Mo Huai listened as the boss was talking. He had trust that Hou would show some other things off, these people had no idea that Hou was a real cultivator.
"It's not over yet, let's see" Mo Huai still had a smirk on his face and he pointed at the arena.
"Of course, it's never over until it's over. But that fighter isn't a complete novice, he's been rising up the ranks lately he's just getting started. As you say though, let's watch!" The boss leaned forward and watched the arena more closely.
Hou was pushed back by the punch and had a realisation.
Yue's voice echoed from within Hou's body,
"Power isn't caught, it should be redirected. You were a wall when you should've been a river and moved with the punch to better absorb its energy."
Hou steadied himself , seeing the line in the dirt from him being forced backwards. He shook his head and faced Shou again.
Meanwhile Shou watched and calculated his next move. He thought about how he could fight qi masters,
'Qi masters have downsides, lets think... Qi is in abundance so I can't tire him out but maybe I can disrupt it! It is ultimately an outside power unlike mental energy, it could be easily manipulated myself and even a slight disruption could be catastrophic!'
If Shou wanted to fight the qi, he needed to use mental energy to disrupt it's flow. Shou focused his mental energy and formed it around his fists.
Hou watched as Shou stood still and his fists started waving. Like hot air over a fire, the mental energy distorted Shou's fists. However, Hou did not know why this happened and just focused on more qi.
Shou jumped, using the treasures on his body to speed up with every step. He circled around Hou multiple times, gaining speed.
As he did this, Hou gathered qi and materialised it around his body. He took inspiration from the mental energy skull that Mo Huai had used to protect him in his fight with Fatty Kuang.
Around Hou his red qi formed a translucent crystalline structure. Then Shou took the chance while Hou was seemingly trapped in his own qi to launch his attack.
He stopped circling Hou and used the speed up built up to punch the crystal. His fist hit the crystal shell and a slight crack formed at the point of contact.
However, that was merely the effect of his body, then his mental energy from around his fists caught up! The crystal was caved in by an almost invisible force and then the whole structure shattered.
Not stopped by the crystal qi, Shou's fists moved through the shell and hit Hou direct in his chest. Just before it made contact though, Hou jumped back and the force was severely lessened.
Still, Hou was sent back and fell to the ground. As he knelt down, he coughed up blood and upon leaving his body the blood turned into the galaxy-coloured blood.
This was because of his Celestial Law Amplifying Physique's characteristics were no longer under the disguise treasure's effects. Hou looked at the blood and smeared it with his foot, disguising it with dirt.
'I can't get hurt too much, the blood might expose my unique physique. This fight needs to end soon.'
Shou slowly walked towards Hou,
"You can't win, even with a bit of mastery over qi, my mental energy will disrupt it! Surrender now!" Shou proposed a offer to Hou.
Hou stood up and smiled,
"You're underestimating me!" As he said this, he whip his hand.
From Hou's wrist he let out a thick rope if qi, wrapping around Shou's legs. Hou pulled it forward and caused Shou to fall before he could react.
By the time Shou was able to disintegrate the qi rope with his own mental energy, he was mid-air falling. Hou kicked Shou in the body as he was falling, pushing him away with force.
Hou had a lot of innate strength laws in his body, meaning that even without doing anything he was already very strong.
Shou was pushed back heavily but since he was an experienced fighter, he twisted his body like a cat and stabilised himself, landing on his feet.
He cracked his neck and spit on the ground, his face red with anger. He had thought he was fighting a weak scholar but now he saw his strength. He felt blood pool in his mouth but he swallowed it,
'Can't be seen bleeding from a scholar's kick...he tricked me! He's not a scholar at all, he must be a fighter with that strength! If that's how he wants to play...'
Shou's fists shakes and he punched the air. In that motion, he activated a bunch of laws he had been absorbing. This was a new technique he had bought, he didn't want to use it yet but his anger clouded his judgment.
The air around his fists started to smoke and from within, his arms started to glow. A smell of charred meat pervaded the arena. Then in one burst, his fists combusted.
He ran towards Hou again, with flaming fists. Hou responded by preparing to trip him again, forming qi into a rope.
However, Shou was not stupid, as he was running he coated his entire body in thin mental energy. This was highly draining but completely blocked Hou's apparent speciality.
He was a step away from Hou and he pushed both his fists forward, twisting his arms into a dragon like attack!
Hou saw the fire forming a dragon like motif around his fists and he tried to turn his head to dodge it, however he was too slow. Just before he was to be hit and Mo Huai's mark to protect him activated, he had a flash of memory.
The fire-dragon roared toward Hou's face, just inches away. Time fractured and in the space between breaths, Hou remembered the dream from that morning. The dragon and a whisper of a technique he'd unconsciously created...Space Dragon Imitation: Domain Teleportation!
Instantly, in the few milliseconds before he was hit, Hou activated the technique. To accomplish this, huge amounts of mental energy was expended to think fast and actually activated the move.
Hou used his one allowed spirit stone, activating not the sword laws but the space ones! In an instant he used the technique around himself and Shou, laws moved out of Hou's spirit stone. This was unknowingly an external technique which permanently used the laws!
Reality fractured around Hou as the laws activated, creating a pocket dimension. Inside, it was seemingly affected by the Celestial Ink and was like a night's sky covered in stars and galaxies.
In this domain, Hou could move without restriction and he teleported behind Shou. Then his technique ran out of mental energy to be sustained, and he fell back into the real world.
With the last vestiges of mental energy Hou had, he punched Shou in the back the head. His fist connected with a burst of spatial laws which were being expelled from his spirit stone, making the impact resonate like a gong through Shou's body. This all happened in a split second and Shou was caught off guard, unable to react and falling instantly.
All of this happened in such a short amount of time that to a standard observer Shou punched and then fell, Hou somehow teleported also unconscious behind him.
The crowd's roar throughout the fight stopped and turned to confused murmurs. One moment Shou was attacking, the next both fighters were unconscious on the ground. Only the rare cultivators with investigative laws or treasures had glimpsed something extraordinary. However, what was known to the general audience is that both fighters were unconscious and so a draw was called.
Mo Huai's smirk vanished as he squinted,
"A spatial external cultivation technique? Impossible, he's untrained! I taught him the basics but nothing like this, and not any external cultivation!'
Beside him, the arena boss lurched to his feet, knocking over his wine he was sipping leisurely,
"Get the medics, and give me Zhi Fa this instant!" The boss could not see the action and called for Zhi Fa to ask him about what happened, about who won.
Instantly, a pair of medics ran out the gates to look at Hou and Shou. Especially Shou, due to his technique his arms had severe burns all over his arms.