You Really Learned It?!

As the referee's words fell, a surge of cyan-green Dou Qi instantly wrapped around Zhao Yuan.

Qin Yu stood where he was, watching Zhao Yuan's movements.

Zhao Yuan feinted, then suddenly accelerated. His right foot carried a fierce gust of wind as it shot toward Qin Yu's left ribs.

The kick was swift and vicious, clearly meant to hit hard.

Qin Yu sidestepped, barely avoiding the strike. With a light tap of his foot against the ground, he pulled several paces away from Zhao Yuan.

"Still using that tactic..."

Zhao Yuan was not surprised by Qin Yu's choice, but he did not let Qin Yu lead him around by the nose. He maintained his own attacking rhythm from start to finish.

Qin Yu dodged left and right, retreating repeatedly across the arena without any intention of striking back. Murmurs immediately rose from below the stage.

"Why does that freshman keep dodging?"

"What else can he do? He's only a Nine-Star Dou Practitioner, while his opponent is a Two-Star Battle Master."

"Then why even fight? He might as well surrender. What a waste of time."

Listening to the voices around her, Xiao Yu felt somewhat uneasy as well. After all, Qin Yu was facing a genuine Battle Master-level opponent.

If he wanted to deal with Zhao Yuan as he had Luo Zheng before—first probing his opponent, then finding an opening and defeating him in one blow—it would probably be difficult.

"Something's wrong..."

Xiao Yu stared intently at Qin Yu's repeatedly retreating figure on the arena, her brows knitting slightly.

Qin Yu's posture did not look like he was probing his opponent.

"Damn it, how can he still keep his cool?!"

Zhao Yuan attacked for more than a dozen exchanges in a row, yet he had barely even touched Qin Yu's clothes. Instead, he had expended quite a bit of Dou Qi.

He abruptly halted his assault and stood in the center of the arena, staring darkly at Qin Yu several meters away.

"Qin Yu, you don't think you can make me impatient and expose a weakness by doing this, do you?"

Qin Yu did not answer. He lowered his gaze as though sensing something. A few breaths later, he looked up, his gaze upon Zhao Yuan becoming difficult to read.

"Thanks."

"Huh?"

Qin Yu offered no explanation. He merely flexed his wrist slightly. Seeing his expression, the unease in Zhao Yuan's heart instantly surged to its peak.

But there was no turning back now.

Gritting his teeth, he charged forward again. This time, he held nothing back.

Wind-Attribute Battle Qi surged at full force. He spread the five fingers of his right hand, sharp cyan Dou Qi gathering at his fingertips as he aimed directly for Qin Yu's chest.

"Wind-Rending Claw!"

Qin Yu remained where he was, completely motionless.

Xiao Yu's face went pale at the sight. Her lips parted as she tried to cry out, only to find that she could not make a sound.

Just as Zhao Yuan's attack was about to land, a dense yellowish-brown glow suddenly lit up across Qin Yu's body. It transformed into a translucent brown suit of armor that covered his torso, limbs, shoulders, and neck.

Patterns like layered mountain ridges flowed across the armor's surface, each layer trembling faintly.

"Thousand-Ridge Earth Dragon Armor?!"

Zhao Yuan's eyes widened in disbelief. A Mystic Tier High-Rank Dou Technique—Qin Yu had actually learned it so quickly?

Zhao Yuan's attack slammed viciously into Qin Yu's chest. Wind-Attribute Battle Qi collided head-on with Earth-Attribute Battle Qi, producing a heavy boom.

The next moment, Zhao Yuan felt as though his fingers had plunged into a mass of mud and sand.

That dense power surged from Qin Yu's armor layer upon layer, steadily dissolving, dispersing, and weakening the force behind his strike.

In the end, his full-powered attack was like a blow sinking into a bottomless abyss, unable to even stir a ripple.

Qin Yu lowered his head and glanced at the armor on his chest. Several faint cracks had appeared across the translucent brown shell.

Yet under the continuous infusion of Dou Qi and Earth Power within him, the cracks healed at a visible rate.

"The defense is still a little lacking, but it'll do."

"You..."

Zhao Yuan stared in disbelief at the completely unmoving figure before him. His all-out strike had failed to even break through Qin Yu's defense?

With an enraged roar, he pulled back his right hand, packed his left fist full of Dou Qi, and punched at Qin Yu's face again.

But this time, Qin Yu gave him no further chance.

Just before Zhao Yuan's fist came down, Qin Yu tapped off with his right foot and retreated.

After landing, Qin Yu bent his knees slightly as the Dou Qi within him gathered in his right hand and both feet at the same time.

Sensing that Qin Yu was about to strike, Zhao Yuan gave a low shout. A layer of cyan gauze abruptly appeared, shielding his body.

This was Battle Qi Gauze, something only a Battle Master could use. Its defense might not compare to a Great Dou Master's Dou Qi Armor, but it was more than enough to deal with attacks from a Dou Practitioner.

As long as he could block this attack from Qin Yu, the rest would be easy!

However, when Qin Yu's fist truly landed on him, Zhao Yuan realized that he had been wrong.

The Battle Qi Gauze did indeed prevent Qin Yu's fist from injuring him immediately, but the hidden force that erupted afterward pierced through the gauze and struck him solidly.

The next second, Zhao Yuan's body arced through the air before crashing heavily onto the ground below the arena.

"Qin Yu wins!"

Qin Yu stood at the edge of the arena and lowered his head to look at his palm.

The three layers of force from Qilin Fist, combined with the defense of Thousand-Ridge Earth Dragon Armor, along with the movement technique of Mountain Qilin Leap.

The coordination of the three Dou Techniques was already beginning to show results.

However, Thousand-Ridge Earth Dragon Armor was still only at the beginner level. Its defense was insufficient and still needed further refinement.

He withdrew the armor from his body and jumped down from the arena. His gaze passed over the crowd and settled on Xiao Yu in the distance.

The girl was still standing there. The terror on her face had already turned into relief, and her eyes were slightly red.

Noticing Qin Yu's gaze, she quickly turned her head away and wiped at the corner of her eye with the back of her hand.

"Yu'er, your Qin Yu won. Why aren't you hurrying over?"

Xue Ni walked up beside Xiao Yu and gently nudged her twice.

Zhao Yuan lay on the ground, the intense pain in his chest leaving him barely able to breathe.

Two companions hurried over to help him up, their faces full of disbelief.

"Brother Yuan, are you okay?"

Zhao Yuan did not answer. He laboriously raised his head and looked at the back of Qin Yu, who was walking toward Xiao Yu. His lips trembled twice, but in the end, he could not say anything.

A Nine-Star Dou Practitioner had defeated a Two-Star Battle Master.

He had clearly been prepared. He held the advantage in cultivation, and he had not let himself be led around by the nose by Qin Yu's tactics...

So how had he lost?

At the instant Qin Yu's punch hit him, he had not felt much.

But immediately afterward, he felt an incomparably heavy force shake through the Battle Qi Gauze and blast him straight off the arena.

His Battle Qi Gauze had not been broken, yet his body had still been struck.

Gritting his teeth, Zhao Yuan struggled to his feet with his companions' support, clutching his chest as he walked out of the crowd.

"You..."

Xiao Yu came before Qin Yu. Her lips moved, but she hesitated to speak.

She had wanted to ask why he had insisted on taking Zhao Yuan's punch head-on, but the words reached her lips and were swallowed back down.

Qin Yu had wanted to test the defensive power of that new Dou Technique.

"Don't take such risks next time. What if you get hurt?"

Qin Yu did not say much. He simply raised his hand and patted her head as usual.

"That'll be three thousand."