Come what may, Ling Kuang had to kill Tang Ze. That would result in the best outcome for him. After all, this Tang Ze was barely an Initiate; even if he killed someone like that, for a Nascent Soul cultivator it was like stepping on an ant. He might be fined, but that would be the worst that could happen. Granted, Tang Ze was protected by his affiliation with the Rising Phoenix sect which was a much bigger problem for him, but he would have to let his own sect deal with that later.
Right now, he had to find a way to justifiably finish off Tang Ze.
"Hypocrite," Tang Ze said, as he stopped kowtowing, realizing that it wouldn't stop Ling Kuang. This man was pretending to be righteous, but had gone back on his word in a heartbeat!
"Why you-"
"Though," Tang Ze said, laughing coldly all of a sudden. "What makes you think that if we fight - you won't end up getting hit with [Monkey Stealing Peaches] again?"
"Heh," Ling Kuang said. "Don't you think I would've prepared for such a thing before coming to face you? My [Nuts of Steel] ability that I've honed for twenty years more than prepares me to defend against such a mov-"
Tang Ze started laughing even louder.
"W-What's so funny?" Ling Kuang asked.
"What? Do you think that innovation only goes one way, or that you were the only one who was improving all of these years?" Tang Ze asked. He had decided to completely lean into the fact that he was the Tang Ze that this guy was looking for, since Ling Kuang didn't seem to accept any other explanation - but Tang Ze was also determined to twist this to his own advantage as well! "You've improved your defense, that might be correct, but that also means that I have had time to improve my offense. In truth, the reason I lost during my last life and was killed, though it was never made public, was because my technique was defeated due to a defensive ability like that. I've been building on [Monkey Stealing Peaches] during this lifetime so that it can pierce through such defenses - I call it…. [Monkey Stealing Peaches… Pro Max]!"
"Junior, that is a terrible name," Elder He Xuan said. The thing was that Tang Ze hadn't been able to come up with a better name in the spur of the moment given how stressful the situation was. "And why are you saying all of this?"
"Relax, Elder He Xuan. I am a Supreme Grandmaster in the Dao of talking bullshit, I'll talk my way out of this situation somehow."
"Isn't talking bullshit how you landed yourself in this situation in the first place?"
Tang Ze did not have an answer to that.
"Hehe… as if I'd believe something like that!" Ling Kuang said, laughing heartily.
However, this laughter was just a way for him to cover up the sudden panic that was rising within him like a tidal wave.
'There's no chance he actually managed to build on that technique and improved it is there?' - Ling Kuang thought to himself.
And as he thought of it, the memory of his last life struck him.
When he had unlocked the memories of his prior life through meditation, the one core memory that stuck out the most… it was the pain of being hit by that move! Not his happiest moments like when he had gotten married, or watching the birth of his children, no - the recollection of the agony that move had caused was what immediately assaulted him!
Ling Kuang was only a Nascent Soul specialist and was not a soul cultivator like Xian Yue, so he had only been able to unlock the memories of a single prior life after quite a large amount of effort. He had tried to do so to see if he could recall any special techniques or inheritances he might have learned or found during his prior life.
However, once he had managed to finally accomplish it after putting in so much effort, what he had immediately managed to get was not something useful; instead he had been assaulted by the memory of the horrible pain he had felt! Naturally this had made a huge impression on him.
That was why he was so obsessed with getting revenge, even in this lifetime! That had been his goal after he had peered into the memories of his past life.
However, Ling Kuang now knew from experience how awful it felt to be hit by that move.
He wanted revenge, but he did not want to risk being hit by it again!
"Wait a moment," Zhang Long said. "So is that what you've been doing all this time when you weren't in the sect? We thought you were talking to your imaginary girlfriend, but you were really working on this killer move?"
"Oh, and isn't [Nuts of Steel] based on one of the Five Attributes - 'to be as tough as steel?' One of his squad members has the same attribute, so did he really find a way to bypass such defenses after doing in-depth research?" someone else in the crowd muttered.
They didn't know it, but they had done Tang Ze a huge favor!
Now, Ling Kuang was no longer laughing.
The odds of Tang Ze actually having such a move went up in his mind enormously! It was absolutely true that he had been born with one of the Five Attributes which he honed to make that defensive ability - but had Tang Ze already thought of a counter for that?
It was not impossible. If Ling Kuang could find a way to improve his defense, Tang Ze could also find a way to improve his offense.
This sort of battle of innovation between different techniques had been going on since time immemorial!
Tang Ze, meanwhile, couldn't believe this was working. It was like a kindergarten playground level of imaginary fighting going on here. 'I shoot at you with a laser canon!', 'Well, I activate my forcefield!', 'Well I use a laser canon that can break forcefields!', 'Then I use my special forcefield that can't be broken by laser canons!' - that was basically what this back-and-forth boiled down to.
