Chapter 35 : A Hero’s True Colors Are Revealed Between Life and Death
Chapter 35 : A Hero’s True Colors Are Revealed Between Life and Death
A Hero’s True Colors Are Revealed Between Life and Death
Seeing Chu Tianxing charging straight at it, the giant fish monster rose to its feet. Grasping the trident with both hands, it slammed the butt of the weapon heavily onto the floor before it.
An ethereal blue wave erupted from the point where the butt of the trident struck the floor, roaring as it surged toward Chu Tianxing.
In a display of incredible agility, Chu Tianxing launched himself from the floor with enough force to warp under the tremendous force as he launched himself skyward until he was hanging upside down.
The blue wave crashed beneath him as he soared overhead.
With his upward momentum still carrying him, Chu Tianxing planted his feet on the ceiling in a single fluid motion. He coiled and sprang, kicking off the overhead surface with explosive force.
BOOM!
The ceiling shook violently as Chu Tianxing shot down like an arrow from a bow and dived straight at the giant fish monster.
The creature roared and thrust its trident upward to meet him, trying to skewer Chu Tianxing like a fish on a stick while he was airborne with nowhere to dodge.
The three-pronged spear came straight at him, completely blocking his diving angle. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, it seemed he could do nothing but plunge headfirst onto the tip of the trident and become the monster’s next meal.
This scene made all the people who still had spare energy to watch this fight feel like their hearts all jumped into their throats.
But before they could even cry out in alarm, Chu Tianxing's right hand shot out in a flash. In that split second, his palm dodged the trident’s sharp tip and slapped against the shaft instead.
This strike was not only impossibly fast, but seemed to have calculated the exact trajectory of the monster's thrust. His timing was perfect down to the millisecond.
This was his raw talent at work, amplified by the deadliest speed-based attack of the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms: Sudden Strike.
Thud!
With a muffled sound, Chu Tianxing's palm hit the trident shaft. His palm force erupted, causing the heavy weapon to shift slightly from its original path.
This fish monster was ridiculously strong; calling it ‘naturally endowed with divine strength’ would be an understatement of its power. That three-meter-long trident, thick as a goose egg, was incredibly heavy. Even the security captain had been seriously wounded by a single blow from this weapon.
Even though Chu Tianxing cultivated the Xiantian Art, which gave him far purer internal energy than the security captain, and despite his physique being refined through repeated marrow cleansing and bone tempering to rival Xiao Hu's natural strength, his internal cultivation had only opened four meridians. Even with the Xiantian Art's enhancement, he could barely match the security captain in raw power.
If the security captain couldn't withstand the monster's strike, then it’s obvious that Chu Tianxing's palm couldn't completely deflect it either.
But that was the opening he needed. In the instant he managed to shift the trident slightly, Chu Tianxing activated the Floating Catkin Force from the Nine Yin Manual. Using the tiny recoil from the collision, he drifted sideways like a piece of fluff caught in the wind, moving just one foot to barely dodge the trident's deadly thrust.
Seeing him actually turn the impossible into possible, the others who watched him finally let out the breath they were holding. Their hearts hammered wildly as sweat poured down their bodies, leaving them almost dizzy from the shock.
They wanted to cry out in shock and awe but no longer had the strength to make a sound.
"I, Xiao Hu... acknowledge you as the Central Divine!’ Xiao Hu thought to himself.
After dodging certain death, Chu Tianxing's body slid down along the trident shaft. His right hand struck out again, and as his palm moved, the wind it generated made a faint dragon's roar.
Dragon Soars the Sky!
Faced with the same dragon’s roar that had once paralyzed a spellcasting fish monster with fear, this giant fish monster only flinched slightly before roaring back. It raised its left hand, clenched into a fist, and punched straight at Chu Tianxing's palm.
The millstone-sized fist collided with Chu Tianxing's palm with tremendous force.
A tremor ran through Chu Tianxing’s arm, and the immense force of the monster’s blow sent his entire body recoiling upward. In pure physical strength, the creature far exceeded him.
However, for all its strength, the fish monster possessed no internal energy. And while it had sent Chu Tianxing flying upward with sheer physical power, its own fist had been invaded by the surging energy of the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms, which shattered its knuckles and tore its tendons to shreds.
Sent recoiling upward, Chu Tianxing once again planted his feet on the ceiling.
He bent his knees and stomped.
The ceiling shook and cracked as Chu Tianxing dove down again.
He unleashed another Dragon Soars the Sk!
This time, Chu Tianxing came even faster. The giant fish monster had no time to swing its trident, nor even to dodge. All it could do was to release the trident with its right hand and use that same uninjured hand to throw another punch toward Chu Tianxing’s palm.
But this time, Dragon Soars the Sky was just a feint.
Just as his palm was about to collide with the monster's fist, Chu Tianxing's arm suddenly bent and twisted as if it had no bones at all, winding around the monster’s punch. His five fingers then formed a claw and seized the monster’s wrist.
It was the Divine Serpent, followed by the Nine Yin White Bone Claw.
Squelch!
Chu Tianxing's five fingers sank deep into the monster's wrist. With a vicious wrench and tear, he ripped the skin and flesh from its wrist, snapping the tendons beneath.
But this was just the beginning.
Just as the monster opened its mouth to roar in agony from the clawed grip on its wrist, Chu Tianxing’s hidden left hand shot forward. A handful of embroidery needles flew from his palm, peppering the monster’s face.
