A magnificent ray of sheer energy rushed at Hanliang who, in the meantime, had focused spiritual energy in his wings, and converted it into electricity, which he concentrated into a devastating bolt of lightning, simulating a tribulation:
Flying Lighting Execution!
The two killer moves collided, and the resulting shockwave was so strong that more cracks formed all around the barrier. Seeing this, Xuanhe Wuxin quickly replaced the referee in controlling it, as the latter fell unconscious to the ground.
"Ouch!" the griffin cried.
This time, he was the one sent flying and crashing against the barrier. Though he wasn't really hurt, he had felt it in his body.
"Is that it, senior? After such bravado, this junior was expecting better!" Zhenyun said, preparing a new killer move.
"Haha, this senior admits he still has gaps in his mastery of ranged killer moves, I only reached Nascent Soul recently after all!" he shouted.
The two of them started clashing again and, even if Hanliang still held the advantage, Zhenyun was still standing his own:
"Hah, trying to use being a Spirit Beast as an excuse? Shameless!" the young man retorted. "Even though Spirit Beasts have more trouble with intricate moves until they reach Nascent Soul, it didn't stop this fox Baotian fought, Ye Mu"
His smile became slightly hateful as his gaze darkened:
"But then again, someone like you who spends his time forcing himself on top of other men wouldn't know!" he shouted, rushing at him.
"Didn't I already say it?" the griffin replied. "Those are baseless rumors, all my partners were con-"
"Die, you rapist!"
Hanliang's face crumbled, but there was nothing he could do: nothing could reason a blessed genius having a self-righteous breakdown.
Frowning, he reverted to his griffin form and let him charge at him. Just as before, he used his talent, the Instant Exploring Eye. With it, he could see through the dozens of possibilities which ones his opponent was the most likely to use, and he only had to prepare for these. However…
"!?"
He froze for a second as he saw something flying past him, not understanding.
'Is… is it my left leg?'
It wasn't supposed to be possible, the Instant Exploring Eye had shown no possibility where the young man attacked his anterior left leg. Even while the king had - forcibly - dragged him to train, while he couldn't react, Hanliang could still see all his possibilities in the short term. If one of the strongest Void Ascension couldn't escape his talent, how-
His reflection was brutally interrupted as the sword formation suddenly closed on him, and severely injured him, both externally and internally, even cutting off one of his wings. Had he been in human form, and not in his robust Spirit Beast body, he would've been bisected entirely!
"As I thought, your talent allowed you to 'see' my next move in advance" Zhenyun said. "But it seems it does not work so well anymore, does it?"
He kept attacking mercilessly, the will to kill imbued in his sword, completely different from his attitude in the previous match.
At some points, Hanliang's talent worked and at others, it didn't: realizing it was becoming more of a distraction than anything else, he discarded it, and reverted to his human form to evade a formation of flying swords that was about to close on him again. The damages caused by the fight caused the cracks in the barrier to widen, even while it was under the control of Xuanhe's king. The latter frowned at the sight, just like the observers of lower realms, who were starting to feel worried for their own lives. Among them, Bai Zisheng looked beside him, seeing that Baotian had joined him. The latter was covered in bruises, and his clothes were torn in places, but he still seemed to be alright. Seeing that he wasn't hurt, Bai Zisheng reported his attention to the match.
The situation had been completely reversed: if before, it was Liu Zhenyun who seemed to be in a bad spot, now Hanliang was the one who was struggling for his life.
"Liu Sword Technique, second formation move: Platinum Wave Of Destruction!"
The griffin, trying to dodge, found himself too slow to do so and was cut in half by a wave composed of swords, each executing a different move. He had calculated his timing just right so that the young swordsman's attack wouldn't touch him, but it had somehow landed anyway. At that moment, he finally realized what was happening:
'His talent… it increases his strength!'
And it wasn't simply a matter of extracting more brute strength from somewhere else, a technique, or even the world itself. No, if it were those, his Instant Exploring Eye would have taken it into account and wouldn't have failed.
There was only one conclusion: his talent could increase his power out of nothing. A power that couldn't be anticipated by just observing possibilities, simply because it did not come from the possibilities offered by the world, instead forcing on the world the possibilities that resulted from its existence.
'That's not simply an Earth talent' Hanliang realized.
Now, it all made sense how this young man had progressed several times faster than even the rest of the six geniuses, even having a prospect to reach Nascent Soul before his hundredth birthday. Liu Zhenyun, undoubtedly, had a Heaven talent.
