Dual Cultivation God Returns-Chapter 976: Got us to this point, didn’t it?

Seeing that the situation was only getting worse for him, the Elder shifted tactics to saturation attacks, launching a continuous barrage of Profound Qi slashes.

"A shift in gears! Hmm, this doesn’t look good for our Challenger, it seems the Righteous Warrior identified a possible weakness, that is, exhausting the reserves of metal that our Challenger has before he can improve his abilities further. These continued attacks with varied angles don’t give time to regroup the torn defenses before they are struck again and a lot more is cut from control with no time or opportunity to recover it, left to fall into the dust of the fighting pit floor. Our Challenger is losing a lot of material leverage here... his only hope would be if those Hearts of Iron were completely full of metal at the time the fight started, or he might be looking at a grim possibility of running out of means to continue fighting..."

"What’s the matter? No longer in the mood for sharp-tongued quips and witty remarks?", the Lament Scripture Sect’s Elder spoke with a scowl, "You feeling it yet? Your looming death? But don’t worry, it won’t be fast... after I tear down your pathetic defenses, I’ll let you run around alive some more time as I cut you piece by piece"

These words didn’t provoke a response, which only emboldened the Elder who took it as a sign of panic and weakness, perhaps the masked youngster was too preoccupied to even be able to talk.

Suddenly, a large amount of Profound Qi concentrated on his right-hand blade.

"Six-Edged Lament Prism!", he swung the blade vertically from high above his head down to the limit below, and the attack that shot out expanded into a six-sided prism with edges made of Profound Qi.

The moment it struck the metal defense, the latter turned into fine metal powder, prompting Wu Long to urgently pour all of the metal around him into defending in front to delay the attack, along with six spikes that precisely struck the six edges of the prism which slowed it down without demolishing the metal, proving that the pulverizing effect was only in the seemingly empty spaces between the visible edges, inside the prism.

He also activated multiple short speed boost talismans and with enough speed and distance eventually evaded by sharply changing trajectory since the prism seemed to only travel in one straight direction.

"A narrow, extremely narrow escape by a hair’s breadth by our Challenger from a major, major attack from the Righteous Warrior! A very close call in which I’ve got to praise the quick thinking, reaction and wit! What a spectacular exchange! It seems he also had to use several additional speed boost talismans to once again widen the distance between him and the Righteous Warrior that shrank for a moment because of the life-saving sharp trajectory change, which does make you worry about his reserves. On the Righteous Warrior side it is also likely this attack took some toll on his Spiritual Qi reserves, I doubt he could sustain doing it too many times. More than that, it lost the element of surprise. But even though our Challenger got out of that pinch by the skin of his teeth, it still looks bad for him, he lost... looks like two-thirds of the metal material he managed to accumulate since the start of the fight..."

The Elder’s mood continued to rapidly recover, which caused him to regain some of his bearings, and inevitably, to a shift in attitude altogether, "That’s what you get for meddling in the righteous business of the Lament Scripture Sect, shielding an evil man whose traitorous Sect was using despicable techniques of the Corrupt Path!"

His tone started to regain the original arrogance and sense of superiority as before, his spirits suddenly lifted. The boos of the crowd that didn’t like that he was suddenly tilting the scales of victory in his favor sounded like music to him now.

Even the pace of his normal attacks slowed down somewhat, seemingly giving Wu Long enough time to take out some more metal out of the Hearts of Iron.

"You will lose because you are guilty of defending evil, and you evil scum can never prevail over those like me acting in the name of justice!", his pompous voice was backed by Spiritual Qi to be heard throughout the arena this time, prompting even greater outrage, to which he gleefully laughed, "Cry! Cry harder! It won’t change a thing!"

With the Hearts of Iron rotating in a ring-like trajectory behind his back, creating a sort of halo, and metal coming out from all three, pouring to the front, a small portion began collecting in the middle of the circle of Hearts of Iron. There, metal began forming complex geometric forms that moved in hypnotizing patterns and shrank as more material constantly arrived.

"Heh! You think I’ll allow that?" the Elder snorted, once again increasing the pace of attacks to a continuous barrage and forcing Wu Long to slow down this build-up.

"What’s this? Our Challenger seems to be attempting to form a defensive structure away from the attacks, if he succeeds, it would be the first time the Righteous Warrior would have to contend with a fully formed defense instead of makeshift one!"

The Elder narrowed his eyes, "You hear that? This filthy place is rooting for you, that is enough evidence of how corrupt and filthy you are. But your sins are heavier than just being evil. You dared to stand in front of justice, to interrupt the work of a Righteous Path Sect! Your insolence led you to believe your puny existence of an ant could oppose something much greater than you could ever understand! You have meddled with the natural order of how things ought to be!"

Meanwhile, Wu Long seems to have adjusted to the speed of attacks again and once again sped up the formation of some structure at the center of the rotating Hearts of Iron behind his back.

But his silence merely amused the Elder, "What is it? Cat got your tongue? You aren’t as chatty as you were out there on the street... what was the point of acting like that there when you choke so pathetically now? I kno-..."

"Got us to this point, didn’t it?", Wu Long shrugged, a bit tired of listening to the Elder’s endless ramblings, his voice effortlessly sounding next to the Elder without using Spiritual Qi to amplify or direct it.

"What?", the Elder widened his eyes with pupils that instantly shrank to the size of pinholes, wary of any threat that might come from nearby, but not sensing anything like that with his Spiritual Sense, focused once again on Wu Long, "What did you say?"

