## AST: Chapter 42 – One Move

After Qing Bei defeated Lan Yan`er, the audience members were all momentarily shocked into silence. Even Qing Luo was somewhat embarrassed, staring at the head of the Lan Clan, Lan Yu. His own granddaughter actually possessed a strength akin to a strong wind sweeping the leaves, and defeated the genius – Lan Yan`er who was two years older than her.

Lan Yu stood there motionlessly at a loss, but after a moment, he quickly arranged a few others from the Lan Clan to carry the unconscious Lan Yan`er away from the arena. Qing Bei did not continue to stand in the arena, she only said a single sentence before jumping down from the stage. “I’m only up here because I couldn’t stand her arrogance.”

After saying her peace, Qing Bei left the arena. But the words she said had reverberated in the eardrums of the Lan Yu, as he secretly said in his heart, “Little brat, your actions just now could be considered even more presumptuous and conceited than my Yan`er.”

Despite the competition between the various great clans, all of them still needed to depend on each other as they worked together to safeguard and maintain the Qing Village. Luckily, Qing Bei was young enough that despite her words smacking of arrogance, the tone behind them seemed to have hints of mischievousness in them. Furthermore, the foxy lady with the curvaceous figure and pair of phoenix eyes from the Feng Clan covered her mouth as she laughed lightly, which instantly dispelled the awkward atmosphere. Glancing at that pair of captivating eyes, Qing Shui could not help but felt a nefarious burning sensation down in his loins, as his heart trembled and his eyes flashed with desire.

“What a hot babe, I don’t know which lucky guy can hug her to sleep at night. Look at those gigantic twin peaks. Oh my god! That mature and seductive face combined with those flirtatious glances flashing through her captivating pair of eyes, how could any man resist her?” Qing Shui whispered, enchanted.

After which, the arena was shared by Qing Zi with a tall and slender lady with a buxom figure from the Feng Clan. Equipped in her hands, were two chakrams that were a fiery-red in color.

The weapon that Qing Zi chose to use actually gave Qing Shui a sense of amazement. This was because the weapon Qing Zi used was actually a great silvery axe with a height similar to Qing Zi! The width of the axe’s head accounted for about one-third that of a human body, fully covering the chest and abdomen area of a human.

Qing Shui gauged that the weapon’s weight should be about 150 jin. That impressive looking great axe also emitted a certain psychological pressure, causing opponents to slightly panic as they looked upon such a huge weapon. Swiftly after, both of them started to duel.

Only after they both had announced their names, did Qing Shui know that this girl from the Feng Clan who uses the two chakrams as her weapons was named Feng Yan`fei.

After the first exchange, Qing Shui could tell that barring any unexpected incidents, victory would go to Qing Zi. As he had expected, Qing Zi was not simple at all, looking at the way he wielded the huge axe, like a swallow flying across the skies, there were no hints of clumsiness that would usually be associated with using such an unwieldy weapon. His insights into the way of the axe had already broken through to a realm that most ordinary people would not be able to reach!

In comparison, Lan Yan`fei was in a slightly more difficult position. As a woman, her strength could not be compared to Qing Zi. If it was not for her superb agility, she would have been defeated long ago by Qing Zi.

Qing Zi calmly executed his techniques, with no hint of hurriedness in his actions. If he was overly intent on winning, Feng Yan`fei may have the opportunity to exploit his carelessness. Qing Zi calmly persisted, be it in the amount of strength or speed of attacks, every strike of his was executed to perfection.

“Brother Qing Zi, I admit my defeat. Thank you for showing me mercy!” Feng Yan`fei retreated as she said in a very poised and dignified manner, gazing at Qing Zi with a hint of admiration in her eyes.

“Thank you for letting me win!” Qing Zi smiled good-naturedly.

“I wish Brother Qing Zi luck in the next battle. If you are free, this little sister would like to exchange more pointers with you.” Feng Yan`fei shyly said as she turned her body and descended the arena.

“Oohhhh~” catcalls rang out from the audience.

“This damned little brat actually felt the stirring of romance in the middle of a competition.” The beautiful Feng Clan’s leader gently smiled. After which, she glanced over at Qing Luo who was happily laughing as he slightly nodded his head in the direction of the Feng Clan’s leader.

As the competition continued, Qing Zi was matched against another guy. Only then did the guy realize that Qing Zi had indeed shown mercy when he was dueling Feng Yan`fei.

The great axe with power akin to a tornado swept across the arena. Very few of the 8th Grade Martial Warriors could last more than 10 rounds when faced against it. Humans would always tend to gravitate towards people with strength! Especially when such an explosive strength was unleashed with killing intent, which was an extremely magnificent sight to behold. Despite Qing Zi’s current strength being far from tyrannical, it was sufficient enough to cause the audience to look at him in a new light.