Several needles instantly struck and burst the giant fish monster’s pair of bell-sized eyeballs.
Its wide-open mouth was also pierced by over a dozen needles, with its tongue and throat completely perforated.
Now, the fish monster could not even manage a cry of pain.
Then Chu Tianxing struck with both palms, using his diving momentum for a Double Dragons Take Water strike, smashing into the monster's face.
The creature’s face caved in on impact. Chu Tianxing used the rebound to flip over the monster’s head and land behind it. Before his feet even touched the ground, his right hand formed a hook and tore viciously at the back of the monster's skull, ripping the entire back of its head open.
By the time Chu Tianxing finally landed back on the ground, the massive fish monster swayed twice before crashing to the ground with a thunderous boom. Its limbs twitched briefly, then went still.
The giant fish monster was dead!
The moment the giant fish monster hit the floor, the school of fish monsters frantically attacking the wall breach suddenly stopped their assault.
They looked at the giant monster's corpse, then at Chu Tianxing who was casually wiping blood from his fingers with an air of complete detachment. The savage ferocity in their blood-red fish eyes gradually gave way to fear and shock.
Their chief, a being of sacred blood who was untouchable in his element and armed by a god had been killed barehanded by this seemingly fragile human?
How is this possible?
Is he a dragon in human form?
The fish monsters were shocked, terrified, and unable to believe what they'd seen.
But the students' morale soared, their courage exploding.
“Chu Tianxing is a fucking badass!”
Gao Yuan shouted Chu Tianxing's name as he sliced a stunned fish monster in half.
“Chu Tianxing is a fucking badass!”
Li Haiyang and Chen Musheng joined the chant, fighting with renewed vigor.
All the students, male and female alike, including the literary girl Xu Jing, and even Xiao Hu and Qin Ling, couldn't help but shout the same phrase.
Hearing this cheering filling the hall, Chu Tianxing almost righteously declared. "I, Chu Tianxing, am not cheating!"
Fortunately, he managed to hold back.
He continued to maintain the serene and detached air of a lonely master, using a snow-white handkerchief to slowly and deliberately wipe the fish blood from his hands.
He wiped them meticulously as if cleaning a priceless antique or jade treasure.
This display of detached grace only deepened his classmates' admiration.
Some of the female students who had previously looked down on Chu Tianxing were now completely convinced.
Chu Tianxing was a real diamond in the rough!
Handsome, talented, incredibly skilled in martial arts, godlike in actual combat, and still so calm and elegant...
He is a male god material!
Uh, but Chu Tianxing's composed and elegant act wasn't actually showing off.
The reason he moved so slowly and deliberately was that after the intense battle with the giant fish monster and all those explosive moves, his internal energy was almost completely drained.
The earlier clash had also shaken his arm pretty badly.
If he moved too quickly now, his hands would probably shake like he was having convulsions...
So he could only wipe his fingers with this composed elegance while secretly regulating his breathing using the Xiantian Art's rapid energy recovery to restore his power as quickly as possible.
Fortunately, with the giant fish monster dead, the other creatures' morale collapsed like an avalanche.
Good thing the other monsters got scared when their boss died so they didn't fight as hard anymore.
Qin Ling and the others defending the line suddenly felt the pressure ease significantly.
Boosted by Chu Tianxing's inspiration, they launched several counterattacks that sent the fish monsters retreating.
Up on deck.
The fish monsters at the cabin entrance hadn't seen the giant monster's death, so their assault remained fierce.
However, the five red-scaled staff-wielding fish monsters on deck seemed to sense something and exchanged glances with each other.
"The chief seems to be dead..."
"What? The chief is actually dead? There are humans on this ship who could kill him?"
"What do we do?"
“With even the chief dead, our only option now is to pray for God’s Descent. So many warriors have already died, along with two priests, and now the chief… the sacrifices for the ritual should be sufficient.”
After a brief discussion, the priests immediately began the “God’s Descent Ritual.”
With sufficient "offerings," the ritual proceeded smoothly.
Soon, dark clouds gathered over the ocean.
A massive funnel-shaped whirlpool appeared on the sea beside the cruise ship. From its depth, a massive figure over ten meters tall, formed entirely of water and wearing a crown with a trident in hand, emerged.
As the colossal water-formed fish-man rose from the whirlpool, the blood of the fish monsters on the ship suddenly vanished into thin air.
The corpses of the dead fish-men, including the monster chief's body in the restaurant, visibly withered and dried up as if they'd been weathered for a thousand years in mere moments.
As this happened, the super-giant fish monster rising from the funnel whirlpool began transforming its water-formed body into "flesh and blood."
Its scales were the first to complete the transformation, showing a pale golden color that gleamed like real gold.
Its bulging fish eyes also turned a brilliant gold like molten metal.
Just as the colossal fish-man became more and more like actual flesh and blood, another whirlpool suddenly appeared on the ocean surface.
This time, a figure holding a nine-ring staff with electricity crackling around them stepped out of this vortex and walked on the water’s surface.
As the figure emerged, a rap song with a powerful rhythm and what sounded like an electronic beat accompaniment began to play.
"When Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva was practicing the profound Prajnaparamita, he illuminated the five skandhas and saw that they are all empty, thereby transcending all suffering and difficulty..."
With its electronic beat, this rap song was none other than the Heart Sutra…
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