"Ha... ha... ha..."
Lion Sha gasped heavily, his body already pushed to its limit.
The injuries that had built up inside him continued to worsen, severely hampering his strength.
Meanwhile, Bai Yuan looked at the deep slash across his right arm. His shattered armor quickly repaired itself, covering the wound.
At the same time, Genetic Origin Energy began healing his injured arm.
That was right—he had just been struck by a slash.
Lion Sha's combat skills and swordsmanship had improved noticeably since the start.
More importantly, he could apply what he learned to his domain, drawing lessons from one thing to understand another. His control of it had grown increasingly adept.
That was why Bai Yuan had let his guard slip and taken the hit.
"Ha... cough, cough... I lost this time. We'll fight again!"
Lion Sha burst into laughter, only to aggravate his injuries and suddenly cough up a large mouthful of blood.
But he had no regrets. This fight had brought him real, tangible improvement.
After leaving the Battle Space, Bai Yuan checked the time and sighed.
"I still went over the limit. Guess I'll just start the next match."
He immediately sent out a challenge, but the other person rejected it outright.
Bai Yuan paid it little mind and challenged someone else, only to be rejected again.
Ten challenges in a row, and no one accepted.
At last, Bai Yuan tried challenging an opponent with the same seven-star rating as him, but was rejected once more.
He was stunned. He was a seven-star fighter, after all, and he had challenged someone of the same rating—yet they had still turned him down without hesitation.
Just as he was about to keep trying, a private message suddenly came in.
"Bro, stop trying. Word about your strength has already gotten around. Go challenge someone with nine stars. We're really no match for you."
Bai Yuan finally understood why.
Before he could send out another challenge, one application after another came pouring in.
In less than ten seconds, the number of applications had passed a hundred.
"So many!" Bai Yuan was startled.
But among these hundred-plus challenges, there was only one nine-star fighter. Most of the applicants were rated below seven stars.
They knew they were no match for Bai Yuan. They simply wanted to experience the gap in their strength firsthand.
The most outrageous applicant had a record of "22 wins, 187 losses"!
Bai Yuan couldn't for the life of him figure out where that person had found the nerve to challenge him.
Afterward, Bai Yuan accepted the challenge from the nine-star opponent.
Light and shadow gathered in the Battle Space, and his opponent's figure gradually came into focus.
But the moment they recognized each other, both of them froze.
"Bai Kaluo?"
"Bai Yuan!"
After a moment of surprise, a faint smile appeared at the corner of Bai Kaluo's mouth.
"I heard two formidable newcomers had shown up today, so I came to check them out. I didn't expect one of them to be you."
He then told Bai Yuan what he had been doing all these years.
As it turned out, after reaching the Planet Realm, Bai Kaluo had chosen not to take a spaceship to join a major power. Instead, he had set out alone on a journey through the stars.
After several twists and turns, he had eventually arrived in the Black Dragon Mountain Empire.
"The Slaughter Arena is where I hone my combat skills," Bai Kaluo said calmly. "I come in to fight for a while every now and then. Before I knew it, I'd reached nine stars."
Bai Yuan listened quietly, his own emotions stirring.
"It seems you haven't stopped moving forward all these years either."
Bai Kaluo had been considered a First Grade Elite among his clan back then. After more than a year of experience and training, reaching this level wasn't surprising.
"Of course. I've always taken you as my goal. Now that we've met, it's the perfect chance to see how far I've come!"
Bai Kaluo was eager for battle. He slowly raised his twin blades and took up a fighting stance.
"Good. Let me see what you've got." Bai Yuan smiled.
Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish...
Bai Kaluo blurred, leaving behind several indistinct afterimages in an instant. His blades flashed out from all manner of uncanny angles.
Clang!
Bai Yuan raised his blade to block. The moment their weapons clashed, he felt his blade grow light. Bai Kaluo's sword skimmed against it like a dragonfly touching the water, then pulled away at once, never meeting his strength head-on.
Bai Yuan's tremendous force struck empty air, with nowhere to land and no way to carry through.
"Not just his footwork—his swordsmanship has reached this level too. He must have entered the realm of Man-Blade Unity."
Bai Yuan's heart tightened.
Bai Kaluo's swordsmanship revolved around speed and building momentum.
Every strike seemed light and fleeting, but each one was actually building power for the next.
He knew he couldn't match Bai Yuan in a head-on clash, so he darted around at tremendous speed, moving like wind and lightning as he traced streaks of blue across the arena.
At that moment, Bai Kaluo's displayed combat strength was roughly on par with an eight-star fighter.
But Bai Yuan knew that the longer the fight went on, the more the advantage would shift to Bai Kaluo.
Fine. This time, I'll see with my own eyes just how powerful your fully charged strike is.
Bai Yuan drew his blade stance inward, settling like an ancient tree with roots deep in the earth. No matter how the wind howled or the clouds surged, he remained unmoved.
Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang...
The flashes of his blade grew denser and faster.
Bai Kaluo's figure was almost a swirling blue gale, circling Bai Yuan and slicing at him without pause.
But Bai Yuan held firm at the center, turning with his blade to defend himself without leaving a gap. He met every strike steadily.
The immense force of each impact seemed to vanish into the sea as Bai Kaluo silently shed it with his ghostly footwork.
The storm was building.
Bai Yuan could feel the air around them growing heavier.
Bai Kaluo's blade momentum was climbing steadily toward its peak.
He tightened his grip on the hilt, his eyes reflecting an ever-sharper gleam.
"Eighty strikes!"
Tap!
As the eightieth strike came down, the force built up in the blade's gale roared like a storm. Bai Kaluo's combat strength broke through its limits and reached the nine-star level!
The strike was too heavy and too fast. Even Bai Yuan was jolted off balance, taking half a step back.
He'd made Bai Yuan retreat!
A glimmer of hope flashed in Bai Kaluo's eyes.
In that instant, it seemed to him that victory was within reach.
After a year of hard training and journeying alone, could he really have caught up—or even defeated—the figure he had once been able only to look up to?
But the next strike had barely begun when he sensed something was wrong.
Bai Yuan shifted his blade stance, no longer meeting the attack head-on. Instead, he lightly glided along with Bai Kaluo's force, deflecting it all.
"My blade is this fast, and you can still deflect its force! But there's no need to be surprised that you can manage it."
The brief joy he'd felt vanished in an instant, and Bai Kaluo's expression turned serious again.
Of course. Over the past year, he had wandered through the universe and endured countless trials before reaching this point.
But what about Bai Yuan? How could he possibly have stood still?
From the beginning, he had known this fight wasn't about winning. He only wanted to see for himself how far apart they still were.
It was just that, for a moment, Bai Yuan's step back had made him misjudge the situation.
"Eighty-two strikes!"
Seeing that Bai Kaluo's attack rhythm hadn't faltered in the slightest and that the fighting spirit in his eyes had grown even more focused, Bai Yuan nodded to himself.
In particular, after truly entering the universe and enduring a year of wandering, Bai Kaluo's will had been tempered into something far more unyielding.
Ordinary setbacks couldn't shake his resolve.
On the contrary, they only made him grow stronger with every defeat.
Before you continue