As he attacked, Ting Shan also prepared his defenses. A protective shield had already been activated around his body to prevent the other's potent poison from invading.
Facing Ting Shan's ferocious, beast-like attack that closed the distance in an instant, Zhao Min's body retreated slightly. Her long, slender, and fair index and middle fingers came together like a sword, pointing towards the incoming fist with extreme speed.
'She really is a Poison Cultivator!'
With their cultivation and strength, once they began to attack, their movements were like lightning. The only ones present whose Divine Sense could keep up were Ting Bixiao and Li Yan.
Ting Bixiao looked at that slender, jade-like finger, then at the descending, bowl-sized fist. He didn't think she intended to meet it head-on.
It was more likely that she had condensed some deadly poison on her fingertip. By borrowing and redirecting the force, a simple swipe across Ting Shan's fist would be enough.
Poisons that could corrode spirit power, in particular, could use this opportunity to seep into the opponent's spirit power shield.
In the heat of the moment, Ting Shan, in the center of the arena, made the same judgment as Ting Bixiao, but he was also confident in his own defense.
With his guard already up, the deadly poison from her fingertip could not possibly breach his defense in an instant. He would then seize the opportunity to exert more force and break her fingers.
This would be followed by a continuous storm of attacks...
As these thoughts flashed through his mind, Ting Shan's movements didn't stop. A surge of fierce power flowed down his arm.
The moment their finger and fist made contact, Ting Shan's entire arm swelled by another circle, and his fist grew larger by several degrees.
A dull "thud" echoed.
To the astonishment of everyone except Li Yan, the two figures in the Sparring Arena, in a blur, suddenly became briefly clear, allowing the crowd below to witness an unbelievable scene.
In the air, two figures, one large and one small, completely mismatched, were frozen in a momentary tableau.
A slender figure, her body slightly turned, had two pure white, jade-like fingers pressed against a massive fist.
The owner of that fist, with his mountain-like physique, was pinned in place, unable to push her back even half a fraction.
This image lasted only for an instant, but it was long enough for the cultivators present to see it clearly.
Subsequently, a glint of cold light erupted between the finger and the fist, and a majestic wave of air spread out to both sides.
This wave of air violently pushed back Ting Shan's forward-leaning body, his feet leaving a long trail of spirit power in the air as he slid backward.
As Ting Shan wore a somewhat dazed expression, Zhao Min was already upon him like a shadow. Her hand gesture unchanged, she spread all five jade-like fingers and strummed towards Ting Shan as if playing a pipa.
"Ding, ding, ding..." Amidst a series of crisp sounds, clusters of cyan and blue light burst forth on Ting Shan's chest, as dazzling as fireworks on New Year's Eve.
The cyan light was the explosion of Ting Shan's spirit power, while the blue, tinged with an icy aura, was the fierce surge of Zhao Min's.
With the series of clear sounds, Ting Shan's massive body was knocked back continuously.
The two moved with incredible speed, one chasing the other, covering about a thousand zhang in an instant.
Just as the hearts of the Giant Wood Clan members below were in their throats, a long laugh suddenly came from Ting Shan in the air.
"So you're actually a Body Cultivator! This makes the fight even more exhilarating, hahaha!!"
Fighting a Poison Cultivator required him to be constantly on guard, unable to attack with abandon, always needing to hold back to protect himself.
Ting Shan's seemingly huge body suddenly twisted in a bizarre way. In an instant, his figure appeared a hundred zhang to Zhao Min's side and rear.
"Go!"
He pulled his hands forward and then brought them together. Suddenly, dense, thick logs appeared all around Zhao Min.
The moment the logs manifested, they shot forward like arrows, carrying an oppressive and stifling wind.
In an instant, the air was filled with "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..." sounds, and Zhao Min was immediately trapped within a Myriad Wood Assault Formation.
Zhao Min's face was impassive. Amidst the chaotic assault of logs in the void, she suddenly spun around and soared into the air.
To Ting Shan's astonishment, her entire body shot out in a straight line.
