Chapter 638 438: Purple Extreme Divine Thunder

But this duel between Fang Qingyuan and Chunyu Hua was different. First, it was a life-and-death battle. Second, both combatants had extraordinary backgrounds.

Chunyu Hua's background needed no introduction; the single fact that he was a Divinity Transformation Descendant was enough to stun everyone.

Meanwhile, Fang Qingyuan was a legend in his own right. He had started as a mere Qi Cultivation Cultivator and single-handedly built such a massive foundation, now leading what was considered the tenth great power of White Mountain—a status the Pill Alliance had taken a thousand years to achieve.

So, while not many Cultivators could watch the fight from inside the Daoist Palace, plenty of people were placing bets outside. Otherwise, why would Nangong Meng have the leisure to preside over this? She was here personally to oversee the enormous betting pool, which involved hundreds of thousands of Top-grade Spirit Stones.

This time, based on their apparent strength, Fang Qingyuan was considered inferior to Chunyu Hua. After analyzing both combatants' battle records, Cultivation Realms, Spirit Beasts, magical treasures, and other information, the Nangong Family of the Black River Daoist Palace had set the odds at 1 to 2.5.

Odds of 1 to 2.5 meant that if Fang Qingyuan won, those who bet on his victory would receive 2,500 Top-grade Spirit Stones for every 1,000 they wagered.

Conversely, Cultivators who bet on Chunyu Hua's victory would only get back 1,400 Top-grade Spirit Stones for a 1,000-Spirit-Stone bet.

Even so, a great many Cultivators bet on Chunyu Hua, most of them from the Beast Taming Sect. The largest portion of that money, however, came from Chunyu Hua's own funds.

You were allowed to bet on yourself to win, but not on your opponent. Trying any clever tricks to fix the match was out of the question. The Nangong Clan was not some trash family that wouldn't dare to retaliate if cheated. Even if you were a disciple of the Beast Taming Sect, if you broke the Nangong Family's rules, they would smash your teeth in.

Before the duel, Fang Qingyuan had also managed to scrape together 10,000 Top-grade Spirit Stones to bet on himself. It wasn't that he lacked assets; he had just given 50,000 to the Great Zhou Academy, which had broken his cash flow.

He hadn't had time to sell the materials he'd obtained from the Abyss of Black Soil, and most of his Spirit Stones had gone to the Great Zhou Academy. Liquidating the assets in his Immortal Mansion took time, so the 10,000 Top-grade Spirit Stones he could produce now were the result of selling off years of accumulated spoils of war from within the mansion.

......

"An Escape Technique?"

Chunyu Hua was surprised. He had, of course, gathered intelligence on Fang Qingyuan. However, after Fang Qingyuan achieved Core Formation, he had rarely acted in public over the years. The most significant, widely-witnessed, and recorded battle was from several years ago when he was entrusted by the Pill Alliance to lead a team delivering supplies to Silver Elephant Mountain.

Since then, the outside world had not seen Fang Qingyuan in action. As for his battle records before reaching the Golden Core realm, Chunyu Hua had collected some, but they were only for reference. After all, the transition from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core was a heaven-defying transformation that increased one's combat power by at least a dozen times. What was once a trump card at the Foundation Establishment level was now no more than a casual strike for a Golden Core Cultivator, making it unworthy of special attention.

The main piece of intelligence Chunyu Hua had was from Fang Qingyuan's fight against the Body Refining Loose Cultivator, Hidden Dragon. To get more details, Chunyu Hua had even used his influence to find Hidden Dragon in a short amount of time and had him personally write down his thoughts from that battle.

But not even Hidden Dragon knew that Fang Qingyuan possessed an Escape Technique. Fang Qingyuan had kept this secret well hidden; aside from Lechuan and Situ Jingyu, very few outsiders were aware of it.

But now, Fang Qingyuan was using an Escape Technique, his body transforming into a Five-Colored Escape Light that streaked around Chunyu Hua. Even the breath attacks from Qing Ji couldn't lock onto his position.

From the very start of the battle, Chunyu Hua found himself on the defensive. But he came from a great clan and had fought against sect members who also used Escape Techniques. He understood that while these techniques were powerful, they consumed a massive amount of energy. Therefore, he had no reason to panic in the current situation.

So, Chunyu Hua shot a meaningful look at Qing Ji, but he saw only confusion in her eyes.

'So stupid. No wonder she was sold by a Cultivator. Did her brain degenerate from spending too much time in that cold pool?'

The thought flashed through Chunyu Hua's mind, and he was forced to give a verbal command:

"Execute the second contingency plan."

