Chapter 176 — The Final: One Eye, One Spear

CHAPTER 176

The Final: One Eye, One Spear

“Don't disappoint me,” Gu Zhan said.

Shi Feng drew the plain sword and checked the distance between them.

“You've asked often enough,” Shi Feng replied.

The spear user grinned. His clear eye was bright, and the qi around his weapon was denser than it looked the previous afternoon.

Lu Yong examined him carefully before announcing anything.

“Half-step Golden Core,” Lu Yong said.

The front rows reacted immediately. Gu Zhan stood at the transition beyond peak Foundation Establishment, with his qi beginning the final change before a core formed.

He hadn't entered a new major realm yet.

That distinction mattered to the officials and meant very little to the excited spectators.

“He's already at the threshold!”

“Against mid Foundation Establishment!”

“Can Shi Feng stop that spear?”

“Look at the old master!”

Nie Wufeng was sitting with his arms folded. He didn't seem interested in helping the crowd decide how frightened it should be.

Shi Feng drew his qi through the full length of the blade and steadied his stance.

Gu Zhan's half-step Golden Core pressure carried a razor-sharp spear intent forged through a hundred real fights. Even with his completed golden bones and three hundred and sixty-five meridians, Shi Feng knew this wasn't an opponent he could beat with half-measures.

“Begin,” Lu Yong said.

Gu Zhan attacked at once.

The spear came straight toward Shi Feng's throat, then turned toward his shoulder before the sword could meet it.

Shi Feng changed the blade's angle and caught the shaft near the head. The impact drove him half a step back before he could turn the spear clear.

The crowd gasped.

Gu Zhan laughed.

“Good!” Gu Zhan shouted.

He pulled the spear back and thrust again before the first impact stopped ringing. Shi Feng turned the point aside and returned a short cut toward the forward hand.

Gu Zhan changed his grip exactly as he'd described in the inn courtyard.

The spear shaft knocked the returning sword away.

Shi Feng smiled. So the man really used the angle he'd spent half the night discussing.

Then he'd give him another one to think about.

Piercing Current drove beneath the lifted shaft. Gu Zhan stepped back before the point reached his chest, but the movement cost him the centre mark.

Shi Feng followed at once, gathering more qi behind the next stroke.

The next exchange ended with both weapons held between them. The spear pushed downward. The sword slid sideways, refusing the direct contest of strength the audience expected.

Gu Zhan's expression became serious.

The sword was quieter than Xiahou Lie's fists and more troublesome than Yuan Kuang's bright attacks. Every short movement tried to change where his next thrust could begin.

He liked it enormously.

Bai Chenxi stood beneath the far awning with her sword sheathed. She watched Shi Feng step past a thrust that forced her to retreat in their earlier match.

He didn't move farther. He moved sooner.

That difference annoyed her because it was easy to describe and difficult to copy. She tried the small foot turn without drawing her blade, then stopped when it pulled at the sore wrist.

Training could wait until the injury healed.

For now, watching properly would have to be useful enough. She fixed her attention on Gu Zhan's forward hand before the next attack began.

Duan Yichen leaned against the passage rail, watching without speaking.

Sima Lan stood beside Gongsun Ce. The prince had left the repaired puppet case with an attendant rather than trying to carry it through the packed waiting area.

“Neither's given an opening,” Sima Lan said.

“They've given several,” Gongsun Ce replied. “Neither's accepted the wrong one.”

On the platform, Gu Zhan let his forward foot drift close to the boundary. Shi Feng saw the invitation and refused to drive him out through the obvious path.

The spear was already waiting across that path.

Instead, Shi Feng stopped and struck the shaft near Gu Zhan's rear hand.

The one-eyed cultivator twisted aside, laughing again.

“You saw it!” Gu Zhan shouted.

“You left it there,” Shi Feng replied.

The crowd grew louder. Each clash rang like a forge hammer across the arena.

On the fourteenth exchange, Gu Zhan pivoted on his rear heel and drove the iron-wood spear butt squarely into Shi Feng's braced left forearm as Shi Feng parried the point.

A sharp, metallic crack echoed inside Shi Feng's sleeve. For the first time since he had completed the First Extreme in the Hengyun ridge hut, a hairline fracture scored the surface of his golden radius bone. His left fingers numbed for half a breath as his boots skidded two paces across the flagstones.

Shi Feng's eyes lit with fierce focus. Across from him, Gu Zhan grinned from ear to ear.

The spear user changed his rhythm.

Three quick thrusts came high, low, and straight through the centre. Shi Feng stopped the first, avoided the second, and met the third with a short turn of the wrist.

The inexpensive sword rang sharply.

He shifted the contact nearer the hilt before the thinner part of the blade took too much pressure.

The weapon had a real limit. He'd remember that.

Gu Zhan advanced, delighted to find that the exchange hadn't ended. His qi flowed more freely with every thrust. The dense force near his centre gathered instead of scattering after the attack.

Nie Wufeng sat forward.

Li Changyuan noticed the movement from the next seat.

“Now?” Li Changyuan asked quietly.

“He's never been patient,” Nie Wufeng replied.

Below them, Gu Zhan struck the sword aside and raised the spear for another thrust. Then his body stopped before the weapon moved.

The expression on his face changed.

Shi Feng stepped back at once.

He felt the qi gathering too quickly to remain ordinary Foundation Establishment circulation. Gu Zhan's force was condensing around a newly forming centre.

A Golden Core.

The air above the platform grew heavy. Several banners snapped against their poles despite the still morning beyond the arena walls.

Lu Yong moved forward immediately.

“Both candidates, stop!” Lu Yong ordered.

Shi Feng lowered the sword without arguing. Gu Zhan looked up at the darkening sky, then down at his spear with obvious irritation.

“Now?” Gu Zhan demanded.

Nobody answered that question for heaven.

The first low thunder rolled above the arena.