Heavenly Jewel Change

This Qian Shu from the Mi Ou Battle Team was a rare Agility/Water close combat specialist.

In truth, Qian Shu’s combat experience was quite decent. After being shocked by Ma Qun’s armour, he immediately judged that Ma Qun’s greatest strength should be his defense, and his speed would not be too good. As such, he was confident in using his own speed and agility in taking the fight to Ma Qun, and he still had a chance of winning. After all, for Ma Qun to wear such an armour, it should mean his Heavenly Energy cultivation level wasn’t too high.

Just as Qian Shu attacked, Ma Qun did not choose to dodge. Instead, he waved his arms, withdrawing his weapons. At the same time, he stepped towards Qian Shu’s direction, his arms twirling the massive spiked maces in direct swipes towards Qian Shu.

If not for his insane armour, such an attack from Ma Qun would normally be deemed as a suicide-attack type move, pitting their lives against each other. After all, Qian Shu had attacked first, and though his weapons might not be as large Ma Qun’s he would definitely hit first.

However, with the Peerless Regiment Heavy Cavalry Armour, everything changed.

Seeing the two terrifying massive spiked maces, Qian Shu couldn’t help but shiver in his heart. He dared not care about hurting his opponent, instead lowering his body down, striking the ground with his feet in a swift movement to dodge the spiked maces, before his ice blades struck out again towards Ma Qun’s legs.

Qian Shu’s reactions could be considered very fast. Alas, it did not change the fact that Ma Qun was not even looking at his actions, only enacting his own plans and actions.

The two large spiked maces swung in a sweeping motion, not changing its path because of his enemy’s dodge. With his legs as a pivot, he just spun himself totally, one spiked mace swerving upwards, the other swerving downwards. With his body moving, he was like a meat grinder smashing towards Qian Shu’s direction.

*Puu**Puu* Qian Shu’s ice blades smashed hard into Ma Qun’s leg. However, his attacks merely left two faint scratches on the Frozen Steel Armour, and instead the ice blades showed signs of cracking on impact. At the same time, the large spiked maces had already spun an entire round and returned.

The length of the spiked maces were almost two metres, along with their thickness and Ma Qun’s spinning, the area of effect of their reach was just too large. Even though Qian Shu was an Agility type Heavenly Jewel Master, being overextended in position from his attack, he was unable to dodge it a second time.

Lifting his arms, he put his ice blades in a parrying position as his right foot stomped on the ground, using the momentum to push his body to the ground, his back on the stage floor as he tried to slide away.

Alas, on the first spin, Ma Qun had already noticed that Qian Shu had gone down low, and the lower mace of his reached all the way to the ground.

*BANG*

The massive spiked mace smashed savagely onto the crossguard of Qian Shu’s ice blades, and a terrifying sight occurred. Qian Shu felt an incomprehensible strength transferring to him, and both ice blades in his hands shattered instantly. The next instant, the spiked mace smashed into the Consolidated Equipment of his arms. His entire body, Consolidated Equipment and all, was sent flying out of the stage like a golf ball, careening across the stage floor.

In midair, Qian Shu’s Consolidated Equipment around his arms also shattered. Luckily, it was because of the protection of the pair of Consolidated Equipment that saved his arms, escaping with minor injuries instead of being broken straight away.

With just the single strike from Ma Qun, it sent Qian Shu flying more than thirty metres before falling to the ground, almost reaching the rest houses.

Although Qian Shu was not heavily injured, he had already been knocked off the stage, and the victory had been determined.

“This… does this also work?” Such a sentence occurred throughout all the rest houses.

All of them had discerning eyes, and they could naturally tell that this was not even considered a clash between Heavenly Jewel Masters… more like a clash between a Heavenly Jewel Master and raw physical strength. Ma Qun did not even summon his Heavenly Jewels or use his Heavenly Energy, let alone any Stored Skills or Consolidated Equipment. He had just used raw unadulterated physical strength to send Qian Shu flying out of the stage. That was a four-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master! Yet, he had lost the fight without even much resistance… in such a short period of time!

On the VIP Stand, the ZhongTian Emperor Shangguan Tianxin had a slightly stunned look on his face, and he was muttering to himself: “So this is the notorious Peerless Regiment Heavy Cavalry? No wonder, no wonder. It looks like the news from the west is indeed accurate. If that brat Zhou Weiqing actually led several hundred of these powerful warriors, it is definitely possible to repulse the Kalise army.”

Shangguan Tianxin had long since read the report about the bloody battle in the Crescent City. His news was from Shangguan Xue’er, and thus was rather detailed. However, at that time, when Shangguan Tianxin heard her say that Zhou Weiqing had only used three thousand fresh recruits and seven hundred Peerless Regiment soldiers to withstand the crazed onslaught of fifty thousand Kalise soldiers, he had only smiled passively. In his eyes, perhaps Xue’er had overestimated the numbers of the Kalise armies. However, now that he had seen Ma Qun’s terrifying display of power, he immediately readjusted his thinking about Zhou Weiqing’s Peerless Regiment.

After proclaiming the result of this fight and for the next match to begin, Shangguan Longyin walked beside Shangguan Tianxin.

“Your Majesty.”

“En. What do you think?” Shangguan Tianxin asked Shangguan Longyin.

