490: Chapter 490 Anticipation, Being Anticipated

On the viewing platform.

The Headmaster nodded expectantly after seeing the two take the stage.

Turning his head, he ordered, "Activate the Heaven Reversal Formation."

"Yes."

As the layers of orders were passed down, they soon reached the Elder responsible for debugging and activating the academy's grand Formation.

He shook his head and sighed upon receiving the command.

"Just for a few little brats."

"This is far too wasteful."

Wasteful as it may be, it still had to be opened.

After all, many people had come specifically for this battle.

A battle between top-tier Prodigies of Imperial Clans was a rare sight indeed.

Soon, the arena began to transform.

Many of the smaller arenas from before began to move.

Amidst the tremors of the ground, they merged into one complete, massive arena.

Immediately following that, a layer of pale golden light descended from the sky.

The Heaven Reversal Formation.

With this Formation in place, they could strike without restraint.

In the spectator stands, cheers shook the heavens.

Some stood up in excitement, some craned their necks to squeeze forward, and some even stepped onto the backs of their chairs.

"It's starting, it's starting!"

At this time, Gu Tianye also arrived at the viewing platform next to his younger sister.

However, he did not sit down, but stood to watch.

"Brother, that was a beautiful fight!" Gu Yixuan comforted, sensing her brother's foul mood.

"Beautiful?"

Gu Tianye asked back without turning his head.

He knew his battle just now was impeccable, but his opponent was merely a Prodigy from a major province of the Upper Realm.

Above them were the top-tier Prodigies of the Upper Realm, as well as the Prodigies of the Immortal Court.

Not to mention top-tier Immortal Court Prodigies like Qin Wangchuan.

Whenever he looked at them, he would think: Ah, these are the people who can truly change the world.

If it were anyone else, Gu Tianye wouldn't pay them any attention.

But...

Thinking this, his gaze fell upon Qin Wangchuan.

"Do you think he has become weaker?" Gu Tianye asked.

Gu Yixuan's gaze also followed to rest on Qin Wangchuan.

He was standing firm in front of Ji Wuchen, a strange sensation emanating from his entire body.

A heart-palpitating sensation.

It wasn't killing intent, nor was it pressure, but something far deeper.

It was as if what stood there was not a person, but an abyss.

"He hasn't become weaker; on the contrary, he's become stronger."

Gu Tianye nodded, his gaze shifting to Ji Wuchen, who was opposite Qin Wangchuan.

"Yun Zexuan said he became weaker after losing that wheel."

"But when I first met him, he didn't have that thing."

On the arena stage.

Ji Wuchen stood with his halberd drawn.

The halberd's shaft was slender, its entire body dark and gloomy.

The Tai Xu Halberd.

Though he was proficient in a hundred weapons, he chose the halberd at this moment to bid farewell to his past.

Back at the Qin Family, it was with a halberd that he had lost to Qin Wangchuan.

He was in no hurry to strike, but looked at Qin Wangchuan and spoke slowly:

"I have spent a long time in secluded meditation thinking."

"When the world thinks of the Ji Family, they think of the Void; even I was the same, and so is this Tai Xu Halberd."

"I thought that by turning my Incarnation into a Dao Treasury and concealing a hundred weapons within myself, I might be able to defeat you."

"But after deduction, I realized I was wrong."

He paused.

"You are too fast, too strong. A hundred weapons are useless."

"At that time, I thought: I am not a member of the Zhou Family, I do not possess that unparalleled speed."

"As I thought, suddenly, a notion popped into my head."

"Since I am not as fast as you, wouldn't it be fine just to make you slow down?"

Qin Wangchuan raised an eyebrow but did not respond.

Ji Wuchen gripped the weapon in his hand tightly, and the aura around him suddenly changed.

It wasn't a sharp, exposed killing intent, but something more eerie.

It was like an invisible canopy shrouding him.

Inside the canopy, the flow of air became sluggish, falling dust halted in mid-air, and even light seemed to be stretched thin.

"And so—"

"My Life-Bound Technique: Time Obeys Me, was born."

"Although it has just been developed and has many limitations."

Ji Wuchen said as he assumed a fighting stance, his eyes fixed intently on Qin Wangchuan.

"But its effect should give you quite a surprise."

Qin Wangchuan raised his hand.

The Ten Directions Marvelous Law Sword was drawn from the void, its blade clear and bright, reflecting the afterglow of the setting sun.

As soon as the sword was unsheathed, the temperature of the entire arena seemed to drop by several degrees.

