Removed
Li Dun shook his head.
A master chose this name for the group when the nation was founded. Until now, no one has deciphered its meaning. I used to wonder what it signified, but all the theories I came up with didn’t seem plausible. My final theory was that he named this group in the heat of the moment. However, since we’re all used to that name, we haven’t before felt the need to change it.
Smiling, Yang Chen didn’t add any further comments.
At last, they arrived at an empty training room. But it would seem that someone had spread the news of their duel because many soldiers from Blunt Blade were rushing to the training room in droves to witness the duel between their commander and the legendary Pluto.
Thankfully the room was spacious enough to accommodate all of them.
Li Dun treated the duel as seriously as he did in real wars. He walked to the front of the arena, removed his coat and did some simple stretching to warm up his body. He then turned face to face with Yang Chen.
In actual fact, Yang Chen was rather flippant about the whole matter. But at the same time, he didn’t want Li Dun to think that he was underestimating him. So he decided to put up and act and start stretching to stifle his yawns.
Li Dun settled into a fighting pose. Just as he was about to strike, his body and its internal energy went through a huge transformation. As if a sleeping lion had been awakened from its slumber, Li Dun’s underlying strength and raw power rolled off his body in waves.
Yang Chen frowned slightly. He has probably killed countless people on the battlefield. Surely some of that killing intent must have manifested into ferocity,
he thought.
Li Dun clearly excelled in internal energy. He wouldn’t have been titled part of the ‘Beijing King Duo’ if he had relied solely on hard cultivation.
Although Yang Chen had no clue which style of internal energy Li Dun practised, he could sense that it was an extremely aggressive and unyielding one. The moment Li Dun struck his pose, the entire atmosphere of the room turned incredibly hostile!
Seeing Yang Chen’s inaction, Li Dun charged forward while yelling,
I won’t let you off the hook so easily!
In a flash, Li Dun’s body disappeared from his original spot. It reminded Yang Chen of the leader of Takamagahara that he had encountered in the past—the bastard Nurarihyon.
The members of the squad surrounding the arena started cheering. Even though they had heard of Yang Chen’s prowess, they had never actually seen him in person. So they could only assume that his feats had been exaggerated and he wouldn’t be in the same league as their commander.
At that moment, Li Dun displayed his lightning-esque speed and explosiveness, causing cheers and shouts to resound around the room.
Yang Chen quickly shifted his feet slightly, which seemed innocuous. But as Li Dun’s fist was approaching, it had skimmed over the plane of Yang Chen’s chest and punched the air instead!
Li Dun didn’t expect to land his first punch on Yang Chen. His arm that had been outstretched about a meter away from Yang Chen suddenly burst with a tremendous amount of explosive power!
A muffled but deafening sound shot across the air.
Yang Chen couldn’t help but feel a little surprised. Did he just release his True Qi?!
Previously, Yang Chen never bothered to look into Li Dun’s cultivation. His first move had revealed that Li Dun was well into the Xiantian realm. Although it wasn’t too impressive to a guy like Yang Chen, Li Dun was already on par with masters like Abbess Yun Miao and Yang Lie. As for his flexibility and combat experience, he was already miles above them!
It was no wonder that he was known as part of the ‘Beijing King Duo’. Until now, even Yellow Flame Iron Brigade didn’t have a real Xiantian master. It was likely that Li Dun had recently broken through that barrier; otherwise Abbess Yun Miao wouldn’t have told Yang Chen earlier that there were so few Xiantian masters in existence.
Since Li Dun was putting so much effort into the fight, Yang Chen felt the need to show some respect.
Yang Chen sensed the scorching heat of the True Qi approaching him. Knowing that it wouldn’t harm him even if he received a direct blow, he still took action by waving his hand to dissipate the Qi.
Li Dun had never before seen his raw power dismissed so easily. Rather than being disheartened, Yang Chen’s move had only caused his desires to surge. Charging forward, he sent a flurry of punches with a speed that could not be seen by mortals.
Yang Chen’s hands were already in place to guard against everyone of his punches. Every time Li Dun tried to land a punch, it was easily blocked as if everything had been choreographed. This continued on for some time, filling the air with never-ending sounds of punches.
But the thing about the fight that astounded the soldiers the most was how it appeared from a distance. While Li Dun was weaving here and there to attack him, Yang Chen was still standing in his original position while occasionally turning to face the direction of the oncoming punches.
To be honest, the only reason Yang Chen went through with this match was to be on good terms with Li Dun. Nothing more.
