QT: Grace To Grass Counterattack System

Gu Long held the hand covering his mouth and lowered it slowly. "Mo Sheng?"

"Hm?" He Yuan said as he began to walk away.

Gu Long's eyes widened even further as he quickly held He Yuan's sleeves and whispered, "What are you doing?"

He Yuan turned back with furrowed brows. "Issuing a challenge of course."

Gu Long's heart palpitated fiercely. Did Mo Sheng not find anything wrong with his words? Did he not see who he was issuing a challenge to? What if a mishap happened? The hand holding He Yuan's sleeves tightened. "Come back, let me fight instead."

He Yuan rolled his eyes. Gu Long was at the early stage of Nascent soul. Mo Jiu would scrub the floor of the stage with the man's face if he went up. "It's okay," He said and patted Gu Long's head before walking off.

Gu Long watched as He Yuan walked away and began pacing around in worry. The words the other cultivators began spewing did not help either.

"I'm not seeing wrong right? What does Mo Sheng think he's doing?" A nearby cultivator said with a short laughter.

"I still can't believe they're both disciples of the same master. One of them is a genius while the other one is... Meh~"

"Mo Sheng is out there to make the Duoluo sect lose face right?"

"Anyways, I'm just here to watch Mo Jiu fight. His moves are always pleasing to the eye and very thrilling."

"Ha! I feel bad for you. I doubt you'd be able to see brother Jiu make a move. He just needs to blow a breath of air in shitty Sheng's direction to defeat him."

"Hahahaha."

Murmurings filled the air as He Yuan stepped on the stage. The disciples stared at him with a mixture of irritation, amusement and dissatisfaction. Even if some of them weren't members of the Duoluo sect, they'd seen how Mo Jiu performed in the tournament.

If this new guy was better than Mo Jiu, then the Duoluo sect would have presented him a long time ago. The thing going through their minds was... Why would someone court death so boldly?

Ru Lianfeng and the elders kept their faces neutral. They did not quite believe Mo Sheng could win but, knowing that he was a hybrid, they had hope he wouldn't lose too badly.

Mo Jiu raised a brow as He Yuan hopped on the stage. He'd had Mo Sheng in his sights for a while now, who knew the man would offer up himself like a lamb for slaughter? It was laughable. Mo Sheng looked just like a silly clown, overestimating himself like this.

Well since Mo Sheng was asking for it, no one should blame him for being impolite.

The entire Lingyun Canyon fell silent as both men cupped their fists at each other and Gu Long began twisting his wrists as he edged closer to the platform. He didn't care about the rules. One wrong move and he was tearing down the barrier surrounding the stage with a high grade artifact and rushing in.

Once they both straightened, Mo Jiu scoffed. "You've always lacked self awareness. It was okay when it was just messing around for a few times but this?" He spread his hands out. "This is just plain stupid so you better not blame me for bullying the weak."

He Yuan remained silent and just took out his twin swords. Why waste his time exchanging words?

That action of He Yuan seemed to anger Mo Jiu even more so he unsheathed Huoyan. Immediately, the temperature rose up by sevaral degrees and Mo Jiu rushed forward.

He Yuan held his stance as he trickled his spiritual energy into his swords. He already knew that Mo Jiu wasn't going to hold back like he did in the storyline. This was not because Mo Jiu did not underestimate him but because Mo Jiu badly wanted to harm him.

The eyes of the spectators shone with mirth and Gu Long held his breath, clenching his sword at his side, as the swords of both cultivators clashed.

BANG!

The residual wave of spiritual energy swept across the stage and crashed into the barrier surrounding the platform. The barrier rumbled loudly for a full ten seconds before it slowly settled down with its light visibly dimmer.

Mo Jiu's eyes widened at the same time as everyone else. No way~ Impossible. He'd used 85% of his spiritual power. Mo Sheng was trash, how was he able to stand it?

He Yuan's hands shook slightly as he held his swords against Mo Jiu's Huoyan. Although it looked as if he had countered Mo Jiu's strike perfectly, he knew deep down that that was not the case.

First of all, his twin swords were no match for Huoyan and a few parts had chipped off from that one clash. The thing keeping his swords together at this point was his spiritual power.

Both men seperated at the same time and flew several steps backwards. Mo Jiu scoffed. "Just what have you been up to daxiong?~"

He Yuan shrugged. "Cultivation. Something you would understand if you didn't spend all your time in between the legs of others."

Mo Jiu's nostrils flared in anger and with a swing, he sent out a wave of Huayan's sword glare backed up by his spiritual power.

The cultivators watching the fight held their breaths once more. Once was a fluke, could it happen a second time? Did He Yuan just get lucky the first time?

He Yuan stared calmly as the red wave of Mo Jiu's weapon glare shot towards him with immense heat. Once the glare was close enough, he shot upwards and used his spiritual power to pad his foot before using the sword glare as a stepping stone to propel himself forwards and send Mo Jiu a weapon glare of his own.

BANG!

Mo Jiu's sword glare crashed into the barrier surrounding the platform and caused it to vibrate once more.

At the same time, Mo Jiu slashed at He Yuan's weapon glare, splitting it into two and causing it to cause another crash on the barrier, adding to the already violent vibrations.

At this time, the amusement was wiped from the faces of the spectators and they all sat up straighter to watch the fight. The Duoluo sect disciples were stunned to stupor. Was that really the Mo Sheng they all knew? What happened to trash Sheng?!

