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Chapter 372: The Titan Laughs
🕑 Added 2024-02-12 17:36:01 +0000 UTCHappy new week, everyone. Enjoy!
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Mabe Asphel charged Jack, determined to reclaim her honor. Her coppery skin was set on fire. Thin lines of blood emerged from her pores, wrapping around the claymore like silken death.
Her aura climbed to new heights, dying the world a crimson red. Every low-ranker watching felt their heart skip a beat.
“Die!” Mabe shouted, bringing her weapon down.
Jack simply stepped back. The claymore met the ground, creating a hundred-foot-long fissure, but the weapon itself was only part of her attack—it was the energy shockwave that was the most dangerous. Currents of blood streamed out, crashing into Jack from almost point-blank. The crimson world collapsed on his chest. His robes fluttered wildly, and the spectators couldn’t believe their eyes—had he really forgotten about the energy shockwaves?
Yet, these shockwaves only broke against Jack’s chest. They were like fierce winds meeting a cliffside—completely harmless.
Jack met Mabe’s eyes. He grinned. Power pumped into his arms, ready to strike.
Mabe was no amateur. Though surprised, she continued her attack, swiftly transitioning into a pommel strike. When Jack stepped away again, she swung her sword back around and cleaved at his head. The remaining blood threads on the claymore combusted, filling the blade with power. A new curtain of blood rose to the heavens, collapsing on Jack.
Out of her three-strike combination, this was the true killer move.
Facing this collapsing sky of blood, Jack remained calm. He did not form a fist—instead, he raised his hand. His speed skyrocketed to the point where Mabe could barely register it. His palm touched the side of the sword and gently pushed it aside, forcing it to veer off and strike the ground to his right.
The claymore met the ground in an eruption of blood, but Jack weathered the shockwave like it was nothing. His robes fluttered—he was completely unharmed.
“What!?” the audience exclaimed.
The weakest people present had no idea what happened. However, the stronger ones did, and they were shell-shocked. It was impossible to use a hand to deflect a cultivator’s sword mid-swing. Your speed and dexterity would need to completely overwhelm your opponent’s. And even then, you would have to instantly overpower them.
It was just not possible without a massive difference in strength.
The Head Envoy grinned. “Nice.”
Out of everyone present, Mabe herself was the most shocked. She was no mortal, whose strength disappeared the moment they begun their swing. As her sword traveled, she remained in full control. In the instant when Jack pushed her sword away, she had tried to resist, but it was futile—she felt like a child trying to resist an adult. The difference between their strengths was nothing short of extreme.
How is this possible!? she screamed in her mind. I’m a pure Physical cultivator! He… Just how strong is his body!?
She knew he practiced some form of body tempering. She’d expected to be outdone when it came to physical strength. But in this situation, she had used her body and Dao to deliver a strike at her maximum power…and Jack had easily countered it through sheer physicality.
Whether it was speed or strength, she was outclassed.
Her sword remained stuck in the ground. There was no point pulling it out. Her eyes met Jack’s, who shook his head. “Sorry,” he said calmly, “but you are not my opponent.”
His fist struck out. Mabe didn’t even see it landing, but she felt her ribcage shatter, her entire body bending like a bow and flung backward at tremendous speed. She thought she was a goner.
Thankfully, a man appeared, catching her easily and neutralizing her momentum. He then let her drop like a sack of potatoes, not caring any longer. His hard silver eyes were glued to Jack, carrying great killing intent.
“What’s the problem, Baron?” Jack asked him directly. “I told you—all those Dao stones you spent were wasted. I am right here. If you have any other lackeys under the ranking of 150, bring them out, and let me see the glory of your connections.”
Baron Longform did not respond. The audience was frozen silent. Suddenly, as one, they erupted, clamoring to the high heavens.
“What power is that!?” someone asked. “Just his physical body is that powerful… Is he a space monster!?”
Space monsters were the species known for their limited understanding of the Dao and extreme physical strength. They could use their formidable bodies to match someone at the C- or even the B-Grade. In the spectators’ eyes, Jack’s current feat was no less impressive.