"I said it got us here didn’t it?", Wu Long chuckled, "My chattiness"

"I knew it", Hong Yue who stood in the audience turned her eyes away from the fighting for a bit and to Zhao Biren, "He was acting back then, wasn’t he?"

"I wouldn’t exactly say he was acting, I don’t think he said anything he didn’t think back there", the latter shrugged with a chuckle, and sipped a bit of wine from his gourd, "But yes, he did talk when normally he wouldn’t bother saying anything - he had to be viewed as an unreasonable party who couldn’t be negotiated with so that the Elder would be forced to negotiate with me and not him. That was a way to lead the situation to where we are now. I’m just glad I didn’t screw up and understood his intentions correctly back then"

Changsun Yong stood next to them, but was outside the sound protection array set by Wu Long, so he couldn’t hear them. But even if he was able to, he wouldn’t be able to comprehend anything - his mind was too preoccupied with the impossible scene happening in the fighting pit below.

The Elder’s previous composure faltered as he also realized the possibility that Hong Yue pinpointed.

"It can’t be", he then immediately discarded that possibility, at least outwardly. But deep in his eyes it was possible to see the realization that everything that happened on that street from the moment Wu Long made that first clap was calculated. It was deliberately set up.

And this realization once again threw the Elder’s emotions off-balance. Out of a sea of confusion and doubts rose a monument of rage. Endless fury blazed in his eyes as he suddenly spoke in a growling voice, "YOU! Playing with ME?! With ME?!?! "Does this look like a mere game?! Am I a joke to you?!?!"

"Yes", Wu Long calmly and very sincerely replied.

The Elder’s breath caught in his own throat as he choked on fury and indignation, and then bellowed with even more enraged voice, "You!!! You little disgusting maggot! How dare you!!!"

However, the moment he roared the last word, a very different metallic clang rang out, its echoes reverberating throughout the arena, as he watched with bewildered eyes one of his Profound Qi cutting arcs veer off to the side.

In front of Wu Long was now a cluster of blades and blade-like structures forming an overall conus shape, spinning in a geometric pattern at different speeds and in different directions.

"By Heavens! The first complete structure our Challenger made wasn’t some crude shield or something simple, not even a free-handed control, but a complex Metal Attribute Technique... I don’t recognize the technique, but there is no doubt as it has all the tell-tale marks of a specialized Elemental Attribute Control Art! And a powerful one at that! Not to mention, this should be immensely more cost-efficient on the Spiritual Qi reserves than free-handling control of metal element. What a twist! What a turn! Oh how the turntables... ehm... anyway this is magnificent!!! It looks like the Righteous Warrior is in trouble now!"

Half of the commentator’s torso showed out of the booth he was commentating from, as he shouted with excitement while multiple pairs of hands were trying to pull him back in.

But just as he commented, the Elder’s attacks no longer chipped away any metal. They didn’t even really clash with Wu Long’s defense, flung away to the sides, like ocean waves crushing into a high cliff with water and foam splashing everywhere.

The drill-like defense continued to grow in both size and complexity as more and more metal was now pulled into it.

The Elder released another Six-Edged Lament Prism, but six small drill-like structures detached from the main one and struck the six front vertices of the prism, and this time, instead of simply pushing it back to delay it, seemingly destroyed some core part which dissipated the prism entirely.

"Boom! Hahaha! I told you, Ladies and Gentlemen, I told you that this attack, while certainly dangerous, lost its element of surprise and became vulnerable! Now, instead of fleeing from or delaying it, our Challenger directly demolished it on second appearance!!!"

The commentator’s figure briefly appeared over the edge again, pointing his finger at the Elder, before being dragged back in.

At the same time, sharp metal spikes began forming a bit further out, and shooting toward the Elder, who was now forced to defend and attack at the same time, which in turn decreased the number of attacks.

"By now, we all can guess the Righteous Warrior specializes in close-range fighting, his well above-average speed is what usually likely allows him to close the distance on longer-range opponents, but it is seemingly futile to contend with the stockpile of talismans our Challenger has... haha, perhaps it is time to no longer call him our Challenger, but the point still stands... if the Righteous Warrior doesn’t find a breakthrough from this situation, it is only going to be worse for him from now on. He cannot allow himself to widen the distance, he would be cutting his own hands by doing that, but staying in this range doesn’t allow him to make any meaningful attacks as well. A tough situation for the Righteous Warrior indeed"

The cheers grew louder and louder, as the Elder of the Lament Scripture Sect began sweating, the scenery around him started becoming a blur and the sounds becoming more distant and incoherent as he could hear the sound of his own breathing more clearly, his vision becoming narrower and narrower as he focused on Wu Long’s attacks and trying to send out more attacks of his own.

And then, a sharp pain from his lower leg told him he just missed a spike that grazed him. His Protective Profound Qi managed to bounce it off but not before letting a small cutting damage through.

This particular attack came at a tricky angle, and instead of straightforwardly targeting him head on aimed for his leg.

There would be more of that.

He knew that. His mind was becoming overwhelmed with every single thing he had to do. And then, out of the blur of outside world, he somehow noticed them. The faces of the Lament Scripture Sect Disciples. The disbelief, fear and despair on their faces made him nauseous, as he realized how weak he looked, how much he was already humiliated.

"Enough!!!" he shouted as he suddenly stopped while releasing a short burst of Profound Qi that neutralized the spikes flying at him. Wu Long stopped too, but at the speed they were moving the short moment between widened their distance considerably.

"You are going to regret making me go all out!", the Elder shouted and a large bell twice the size of a man appeared above his head.