Chapter 745: Crushing Defeat (3)

Su Yu sneered, "Forget it, then. You don't seem to have the courage to do anything. Looks like you're nothing but a hitman. What's the point of living like this? You're basically a puppet."

"Is your life any better than mine?"

Su Yu indifferently said, "Of course. My life is much better. I only do things I want to do. Nobody can force me to do what I don't want to do. Can you live like me?"

Shan Xiong thought about it and laughed, "True."

At this point, Su Yu was visibly losing interest. He said, "In that case, there is no need to talk about life or death. We will fight until someone surrenders. Without a surrender, the fight will continue until one of us is dead."

After a short silence, Shan Xiong nodded, "I can agree to that."

"As for the bet, since you're unwilling to represent the single character faction, let's bet on something you can personally control. If you lose, I will peel your character off your sea of willpower. If you win, you may have my characters. What do you think?"

"Without our characters, we will no longer be a member of the single or multiple character faction. Perhaps this is our sole chance to escape this conflict." Shan Xiong gave Su Yu a deep gaze and said, "Your character technique requires a lot of characters, right?"

"It's alright. I have eighteen characters at the moment."

"Fine. I agree."

The surrounding experts had complicated expressions as they listened. Putting their lives and characters on the line. For these people, just losing their characters would be a massive deal. For example, how long would Su Yu take to reform eighteen characters again? Furthermore, he also needed to nurture them back to the second and third tiers.

Furthermore, removing one's characters would greatly damage one's source qi and sea of willpower. One might even end up crippled. In that case, one of them might be forced to walk the path of a pure warrior in the future.

For geniuses like them, this was harder to accept than dying. Jiang Tao frowned. In truth, he wanted the stele more. But since Niu Baidao had interupted, he could no longer continue with his plan. He was fine with that since the price of losing would be very big as well if they had proceeded with the initial bet.

Then again, Shan Xiong's character was also not something they could lose easily. That would prove very troublesome as well.

At the event of a defeat, Shan Xiong would no longer have his unique character even if he survived. His cultivation in the path of character master would be severed even if he could form new characters in the future.

But before Jiang Tao could voice his objection, Shan Xiong looked at him and asked, "Senior Brother, let me make my own choice for once. Is that possible?" Looking at Shan Xiong, Jiang Tao sighed and shut his mouth.

Slowly, the atmosphere turned solemn.

Both Su Yu and Shan Xiong had stopped talking.

Looking at the two, Niu Baidao said, "Both of you are the blessed geniuses of humanity. I still hope to see you stop upon reaching a clear conclusion of the battle. It is not embarassing to surrender if you need to. Nobody can remain undefeated. Even someone as strong as Great Qin King has tasted defeat before.

"The ability to rise in a difficult situation and stand up again after falling is more important than something like a single victory. There are countless paths one can walk in life. And each path leads to the grand dao. I hope you will listen to at least a part of my advice."

Not even Niu Baidao could judge who the victor would be. But he was speaking from the bottom of his heart. Both of these were rarely seen talents among the human race. Losing either of them would be a great loss for humanity.

Niu Baidao said, "Both of you are experts. You don't need a referee. Since you wish to fight, let's get started."

Right after those words were said, two explosions of aura erupted from the ring.

Boom!

The water around the ring roiled as towering waves rose. Two bright clumps of light shone in the middle of the ring, akin to two suns. Source qi and life force spread in all directions.

After the first exchange, Su Yu was forced several steps back. Meanwhile, Shan Xiong was forced seven or eight meters back. Some bruises could be seen on his golden right hand.

"Junior Brother, your physical strength is truly impressive."

Shan Xiong was greatly shocked. Inwardly, he became even more wary of this opponent. Su Yu's physical body was incredible. At the very least, Su Yu surpassed him by quite a lot in physical cultivation.

One ought to know that he was someone who had opened 144 acupoints and completed 18 body forgings. He was at the very peak even when compared against warriors of the same cultivation level. Yet Su Yu was even stronger than him.

Shocked exclamations rang out all around the ring. On their first exchange, Su Yu was actually the one with the upper hand. His physical body was too terrifying.