"I look forward to it."

As his voice fell, the auras of both men sank simultaneously.

The great battle was on the verge of breaking out.

Behind Ji Wuchen, the Grand Void Divine Feathers suddenly bloomed.

The purple wings flapped, and in the next instant, he teleported in front of Qin Wangchuan.

Fast.

So fast that his trajectory was almost invisible.

In the spectator stands, countless people didn't even have time to react to what had happened; they only saw a flash of purple light.

Just as Qin Wangchuan raised his sword, he immediately felt something was wrong.

His own movements had slowed down.

In contrast, Ji Wuchen's speed seemed to have been accelerated, eerily fast.

Even though he saw the movements and his body reacted, his actions simply couldn't keep up.

In just the moment it took to think, Ji Wuchen's halberd was already at his throat.

This strike was fast, accurate, and ruthless, without any flourishes—a most pure direct thrust.

The tip of the halberd carried a bone-chilling coldness, aiming straight for the vitals.

The next moment.

The halberd's point pierced through.

Qin Wangchuan's figure dissipated.

Ji Wuchen's pupils shrank violently.

He missed!

"You forgot: Defining Existence and Non-Existence."

Qin Wangchuan's voice came from his side.

He stood there, walking leisurely as if taking a stroll in his own backyard.

Several afterimages remained behind him, slowly dissipating.

"Time Obeys Me."

"One can tell from the name that it's a law for manipulating time; that strike just now confirmed it."

Qin Wangchuan's golden eyes looked at Ji Wuchen as he began to organize the information.

"Including yourself."

"You make the flow of time in an area faster or slower, though there should be limits on duration and area size."

He paused and turned his head toward Ji Wuchen.

"Though it is a very troublesome law."

"It is meaningless if you cannot find me."

As he spoke, many afterimages of Qin Wangchuan had already appeared on the stage.

One, two, four, eight... in the blink of an eye, the entire arena was filled with Qin Wangchuan's figures.

Each one was lifelike, and each carried the same aura.

Defining Existence and Non-Existence wasn't considered a Heaven-Defying technique; it was merely the condensation of illusions.

But the trouble lay in the fact that the person performing it was Qin Wangchuan.

His Immortal Body was naturally capable of hiding his aura, making it impossible to know which one was the true body.

Ji Wuchen's gaze swept over those afterimages, his brow furrowed tightly.

"I indeed cannot find you."

"But based on my understanding of you—"

He suddenly looked up.

"You're above!"

Before his voice finished, the Divine Feathers flapped again, and he thrust his halberd toward the space above his head.

The void rippled.

Qin Wangchuan's figure emerged from the ripples, standing in the air, with the Grand Void Divine Feathers likewise behind him.

He looked down at the incoming halberd thrust from above; he did not dodge, nor did he even move.

He merely raised a hand.

His face bore a 'just as expected' expression, and there was even a hint of a smile in the depths of his eyes.

"You guessed right."

As soon as he spoke, a rift suddenly opened in front of his palm.

Dao-Slaying Heavenly Scar!

The tip of Ji Wuchen's halberd pierced into it and was instantly swallowed by that rift.

In just that moment of daze.

The rift did not vanish; Qin Wangchuan flipped his palm.

A finger slowly extended, a dark light glowing at the fingertip.

Heavenly Ruin Tribulation Finger.

The power of this finger was obvious to all; being hit meant certain death!

Facing this finger, there was no fear in Ji Wuchen's eyes; instead, a sharp light flashed within them.

Under the enhancement of his Life-Bound Technique, the flow of his own time became faster.

Everything around him instantly slowed down.

It was so slow that he could clearly see every inch of the finger's light advancing, so slow that the trajectory of that dark glow was like it was slowly spreading underwater.

The landing point and the trajectory were all fully visible to him.

The Divine Feathers behind him flapped, and then he moved to the side.

'I can dodge it!'

Just as he thought this and his figure began to move to the left.

In his peripheral vision, a strand of heavenly suspended silk hung quietly on the left, having long been waiting there.

His pupils shrank, and he immediately swept his gaze to the right.

Sure enough, there was one there too.

A pincer attack from both sides.

Two strands of heavenly suspended silk hung there silently, like a pre-woven web, just waiting for him to throw himself into it.

Despite falling into a trap, the corners of Ji Wuchen's mouth curled slightly upward.

"As expected of you; indeed, it wasn't that simple."

'But all of this is also within my expectations!'