Upon the Life and Death Stage, the obsidian-forged ground gleamed with a cold, profound luster beneath the sunlight, as though it could devour the warmth of all life.
The air became thick and heavy at that moment.
Tens of thousands of students held their breath, countless gazes focusing like searchlights upon the two figures at the center of the stage.
One was wild and tyrannical as fire, his saber angled downward as scorching waves of heat erupted from his Body Refinement Eighth Level peak cultivation, like a war god who had stepped from the flames.
The other was tranquil as an abyss, barehanded, his azure robe fluttering faintly in the wind. His eyes were so calm that not a ripple stirred within them, like a reef weathered by eternal storms, allowing the waves to crash against it.
The stark contrast created an enormous visual impact, making everyone's hearts tighten instinctively.
"Silence!"
A stern shout brimming with mighty Spiritual Energy came from the referee's platform. An old man wearing an academy elder's robes slowly rose to his feet, his stern face expressionless as his lightning-sharp gaze swept across the crowd.
"On the Life and Death Stage, the duel determines both victory and death! Once you step onto this stage, life and death are left to fate. No one may interfere!" His voice echoed in everyone's ears. "According to the Merit Monument wager, Lin Xiao of Yellow Class Nine will stake all of his personal Heavenly Class monthly resource allowance to challenge Li Tianyi of Heaven Class Three! I now declare the duel—"
"Begin!"
The instant the final word fell!
Boom—!
An extremely violent crimson wave of energy erupted from Li Tianyi's body! The obsidian ground beneath his feet was actually shaken into fine spiderweb cracks by that blast!
"Trash! Die!"
Li Tianyi let out an earthshaking roar. His tall body shot forward like a cannonball released from its barrel, crossing dozens of meters in an instant to appear before Lin Xiao! The crimson saber in his hand whipped up a scorching gale and came chopping down with a terrifying force capable of burning the eight wildernesses to ash!
Blazing Flame Saber First Form—Splitting Mount Hua with Force!
He had no intention of probing his opponent at all. The moment he attacked, he unleashed his strongest and most tyrannical killing move! He wanted to split this ignorant trash, along with his laughable dignity, into two with this unmatched saber strike! He wanted everyone to see just how miserable the consequences were for challenging the dignity of Heaven Class!
Before the saber even arrived, its scorching wind had already warped the air. A thick aura of death blanketed the entire stage!
Countless weaker students below the stage turned pale before that terrifying saber intent. They instinctively shut their eyes, unable to bear watching the bloody scene about to unfold!
The members of Yellow Class Nine had their hearts in their throats. Each of them clenched their fists so tightly that their nails dug deep into their flesh!
Yet at the very instant that saber, capable of splitting mountains and severing peaks, was about to fall upon Lin Xiao's head—
Lin Xiao moved.
He did not meet it head-on, nor did he retreat.
He merely shifted one step to the left.
Just one simple step.
Yet it seemed to have been calculated millions upon millions of times, exquisite down to the finest detail!
Whoosh—!
The flaming saber nearly grazed the tip of his nose before smashing down upon the spot where he had been standing with devastating force!
Boom!
A thunderous explosion!
The incomparably hard obsidian stage was forcibly carved by that strike into a horrifying saber scar several meters long and half a foot deep! Rubble flew everywhere as dust billowed into the air!
The power of one saber strike was terrifying to this extent!
Gasps rang out from below the stage!
Everyone was stunned by Li Tianyi's incomparably domineering strike!
But immediately afterward, they fell into an even deeper shock!
Because amid the spreading dust, that azure figure was still standing quietly, completely unscathed!
He... he had actually dodged it?!
"Impossible!"
Li Tianyi's pupils contracted sharply! More than anyone, he knew the power and speed of that strike. Even an opponent at the same level would never dare block or evade it so casually! How had this trash done it?!
"Was it a coincidence? It had to be a coincidence!"
A trace of humiliation and fury rose in his heart. Li Tianyi roared, and his saber intent surged once more!
"Sweeping Through Thousands of Armies!"
The crimson saber transformed into a scorching streak, slashing horizontally toward Lin Xiao's waist with force capable of tearing through everything! Wherever the blade passed, the air let out a wail of unbearable strain!
Yet faced with this broader and faster strike—
Lin Xiao's response remained just as simple.
He merely bent his knees slightly and leaned his body backward, forming an unbelievable iron bridge.
Swish!
The lethal blade swept past his chest again by the narrowest of margins! The scorching saber energy even burned a charred mark into the front of his robe!
"What?!"
Li Tianyi's eyes instantly turned red!
If the first time had been a coincidence, what about the second?
This was no longer coincidence! This was naked humiliation! His opponent had dodged his full-force attacks twice in a row with a manner that was practically toying with him!
"Ah—! I'll kill you!"
Li Tianyi completely descended into berserk rage! The Spiritual Energy within his body circulated madly, and the saber in his hand turned into crimson afterimages filling the sky, completely enveloping Lin Xiao like a storm of death!
