Seven Levels Higher

"Qin Yue? He is at Level 28."

The voice along the side of the field barely fell when a tall and slender teenager stepped out from behind the crowd.

Gu Yan had just suffered defeat, but Qin Yue did not rush into the field, instead glancing first at the Piercing Spear in Lu Yuan's hand before speaking. "The end came too fast just now, and I didn't see your second soul skill clearly. Any interest in another fight?"

His tone was very ordinary, without intentional provocation despite his soul power being seven levels higher.

Lu Yuan had already prepared to retreat to the edge of the field, but upon hearing this, he turned back around. "I can."

Only then did Qin Yue step into the training ground, standing firm on the other side.

"Qin Yue, Level 28, Martial Soul Iron-Backed Battle Ape."

As his martial soul was released, his shoulders and back, already broader than those of his peers, expanded further. The muscles on his arms bulged rapidly, grayish-black patterns spread upward along his skin, and two yellow spirit rings rose accordingly.

Lu Yuan gripped the Piercing Spear firmly again.

Qin Yue's Iron-Backed Battle Ape was obviously more inclined toward frontal brute force. After martial soul avatar, his thick and powerful arms were not easy for Lu Yuan, who used a long spear, to deal with when facing such an opponent who excelled at close-range suppression.

The Academy Teacher in charge of presiding over the spar soon raised a hand to signal the start, seeing both sides were fully prepared.

Qin Yue did not waste time probing. After his first spirit ring lit up, his entire person closed in from the front, his right fist wrapped in heavy wind as it went straight for the spear shaft.

Lu Yuan blocked the strike horizontally, the fist edge colliding head-on with the spear shaft. A heavy force immediately pressed over along the Piercing Spear, forcing him to take three consecutive steps back underfoot to unload the power.

Qin Yue retreated only half a step, stabilizing his body before pressing forward once more.

The first collision was already enough for Lu Yuan to judge that simply comparing frontal strength, he clearly could not gain the advantage.

He did not continue to take the blow head-on. The spear point turned to the side along with his pace, dodging the oncoming fist before stabbing straight at Qin Yue's shoulder side. Qin Yue shifted sideways to dodge, simultaneously slamming his forearm against the spear shaft, trying to use force to forcibly alter the spear's momentum.

Lu Yuan smoothly turned his wrist, the Piercing Spear not continuing to lock in a stalemate with him as the spear tail swept back horizontally from the other side.

Qin Yue raised his arm to parry again.

The two advanced and retreated, exchanging several moves in a short moment. Qin Yue relied on the strength of the Iron-Backed Battle Ape to continuously press forward, while Lu Yuan utilized the spear's momentum to control the distance, preventing him from easily entering close range.

After a few rounds of exchanges, Lu Yuan was still forced to retreat quite a distance back.

Qin Yue evidently saw this as well.

After once again forcing the spear point away, his second spirit ring suddenly lit up, the strength in his right arm visibly surging by another notch as a heavy fist smashed toward the middle section of the Piercing Spear.

This time Lu Yuan did not dodge.

The second spirit ring lit up almost simultaneously.

Shock Edge!

A short, heavy shock force concentrated at the point of contact between the two and violently burst open.

Qin Yue's right arm instantly went numb, and the punch that had originally been sufficient to completely sweep away the Piercing Spear thus dissipated the vast majority of its power. Lu Yuan leveraged the momentum to rotate the spear, the spear tail taking his rib side directly from underneath and forcing Qin Yue to hastily raise his left arm to parry, his entire person also dragged by this strike to take a step back.

A few sounds of surprise soon rang out along the side of the field.

Just now, Gu Yan had lost his rhythm after contacting the spear shaft, and now Qin Yue had also suffered the same loss, so the surrounding crowd naturally saw the general effect of Shock Edge.

Yet Qin Yue did not continue to rashly press the attack.

He moved his right hand, which was still somewhat numb, and proactively changed his tactics when closing in again. Facing the spear point thrusting from Lu Yuan, he no longer used his arms to press down hard for long periods, relying instead more on sideways shifts and footwork to evade. When evasion was truly impossible, he only used his forearm covered in soul power to make brief contact, changing the direction of the spear point with borrowed force before immediately retracting his hand.

Shock Edge could still be activated, but Qin Yue had prepared in advance, and the contact between the two was compressed to a very brief moment, making the effect obviously inferior to the first time.

Lu Yuan quickly perceived the change.

Qin Yue had only suffered a loss once, yet by the next round, he began proactively adjusting his countermeasure. This kind of in-the-match judgment was harder to deal with than simply having seven levels higher soul power.

