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nMountain Master felt extreme pain that he never felt before.

nIt is like each cell of the flesh at that one particular point is trying to separate from the rest. He couldn't think of a better way to describe it. And in this process, Sam managed to land another slash and disappeared from that spot.

nHe reappeared in the front and stabbed forward into the gut.

nSpiritual energy became dense and caught hold of the blade. Sam gritted his teeth and pushed forward as if he is just cutting through some hard substance.

nThe spiritual energy almost became visible and it was torn apart before the sword stabbed the Mountain Master in the gut.

nSam slashed it to the side and let the shadow and spatial energies rampage. He didn't care about the expense of energy and he didn't care much about defending himself. His attacks are of full power and strength that is just focused on killing the opponent faster.

nSam disappeared and reappeared on the left side. When a much more condensed barrier appeared on that side, he slashed with ripple style and void style combined. The barrier collapsed quickly and the Mountain master had to take on the residual attacks.

nHe took a few steps back only to get stabbed from the back in his chest and with a mere thought, Sam destroyed his heart with the rampaging energy.

nThe combat is over and they returned to the main board.

nSam didn't even let the information process as he took his chance and made a move on the board.

nHe didn't care if the other party is ready or not. Obviously, since they are literally enemies.

nThe battle went on like the previous one mostly. The Mountain Master died within a few minutes as Sam used the space and shadow energy once again.

nHe decided that he will just use the same style until the Mountain Master will at least show some kind of hint that he could counter this form.

nBut it didn't happen as he went through a few more combats.

nSam realized that as long as he doesn't succumb to the prepared traps of the Mountain Master and didn't give him enough time to prepare in the midst of combat, it is really not that difficult to deal with him on the same level.

nAnd the fact that he causes use different elements and also the void style, ripple style, and repel style to counter any of the tricks that could have stumped any other person, is an added bonus.

nThe battles went on and on and before the Mountain Master knew it, he is down to a severely damaged Queen that could only last against a pawn at this point and the king.

nSam also lost a lot of his own pieces. Even though he won so many combats, whenever a piece is weakened to the extreme, the mountain master's suicidal character is acting up and he is taking both of them down in a way.

nBut Sam didn't really mind much as he really is looking forward to the King Vs King fight.

nSo, he recklessly attacked and now he is also down to a pawn a half-beaten Queen, and the King.

nThe Pawn attacked the Queen. The Queen barely won with a little shred of health left.

nSam then used his own Queen against the Queen of the Mountain Master.

nThe battle didn't last long, because as soon as Sam neared the guy, he directly made his energy go volatile and self-destructed, killing himself and Sam barely alive.

nSam didn't care. His queen now only has very little health which means the King Vs King fight is inevitable as long as he got rid of it.

nSo, he attacked the King with his Queen.

nHe didn't even bother to put up much of a fight.

nAs usual, the Mountain Master used the weird technique to drag Sam towards him. Sam didn't resist this time and let it be. The Mountain master's sadistic personality acted up as if he wanted to torture Sam. With just a few waves of his hand, Sam felt like he is stuck in a large box.

nSoon, he felt like the walls of the box are closing in on him. The walls are invisible normally, but not with his energy vision. He can see the walls that are coming into crushing him.

nThe load on his body gradually increased. But Sam just gritted his teeth and looked at the Mountain Master dead in the eye. He spread all of his spiritual energy into the box and used his manipulation ability.

nWhen the Mountain Master felt the spiritual energy that invaded him, he was shocked. He started defending against it, instead of trying to crush Sam.

nSam who is inside the box, felt slightly relieved as the load reduced and started releasing all of his energy as he used the manipulation ability to destabilize the energy in the walls.

nThe Mountain Master had a bad feeling and wanted to escape, but Sam decided to self-destruct making it impossible for him to leave.

nAnd this self-destruction is different. Instead of letting the spiritual energy stay inside his body while he did that, he completely spread it out. He forcefully squeezed out every last hint of spiritual energy and which almost made him die on the spot before exploding it that guy's face.

nMountain Master took the full brunt of the explosion. The explosion of the spiritual energy left behind by Sam along with the explosions of his own energy box that he created.

nHe did take a lot of measures that he could take in that short amount of time to defend himself.

nBut he still took some serious damage.

nBoth of them came back to the board.

nNow all that is left are the king and the king.

nOf course, the Mountain Master's king is damaged while Sam's king is completely intact. The battle will be the final one and Sam is sure that he will definitely win.

nThe only problem is that he doesn't know how long it will take. The Mountain Master is definitely not soft and he could see with the current cultivation level that is allowed which is the Initial stage of Consummate level, his fighting style also changed a bit.

nThe King's battle began as his mind was filled with different thoughts.

nThey were both pulled into the combat zone and Sam got ready with the dual elemental fusion and the shadow sword.

nBut right before he could make a move, he already felt a slight sense of threat from around him. He activated energy vision and barely dodged an attack.

nIt is an invisible energy blade and it brushed past his cheek. But what surprised him even more is that he could feel that his original flesh has been cut even though he is in a fusion state.

nNormally when someone is in a full fusion state, their body acts just like that element and even though the original body gets tired along with it, the injuries won't exactly land on the body until the fusion is gone.

nBut Sam feels that his original body is being cut and his energy is also drained a lot.

nHe looked at the Mountain Master in surprise.

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"You pesky bastard. I should have killed you a lot sooner. I should have killed you and your friends by involving myself in this way before my disciples did.

nYou arrogant **head. How dare you make me go through this hell? You have seen way too many of my secrets. There is no way I am going to let you live after this is over.

"

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"Secrets?

"

nSam could guess what they are. The Mountain Master's cultivation technique. Otherwise, there is no way Sam could explain the weird progression in his battle prowess.

nAs pawns, both of them are limited to the middle stage of Astral Plane Transcendence and in that stage, Mountain master is pathetically weak. In the Late and Peak stages of Astral Plane transcendence, he is a bit stronger.

nHe is able to hold his own against Sam a bit.

nBut in the current stage, the Astral Plane Consummate stage, he is really strong. An attack that Sam couldn't even fathom. If not for the Mountain master's sadistic tendencies, he could have killed the Queen piece of Sam instantly.

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"My weakness, my inability to fight properly, my techniques that are restrained and way too dependant on my cultivation level. Do you even know the things I have done to hide these from the world?

nI killed entire clans, to keep the word from coming out. I made races go extinct just to make sure that there is no word about it.

nI have destroyed countless lives to erase my dirty past of mine just to be the perfect being I am known to be.

nAnd you, a noname bastard came to steal all of this away from me. I will not let you go. I will torture you for years before slowly taking your life away.

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