192 Matches! 496 Points!

192 Matches! 496 Points!

Starry Sky Fighting Net had more than ten battle modes, including Thousand-Person Battle Royale, Star Realm Survival, rank matches, matchmaking matches, and personal challenge matches.

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 extremely popular.

Many martial arts streamers spent all year hanging around these two battle modes.

If they coordinated well, they could completely defeat the strong with the weak.

When Li Yuan, Yan Zhou, and Zhou Qi were relaxing, they often teamed up to participate, only to get brutally thrashed...

But true martial arts experts who aspired to pursue the limits of life and temper their Martial Arts Technique—

Mostly focused on "rank matches."

Both sides had exactly the same physical attributes and could freely combine cold weapons... What they competed in was their Martial Arts Technique and combat awareness.

The purest form of martial arts combat.

Only the victor lived.

Ever since his second year of high school, aside from training in reality, Li Yuan had spent nearly every weekly day off, summer vacation, and winter vacation... playing rank matches.

His main goal was to temper his Martial Arts Technique through one virtual duel after another, each one close to real combat.

...Inside the rank match Battle Space, on a massive arena, 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 at the same time.

"Li Yuan?"

"Lin Lanyue, you were doing rank matchmaking too?" The two stared wide-eyed at each other, both caught off guard.

Neither had expected that less than two minutes after their challenge match ended, they would be matched together again.

It was far too rare.

Whether rank matches or matchmaking matches, opponents were matched globally against experts of the same rank.

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 is 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.

"Pfft!"

The spear was like a dragon. Li Yuan suddenly erupted once more, and his savage spear pierced through Lin Lanyue's chest again.

"You..." Lin Lanyue endured the agonizing pain of her body being pierced by the great spear and had only managed to shout one word.

Before her entire body dissolved into nothingness.

"You did get a little smarter. You didn't charge fiercely on your own and kept probing." Li Yuan withdrew his spear and lightly shook his head. "Unfortunately, I merely sold one opening, and you fell for it again."

"You really wanted to beat me."

"The more you want to win, the easier it is to lose." Li Yuan muttered inwardly. "You must always keep your mindset steady."

"Steady as an old dog, only then can you forge ahead without fear."

At that moment.

Li Yuan received a system notification: "Congratulations, Guardian Yuan. You have won this Gold Rank Match. Points +10!"

"Her rank points are higher than mine."

"So the system judged that I received a score bonus for winning?" Li Yuan thought.

Gaining ten points for a single victory was considered quite high.

"Continue matching." With a thought from Li Yuan, the matchmaking continued.

Inside another personal space.

"So annoying!!"

"That damn Li Yuan, he definitely did it on purpose! Aaaah!!"

Standing alone amid a starry backdrop, red-haired Lin Lanyue finally could not restrain herself any longer. Gritting her teeth, she muttered, "I curse you to never find a wife in this life."

Lin Lanyue did not care about losing.

She had no idea how many rank matches she had lost before.

If she had simply lost to Li Yuan twice, she would not have been so angry.

Since she had challenged him, she had already prepared herself mentally to lose.

The key—

Was how she had lost.

Both times, his spear had pierced her chest. Once could have been a coincidence, but twice? Could that still be coincidence?

"Calm down! Lin Lanyue, you need to calm down." Lin Lanyue took a deep breath and tried hard to settle herself. "Martial arts cultivation requires calmness above all else. You can't panic when something happens."

Suddenly.

Beep—an incoming communication request.

She looked at the name displayed on the communication projection.

"Second Brother?" Lin Lanyue hesitated for a moment, then said softly, "Xiao Qing, connect it."

Buzz~ The projection shifted, revealing a young man in a blue martial arts uniform, quite handsome.

The man bore some resemblance to 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 can't contact you?" the young man said with a smile.

"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 against a classmate on Starry Sky Fighting Net, so I came to check on you right away."

"Gu Qianghan, that loudmouth." Lin Lanyue frowned. "I'm going to teach him a lesson at school tomorrow."

"Xiao Qiang was worried about you too, which is why he told me." The young man smiled. "You're his older sister too. Don't bully him too much."

"I know—" Lin Lanyue drew out her words.

Yet inwardly, she was calculating exactly how she should deal with Gu Qianghan once she got to school tomorrow.

