end.”

Hao Nhien slowly straightened and stopped leaning on the Fire Spirit Sword.

He stared at Duong Quang for a long time, and the battles since the Huyen Bang challenge streak began passed briefly through his mind.

From Duong Han to Lac Thanh Ha, Co Am, and Mac Ta, every opponent before this had eventually revealed something Hao Nhien could break, even if the opening had sometimes cost him injuries or existed for only a single beat.

Some paths to victory had been so narrow that one mistimed movement would have meant defeat. Other times, he had been forced to trade wounds for opportunity.

But there had always been a path.

Duong Quang had exposed weaknesses as well.

The problem was that Hao Nhien no longer had enough left to exploit them.

His spiritual qi was nearly exhausted.

His meridians could not conduct Thunder Burst again.

The Spirit Wings were also nearing their limit.

And the Black Dragon Spear still remained firmly in Duong Quang’s hand.

For the first time since the chain of Huyen Bang challenges began, Hao Nhien could not see the next step.

Not because Duong Quang had shown no weakness.

But because with what Hao Nhien still had left, he no longer knew what he could use to turn those weaknesses into victory.