Facing the unstoppable giant logs, Zhao Min was like a ferocious beast that knew no fear of death. Wherever she passed, she left a sky full of splinters.
The splinters flew up like nails, shooting out in all directions with sharp whistles.
By the time the surrounding Ting Shan had just finished casting his spell, he saw his technique being broken. Countless wood splinters shrieked through the air, shooting towards him like a torrential downpour.
Without a second thought, he deployed a cyan barrier around himself.
"Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh..." Countless nail-like points of light studded the cyan barrier like quills, instantly making Ting Shan look like a monster covered in sharp spines.
"Open!" a muffled shout was heard.
The next moment, the sharp spines all over Ting Shan's body turned to ash and scattered into the sky.
Amidst the debris and ash, Zhao Min had already closed the distance, raising a hand to press a palm towards the giant man in front of her.
Ting Shan had just shaken off the wood splinters when he felt a sharp, icy force pressing down on him, making it difficult for him to breathe for a moment.
His combat experience was also exceptionally rich, and he remained completely unfazed.
That palm was aimed precisely at his left chest. He sank his body down, his shoulder slightly pulling back, and used the momentum to sway his entire body like a bear shaking itself.
At the same time, he pushed off powerfully with his back leg, his slanted shoulder thrusting upward and forward. The next moment, it collided with the palm outside the cyan barrier.
"Bang!"
Another dazzling ball of light erupted between the two, making it impossible for the crowd below to look directly, and their figures blurred.
In the air, both figures trembled slightly. The cyan barrier around Ting Shan immediately caved inward, forming a palm print.
Under this direct clash, Ting Shan's spirit power shield was actually forced to flash with cyan light!
The two were like two bulls locking horns. Then, in unspoken agreement, they both stamped heavily in the void again.
A "boom!" was heard by the crowd almost simultaneously.
As Zhao Min leaned forward, her free right hand suddenly bent at the elbow in front of her chest!
The elbow drew back from her waist, then rapidly drew a semicircle upward. The tip of her elbow, aiming to cover his head, smashed down towards the Jianjing acupoint where Ting Shan's thick neck met his shoulder.
Ting Shan sensed the sharp wind brought by the tip of her elbow. He hadn't expected this woman's slender body to contain such terrifying power.
After several direct clashes, he had been consistently at a disadvantage. His attempt to turn the tables had also been shattered by her extremely brutish methods.
But who was he? In terms of physical toughness, his Giant Wood Clan was ranked among the top races on the Verdant Continent, and he was known within the Giant Wood Clan for his ferocity.
With a fire igniting in his heart, he neither dodged nor evaded this time. A cultivation manual rapidly activated in his mind, and vines suddenly appeared on the surface of his body.
These vines covered his entire body almost instantly, gnarled and intertwined like the roots of an old tree, forming a suit of tough armor that enveloped him completely.
At the same time the armor appeared, Ting Shan raised his knee and kicked, aiming for Zhao Min's abdomen as she leaned forward, a complete life-for-a-life fighting style.
That kick was also wrapped in thick vines from his leg to his foot, giving a coarse, savage, and iron-blooded visual impact.
Seeing her elbow about to land a solid hit just as the vine armor appeared on her opponent, a sharp glint flashed in Zhao Min's eyes.
An Ink-Colored Demon Flower, complete with branches and leaves, quietly appeared on her snow-white neck. As the demon flower swayed gently, the hand pressed against Ting Shan's right shoulder suddenly sank and pressed down horizontally, blocking the kick aimed at her lower abdomen.
The movements of the two were too fast to be seen by the naked eye, only bursts of dazzling light erupting between two afterimages.
Zhao Min's horizontally pressing hand struck first. In a flash, it was already pressing down on the top of Ting Shan's kicking foot. She used the force of this press to soar into the air.
As her body flew up, she once again used the momentum to lean forward. The elbow she had raised high had already slammed heavily onto the junction of Ting Shan's broad, mountain-like, and muscle-bound neck and shoulder.
