Chapter 219: Beyond The Mortal Stage

Chapter 218

Several bang! Bang! BANG! sounds echoed outward, each one carrying through the arena like the roar of thunder, making Shi Tian’s senses suddenly tingle with warning as dangerous approaches happened incredibly fast. Before he could fully identify the threat, the attack slammed hard into the Wind Veil surrounding his body, shattering the protective barrier instantly.

Shi Tian’s figure blurred as he narrowly evaded a swing from the Void Piercer while simultaneously raising another layer of Wind Veil around himself in an attempt to mitigate the force of Liyu’s endless barrage of punches.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Liyu’s fists came one after another without pause, every punch carrying tremendous force whose repeated impacts were beginning to make pain ring through Shi Tian’s hands. But that was not all, as another series of loud BANG! BANG! BANG! sounds slammed into him from another direction, shattering his Wind Veil once more.

At almost the exact same moment, Spatial Severance was unleashed, and though Shi Tian’s expression remained calm, his body reacted instinctively as he moved, his figure vanishing from the attack’s path by the narrowest possible margin. His heart beat faster for the second time in the entire tournament, and his gaze shook ever so slightly.

Wait... Why do I feel as if I’m not fighting one person... His eyes narrowed. ...but three? The thought had barely formed when Liyu suddenly appeared directly before him. Primal Step! Liyu’s figure flashed forward.

Then... Behemoth Punch! A fiery red glow erupted from his fist, and the punch shot forward like a raging meteor, smashing directly into Shi Tian’s cheek. BOOM! The sheer force lifted Shi Tian’s body from the ground, hurling him backward like a cannonball.

Yet even in the midst of being thrown through the air, Shi Tian had no intention of allowing himself to be overwhelmed, and Dead Eye Rayden wasn’t going to let him escape either. Several shots rang out. BANG! BANG! BANG! The dark metallic weapons floating in the air fired simultaneously, the bullets accelerating almost instantly under the influence of Dead Eye Rayden’s Velocity Affinity, their momentum increasing at an insane rate and their penetrating power pushing far beyond that of ordinary projectiles.

Shi Tian’s expression remained unchanged. Wind Veil! Several layers of Wind Veil appeared around his body. The incoming bullets slammed into them. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Several layers were shattered by the relentless bombardment, but the final layer held... barely, with cracks spreading across its surface like a spiderweb.

Shi Tian finally landed, his feet touching the ground firmly as he stabilized his body and slowly raised his head. For the first time, or perhaps the second time since the tournament began, a faint emotion appeared within his usually emotionless eyes: confusion.

His gaze locked onto Liyu, who was standing a considerable distance away. Just what is he? Shi Tian’s mind began rapidly analyzing everything that had happened. He is fighting with his fists at full efficiency.

At the same time, Liyu was controlling the sword and the countless blades forged from his Heavenly Verdant Lightning, using them to attack him from multiple directions. At the same time, he is controlling those strange dark metallic weapons that continuously fire Qi blasts at me. Shi Tian’s eyes narrowed slightly. And he’s doing all of this while maintaining his close-range combat.

It was absurd... completely absurd. How could someone split their consciousness to such an extent? How could someone maintain such a high level of control over three completely different forms of attack simultaneously?

Not only was Liyu controlling them separately, but he was combining their usage together. His fists attacked from the front, his lightning weapons attacked from different angles, and his strange metallic weapons bombarded him from a distance, all three operating with frightening efficiency without any noticeable decrease in control, hesitation, or obvious delay, as though three different experts were coordinating their attacks with perfect understanding.

Except... there weren’t three people; there was only one: Liyu.

It is unreal. Shi Tian’s thoughts moved faster than those of ordinary people could ever hope to follow. His analytical ability was one of the reasons he had always stood above others, and he had already considered every possibility.

What is allowing him to do this? He searched through everything he knew... combat arts, skills, techniques, secret methods, bloodline abilities, and soul techniques... but none of them made sense.

If he didn’t know that such a thing was impossible, he might have considered the possibility that there were actually three people standing before him, three individuals sharing the same body, each controlling one aspect of the battle.

But that was impossible. There was no combat art that could accomplish something like that, no skill, and no technique... at least, none that Shi Tian knew of. So that possibility was immediately discarded.

Then what? His thoughts continued moving, searching for the answer that made the most sense, and eventually, he found one. Perhaps... his mental strength and focus have been enhanced to such a terrifying level that he can control three completely different combat styles and arts simultaneously without being overwhelmed.

