154: Chapter 154 A Battle of Movement Techniques

Lin Tian's hand was faster than Jin Ze's.

When Jin Ze's fingers were still three feet away from the water lotus, Lin Tian's figure had already flickered in place.

The White Dragon in the Waves Movement Technique exploded underwater. His entire body was like a whip being lashed out. With a violent twist of his waist, his body went from stationary to a rapid charge with almost no transition, instantly appearing before the skeleton.

His left hand extended, five fingers precisely gripping the stem of the water lotus. With a gentle pinch of his fingernails where the roots were embedded in the skeleton's ribs, the entire water lotus, roots and stem, was taken intact.

Simultaneously, his right hand grabbed for the scroll beside the skeleton. The moment his fingers touched the scroll, his heart trembled slightly—the material of the scroll was not paper, not silk, but a kind of extremely soft yet extremely tough silk fabric.

Having soaked in the water for who knows how many years, it showed no signs of decay at all.

He tucked both items into his chest, tapped his toes lightly on the stone beside the skeleton, and using the force, flipped his body, darting backward like a startled fish.

From the moment he attacked to his retreat, it took less than a single breath.

By the time Jin Ze rushed to the skeleton, his hands grabbed nothing but empty water. His fingers still held the grasping posture, but his fingertips only touched the cold pool water and a few strands of silt stirred up by Lin Tian.

The skeleton's ribs stood bare, and in the space between the ribs where the water lotus had originally grown, only a small section of broken root remained, swaying slightly.

Around the skeleton, there was nothing but a few stones and some slippery water plants.

Jin Ze's brain buzzed. He turned around the skeleton frantically twice, stirring up the silt. In the murky mud mist, his hands felt through every crevice in the stones, grabbing a handful of water plants and a few broken stones, but nothing else.

His eyes turned red, bloodshot veins spreading from the corners of his eyes to the edges of his pupils. A stifled breath was stuck in his chest, unable to be exhaled or swallowed.

He suddenly turned around and locked his eyes on Lin Tian, who was swimming into the distance. He raised his arm and swung his palm violently in Lin Tian's direction.

Sound does not travel far underwater, but the way his palm cleaved through the water current made his meaning clear: "Hand it over."

Lin Tian glanced back at him and rolled his eyes. He literally rolled his eyes, then stomped his foot violently on a reef behind him.

His whole body shot toward the surface like an arrow leaving the string. The meaning was also very clear: "The item is mine, you have no share."

Jin Ze was furious.

"Want to leave?" Holding his breath, he kicked his legs violently, and the Swimming Fish Movement Technique was unleashed once again.

His speed in the water was astonishing. His body, streamlined, broke through the pool water, and every twist of his waist and kick of his legs could propel him several zhang forward. In his opinion, Lin Tian had sunk fast just now because he was holding a stone; once the stone was thrown away, the advantage of sinking quickly was gone.

Now, ascending to the surface without a stone to borrow force from, relying purely on movement technique, he believed Lin Tian was definitely no match for him.

He had practiced the Swimming Fish Movement Technique in the Bailong River for over a dozen years, reaching the Minor Achievement Realm in underwater arts; he was faster than most fish in the water. How could some kid who popped up from nowhere compare to him in swimming ability?

Part of his judgment was correct. His movement technique was indeed fast. Before long, he had caught up to a spot not far behind Lin Tian.

The pool water had changed from the pitch-black deep water area to the dim middle water layer. The surface above revealed hazy daylight, as if separated by a layer of thick frosted glass.

Using this faint light, he clearly saw Lin Tian's back just a few zhang ahead.

He chased after him, gritting his teeth. His right palm slashed out from the water, five fingers together, the edge of his palm as sharp as a knife, carrying a fierce water current directly toward the back of Lin Tian's neck.

If this palm strike landed, let alone underwater, it could split a bluestone in half even on land.

The water flow on Lin Tian's back was disturbed by the palm wind, and a subtle fluctuation traveled from behind to his skin.

After his Dragon Roar Iron Shirt reached Minor Achievement, his skin's perception of water flow was countless times more sensitive than an ordinary person's.

The moment that fluctuation arrived, he judged the direction and force of the palm blade.

He was slightly stunned—not out of fear, but surprise. Just now at the bottom of the water, he only felt that the opponent's movement technique was decent; he didn't expect it to be this fast.

To catch up to his back from the skeleton's position to the middle water layer in such a short distance—this underwater skill was indeed extraordinary.

It seemed the opponent was also an expert in the water.

But so what?

