Chapter 33 – Astonishment

Book 9, His Fame Shakes the World – Chapter 33, Astonishment The millions of spectators below were stunned. Haydson had vomited blood, while Linley’s shattered scales were covered with bloodstains. Clearly, this battle was growing extremely desperate. “How is this possible?” “How is this possible…Master Linley and Lord Haydson…” The countless spectators were all stunned. These two dominating experts had actually battled to such a point. What was truly shocking was…the reputed most powerful of Saints, Haydson, had vomited a large mouthful of blood. Clearly he had been deeply injured. As they saw it, Linley was only twenty seven, despite being a genius. But wasn’t Linley previously just on par with Olivier? Olivier had been defeated by Haydson, and Linley should’ve suffered the same fate. But clearly, the results were totally different. “Linley, he…” Olivier’s forehead was locked into a frown. He fell silent. Actually, if Linley hadn’t gained insight into his Pulseguard Defense, most likely the Worldquake technique of Haydson would have badly injured him, and the Worldbreaker should have directly killed him. But now that Linley had his Pulseguard Defense, his protective abilities were extremely high. Even when Haydson used his ultimate technique, he could only badly injure Linley at most. “Linley!” Delia was at the point of tears. Especially when she saw Linley’s body covered with bloodstains, her heart quivered. “Big bro.” “Lord!” Wharton, the Barker brothers, Housekeeper Hiri, Hillman, Jenne and the other girls…all of them were worried for Linley. The battle had truly reached a desperate state. “What a bizarre attack. There is no way to defend against it at all.” Haydson stared at the distant, demonic-looking Linley, thinking at high speed. Profound Truths of the Earth – 132 Layered Waves! Even Haydson, whose internal organs were under special protection, had been heavily injured. Haydson knew very well that he could perhaps endure a single additional blow from his opponent’s ultimate attack, but if he were to be hit a third time, he would definitely perish. “How could Linley’s defense be so powerful? My Worldbreaker attack was unable to kill him.” Haydson couldn’t believe it. He hadn’t met any opponent who would dare take his attack head on. The Worldbreaker was his ultimate attack. If he wasn’t capable of killing his opponent with it, how would he win? “I can’t take another one head on. I’ll have to rely on my speed to try and avoid his attack while landing mine on him.” Haydson decided. He believed that Linley wouldn’t be much better off than him. It was already incredible that Linley would still be battle-worthy after having taken his Worldbreaker attack. He trusted that so long as he was able to land another Worldbreaker, Linley definitely wouldn’t be able to take it. Haydson’s thoughts were actually mirrored by Linley’s own. Given his current condition, he definitely couldn’t take another attack head on. “Shudder…” The earthen flows of energy surrounding Haydson began to contract, forming a thinner, almost armor-like layer around him. Linley was also retracting the area of his Pulseguard Defense. If the defense was too spread out, their high speed flying maneuvers would be impacted. Without question, for both experts to do this meant that they were about to engage in a battle of agility. The countless spectators below all stared in the sky, barely breathing. Those people who had been absolutely certain that the Monolithic Sword Saint, Haydson, would win, no longer dared to say anything anymore. “Whoosh!” “Whoosh!” Hurricane like winds once more split the sky open, and Linley’s body once again began to move in that graceful, bizarre manner. His speed had reached its absolute limit. Relying on the force of the wind, Linley’s movements were extremely bizarre and totally unpredictable. Wielding his earthen heavy sword, Haydson moved as well. With each step he took, he seemed to teleport, traversing tens of meters. His movements were bizarre as well! “Swiiish.” Haydson’s earthen heavy sword suddenly appeared in front of Linley, chopping down at him. But it passed through ‘Linley’ as though Linley was nothing but air. This ‘Linley’ turned into a blur and disappeared. It was just an after-image. “Swish!” The adamantine heavy sword struck out as well. But as it neared Haydson’s body, Haydson suddenly appeared several dozen meters away. Both of these experts knew how formidable the other’s attacks were. They didn’t dare to take them on head on, and they all desired to use their agility to allow themselves to deliver a vicious blow towards their opponent. “Where are they?” “We can’t even see them!” Those countless viewers stared carefully at the skies, but Linley and Haydson were simply moving too fast. With the wind howling as ferociously as it was, they could only occasionally see a solid blur. Delia’s forehead was covered in sweat, but she still stared unblinkingly at the heavens. The atmosphere was incredibly tense! With a single step, Haydson appeared at the top of Mt. Tujiao. Haydson had decided to use the boulders and trees of Mt. Tujiao to serve as cover and restrict Linley’s speed. “Whoosh!” Linley charged downwards at high speed, heading straight towards Haydson. With a single step, Haydson moved a great