As he spoke, he pinched his wrist and shook it back and forth, looking eager to try.
Episode 4: An Eye for an Eye, a Blade for a Teeth - Chapter 78: A Variety of Tricks (Part 2)
Even without needing to verify the supernatural energy emanating from the kid, Zhang Lei knew that this kid was a brat who had only recently acquired his supernatural ability.
Although he should be about the same age as Zhang Lei, or even slightly older, Zhang Lei has experienced more things, which has made him much older mentally, and he has begun to treat his peers as little kids.
Fortunately, Zhang Lei's standards for women haven't changed with his psychological age. If he had started to lose interest in girls in their twenties and instead started to like women in their forties or fifties, then who knows who would be the one to suffer?
"Hey, our young master is asking you, are you Zhang Lei?" No matter what kind of young master he is, there will always be two people like this around to keep the conversation going, otherwise it would be so boring if the conversation got awkward.
"That's right, I am Zhang Lei. Do you know me?" Zhang Lei's words seemed very polite, but just his voice alone, coupled with his expression, clearly made him seem like a tiger being polite to a rabbit.
"Hmph, I've heard that Tianxiao stood me up because of you?" For a man of this age, being stood up by a girl is the greatest humiliation, seemingly worse than killing his parents, provided he hasn't experienced the pain of losing his parents.
"Young Master!" A bodyguard interrupted him. This was hardly something to be proud of; how could this young master go around bragging about it?
“It’s alright. Napoleon once said that a shame that has been washed away is no longer a shame. As long as I kill this kid and give that Tian family a blow, and make Tian Xiao crawl on her knees and beg me to give her another chance, then no one will think this is my shame!” The young man’s face was full of confidence, as if the world belonged to him.
"Clap clap clap!" Zhang Lei clapped lightly. "Well said, young man. You've got me all fired up. I like you. As long as you hand over Li Yang, I can pretend nothing happened..."
"Shut up! Who do you think you are, daring to speak like that in the Tang family? Pretend nothing happened. We don't need to say anything else. Just for that kick that destroyed our gate, you won't leave the Tang family in front of me today!" The young man interrupted Zhang Lei, pointing his index and middle fingers at Zhang Lei. "Today, I'll show you what the world's strongest superpower is!"
He then waved his hand at one of his men and shouted, "Gold!"
The bodyguards were clearly trained; upon hearing his command, they simultaneously threw a bunch of blades, not necessarily targeting Zhang Lei, but simply throwing them.
The blade was very thin, only slightly thicker than a razor blade. This soft blade certainly wouldn't have any power. Not to mention Zhang Lei, even an ordinary person would at most be startled. That's about the level of power it was.
However, this was certainly not Tang Guo's intention. As the fluctuations of his supernatural power suddenly intensified, the blades suddenly began to spin around Zhang Lei at an astonishing speed.
“Not bad, you’ve only had your powers for three months and you’ve already reached this level. When I first had my powers for three months, I didn’t even know how to activate them properly!” Zhang Lei’s words sounded like a compliment, but from the opposing perspective, it sounded like an old man from the Academy of Sciences patting his grandson’s head and praising him for doing a good job on his elementary school homework.
"Arrogant!" A sharp glint suddenly flashed in Tang Guo's eyes, and more than a dozen blades whistled as they slid toward Zhang Lei.
Zhang Lei sensed Li Yang's movements inside the room. Li Yang was trying to break the seal that locked Zhang Lei's internal energy. Zhang Lei wanted to make the seal as elusive as possible, so that Li Yang couldn't catch him. As for the flying knives outside, even if he ignored them, they wouldn't be able to penetrate Zhang Lei's skin.
These blades are missing the most important element: internal energy. Without the aid of internal energy, at the current concentration of vital energy, even an ordinary person who has never practiced anything can only scratch the surface of the skin at most.
However, it seems that the real power of these blades doesn't lie in their sharpness; rather, it appears that the bluish-green light on them is the true source of their power.
Although Zhang Lei was confident that the blades wouldn't cut his skin, the clothes already didn't fit well, and if they were slashed all over him, he would look even more like a madwoman.
This seemingly eerie and swift swarm of blades posed no obstacle whatsoever to Zhang Lei. With a simple wave of his arm, the blades flew automatically between his fingers.
Zhang Lei, holding the razor blade between his fingers, examined it closely. "It really is Tang Clan poison. Your idea is quite good. If it were an ordinary expert, they might actually have fallen into the hands of a treacherous little devil like you!"
Just as Zhang Lei opened his mouth, Tang Guo made a gesture and shouted, "Water!" A drop of venom flew from each blade toward Zhang Lei's mouth and nose.