Shangguan Longyin was silently for a moment before saying: “These Peerless Heavy Cavalry should not be from the Ruffian Battalions. According to the news from the Northwest Army Camp, it seems like Zhou Weiqing had taken in some warrior tribes; the entirety of their tribes, and incorporated their warriors as part of his forces. These Tribes have some impressive natural inborn talents indeed. If I did not see wrongly, just now that Peerless Regiment Heavy Cavalry warrior’s armour was no less than a thousand jin heavy, but it did not influence his movement at all. Any ordinary warrior, even for a Heavenly Jewel Master, he would not be able to wear it. From that alone, we can see that this person’s physical strength alone is already at a terrifying stage. At this point, I can truly understand how is it that the WanShou Empire forces had lost so much to the Peerless Regiment. That little rascal Zhou Weiqing is definitely no ordinary person.”

As they were speaking up above, on the stage, Ma Qun was howling smugly, raising his massive spiked maces in the air, as if he was some invincible general who had defeated an enemy army.

“Hey, it’s time for you to go down. We are about to start the next match.” It was only after the judge’s reminder that Ma Qun realised he had to leave the stage, and he walked off the stage with some discontent, as if he still wasn’t satisfied.

The members of the Battle Teams with the four Great Saint Lands as background all revealed disdainful looks. Their judgement of Ma Qun was the mere words: Simple minded, mere brute force.

Alas, Zhou Weiqing did not hear their appraisal, otherwise he would have fallen to the ground laughing. For someone to deem Ma Qun, a fellow who had dared to try trick him when they first entered the Fei Li Royal Family Military Academy, as simple minded? Perhaps in the entire Berserker Tribe with their Titan Bloodline, no one else was as cunning and sneaky as this fellow. En… even as he judged Ma Qun as cunning, the sneakiest Zhou Weiqing did not blush or blink at all.

The other Mi Ou Battle Team members had extremely ugly expressions. When Qian Shu returned to his team rest house, he felt like he couldn’t lift up his head. To lose to a brute like that who only used physical strength, his heart was extremely gloomy and unreconciled. In his eyes, he should have the chance to defeat Ma Qun, but he had underestimated that heavy armour of his.

The second member of the Mi Ou Battle Team quickly ascended the stage. Since the first match was a loss, this time their team leader decided to take the fight personally.

As compared to the previous Heavenly Jewel Tournament, this year’s Mi Ou Battle Team seemed to be weaker overall. Even this team leader was only at the five-Jeweled stage. It could be said that the Mi Ou Battle Team was the complete reverse of almost all other battle teams, who were far stronger than all their previous incarnations. To be more accurate, they were just here to ‘buy soy sauce’1. However, even if they didn’t have high aspirations, they did not want to lose in too ugly a fashion, especially against a team like the Heavenly Bow Empire’s who were only participating for the first time. In their eyes, this was something that was unacceptable.

As the Mi Ou Battle Team leader ascended the stage, Ma Qun was just walking down. Just as he was prepared to look at what kind of opponent the Heavenly Bow Empire would send for him, another massive figure jumped up.

*BOOM* *CRASH*

A horrendous crashing sound rang through all the rest houses, even giving the VIP Stand a huge scare. Both the Mi Ou Battle Team Leader and the judge on the stage were sent staggering back with the sheer sound shockwave and reverberations of the stage. If not for the fact that their cultivation levels were not low, perhaps they might have even fallen down.

The Mi Ou Battle Team leader’s mouth couldn’t help but twitch uncontrollably. One moving steel fortress had just gone down, and another one had sprang up. Looking at the height and stature, it did not pale compared to the previous one. Even their armour was exactly the same, with the only difference being the weapons in their hands.

It couldn’t be that fellow who went down had just changed weapons and jumped back up right? Otherwise, how could the Heavenly Bow Empire have so many insanely strong fellows like that?

The judge had been given a rather large scare, and his heart was still thumping wildly. Mouth twitching, he said: “Both sides, introduction.”

“Mi Ou Empire. Zhao Hui.” After reporting his name, the team leader stared savagely at his opponent, concentrating fully on his opponent’s voice. If it was exactly the same, he would definitely voice out his suspicions to the judge, asking the opponent to remove his helmet.

“Heavenly Bow Empire. Xixi.”

As soon as the voice rang out, even the judge started slightly. A warrior with such a massive physical stature… he.. Was a she…? Furthermore, Xixi’s voice was a stark contrast from her figure… such a silky sweet voice, it was definitely not something that a man could imitate no matter how he tried, sounding extremely comforting.

This… this was really a girl? Zhao Hui was extremely gloomy. The judge was still in shock, but he quickly proclaimed the start of the match to prevent himself from suffering any further shocks.

Below the stage, in the Heavenly Bow Battle Team rest house, Zhou Weiqing was observing the fight very closely. Amongst all his team mates, the one he was least familiar with was Xixi, and he had not seen her fight before. As such, he had dispatched her to fight in this first round of battles. After all, he needed to familiarize himself with his team member’s capabilities so that he could better arrange their strategy in the later stages of the tournament.

Ma Qun smiled faintly and said: “Boss, do not worry. In terms of defense, Xixi is definitely no match for Ma Qun. However, if we speak of offensive strength, even two Ma Qun’s cannot compare to her. In the Crescent City battle, Xixi was at the west gates, so you did not see her fighting. There, she killed more than five hundred enemies by herself. She earned herself the nickname Gentle Fiend Goddess. Normally, she is extremely gentle, but once she enters battle mode, her ferocity scares even myself.”