Yao Bujiang prepared for the attack. He didn't know how strong it would be compared to the previous attacks, but for some reason, the current one looked stronger.
Alex threw the swords at the four-armed metal Qi barrier and attacked it.
One of the sword arms moved to block it, but Alex's swords ground through it, destroying it rather violently.
The man flinched at the sudden destruction of one of his arms and used the other arm to strike back.
Alex ground through it as well, but by the time the first arm had reforged itself. The arm attacked back along with a third arm and the 21 swords were pushed back.
Alex controlled the swords, making sure to feel every single thing he could about them. The way they moved, the way they amplified each other's powers, the way his Qi made them work together. Everything.
He kept the offensive on the sword arms while trying to understand it all. If he got good at it at some point, he could get closer to understanding how any of the various cultivation techniques worked.
The man was frustrated with the attack's strength on Alex's side. He had added 3 arms to his attack and yet he couldn't destroy them at all.
All he could do was force them to stay at bay. At some point, he knew he was going to lose all of his Qi and that would be the end of the match.
He didn't want to lose.
In what could only be considered an idiotic move to most people, the man stopped defending the attack and left himself wide open to Alex's swords.
Alex was surprised. His sword arms were clearly there, yet the man had for some reason given up. Was there some sort of technique he was going to use now? Or was he going to attack at the cost of his own safety?
Even as Alex thought those things, he let the swords fly onto the man. The spherical barrier that protected him would certainly bear the majority of the damage, leaving the man safe in the end.
As such, Alex slammed the 21 swords onto the spherical barrier and—
The swords were suddenly thrown backward towards Alex in a disarray. They flew towards him so fast that he would have believed they were his opponent's swords, had he not felt his Qi connection to them.
He quickly moved both his hands, separating the 21 swords that flew towards him before merging them together to form the 21 Sword Array.
'What happened?' he thought. He couldn't make sense of the situation just now. Had his attacks been hijacked by the man? Were his swords under his control for a moment? What had happened?
Alex reached out and grabbed onto Midnight before using the Penta Sword strike. 5 illusory swords flew away from him, attacking the young man in the distance.
At the same time, he placed the sword onto the array and sent it flying again.
The man moved his sword arms, cutting away the illusory swords before the rest of the 21 swords appeared next to him.
Just like last time, the sword's arms tried to stop it, but not even a few seconds later, the man let go.
The swords flew onto the man and struck the barrier again. However, once again, the swords were sent back at him.
Alex controlled the sword again and frowned. 'What the hell is going on?' he thought. Was there something he was missing?
He prepared the 21 Sword Array again, but this time he was going to test what the man was doing.
His senses were ready to sense anything abnormal, and so the swords flew at the arms again. This time, the man didn't even bother blocking at all.
He just let the swords attack the body directly.
The swords fell onto the young man's barrier, but before they could reach it, they stopped. Alex stopped it just before they reached the barrier.
And then, he sensed what was going on.
Alex couldn't make sense of exactly what was going on, but he could sense in general what exactly was happening in this match.
"That is some interesting Dao you have there," he said. At the same time, he sent out just one sword on the barrier, which was sent again, but very weakly.
"I see," Alex said. "Whatever and however I attack, you send it back with the same force and speed. It's almost like… you're reflecting the attack back onto the opponent."
The other man looked surprised and annoyed. "I can't believe you guessed my Dao of Reflection so easily," he said. "But guessing won't help you much at all."
"A defensive barrier that not only protects the user but also reflects back the attacker's own attack. That's some terrifying combination for sure," he said. "But, I wonder what sort of limitations it has."
"You've made me quite curious now." He brought back the sword and put them down. Given that the man could reflect all attacks, his swords were only going to be problematic to him.
He needed to use some other ways instead.
He moved his hand in front of him and 10 different tongues of fire hovered where his hands went. The man looked confused and got on guard.
Alex took the first ball of fire and shot it at his opponent. The ball of fire landed on one of the sword arms, but before it could get anywhere, Alex used his own dao.
"Explode!"
A violet explosion sent ripples through the man's spherical barrier. He put on an unhappy expression as he had lost two of his sword arms at once and had to regrow them instead.
Before they could grow back, however, another ball of fire arrived in front of him which went on to explode as well.
Another 2 arms that had moved forward to stop the attack had been broken. Then the next fireball came. Only, it didn't come alone.
Right behind it was another. Alex had sent them one after another. The man got ready to absorb the damage and maybe even reflect it if he got the chance, but before he could do anything, the first ball of fire moved over his head outside of the barrier and reached behind him.
At the same time, the first one reached in front of him.
"Explode!"
Two explosions sent shockwaves through the man's barrier from either side. The barrier turned illusory and even almost disappeared completely.
The man looked at Alex and realized he couldn't fight him with a skill where he became the sitting target instead of the attacker.
The Yao family's secret technique was meant to make a person a one-man army. With a barrier for defense with multiple sword arms coming out, you were supposed to be able to fight multiple people at once.
However, that came with the condition that you had to stay in one place without moving and fighting. If there was ever an opponent that was strong at all, he would only be limiting himself.
In his current case, it was.
"You have some fine Dao yourself," he said annoyedly. He was already annoyed that someone with such a weak cultivation base could fight someone so high up their league, and now even his Dao was strong.
"Thank you," Alex replied. "Your's is not bad either. It could be better if you could use it at different places at the same time, but that probably needs a much better Intent than what you have."
The man grunted. He didn't know much about Intents, but what he did know, he knew that Alex was right about the problem.
"Shall we continue?" Alex asked.
"No, your explosion skills are way too strong for me to fight against," the man said.
"What if I promise not to use my explosion skills? That was only for testing your Dao, I came here to train so easily that beating you with my own Dao won't help me if the rest of my skills can't carry along," Alex said.
"Certainly," the man said. "Especially in places where Dao won't aid you."
Alex frowned a little when he heard that. "A place where Dao can't be used? Does that even exist?" he asked.
Even in a place like the Wasteland, where there was absolutely no Qi, one could still use Dao so long as they have Qi within them. It certainly wouldn't be as strong as a place with Qi, but it was still usable.
"Of course it exists," the man said. "Have you never been into the Sundering Sanctum?"
Alex's eyes narrowed. "You can't use Dao in the Sundering Sanctum?" he asked.
"Amongst other things, yes," the man said. "Anyway, let us continue the battle. I came here to fight, so I will return after I've had my fill."
"Sure," Alex said as he held onto Midnight. "Come at me."
The two of them fought for another half an hour, using different techniques at each other and learning from them.
Once it was all done, Alex decided to take the loss for today. He had come here to learn and win battles without Dao or Blood aura, so since he had certainly lost in that aspect, he let the other man have his win.
"Thank you, brother Yao, I hope to get matched up with you again," Alex said and walked away.
He left the Battle Hall without setting up his next match as it would take some time for sure.
Instead, he now needed to start on his journey back to the City of Many Flowers. But before that, he decided to make a small visit to the Phoenix.
