My Mother Has a System but Won't Use It

Chapter 194: Gouging

Near the waterfall, Han Li and Yang Wei sat against each other. A small bonfire was separating them from each other. Both of them ate meat and drank wine. Their swords were inside their sheaths for a long half an hour before the wild rabbit they had caught vanished into their stomachs.

"Yang Wei, do you fear death?" Han Li asked, licking the gravy of the meat from his hand.

Yang Wei's pale eyes were a sort of deathly calm. He replied in a feminine voice, "Indeed. I fear death. Failures are failures but death is the end."

"Do you have Life Type Magical Resources in your hand to place as the bet of whom among us would remain breathing tomorrow?"

"Five of them." Yang Wei put a small bag down. Han Li squinted at it, noticing the 5 different fruits in it, of all sorts of colors. He grinned.

Yang Wei asked, "Do you have any unimaginable treasure to put out as a bet?"

Han Li put down his Life Sword in front of him. "This sword is priceless. Won't even give it away for a hundred Life Dao Resources."

Yang Wei's eyes lit up.

"Do you have anything else?" Han Li asked.

Yang Wei shrugged and put down his bone blade in front of them. "This is nothing much, but it can cut people like grass. You included. I don't think any Evolve stands a chance of stopping it using their passive defenses."

"I see…" Han Li sighed. Yang Wei would indeed not be so easy; he was already attempting to intimidate Han Li. Not that Han Li didn't know the potency of the blade at a glance—maybe Yang Wei realized he knew it too, or he should have used its sharpness as a surprise attack.

So, his body alone wouldn't be able to resist the attacks that Yang Wei would throw. That made things trickier, but Han Li had never planned to fight Yang Wei solely with his body.

"So should we begin our fight?" Han Li asked, pointing a rabbit bone at Yang Wei.

He had the urge to ask about the Spirit, but that knowledge could be used later; they didn't know Han Li had knowledge of the Spirit after all. In Yang Wei's and the Spirit's minds, its existence was a secret.

Of course, before Han Li's Life Sword, his enemies rarely had secrets.

Yang Wei's bony eyes shone. "I'd like to know some things before we begin. You seem to have gained a lot of fame in the last few days; all over the cities, your face and posters are abundant. What is that about?"

Chuckling, Han Li said, "I met this interesting guy. More interesting than you, named Li Shuanwei. It's his gift for me."

"Hmm…" Yang Wei calmed himself and sighed. "I should be careful of that name after I kill you."

"You seem quite confident. Do you think you can kill me?"

Yang Wei looked at Han Li with a veiled gaze. Han Li was not nearly as strong as he currently was when he had seen him for the first time almost a year ago. Then, Han Li had just been an average Evolved. But now?

Even Han Li's physical body alone gave Yang Wei a sensation of danger.

Indeed, Han Li had changed far too much from that time. He had gone through 3 of the 7 Demonic Transformations, and he also had more Magical Powers—Talents—and overall, he was at a far different height. Not to mention Heart Qi, which was much more abundant and powerful than Yang Wei's own Heart Qi in quantity and quality, at least.

Of course, the other man had more control over Heart Qi. Yang Wei knew how to use it best to his advantage, whereas Han Li didn't know how to use it other than to frighten people. Even though his Heart Qi had reached the levels of true Transcendence stage cultivators, it was barely of use.

"I am confident, Han Li." Yang Wei sounded almost sincere, "And believe me, I think I am nervous for the first time in my whole life; you really had been under some pressure."

Han Li and Yang Wei both silently gouged each other. Seeing as far from each other's depths as they could using their own ways. Han Li himself used the way Life Vision worked with his own judgment to give Yang Wei a sort of status. It was far from accurate, but it was not wrong, at the very least.

Yang Wei had a physique with all-around Top-Tier performance for an evolved. There were no weaknesses in him, and his Regeneration powers even surpassed normal Top Tiers and were on a level of their own as far as Han Li had seen.

Below Average, Average, Above Average, High, Top Tier… and a level surpassing that. Han Li had only surpassed the Top Tier in Stamina and Defense.

Han Li thought.

If he were to judge himself solely on those statuses, his regeneration and speed paled in comparison to Yang Wei, while his defenses and stamina far outstripped the other man. He would have a much better body than Yang Wei's base body, but when Yang Wei transformed into his Bone Form using his Transformation Dao Soul… Han Li would lose the overall advantage and would be forced into the defensive.

The dark sword was suddenly in his grasp, and "TANG!" the sound of a thunderous blade crash echoed as it blocked Yang Wei's bone sword. With a swipe on the ground, Han Li sent a wave of mud into Yang Wei's face, but the youth was prepared; he jumped back 4 meters in a simple jump.

