"Take this!" Heru shouted, his body appearing in front of the beggar as he swung his black sword!
Apollo remained calm, dodging the attack with a step back.
Heru was fast. Apollo hadn't even seen the man take a step; it was as if he had appeared in front of him from the start. There was no sound of footsteps, only the sharp swish of the sword cutting through the air.
The attack missed. Apollo's eyes stayed locked on his opponent's movements.
He raised his hand, summoning wind and fire, but before he could launch the attack, it was cut in half!
"You got lucky!" Heru shouted, his sword swinging horizontally toward Apollo's neck.
Apollo kept his cool, stepping back again. However, what happened next shocked him.
"F*ck!" Apollo cursed as Heru's black sword transformed into a black snake lunging for his head!
"Got you!" Heru smiled confidently. When it came to fights between cultivators, they were either over in an instant or dragged out for ages. It seemed would be over quickly!
But as the snake sword bit down on what should have been Apollo's head, the 'kid' suddenly turned into water!
With a splash, Heru looked behind him. Sure enough, there Apollo stood.
"That's the Hydra Mirage!" Heru frowned. "Upper intermediate... How did you master it so easily when you're just an outsider and only recently became the Personal Disciple?!"
"Of course, it's because I'm very talented," Apollo smirked, pointing the stick he was holding at Heru. It was a tree branch he'd grabbed nearby. It wasn't straight, but it was better than nothing. "I'm so talented I could even defeat you with just a stick!"
"Damn you!" Heru shouted, his snake sword growing larger as it slithered toward the beggar. A stick?! This kid is clearly disrespecting me! Fueled by rage, Heru unleashed his full strength.
The ground shattered as the snake sword surged forward, and Apollo felt the weight of the pressure, his expression turning serious.
So this is the power of a 2nd-Step Qi Condensation Stage! Apollo frowned. He was at the 1st-Step, but the gap in their strength felt vast. It wasn't as exaggerated as the ten-tail Alphadusk Shadowtail, but Apollo knew this fight wouldn't be as easy as he first thought.
As the wind swirled chaotically around him, Apollo gathered the surrounding Qi, coating the tree branch in his hand.
As he did, his dantian began to feel strange, the ball of Qi inside him trembling. But as soon as he successfully executed the Simple Wind Sword Technique, the shaking stopped.
Apollo noted the sensation and swung the branch down with all his might.
He poured every bit of force and Qi he could into the strike.
A deafening explosion erupted, shaking the entire area. The ground was torn up, rocks flew everywhere, and a thick cloud of dust filled the air. The 'air' above rippled every time a rock touched it before the debris fell back to the ground.
Eli had to use Qi to stabilize himself, avoiding being swept up in the shockwave.
He glanced up and saw the barrier holding strong, sighing in relief. Then he turned his gaze to the dust cloud where the Personal Disciple had been.
Eli never would have expected that Yoma could withstand a few hits from the strongest Senior Brother. But it seemed the final struggle of the Personal Disciple hadn't paid off. It wasn't surprising that the fight ended quickly—such is usually the case when there's a large gap in strength.
He raised his hand, ready to announce the winner, when the dust cloud suddenly churned!
Before he could react, Eli saw wind and fire intertwining, surging toward Senior Brother Heru!
Heru, on the other hand, casually swung his weapon, the snake devouring the attack with ease. He smirked at the dispersing dust cloud. "I'm surprised you managed to block that."
"It's easy," came the voice of the small kid. When the dust cleared, Yoma stood there, covered in dirt.
"Easy?" Heru chuckled. "Yeah, just keep pretending."
"I'm not," Apollo said, though he was pretending. His whole body ached with pain! If he were still at the Half-Step Qi Condensation Stage, he would have been lying on the ground, unconscious from the intensity of the attack!
But with his newfound strength, he had managed to block the giant snake weapon, which could have leveled an entire street. He was lucky. Fortunately, he had decided to tap into all the power available at the 1st-Step Qi Condensation Stage.
His attack had also landed on Heru's snake weapon.
Apollo glanced at the weapon in Heru's hand, his eyes widening when he saw not a single crack.
But my Simple Wind Sword Technique can cut anything! Even with just the Simple Sword Technique, he could slash through anything like paper! Except… that time when he tried to make a hole in the Alphadusk barrier… Apollo narrowed his eyes, realizing he had misunderstood his Simple Sword Technique. It wasn't all-powerful. There was something at play here that prevented him from destroying Heru's weapon.
"This is fun," Heru said, licking his lips. After their earlier exchanges, he had gauged his opponent's cultivation, boosting his confidence. His opponent was only a 1st-Step Qi Condensation cultivator; worrying about defeat was pointless. Smirking, Heru added, "I'll make sure you're humiliated in front of the Headmaster!"
Apollo remained silent, raising his tree branch once more. Suddenly, his senses flared, tensing his body, but his opponent didn't move—he merely turned his weapon back into a snake.
I have to control my senses, Apollo thought. This was why he didn't want to fight someone before fully familiarizing himself with his body. It was like driving a sports car after only being used to a toy car.
But this is good, Apollo smiled. A real challenge. His opponent wasn't showing everything he had, clearly hiding some techniques, though Apollo didn't mind. If things went badly, he would just admit defeat and relinquish his title as the Personal Disciple. He valued his life more than anything, after all.
"Let's continue!" Heru shouted, the surrounding Qi being absorbed into his snake weapon.
Seeing this, Apollo infused his tree branch with the Simple Wind Sword Technique—the very technique that had destroyed the training ground.