If just his body was so terrifying, what if he used his Dao!?
“It’s not that simple,” the Head Envoy muttered, his eyes half-closed as he inspected Jack. “His body is superb, but his Dao is only that of a two-fruit C-Grade. It cannot increase his power by too much.”
“Still, achieving such a body is nothing short of incredible. If it was easy, everyone would do it,” said the Space Eye Sovereign sitting next to him—she was the kindly old woman who served as the Cathedral’s head diviner.
The Head Envoy chuckled. “Let’s look at his Dao first before drawing any conclusions. This little girl was only ranked in the two-hundreds—of the next twenty-five opponents, most are ranked significantly higher than her, and some are even hiding their strength. They will be able to bring out his full force.”
Back in the crowd of C-Grades, Min Ling was carefully observing Jack.
“Told you,” Esmeralda said from the side, winking. “Isn’t he handsome?”
Min rolled her eyes. “I’m trying to perceive his hidden strength.”
“Sure. The strength between his—”
“Es. Stop. You’re embarrassing me.”
Esmeralda laughed. “Sorry, sorry.” Of course, they had only been transmitting their voices to each other, so nobody could overhear.
As for the bros… After a few moments of silence, Brock coughed. “One, two, three, four,” he said, and the bros started beating on their drums and gongs and blowing their trumpets, raising hell on the Cathedral. Somehow, those sounds persisted through the lack of air. Two people unfurled a huge banner which spelled, “Go Big Bro or Go Home!” with dark letters on a purple background.
Esmeralda burst out laughing. Jack shook his head, somewhat embarrassed, but he was happy as well. Having the support of your friends was always nice. “Who’s next?” he asked.
“That would be me!” A petite woman stepped out of the crowd. She had blue skin, dark hair, pointy shoes, and a yellow turban over her head—she was a djinn. Jack found her cultivation to be an eight-fruit C-Grade—one fruit over the Mabe Asphel he’d just defeated.
“Sure,” he said, nodding. “Come.”
“Haha, don’t mind if I do!”
She instantly burst into battle. As she raised her blue arms, bubbles emerged. When they popped, their surface didn’t shrink but instead widened, instantly encapsulating the whole world. Jack found himself floating in a multi-colored void. Everything else, including the crowd and his opponent, had disappeared. All his senses were useless.
He snorted.
This place was clearly an illusion. The djinn had somehow obfuscated all his senses and even his Dao perception, cutting him off from the world. However, every illusion had a weakness.
His perception spread out, becoming one with the Dao of Space. After experiencing the Space Chamber for five months and developing a Space Dao Fruit, his compatibility with this Dao had risen tremendously. He wasn’t a master, but he was good enough to use it against illusions.
An illusory world was a construct laid out around its victim. Forging fake sensations and hiding the Dao was easy, but perfectly masking spatial ripples was far more difficult. To achieve it, this djinn should have a space comprehension many times deeper than Jack’s, and he did not believe that was the case.
As his Dao perception spread out, feeling for ripples in the fabric of space, he quickly captured some. They weren’t enough to reconstruct the real world outside of its illusions, but he only needed to sense the little body hurtling his way.
He turned and punched out in a seemingly random direction. A shriek entered his ears. The world of the illusion shattered, revealing a dagger-wielding djinn flying away. She quickly left the confines of the Cathedral Square, where someone caught her.
The entire battle hadn’t taken more than two seconds.
“Next!” Jack shouted.
His next opponent was a lanky man with gray skin. He wasn’t a feshkur, but something similar. His orange eyes flared with fire, and Jack instantly felt an alien force invade his mind—like iron pliers grabbing his heart and twisting it. The pain was staggering. All resistance seemed futile.
Jack’s Dao roared out. Wave after wave of the Fist broke out of his soul, flooding his body and colliding against the other man’s attack. The two Daos tussled around like wild beasts fighting for their lives.