Upon hearing Chunyu Hua's clear order, the enormous Cyan Flood Dragon finally understood. The bleeding from her jaw had stopped. She coiled her body into a serpentine stance, and a breath later, an endless torrent of icy pool water surged from the void between the two horns on her head.

It was as if a galaxy ten thousand fathoms wide was falling from the sky, or as if a dam that had collected an entire summer's worth of rain had burst. Surging waves crashed onto the fighting stage, submerging the entire arena in the blink of an eye.

"The water level is rising! That Cyan Flood Dragon is trying to turn this place into its home turf!"

Inside a spectator's box, a Late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator shouted excitedly. He also followed the path of the water element and had bet a considerable amount of Spirit Stones on Chunyu Hua. Seeing the Cyan Flood Dragon unleash its power, he lost his composure.

BANG!

A powerful force kicked him aside. Behind him, a fierce-looking bald man was leisurely retracting his foot.

"You're blocking my view!"

After being kicked, the Foundation Establishment Cultivator didn't dare to get angry. Instead, he bowed his head and apologized.

"My apologies, Lord Hidden Dragon! Please, be my guest!"

Hidden Dragon rubbed his bald head and let out a satisfied laugh. 'So, Fang Qingyuan, your day has finally come. Hurry up and die! To avenge the humiliation from back then, I bet a full three thousand Top-grade Spirit Stones on you to lose. That's money I earned from one dirty job after another all these years!'

Setting aside the small incident with Hidden Dragon, back on the stage, the water level continued to rise rapidly. Thanks to the special environment here, the stage was sealed on all sides by an Array set up by the Nangong Family, preventing the pool water released by the Cyan Flood Dragon from spilling out.

Seeing the Cyan Flood Dragon freely releasing the water, Chunyu Hua nodded in satisfaction. He then took a Token engraved with a thunder-and-lightning symbol from his waist and sent it into the air.

"With majestic Divine Thunder in hand, I shall purge all evil and command the cosmos! Purple Extreme Divine Thunder, manifest!"

As his voice fell, the Token shattered in mid-air. A blindingly brilliant bolt of purple Divine Thunder erupted from where the Token broke, dyeing the area a hundred zhang around in a magnificent purple.

An oppressive aura, born from the True Meaning of the Nascent Soul Great Dao, filled the entire stage. Fang Qingyuan, in his form as the Five-Colored Escape Light, suddenly felt a restraining, pulling force.

The sensation was like swimming in what was once clear water, now filled with a gelatinous substance. To maintain his previous speed, Fang Qingyuan now had to expend far more Magical Power.

'So that's his move? He really came prepared. A Thunder Skill is a good counter to my Five Elements Escape Technique. But with the Immortal Mansion backing me up, I've never been afraid of a battle of Magical Power.'

Inside the Five-Colored Escape Light, Fang Qingyuan's mind remained clear. Both sides were still in the initial probing phase. Fang Qingyuan had revealed his Escape Technique trump card, and Chunyu Hua had countered with the Cyan Flood Dragon and this Purple Thunder Token, which must have been crafted by a Nascent Soul Cultivator at the very least.

'A Token of such power can't be easy to create, even for a Nascent Soul Cultivator. And he used it up just like that. This single Token, if converted to Spirit Stones, would be worth at least three or four thousand Top-grade ones. Out in the wider world, this would be a treasure kept at the very bottom of a Golden Core Sect's chest, something they would never use unless the sect's survival was at stake.'

After sighing at how damned rich his opponent was, Fang Qingyuan used a technique to draw in a wisp of the Purple Extreme Divine Thunder and pull it into his Immortal Mansion.

He wanted the Bee Queen inside the Immortal Mansion to help him analyze whether this Purple Extreme Divine Thunder truly possessed the rumored power to convert and dissolve any foreign type of Magical Power.

However, just as Fang Qingyuan brought that wisp of Divine Thunder into the Immortal Mansion, before the Bee Queen could even receive his message, a school of purple fish in a pool within the mansion suddenly began leaping from the water, as if drawn by something incredibly attractive.

Seeing this, an idea struck Fang Qingyuan. This school of purple fish was none other than the Purple Crystal Spirit Fish he had obtained years ago in the Barbaric Wilderness. It was these very fish that had saved him many years of tedious, grinding cultivation.

Later, after he reached the limit of how many of these Spirit Fish he could consume for benefits, he had no choice but to raise them here. By now, several decades had passed.

Over so many years, the original several hundred Purple Crystal Spirit Fish had multiplied to over ten thousand. The largest among them now weighed more than a dozen pounds, a far cry from their original thumb size.

'Could it be that this Purple Extreme Divine Thunder can induce mutations in these Spirit Fish?'

'If that's true, could these Purple Crystal Spirit Fish become effective for Golden Core Cultivators as well?'