Chapter 159 - Who Won?

"Thousands scattering leaves in the autumn desert!" An Cheng directed all of her qi towards Zheng Pao. Her silver blade reflected the light of the sun. It appeared dazzling and bright.

But as beautiful as it looked, it was equally deadly. This was the attack that she had been learning. 

Le Fang Ling was the only one who had ever seen her use that skill. It was officially the first time she would use it in front of this mass.

And the good news was, she had perfected this skill in one week.

Everyone watched in anticipation of what was to come. 

Was the match going to end with this attack or was Zheng Pao going to retaliate? This was the question in everybody's mind. 

It was not even a second before Zheng Pao felt immense pressure around him. 

It was invisible to other people. But, he felt as if he was being attacked by hundreds and thousands of needles.

It was a strong attack; he could give her that much credit, but he too was not done yet.

"Earth-style sword, thousands blooming petals!"

He brought the sword in front of him and swung it in a weird pattern, cutting through the air in every direction as if he was cutting the air itself into small pieces.

"He is blocking all of the needles?" An Cheng was taken aback by this move from his side, but she immediately collected herself. "How could I miss that he had the advantage here from his wind-based spiritual root?"

But despite knowing her disadvantage, she preserved and continued to assault him with much smaller, much sharper, and much more annoying torrents of wind blades. In the end, it was a matter of sheer willpower and holding on. Both of them were at the limits, and the one who let their guard down was going to lose.

"Damn, she is coming off much stronger than before," Zheng Pao cursed as he tirelessly continued blocking the wind blades but, it was still less. A few blades escaped the sword and hit his body, creating sharp and thin injuries all over his skin.

His depleting qi also slowed him as he could not sense them properly anymore. He held onto his sword until he could no longer find the strength to fight back.

If not for the current spiritual root that he had, he doubted being able to avoid as much as the attack he deflected.

An Cheng broke out into a sweat in exhaustion and anxiety. The match was getting harder than she had imagined. 

Her current cultivation base was as same as that of Zheng Pao. They were equally matched; in terms of cultivation realms and ranks. 

The sheer amount of willpower that he and she had was the deciding factor, but it seems to her that neither of them wanted to stand down before the other.

She needed something else to end this, something that was out of anybody's expectation this late into the match.

A smile crept upon her face as she thought of something. 

"Hyah!!" 

An Cheng condensed her last remaining spiritual energy in a small ball of qi and threw it towards Zheng Pao. Zheng Pao was completely oblivious of this attack as he was busy fending off the whirlwind of the wind blades.

However, just a few moments before the attack reached him, he got completely drained off his qi. If he tried and squeezed out more, there was a high chance he would empty his dantian. It could result in consequences; temporary Crippling which could worsen to permanent crippling.

'Should I go all out or should I…' he hesitated at the final crucial moment. He was in a dilemma as to what to do. This wavering in his thought and focus turned out detrimental to him, as this was exactly when the condensed ball of qi hit him.

The shockwave from the collision sent him flying backward. He got thrown off of the arena because of the force. He landed with a loud painful thud on the ground.

"Ugh!" He coughed out a mouthful of blood along with bits of his internal organs.

Clank!

The sword in his hand fell on the concrete ground with a clanking sound. A pain so raw spread across his body, his meridians, he felt like he was dying.

'Am I dying?' A thought occurred to him as his breath got shallower. He wondered if he broke his ribs since his lungs started to hurt. The last few moments of the fight flashed across his eyes like a fleeting and distant memory.

'Ahh, whatever, I will just go sleep,' his mind and body completely shut off, giving him the rest that he deserved after such a long match. The crying of his body that he had been ignoring all this while finally reached his brain. However, he was unconscious to think about it now.

However, he was not the only one who had reached their limit. An Cheng too had fallen on the arena after she used up her qi. Her body was too weak to hold her up in the air any longer. As soon as her body touched the ground, she heaved out a sigh of relief.

'I- Did I win?' she thought as she looked at the blue sky. Her consciousness slowly slipped away from her grasp. Her vision blackened and, her mind blanked, and within a few seconds, she was deep asleep.

The match had ended finally after a long 45 minutes…but with both of the participants lying down on the ground.

The audience had been wildly shouting and cheering from the sidelines throughout the match. But they had turned silent and solemn at the last few minutes of the match. 

Now, they were speechless at this outcome of the long match.

Both fighters had fallen unconscious and were out of the fighting stage.

Elder Shen descended on the center of the arena with a complicated emotion evident in his eyes.. He too was at a loss of words on how to properly evaluate this match.