Planet Pulverizer: A Mortal's Ascent

Chapter 190: Gap

Yan Hongtu stared at Li Pin coldly, his eyes filled with a growing murderous intent. "Li Pin, are you... humiliating me!?"

"Humiliate you? How could I? My time is far too precious to waste on something as trivial as that," Li Pin denied, his eyes carrying a sliver of encouragement. "I'm waiting! Waiting for you to unleash a strike that will truly impress me, one so powerful that I can't even defend against, preferably one that can cleave me in two! Not like your last feeble attempt, which failed to even trigger the Spirit Force."

Spirit Force!

Both spirit and conviction were indispensable for the Spirit Force.

Apart from Martial Saints who have truly condensed their Martial Will, who else can ensure that every strike they deliver is imbued with the Spirit Force!? Yan Hongtu thought.

The fact that he could channel his mental spirit and unleash a strike combining both his spirit and qi in his first blow already placed him among the top fighters, second only to Martial Saints.

Besides, the Spirit-Qi Unity was extremely taxing on the mind! Even a Martial Saint could only manage a few such strikes!

"Your entire family is still waiting for you to bring back the glory of victory and throw a grand banquet, so—"

"Shut up!" Yan Hongtu growled.

He kicked the arena with explosive force, dashing forward. As he lunged, the murderous intent he had been building up surged violently, causing his blood to boil. His entire being seemed to transform into a savage beast, roaring as it unleashed a terrifying aura,

With intent and qi merging, he slashed out with a brilliant, deadly arc. "Don't you dare humiliate me!"

"Good!"

Li Pin precisely tracked the trajectory of Yan Hongtu's slash. The intense pressure of the imminent Saber Intent forced his spiritual perception to reach its absolute limit. In this heightened state, he continuously applied the profound techniques of the Lunar Youying, using his perception as a guide, his spirit as a medium, and resonating his qi and blood in harmony.

With each punch he threw, the space within a radius of over ten meters vibrated at an even higher frequency, neutralizing any force that penetrated this area. Each vibration was equivalent to a full-powered strike from an Aura Force martial artist. While this might seem insignificant at the level of Martial Saints, the frequency was simply too high!

An ordinary Aura Force attack would be negligible to a Martial Saint like Li Pin. Even Yan Hongtu would find it insignificant as well. However, if dozens of Aura Force martial artists struck simultaneously, it would be a different story altogether.

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By stacking their Aura Force before releasing them all at once in a single instance, the resonance between the Aura Force would create a cumulative effect.

Under this effect, even if subsequent attacks didn't reach the level of Aura Force, they could still be stacked to a level comparable to a single, full-powered Aura Force strike.

It's like a rolling iron ball, once set in motion, only a fraction of the initial force would be required to keep it rolling. This was the essence of the Lunar Youying that Li Pin had newly developed!

The black hole, chaos, overwhelming pressure, and earth-shattering effects perceived by martial artists were merely mental illusions. The size of the iron ball that could be pushed depended on the initial force exerted. In order to break this technique, the opponent would need to be more powerful than Li Pin.

Zhao Yushi might stand a chance.

But Yan Hongtu...

Bang!

A deafening clang reverberated through the air!

Li Pin's precise strike connected squarely with Yan Hongtu's descending blade. The spot on Yan Hongtu’s blade that had met Li Pin’s attack exploded out in a terrifying shockwave, as if struck by a sniper bullet. The broadsword let out a mournful wail, buckling under the immense force. The resulting momentum sent Yan Hongtu flying to the side.

Yan Hongtu roared as he was hurled through the air. "I'll kill you!"

He twisted his body 180 degrees before landing on the ground firmly in a crouch. Absorbing the force of the blow through his crouching stance, he sprang back up, his body as tense as a compressed spring, launching another ferocious attack towards Li Pin.

Fuelled by an intense and violent killing intent, his blade strike became chillingly lethal.

But... It was no use.

***

"This... this is practically a one-sided bullying! It seems like... they're not even on the same level!" someone exclaimed, unable to believe what they were seeing.

"What do you mean 'seems like?' This is one-sided bullying!" another asserted confidently.

"Is the gap... really that big?"

Nan Lifeng, a fellow Quasi-Martial Saint, turned to his elder who was serving as his tactical advisor. "Is it that Yan Hongtu is simply too weak, or could it be that—"

"Li Pin is simply too strong."

Nan Lifeng’s tactical advisor was an elderly, genuine Martial Saint, who had forged his Martial Will for over two decades. Despite the inevitable decline that came with age, his keen eye and knowledge as a former Top-Tier Martial Saint remained intact.

He watched as Li Pin once again deflected Yan Hongtu's broadsword with his precise strike and sincerely remarked, "Perhaps this Dragon Gate Hall expert doesn't fight in the most honorable manner, but that's simply his style.

"We can't criticize him for it! After all, he spends most of his time battling ferocious beasts and rarely duels experts at his level. When dealing with ferocious beasts and demonic creatures, exploiting their weakness and striking with overwhelming force is only natural."

