Ling Xiao’s situation at this time was somewhat special.
It was as if his body was enveloped by lake water, which possessed the lethally sharp edge of a blade.
Any attack that got close to Ling Xiao was instantly shredded to pieces!
In the blink of an eye, the successive Wind Thunder Palms were torn apart and vanished, yet the attacks didn’t end there. The water flow changed from a ring shape to a long river, transforming into a water dragon that roared as it pounced towards Wang Feng.
Ling Xiao had finally struck back.
This scene greatly shocked Wang Feng.
He had never anticipated that, even with the strength of the Transcendent Realm, he would be unable to quickly resolve the battle and instead gave his opponent the opportunity to counterattack.
He could feel the terrifying power of the Melting Water technique.
But what shocked him most was the ghostly silhouette of the Ghost Ship that appeared behind Ling Xiao.
This Ghost Ship, sailing upon the river forged of Melting Water, turned out to be a flawless complement.
"Hmm, from now on, this move will be called ’Ghost Ship Crossing the River,’ its power is stronger than that of Melting Water alone, after all, it is a technique infused with my Martial Soul," Ling Xiao muttered to himself.
He had used Ghost Ship Crossing before, and this time, on a whim, he merged the two techniques together. To his surprise, it went very smoothly and was amazingly impressive.
As the ferocious water dragon accompanied by the Ghost Ship approached, Wang Feng felt pain like being slashed across his body, even though the Sword Qi had yet to hit him.
He didn’t possess Jin Ming’s robust physique. Although he had advanced to the Transcendent Realm, his body’s strength was far inferior to Ling Xiao’s and Jin Ming’s - his breakthrough had come via "inner strength" rather than a physical one.
A strong killing intent emerged in Wang Feng’s eyes.
If before he was simply seeking revenge for Jin Ming, now, he wanted to snuff out Ling Xiao as soon as possible in the cradle.
He felt a huge threat emanating from Ling Xiao, which made him very uncomfortable, and he found it intolerable.
"Break!" Wang Feng roared angrily, and his True Essence began to rampage.
A whirlwind engulfed his body, his palms actually drawing in this wind, forming a dazzling orb of light between them.
The surrounding airflow was suddenly drawn in, then crushed and integrated into this palm strike.
"I didn’t expect you to have cultivated the Wind and Cloud Art too, just much more powerful than that fellow Yang Cheng."
It was still the Wind and Cloud Art, but Wang Feng demonstrated far more resolve and power than Yang Cheng had.
"Yes, this is the Wind and Cloud Art, but it’s the Transcendental Realm’s Wind and Cloud Art!" Wang Feng shouted, shooting the orb between his palms outwards, directly shattering the Melting Water field and even blowing the Ghost Ship to pieces.
As expected of one whose transcendence came from an inner strength breakthrough, the quality of his True Essence indeed surpassed Ling Xiao by a lot, even better than Ling Xiao’s Divine Dragon True Essence.
After breaking through the Melting Water and the Ghost Ship, the orb still persisted, flying towards Ling Xiao.
Ling Xiao’s expression remained calm, as if he didn’t take the object seriously at all.
"Snow Lotus Sword Technique, third style - ’Condensed Water’!" Ling Xiao’s swordsmanship suddenly changed, Melting Water turned into Condensed Water, and the previously dispersed torrent instantly froze.
The orb was also enveloped by the freezing air, slowing down more and more until it finally fell to the ground, turning into an ice ball.
Yet, the swordsmanship didn’t pause.
Ling Xiao countered once again, the Ice Dragon Sword vibrating as the silhouette of his Blood Shadow Martial Soul emerged behind him.
His sword moves suddenly became unfathomably mysterious.
The ice chunks condensing in the air, like razor-sharp blades, attacked Wang Feng from various angles.
Wang Feng’s brows furrowed slightly – he was not afraid of these sword moves. His palms struck successively, a whirlwind raging around his body with thunder rumbling, shattering the ice chunks.
But Ling Xiao’s killing move was not this one.
Ice Heart·Terrifying Finger!
Ling Xiao, holding a sword in his right hand, pointed with his left finger at Wang Feng.
A terrifying concentration of Soul Power coalesced into a seemingly delicate beam of light, almost imperceptible to the naked eye, which combined with the Condensed Water and shot out.
A stream of fresh blood sprayed from Wang Feng’s mouth, and his eyes briefly revealed a moment of confusion.
Ling Xiao was well aware that he was able to land the blow entirely because his opponent had underestimated him, so he had to seize this moment to finish him off. Otherwise, a rematch would not be so easy.
"You wretch, cease your hand this instant!"
Just then, an overwhelming sense of pressure descended from the sky.
Ling Xiao felt his whole body stiffen in an instant, rendering him completely immobile.
This terrifying pressure was accompanied by a blaze of fire.
"Demonflame Celestial!"
Ling Xiao truly hadn’t expected to be so lucky as to provoke the Demonflame Celestial into taking personal action.
"Demonflame, you dare!"
Yang Dan Lin burst forth from the void.
His Cultivation Level was not as high as Demonflame’s, but the Yuan Venerate insignia on his shoulder was not to be outdone.
The two formidable auras clashed, and Ling Xiao finally took a breath of relief. However, this also meant missing the best opportunity to kill Wang Feng.
"Hall Master Yang, this boy has killed four disciples from Moon Hua Sect in one day. Now he refuses to let up, attempting to assassinate the newly promoted and unstable Wang Feng. He’s utterly malicious. Keeping him alive is a menace!"
As soon as the Demonflame Celestial appeared, Hei Suo had already rescued Wang Feng.
"Heh, don’t treat me like a fool. You’re the one with a guilty conscience. Death challenges are a fight to the death. If he dies, it’s his own fault. And this Wang Feng takes advantage of someone’s peril to start a battle of vengeance. If he had killed Ling Xiao, you probably wouldn’t have let out a single peep. Now you come out pretending to be an elder."
Yang Dan Lin showed no courtesy toward the Demonflame Celestial.
"Yang Dan Lin, are you truly intending to protect that boy?"
The Demonflame Celestial asked coldly.
"What if I am? If you want to touch him, you’ll have to step over my dead body first!"
Yang Dan Lin stared coldly at the Demonflame Celestial, refusing to give in.
"Hahaha, very well! I’ll give you face!"
The Demonflame Celestial laughed heartily. He came quickly and left just as fast, vanishing in an instant.
Wang Feng was taken away by Hei Suo and others as well. Although they were extremely unhappy, what could they do?
"Wait, Ling Xiao actually defeated Wang Feng who had ascended to the Transcendent Realm? Then he truly deserves the title of the number one disciple of the Outer Sect!"
"Yes, if Wang Feng, even after ascending to the Transcendent Realm, is no match for Ling Xiao, then surely he wouldn’t be a match for Ling Xiao when he was only a Half-step Grandmaster either."
"This Ling Xiao is too terrifying."
All the Outer Disciples were taken aback as they looked at Ling Xiao with a mix of fear, trepidation, and a measure of admiration.
After all, a beginner disciple being able to defeat the top expert of the Outer Sect rankings in just a span of a month truly made him the undisputed number one.
Jin Ming, ranked third, was killed by Ling Xiao.
Jian Xing, ranked second, was forced to admit defeat with just one move from Ling Xiao.
Wang Feng, ranked first, had his life saved by the Demonflame Celestial’s intervention.
If Ling Xiao is not the first, who else would be worthy of the title?
Ling Xiao took a deep breath and followed Yang Dan Lin down from the Desperate Tower, arriving next to Dai Yuling and Lan Yu’er.