However, Hong Xi was even more startled. Even though he had not used true essence, he had still used his full and complete strength in this strike; but Lin Ming was able to block it head-on!
Hong Xi had already known that Lin Ming’s strength was otherworldly, but he did not think that after achieving Large Success in the Third Stage of Body Transformation, that his strength would undergo such a dramatic rise. This strength must be no less than 5000 jins! His body was simply like a vicious beast!
Although he was surprised, Hong Xi’s movement hadn’t slowed in the slightest. He took advantage of Lin Ming’s blowback from his spear strike and aggressed on him. He thrusted his spear out three times, and each strike cut off all of Lin Ming’s dodging paths. Lin Ming could only raise his spear to defend!
Dong!
As they collided, Hong Xi’s spear fell upon the spear shaft of Penetrating Rainbow. The dark purple elastic iron spear shaft was hammered by Hong Xi and forcefully bent like a bow!
Lin Ming’s feet sank into the ground, and his right foot was trapped in the thick soil. He pushed back with all his strength on Penetrating Rainbow, and just managed to force back Hong Xi’s spear. But Hong Xi had backflipped into the air, and as he was airborne, his long spear drew a perfect arc, and he did a straight thrust from under his belly towards Lin Ming’s throat.
The spear came flying at him too fast and too suddenly. With him having recklessly forced back two of Hong Xi’s blows, he had exhausted his true essence, and the blood in his chest was roiling. He was not able to block this strike, and Hong Xi’s one spear thrust came perilously close to Lin Ming’s throat.
At that moment, Lin Ming could clearly feel the bone-chilling wind from the spear, painfully flowing against his skin. But in a flash, Hong Xi had withdrawn his spear, and the spear point stopped a half inch away from Lin Ming’s throat, not injuring him in the least.
What accurate control of force!
Even knowing that Hong Xi’s spear would not pierce him, Lin Ming’s breath had stopped in that instant as the spear wind blew against his skin. This spear thrust that was like a bolt of lightning was just too scary.
Three moves. In just three moves, Lin Ming was defeated!
As Hong Xi received his long spear, he said, “Lin Ming, although I suppressed my true essence, I did not suppress my strength. Still, you were able to last until the third spear move, which is already far beyond what someone of your level can accomplish! Your strength really goes against heaven’s will; I guess it must be more than 5000 jins!
“5300 jins.” Lin Ming replied truthfully.
“5300 jins!” Hong Xi clicked his tongue, “ A martial artist at your cultivation would have been thrown 18 streets away by you. Your strength is truly appropriate to wield the spear; using a sword would have been a waste! When you had received my three strikes, you were actually not at your best level. When you were defending, you had one very weak point. That is your momentum!
Momentum!
Lin Ming was slightly stunned. Early on, his moment had really been overwhelmed and crushed by Hong Xi’s swift and fierce spear moves!
“When you had fought against Zhang Cang, you had used the most basic foundation moves ‘Iron Bridge Blocks the River’ and ‘Flood Dragon Goes to Sea’ to break apart Zhang Cang’s ‘Sunset Cut’. This was because your spear carried with it a tide of surging momentum! But a moment ago, because my spear moves were too quick, you did not have enough time to gather your potential! Yes, although the momentum of your spear is strong, but it actually has a fatal weakness, and that is that its start is too slow!”
“Zhu Yan uses a sword, and he has great attainments in swordsmanship. His attacks are extremely swift and aggressive. If you are suppressed by him, then his moves will be faster than yours, and you will not be able to gather your momentum. When that happens, you will be led into his rhythm, and finally be defeated!”
Hong Xi was indeed an instructor of the Seven Profound Martial House; he had quickly discerned and pointed out another weakness of Lin Ming’s.
Indeed, no matter how good a skill was, if one did not have time to begin unleash it, then it would be useless!
“Now you must learn how to gather your momentum while you are attacking! Have you ever heard of some martial skills that are in a set, for instance, something something 18 palms, or whatever whatever 9 swords, or something silly like that?”
Lin Ming nodded.
Hong Xi said, “This set style often starts from the first, weakest move. A move will follow the previous move, and each move will be stronger than the last! You might ask; why would someone waste their energy doing this and not use their strongest final attack on the first move? The truth is, it is not that they don’t want to, but that they cannot. This is a question of gathering their momentum. They need to begin at the start, and save up their potential,