"Overwhelming force?" Nan Lifeng looked at Li Pin practically dominating Yan Hongtu. "You call that overwhelming force?"

The tactical advisor sighed with emotion. "Yan Hongtu believed that Li Pin was weakened from the depletion of qi and blood during his earlier fight with Cheng Yufeng, and that, in his own prime condition, Yan Hongtu himself had the advantage of delivering each strike with full force.

"However, it didn’t matter whether Cheng Yufeng had weakened Li Pin in their fight—even a fatigued Li Pin was still stronger than Yan Hongtu."

"When Li Pin claimed first place in the preliminaries, I suspected he wasn't as simple as we thought. Soon after, he revealed that he had broken through to Martial Saint....

"He could have kept this news to himself and surprised Zhao Yushi, the Great Sun Chosen One, and Cheng Yufeng during their duels, catching the three most likely contenders off guard. Yet, he chose not to."

"Arrogant," Nan Lifeng snorted, clearly displeased with Li Pin's audacity.

"Indeed, arrogant to the extreme. Calling him arrogant would be an understatement." The tactical advisor observed the figure exchanging blows with Yan Hongtu on the stage. "But when his first chosen target wasn't any of Ying Long, Yan Hongtu, Song Wuya, Duan Yidao, or you, I realized this might not be arrogance, but confidence."

He paused, then continued in a heavy tone, "Absolute confidence in his own strength!"

He turned to Nan Lifeng. "Because of this absolute confidence, he doesn't concern himself with tricks or deception. He aims to simply use the absolute power behind his absolute confidence to push through openly, to crush every participant in the World's Top Martial Competition, and then, with this invincible momentum, claim the title of undisputed world champion!"

Nan Lifeng had been displeased with Li Pin’s arrogance. However, he was momentarily stunned when he heard his advisor’s words. After a while, his gaze flickered slightly. "Master, are you saying—"

"Yan Hongtu thinks he's the hunter, exploiting Li Pin's perceived weakness to lure him into a fight. But he doesn't realize that the World's Top Martial Arts Competition’s stage is already Li Pin’s hunting ground. All of you are merely his prey!"

The aged Top-Tier Martial Saint let out a long sigh, a hint of nostalgia flashing in his eyes. "It's been too long since I've seen such a young man who's both so sharp and so brilliantly talented."

Nan Lifeng's expression turned somewhat sour. His master... was actually praising his opponent?

"Just watch. If the Great Sun Chosen One steps up next and challenges Li Pin and he accepts without hesitation, my guess will be confirmed." The tactical advisor glanced at Nan Lifeng. "I wonder if this is a blessing or a curse for your generation."

"Master... have you already decided that Yan Hongtu will lose? What if he has some hidden trump card?" Nan Lifeng said, a bit unwilling to accept this.

"If he had one, his ranking in the preliminaries wouldn’t have been merely so." Nan Lifeng's tactical advisor glanced at Yan Hongtu's. "If I were him, I'd have Yan Hongtu surrender at once. If this continues... Yan Hongtu's spirit will be shattered."

***

Yan Hongtu's tactical advisor noticed this as well. He immediately stepped forward and waved their white flag to signal surrender.

However, the white flag had no effect if the competitor was engaged in combat or had yet to collapse. A match could only be called off in the middle of battle if the competitors themselves verbally surrendered.

And to have Yan Hongtu willingly surrender?

At this moment, Yan Hongtu’s mental spirit was fully locked on Li Pin, and he was oblivious to his tactical advisor's signal.

"I, Yan Hongtu, began laying my foundation at nine, started martial arts at twelve, formed my Core at seventeen, and reached Aura Cultivation at twenty-three. Now, becoming a Martial Saint is almost within my grasp. Li Pin, even if you're a Martial Saint, you still can't defeat me!"

Yan Hongtu roared, pushing his mental spirit to its limits. "I've killed more than one mid-tier ferocious beast stronger than a Martial Saint! Today, I will once again—"

"Your blade has weakened," Li Pin interrupted before he could finish. "Is this all you've got? Only four Spirit Force strikes, and you're already spent? Are you not eating well at home?"

"You're so arrogant!" Yan Hongtu shouted, raising his broadsword high.

He slashed down with a radiant blade that seemed to tear through the sky. Like lightning cutting through the night, he struck fiercely into the chaotic domain formed by Li Pin's Lunar Youying.

However, instead of striking the blade with his fists to deflect it as he had done before, Li Pin reached out with his palm open.

Buzz, buzz!

The air within a dozen meters seemed to compress rapidly, forming a visible white aura. The aura vibrated violently as it collided with Yan Hongtu's incoming slash, dulling its sharpness, edge, and ferocity bit by bit.

In the end, Yan Hongtu's all-out strike landed squarely in Li Pin's palm, held firmly in his grasp.

This scene caused Yan Hongtu's expression to freeze

Not just him, but every other competitor felt an overwhelming sense of pressure bearing down upon them all of a sudden.