Han Li stood up, holding the dark sword sideways as he looked at Yang Wei with cool, red eyes. Calmly, he used his talents to mess with Yang Wei's mind but immediately found them useless.

"You trained a Defensive Magic Power as your vital Magic Power?" Han Li asked.

A Transformation Type could only use one Magic Power in their entire life unless they Transcend. The choice was always a hard one. They would be stuck with that one supernatural power while only having a stronger body, after all.

Han Li could feel it; some kind of barrier was around Yang Wei, and using his Soul Sense intensely, he saw it—A sort of gigantic transparent rib cage was surrounding the man's body in a defensive embrace, and his Talents couldn't work while that Magic Power lasted.

[Talents]

[Low-Level Lack of Lust]

[Low-Level Fantasy Inducement]

[Low-Level Sensational Barrier]

[Low-Level Seduction]

[Low-level Elusive Movement]

All of them were immediately useless. Completely, utterly useless. All of them manipulated the opponent's mind in subtle ways to get his work done, but now, none of them would be so easily usable.

This was the issue of cultivators of the Ethereal Type. If they were to be targetted with their perfect antithesis, they could be easily countered. In their last actual fight, Han Li used those powers against Yang Wei, and he came prepared this time.

"You certainly hadn't come unprepared…" Han Li said irritatedly. "If someone has a Magic Power that is based on a physical attack like Fire Ball or such, you would be entirely undefended. Using such power as your one and only Magic Power… it would rarely come to use for you."

He had obviously used it with Han Li in mind.

Yang Wei sneered. "My body would save me from harm. I have thick skin and my Transformation is quite good at healing myself."

They looked at each other from a distance for a while, and suddenly, both of them vanished from their spots, and their swords crashed against each other with booming sounds. Han Li was always on the lower hand, his hand trembling and losing against the sheer force of Yang Wei's swings.

"TANGG!!!" Yang Wei's wrist bones broke as Han Li's swing force suddenly doubled in the next swing. The sword in his hand vibrated intensely. Then, a forceful kick on his manhood sent Yang Wei crashing into the waters under the waterfall.

That was Han Li's first Demonic Transformation Power—Vibration.

He smiled as he saw Yang Wei jump on the bank with a quick stand-up. He hadn't fallen so far; the water was just waist-deep where he stood.

Yang Wei walked forward and jumped up on the bank. Their eyes bore into each other, both having their blood pumped. Han Li only had one chance to be wounded, while Yang Wei could heal as many times as he wanted.

"You are indeed a man full of secrets," Yang Wei's voice dripped with hate. His manhood had already healed, but it hurt still. "Your body is as strong as my own when I am not Transformed into my Bone Form. There must be no Evolved in the entire world other than you who could do that… You are great, Han Li."

Han Li sneered. "No ends to your arrogance and ignorance. Trash."

Yang Wei swung the bone blade with one hand while his fist went to smash Han Li's head in. Yet, Han Li blocked the blade with his sword and the fist with another fist. Then headbutted Yang Wei into a hasty retreat.

With an uncalm growl that echoed across the forest, Yang Wei swung the blade defensively, not letting Han Li close in. Han Li closed in and swung his hands in a slash, and he immediately moved his bone blade to parry, only for his heart to drop to the bottom of a chasm. There was no sword in Han Li's hand; it was empty!

He was just acting like he was swinging a sword with an empty hand.

A flying sword pierced towards his head from the back, but just before it did so, Yang Wei jumped, and it only pierced his shoulder. Without letting him go, Han Li calmly chuckled and pushed his hand into Yang Wei's wound, touching the boy's organs for a short second before he retrieved the sword and kicked him away.

Yang Wei breathed heavily. His stamina seemed to have been reduced by at least a small quarter with just that exchange. What Yang Wei didn't notice, however, was Han Li's second Demonic Transformation Power—Vitality Channeling.

Han Li calmly chuckled. "Aren't you transforming? If I were you, I would."

Gritting his teeth with unholy wrath, Yang Wei's form shifted into another. A monster made of bone, from skin to flesh, to organs and everything. Moreover, the bone was nothing like brittle human bones. Each of them was like metal.

Had Han Li's sword mastery been any lesser, he wouldn't have been able to cut that defense. But cutting it… was far from his worries. A bone blade zoomed towards him and Han Li stopped it just in time before he was blasted into a tree. The wood splintered, exploding into fragments.

He quickly sat up mechanically. Glaring at Yang Wei before looking at his own white robes. They were torn.

"Much faster than me… huh?"