Chapter 296: Hard spear vs supple spear

With this new spear in hand, the armor seemed completely different. Even though it hadn't moved yet, there was a completely different atmosphere around it. Partly it was due to the fact that Cao Yun now knew what it was capable of, but the weapon in itself had also something to do with it.

Just like before, the armor rushed toward Cao Yun. This time though, he was fully prepared. He wouldn't get surprised like last time and all of his mind cultivation was already ready to help him both fight and analyze the fight at the same time. Grabbing 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear', Cao Yun assumed his position and immediately unleashed a few 'Dragon's Twin Horns' toward his opponent. As he couldn't pour his Qi within, the attacks themselves were rather weak but they were only supposed to disorient the armor and to throw off its rhythm.

While the cones of wind were racing toward the armor, Cao Yun activated 'Crafty Harassment'. His speed increased greatly and he began to move around the entire ring throwing other wind cones toward the armor's articulations. That technique was meant to completely suppress an opponent as it was a sort of array formation. Hopefully, it would weaken it a little.

The armor had completely changed its way of fighting though. As soon as the cones of wind got close to it, its spear whipped the air and completely dispelled them without any problem. Then, even 'Crafty Harassment' became useless as not a single attack landed on it. In addition, the armor was faster than Cao Yun even while performing this technique. In an instant, it appeared right on his trajectory.

Because of its longer spear, the armor wasn't as close as before when it attacked. Thankfully, Cao Yun had taken that into consideration. This spear was almost twice as long as his own. That was why he had tried to keep his distance with 'Crafty Harassment', but that had failed very early. And now he was faced with the incoming tip of the spear. The staff was literally undulating in the armor's hands. This wave went all the way to the tip of the spear that now looked like a snake baring its fangs toward Cao Yun.

When the attack came, all of a sudden, Cao Yun saw several hundreds of blades coming for him. His entire field of vision was fully saturated with the blade at the extremity of this spear. There was no doubt about that, this was Spear Aura. Something that was related to one's understanding of the spear was now being demonstrated by what looked like an armor without any intelligence. In Cao Yun's eyes, it had been like the puppet he had faced in the Wubei Sect, the Eighteen Weapons Mechanical Puppet. Such a puppet could show incredible skills, but it didn't understand anything, it was just mimicking.

Could a puppet mimic so well that it truly developed Spear Aura? Or maybe, was the Spear Aura the remnant of whoever had used the spear it was currently wielding?

Anyway, now was not the time to overthink things. As he was simply unable to see which blade was the real one, Cao Yun decided to try and block them all. Even dodging would have been pointless as he could see all his exits blocked by the trajectory of the blades. Unless he wanted to test his luck, blocking was the right move now. Despite the danger, he got excited. If his opponent was using Spear Aura, he could probably understand more of it and potentially be able to see through it. During his short training with Chief Elder Baishen, he had only scraped the surface.

'Imperial Throne'!

His spear rotated all around Cao Yun and created a powerful wall of wind to block all the blades. And without wasting any time, Cao Yun went forward with his full power 'The Son of Heaven's Cavalry'. But this time instead of using his 'Dragon's Heart' or his Qi, or anything else to amplify his attack, he completely focused on his Spear Aura. If his opponent wanted to play that game, Cao Yun was more than delighted to play as well.

Contrary to the armor's spear, Cao Yun's did not duplicate, it just became as large as the armor itself. And completely went through the wall of wind. Although it had no physical reality, this enlarged blade split the wind open with a hole as large as it looked like. The mere pressure from the spear was just that powerful. Although he had been convinced to have been the fastest of the two, the armor was already dodging his attack.

Its spear had been sent backward and the armor turned using its momentum. Still taking advantage of Cao Yun's own 'Imperial Throne', the armor spun around and found itself on the other side of his spear. Then, its long spear went directly toward Cao Yun's head in a sweeping motion. Lost in his own attack, there was not much he could do to dodge it. Even blocking it would be difficult, but he had to at least try something. Raising his back arm, he was trying to take the blow with the butt of the spear instead of his head.

The armor's spear collided with 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear', pushing Cao Yun, whose feet were still above the ground, backward. With no grip on the ground, he was completely thrown toward the other end of the ring. Thankfully, he was able to control his body and landed on both feet. But his arms were shaking under the impact and he could hear a low creak coming from his weapon. The spear of the armor was probably a 4 or even 5-star Earth weapon. It was almost as good as his. And despite the few patches of rust on it, it was still in a pretty good condition. There was also a huge difference with Cao Yun, the armor was not afraid to destroy its weapon if it needed to.

Another bout occurred right away. The young man had barely enough time to circulate his Qi in order to stop the shaking of his limbs that he had to block again.

The armor's attack did not change much, it was stabbing with incredible speed toward Cao Yun from a long distance. In a second, it could strike several dozens of times. In addition, each stabbing attack was not just performed with one spear. Now Cao yun could see hundreds of them each time. Of course, only one was real, but the combination of extremely rapid attacks, Spear Aura and the constant undulation of the spear itself, made it impossible to follow.

Using all of his mind cultivation, Cao Yun truly wanted to see through this Spear Aura. It wasn't even for the purpose of winning the fight. No, he was just completely transfixed by it. While training with Chief Elder Baishen, he had wanted more but time had been too short. To better understand his own Spear Aura, he had to understand others'. Because his martial art was rather hard, his Spear Aura had manifested as an incredibly large spear. But faced with a spear that was agile and swift, its aura was multiplying it to cut off all exits.

The only defense that could protect Cao Yun from such an encompassing attack was 'Imperial Throne'. The fight kept on going for a while as Cao Yun and the armor were now engaged in a dance. Thanks to his mind cultivation, Cao Yun was able to read almost all the movements of his opponent, but he still couldn't see through the spear itself and that was both infuriating and exciting.

