His body always seemed bulkier, but now, it seemed like it had shrunk and become more compacted, and slim, while his eyes were orange like a desolate ancient wasteland, as he leaked the aura of a primordial beast.
Dai Chen had the Hou bloodline. The Hou was a mythical creature with the same renown as the dragon, phoenix, qilin, and the like. In some texts, it has even been rumored to have predated the dragons in terms of existence. It wielded the mandate of the heavens.
Yang Qing didn't know about all that or confirm if it was true since there had never been a real sighting of the Hou in the continent, but he knew Dai Chen's attacks carried the force of the stars behind them.
The bloodline he had on him was thin but that quantity gave him enough firepower to finish as among the top 3 in his year at the institute and he had made it into the 4th place in the One Thousand Battle Hall Palace competition. And he would have likely finished in a better position had the competition been different. Because of the tyrannical nature of his bloodline, Dai Chen suppresses himself and would not truly go all out not unless it was a battle to death, which was why he showed no hesitation when he released it when facing Feng Qiu.
However even with the bloodline of the mythical Hou activated, Dai Chen still struggled to gain an upper hand against Feng Qiu who other than being mildly surprised quickly regained her calm and immediately started suppressing Dai Chen, by increasing the flurry of her attacks and its range.
Wounds appeared on Dai Chen by the dozens as they instantly closed up. Luckily for him, he was not fighting alone because Wei Ying who was the originator of the gale from before immediately stepped in and took some of the pressure from Dai Chen.
With a swing of her fan, a fierce cyan gale would be produced, instantly colliding with the attacks from Feng Qiu. The cyan gale seemed to have hundreds of micro-cyclones within them, that instantly grinded and ate away at Feng Qiu's attacks.
Even though they didn't completely destroy them, they did enough to halt them and even reduce the power within them, which provided room for the other three to act with reckless abandon as they instantly charged Feng Qiu.
She always knew when to intervene, and create a moment of reprieve along with a moment for retaliation.
She seemed to have been the one to handle defense and cover while the other three handled attack, which suited them perfectly.
Zhang Qingge carried the force of destruction capable of leveling mountains within her tiny fists, while Dai Chen swung with the weight and the power of the stars in his swords, and Mo Liwei had the terrifying speeds of one of the fastest mythical birds alive to work with.
All three of them had also mastered the intents of their various weapons; Zhang Qinggee had fist intent, Dai Chen had sword intent, and Mo Liwei had spear intent.
Weapon sense was reached when the cultivator gained an understanding of their weapon of choice to the point it was no different than their limbs, though for the fist it worked in reverse, one needed to train to the point their fist felt like an embodied weapon. Once one had mastered their weapon, to the point it was no different than their body, their internalized that understanding and slowly integrated it into their cultivation resulting in the formation of weapon qi, their qi would carry the qualities of the weapon they mastered then after that, came weapon intent.
Weapon intent was the materialization of the will borne from the integration of their weapon mastery and understanding, along with the qi that comes from it, to form a brand that was entirely their own. They no longer needed to internalize and understand their weapon, but they had used their understanding of it and made a rendition of it that had their identity in it, which then culminates with them being able to use anything and everything to evoke the abilities of their weapon.
A blade of grass could have the same sharpness and cutting abilities as a sword, a blown breath could have the same piercing power as a spear, and a fist could be trained to carry the same destruction as an earthquake.
With the three of them each master of their own craft, with terrifying abilities and foundations and working together, they were able to somewhat bridge the gap in the fight against Feng Qiu and make it an even playing field by swarming her with their exceptional abilities, and for Dai Chen and Mo Liwei, they also had top tier monarch grade weapons made by the finest masters in the Order to work with.
With those weapons in hand, they had no worries about their weapons failing to penetrate the defenses of Feng Qiu.
Feng Qiu on the other hand proved her worth as a sixth-stage palace realm expert. Even with the three of them working together she still managed to hold her own and just like them, she had mastered saber intent too.n0Velusb.c0M
Her attacks were precise, swift, and terrifying. One careless move and any of the three judges would instantly suffer grievous injuries.
Feng Qiu used the same technique as the sect master had used on Yang Qing, where tiny crystalline ice daggers appeared with the swing of her saber, however, her execution was much more precise and the ice daggers had a more penetrative power, speed, and range compared to what Yang Qing faced.
Mo Liwei who had the highest speed had been forced to turn from attacker to defender as he covered for both Dai Chen and Zhang Qingge, with Wei Ying stepping in to eliviate the pressure while also creating an opening for the three of them.
Within minutes they had exchanged over a thousand blows with them crisscrossing over the whole grounds of the Ice Emerald Sect, creating even more destruction in their wake.
If there were still more cultivators lurking about thinking of dipping their toes into the mess, they all abandoned all thought when they saw the scale of destruction along with how terrifying the battle grew with every passing moment.
...
On a mountain peak miles away from the fight,
"The Ice Emerald Sect had someone this terrifying? That damn Yin Guo and his Lunar Bug Sect almost threw me and the empire to our doom! Luckily the Order stepped in before I threw myself and the empire into the pit..those bastards!!!!!"
An old man with pure white hair and a regal bearing had a look of abject fear as he watched the terrifying fight that was a blaze a thousand miles away.
Even this far away he could feel the terrifying undulations of the attacks, which sent shockwaves in his heart when he thought of a certain outcome had things not ended up as they did today...
"The ruins of the Frozen Serenity Sect...it's such a pity...but better to be alive, than risk it...i got lucky this time...but that ruin, with it I could reach the domain realm and pull the Twin River Empire to a rank 2 Empire and establish a dynasty to last a lifetime..such a pity.." the old man said in desolation as he shook his head.