Had the fight taken place when Yang Chen newly returned from abroad, he might’ve been forced to take this seriously, albeit fighting in his ‘sealed’ state. However, currently, Yang Chen faintly felt that he wouldn’t have that much of an improvement even if he was in his ‘unsealed’ state.
The people that Yang Chen was genuinely interested in battling were Yan Sanniang and Ling Xuzi from Hongmeng. A small fry like Li Dun, couldn’t even hold a candle to them.
However, Yang Chen couldn’t bring himself to defeat Li Dun that easily. After all, the people in the arena were all Li Dun’s men. Should he defeat him under a minute, the men would lose their trust in their commander and it could break their fighting spirit. So he decided to let Li Dun continue his attack a little longer while allowing Li Dun to display his peak power level in an attempt to help him improve.
Slowly, the True Qi that Li Dun emanated reached its peak and from a distance, it seemed like Yang Chen was encased in a ball of flame. The temperature of the room suddenly spiked from a comfortable warm atmosphere to an intense heat.
The longer the battle progressed, the more terrifying Yang Chen seemed to the soldiers.
From the start of the duel, Yang Chen had not budged an inch from his original position and no matter what moves Li Dun threw at him, he would defend himself without fail.
Finally, Li Dun leapt about ten metres away from Yang Chen to a wider area. He was panting, rivulets of sweat dripping from his face. But through it all, he had a happy expression on his face.
I knew you were strong, but I never expected for you to be untouchable,
said Li Dun through his ragged gasps. He wiped the glistening sweat on his forehead, then continued,
I haven’t removed this in a long time, but today, it’s safe to assume that my only hope is to remove it.
Remove? Remove what?
Yang Chen could hear what Li Dun spouted, but couldn’t understand a single word of that. However, some of the soldiers surrounding them let out a collective gasp so they clearly knew what Li Dun was referring to.
The thing that Li Dun wanted to remove, was his eyepatch!
The young man had been wearing an eyepatch over his right eye the whole time. All this while, Yang Chen thought that it was due to an injury from the battlefield, but it turned out that he wore an eyepatch on purpose. What was he trying to cover up?
When I was five, I lost my vision in my right eye. No one could find the root of the problem. Not even surgery or medication could do anything to cure it. At last, a specialist pointed me in the right direction and my grandfather sent me to an old tulku at Tibet for treatment. He eventually became my master.
While Li Dun was recounting his backstory, he removed his eyepatch and threw it to the side.
[TL note: Read about ‘tulku’ here
.]
Slowly but surely, his right eye opened wide…
Black! It was all black!
Yang Chen discovered that Li Dun’s right eye socket didn’t have anything where an eyeball should be—it was a bottomless ‘blackhole’ with no telling what is inside it.
My right eye was never cured. But my master being the wise man he is, used some secret method of treatment. He restored the vision in my right eye, but… along with my newly regained sense of sight came something else…
In that moment when Li Dun’s voice trailed off, Yang Chen sensed that something was was approaching his torso!
Yang Chen twisted his body with all his might to dodge it, but it was still too late. A single fist had brushed past his torso, its True Qi tearing a small gash in his shirt.
It was the first time that Li Dun landed a punch on Yang Chen, even if it was just his shirt!
And at that same time, Li Dun, who had been standing at a distance of roughly ten metres away from Yang Chen, suddenly disappeared!
Yang Chen was honestly shocked this time. Had he been speaking to Li Dun’s image all this time?
Li Dun’s skill and strength were excellent, but when he opened his right eye, his skills immediately rose by a huge margin!
Yang Chen, who could produce ‘images’ as well was very clear about the situation—Li Dun didn’t pull that off solely by yielding incredibly speed. Producing copies of one’s image could be categorized in many different levels!
Li Dun’s image had almost fooled him, but it required insane amounts of strength to accomplish such a feat. It was because, as the body moves, it needs to withstand tremendous air pressure and resistance. No ordinary warriors could do that!
If the one-eyed Li Dun was an early-stage Xiantian expert, then the one who had just received the major change, could definitely be on par with a middle-staged one! He had become a truly qualified Xiantian master!
But the bottom line was, the reason he could even lay a finger on Yang Chen, was because he managed catch Yang Chen off guard.
Li Dun remembered his arm, then had a look of amusement on his face.
My right eye is something out of this world, so I wouldn’t use it unless I’m in a life-threatening situation. However, this hampers me from making any actual improvement. But now that you have forced me into this state, prepare yourself!