When it came to resisting Will attacks, the most important aspect wasn’t the victim’s Will attribute—that just had to be decent. The real deciding factor was the power of one’s comprehensive Dao, as well as their willpower—and how could Jack lack willpower?
He resisted enough to maintain clarity. The world was swimming in colors and pain, but he could make out his surroundings. His fist flew out—the other man tried to defend by driving a spike of pain into Jack’s mind, but Jack simply endured it. His fist smashed into the other cultivator’s abdomen and sent him flying. The Will attack quickly abated, and Jack easily suppressed it. The only lasting effect was a small but persistent headache.
The crowd roared. The bros banged on their instruments harder. They had witnessed everything clearly.
Three cultivators, three different specialties, three fists, three people sent flying. Each of these battles had finished in a single move!
“Heavens! Does he have no weaknesses?” a cultivator shouted in the crowd, causing a dance of whispers to erupt.
As for Jack… Well, all he had to do was look at his status screen. How could he possibly lose?
Name: Jack Rust
Species: Human, Earth-387
Faction: Bare Fist Brotherhood (C)
Grade: C
Class: Gladiator Titan (King)
Level: 260
Strength: 3800 (+)
Dexterity: 3800 (+)
Constitution: 3800 (+)
Mental: 409
Will: 409
Free sub-points: 1
Dao Skills: Meteor Punch IV, Iron Fist Style III, Brutalizing Aura III, Neutron Star Body III, Space Mastery II, Titan Taunt I, Fist of Mortality I
Dao Roots: Indomitable Will, Life, Power, Weakness
Dao Fruits: Fist, Space
Titles: Planetary Frontrunner (10), Planetary Torchbearer (1), Ninth Ring Conqueror, Planetary Leader (1), Grade Defier
The System had been streamlined a bit after his last breakthrough, clearly displaying his Dao Roots and Fruits.
In the C-Grade, the System awarded levels based on a cultivator growing their fruits. In raising his first fruit to maturity, Jack had gone from Level 250 to 259. Then, developing the second fruit had pushed him to 260.
The first three fruits accounted for ten levels each, while the other six were twenty each. When a cultivator reached the peak of nine fruits, they would be at Level 399—only one away from the B-Grade.
From rising ten levels in the C-Grade, Jack had gotten two hundred stat points, which he equally distributed between his Mental and Will attributes. Thanks to his Physical substats rising by body tempering, he was free to invest heavily in Mental and Will, shoring up his weaknesses. That was part of the reason why he so easily defeated the Mental and Will cultivators who fought him just now.
Of course, these two stats of his didn’t even approach a real Mental or Will cultivator’s, but defending against them was much easier than attacking, and the three stats were balanced anyway. Since he possessed far higher Mental and Will stats than other Physical cultivators, it was natural that he had an advantage against Mental and Will cultivators.
As for his Physical stats…body tempering did not disappoint. Through his five months of grueling practice, he had raised his stats from 2800 to 3800. That was an entire thousand! It was the equivalent of fifty levels in the C-Grade, or around three fruits. Combined with his previous tempering, along with his great titles and the Neutron Star Body skill, his actual physical prowess approached that of a nine-fruit C-Grade—how could the seven-fruit Mabe Asphel possibly hope to match him?
The progress of body tempering was still slowing down, but that only meant most of the benefits were already reaped. Jack was at his peak.
A physical body that surpassed most eight-fruit Physical cultivators.
A Mental stat that gave him an advantage against Mental cultivators, alongside a physical body that resisted magical attacks and the Dao of Space which countered illusions.
A willpower that had endured six months of silent torture in the form of body tempering.
At this point, Jack’s weaknesses were already eliminated. He only had strong points and even stronger points. This was the only reason why he dared challenge everyone—just who could counter him?
The crowd cheered. The bros roared. The opponents kept coming.
Comments
Daniel
The Head Envoy shot himself in the foot, here. He may have cut Jack's time short by announcing he'd give him the World Anchor if he's successful, but he also lowered the bar by 50 places -- Jack's only fighting against people ranked 150 at the worst.
kyle
Poor mabe! I hope she gets to join the brohood!
