Piercing Sun

Facing the Yellow-clad Man, whose staff art was equivalent to Peak Staff Art - Entry, Li Wen moved.

After all, his blade art had only just reached Peak Technique - Entry.

Even after grinding away in the training room last night, he had only raised Rainbow Light Blade Art by 3 experience points. He was still far from Minor Accomplishment.

So, facing the Yellow-clad Man, whose skill had likewise only just reached Peak Staff Art - Entry, he did not dare be careless in the slightest.

However, he did not immediately activate [Absolute Focus], because he wanted to test just how strong he truly was when facing an opponent of the same skill level. Just how much weight did this "Entry" carry?

His body flashed like lightning!

The movement technique paired with Rainbow Light Blade Art displayed itself to the fullest at that instant. The Yellow-clad Man's fierce staff shadows swept past the edge of his clothes and struck empty air.

"Such speed. It looks like Li Wen chose a peak blade art focused on speed."

Watching Li Wen's figure on the virtual screen smoothly evade the Yellow-clad Man's attacks with almost eerie grace, the Class 21 students quickly reached that conclusion.

Xue Jun's gaze narrowed slightly, while Deng Yuefei unconsciously clenched his fists.

By now, everyone had basically confirmed the fact that had long been ready to burst forth—Li Wen's blade art had truly reached Peak Technique - Entry.

When Li Wen had slain the Orange-clad Man, who represented Advanced Technique - Perfection, with five slashes earlier, it might still have been a coincidence. Perhaps he had merely happened to master a few incomparably powerful trump cards from Rainbow Light Blade Art.

But now, in this battle where every second mattered and the pace was suffocatingly fast, he could still move with such ease, repeatedly using his movement technique to evade perfectly as though he had foreseen every attack. That was absolutely not something Advanced Technique - Perfection could achieve.

Without a solid foundation, the timing and angles of his evasions could never be so precise and perfect.

What did Peak Technique - Entry mean?

It meant that one could steadily and smoothly execute every blade technique, footwork, movement method, and even the core essence of the art itself, forming preliminary combat power. Only then could one be called initiated!

Otherwise, if even one's basic moves and movement techniques worked only sometimes, yet one still dared claim initiation, one would only make a laughingstock of oneself.

As though to confirm everyone's speculation, after dodging several rounds of the Yellow-clad Man's storm-like attacks, Li Wen's blade light finally erupted.

Clang!

A clear blade cry tore through the currents of the virtual space. One fierce, unpredictable move after another, peak blade art techniques as swift as Thunder Bolt, flowed from Li Wen's hand without the slightest hitch.

They were no longer scattered trump cards, but a complete system of offense and defense.

In an instant, the entire livestream screen was covered and flooded with dazzling blade light and staff shadows.

The ringing crashes of metal colliding sounded as dense as beans popping in a pan, while the collision of blood and qi force scattered specks of glowing light.

After fighting fiercely for several minutes straight, Li Wen's eyes grew brighter and brighter, like a furnace fed with fresh firewood.

Since awakening his Prior Wisdom, this was the first time he had unleashed Rainbow Light Blade Art without holding anything back, giving it his all.

That exhilarating, unrestrained feeling was something he could never compare to practicing against empty air or holographic projections.

The life-and-death pressure brought by the Virtual Human instantly pushed techniques and methods that had previously existed only in theory or imagination to the threshold of real combat, where they had to be tested.

The angle of every clash between blade and staff, the subtle adjustments of strength, the shifts and turns of his movement technique at extreme distances, the delicate resonance of the blood and qi within his body flowing along with his blade forms...

All sorts of details that he had once pondered bitterly without comprehending, or found difficult to control, were now being forged beneath the high pressure of real combat as though by an invisible hammer, continuously tested, corrected, and solidified.

In the eyes of the onlookers outside, Li Wen on the arena stage had initially shown faint, almost imperceptible pauses and stiffness in the transitions between his moves while facing the Yellow-clad Man's wild assault.

Yet as the battle continued, that feeling gradually faded away.

His movements became increasingly smooth and natural, while his blade light grew more and more unified and seamless. The rawness between his offense and defense was visibly being worn away.

However, there were very few people in the entire plaza who could clearly notice and understand that transformation.

In all of Class 21, only Xue Jun, whose skill had long reached Peak Technique - Minor Accomplishment and had already progressed more than halfway beyond it, keenly caught that subtle yet crucial transformation in Li Wen through a realm and understanding far beyond those of his classmates.

Xue Jun's gaze merely shifted slightly, and he did not point it out. He had encountered such a situation himself when he had been breaking through toward Minor Accomplishment.

Martial arts skills were meant to be tempered in this sort of real combat confrontation. Only then could one make the greatest progress in the shortest time, transforming the techniques from books and videos into the body's true instincts.

It was just that... a trace of helplessness flashed through the depths of Xue Jun's eyes. These Unranked students had far too crude a control over their physical strength in their everyday lives.

On top of that, their bodies themselves were frail, so they simply did not dare engage in such intense sparring sessions, where injuries and disability could occur at any moment.

They could be injured too easily, and once injured, it meant a setback that would affect their cultivation progress.

That was precisely why everyone, from teachers to students, cherished every Martial Arts Assessment so greatly.

This was almost the only precious opportunity for them to temporarily cast aside every concern, cast aside the limits of the flesh, and unleash everything they had learned without restraint, fighting to their hearts' content.

How could ordinary families ever hope to purchase an immersive combat Virtual Pod that cost hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of Huaxia Coins? And owning a Virtual Pod merely gave one the foundation to access the Virtual World.

What was truly precious and central were the intelligent Virtual Humans that simulated martial arts techniques of every realm, as well as the exquisite algorithms that could restore, almost perfectly, the body's reactions and energy circulation during real combat.

At present, only colossal entities such as the government, the education system, and the Four Great Factions were qualified to possess such authority.

Even if ordinary people smashed their pots and sold their iron to buy a Virtual Pod, they could only enter the Virtual World to play games. They could not touch functions that could be called strategic resources at all.

The Class 21 students, most of whom had gotten in through connections, felt this especially deeply.

While the people in the plaza discussed fervently, each with their own thoughts, the battle between Li Wen and the Yellow-clad Man on the arena had also drawn close to its end.

Though Li Wen's Rainbow Light Blade Art was only a few experience points ahead of his opponent's, that was still an advantage.

Especially after this test of real combat, he had polished his entry-level skill several degrees further, making it more rounded and refined.

Hummm—!

Everyone saw Li Wen on the screen suddenly erupt with a burst of speed even faster than at the beginning.

At the instant the Yellow-clad Man's sweeping strike, capable of sweeping away an army, had exhausted its force, Li Wen used the ultimate speed of Rainbow Light Blade Art's movement technique to ghostlike circle behind the Yellow-clad Man, into his visual blind spot.

The next second, all the power and momentum upon the cold blade seemed to compress to the very limit in an instant, before erupting with a thunderous explosion.

The ultimate profundity of Rainbow Light Blade Art—Piercing Sun!