Chapter 291: A humbling blow
=Core consolidation complete. [Core of Wounded Vainglory] has been created. Please implement at your earliest convenience.=
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When Zhen Li launched his attack and revealed his true power as a peak Aether Master, the on-lookers came to several conclusions about how this would go down for Zhen Liu.
Some believed that Zhen Liu would get his shit rocked and get launched out of the fighting ring and embedded into the arena walls. This had been the trend up until Zhen Liu took the stage, it was a logical conclusion based on past trends.
Others believed that Zhen Liu would dodge the attack at the very last minute. Technically the match was over and this was just the angry flailing of a sore loser. Nobody would find it weird if Zhen Liu just decided to dodge, duck, bob and weave until Zhen Li’s master came back to discipline his angry disciple.
Many more concluded that Zhen Liu would counterattack in some way shape or form, maybe summon a different puppet to block the attack or unexpectedly use an art to deflect the attack and then put this uppity main branch guy in his place.
None of them, especially Zhen Li, expected Zhen Liu to just stand there, take the full force of the former’s attack and look completely, utterly unphased by the whole affair.
The only proof that any of them had that this attack did anything to the Fourth Young Master, was the fact that he was now shirtless, soaking wet and that Zhen Li’s palm was firmly placed upon Zhen Liu’s surprisingly taut stomach.
“Godsdamn, for a man who usually fights with puppets, he is surprisingly muscular,” an onlooker commented.
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Isekai Rule#1 addendum:
If there’s nothing better to do in your new world other than exercising, fucking exercise until you look like Captain America, the live action version, and then go pass that.
It’s a fact of the multiverse, that everybody appreciates abs.
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Actually, it was worst than nothing, it just ticked off the intended target even more than before.
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In his current position, Zhen Li was technically eye level with Zhen Liu’s chest, so he had to look up to stare at the man who he just assaulted. When he lifted his gaze to meet Zhen Liu’s eyes, he didn’t see rage, or hate, or even mild annoyance. Just unrelenting, unnerving…calm.
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The reason for this shock wasn’t unwarranted, because this outsider branch grandchild just spilled a secret that only members of the inner circle new about!
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[River King’s Land Carving Palm] was arguably one of the strongest and yet easiest to learn major Ethereal grade aether arts in the entirety of the Zhen Clan back in the Pearl Scale Empire. Only accessible to the clan’s inner circle and it’s disciples, this art was a mainstay in many a warrior’s arsenal due to it’s devastating power to aether consumption ratio being relatively light.
However, this art had a dirty little secret attached to it: it was a weakened derivative of an even more powerful aether art that the creator attempted to copy, essentially a bootleg.
Centuries ago, an elder of the Zhen Clan witnessed a warrior who was known at the time as the titular, “River King”, perform a devastating art called [Continent Splitting Palm]. It was a World class art that the River King used to, and this is the detail that everyone gets a little hazy on, to either split a stone giant as big as a mountain in half, or turn a peninsula into an archipelago about twenty miles away from the mainland. Some say it’s both, but no one knows for sure.
Weirder still, any records on who or what this River King was exactly, doesn’t seem to exist outside of some scant few details and depictions describing the warrior as looking like an armored salmon man.
The Zhen Clan elder who witnessed the art did his best to try and mimic the attack in order to add to it his repertoire. However, after countless hours, days and weeks attempting to replicate the devastating attack, he only managed to get it to exhibit the strength equal to a major Ethereal art.
There was some missing component to the art that the elder couldn’t replicate no matter how hard he tried, but regardless, the Zhen elder decided to end his attempts there and gave this knock-off art the name [River King’s Land Carving Palm] both to honor the warrior that inspired him and to denote the weaker capabilities of this art.
Not that anyone outside of the Zhen Clan had to know about it.
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To prove his point, Zhen Liu brought his fist hard and fast towards Zhen Li’s head, causing the latter to see and feel for the second time in his life, the faint spectre of death looming over him.
Luckily for him, this was also going to be the second time an old guy was coming to his rescue.
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“Oh…shit,” Zhen Shi cursed when he stared down towards the main fighting arena and saw that Zhen Liu was just about to swing down his fist on Zhen Li’s head.
It didn’t take him long to notice the lingering Aquarii aether in the air, the beat-up countences of the clan’s disciples, and the stunned look on Zhen Li’s face to conclude that this main branch disciple had been beating on the clan’s disciples and was just about to face the consequences of his actions in the form of Zhen Liu’s swinging fist.
Now, if this was any of his other grandchildren about to do this move, Zhen Shi wouldn’t care and think it was silly that they would counterattack in such a manner without using any arts or aether to enhance the attack.
However, this was not just any of his other grandchildren, this was Zhen Liu. From what Zhen Shi remembered from reports on his grandson’s training, the reports of how he performed during the battle with the Wolfes and general hearsay from the clansmen, the young man didn’t need to use any arts, because he was just stupidly physically strong.
On top of that, there was this weird feeling radiating from Zhen Liu’s fist that Zhen Shi couldn’t describe, but whatever it was, it would be very very bad if it made contact with Zhen Li’s face.
Zhen Shi’s counterpart however, did not feel the same way.
“Tsk!,” Zhen Wang clicked his tongue at the sight, “I told the boy not to attract the ire of his peers! Apologies, Zhen Shi, I will make sure he is properly punished after he receives this blow from-huh?”
Before Zhen Wang could finish delivering his apology to Zhen Shi, the latter had unexpectedly rushed forward and manifested a chain made of incredibly dense aether and threw it at Zhen Li, wrapping it around his waist and suddenly pulling him out of the arena and out of the way Zhen Liu’s fist.
That didn’t stop Zhen Liu from bringing his fist down though.
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‘What the-?! Gah! Fine, unnecessarily large display of power it is then.’
With no other target but the ground below to be on the receiving end of his attack, Zhen Liu slammed his [Chaos] infused fist into the ground, causing the following to happen over the course of two seconds.
One second: an incredibly loud booming sound that echoed throughout the arena.
Two seconds: a massive two meter wide crater in the exact shape of his fist forming beneath him.
Normally there would also be an explosion of dust and rubble due to the arena floor being solid stone, but Zhen Liu’s punch was so incredibly heavy, that it might as well be sand…that and the [Chaos] might have messed with the stone just an itty-bit to make it soft like sand.
Zhen Li was stunned silent when he saw this crater form…and began imagine what would have happen if he had been on the receiving end.
It was rather humbling.
