Chapter 688 Sudden visitors
All of this happened so quickly, that the 'Winged white tiger' was still struggling to shake off the effects of the 'Thundergod's slash' that had made it almost lose consciousness, before it found that its master had suddenly collapsed not too far away from it.
Seeing that Qiu Yun had ended up losing consciousness, the 'Winged white tiger' let out a roar of anger and unwillingness as it stared at its master's opponent.
Considering that its intelligence wasn't any lower than that of a human's and its mind was also connected with Qiu Yun's through a master and servant contract, the tiger could clearly understand that its master had lost the fight.
A few moments ago, it had sensed how Qiu Yun had felt as if a hammer had suddenly struck his ribs just as he was about to deal the final blow and win the fight.
Qiu Yun couldn't understand how Shun Long could possibly shake off the effects of his 'Soul sword' and even manage to hit him first, when he had been the one to attack first.
But those disciples in the crowd, including those in the top 1000 who were standing in the surrounding platforms, and even the inner court Elders in the sky above the arena had all clearly seen what had just happened.
Shun Long had used the same move he had used against Dong Ai earlier, causing Qiu Yun's body to be frozen in mid-air before Shun Long sent a terrifying punch towards his left ribs.
Of course, Shun Long knew that the effect of his 'Time Prison' would be much weaker on Qiu Yun whose cultivation was at the peak of the Nascent Soul and his Dao comprehension was also half a step away from breaking through to the Dao King realm compared to the effect it had on Dong Ai.
At the same time, Shun Long knew that he could effortlessly trap Dong Ai inside his 'Time Prison' for more than an hour if he wanted to, but the effect it had on Qiu Yun was only enough to sustain the 'Time Prison' for less than a second.
However, that one second was enough to judge the entire fight.
''Am I dreaming? Qiu Yun actually lost?''
''I don't believe it either! How can his 'Soul Sword' fail to have any effect? That Shun Long didn't seem to be affected by it at all. Even I am not capable of resisting that attack from Qiu Yun without suffering any aftereffects.''
This time, it was the disciples among the top 1000, and even some of the disciples who were ranked in the top 600 and the top 500 who felt bewildered at the scene they had just witnessed.
Most of those disciples were already familiar with Qiu Yun and knew that his spiritual strength was definitely ranked among the top 3 of the outer court disciples who had yet to breakthrough to the Dao King realm.
But somehow, a spiritual attack that was carrying the full force of his spiritual strength had actually failed to harm Shun Long even a little bit..
Even the Elders in the sky stared at Shun Long with clear looks of astonishment, unable to understand how he had managed to stay unaffected after being hit by Qiu Yun's attack.
It was one thing for Shun Long to have comprehended 2 supreme Daos which made him nearly invincible at the same level of cultivation and even allowed him to fight with others who were even stronger than him. Those Elders could even accept Shun Long having trained in an extremely powerful body refinement cultivation technique that had made his body capable of fighting peak rank 5 magic beasts while at the middle of the fifth stage in body refinement. However, Shun Long didn't seem to be affected even by soul attacks now.
''Does this guy even have any weaknesses?'' This question appeared in the inner court Elders' minds, as the 3 of them stared fervently at Shun Long on the platform below them.
What these Elders didn't know was that someone like Qiu Yun didn't have a single chance to harm Shun Long using soul attacks.
The moment that Qiu Yun decided to resort to soul attacks, he was doomed to lose.
Shun Long's spiritual sea was simply too terrifying while the power inside it had already exceeded the Nascent Soul stage long ago.
Right now, although Shun Long was still at the middle rank 7 of the Nascent Soul, his spiritual strength had already reached a level equivalent to the peak of the Dao King realm!
This meant that Shun Long's spiritual strength right now wasn't any weaker than that of a peak Dao King's.
Thus, Qiu Yun's soul attack was no different from a rock being dropped in an ocean, stirring up practically no ripples within Shun Long's spiritual sea.
After all, how could QIu Yun harm a peak Dao King with his spiritual strength that was still at the Nascent Souls tage?
Even Shun Long had been surprised when he saw the sword-shaped soul attack that came from Qiu Yun's body and was immediately extinguished by his spiritual sea. He hadn't expected that he would be this resistant against soul attacks, to the point that he wouldn't be harmed at all.
Of course, Shun Long understood that this didn't mean that he could fight against a peak stage Dao King even if he learned a martial skill like Qiu Yun's 'Soul Sword'.
However, if it was purely in terms of the defense of his soul, not even peak Dao Kings would be able to break past Shun Long's soul defenses and harm him so easily, let alone someone like Qiu Yun.
After he received his sect identifying token from the outer court Elder, Shun Long flew back towards the audience seats under the respectful gazes of the crowd.
He had actually entered the top 600 in the Martial Roll in one go.
Many outer disciples were unwilling to accept this result, but there were plenty of them who looked at Shun Long with awe at this moment.
Defeating someone like Qiu Yun was indeed an accomplishment that deserved their respect.
This was even more so considering the fact that Qiu Yun was rumored to be strong enough to enter the top 500 this time.
He had simply been too unfortunate to be challenged by Shun Long before he could issue his own challenge to someone ranked in the top 500 instead.
Of course, Shun Long knew that his biggest benefit from this battle was learning how a beast tamer like QIu Yun usually fought.
Indeed, Qiu Yun's fighting style was completely different from anyone else that Shun Long had fought against so far.
Although Qiu Yun had a relatively 'weak' physical defense compared to his long-range attacks like the 'Thousand Rocks Array' or his spiritual strength, he was still an extremely powerful peak rank 9 Nascent Soul stage cultivator on his own.
When one factored that his only weakness was also covered by a powerful peak rank 5 magic beast that was just a step away from evolving to become a rank 6 beast, Qiu Yun could be considered to be extremely strong among other peak rank 9 Nascent Soul stage cultivators, even by the Holy sect's standards.
At the same time, as the fights for the Martial Roll of Honor in the arena continued, a few thousand miles away from the Holy city, an old man and a young woman who were both dressed in purple robes were sitting on the back of an enormous black bird that resembled a crow, as they flew directly towards the Holy mountain that was barely visible in the distance ahead of them.
The purple-robed young woman had short, jade-like hair and a pair of matching light green eyes that seemed to be staring directly towards the faintly visible mountain in the distance ahead. A moment later, the young woman turned her almond-shaped eyes towards the old man by her side and asked curiously
''Uncle Mo, does this Holy sect have anyone who is worthy of my time?''