Ting Shan first felt the top of his viciously kicking foot being blocked, pressed down by a force that was overwhelmingly powerful.
The force of his upward kick was immense, but the downward pressing force was even more terrifying.
As the two massive forces collided, the thick vines on the outside of his foot emitted a cringe-inducing "creak."
Ting Shan felt as if his foot was about to be directly smashed off at the ankle.
The intense pain caused him to involuntarily lean forward to buffer the downward force. The moment his body leaned forward, Ting Shan felt an even greater pain from his neck.
A "boom!" resounded through the sky.
Under the shocked and disbelieving eyes of everyone, at the spot on Ting Shan's pillar-like neck where Zhao Min's elbow had struck, the seemingly incomparably tough and unbreakable gnarled vines shattered inch by inch, breaking into large and small pieces.
The broken vines, mixed with even finer, spike-like debris, flew out in all directions!
Under the heavy blow to his neck, Ting Shan even had trouble breathing. His eyeballs bulged, his mouth hung open, and his entire body pitched forward, plummeting towards the ground.
The attack Zhao Min displayed was incomparably brutish and savage, completely at odds with her slender and graceful temperament.
It wasn't just the others; even Li Yan was somewhat surprised.
That time on the Tianlan Prairie when Zhao Min had fought one against three and ultimately broken through, although she had displayed her formidable physique and strength, it was clearly not as impactful as today.
The entire exchange, from start to finish, had lasted less than four breaths. Everything happened too fast for the eye to follow. Zhao Min had suppressed Ting Shan with absolute, realm-crushing power.
As Ting Shan's body pitched forward and fell, the cyan light around him flared. A large number of vines once again surged from his body. As a master of combat, remaining calm in the face of danger was already ingrained in his blood.
Although he was suppressed, it didn't mean Zhao Min could take his life in the next moment.
But if Zhao Min continued with another heavy blow now, while Ting Shan was unable to dodge, she would have to multiply her strength to break through the vines surging from his body again. In that case, she wouldn't be able to control her power.
If things went wrong, Ting Shan would be severely injured, and his life might even be in danger.
With a flash of white light, Zhao Min's figure had already appeared a thousand zhang away from Ting Shan. She did not continue her attack, merely watching quietly as Ting Shan propped himself up from the ground with one hand and soared back into the air.
Ting Shan did not launch another attack either. He stood in the air, gazing at the slender, very ordinary-looking young woman.
After a full three breaths, the fighting spirit in his eyes slowly faded, and the vine armor on his body quickly retracted back into him.
"I have lost. Thank you, fellow daoist, for your mercy!"
Though he was warlike, the fact that he had survived intact until now with such a personality at least showed that he was very smart.
Hearing Ting Shan's somewhat helpless voice from the sky above the Sparring Arena, the Giant Wood Clan cultivators were still in disbelief.
The entire exchange had not even lasted five breaths, and their clan's expert had been defeated. This was too hard to accept.
Never mind that Wusitu's realm was slightly higher than Ting Shan's; even he couldn't claim to be able to defeat Ting Shan so easily.
"You let me win. It was just a single misstep. If we were really to decide a victor, it would only be unless we both used our full strength. Then, who would win and who would lose would still be unknown."
"I imagine that by then, one of us would surely be heavily injured, which is not what either of us desires!"
Zhao Min gave a slight bow, her attitude neither servile nor overbearing, her voice as pleasant and melodious as an oriole's song in a secluded valley.
As soon as she said this, the Giant Wood Clan cultivators, who had been feeling somewhat dejected, immediately felt much better. Everyone cared about face, after all.
"I told you it wouldn't be so simple for Golden Core cultivators to decide a winner!"
"Of course, even if their physical bodies were gone, they could still command magical treasures with just their Golden Core. Until the very last moment, no one would dare say they had the other cornered."
"..."
In reality, many of them already knew in their hearts that while Ting Shan might have had a chance to turn the tables, he was definitely a cut below this terrifying female cultivator in terms of strength. But they were unwilling to truly admit it out loud!