"You're too kind, Senior Brother."

Su Yu smiled. Once again, the two engaged each other. Sounds of explosions rang out repeatedly as they exchanged punches in the middle of the air. They were moving so fast that a majority of the Skysoars present couldn't even see their movements anymore. Only some Cloudbreaches, Mountainseas, and above could get a clearer look at the fight.

Some of the Cloudbreaches among the crowd were grimacing. Why in the world did these two felt even stronger than some Cloudbreaches? Both of them were Skysoars cultural researchers, yet they were clashing with the might of Cloudbreaches even when they were fighting with only their physical strength.

Booming sounds rang out repeatedly.

In the blink of an eye, the physical battle reached a conclusion.

With a bang, Shan Xiong landed on the ground while coughing blood. Meanwhile, Su Yu remained hovered in the sky. He calmly said, "Senior Brother, your physical cultivation isn't enough. You should start using your willpower cultivation."

Shan Xiong inhaled deeply. That was true. He had always thought that he was doing quite well in his physical cultivation. But reality proved that Su Yu was even better in that aspect. Not even his martial technique was comparable to Su Yu's.

"As you wish."

A powerful burst of willpower erupted as a sword appeared in Shan Xiong's hand. With that sword, his entire presence changed.

His battle intent surged. Golden light erupted from his eyes as his body of flesh turned somewhat ethereal. That was the effect of his character. It was as though he had left this dimension for a different dimension.

When he moved, he was much faster than before. In the blink of an eye, he arrived before Su Yu and stabbed forth with his sword. Su Yu threw a punch, but he hit nothing. Instead, the sword stabbed through his fist. Blood started dripping from his fist.

He hurriedly retreated. His legs moved rapidly, seemingly changing even the passage of time itself. The look in his eyes changed. What a unique character. It was as though Shan Xiong no longer existed in this dimension.

"Source qi is now useless against me. Only willpower can reach me in my current state. Source qi will only work if it's several times stronger than me. But Junior Brother, your source qi is not enough for that."

Realization dawned on Su Yu. At present, Shan Xiong had gained some of the little furball's properties. His entire body seemed to change into a character. Unless one's source qi was exceptionally powerful, one would not be able to break through his defenses.

Su Yu's advantage of physical cultivation had been completely removed.

The surrounding spectators were greatly shocked.

What character was that?

Everyone could see just how strong Su Yu's physical body was, yet his punch had failed to hit anything. They had never seen something like this before. Did this not mean that against warriors, only those greatly surpassing him could even hope to lay a hand on him? A regular warrior would be completely helpless before him.

That was too terrifying. Su Yu was known for his incredible physical strength. How would he face this opponent now?

"Interesting."

Su Yu laughed. This made the fight a lot more interesting. As someone who had defeated the multiple character faction experts of over a dozen prefectures, Shan Xiong was indeed not someone to be underestimated.

"Competing in characters?"

Su Yu wasted no time and took out a saber. Eighteen characters entered the saber, forming a character technique that overlapped with his cultural weapon. He released the five elements.

A storm of fire and water raged around him.

Both combatants on the ring seemed to have entered a unique state each as they clashed.

Rumble!

Numerous shockwaves spread from the ring while the water around the ring boiled. The surrounding students were forced to fall back, with some of the weaker ones being blown away by the shockwaves.

The experts did nothing to help as it wasn't life threatening. It was a good idea to let these students realize the gap between them and the two in the ring. Two streaks clashed unceasingly in the ring. The confrontation was soundless, yet each attack had the potential to do a tremendous amount of damage.

Up in the sky, Su Yu wrapped himself in shadow barriers as he faced Shan Xiong's sword with his saber. Their willpower slashed at each other even as their characters clashed. He could feel that Shan Xiong's willpower was stronger than his. Shan Xiong's willpower had probably reached the third-tier.

Furthermore, Shan Xiong's character was incredibly unique as it possessed a large number of abilities. Su Yu was unable to determine if this was really a single character or multiple characters.

Suddenly, Su Yu's saber shook. The vibration traveled up his arm before entering his sea of willpower. With a groan, Su Yu instantly vanished. Replacing him was an intense gale.