When the light screen clearly displayed [Arena One: Lin Feng vs. Chen Feng], the atmosphere throughout the arena instantly became subtle.
Many spectators who knew of the grudge between the two—especially those from Jiangnan City—immediately turned more attentive eyes toward them.
Chen Feng stared fixedly at the light screen, his eyes filled with venom, humiliation, and a trace of fear that even he himself refused to admit.
His crushing defeat in the qualifying rounds haunted him like a nightmare.
But now, under countless watching eyes, on the stage of the Provincial Finals, he could not retreat!
He drew a deep breath and forcibly suppressed that fear, replacing it with a desperate, do-or-die madness.
Lin Feng! This time, I absolutely will not lose again!
Chen Feng roared inwardly and strode onto the arena first, his aura erupting without reservation. He had astonishingly reached the Late Stage Martial Artist as well!
Clearly, he too had encountered opportunities in the Myriad Phenomena Battlefield.
Lin Feng's expression was calm as he walked onto the arena at an unhurried pace, forming a stark contrast to Chen Feng's grave vigilance.
"Begin!" The referee waved a hand.
The instant the match began, Chen Feng moved!
He knew full well how terrifying Lin Feng was. He did not dare hold anything back, much less allow Lin Feng to seize the initiative!
"Nine Strikes of Cracking Wind!"
With a wild roar, his body seemed to merge with the wind, becoming elusive and erratic. His palms struck out in rapid succession, their winds sharp as blades, instantly transforming into nine incomparably condensed azure wind blades!
These nine wind blades did not attack in straight lines. Instead, as if alive, they interwove in midair into an impenetrable net of death, descending upon Lin Feng from every direction with an aura that threatened to tear everything apart!
Their might was several times greater than it had been in the qualifying rounds!
This was his trump card, an ultimate art that could only be unleashed by cultivating his family's Cracking Wind Palm to an exceptionally high realm. Nine strikes linked together, their power stacking atop one another—enough to threaten a Peak Martial Artist!
Facing an attack that would make Martial Artists of the same rank turn pale, Lin Feng merely lifted his eyes slightly.
"Only the form, not the spirit."
He did not even move his feet. He merely raised his right hand casually, spread his five fingers, and gave the nine incoming wind blades a light grasp.
"Wind Devour."
Bzz!
An invisible breeze carrying an aura of annihilation silently spread outward from Lin Feng's palm.
The moment the nine fierce azure wind blades touched that breeze, they became like ice and snow meeting the blazing sun. Their speed plummeted, their glow rapidly dimmed, and their structure became extraordinarily unstable!
It was as though the power of "wind" within them had been forcibly stripped away, devoured, and dismantled by a higher, more primordial will of wind!
Pop, pop, pop...
A string of soft sounds, like bursting bubbles, rang out.
The nine Cracking Wind Palm strikes, powerful enough to split steles and shatter stone, dispersed on their own before coming within three meters of Lin Feng. They vanished into nothingness without even stirring a ripple!
"What?!"
The madness and resolve on Chen Feng's face instantly froze, turning into utter horror and bewilderment. "My Nine Strikes of Cracking Wind... How is this possible?!"
He simply could not understand what had happened before his eyes!
The ultimate technique he had trained for years and taken such pride in had actually been as fragile as a child's game before his opponent?
"Your wind is too mixed, too chaotic." Lin Feng withdrew his hand, his tone as calm as though he were offering a critique.
"Now, let me show you what true wind is."
Before his words had even faded, Lin Feng's figure suddenly blurred!
There was no thunderous boom, nor any blinding flash of lightning.
He seemed to have become the wind itself—silent and soundless, yet so fast that it surpassed the eye's ability to follow!
Seven or eight afterimages of Lin Feng seemed to appear across the arena at once. Every one of them carried a solid, genuine aura as they closed in on Chen Feng from different directions and impossible angles!
Chen Feng's pupils abruptly shrank. He desperately activated his movement technique, his palms flailing wildly as he tried to catch Lin Feng's true body.
Yet all his senses and reactions appeared so sluggish and laughable before that ghostlike speed!
"Smack!"
A crisp slap rang out!
Chen Feng felt a searing pain explode across his left cheek. An irresistible force sent him spinning three or four times on the spot, leaving him dizzy and disoriented, nearly toppling to the ground!
The left side of his face reddened and swelled at a visible rate, a clear five-fingered mark appearing upon it.
"First strike." Lin Feng's icy voice seemed to come from the Nine Nether Hells, sounding beside his ear.
Chen Feng was shocked and enraged, but before he could steady himself—
"Smack!"
The exact same agonizing pain erupted on his right cheek!
He was slapped into another spin in the opposite direction, and the other side of his face quickly swelled as well, turning him into a symmetrical pig-headed sight!
"Second strike."
"Ahhh! I'll fight you to the death!"
Chen Feng completely lost his mind. Humiliated and enraged to the point of madness, he activated all the true qi in his body without regard for anything else. His palms turned scarlet as he frantically struck toward the direction where he sensed Lin Feng!
He even abandoned defense, seeking only to perish together with Lin Feng!
Yet every one of his frenzied attacks struck empty air.
Lin Feng appeared at his side as if teleporting and lightly tapped the back of his knee with one foot.
"Crack!" A faint sound of bone fracturing.
"Argh!" Chen Feng screamed as one knee buckled beyond his control, forcing him to kneel. The piercing pain made cold sweat pour from him instantly.
"Third strike." Lin Feng's voice remained utterly flat.
He looked down at Chen Feng, who knelt before him with swollen cheeks, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth, and eyes full of pain, humiliation, and collapse, as though looking at a lowly ant.
"Now, are you convinced?"
Chen Feng raised his head and looked into Lin Feng's deep, starry eyes, utterly devoid of emotion. In that instant, all his pride, resentment, and unwillingness were completely smashed to pieces!
What replaced them was terror and despair that seeped into his very bones!
He understood now. The gap between him and Lin Feng was no longer something that could be bridged through desperate effort or fortunate opportunities.
It was a heavenly chasm that he could never cross, even if he exhausted his entire life!
"I... I concede..." As if every bone had been pulled from his body, Chen Feng collapsed limply to the ground. His voice was hoarse and weak, filled with desolation.
The entire arena once again fell into strange silence.
If his instant defeat of Wang Pan in the previous match had displayed Lin Feng's exquisitely precise control over power,
then this match saw him use the most humiliating, most crushing method to utterly destroy Chen Feng's martial heart!
Without using any powerful martial technique, he had made a genius of the same rank kneel and surrender with nothing but ghostlike speed and absolute suppression of strength!
The shock of it was far more intense than any fierce exchange of attacks could have been!
"Arena One, Lin Feng wins!" The referee's voice carried a trace of complexity.
Lin Feng did not even glance at Chen Feng, who lay on the ground like a heap of mud. He turned and calmly walked down from the arena.
Wherever he passed, the other contestants who had yet to compete instinctively averted their eyes, not daring to meet his gaze.
Even certain highly self-regarding geniuses, such as Lieyang Martial High's Madman of Fire and Shadowy Specter Academy's chief disciple, wore incomparably grave expressions.
Zhao Feng's hand around his sword tightened slightly.
The starlight in Qin Wushuang's eyes flowed a fraction faster.
Everyone understood that this youth from Jiangnan City had already become one of the strongest contenders for the title of champion in this Provincial Finals!
Lin Feng returned to the resting area and continued meditating with his eyes closed, as though he had merely swatted away a noisy fly.
His goal had always been at the very front.
Before you continue