"Can confirm, I do have one of the Five Attributes, to be 'tough as steel'," Chen Yu said, raising his hand. "My name is Chen Yu by the way, and yes, I am a member of his squad."
"Ah, Senior Elder Ling Kuang, that bit of information is correct," one of the members of the Astral Winds sect said. They had clearly investigated the sect before coming here.
Ling Kuan was sweating bullets now. He did not want to be hit by that technique again! Even if he won, it would be as good as losing if he had to endure that pain again!
In an instant, Ling Kuang had turned from a roaring tiger to a mewling kitten!
"Well, I had been perfecting the move in secret," Tang Ze said, grinning wickedly. "I also need to work on the name, but the technique itself is ready. And what time is better than the present to try it out?"
"L-Let's not be too hasty here," Ling Kuang said. He was absolutely not going to take the risk that Tang Ze knew an improved version of that technique. "How about this - we'll both fight without using any special techniques! And as you're weaker, I'll even allow you to strike the first blow in the name of fairness!"
These were exactly the words that Tang Ze was hoping to hear.
Of course, in ordinary circumstances, this was absolutely ludicrous as a fighting condition.
Ling Kuang was at the Nascent Soul realm - meaning he was at the very minimum about three thousand times stronger than a normal person, and that was barring any special techniques he might know or treasures that he might have. At maximum, a Qi Condensation cultivator would be just slightly more than two and a half times stronger than they would normally be
The chasm between the two was enormous!
But this was only multiplicative of their base strength. And currently, Tang Ze was in full costume.
A costume that gave him roughly thirty percent of the character's power. But when the character in question could destroy multiple planets, what was thirty percent of that?
Tang Ze could easily break half a continent as easily as he would a candy bar.
The only worry he had going into this fight was some strange ability or technique, like one that targeted the soul or karma - he wasn't sure if Elder He Xuan could block such a technique given that he was only at the Golden Core realm.
Elder He Xuan had incapacitated him using such a technique after the sect entrance exam.
Now though, the conditions of the entire fight were in his favor!
Not that Ling Kuang had realized that.
"Good," Elder He Xuan said. "You get one blow - finish him with that!"
"I agree to those terms," Tang Ze said, taking a fighting stance.
"Well then-" Ling Kuan said, the words barely out of his mouth as he could barely make out Tang Ze moving with incredible speed, closing the distance between them in a fraction of the time it would take someone to blink.
Tang Ze could not bring out his full speed strength out, or he risked damaging the costume if he did so, but even then, he was a force to be reckoned with!
Ling Kuan saw the fist flying towards his head, and disregarding what he said earlier - he activated multiple defensive techniques. That was all that he could do in that short span of time - the thought of counterattacking didn't even cross his mind as his survival instincts kicked in.
This was one of the Five Attributes - 'to be as tough as steel!'
Unfortunately, his defenses crumbled like wads of wet tissue paper before the sheer might of Tang Ze's blow, and the punch connected with his jaw practically unhindered, shattering it, breaking six other bones in his skull, and knocking him unconscious.
If Tang Ze had not restrained himself, he could've burst open Ling Kuang's head like a tomato.
But, just like that, the fight was over.
To the spectators, who were either Golden Core or lower, the fight was just a single blur, over in less than a heartbeat.
One moment, Tang Ze was standing far away from Ling Kuan.
The next, Ling Kuan was on the floor, unconscious, Tang Ze standing triumphantly over him. To the spectators, it was nearly instantaneous!
"..."
"What happened?"
"Senior Elder Ling Kuan!"
"He's dead!?"
"Hold your horses," Tang Ze said. "He isn't dead, but if any of you all make a single wrong move, I'll crush his skull!"
"What kind of technique was that?"
"I could barely see it!"
"Was that the legendary [Bullet Strike]?"
"No, I think that was [Fulminous Fist]!"
"Wrong, that had to be [Profound Heavenly Dragon's Fist] based on how it bridged the gap in realms between the two!"
'All of you are wrong - I just hit him really, really, hard.' - Tang Ze thought.
"Junior, it's not enough to knock him out," Elder He Xuan said. "Go examine his dantians."
Tang Ze realized what he was saying as leaned over Ling Kuang, placing the ring over Ling Kuang's lower abdomen.
Because all he had done was hit Ling Kuang really hard, it meant that he could heal his wounds rather quickly since Tang Ze had not mastered the art of augmenting his physical strikes with Qi.
As a matter of fact, around five percent of his injuries had already been patched up.
Elder He Xuan was examining Ling Kuang's Qi network, and was now injecting his own Qi into it. Tang Ze joined him in that endeavor.