distance, and with a second step, he appeared behind a giant boulder. Linley was currently located on the opposite side of the boulder. “Worldbreaker!” The earthen heavy sword chopped down with boundless power. That man-sized boulder split apart as easily as tofu, shattering into pebbles as soon as the energy surrounding the heavy sword touched it. Linley, however, had already retreated at high speed, having sensed that the situation had turned dangerous. “Bang!” The entire Mt. Tujiao suddenly had a terrifying large crack which was hundreds of meters long appear in the mountain itself, with the crack three or four meters wide. Countless stones rained down in every direction. “God!” The millions of spectators were stunned. They saw how, before their very eyes, an enormous crack had appeared in the mountain itself. The thousand meter tall mountain had been half-split! “Boom!” Linley struck out once more with his Profound Truths of the Earth – 132 Layered Waves, chopping at Haydson. Haydson once more dodged. Linley’s heavy sword struck on a nearby tree. “Rumble.” With a bizarre sound, the tree turned into dust, while at the same time, the vibrations from the adamantine heavy sword’s chop travelled in a straight line from the top of the mountain to the center of the mountain, and then expanded outwards. “Rumble…” In the middle of the mountain, a man sized tunnel began to appear, and countless crushed rocks came flowing out from within it. Those rocks had been completely crushed to dust, to the point where they floated upwards into the wind, covering the entire mountain with dust. In the blink of an eye… A tunnel that passed straight from the top of the mountain to the center of the mountain could clearly be seen by the countless spectators. The countless spectators were deathly quiet. Emperor Johann’s throat clenched twice. Good heavens. What sort of terrifying power was this? Who could possibly withstand a single blow from these two? One sword split half the mountain, while the other bore a tunnel straight through it, turning the stone into dust. This was simply inconceivable. “That’s the Profound Truths of the Earth!” Barker and the others were excited, but at the same time, they were alarmed by the astonishing power of the Monolithic Sword Saint, Haydson. Olivier silently watched everything. The wind blew wildly. Linley, hiding his body within the wind, would constantly appear in multiple places. As for Haydson, he continued to dodge nonstop in that bizarre method. The spectators below only heard those nonstop powerful exploding sounds, followed by the sound of boulders splitting apart and trees either exploding or disintegrating. “Boom!” Part of the mountain peak was actually split off and sent flying downwards. Tumbling down the mountainside, countless trees were split apart in its path, and the spectators below began to cry in alarm. Kenyon of the War God’s College, one of the spectating Saints, immediately went forward. With a sweep of his sturdy staff, he borrowed the force of the titanic rock and sent it flying towards an empty space at the base of the mountain. Only then did the nearly hundred-meter wide rock roll away. “Retreat! Retreat!” The soldiers of the army immediately issued orders, directing the spectators to begin retreating. The imperial clan and the nobles began to retreat as well. Good heavens, this battle was far more than they had thought it would be. At such a close distance, it would be simply too dangerous. Everyone began to retreat. Linley and Haydson’s battle grew more and more frantic and more and more reckless. With just three or four full force sword chops, Haydson had all but chopped the entire Mt. Tujiao into several pieces, while Linley’s attacks were causing Mt. Tujiao to split apart. Soon… “Rumble…” Mt. Tujiao simply couldn’t sustain the damage anymore. The utterly ravaged Mt. Tujiao collapsed, sending countless amounts of dust flying everywhere. The spectators immediately began to retreat, frightened. Fortunately, they had already retreated earlier, and they had multiple Saints protecting them. After the dust and rubble settled down, a field of rubble roughly two or three hundred meters high appeared in front of them. Mt. Tujiao was gone! All that was left was an enormous pile of rubble! “Good heavens!” The countless spectators stared at the two people standing above the rubble. Linley and Haydson were both covered with blood, and their faces were pale. But their auras were still incredibly fierce. None of the viewers would ever be able to forget this battle. Regardless of who would be the winner or who would die, they wouldn’t think for an instant that the loser was weak or had performed poorly. “Linley, you lose!” Haydson stared coldly at Linley. Linley’s dark golden eyes stared silently at Haydson. “Even after you Dragonform, your battle-qi is weaker than mine. After such a long, exhausting battle, your speed has already begun to slow down.” Haydson said confidently. Indeed. In his human form, Linley was only of the ninth rank, and after Dragonforming, his battle-qi was only at the level of a mid-stage Saint. But Haydson was someone who had trained for centuries. His reservoir of battle-qi was far deeper than Linley’s. After such a vigorous battle, Linley’s battle-qi was almost empty. Without sufficient