Huang Hao

When the hundreds of screens had dwindled to only a few dozen, there was no need for close-ups. Every remaining window had already been enlarged enough for the students in the back rows to clearly see every detail of the combatants' movements.

The weakest among those who had lasted this far had at least reached Advanced Technique - Greater Accomplishment.

Everyone's gaze was once again firmly captured by one of the screens.

On it stood a burly, stern-faced boy wielding two heavy metal battle-axes.

His opponent was, astonishingly, a Virtual Human clad in a Yellow Robe, signifying Advanced Technique - Perfection.

Yet the battle was completely one-sided. The boy was Huang Hao—the publicly acknowledged number one in combat techniques among the third-years.

"Roar—!" Though the system had muted it, a furious roar that seemed capable of shaking the audience's hearts appeared to burst from the screen.

Huang Hao spun his twin axes like windmills. The enormous blades seemed weightless in his hands, ripping through the air with terrifying hissing explosions.

The seemingly clumsy giant axes formed an absolute suppression in both speed and strength, instantly hacking out a sky full of overlapping axe shadows and whipping the air across the entire arena into a berserk frenzy.

The wooden staff in the Yellow Robe Virtual Human's hands could barely cope beneath that berserk assault, like a lone flatboat amid raging waves. It struggled bitterly, beaten so badly it could not even lift its head.

"Holy shit! Fierce! Too fierce! As expected of Huang Hao—the top student of the year in name and deed!" A wave of gasps and heartfelt praise arose all around.

The students of Class 21 were equally dazzled, shaken by that overwhelming sense of power.

Li Wen's gaze was just as sharp as he stared fixedly at every one of Huang Hao's axe shadows. The blood of a martial artist within him seemed to hum in resonance.

He assessed it rapidly. If I faced Huang Hao right now and confronted him head-on... I wouldn't last ten exchanges! The gap is far too great...

A heavy weight settled over his heart.

Even this tiny county's No.3 High School hid crouching tigers and coiled dragons! If he wanted to reach Peak Technique - Greater Accomplishment, he still had a long, arduous road ahead.

Time raced by amid the fierce battles.

Most of the students in the first batch of assessments had already determined victory or defeat and been eliminated.

Only three flickering battle screens remained on the massive display.

The entire plaza focused its attention on them.

These three represented the current pinnacle of technique among the third-years:

Huang Hao: first in the year, technique realm—Peak Technique - Greater Accomplishment.

Xue Jun: first in Class 21, technique realm—more than halfway through Peak Technique - Minor Accomplishment.

Leng Qingqiu: a female expert ranked in the year's top ten, whose swordsmanship realm was likewise formidable.

At this moment, the virtual opponents before all three of them had completely refreshed.

Their identical green robes signified that their technique realm had reached Peak Technique - Minor Accomplishment.

This was a realm high enough to plunge most third-year students into despair.

"Whoosh—!" The instant the Green-Robed Virtual Humans appeared, they did not pause in the slightest.

No words, no probing, and certainly no mercy.

Like killing machines, they directly unleashed the full might of staff techniques at Peak Technique - Minor Accomplishment.

The staff was the foundation of all weapons and an amplifier of strength. The three green figures moved almost in unison.

Ordinary Eyebrow-Level Wooden Staffs became terrifying curtains of shadows that tore through the air in their hands.

The sky full of staff shadows came with piercing whistles, like countless venomous dragons, accurately and viciously sealing off every vital point on Huang Hao, Xue Jun, and Leng Qingqiu's bodies without leaving the slightest room to spare.

This was a truly lethal fight.

"Hmph! Mere tricks!" Xue Jun's cold snort rang out clearly through the screen.

Facing an attack that could make an ordinary Minor Accomplishment practitioner collapse in an instant, a brilliant gleam flared in his eyes, and the silver spear in his hand no longer held anything back.

"Buzz—" The spear shaft trembled. A cold gleam arrived first, then the spear shot forth like a dragon.

There was no flourish, only a thrust so fast it reached the absolute extreme, precisely piercing through layer upon layer of staff shadows and striking directly at the Green-Clad Man's core.

He displayed the essence of Peak Spear Art - Minor Accomplishment without reservation! Unlike Xue Jun's exquisite piercing strikes, Huang Hao in another screen displayed an absolute aesthetics of violence.

"Break for me—!" Huang Hao's roar seemed ready to shatter the virtual space.

He stepped forward, and even the invisible arena beneath his feet seemed to tremble. He raised both axes high—not in a skillful spinning motion this time, but with the domineering will to split Mount Hua in two.

The heavy axe blades were no longer nimble windmills, but two collapsing mountains.

With terrifying strength far beyond that of others at the same level, infused with his comprehension of axe techniques at Peak Technique - Greater Accomplishment, he savagely chopped at the core of the sky full of staff shadows.

One force subdued ten techniques! Those seemingly airtight staff shadows actually showed faint signs of being ripped open by a crack before the storm of absolute power.

Several more minutes passed, and the intense battle screens on the plaza's massive display went dark one after another.

Of the three remaining competitors, only Huang Hao, whose axe techniques had reached Peak Technique - Greater Accomplishment, was still struggling to hold on.

His opponent had already upgraded from a Green-Robed Virtual Human to a Blue-Robed Virtual Human, an existence equivalent to Peak Staff Art - Perfection.

The situation had completely reversed.

It was no longer Huang Hao suppressing his opponent with twin axes whistling like a rainbow. Instead, the Blue Virtual Man had transformed into a berserk hurricane of staff shadows.

The long staff flew and turned, its force heavy and fierce, its angles viciously tricky. Every move carried the smooth mastery and might of the Perfection realm, forcibly cutting apart and shredding Huang Hao's unending axe momentum, driving him back again and again without any power to retaliate.

"Hah!" Huang Hao roared as he tried to counterattack, his twin axes cleaving toward gaps in the staff shadows with the sound of splitting air.

But the Blue-Robed Virtual Human's footwork was exquisite, and its long staff seemed alive. Whether hooking, smashing, or striking, it always moved after yet arrived before, accurately hitting the weakest point in Huang Hao's power and throwing him into a flurry.

The Perfection realm's control over power and application of techniques was displayed to the fullest, forming an absolute suppression over Greater Accomplishment.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" Continuous staff shadows pounded Huang Hao's axe heads, shoulders, and arms like raindrops, making his blood and qi churn and his arms go numb.

Every block consumed tremendous strength, yet the Blue Virtual Man's assault was like an unceasing tide, growing faster and heavier.

Finally, during a brief stalemate—

"Whoosh—" A sharp screech that tore through the air instantly pierced everyone's eardrums.

A blue staff shadow, so fast it surpassed the eye's ability to follow, instantly pierced through the lingering remnants of axe shadows filling the air and struck Huang Hao's vulnerable throat with incomparable precision.

"Ugh..." Huang Hao's body abruptly stiffened, and every movement came to a halt.

In disbelief, he lowered his head to look at the staff tip resting against his throat, then raised his head toward the expressionless blue figure opposite him.

His consciousness blurred, and his body began gradually turning into streams of white light, dissipating within the virtual arena space.

Even before he vanished completely, intense unwillingness and defeat were frozen upon his face.