The rhythm of the White Dragon in the Waves Movement Technique suddenly changed underwater. Lin Tian's waist twisted violently, and his body turned in the water like a flipped whip. From his waist to his back to his legs, his entire body rotated half a circle around an invisible axis.

Jin Ze's palm blade grazed the back of his neck, the water current brought up by the edge of his palm cutting off a few of his hairs, but it didn't even touch his skin.

Using the momentum of the rotation, he kicked his legs, and his entire body darted diagonally in another direction, opening up a distance of three zhang from Jin Ze.

Jin Ze missed with his strike, gritted his teeth, and kicked his legs repeatedly, chasing after him again.

This time he unleashed the Swimming Fish Movement Technique to the extreme. The amplitude of his waist twisting was greater, the frequency of his leg kicking was faster, and his whole body was stretched into a blurred streamlined tail in the water.

But as he chased, he discovered that not only did he fail to close the distance, but he was being left further and further behind.

Five zhang. Eight zhang. Ten zhang.

Lin Tian's back became smaller and more blurred in his eyes.

He gritted his teeth and chased for a while longer, but the distance not only didn't shrink, it widened even further.

His mentality collapsed. What was going on? How could this kid's movement technique be so terrifying?

He was faster than a fish in the water; along the entire Bailong River, one could count the people with better swimming skills than him on one hand.

Yet this young man, who looked a few years younger than him, was swimming faster than him by more than a notch.

He was chasing from behind, while the other was swimming in front, with a posture as relaxed as strolling in his own backyard, occasionally looking back at him.

There was no triumph or mockery in those eyes, only a very calm look, as if he were looking at a stone by the roadside.

Jin Ze stopped the pursuit.

A stifled breath was stuck in his chest, and his eyes were bloodshot. He couldn't catch up. This kid's movement technique was more brilliant than his, his speed was faster, and his endurance was no worse than his.

If he kept chasing, he would definitely be the first to collapse. He gritted his teeth, reached to his waist, and untied two chains from behind his waist.

Those two chains were deep blue, forged from some kind of cold iron, with dense runes carved on the chains. A copper ball the size of a fist was tied to each end of the chains, the surface of the copper balls covered in dense, sharp spikes.

He held the two chains in his hands and shook his arms violently. The chains unfolded in the water like two living water snakes, winding toward Lin Tian from the left and right.

The speed of the cold iron chains in the water was much faster than a human hand.

The water's resistance to the chains was less than to a human body. The two chains broke through the pool water, carrying a sharp hiss, and in a pincer formation from left and right, they instantly caught up to Lin Tian's back.

The copper balls at the front of the chains traced two arcs in the water; one circled from the left to the front of Lin Tian, and the other blocked his retreat from the right, while the chains themselves covered him from directly behind like a large net.

Lin Tian had already sensed it when the sound of the chains breaking the water reached him. That sound was completely different from the sound of the palm blade breaking the water—it was sharper, more dense, like two steel wires whipping through the water at high speed.

He glanced back and saw that the two blue chains had sealed off his left, right, and rear directions, and the two spike-covered copper balls at the front were closing in rapidly.

In the moment of crisis, the White Dragon in the Waves Movement Technique exploded again.

Lin Tian's body twisted and flipped violently in the water. This move was called "Flood Dragon Turning Over"—using the waist to generate force, the body rotated along the longitudinal axis, and at the same time, his legs kicked out violently, and his whole body did a 360-degree somersault in the water.

The chains grazed past beneath him, and the spikes on the copper balls were less than two inches away from his robes.

After flipping out of the encirclement of the chains, he immediately followed up with a side dash, his body tracing an arc in the air, and he stopped steadily above a reef.

Lin Tian turned around and locked his eyes on Jin Ze, who was swimming rapidly toward him. His gaze had changed.

Before, at the bottom of the water, when Jin Ze wanted to snatch the water lotus, he only thought the other party was greedy and didn't want to bother with him.

Later, when Jin Ze chased him all the way, he only felt the other party was pestering him and still didn't want to fight. But now, this complete stranger had tried to kill him.

It wasn't about snatching treasure; it was about killing. Those two chains just now were aimed at his vital points.

If he were entangled by the chains and those spike-covered copper balls hit him, even with the Dragon Roar Iron Shirt protecting his body, he would lose a layer of skin.

Furthermore, this was in water several dozen zhang deep; if he were injured, the water pressure and suffocation could cost him his life.

Lin Tian stopped running.

He stood above the reef, his hand resting on the hilt of his autumn water sword. Since the other party wanted to kill him, he didn't need to hold back anymore.