Starry Sky Fighting Net was divided into more than ten combat modes, including Thousand-Person Battle Royale, Star Realm Survival, Rank Matches, Matchmaking Matches, Personal Challenge Matches, and more.
Modes like Thousand-Person Battle Royale and Star Realm Survival usually matched teams of three to ten people. Besides testing individual strength, they tested teamwork even more, and were incredibly popular.
Many martial arts streamers spent all year hanging around these two combat modes.
If they worked well together, they could absolutely defeat the strong with the weak.
When Li Yuan, Yan Zhou, and Zhou Qi had free time, they often teamed up to participate, only to get brutally crushed...
But true martial arts experts who aspired to pursue the limits of life and hone their martial arts techniques
focused more on "Rank Matches."
With both sides possessing exactly the same physical attributes and freely choosing their combinations of cold weapons... what they competed in was martial arts technique and combat awareness.
The purest form of martial combat.
Only the victor survived.
Ever since his second year of high school, aside from real-world training, Li Yuan had spent nearly every weekly day off, summer vacation, and winter vacation... participating in Rank Matches.
His main goal was to hone his martial arts technique through one virtual duel after another, each nearly equivalent to real combat.
...Inside a Rank Match Battle Space, on a massive arena stage, there was not a single spectator.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Li Yuan and a fiery-red figure appeared out of thin air at opposite ends of the arena.
"Li Yuan?"
"Lin Lanyue, you were matching for ranks too?" The two stared at each other wide-eyed, both caught off guard.
Neither had expected that less than two minutes after their Personal Challenge Match ended, they would be matched again.
It was far too rare.
Whether Rank Matches or Matchmaking Matches, they matched experts of the same rank across the globe.
How many Gold Rank experts were there worldwide?
At least tens of millions.
The two were both struck speechless. Three seconds later—
"I won't admit defeat."
Lin Lanyue spoke first. Her eyes fixed on Li Yuan as she said coldly, "Your martial arts technique may be slightly stronger than mine, but that doesn't mean I'll definitely lose."
"Mm-hm, you're right." Li Yuan nodded.
Forty-two seconds later.
On the arena stage.
Splat!
The spear moved like a dragon. Li Yuan erupted again, and his fierce spear pierced through Lin Lanyue's chest once more.
"You..." Lin Lanyue endured the searing agony of the great spear piercing her body and had only managed to cry out one word.
Before her entire body dissolved into nothingness.
"You did get smarter. You didn't launch a fierce attack on your own initiative and kept probing." Li Yuan withdrew his spear and lightly shook his head. "Unfortunately, I only sold one opening, and you fell for it again."
"You want too badly to beat me."
"The more you want to win, the easier it is to lose." Li Yuan muttered to himself. "You must always keep your mindset steady."
"Steady as an old dog, only then can you charge forward without hindrance."
At that moment.
Li Yuan received a system notification: "Congratulations, Guardian Yuan. You have won this Gold Rank Match. Points +10!"
"Her rank points were higher than mine."
"So the system judged that I received a bonus for winning?" Li Yuan thought.
Ten points for winning a battle was quite high.
"Continue matching." Li Yuan willed it.
Inside another personal space.
"So annoying!!"
"Damn Li Yuan, he definitely did it on purpose! Aaahhh!!"
Standing alone beneath a starry sky, the red-haired Lin Lanyue finally could not hold back any longer. Grinding her teeth, she muttered, "I curse you to never find a wife for the rest of your life."
Lin Lanyue did not care about losing.
She had no idea how many Rank Matches she had lost.
If she had merely lost twice to Li Yuan, she would not have been this angry.
Since she had challenged him, she had already prepared herself mentally to lose.
The key
was how she had lost.
Twice, she had been pierced through the chest by his spear. Once could be a coincidence, but twice—could that still be a coincidence?
"Calm down! Lin Lanyue, you need to calm down." Lin Lanyue took a deep breath, trying hard to settle herself. "Martial cultivation requires calmness above all else. You can't panic when something happens."
Suddenly.
Beep—an incoming communication request.
Looking at the name displayed on the communication projection.
"Second Brother?" Lin Lanyue hesitated briefly, then said softly, "Xiao Qing, connect it."
Buzz~ The projection shifted, revealing a young man in a blue martial arts uniform. He was rather handsome.
The young man looked somewhat like Lin Lanyue.
"Little Sister." The man smiled.
"Second Brother." Lin Lanyue suppressed the irritation in her heart and revealed a faint smile. "Why did you suddenly contact me?"
"What? I'm not allowed to contact you?" The young man laughed.
"Hmph!"
Lin Lanyue could not help snorting. "Second Brother, count for yourself. How long has it been since you last contacted me?"
The young man smiled indulgently. "I heard from Xiao Qiang that you lost a challenge match to a classmate on Starry Sky Fighting Net, so I came to check on you right away."
"Gu Qianghan and his big mouth." Lin Lanyue frowned. "I'll teach him a lesson at school tomorrow."
"Xiao Qiang was worried about you, so he told me." The young man smiled. "You're his older sister too. Don't bully him too much."
"I knowww—" Lin Lanyue dragged out the words.
Yet inwardly, she was already plotting how to deal with Gu Qianghan when she got to school tomorrow.
