And yet—
"Ssst!"
Facing the sky-filling blade light that could easily tear apart a Warrior at Advanced Perfection, the Green-Clad Virtual Human showed not the slightest hesitation or panic.
He merely casually raised the long staff in his hand, his wrist trembling several times at a frequency too swift to catch. The staff transformed into an airtight circular barrier of staff shadows.
"Clang clang clang clang clang clang—!!!"
A string of crisp impacts so dense they nearly overlapped rang out like a sudden rainstorm beating banana leaves, sparks erupting wildly wherever the staff shadows collided with the blade light.
That seemingly all-encompassing blade light had actually struck what seemed like the hardest reef, each slash precisely blocked and deflected by the steady, simple barrier of staff shadows. It could not advance a single inch.
The Green-Clad Man had not even moved his feet.
What alarmed Li Wen even more was that, just as the overwhelming impact of Piercing Sun was effortlessly neutralized by his opponent and his old force had faded while new force had yet to arise—leaving him in the most delicate moment of stagnation between moves—
That ordinary long staff had already broken silently through all the remaining blade light like a venomous dragon that had lain in wait for ages.
There was no earthshaking momentum, only a killing thrust so fast it left behind nothing but a faint sharp streak, its tip aimed directly at Li Wen's heart.
The air itself seemed to be effortlessly pierced through by that thrust.
"Not good!" The intense sense of danger made Li Wen's scalp explode, and his body reacted entirely on the instinct to survive.
"Clang—!"
A tremendously muffled boom, far greater than anything before it.
In the flash of lightning between the staff about to strike Li Wen's heart and missing by a hair, Li Wen twisted his body and stepped sideways, barely raising his swift blade upright and perilously using its thick blade surface to block the staff tip before his chest.
The terrifying force of the vibration transmitted through the blade far surpassed any blow from his fierce fight with the Yellow-clad Man.
This force was violent, precise, and concentrated! It traveled through the blade into both arms, then slammed viciously into his entire body.
"Puh!" Li Wen felt as though his arms had been struck by a high-speed battering ram. They went numb and lost all sensation in an instant, while his blood and qi churned in his chest and a fishy sweetness surged up his throat.
Like a kite with its string cut, he was blasted off the ground and hurled backward by that irresistible force.
"Thud thud thud thud~!" He staggered back seven or eight meters across the incomparably hard arena, dragging long marks beneath his feet before he barely managed to steady himself without collapsing directly onto the ground.
But the tiger's mouths of his hands holding the blade had already split open and begun to bleed. The tearing pain and numbness in his arm muscles nearly made him lose his grip on the hilt, while his chest felt as if it were pinned beneath a massive boulder, so suffocating that he could barely breathe.
Just one strike! They possessed the same virtual Flesh Rank, yet the difference between them was as vast as clouds and mud.
This was the impossible-to-ignore crushing advantage of Peak Technique at Minor Accomplishment over Initiation. The gap lay far beyond mere familiarity with the moves.
With every step forward in one's realm of technique came a complete rebirth in one's understanding, application, and explosive efficiency of power.
The same measure of physical strength, in the hands of a Warrior at Minor Accomplishment, could unleash power, speed, and destructive force far beyond anything Initiation could match.
It was a deeper excavation and control of the body's potential.
"Huff... huff..." Li Wen panted violently, every breath carrying a stabbing pain through his chest.
Sweat mixed with the blood seeping from his tiger's mouths, staining the hilt red.
That single staff strike had let him clearly see the enormous chasm between them.
If I keep passively taking hits like this, I probably won't last more than a few exchanges before losing... I can't keep defending and stalling blindly.
Watching the Green-Clad Man advance slowly with staff in hand, carrying an overwhelming aura of suppression, a trace of all-or-nothing madness and resolve flashed through Li Wen's eyes.
He realized that if he relied solely on the normal performance of the Initiation-level Rainbow Light Blade Art, he would have no ability to fight back at all.
At last, it was time to use his trump card.
"Activate—[Absolute Focus]!"
The thought flashed through his mind.
In fact, the moment he had entered the Virtual World, Li Wen had cautiously attempted to sense it.
He discovered that within this virtual space, which was incomparably close to reality, he could still mobilize and activate his innate skill, [Absolute Focus], without the slightest obstruction.
That was precisely the greatest foundation of his courage to face the Green-Clad Man head-on.
Presented with this perfect, exceedingly rare chance to fight without restraint, without worrying about injuries rebounding onto him or burdening his physical body, how could he possibly let it slip away so easily?
And how could he possibly abandon such a precious tempering experience merely because the gap between them was immense?
Moreover, he had never truly activated [Absolute Focus] under the intense pressure of fighting another person in a life-and-death struggle.
In his previous training, he had mostly made use of the thirty-percent surge in comprehension granted by the [Absolute Focus] state.
He had immersed himself in comprehending blade arts and gaining deeper insight into cultivation techniques. He rarely—or rather, had never—had the chance to fully employ the enhancement it provided for ultra-fine control over physical strength.
This would be an unprecedented exploration, a true test of the limits of his combat power.
Against a formidable enemy with Peak Technique at Minor Accomplishment, just how much could Level 3 Absolute Focus improve his control over this "virtual" body's strength?
How much combat power beyond the Initiation realm could it allow him to unleash? How much could it narrow this seemingly insurmountable gulf?
As for whether activating the skill might let others outside notice something unusual... Li Wen sneered inwardly, utterly dismissing the concern.
First, Level 3 [Absolute Focus] was itself extraordinarily discreet when activated. Its outward manifestation was nothing more than extreme mental concentration and eyes becoming sharper and more focused in an instant—an entirely normal occurrence during a life-and-death martial battle.
Besides, the teachers and students outside were merely watching a 2D image projected onto the central screen.
From that distant, single-angle 2D footage, who could possibly detect the minute, fleeting change in a Warrior's eyes amid high-speed movement and flickering images?
That was simply the dream of a fool. As the skill activated, the switch to his spiritual world was turned fully open.
Boom—!
An immense Spiritual Power, cold and clear, as if capable of freezing and solidifying every impurity in the depths of thought, instantly took over Li Wen's consciousness.
The speed of his brain's operation was pushed to an unimaginable level in that instant.
His thoughts became like an accelerated stream of particles. Observation, judgment, and decision-making processes that had once required tenths of a second were now compressed into mere microseconds.
The entire world seemed to slow down before his eyes.
The Green-Clad Man's step-by-step approach, the aura of power flowing through the staff, the faint currents stirred in the surrounding air... countless torrents of information surged in at once, only to be instantly deconstructed and analyzed by his rapidly operating consciousness core.
This was the qualitative transformation brought about by the thirty-percent comprehension boost of Level 3 [Absolute Focus].
It was not merely a boost to learning and comprehension. At the edge of life and death in battle, it became the most precise ability to sense battlefield conditions and predict their developments.
But that was not all.
A deeper sensation of forcibly "optimized" control over his body spread like an electric current through every extremity of his "virtual" body.
It was the precise mobilization of every strand of muscle fiber, a more exact control over every stream of rushing blood and qi.
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