Meng Hao's turn soon came up, and facing him was the person who used fist fighting. And since Meng Hao was also a body cultivator, the two of them will have a beatdown and everyone here will definitely enjoy watching two people beating the snot out of each other.
The two of them came up to the stage, and for the first time, there was no taunt, no low words aimed at the other, just a nod of acknowledgment to the other person, and the two of them went into their respective fighting stance.
The referee had long since given the command to start the fight, but neither fighter moved, they slowly assessed each other's moves, even the slight twitches and slow change of stance was oddly satisfying to watch, as whenever one of them slightly changed his posture, the other would do so.
To the untrained eye, these two would look like they're waiting for who will make the first move. But I could clearly see that with every stance change on either of them, the qi pressure on the different and various points of their bodies would slightly change. Qi sometimes would be focalized on the foot, for stability and waiting for an opportunity to advance, then it would switch back to the arms readying up for a defensive posture.
The two of them kept changing their stances until they both settled for a stance that they remained in. The crowd seemed to get bored from such a display, but the moment the two of them moved, the world turned upside down.
The speed of both competitors was impressive, to say the least, as with every step they took, one could only hear the explosion of sound and the massive footprint on the stone slabs that made the arena. While the two approached each other with the same speed as two high speed trains would.
Their fists connected, and Qi burst out in powerful surges, exploding in a colorful ray of light.
The two of them separated from each other, then jumped back forward, sending blows and kicks at each other with vehement brutality. There was no hatred however in their exchange and was more like a duel than a fight.
At one point both the competitors went for a roundhouse kick, where each one's kick connected to the other and they both remained there, competing in strength.
"Impressive," was the man's words, "For a core cultivator to be able to exert such power, I'm really glad to have met a fellow body cultivator…however," the man said and then the muscles on his legs visibly grew, and with a twist of his torso, Meng Hao was flung from his position like a ragdoll that began rolling on the ground.
Not to give Meng Hao a chance to recover, his competitor teleported to where Meng Hao's location would be in a couple more tumbles, already in a punching stance, then struck down with a fist that felt like it was going to crack the planet itself.
Dust rose and the wind blew, revealing the man's arm having dug all the way to the elbow into the stone slab of the arena, while Meng Hao's face was an inch away from it, Meng Hao had miraculously manager to stop himself by digging his fingers into the ground and forced his tumbling to stop.
The man, though he had an arm stuck in the ground, still managed to raise an awkward leg, and went for a leg chop at Meng Hao's chest, to which Meng Hao used every muscle in his body to pivot away from the incoming leg chop, then pushed himself off the ground, into a backflip and stood with one arm behind his back and the other strained forward, with the back of his hand towards his competitor.
"Not bad!" the burly man said as he pulled his arm off the ground, breaking the stone slab.
"Let's see how you'll deal with this! Demon Clan Blood Line, awaken!"
Then a baleful red and black qi aura began emanating from around him, as his body began shaking and his muscles throbbed at the rhythm of a beating heart.
Suddenly, the man's skin turned redder, and his eyes no longer had whiteness in them as they turned dark. His hair grew and inflated so much that it covered all his back. And his lower jaw grew two fangs. This person reminded me of a character in a game I used to play, though that character was green and can use lightning…
"I was saving this for other contestants, but it would be a shame to not give my all for a fellow body competitor!" the man said while his voice sounded double, and his appearance looked like the demons from the Demon Lands, he had somehow kept full control of his sanity, unlike what I was expecting from someone using such a shady and cliché ability.
However, the demon transformed cultivator wasn't all talk, as he teleported immediately to Meng Hao's side, not giving him a moment to move, Meng Hao's ribs were rattled with a bone breaking fist, and before his body was even at full flight, the competitor teleported once again to where Meng Hao's body was flying and kicked him upwards.
Though meng Hao managed to block with his arms, from the sound of the blow, even I felt pain from having to block that leg.
Meng Hao was flung upwards at impossible speed, and the demon guy grinned, he flung his hands behind him and went down in a squat as he looked up, then he jumped up, shooting from the ground as a bullet shot from a pistol, with enough power in his legs that the whole arena ground cracked and broke.
I could swear that his jump was strong enough and fast enough that it broke the sound barrier. And the moment he got to Meng Hao, he struck him again, further sending him up. Then he kept teleporting around Meng Hao's body, and further sent in kicks and punches.
'Shit, this is really bad…at this rate, Meng Hao will die.' I frowned because though he wasn't the best talker or friend per se, he was someone I knew and he helped me once.
As I stood up, I heard a divine sense message, "Eccentric one, don't try anything, this is a fair competition, and if you interfere, I will personally act against you."
The words came from someone in the booth, and I could even guess who. The only one in the Soul Transformation stage.
'Shit,' I cursed inwardly and tightened my fists.
"Worry not, for that kid isn't as weak as you might think." Came his reassuring message, though it was probably just to get me to calm down and not try anything. I can only hope that nothing bad happens to Meng Hao. Even if I could relatively treat him from anything besides death, I wouldn't want to get there.
Soon, Meng Hao's face managed to be comfortably fit within the palm of his competitor. As he grabbed him and dove down, pointing with Meng Hao's face to the arena floor.
"THIS. IS. GOING. TO. HURT." The Demonic faced man shouted as he rushed down the arena floor with as much speed as he could.
Then not a second later, a loud upheaval rose the rocks and whatever remained from the arena high up, as Meng Hao was smashed into the ground, cratering it several times over.
The demonic man jumped up from the crash site and spat out blood, as he breathe heavily, a wide satisfied smile on his face was painted as he waited for the referee to announce his victory.
The referee looked at Meng Hao's bloodied self and was about to announce the victor until the unthinkable happened.
Meng Hao's hands jerked, and his eyes opened up, even though the pile of dust and muck of his own blood mixed with dirt, he opened his clear eyes and said, "Not…yet."
The first to react was the people in the booths as they immediately sent all of their Qi around the audience and literally flew everyone away from the stage and a few miles away from it.
The second was the demon guy, who had his eyes widen then turned and fled the scene on all fours. Followed by every Nascent Soul cultivator, who moved away as fast as they could and some even grabbed a few of the Core Cultivator kids who had absolutely no idea what was happening.
I was left standing alone like an idiot before I realized what was going on, I turned and pulled my flying treasure, cursing at my stupidity because if I took a moment longer, I would have probably died… Because I came to a serious realization.
It was here, kids, that I was sure, that Meng Hao was the main character…
A single breath later, the skies above us began to darken and then began roiling around each other, in an agonized disparity between each cloud, as hatred and joy were mixed within the clouds of what is to be born right now.
The dark clouds turned a darker color of blood then the skies wept. As a Heavenly Tribulation was about to descend on the plane, a result of a man having finished all the requirements to transcend mortality once again, and give birth to a soul that will forever be eternal.
A Nascent Soul was about to be born, and Meng Hao was the one who brought this scene to happen.