The method Zhang Lei mentioned likely includes both the way he uses a knife and his method of ambushing the other party with venom while they are observing and speaking.
"Delicious! It really is the Tang Clan's Snake King Gu. I've heard so much about it, and now I've finally tasted it. If I'm not mistaken, this is elemental control, isn't it? Genius, genius!" Zhang Lei shook his head. "Unfortunately, geniuses often don't live long!"
In the East, elemental control is typically categorized into five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. If someone using elemental abilities encounters an elementalist, those abilities will become useless if the elementalist can react in time. Of course, the elementalist's own ability level cannot differ too much.
It's true that it's one of the strongest superpowers, but everything has its counter. The offensive methods of elemental controllers are limited to manipulating some elemental magic, and their power is much smaller than that of single-element superpowers. When it comes to physical combat superpowers, the effect is negligible.
However, this guy actually combined his superpower with the poisonous hidden weapons of the Tang Clan. If it were a martial arts practitioner with a slightly lower level of skill, even the blade array in front of him would probably be fatal.
"Wood!" This time, Tang Guo extended a finger, and although he called it "wood," his subordinates threw out piles of fireballs, and judging from the rising smoke, it was undoubtedly poisonous smoke again.
"This cunning kid!" Zhang Lei couldn't help but admire him. If he had less combat experience, he could have easily fallen into this kid's trap!
Episode 4: An Eye for an Eye, a Teeth for a Fist - Chapter 79: Don't Let Strangers Stay Overnight (Part 1)
Zhang Lei discovered that Tang Guo was truly full of tricks. Although most of these tricks seemed useless to Zhang Lei, even someone who had been practicing in seclusion and was highly skilled could easily fall into Tang Guo's trap.
No matter what kind of poison it is or how it's produced, it basically won't work on Zhang Lei. As long as he still has a tiny bit of internal energy, the method he's using is a radical solution, or there's so much poison that Zhang Lei's body can't even hold it all. But that's impossible, as the human body's capacity is actually quite astonishing.
Tang Guo's methods are endless, and Zhang Lei doesn't know how he came up with them. He felt that if this kid were close to him in strength, he would most likely not be able to beat him.
However, now, his tricks are just stumbling blocks, which Zhang Lei can easily kick away.
Li Yang inside the room seemed to be moving, but as long as he didn't leave and Zhang Lei didn't remove the internal energy lock that Zhang Lei had placed on him, Zhang Lei wouldn't mind watching what tricks this kid was up to.
Zhang Lei could guarantee he had an overwhelming advantage over him, but he couldn't guarantee he would have the same advantage over anyone else.
Especially some of the older guys. In the past, many masters of internal energy were unable to compete for the highest level of mastery because they did not develop supernatural abilities. But now everyone can develop supernatural abilities, and many of these older guys will soon reach the level of first-class masters. Moreover, they have super strong internal energy as a foundation, and their supernatural abilities will grow much faster than others.
So he also needs to learn from Tang Guo's fighting style, which is just too lewd.
His elemental control is still within the scope of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, and at his current level, he can only control one element at a time, requiring his subordinates to perform some auxiliary actions; he cannot solidify elements in his own space.
But he found a way to play tricks in these auxiliary actions. When he held up two fingers, whatever he said, his men would throw. When he held up one finger or three fingers, his men would change their actions, and it seemed that the objects thrown were different depending on the position of the fingers.
……This is the truth………………
Okay, to be honest, those were all excuses. The real reason Zhang Lei was dawdling here was that he discovered what Li Yang was doing in the room.
The sensing range of internal energy locking is determined by the depth of internal strength, but the precision of the location and movement of the object sensed by internal energy locking is determined by the ability to control internal energy particles. Zhang Lei, who has activated self-examination, is naturally very strong in this aspect.
Zhang Lei wasn't as cautious as ordinary people when activating his superpowers before, because his unit absorption of internal energy was quite large. Now that the concentration of vital energy has increased, the amount of internal energy he absorbs is even greater. In addition, Zhang Lei's daily internal energy absorption is increasing, so the proportion of internal energy used for using superpowers is even smaller, making him more casual in using his superpowers.
In fact, this also greatly weakens the effect of eliminating internal energy like Fujiwara did. The explosion of energy really changes the strength of many superpowers.
For abilities like elemental manipulation, the higher concentration of elemental energy in the space significantly reduces the difficulty for them to manipulate elements by solidifying the elemental energy in the space, thus indirectly increasing their power.
Zhang Lei originally planned to kill Tang Guo. He might have felt sorry for her, but he would never create an enemy for himself out of pity. However, he has now changed his mind.
"It's almost time!" Zhang Lei felt he had teased the child long enough, so he suddenly took a step forward and was already in front of Tang Guo.