"Blazing Flame Saber!" "Raging Flames Scorch the Plains!" "Burning Heaven, Boiling Seas!"
One strike! Ten strikes! A hundred strikes!
Every strike contained the terrifying power of a Body Refinement Eighth Level peak cultivator! Every strike was enough to shatter rocks and split stone!
Saber light crisscrossed the entire Life and Death Stage as sparks scattered everywhere! Violent saber energy cut the hard ground full of holes!
The spectators below were already staring in utter shock, their souls nearly torn apart!
Yet no matter how violent or dense that storm of saber light became—
The azure figure at its center remained like a small boat threading its way through raging waves. It seemed as though he could be swallowed at any moment, yet he always found a thread of life at the most perilous instant and drifted clear.
Not one of his steps was superfluous. Not one movement of his body was wasted.
He was like the most masterful dancer, performing a breathtaking dance of death upon the edge of a blade!
What he was using was none other than the Basic Movement Technique, which everyone had long regarded as introductory reading and dismissed with contempt! Yet beneath his feet, this most ordinary movement technique seemed to have been granted a soul, evolving endless profundities!
The members of Yellow Class Nine below the stage were boiling with excitement!
"It's what the Chief Instructor taught us! 'Use the smallest price to gain the greatest space to evade!' He did it! He really did it!" Zhou Xiaoshu shouted excitedly.
On the high platform, Vice Principal Chu Tianxing's eyes also burst forth with an unprecedented gleam!
"Returning to simplicity... the Great Dao is simplest..." he murmured. His clouded old eyes were filled with shock. "This little fellow is not fighting. He is... comprehending the Dao! He has actually comprehended the most basic movement technique to the realm of the 'Dao'! This child... what kind of monstrous genius is he?!"
Only Lin Xiao himself knew that what he relied on was not merely the "Dao."
It was also the system, as precise to the extreme as a supercomputer!
[System Prompt: Target's right arm is chopping downward. Speed: 32. Angle: 75. Expected arrival in 0.2 seconds...] [System Prompt: Turn left 15 degrees and retreat half a step to evade perfectly!] [System Prompt: Target is slashing horizontally. Blade trajectory covers a radius of three meters. Weak point located at his rear left...]
With the system's assistance, Li Tianyi's attacks, which appeared to be a raging tempest, became like slow-motion replays in Lin Xiao's eyes, riddled with flaws and openings!
He was not merely evading. He was observing and verifying!
He was using Li Tianyi, this most perfect "whetstone," to hone the Martial Dao of simplifying complexity that had only just taken shape within him!
"Enough! You trash who can only scurry around and hide like a rat!"
His consecutive assault of more than a hundred strikes had not harmed Lin Xiao in the slightest. Instead, it had consumed more than half of his own stamina and Spiritual Energy! Li Tianyi finally stopped. He panted like an ox, his eyes bloodshot, his arrogant face written with impotent rage!
He felt like a burly man swinging a massive hammer, yet unable to hit a single fly no matter what he did, filled with endless frustration and humiliation!
"Have you dodged enough?" Lin Xiao finally stopped as well. Looking at the enraged Li Tianyi, he asked calmly, "If you have, then it is my turn."
"You're courting death!" Li Tianyi thought Lin Xiao was about to unleash some earthshaking ultimate move and immediately assumed a tight defensive stance.
Yet Lin Xiao's figure vanished from where he stood!
The next instant, he appeared at Li Tianyi's left side like a ghost!
There were no flashy moves, nor was there any shocking aura.
He merely joined his fingers like a sword and lightly jabbed beneath Li Tianyi's left ribs!
This finger strike looked utterly ordinary, yet it was swift as lightning!
Li Tianyi had no time to react. He only felt his ribs go numb before a piercing pain shot through him, causing his saber strike to falter involuntarily!
Bang!
Then Lin Xiao's other hand transformed from a palm into a fist. With the most ordinary Basic Fist Technique—Straight Punch—he struck Li Tianyi's saber-wielding wrist solidly!
Clang!
Li Tianyi cried out in pain and could no longer hold onto his saber. It flew from his hand and fell to the ground!
Before he could recover from his shock, Lin Xiao closed in again!
Basic Palm Technique: Pushing Open the Window to See the Moon! Basic Leg Technique: Sweeping Through Thousands of Armies! Basic Grappling Technique: Joint Reversal!
For a moment, everyone witnessed a scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives!
Lin Xiao was like the strictest martial arts instructor, circling around Li Tianyi, who was a full size larger than him, and giving him a dazzling "lesson"!
Everything he used was a basic Martial Skill that only Body Refinement Realm students at the first or second level would practice!
Yet in his hands, these simplest moves seemed to have come alive! Their seamless connections, tricky angles, and precise timing were simply art!
Li Tianyi, a powerful Body Refinement Eighth Level peak cultivator, was now like a clumsy puppet being toyed with in Lin Xiao's palm!
He possessed immense strength and Spiritual Energy, yet had nowhere to use them!