Gu Long stood in place and stared at He Yuan with stars in his eyes. He couldn't believe it. How did he not know that Mo Sheng was this strong?! It should be noted that Mo Jiu had wiped out all his opponents throughout the tournament with one move.

One move! And yet Mo Sheng had lasted past two. Gu Long could barely contain his excitement. He'd been so worried but it seems his worry was unfounded.

The fight continued in the platform as both men exchanged moves fiecerly. Mo Jiu steadily increased his spiritual power and when He Yuan parried off his strikes with expertise, his anger flared to enormous proportions.

At long last, Mo Jiu brought out the full force of his spirtual power and rushed over to He Yuan with a loud roar. Mo Sheng had done the unthinkable. Making him, Mo Jiu, to expend this much effort to handle him. He would never let him off!

He Yuan took note of the change in Mo Jiu and braced himself. At this point, he was barely keeping up but he made sure to keep his expression neutral and put on a false front of ease. It was quite difficult but he held on and waited patiently for Mo Jiu to lose his cool.

CLASH!

The first blow shattered both of He Yuan's swords to a million pieces and he was brought to his knees. Everyone held their breaths as Mo Jiu lifted Huoyan to land the second blow.

Mo Jiu was going to kill Mo Sheng! Gu Long took out his high grade artifact and rushed forward, ready to smash the barrier to pieces by whatever means but then he suddenly froze and his eyes widened in shock.

Gu Long waan't the only one in a state of shock. Every spectator present -including Ru Lianfeng, his elders and a bunch of older cultivators that were previously watching the fight with nonchalant expressions- all stared at the stage in shock.

Mo Jiu, on the other hand, was the most perplexed of them all. He wasn't hallucinating right? Wh- what was this? What happened to Mo Sheng?

He Yuan held the hand holding Huoyan and slowly stood up. When he rose to his full height, he looked down on Mo Jiu with his blazing silver eyes shining fiercely. He had transformed into his demonic form to withstand the force of Mo Jiu's spiritual energy as he held him back.

Seeing as Mo Jiu was distracted due to shock, He Yuan quickly took out his silver needles and with a very fast wave, he discreetly sent it into various points in Mo Jiu's chest and pelvis and called back his needles with his spiritual power all in one second.

Mo Jiu only felt a slight pain on his chest area in one second and in the next, Huoyan was twisted out of his hand and he was sent flying towards the barrier.

The stage was surrounded by a ring 25cm away from the edge. Once this ring was crossed, the barrier automatically deactivates, signalling the loss of a participant and end of the battle.

BANG!

As soon as Mo Jiu crossed the ring, he flew out of the platform and crashed into the wall in the far left corner of the Lingyun Canyon.

Silence.

More silence.

Pure silence.

And then,

"I'm not hallucinating right?" A cultivator whispered.

"Mo Jiu lost?" A Duoluo sect disciple asked.

"Shouldn't you be more concerned about trashy Sheng turning into a demon on stage?" A different Duoluo sect disciple said.

Gu Long had no idea when his legs carried him onto the platform and over to He Yuan. "You- You.... You?"

He Yuan just shrugged and sent Gu Long a small smile.

Mo Jiu stood up from the ground, wiped the blood from the aide of his lips and held his chest as he glared at He Yuan with a crazed look in his eyes.

"MO SHENG!" Xing Mei suddenly stood up and shouted in anger. "As a cultivator from a righteous sect, how could you use underhanded means to increase your cultivation? How could you refine a demonic cultivator?!"

"No way~" A cultivator said. "Could it be?~"

It wasn't unheard of for people to capture demonic cultivators and refine them in order to use their demon forms to improve their cultivation. In cases where the process wasn't successful, some cultivators end up becoming merged with the demonic cultivator's demon.

Mo Sheng was covered in runes, quite different from the common demon forms of demonic cultivators, something must be wrong. By the way, the one who had spoken was a demonic cultivator that made quite a name for herself in the tournament after she was accepted into a righteous sect to fight on their behalf. If anyone would know best, it would be her.

Ru Lianfeng and his elders frowned at Xing Mei's words and exchanged looks with one another. Although they were aware of the fact that Mo Sheng was a hybrid, having a demon form was quite different. And Mo Sheng indeed looked very unsual.

Ru Lianfeng shook his head in disappointment. Mo Sheng must have felt pressured by his words that day and had used underhanded means to refine a demon form for himself. He didn't believe Mo Sheng activated it by himself.

Mo Sheng was so mediocre, was it so easy for hybrids to activate their demonic bloodline? The answer was no.

As much as Ru Lianfeng wanted it to be true, he needed to be realistic. If he went down to speak up for Mo Sheng, he would be trashing the reputation of his sect, no evil doer must be allowed in his sect. It was against his agreement with the Dao and the righteous path!

He Yuan eyes trailed over to the faces of Ru Lianfeng and his elders and then his eyes widened. They were abandoning him? Even after they'd been informed right from the start?

He began chuckling. Was Mo Sheng just meant to die? In the storyline, he'd been accused by Mo Jiu of practicing demonic means and being a spy.

Now that the butterfly effect had changed things and Xing Mei had ended up increasing the favourability of demonic cultivators by performing well in the tournament, he was being accused of refining a demonic cultivator.

Good. Good. Wasn't this just good?