Chapter 360: The Power of the Invincible Core

Setting aside the side effect of reducing one to baldness, the Arhat Fist was the supreme boxing technique of Buddhism.

Before this, Lu Yang had worried about accidentally injuring Lan Ting and had refrained from deploying it; now that Lan Ting was handled by his clone and he was facing Bai Ming alone, he finally dared to unleash the Arhat Fist at will.

"I want to see how you manage to split your mind in two!" Bai Ming deduced that Lu Yang could not control two bodies simultaneously, and his sharp spear thrust out in an instant, glittering like the stars in the heavens.

Lu Yang calmly fixed his gaze upon the tip of the spear as a hollow, resonant sound echoed from within his body, like a Buddha chanting sutras to deliver all living beings from suffering.

His fist swung outward, striking with a sound like thunder and a force that could split bamboo, crashing violently against the long spear and stirring waves in the air like splashing ink.

"Arhat Fist!"

Clang—

The long spear trembled, yielding a metallic echo, while the fist nimbly glided along the spear's tip, pressing close to Bai Ming.

Bai Ming exerted force through his waist, uniting his hips and stance in an attempt to withdraw the spear, but Lu Yang continuously struck the shaft with his Arhat Fist, causing it to shake incessantly and making it difficult to hold firm.

Bai Ming secretly registered that things were going awry; he had all along been guarding against Lu Yang's divine abilities and spells, yet he had never imagined that Lu Yang's bare-handed combat would be this terrifying.

Seeing the fist about to strike him, Bai Ming formed a hand seal with his left hand, and a howling rose above his head as wind blades, like executioner's cleavers, descended from the sky to slice Lu Yang in two.

Taking this opportunity to dodge, Bai Ming was still grazed by the Arhat Fist.

"What a heavy fist!" Bai Ming was alarmed; fortunately, he had evaded it, for this strike possessed a massive, sinking weight, and merely being grazed caused such an injury—if he took a direct hit, it would be unbearable.

He absolutely could not be struck again.

Suddenly, a few strands of black hair drifted down, causing Bai Ming to freeze for a moment, and before he could react, he saw more and more black hair falling away.

Wait, could this be...

Instinctively, Bai Ming touched his head, his countenance altering drastically: "Where is my hair!"

Looking at the hair covering the ground, Bai Ming glared fiercely at Lu Yang.

"The unity of fist and form, to think you could blend martial arts and spellcraft so perfectly as to ensnare me!" Bai Ming forced himself to analyze calmly, refusing to let his footing become chaotic.

Beneath the stage, a continuous stream of cultivators kept arriving to watch the battle.

"Eh, who is that bald fellow? Didn't they say the Xuankong Temple sent no one over?"

"Just now from afar, I heard something about an Arhat; is that bald guy calling himself an Arhat?"

"Must be a fake, he doesn't even have ordination scars on his head."

Hearing the discussions below the stage, Bai Ming could no longer contain himself and erupted in fury: "Lu Yang, you forced my hand—Five Elements Rotating Spear Technique!"

"The Five Elements Rotating Spear Technique? He has even mastered such a spear technique?" Old Master Kang muttered under his breath.

"What is the Five Elements Rotating Spear Technique?" the surrounding crowd inquired one after another.

"This was created by an ancestor of the Five Elements Sect who was proficient in five-elements spells, combining those spells with spear arts; one cannot learn it without mastering both, and to think this disciple of the Five Elements Sect has already met the requirements to learn it."

"This old man always felt his displayed form resembled a Five Elements Golden Core, yet a Five Elements Golden Core does not seem to possess this kind of destructive power!"

"Blazing Gold!" The long spear charged like a dragon, thrusting toward Lu Yang with unbelievable speed as a majestic aura rushed over them.

Lu Yang strode forward, the Buddhist chants vibrating and his spirit swallowing mountains and rivers as he once again deployed the Arhat Fist to clash head-on with the long spear, sending a violent shockwave sweeping through all directions.

The fist was like an anvil, its aura rising, and a swift, fierce momentum rippled between his hand and palm.

The confrontation between fist and spear struck terror into the crowd below; even the expressions of the Nascent Soul cultivators changed slightly, for they lacked the confidence to withstand such a high-frequency assault.

"Is this truly the early stage of the Golden Core?"

"I have long heard that immortal sect disciples cannot be judged by conventional reason, and seeing it today confirms it is indeed so!"