That was the only explanation that made sense. Liyu’s mental capabilities must have been strengthened to an extraordinary degree, perhaps his consciousness having reached a level where maintaining several different forms of control at once was no longer difficult.

Shi Tian settled on that conclusion, finding it the most logical answer... the only logical answer.

Drip. A drop of crimson liquid fell onto the ground. Drip. Another followed. The sound was faint... almost insignificant... yet it pulled Shi Tian out of his thoughts.

He lowered his gaze, and only then did he seem to realize something: he had been injured, and the injury hurt. Shi Tian slowly raised one hand and touched his jaw, his fingers pressing against the aching flesh.

His jaw had been twisted slightly to the side from the force of Liyu’s Behemoth Punch, which had not merely struck him, but had actually managed to twist his jaw. A faint trace of blood slipped from the corner of his mouth and dropped toward the ground.

Shi Tian’s expression remained unchanged. With a forceful movement of his hand, he grabbed his jaw and twisted it back into position. Crack. The bone snapped back into place.

His jaw returned to its original position. He released it and looked toward Liyu once more.

The fact that Shi Tian had suffered nothing more than a twisted jaw from a direct Behemoth Punch, especially one carrying the additional destructive power of its fiery effect, was enough to demonstrate just how terrifying his physical defense truly was.

His specialty might lie in speed and attacks, his movement extraordinary, and his offensive abilities frightening, but his defense... it was by no means lacking... not even remotely.

After taking several long seconds to place everything he had observed into his analysis, Shi Tian finally looked back toward Liyu.

Liyu had already reached his side. There was no hesitation. The moment he appeared within range, he unleashed another attack.

Shi Tian’s eyes narrowed slightly, deciding this time to fight for real and stop holding back, recognizing that this Liyu was far more powerful than the weaklings he had been accustomed to dealing with and that continuing to underestimate him would be nothing short of foolish.

Boom! Wind Qi surged violently around Shi Tian. The moment he stopped holding back, the entire atmosphere around him changed.

Every swing of his sword became sharper, every movement became faster, and every attack was further boosted to an extraordinary level by his Wind Qi. He no longer fought as though he were merely testing Liyu; he was fighting to win.

And Liyu met him in kind. The two figures collided once more. Clang! Boom! Bang! They instantly became locked in a furious close-quarters battle.

Yet the most terrifying part of the battle was not merely the clash between their bodies and weapons, but the fact that Shi Tian was being bombarded from three different directions at once across three completely different battle styles, three different ranges, and three different forms of attack, all controlled by a single person.

Liyu’s fists represented his close-ranged combat, with every punch carrying monstrous physical force strengthened further by his Primal Qi and the terrifying power of his fused state.

Then there were the swords, blades, and countless strands of green lightning forming the middle-ranged assault, attacking Shi Tian from different angles and forcing him to constantly adjust his position.

And finally... the strange dark metallic weapons... the guns, rifles, pistols, and snipers... whose continuous Qi blasts represented the long-ranged assault. Three ranges, three battle styles, and three layers of attacks, all used simultaneously by Liyu.

Shi Tian’s expression remained calm, but even at his peak, he was beginning to have difficulty landing a solid hit on Liyu, not when it felt like he was fighting three people at once.

He blocked a punch, but a sword blade immediately followed. He dodged a lightning strike, but a projectile came screaming toward his head. He evaded that one, but another attack was already waiting for him.

His movements were fast enough to leave afterimages, but Liyu’s attacks were equally relentless, leaving almost no opening, no breathing room, and no moment to rest.

Shi Tian’s gaze flickered slightly as he parried another attack. "If I didn’t know any better, I would say you are three people," he said calmly amidst the chaotic battle.

"What kind of art or treasure is allowing such a high level of control over your battle styles?"

Liyu raised an eyebrow, their attacks not ceasing for even a second as the two continued fighting with rigorous intensity and movements that became increasingly difficult for the spectators to follow.

Liyu flashed a feral grin, his fangs clearly visible. "Well, who can say? You can just call me three in one." His grin widened.

Then he mentally communicated with King Rayden and Dead Eye Rayden: Do the same.

The moment the two clones increased their offensive pressure, the battlefield changed once more. The number of attacks increased, the intensity increased, and the pressure on Shi Tian increased.

And for the first time... a bead of sweat formed on Shi Tian’s forehead. It was such a tiny thing... almost insignificant... yet for someone like Shi Tian, it was anything but insignificant.