The smile on Qing Luo’s face had never ceased. Qing Hu, Qing Bei and now, Qing Zi, all of them had caused his eyes to shine with brilliance, setting an example for those in the 3rd generation. In comparison, Lan Yu from the Lan Clan and the middle-aged guy from the Tong Clan were shaking their heads in despair. Especially Lan Yu, the beautiful little genius of the Lan Clan had actually lost to a girl two years younger than her. Not to mention that now, the Lan Clan’s members who were sent up against Qing Zi were all ruthlessly smashed down.

It was as if Qing Zi temporarily had divine might. His sturdy frame exploded with ferocious strength; he looked like a valiant general slaughtering his foes in defense of his home land. There were more than a few gazes lost in rapture as they were riveted on his muscular frame.

Which teenage girl did not wish to have such a husband? Looking at Qing Zi’s good natured smile, loud voices of praise along with the screams of excitement from the teenage girls unceasingly rang out from beneath the arena.

“This world is seriously crazy!” Qing Shui shook his head as he observed the audience.

There was sudden silence as the 9th Grade Martial Warrior, Tong Gang, stepped up on the arena platform with a green steel sword in his hands. Qing Shui surveyed the audience, as he knew that the sword was a popular choice of weapon for people in the World of the Nine Continents. Indeed, more than half the audience were sword-users.

Clashing with someone who was a grade higher in terms of cultivation than him, the speed and ferociousness level that Qing Zi demonstrated earlier, began to lessen. The gap between the difference in cultivation was no joke, and the strength level difference was very obvious. The difference of one grade was comparable the gap of a huge canal, sorely causing cultivators to unable to cross over. Of course, there were still cultivators who could defeat someone of a higher grade, but the rate of occurrence of that could be compared to the feathers of a phoenix and the horns of a giraffe. It was extremely rare for that to happen.

Tong Gang’s green steel sword unleashed a torrent of sword strikes comparable to the heavy waves of the ocean. Every time sword and axe clashed, the first energy wave of the sword strike would block the huge axe of Qing Zi, while the second wave, with strength similar to the first, would instantly rush towards Qing Zi.

Finally, after defending for a period of time, Qing Zi’s energy reserve gradually diminished as he was eventually defeated. However, he had gained the respect of those in the audience as voices of encouragement and warm applause rang out as Qing Zi exited the arena.

The competition continued, Feng Xishui defeated Tong Gang, but ended up conceding to Lan Ye. All of them were sword users, but after observing their fight, Qing Shui snorted in contempt. No matter how he observed, he felt that the sword strikes displayed by those 9th Grade Martial Warriors from the other Clans were simply abysmal in his eyes. Their swords were too slow and stiff.

The last contender who challenged Lan Ye, was the genius of the Qing Clan, Qing You. Looking at Qing You, Qing Shui could not help but suck in a breath. The sturdiness of Qing You’s body, especially his back and waist, could be comparable to a tiger and a bear respectively. And especially his biceps, were at least 30% bigger than Qing Zi. His weapons of choice were a twin set of gigantic hammers, each one comparable to the size of Qing Zi’s silvery great axe. The hammers were extremely mysterious. One was unable to tell what materials had been used to create the two hammers, which shone with a dim black light.

Even the audience members were dumbstruck, what… the strength level of the Qing Clan’s 3rd generation is insane! Is there a need for each and every one of them to wield such gigantic weapons?

Qing Zi and Qing You were both the sons of Qing Jiang, so they were blood brothers!

Qing You who was a 10th Grade Martial Warrior, only executed a single move from his two gigantic hammers before forcing Lan Ye out of the arena. Wielding both hammers, he sped towards Lan Ye, as he swirled like a spinning top. The dance of the two hammers was so fast that it left no openings, and was so well coordinated that it was even impenetrable by the wind.

At this moment, smiles broke out on the faces of those of the Qing Clan. One strike… with only a single strike, Qing You had forced Lan Ye out of the competition. Qing You had even held back when he struck. If not for him holding back, despite being a 9th Grade Martial Warrior, even Lan Ye would have been pulverized between the twin hammers.

After a short moment of silence, fanatical shouts and cheers rang out from the audience. Qing You stood atop the arena, with a face filled with craftiness akin to that of a goblin. Along with that massive frame of a body, he exuded a demonic-like charm as teenage girls screamed their approval in excitement.

However, after that, a face that was familiar to Qing Shui appeared up on the arena and coldly exclaimed, “I want to fight as well!”

“Bu Fan, stop your nonsense.” Situ Nan Tian lightly said.

“Forget it, since Bu Fan has already set foot in the arena, just let the kids play together!” Lan Yu said as he smiled.

“Hmm since Brother Lan said so… what about the rest?” Situ Nan Tian looked the judges as he asked for their opinions.

The rest of the judges quickly agreed, after all this situation was quite common.

“One move, if I can’t defeat you in one move, it shall be counted as my loss!” Situ Bu Fan sneered. In Qing Shui’s eyes, Situ Bu Fan looked like a buffoon, idiotically exclaiming such a nonsensical statement as if he was trying to awe the audience.