Chapter 114 - 113: Slap from Beyond the Heavens

Chapter 114: Chapter 113: Slap from Beyond the Heavens

Elder Wang felt disrespected. Furious, he snorted, "Bring it on! I’m not afraid of you!"

The response was a fist of Spiritual Power that suddenly doubled in strength.

What had been an even match was shattered in the blink of an eye.

Elder Wang’s palm of Spiritual Power was no match for the fist, which had suddenly become impossibly heavy. He roared, his Spiritual Power surging forth like a geyser and pouring into his palm, yet he still couldn’t stop it from retreating.

Finally, the fist drove the palm back, pressing in on Elder Wang.

Dongfang Ran couldn’t stand it any longer. She stepped forward and shouted, "For this round, we forfeit!"

Before her words had even faded, Elder Wang coughed up blood and went flying backward.

Gu Qingyin blinked, looked at Dongfang Ran, and gave an innocent shrug. "You said it too late. If you’d said ’we forfeit’ a moment sooner, I could have stopped in time."

Dongfang Ran’s lips pressed into a thin line. After a deep breath, she strode forward. "For the final round, I will face you."

"You’ve been looking forward to this for a long time, haven’t you?" Gu Qingyin surmised, her eyes narrowing. "In our previous matches, it was either a draw or I had a slight edge. You must be quite bitter about that, hmm? Do you really think you can beat me this time?"

Before Dongfang Ran could speak, Gu Qingyin shook her head again. "No, that’s not right. If you were truly confident, you wouldn’t have sent Tuoba Yan and that old man out first. You wanted to wear down my Spiritual Power to give yourself better odds."

"Too bad for you, those two were completely useless," Gu Qingyin said with conviction. "You can’t beat me. The moment you lacked the courage to step up first, you had already lost."

Dongfang Ran was speechless. She didn’t want to admit that her intentions had been seen through so easily, but subconsciously, she knew it was true.

But...

"You’re not so sure you’ll win, either," Dongfang Ran sneered. "Just as you know me, I know you. If you were one hundred percent certain you could beat me, you wouldn’t be wasting your breath with all this chatter."

Gu Qingyin chuckled, admitting it frankly. "You figured me out! But now, I’m actually more confident than I was before."

Dongfang Ran’s expression was scornful, but inside, her heart tightened.

The crowd of Heavenly Masters looked at one another, completely baffled.

Did that beautiful young woman have a history with Elder Dongfang? It sounded like they had known each other for a long time, but they looked as if they were from completely different generations.

Liu Ergou stepped forward, cleared his throat, and announced again, "The third round of the competition officially begins!"

Dongfang Ran also materialized a massive palm. It was more refined than Elder Wang’s, so lifelike it could have been a real hand. It was larger than Gu Qingyin’s, vast enough to blot out the sky, like the palm of a deity.

"Wow! I’ve always heard that in the Elder Council, Elder Dongfang is the youngest but the strongest. Seeing her today, she’s truly extraordinary!"

"Indeed! She’s a role model for our generation!"

"Elder Dongfang is a genius among geniuses. Ordinary people can’t even compare."

"This round, Elder Dongfang will win for sure!"

...

The crowd of Heavenly Masters chattered excitedly, the vast majority of them favoring Dongfang Ran. After all, they had often heard stories of her prodigious talent and couldn’t believe a genius like her would lose to some unknown, ordinary Heavenly Master.

Even Liu Ergou couldn’t help but worry.

’Those twenty years passed in the blink of an eye for Gu Qingyin, but Dongfang Ran has been diligently cultivating that entire time. Even if Gu Qingyin was more talented back then, twenty years of hard training must have been enough to close the gap.’

Meanwhile, Gu Qingyin, the clear underdog, calmly raised her hand. A torrent of Spiritual Power then surged forth, pouring into the palm of Spiritual Power before her.

The Spiritual Power palm instantly swelled up as if being inflated with air.

Just as Dongfang Ran’s palm swept in, positioned to surround and capture its target, Gu Qingyin’s palm suddenly expanded. In an instant, Dongfang Ran’s attack was completely dwarfed.

Dongfang Ran’s expression changed, but she showed no signs of panic. With a thought, her palm of Spiritual Power stopped dead in its tracks.

The next moment, Gu Qingyin’s Spiritual Power palm closed around it, grasping it tightly.

The crowd was in an uproar, their faces a mask of disbelief. Had Elder Dongfang lost, just like that?

Liu Ergou, however, was overjoyed, and he was already preparing to announce Gu Qingyin’s victory.

But at that very moment, a blinding, silvery-white light erupted from within the giant palm.

"It’s the Thunder Decision!"

"Gods! Elder Dongfang can actually cast the Thunder Decision using a conjured palm? That’s incredible!"

Gu Qingyin was a bit surprised, but more than that, she found it amusing.

’Did Dongfang Ran forget? This Thunder Decision is my original Spell.’

The next moment, Gu Qingyin manipulated her Spiritual Power palm into a very simple gesture.

Dongfang Ran watched intently, but she couldn’t figure out what Gu Qingyin was doing. ’She can’t be giving up and preparing to surrender,’ she thought. ’That’s impossible.’

’The only other answer is that Gu Qingyin is defending—or rather, preparing to counterattack.’

As they say, the person who knows you best is your greatest rival.

The thought had barely crossed Dongfang Ran’s mind when she realized the Thunder Decision had fizzled out.

With the blinding flashes of lightning gone, Dongfang Ran could once again see Gu Qingyin’s enigmatic smirk.

"Did you forget? The Thunder Decision is my original creation. When I was developing it, I also developed a way to counter it," Gu Qingyin said, raising an eyebrow. "I’m a petty person. Did you really think I’d let someone use my own creation to attack me?"

Dongfang Ran’s expression was complex, but she wasn’t terribly surprised.

’That was just the kind of person Gu Qingyin was.’

"It’s impolite not to return a gift." A strange light glinted in Gu Qingyin’s eyes as she offered a polite reminder, "Elder Dongfang, prepare yourself. I’m about to strike back."

As soon as the words left her mouth, the palm in front of Gu Qingyin swelled again, becoming a five-meter-wide giant palm that instantly shot into the sky and vanished.

"Here it comes," Gu Qingyin said with a wide smile. "It’s a new attack I’ve been researching. I’ve tentatively named it ’Slap From the Sky.’"

Everyone looked up at the sky. In the blink of an eye, a streak of light tore through the night, then rapidly expanded, plunging toward the ground like a small sun.

Gu Qingyin frowned, propping her chin on her hand. ’Huh, the effect isn’t quite what I imagined.’

The surrounding Heavenly Masters were horrified. Though the small sun had yet to draw near, they could already feel its might pressing down on them, making it difficult to breathe.

If the onlookers’ reaction was so strong, Dongfang Ran, the target, felt it even more keenly—if she didn’t defend with everything she had, she would be maimed, if not killed!

The small sun was falling incredibly fast, leaving Dongfang Ran little time to react.

She first recalled her palm of Spiritual Power to shield her from above. Then, with a grave expression, her hands began to form seals, one after another, as she cast every defensive technique she could think of.

Her fingers flew, a blur of afterimages that, at first glance, resembled the beautiful fluttering of a butterfly’s wings.

The safest method would have been to lay down an Array, but there wasn’t enough time. All she could do was stack as many defensive buffs as she could.

Two seconds later, the small sun crashed down!