He was something that had not been seen in their realm for millennia upon millennia, that most considered a legend: he was a Heavenly Talent!
'And now, this Heavenly talent… is undoubtedly trying to kill me!'
He could see it in the young swordsman's hateful gaze as he rushed at severed his upper half: he could've used his talent earlier, and guarantee a victory by the clock by temporizing, but instead chose to let himself be beaten up, waiting to the last moment to go all out for the kill!
'He knew I would likely uncover his secret, he never planned to let me leave this duel alive! But I don't understand, I couldn't see everything in his memory that justifies such hatred' he thought.
But there had been some blurred parts, indeed. Could it be…
"Argh!" he exclaimed, in pain, as Liu Zhenyun plunged the bright golden sword into his sternum.
There was a bright light emitted by the blade, and Hanliang could see it would only take a few seconds for the light to reach his upper dantian in his head, and destroy it, killing him on the spot.
'Right, I should focus on saving my life right now'
Fortunately, the moment he had been cut, he had already started to prepare his killer move: even though he was still in human form, two majestic, large eagle wings sprouted from his back, spreading wind as electricity was emitted them:
"Flying Lighting Execution!"
Not expecting this, Zhenyun extracted his sword from Hanliang's body and quickly retracted it in front of his face, but the lightning bolt deviated, hitting him in the sternum instead.
"Argh!"
With a sharp cry of pain, Zhenyun was sent flying back, and his Core cracked, on the edge of breaking.
"Ahh… ahh…"
Hanliang himself had sustained heavy damages, and was just quick enough to avoid damages on his Nascent Soul. It was so severe that even by pouring most of his energy to regenerate, he could still barely stand. Moreover, the damages inflicted by the young swordsman's last trust, where his blade was imbued in light, didn't seem to heal
"Ahh… ahh… that should be alright now…"
With that much damage sustained on his Spirit Core, even if his opponent got up, he wouldn't be able to make a move against it, or it would simply break.
Hanliang seriously hesitated on whether he should report about the young man's identity as a Heavenly Talent, but eventually decided to abstain:
'Let's just avoid causing more problems'
Just then, he heard a sinister cracking sound. Thinking his opponent had broken his core while trying something, he hastily reported his attention to him…
"Oh, heavens above, how is that even possible"
It was the condition to Zhenyun's talent, the Heavenly Deity Defying Heart, to activate: he must be put in a disfavorable situation. All this time, the reason for which his cultivation had been so smooth was that, for the first years of his cultivation, he had continuously struggled without result: it was divine retribution. Following that, when he grasped the essence of his talent, he didn't cease to fight cultivators that were of higher levels, always pushing himself to the brink of death to advance so fast.
However, after reaching the peak of Core Formation, he had not found any good opponent, and his talent had manifested less and less, resulting in him failing his Nascent Soul advancement due to the brutal change in difficulty.
"Well, senior Hanliang… you were pretending to have bad technicity because you only reached Nascent Soul… but you managed to create a balance between your human and Spirit Beast forms… and launch a killer move at the same time. Argh… you really fooled me"
But now that he had found an opponent stronger than himself, finally, his Heaven talent was manifesting fully again, allowing him to recover his grand perfection stage cultivation!
'Using the energy caused by the advancement, I somehow mended my core, but I still only have one move' he thought, panting.
Fortunately, the griffin did not seem in a much better state.
"Ah? I fooled you? Says the one who had been keeping his talent until the last moment to try and viciously murder me…"
It was now clear that the two of them were within one inch of their limit, with only one move left. Zhenyun, realigning his swords into one last formation, raised the Liu Golden Sword above his head. Hanliang, realizing there would be no reasoning with him, once again focused electricity in his wings, ready to let lightning rage once again in the battle area.
And in the meantime, Baotian, who was observing them, once again understood just how outclassed he was. In fact, as nobody was watching him, he had gotten on his knees, and started praying heavens:
'Please… please, let senior Hanliang win. Please, make it so that he kills Zhenyun. Please, please, please… just… let him die so I can be free'
Praying heavens to let another man do what he knew he couldn't, it was truly pathetic. That was who Zhang Baotian was, a truly pathetic person, to whom nobody paid any attention as the two geniuses used their moves:
"Liu Sword Technique, third formation move…"
"Flying Lighting Execution!"
"... Great Annihilation Iron Trait!"
A powerful line of sword energy slashed down, colliding with a gigantic bolt of thunder. With this last clash, the barrier that was surrounding the battle stage broke, and everyone that was observing the battle, including the praying Baotian, were swallowed by a bright, burning light.