“Ugh!”
Mu Fan groaned as Jun slapped him with the shaft of his spear across his face.
“Bastard!!”
Mu Fan couldn’t help but roar in frustration.
Judging by the numerous bruises on his cheeks, it wasn’t the first time Jun had down something like this.
“Are you using a spear or a staff you bastard?!”
Jun came out of his stance and stood up straight before silently looking at Mu Fan.
Mu Fan gritted his teeth before his figure dashed towards Jun.
His sheathed saber swung down carrying with it a whistling sound as it cut through the air.
Mu Fan wanted to fight at close-quarters but Jun took three steps back and jab his spear out. His wrist twisted as it made contact with Mu Fan’s saber. That seemingly small action made Mu Fan’s saber steer off course.
Mu Fan felt like all the power he placed into that blow had dissipated. Jun’s defensive spear technique was too strange, he always manage to accurately hit the weakest point in Mu Fan’s attack. No matter the angle or the speed of the attack he never missed.
What was even more terrifying about this ability, was that if he was off by even a fraction of an inch the advantage he had would crumble, allowing Mu Fan to close the distance. And allowing a saber user to get close while being a spear user was a massive disadvantage. It will allow them to bring out the full capabilities of their saber techniques.
Jun would surely lose in that situation.
But even as Mu Fan attacked, Jun’s face remained calm as he deflected and even countered his attacks. His demeanor was not one that showed if he made just the slightest mistake, Mu Fan would jump at the chance and go all out to beat him.
This fight for Mu Fan was the worse thing he had ever felt. It was like some restriction was slowly being wrapped around his hand as he attacked Jun. It was preventing him from using his full strength to display his saber techniques.
A spear user has no blind spots.
Mu Fan was starting to see why that was the case.
Jun’s spear reach was longer than his, before an attack could fully form on his part Jun’s spear would shoot out to deflect it and then counterattack. It was frustrating to fight against him.
Mu Fan in the middle of an attack saw Jun’s spear move. With a quick calculation, he once again saw that his saber was going to be deflected, but he couldn’t do anything about it!
Several different paths to attack Jun were visible in his eyes. The left, the right, even faint right and then come from the bottom up. Mu Fan analyzed all of his options in an instant but his eyes trembled.
In all the alternative moves he observed, he could see Jun’s spear reaching them all.
Like a net, Jun’s spear encapsulated three meters around him.
If Mu Fan can enter that three-meter space he would enter close combat with him, but that three-meter space seemed to be guarded by an all-seeing omnipresence eye, that could also see the future and predict any attacks.
Mu Fan wanted to cough up blood from anger. That was too broken to be legal in a fight!
Gritting his teeth, Mu Fan's hand didn’t shift from a frontal attack. He seemed to be preparing to clash with Jun head-on.
Jun’s spear was already inches away from clashing with Mu Fan, with him being a comfortable three meters away at the end of his spear.
DING!
Jun’s spear and Mu Fan’s sheathed saber clash but Jun’s body flinched.
Just before his spear clashed with Mu Fan’s saber, Mu Fan had shifted his hand. He read Jun’s pattern of deflection and using that shift of his hand, he made Jun guide his saber past his spear tip.
He used his deflection against him. The only way for Mu Fan to have done that is if his movements were faster than Jun.
Jun knew Mu Fan’s attacking speed was abnormal, that’s why he did everything to keep him at a distance. He couldn't fight him in close combat even with his faster speed.
SCREECH!!
Mu Fan’s sheathed saber slid across the shaft of Jun’s spear as he took a single step inside the three-meter net.
Mu Fan’s eyes began to shine with a malicious light as he broke past Jun’s defenses.
Jun was surprised but he was still calm as the grip on his spear loosen before tightening once again.
That movement was a change in his spear technique. His spear became as flexible as a snake and like a small staff, he was able to maneuver it around Mu Fan’s saber and slap him in the side of his head once again.
Well, at least that was what was supposed to happen.
Jun was using the Ape that battled Li Shen’s pole technique, and it had been effected in stopping Mu Fan in his tracts every time he reached this point, but this time it failed.
Mu Fan’s saber stuck close to his spear as he approach, giving him no opportunity to maneuver it.
At that moment, Mu Fan took another step into his three-meter net. This was the first time during their battle Jun had allowed Mu Fan to reach this point.
Mu Fan was a terrifying genius.
Jun knew his instincts for battle had always been high. So when he broke through his Spear Technique he spent over a year training for the first time like it was nothing, he wasn’t surprised. He would only force him back with the Ape’s staff technique and close that flaw he tore open.
