Some time earlier, before Dan Lei and Yan Qing officially began their match, the two most powerful people on Xianzhou Luofu were watching the two boys from the Audience Seats and discussing their merits.
Fu Xuan spoke first.
"Jing Yuan, I thought you had something important to discuss when you asked me to come out. But you just wanted to watch Yan Qing spar with a Vidyadhara kid?
You know how busy I am. If this is really just a sparring match, I'll be leaving."
As Fu Xuan spoke, she looked at Jing Yuan. But his eyes hadn't left Dan Lei once.
Still, he reassured Fu Xuan.
"Minister Fu, please be patient. If you want to become Luofu's general, you first need to know what talented young people our Xianzhou has and what they're capable of. Only then can you assign them to the right roles."
Jing Yuan's words finally piqued Fu Xuan's interest. Watching the two in the arena, she asked,
"Oh? Yan Qing's one thing, but this Vidyadhara boy is talented too?"
As soon as she finished speaking, Fu Xuan used the third eye on her forehead to connect to the Qiong Guan Array, retrieve Dan Lei's records, and perform a divination.
A moment later, Fu Xuan looked at Jing Yuan with a baffled expression and asked,
"Jing Yuan, have you gotten senile? According to the records, Dan Lei has no chance of beating Yan Qing.
Even if he was glimpsed by the Aeon of Memory and fished a martial art out of the Sea of Memories, two years of growth wouldn't be enough to make his combat strength skyrocket.
Yan Qing is a genius you've carefully trained for decades."
Jing Yuan didn't keep her guessing. He simply gave Fu Xuan the answer.
"Dan Lei knows a technique for manipulating Life Energy. From what he says, it seems to have evolved from that Breathing Technique.
But this Life Energy isn't the kind we know. It's quite extraordinary.
On top of that, he possesses the Power of the Equilibrium Destiny—and he doesn't even know it."
Jing Yuan's explanation made Fu Xuan understand.
She didn't have Dan Lei's complete records, so of course her calculations couldn't produce the correct result with information missing.
After all, Dan Lei hadn't been put through a comprehensive analysis by the Qiong Guan Array. It was only natural for the results to be wrong.
Fu Xuan also understood what it meant to possess the Power of the Equilibrium Destiny without knowing it.
Her curiosity was piqued, and she began watching the fight closely.
By then, Dan Lei and Yan Qing had already begun their match. After a round of probing attacks, Dan Lei used Magecraft Thread.
After analyzing it with her third eye, Fu Xuan remarked,
"Interesting. Life Energy can be used like this? How does it work?"
If a member of the Genius Club had been there, they might have been able to analyze the nature of magic.
Unfortunately, neither Jing Yuan nor Fu Xuan was a member. With their fields of expertise being so different, neither could figure it out.
The fight soon reached the point where Yan Qing launched Swallow Returns to ambush Dan Lei. But Jing Yuan shook his head and said,
"Yan Qing is still too hasty. Looks like he's going to lose."
Based on the Qiong Guan Array's calculations, Fu Xuan couldn't come to the same conclusion.
Still, she didn't question Jing Yuan's judgment. Whenever they disagreed, Jing Yuan was almost always right. After being proven wrong so many times, Fu Xuan had learned to wait and see.
Sure enough, the fight below soon changed.
Dan Lei realized his attacks couldn't break through the Ice Sword defense of Swallow Returns in a short time. He wasn't foolish enough to engage an enemy with an invulnerable defense in close combat.
Lightning crackled around him as he used the Thunder Breathing technique. With a Thunderclap and Flash, he instantly opened up some distance.
Seeing Dan Lei flee, Yan Qing immediately sent his flying swords after him without a word.
But Dan Lei no longer engaged Yan Qing head-on. He blocked the flying swords with his Nichirin Greatsword and used attacks of various elements to stop Yan Qing's charges. He didn't let up for a moment.
After they'd run two laps around the arena, Fu Xuan spotted what was going on. Watching Dan Lei's path below, she commented,
"Hm? Dan Lei is using lightning trails to draw an Imaginary Impact Array like the ones automatons use in the arena. Interesting."
Jing Yuan nodded.
"Indeed. Dan Lei clearly has a better sense of space than Yan Qing, and Yan Qing knows nothing about arrays. He's in for a rough time."
Just as Jing Yuan finished speaking, Dan Lei drew the final stroke of the Imaginary Impact Array.
The Imaginary Impact Array was common on Luofu. It was used in everything from toys sold by the roadside to the powerful thrust unleashed by the Aurumaton Shackler.
The array Dan Lei had drawn in the martial arena was large, but without Special Metals to amplify it, it wasn't very powerful.
But Dan Lei had never expected the thing to defeat Yan Qing. He only wanted the array's wide-area, high-frequency bursts of Imaginary Energy to break the Ice Swords of Swallow Returns.
Yan Qing had focused all his attention on Dan Lei. When the Imaginary Impact Array activated, it caught him completely off guard.
The four Ice Swords, already cracked, were like they'd been thrown straight into a furnace. Imaginary Energy quickly scoured them to pieces.
The Power of the Path of the Hunt empowering Yan Qing was also broken the moment the Ice Swords shattered.
With his Path power broken, Yan Qing's strength and speed plummeted.
Dan Lei naturally used Thunderclap and Flash to rush right up to Yan Qing. He took the opening stance of Tsubame Gaeshi, ready to end the fight with Kojiro Sasaki's signature technique.
Of course, though Kojiro Sasaki had personally taught Dan Lei Tsubame Gaeshi, this was only the mortal version. He couldn't deliver three slashes that crossed through time; instead, it was a high-speed, all-angle triple slash.
Dan Lei wasn't worried about hurting Yan Qing. With Xianzhou medical care, a few cuts wouldn't kill him.
But even now, Yan Qing refused to give up.
Yan Qing barely blocked the first slash of Dan Lei's Tsubame Gaeshi with the longsword in his hand. But the gap in strength was too great, and his sword was knocked away.
Then came the second slash. Yan Qing forced his six flying swords to block it. They failed, but they absorbed most of the blow's force, leaving only a shallow bloody line across his body.
By the final slash, Yan Qing had nowhere left to dodge. He could only turn his back to the blade and try to lessen the damage with the sword sheath and gourd strapped behind him.
The result was that Yan Qing was slashed in a spray of blood and sent flying.
But he managed to right himself in midair, then skidded seven or eight meters across the ground on both feet.
Yan Qing was now covered in blood, but his fighting spirit remained undiminished. He was clearly about to summon his flying swords and fight on.
But when he looked at Dan Lei again, the Nichirin Greatsword was already thrust toward him. The next instant, the long lock of hair on the right side of his head was cut off, and the Nichirin Greatsword flew back to Dan Lei.
The outcome was clear. If Dan Lei had gone all out just now, Yan Qing's head would have been rolling on the ground. The match was over.
Dan Lei bowed once more and said,
"You fought well."
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