The subsequent exchanges also became much more deadlocked.

Qin Yue still relied on strength to continuously press forward, while Lu Yuan circled around by virtue of spear momentum and footwork. The Piercing Spear brushed past Qin Yue's shoulder and waist a few times, and Qin Yue's fists likewise broke through the spear momentum twice, one of which nearly grazed past Lu Yuan's chest.

The two sides exchanged more than a dozen consecutive moves, neither truly managing to pin the other down.

Until once again passing each other, Qin Yue suddenly changed his rhythm.

The spear tail of the Piercing Spear swept across horizontally, but he did not completely parry, instead using his left arm to stubbornly bear the strike. Taking advantage of the moment before Lu Yuan's spear momentum could fully rotate back, he forcibly rushed forward a step.

The distance between the two instantly shortened to within an arm's length.

Within this range, a long spear was hard to fully unfold, but the close-range advantage of the Iron-Backed Battle Ape could be completely brought into play. Qin Yue did not give Lu Yuan the chance to open up the distance again, his right fist already smashing down toward his chest.

Yet just as he prepared to further suppress the spear momentum, the Piercing Spear suspended between the two suddenly vanished.

Qin Yue's left hand struck empty air directly, his body also appearing briefly unbalanced due to pushing forward with all his strength.

Such a close-range situation was not unfamiliar to Lu Yuan.

Earlier in the North Field facing Xu Heng, he had already lost count of how many times he experienced similar spear suppression and close-body encounters. The method of dismissing the martial soul and re-summoning it to break the deadlock had long since been practiced to extreme proficiency.

Almost at the exact moment Qin Yue lost his balance, a cold gleam reappeared in Lu Yuan's hand.

The Piercing Spear condensed once more.

The distance between the two sides was still extremely close, but Lu Yuan did not rush to retreat, instead smoothly taking half a step forward and resting the spear tail directly against Qin Yue's chest.

The second spirit ring lit up.

Shock Edge!

Heavy shock power erupted abruptly, Qin Yue's chest feeling as though it had been struck head-on by a muffled hammer. His breathing noticeably faltered for a beat, and his body uncontrollably retreated two steps backward.

Lu Yuan did not give him a chance to steady himself again as the first spirit ring followed closely by lighting up.

The explosive power brought by Piercing Edge poured instantly into the Piercing Spear.

This time Lu Yuan did not use the spear point to thrust directly, but instead rapidly turned the spear horizontally after catching up to Qin Yue, using the shaft to prop against his arms crossed in defense in front of his chest, continuing to push forward with the momentum of the Piercing Edge explosion.

Qin Yue had just suffered a close-range Shock Edge and his feet had yet to fully steady, leaving him able only to forcibly tense his legs and stubbornly resist the oncoming pressure.

Shoe soles and the ground frictioned out two clear traces.

Qin Yue retreated several steps consecutively. Seeing that he had gradually stabilized his body, Lu Yuan seized the final opportunity to exert force once more, the spear shaft positioned horizontally in front of his arms thrusting fiercely forward.

Qin Yue's right foot finally crossed the boundary line of the field.

Lu Yuan also reined in his spear momentum at the same time, not continuing the pursuit.

The Academy Teacher presiding over the spar glanced at Qin Yue's feet and directly announced, "Lu Yuan wins."

The training ground quieted for a moment.

Qin Yue lowered his head to look at his right foot that had already stepped out of bounds, then moved his right arm, which was still somewhat numb, several times. There was not much unconvinced emotion on his face.

After tasting Shock Edge for the first time just now, he had already proactively changed his tactics and indeed suppressed Lu Yuan for a quite long period of time, but during that final round of close-quarters combat, Lu Yuan simply did not open up the distance again according to the way he anticipated.

Dismissing the spear, re-condensing, Shock Edge, and then finally utilizing Piercing Edge to push him out of bounds—the entire sequence of actions linked together extremely fast.

Qin Yue looked back at Lu Yuan. "Are you really Level 21?"

"Mm."

"Are everyone at Level 21 in Spirit City as strong as you?"

Lu Yuan withdrew the Piercing Spear. "I don't know. I only represent myself."

Hearing this, Qin Yue was stunned for a moment, then smiled and shook his head, no longer dwelling on the outcome of this match.

The gazes of several young spirit masters who had originally been watching the battle along the edge were now distinctly different from before when looking at Lu Yuan.

Gu Yan, who was at Level 24, had lost, and it could still be said that it was his first time encountering Shock Edge and he had no advance preparation.

Yet Qin Yue had already seen it with his own eyes once.

And he still lost.