"I suppose even those ancient geniuses were merely thus."

"Even if the struggle of this great era brings forth a multitude of talents, it is likely hard to find geniuses who can stand shoulder to shoulder with them, is it not?"

This was the first time Bai Ming had encountered a cultivator of the same realm who could contend with him after he deployed the Five Elements Rotating Spear Technique.

With a cold smile, he tilted his spear against the arena stage, and an earthen dragon erupted from the ground, howling forward like a tsunami to bear down on Lu Yang.

Lu Yang shrank the earth beneath his feet, launching a stealth attack from below; Bai Ming released his divine sense, perceiving Lu Yang's movements with absolute clarity, and stabbed downward with his spear.

"Right here!"

A scene that astounded Bai Ming unfolded as he watched Lu Yang’s body suddenly shrink, evading the spear strike.

"As You Wish, Large or Small?!"

Though he had anticipated that Lu Yang knew various divine abilities and spells, the execution of this particular technique still caught him off guard; spells generally formed a system, where learning one allowed a practitioner to understand similar ones by analogy.

Yet looking at Lu Yang, with Heaven-Swallowing Earth-Devouring, Earth-Shrinking, and As You Wish Large or Small, none of the spells bore any connection, not to mention that hair-dropping spell Bai Ming had never even heard of.

"So what!"

Bai Ming thrust his spear eighteen consecutive times, all of which Lu Yang evaded, and just as he intended to deliver the nineteenth thrust, his body suddenly sank, surrounded by pitch darkness.

When Bai Ming had been stabbing at Lu Yang, he had failed to notice that the shrunken Lu Yang had circled around him.

Just enough to cast the spell: Drawing a Land Prison.

"Another unknown earth-attribute spell!" Bai Ming could not endure being outdone in five-elements spells; he executed a technique to drill out of the ground, only to take a solid punch from Lu Yang right after.

"Drawing a Land Prison!"

Lu Yang confined Bai Ming within the prison once more.

Bai Ming strove to maintain his clarity; since he could not exit directly, he would find another way out, for being deep within the prison rendered his metal, wood, water, and fire spells useless, leaving earth-attribute spells as his only recourse.

He sought to burrow elsewhere, but just as half his body moved out, he heard Lu Yang's voice from above.

"Drawing a Land Prison."

Returned to his original spot.

"Earthen Dragon..." Bai Ming formed hand seals to summon the earthen dragon.

"Drawing a Land Prison."

Bai Ming's body shuddered, vanishing and reappearing in the same spot, and the process of forming the hand seals was instantly interrupted.

"This is not an earth-attribute spell, it is a spatial spell!" Only then did Bai Ming realize the problem.

"I refuse to believe it, Earthen Dragon..."

"Drawing a Land Prison." Lu Yang squatted on the ground drawing circles, observing Bai Ming with his divine sense; whatever action Bai Ming attempted, he used Drawing a Land Prison to disrupt it.

Bai Ming tried several times, always with the same result, until his temper vanished entirely.

"Fine, I concede!"

With no other choice, Bai Ming could only admit defeat, and when he rose to the surface and saw Lu Yang's smiling face, a surge of irritation welled up within him.

"If it weren't for the fact that your spellcasting speed is faster than mine..."

Bai Ming spoke through gritted teeth; he had been restricted by his casting speed, for the earth-attribute spells he had mastered were all large-scale attacks with relatively slow execution times.

Had he been able to cast a spell before Lu Yang deployed "Drawing a Land Prison," he could have escaped to fight again, and the outcome would still be uncertain.

Lu Yang smiled without a word, the plan provided by the Invincible Pill just moments ago flashing through his mind: Bai Ming's spear technique is the surface, while the five-elements spells are the root; his moves are bound to be based on five-elements spells, which generate and overcome one another, yielding multiplied power when combined, so it is not advised to give him an opportunity.

It is recommended to provoke the opponent with the Arhat Fist, causing him to lose his reason, thereby finding an opportunity to deploy "Drawing a Land Prison" to restrict him underground; once underground, force him to only use earth-attribute spells, and you can leverage your advantage of fast spellcasting to interrupt his casting, compelling him to surrender.

This is the most time-saving and labor-saving plan.

(An extra chapter for the Alliance Leader, Who Hugs the Motherland on the Left and the Conde Battleship Xiangu Yue on the Right)

(End of this chapter)