An unreasonable flick from inside the table.
A Great Python Turn from the forehand.
A Divine Dragon Emerging from Water from the backhand.
Those were the Opening Three Axe Slashes Ge Miao had spoken of.
Xiao Fei's term "Opening Three Axe Slashes" had never actually spread beyond the Chinese National Table Tennis First Team's coaching staff.
Back when Xiao Fei had just risen to prominence and stood unrivaled in the spotlight, Qin Huachang had only recently joined the national team and had no reputation at all. Meanwhile, Xiao Fei's direct rival, Sun Tianlong, was riddled with flaws and hiding away with Qin Huachang, enduring hardship and training desperately. Sometimes, when the training became too grueling, he would even secretly cry.
During that brief period, Xiao Fei had once ranked first in the world and tasted the wonderful feeling of truly looking down upon the world.
Later, Sun Tianlong rose to power and forcefully suppressed him. Xiao Fei never managed to recover, and his Opening Three Axe Slashes disappeared from view as well.
Yet the older Chinese table tennis coaches, those who had worked for many years, all still remembered it.
When they saw Xiao Fei's first four shots, everyone knew that the once-invincible Xiao Fei had returned.
They truly had not seen Xiao Fei play this desperately in a very, very long time.
"Strictly speaking, Xiao Fei is a player with major flaws."
Qin Huachang rarely gave a direct assessment of a national-level Chinese table tennis player on the livestream, and the player he was assessing was not even one of his own disciples, but Zhu Zeshi's.
That was partly because he had become more open-minded recently and no longer confined himself to sectarian bias. More importantly, everyone in the world knew that Xiao Fei was close to retirement.
This