His eyes widened ever so slightly. He could feel it: a strange sensation, something he had almost never experienced before... nervousness.

His body trembled faintly as the realization settled into his mind: When was the last time I felt nervous? He couldn’t remember. He had always been confident.

He had always been certain of victory. Losing had never truly been something that belonged within his world. But now... in this battle against Liyu... he was feeling something he had almost never felt before.

It was surreal, strange, unfamiliar, and he hated it.

Shi Tian didn’t have the luxury of dwelling on those emotions, however, as his opponent was not going to wait for him to understand himself. He immediately decided to utilize his defensive and movement skills to overwhelm Liyu.

Wind Step! His figure blurred. Drifting Gale! His speed exploded. Wind Veil! A powerful defensive barrier surrounded him.

He moved, defended, counterattacked repeatedly, using his movement and defensive skills together in an attempt to regain complete control of the battle.

Yet to his surprise... he still couldn’t overwhelm Liyu. If anything, Shi Tian was still on the back foot.

It wasn’t anything dire yet; he was still stronger, still faster in certain aspects, and his combat experience remained terrifying. But Liyu was not being overwhelmed, and that alone was enough to make Shi Tian’s expression become slightly colder: He is still keeping up with me...

And then another unfamiliar feeling began to emerge, one that he hated even more than nervousness: a thought, a possibility, a word that had never truly belonged to him... losing.

The possibility that he might actually lose. The thought crossed his mind for only an instant, but that instant was enough.

Shi Tian’s eyes darkened. His calmness cracked ever so slightly. Fury began to rise within him. He was becoming even more serious.

The wind howled violently. Lightning crackled through the air. And then... BANG! BANG! BOOM! Terrifying explosions echoed across the arena, the sound of battle filling the air to the brim.

The stage beneath them had been fortified and reinforced to an extraordinary degree... even a peak Foundation Realm cultivator would have struggled to damage it... yet under the assault of these two monsters... Crack.

A fracture appeared, then another. CRACK! The reinforced stage began to split apart.

Liyu pressed his attack, King Rayden pressed his attack, and Dead Eye Rayden continued his relentless bombardment, while on the other side, Shi Tian was doing everything within his power not merely to survive... but to dominate, because losing was not something he would dare accept.

No. That wasn’t how he worked. He would win. He would crush Liyu, and by the end of this battle, Liyu would be the one lying beneath his feet.

The two warriors fought with everything they had. Neither Liyu nor Shi Tian was normal; neither had ever truly been forced to fight with the entirety of their strength before.

But now... they were doing exactly that, and the effect was enormous. The supposedly impenetrable stage beneath their feet finally reached its limit.

BOOM! The ground shattered. Massive cracks spread across the entire battlefield, and pieces of the reinforced stone broke apart, reduced to dust beneath the overwhelming force of their clash.

The air itself churned. Space seemed to tremble around them. Everyone standing close to the arena could feel the terrifying heaviness pressing down upon their bodies, as if the very space surrounding the battlefield was approaching its breaking point.

The howling of the wind, the crackling of lightning, the deafening roar of explosions, the clash of metal, the continuous bombardment of Qi, and the sound of destruction all merged together and rocked the entire Ray Arena.

Everyone was completely glued to the battle below, with fear and shock written plainly across their faces. Nobody dared to look away. Nobody wanted to miss even a single moment, because the battle between Shi Tian and Liyu had already surpassed everything that had come before it.

This wasn’t simply a battle between two young cultivators anymore; it had become something entirely different, something that most of them couldn’t even begin to comprehend. It was truly beyond astonishing.

At the edge of the stage area, the referee stared at the ruined battlefield, his gaze trembling. He had witnessed countless battles, seen talented geniuses, and watched powerful cultivators, but what was happening before him right now was something even he struggled to explain.

Those two kids... His eyes remained fixed on the battlefield. Right now, they have crossed the boundary of what a Mortal Stage cultivator should be capable of.

Without any doubt... they were the strongest participants in this tournament... perhaps the strongest pair of young warriors he had ever witnessed.

And this was the first time even he had encountered something he couldn’t properly explain. Or perhaps... maybe there was a simple explanation after all.

The referee’s lips twitched. Those two aren’t normal. No. That wasn’t enough. They weren’t merely freaks.

They were kings among freaks... absolutely abnormal, completely outside the realm of what ordinary Mortal Stage cultivators should be capable of.