This was basically training for Jun to improve his Spear Arts. As Mu Fan broke through his defenses and he pushed him back with his staff technique, that was one flaw in his Spear Arts that he would fix.
His Spear Arts were thus closing in on perfection. It was to the point that as the battle progressed, Mu Fan found it harder and harder to break past his defense as they were fewer flaws to exploit.
But Mu Fan showed his tactical brilliance.
In the few times he had forced Jun to use his Staff Technique, he had found a weakness in that as well.
Jun’s Staff Technique was from the Ape, but it was meant for a shorter weapon. With Jun’s long spear most of the maneuvers used by the Ape were impossible for him, And worst of all, when he used his long spear to carry out the Staff Technique they were more flaws.
Mu Fan was exploiting one of those flaws.
By sticking close to his spear, he made Jun unable to flexibly use it as the Staff technique required.
Third step.
With that third step, Mu Fan was practically in front of him. His saber moved along Jun’s staff towards his neck.
Jun felt a stinging feeling on his neck as the sensation of Mu Fan’s Blade Intent which coated his saber reach his neck before the actual saber.
Mu Fan’s eyes showed excitement at his well-timed attack, but behind all of that was alertness. Those two layers weren’t possibly Jun’s only defense for close-quarters combats.
‘Come on little Jun, show me all your tricks. I’ll just start over from scratch until I break through all of your defenses. Just show me as many as you can so I can analyze their weakness.’
Time seemed to slow in this situation as Mu Fan’s hidden intentions go unnoticed, while Jun for some reason still had on a calm expression.
As Mu Fan’s saber approached his neck, a smile appeared on the corner of Jun’s lips. Mu Fan’s eyes flickered, but before he could register anything, bright white light burst from Jun's back before four majestic-looking wings appeared.
They made a movement that seemed like they were about to flap, but it was at that time Mu Fan’s saber reached and slashed at his neck.
However, Mu Fan felt a familiar sensation of hitting nothing as his saber slashed through Jun's afterimage.
Mu Fan recovered, and looked at Jun floating two feet off the ground several meters away from him.
An ugly expression appeared on Mu Fan’s face as he looked at Jun’s wings.
That slight movement that his wings made was the only movement that the human eyes could capture. They were too fast for their movements to be perceived any further than that.
What was even more ridiculous aside from Jun’s increase in speed, was that his wings made no sound. There was no wind friction caused by their flaps.
Jun floated motionless in the air as he looked at Mu Fan with the same smile that never left his lips.
“You bastard.”
Mu Fan could only mutter a curse in this situation.
“I’m sure you wanted to see my other layer of defense? Well, this is it, extreme speed is my defense. So tell me Mu Fan, have you discovered a weakness you can exploit?”
Mu Fan's face became even uglier as he shot a glare at Jun.
“Haha, don’t be discouraged, you did it numerous times before you can do it again. Plus..”
Jun’s face became serious.
“..Why haven’t you drawn your saber yet, are you still looking down on me?”
Jun’s grip around his spear tightened as he locked gaze with Mu Fan.
Mu Fan went back to hugging his saber in his arms as he said.
“I was planning on using this on that other bastard, but I guess you leave me no choice.”
“...Are you talking about senior disciple brother?”
“Who else? Don’t tell me you don’t see him as the biggest obstacle out of everyone else as I do?”
Mu Fan asked with a serious expression.
Jun remained silent before he said.
“I do. Senior brother is the strongest out of all of us, the only one who could have beaten him was brother Yin by overpowering him with his cultivation.”
“But now there's no telling how stronger he has become.”
Mu Fan finished for Jun with a solemn expression.
For the first time, these two came to a common consensus.
“But I won't give up.”
Jun suddenly said.
“Me either.”
Mu Fan replied and their Battle Intent seemed to grow stronger.
Mu Fan’s hands around his saber loosen.
With that, Jun suddenly felt the aura around Mu Fan shift.
His eyes narrowed into slits as he looked at him.
“Little brat, don’t die.”
Mu Fan said to Jun with a solemn tone.
Jun felt a foreboding feeling rise up in his heart as he heard him.
Mu Fan soon closed his eyes and wrapped a hand around the hilt of his saber. With a slight pull, a part of its pitch black blade was revealed.
Immediately, the very nature of the world changed around the battlefield.
Li Shen who was watching on had his pupils constricted when he felt the change.
**
//Tseth: Hey guys, remember to show some love by voting with golden tickets and power stones!//
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l