battle-qi to support him, his speed naturally would decrease. Haydson’s lips curved up. “Boom!” Haydson suddenly moved. An explosive sonic boom could be heard as Haydson charged forward at high speed, while Linley also dodged at high speed, relying on his powerful Dragonform as well as the support of the Windshadow spell. But with his battle-qi almost all gone, Linley’s speed was now slower than Haydson’s. “Worldbreaker!” Sensing his chance, Haydson aimed a final blow at Linley. “Shkreeeeech!” An ear-piercing, heart-shaking screech shook the heavens, while a vicious black shadow appeared from within the rubble and charged at high speed, appearing between Linley and Haydson. At the same time, it expanded in size. “Bebe.” Linley was startled. Bebe had transformed to be two meters tall and four meters long, while at the same time, he slammed his sharp claws viciously against that earthen heavy sword. “F*ck off!” Bebe howled angrily. “Boom!” The earthen heavy sword and Bebe’s sharp claws collided. Haydson was knocked flying, and he spat out a mouthful of blood. As for Bebe, he too was knocked backwards by the terrifying power of that attack. “F*ck, that hurts!” An angry howl. Fast as lightning, Bebe once more appeared in front of Haydson. Despite having taken the Worldbreaker attack head on, Bebe’s body only had a hint of blood on it. He hadn’t suffered a severe injury at all. Haydson had fallen onto the ground. Seeing this freak charge towards him, he had no idea where it had come from. All he knew was…if he didn’t block, he would die. Haydson immediately jumped to his feet. Where had this freak come from? It had taken his Worldbreaker blow head on without injury! “Worldbreaker!” Haydson went all out to try and preserve his life. “Bang!” Bebe slammed both claws directly against the earthen heavy sword, sending it flying out of Haydson’s hands. Haydson was sent flying backwards as well, and fresh blood once more spewed forth from his lips as he fell heavily to the ground. All of the onlookers were stunned, and their mouths gaped open. “You want to kill my Boss? You wanna die?” Bebe howled angrily as he charged forward yet again. “Bebe, stop.” Linley immediately shouted. “Boss, what are you doing?” Bebe turned to look at Linley. Linley glanced at Haydson. After this duel, Linley knew that Haydson actually wouldn’t be a huge threat to him in the future. Linley shook his head, then mentally said, “Bebe, forget it.” Bebe was extremely dissatisfied. He jumped next to that earthen heavy sword, lifted it up, then put it into his mouth. “Crunch.” “Crunch.” With two crunching sounds, he actually devoured and swallowed that earthen heavy sword. “I, Bebe, will spare your life. I’ll eat your little toy though. Consider this your punishment.” The giant Bebe said casually as he stared down at Haydson from mid-air with two cold eyes. “How…how is that possible?” Haydson forced himself to his feet, staring in disbelief. His sword had been forged through an alloy of countless precious materials. It wasn’t much weaker than Linley’s adamantine heavy sword, but it had actually been eaten by this magical beast.” “Master Linley, this…this magical beast?” Emperor Johann asked from afar. Bebe turned to stare at Emperor Johann angrily. “What? My Boss is a magus. When a magus engages in a duel, it is very normal for him to bring his magical beast companions. Why can’t I help? I, Bebe, have already been quite forbearing, since Haeru hasn’t even come out yet. Otherwise, if my Boss, myself, and Haeru were to join forces, killing Haydson would’ve been as easy as eating that sword just now. Haeru, show yourself!” “Grooooowl.” At this time, an angry growl could be heard as another magical beast came charging out of the rubble. It also began to grow in size. It was the Blackcloud Panther, Haeru. Haeru flew directly next to Bebe, standing in mid-air alongside Bebe as he glanced at Haydson. Right now, both Linley and Haydson were badly injured. But the distant, countless spectators were no longer paying any attention to them. Their attention was on these two Saint-level magical beasts that had suddenly appeared, especially that first one. The first one was too terrifying. He had taken a hit from the Worldbreaker attack without any problems. With a few crunchy chomps, he had eaten Haydson’s personal weapon. “Hey, Haydson, you got any issues with that?” Bebe lowered his head to scowl at Haydson. Seeing the cold light flashing in Bebe’s eyes, Haydson knew that if he were to protest strongly, Bebe would probably claw him to death. Even at full strength, it would be hard for him to win against a magical beast like Bebe, with such astonishing defense, attack, and speed. Much less now. Haydson turned his head, maintaining his silence. “Haydson, I admit that I lost this duel.” Linley said. Haydson glanced at Linley. In his heart, he was beginning to admire Linley. “Linley, today, actually, the two of us fought to a draw. I was able to rely on my deeper reservoir of battle-qi to take a slight advantage. As for your magical beast…” Haydson glanced at Haeru, then looked at Bebe. Bebe immediately stared at him. Haydson laughed bitterly. “Your magical beast is the most terrifying Saint-level magical beast I have ever seen.” Hearing these words, Bebe raised his little head up arrogantly.