"I watched your battle video." The young man turned serious. "It was perfectly normal for you to lose. Aside from the disadvantage in weaponry, that boy's spear technique was much stronger than yours. I estimate it had reached Intermediate Third Stage."
"Intermediate Third Stage?" Lin Lanyue was slightly shocked. She knew how martial arts techniques were ranked.
Lin Lanyue could sense that Li Yuan's martial arts technique was stronger, but she had not expected him to be that much stronger than her.
"His movement technique should also be at the Third Stage. He might even have a chance of ranking on the Blue Star Youth Ranking." The young man said, "That's enough to meet special admission standards."
"The Blue Star Youth Ranking?" Lin Lanyue was even more astonished.
Given her family's standing, she naturally understood the significance of that ranking.
"How are his physical attributes?" the young man asked casually.
"So-so. Probably just above level 6. He hasn't awakened Martial Arts Spirituality yet." Lin Lanyue shook her head.
She knew a little about Li Yuan's circumstances as well.
"He hasn't awakened Martial Arts Spirituality?" The young man froze for a moment, then shook his head. "That's rather unfortunate."
The young man had only asked casually. He did not truly care.
To him, whether Li Yuan was good or bad did not matter.
"Little Sister, your swordsmanship should have only just broken through to the Third Stage, right?" The young man smiled. "In a normal exchange, you probably wouldn't win against that boy even once in a hundred battles."
Lin Lanyue unconsciously bit her lower lip.
She was unwilling to accept it, but she also knew that her second brother's judgment was only sharper than Teacher Xu Bo's.
"Having such a martial arts genius as your classmate is a good thing." The young man smiled. "It can serve as a warning for you, so you don't grow arrogant just because you think you're first in your school year."
"I'm not arrogant." Lin Lanyue frowned. "Second Brother, did you come to comfort me or lecture me?"
"Haha, all right."
"Second Brother's mistake. I won't lecture you anymore." The young man smiled. "Hone your swordsmanship properly. You still have half a year—strive to break into the Blue Star Youth Ranking."
"With that qualification, when you enter Starry Sky University, you'll receive more attention. Dad will also be able to apply to the Lineage for more resources for you." The young man said.
"Mm, I know." Lin Lanyue nodded.
She was no longer that young and would soon become an adult. She understood very clearly how the Lineage operated.
There were too many descendants. Only those outstanding enough could receive the Lineage's resources and cultivation.
Otherwise, even after becoming an adult, she would only receive fifty thousand Blue Star Coins each month as living expenses.
She need not even think about anything else.
"The week after next, Eldest Brother and I will return from Huaqi Country. We'll come see you specifically." The young man smiled.
"Have you finished dealing with your affairs? Is Dad coming too?" Lin Lanyue was pleasantly surprised.
"Dad is going to Luosi Country. The military still has matters for him to handle." The young man shook his head.
"Oh!" Lin Lanyue pursed her lips, rather disappointed.
Not long after.
Lin Lanyue ended her call with her second brother.
"Intermediate Third Stage spear technique, Third Stage movement technique?" Lin Lanyue murmured. "This Li Yuan has improved so quickly."
She remembered very clearly.
During their first year of high school, Li Yuan had not even been among the year rankings. He had risen like a sudden army only in their second year.
In just one year, he had surged into the top thirty in the second-year final exams, and his individual martial arts technique score had even surpassed hers.
In truth, losing first place in one individual category had barely affected Lin Lanyue.
But it had made her remember the name Li Yuan.
"In that exam, my Arts Score was only a few points lower, which meant the gap wasn't large." Lin Lanyue gritted her teeth. "And now, his martial arts technique is already so much stronger than mine?"
Lin Lanyue could not quite understand.
Clearly, she had received an excellent martial arts education since childhood, had dedicated swordsmanship instructors guiding her, and trained diligently herself... yet she had still been rapidly caught up to and surpassed by him.
"Perhaps."
"Just as Dad said, there are always some geniuses in this world." Lin Lanyue shook her head inwardly. "Unfortunately, he hasn't awakened Martial Arts Spirituality. If he wants to achieve great things in martial arts, it'll be far too difficult."
Though she was angry and felt that Li Yuan had acted deliberately in both duels,
deep down, Lin Lanyue felt somewhat regretful for him.
"Continue."
"Following the Mind Technique Dad helped me with, I can conduct around forty Rank Matches in one sitting." Lin Lanyue resumed matching.
Ordinary people developed headaches after playing video games for too long.
Virtual combat on Starry Sky Fighting Net placed a much greater burden on one's consciousness.
Especially once one was injured and defeated, that intense sensation of pain was an extreme stimulation to the mind.
Therefore, virtual duels could not continue without limit.
Nine o'clock at night.
Inside Li Yuan's personal space on Starry Sky Fighting Net, within the Virtual Network.
"Finally, I'm almost there." Li Yuan took a deep breath and swept his gaze across his Rank Match panel:
Rank Match: Gold Rank. Points: 496 (1,000 points required to enter the Promotion Tournament)
From two in the afternoon until nine at night.
Over seven hours, Li Yuan had barely rested as he fought 192 consecutive battles.
He won 120 battles and lost 72.
He had forcibly piled his points from 112 all the way up to 496.
Only one final victory remained before 500 points.
(End of Chapter)
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