-

The fight kept on going for two days. This time, the armor had not stopped once. Even with his stamina, Cao Yun was getting mentally exhausted. But he was very close to his goal.

Once more, they found themselves in the same situation, the armor stabbing Cao Yun with hundreds of spears. But this time, Cao Yun was able to vaguely see that most of the spears were indeed incorporeal. Discerning the true spear among this wall of Spear Aura was almost impossible because it was always moving around. But with the Chamber of Heavenly Court, time was slowed down in Cao Yun's eyes. He just had to find the real spear in time to block or dodge. Instead of trying to follow it, he was just trying to find it at any given moment.

And there he got lucky. At some point, he saw it and took the opportunity. Fearing that he might lose its sight again, he immediately sent his spear forward to block it.

He had been right! Finally, he had seen through the Spear Aura, albeit for a mere instant. As he was about to press forward, he felt that something was wrong. Even after blocking the shaft of the incoming spear, Cao Yun felt danger. That was just a feeling in the back of his head, in the Chamber of Splendor. Instead of doubting it, he acted upon it.

'Dragon's Chest'!

As soon as he sent Qi in his skull, a powerful blow hit him from behind and threw him to the ground. The shaft of the armor's spear had been so supple that it had bent all the way around Cao Yun, hitting him directly in the nape. Even with his Wei Qi, such a shock would have been almost lethal. The Palace of Supreme Wisdom was supposed to save him if he were about to die, but what if he died with a single blow? Could the palace react fast enough?

Thankfully, Cao Yun did not find out the answer to this question because he had activated 'Dragon's Chest' soon enough. But now, he was completely down on the ground. Without any hesitation, he rolled away as the armor was now stabbing toward the ground with abandon. Even this metallic ground was now riddled with small craters.

Finally, Cao Yun stood up by sending a sudden knee strike toward the ground. He spun in the air and found himself backed against the spears circling the ring. With the armor rushing toward him, Cao Yun moved quickly. 'Crafty Harassment'.

Several 'Dragon's Twin Horns' were sent toward the armor to try and buy some time. It was barely efficient, but just enough for Cao Yun to leave his current spot. However, the armor was not done. It grabbed its spear by its farthest extremity and spun it around in the air. The rotation was so fast that a mortal would have only seen a shadow of a spear. But in Cao Yun's eyes, he could discern the spear clearly. However, another phenomenon appeared. Instead of producing hundreds of spear, its Spear Aura made the spear elongate. With the armor at the center of the ring, its spear was able to completely envelop the entirety of that circle.

Then, the armor lowered the weapon almost at the level of the ground. With its current speed, it could potentially break Cao Yun's legs. Before he could find out, Cao Yun jumped. Immediately after, the armor raised the spear once more with the same rotation and attacked at his chest level. If he were struck midair with that spear, Cao Yun would have broken bones for sure. Thus, he once again circulated 'Dragon's Chest' just in case. But each time, he was losing some Qi to protect his flesh.

At the same time, he tried to rotate his body in the air by using his limbs. Just in time, he was able to put himself parallel to the ground and the spear barely grazed the Wei Qi in his back. While in midair, he chained up with another attack. 'The Pillar Piercing the Sky'. Trying to use his momentum to launch himself toward his opponent, Cao Yun attacked. But the armor reacted fast enough. It took some more distance and stabbed straightforward with his spear.

The tips of both spears struck each other. Under the force of Cao Yun's attack, the armor's spear bent, almost to the point of breaking. But at the very last moment, the armor shook its hands and the vibration traveled all the way back toward Cao Yun's spear. He was completely thrown away and collided against the spears circling the ring, breaking several dozens of them with his momentum. At least, those were spears his opponent could not use, so that was a win in a way. However, his back begged to differ. Even with 'Dragon's Chest' and his Wei Qi, his spine had taken a lot of damage. Nothing was broken, but his body was bruised.

Once again, he was too far from his enemy to do anything but dodge and block, hoping to get closer at some point. His only attacks to strike at a distance were 'Dragon's Twin Horns' and his recently acquired 'Fish in the Galaxy'. Until now, he had been anxious about using it. Now that he could control Qi, he could in theory throw his spear and get it back as long as he sent his Qi with the spear. The problem was that the blue vortex was preventing him from doing so. Because of that, if he threw his weapon, he had to go get it back himself.

Even though he had other spears in his spatial ring, he didn't want to part with 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear'. But he couldn't see any other solution right now. After Cao Yun had just seen through his Spear Aura, the armor had decided to stay as far away as possible while using the long range of its weapon against Cao Yun.

'The Dragon's Belly is Contorted'!

Cao Yun was trying to control his opponent movements with many 'Dragon's Twin Horns' while moving all around the ring, confusing it even more.

'Imperial Throne'!

A powerful wall of wind appeared around Cao Yun. He activated it several times while moving around.

From one of the walls of wind, a hole suddenly formed. The sound of a spear going through the air was only heard later.

'Fish in the Galaxy'!

The spear had broken the sound barrier several times as it was now going straight for the armor's upper torso. Cao Yun's goal was to rip apart its arms, and maybe even its head at the same time. As it was flying, Cao Yun's spear appeared to be three times a large as usual. With this recent move, Cao Yun had not been able to use his Spear Aura as much, but it was still somewhat present.

But once again, the armor stabbed with its spear and the two tips collided. The supple spear bent and bent and bent. When the armor sent a vibration through it, instead of undulating, it finally snapped. 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear' completely ripped through the supple spear and struck the armor right in the upper part of its sternum, between where the clavicles would be for a human. Under the force, the armor was sent backward and fell to the ground.