The moment he tried to raise his hand, a clever force diverted his wrist! The moment he tried to kick, his knee was struck viciously! The moment he tried to gather Spiritual Energy, sharp pain erupted from an acupoint on his body, instantly scattering the energy he had just condensed!
Frustration!
Unprecedented frustration!
The audience below had long changed from initial shock to complete stupefaction.
Their minds could no longer comprehend what was happening before their eyes.
A Body Refinement Seventh Level cultivator using the most worthless basic Martial Skills was actually beating a Body Refinement Eighth Level peak genius until he could not fight back at all?
What in the world was happening?!
"Ah—! I'll kill you!"
After Lin Xiao struck him hard in the chest with Black Tiger Steals the Heart from the Basic Fist Technique and sent him stumbling back seven or eight steps, Li Tianyi's proud self-esteem was finally crushed completely!
He threw back his head and let out an inhuman roar, his eyes filled with mad bloodshot veins!
"You forced me! You forced me!"
He suddenly pulled a blood-red pill from his robes and swallowed it without hesitation!
"It's... it's a Mad Blood Pill!" Chu Tianxing's expression abruptly changed on the referee's platform! "This pill can burn one's blood essence for a short time and forcibly raise one's combat power by an entire level! But its backlash is immense. At best, one's cultivation regresses; at worst, one's foundation is destroyed! Has this Li Tianyi gone mad?!"
Boom—!
As the pill entered his mouth, a terrifying aura several times stronger than before exploded from Li Tianyi's body! His skin turned an eerie blood-red, and every muscle in his body swelled visibly by an entire size!
Body Refinement Ninth Level!
Under the drug's stimulation, he had actually temporarily stepped into the final level of the Body Refinement Realm!
"Die! Die for me!"
Feeling the unprecedented power within him, as though he could destroy heaven and earth, Li Tianyi revealed a savage and crazed smile. He kicked the saber on the ground into the air, seized it once more, and charged at Lin Xiao again as a blood-colored afterimage!
This time, both his speed and strength had risen by far more than a single level!
Blazing Blade Final Secret - Body Burning Fury!
He poured every last shred of his power into this strike! The crimson saber was instantly wrapped in blood-colored flames so dense they seemed impossible to disperse. A phantom of a savage flame beast even emerged upon the blade!
This strike had surpassed the scope of a Profound-rank Martial Skill and came infinitely close to an Earth-rank one!
This strike was enough to instantly kill any cultivator below the Body Refinement Ninth Level!
The entire Life and Death Stage was shrouded beneath this terrifying saber intent! Everyone felt a tremor rising from the depths of their souls!
It was over!
This time, that youth named Lin Xiao could never dodge it again!
Yet facing this saber strike that could destroy heaven and earth, not a trace of fear appeared on Lin Xiao's face.
He merely sighed softly.
"I had intended to play with you a little longer."
"Since you are so eager to die, I'll grant your wish."
His gaze turned sharp as an eagle's in an instant!
The aura that had remained calm and still around him finally erupted without reservation!
A condensed and pure True Meaning of Martial Dao, filled with unyielding defiance and tyranny, soared into the sky!
He did not dodge.
Because this was the moment he had been waiting for!
The moment Li Tianyi burned everything to unleash his strongest saber strike and exposed all of his flaws!
His body sank slightly, and his right fist slowly drew back to his waist.
He condensed all the power in his body into that single point.
He fused the profound essence of all one thousand three hundred and twenty-four basic Martial Skills into that punch.
He entrusted his True Meaning of Martial Dao—unyielding, relentless, daring to throw a fist at the entire world—to that punch!
Then—
Facing the blood-colored saber energy rushing toward him like a volcanic eruption—
He simply threw a punch!
This punch had no name.
This punch was plain and unadorned.
Yet this punch seemed to gather the most fundamental principle of "shattering" in heaven and earth!
Time seemed to slow at that instant.
Everyone clearly saw it.
The fist of that azure-robed youth moved at a speed that looked slow, yet was actually swift to the extreme. It struck after the attack yet arrived first, touching the devastating blood-colored saber energy with absolute precision!
There was no earthshaking explosion.
There was no earth-shattering explosion.
There was only a crisp "crack," like glazed glass shattering.
Then, beneath everyone's ghost-struck stares,
the blood-red blade aura, enough to cleave through mountains, and the ferocious flaming beast roaring at its head began to crack inch by inch from the point where it met the fist!
Fine cracks spread across the entire blade aura in an instant like a spiderweb!
The next second.
"Bang—!"
The blade aura filling the sky shattered with a thunderous crash!
It turned into countless flying sparks and scattered into the air!
Yet Lin Xiao's fist lost none of its momentum. It passed through the rain of fire and lightly stamped itself onto Li Tianyi's face, twisted by horror.
"Puh—!"
Li Tianyi's burly body flew backward as though an ancient savage beast had crashed into him head-on. He spat out a long arc of blood in midair before smashing heavily beneath the battle platform dozens of meters away, his fate unknown!
Instant kill!
One punch, instant kill!
The entire arena fell deathly silent.
Before you continue