"I watched your battle video." The young man turned serious. "It was normal for you to lose. Aside from the disadvantage in weapons, that boy's spear technique was also much better than yours. I estimate it was already at the middle stage of Level Three."

"Middle Level Three?" Lin Lanyue was slightly shocked. She knew the rank divisions for Martial Arts Technique.

Lin Lanyue could sense that Li Yuan's Martial Arts Technique was stronger, but she had not expected him to be so much stronger than her.

"His movement technique should also be at Level Three. He may even have a chance of entering the Blue Star Youth Ranking." The young man said, "That's enough to meet the special recruitment standard."

"The Blue Star Youth Ranking?" Lin Lanyue was even more astonished.

Given her family's perspective, she naturally understood the significance of that ranking.

"How are his physical attributes?" the young man asked casually.

"Average. Probably just above Level Six, and 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 yet?" The young man froze, then shook his head. "What a pity."

The young man had only asked in passing. 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 Level Three, right?" The young man smiled. "In a normal clash, you would struggle to beat that boy even once out of a hundred."

Lin Lanyue unconsciously bit her lower lip.

She was unwilling to accept it, but she also knew that her second brother's judgment was even 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 too, so you don't spend all day thinking you're first in your grade at school and become arrogant."

"I'm not." Lin Lanyue frowned. "Second Brother, did you come to comfort me or lecture me?"

"Haha, fine."

"Your second brother was wrong. I won't lecture you anymore." The young man smiled. "Temper your swordsmanship properly. You still have half a year. Strive to enter the Blue Star Youth Ranking."

"With those credentials, once 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 not that young anymore 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 coming of age, they would only receive fifty thousand Blue Star Coins per month for living expenses.

They could forget about anything else.

"The week after next, Big Brother and I will return from Huaqi Country and come see you specifically." The young man smiled.

"Have you finished dealing with your matters? Is Dad coming?" Lin Lanyue was quite delighted.

"Dad is going to Luosi Country. The military still has matters for him." The young man shook his head.

"Oh!" Lin Lanyue pursed her lips, rather disappointed.

Not long after.

Lin Lanyue ended the call with her second brother.

"Middle Level Three spear technique, Level Three movement technique?" Lin Lanyue murmured. "This Li Yuan has improved so quickly."

She remembered it clearly.

During their first year of high school, Li Yuan had not even appeared in the grade rankings. He had risen suddenly in their second year.

In just one year, he had charged into the top thirty in the final exam of their second year, and his individual Martial Arts Technique score had even surpassed hers.

In truth, losing first place in a single category had barely affected Lin Lanyue.

But it had also made her remember the name Li Yuan.

"In that exam, my technique score was only a few points lower, which meant the gap wasn't large." Lin Lanyue gritted her teeth. "Now his Martial Arts Technique is already so much stronger than mine?"

Lin Lanyue did not really understand.

Clearly, she had received an excellent martial arts education since childhood, had a dedicated swordsmanship teacher guiding her, and trained diligently enough herself... Yet he had still caught up to and surpassed her so quickly.

"Perhaps."

"Just like Dad says, there are always some geniuses in this world." Lin Lanyue shook her head inwardly. "Unfortunately, he hasn't awakened Martial Arts Spirituality. It'll be too hard for him to achieve great accomplishments in martial arts."

Though she was angry and felt that Li Yuan had deliberately done it both times during their duels—

Deep down, Lin Lanyue felt some regret for Li Yuan.

"Continue."

"Following the Mind Technique Dad helped me with, I can manage roughly forty rank matches at a time." Lin Lanyue resumed matchmaking.

Ordinary people got headaches after playing video games for too long.

The virtual battles on Starry Sky Fighting Net placed a far greater burden on one's mind and consciousness.

Especially once one was injured and defeated, that intense pain was an extreme stimulus to the mind.

Therefore, virtual duels could not continue without limit.

Nine at night.

Inside Li Yuan's personal space on the Virtual Network's Starry Sky Fighting Net.

"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 participate in the Promotion Tournament)

...

From two in the afternoon until nine at night.

For seven hours, Li Yuan had barely stopped, fighting 192 matches in a row.

He had won 120 matches and lost 72.

He had also forcibly piled his points up from 112 to 496.

Only one final victory remained before 500 points.

(End of Chapter)