“Haah!!!”
Bai Qiu let out a thunderous shout as immense magic power surged into his spear!
He swept it in a clockwise arc, forming a raging storm of magic.
The banyan trees that had been knocked down by the battle were instantly reduced to dust the moment they touched the storm, scattering into the air!
The battlefield they stood on had originally been a six-lane main road, with a stone divider in the middle, three greenbelts, and two sidewalks.
Beyond the sidewalks stood all kinds of buildings, with high-rises densely packed together.
This sudden outburst caused Gilshak—who had been about to continue his attack—to pause momentarily.
Black energy wrapped around his body, effortlessly blocking Bai Qiu’s indiscriminate magical eruption…
“Transcendent power… isn’t meant to be used like this!”
Gilshak’s mocking voice rose in Bai Qiu’s mind.
After so many exchanges, that foolish human should have realized by now that he had been playing with him all along, right?
“If we’re going to fight, the battlefield should be cleaner—makes it more satisfying!”
Bai Qiu remained completely unfazed by the taunt.
Hearing this, Gilshak glanced around.
He discovered that within a hundred-meter radius, all tree trunks, branches, and even leaves had been wiped out by Bai Qiu’s earlier burst of magic!
This included the road barriers dividing the lanes, the platforms of the greenbelts, and even the Dragonfang soldiers passing by—everything had been destroyed by Bai Qiu!
Gilshak was somewhat surprised by Bai Qiu’s immense reserves of magic, yet couldn’t understand why he would expend it so recklessly.
Looking back at Bai Qiu, his magic now covered his entire body.
Over the surface of the Dragonslayer Set (MAX), a nearly tangible layer of Dark Prison infernal flames had condensed, and the Purgatory Darkflame Spear was the same!
Bai Qiu dragged his spear across the asphalt, carving a deep mark.
Under the searing heat of the dark flames, the road melted, and a scorched stench spread through the air.
In the next instant, he transformed into a dark crimson shadow and launched another offensive!
The clash of weapons rang out endlessly—clang, clang!
Ordinary people simply couldn’t follow the battle between Bai Qiu and Gilshak.
All they could see were streaks of light and shadow intertwining.
For a moment, the battle fell into a stalemate…
Zone 2239.
Ye Lingtian sat atop the teleportation device on the Black Tower, watching the live broadcast.
His eyes were sharp, his expression filled with astonishment.
Because he could faintly make out some of their movements, he realized with surprise that Bai Qiu’s fighting style—initially reckless—had begun to shift into something more flexible and varied.
And that combat style… was precisely his basic spear technique!
He was absolutely certain that Bai Qiu’s spear techniques had never been particularly refined before—he mainly relied on heavy, forceful swings, vertical chops, upward slashes, and downward thrusts.
His strength lay in overwhelming opponents with sheer stats.
But now that he had encountered an opponent with comparable attributes, the shortcomings in his technique had begun to show…
Yet after only a few dozen seconds of fighting, was he actually trying to use a technique he had never practiced before?
Ye Lingtian thought to himself.
The only time he had ever demonstrated the basic spear combat technique in front of Bai Qiu was a few days ago, when they exchanged for the Meteor Spear.
“Just from seeing it once… how is that even possible?!”
Before Ye Lingtian could finish speaking, reality slapped him hard in the face.
In just a few seconds, Bai Qiu went from being stiff and awkward to gradually adapting to the use of the basic spear technique…
From complete novice to beginner, from beginner to average, and from average to proficient—over a dozen seconds passed, and Ye Lingtian’s jaw never once closed!
In merely a dozen seconds, Bai Qiu had advanced from an beginner to the level of mastery.
Every move seemed engraved into every cell of his body!
Even so, Bai Qiu’s basic spear technique still couldn’t gain the upper hand against Gilshak’s blade…
Just as Gilshak himself had said, he had been toying with Bai Qiu the entire time—deliberately using only slightly superior technique each time to suppress him and make him feel frustrated!
And it was the same now.
When Bai Qiu mastered the basic spear technique, Gilshak’s blade techniques improved accordingly, continuing to keep him suppressed.
“Not enough… still not enough… thirteen spear forms are far from sufficient!”
Bai Qiu roared inwardly as his already masterful thirteen spear forms began to evolve once more…
Fourteen forms… fifteen… twenty… until it was as if he broke through some invisible barrier.
The spear techniques Bai Qiu wielded expanded to thirty-three forms!
…
“Why do I feel so conflicted…”
Watching Bai Qiu through the livestream, Ye Lingtian muttered to himself.
Since their last parting, he had trained even harder—not only breaking through from Safe Zone 2246 all the way to 2250, but also turning back to unlock 2245… 2244… until today, when he finally unlocked the teleportation device of Safe Zone 2239.
During this time, he had hunted over a dozen Dragonfang Overlords!
And his basic spear combat technique had finally advanced into an intermediate level through sheer effort.
At present, he had mastered fifty-two spear forms…
On one hand, he felt frustrated seeing Bai Qiu grasp his techniques so quickly.
On the other hand, he also felt proud—because Bai Qiu was using his moves to fight evenly against an opponent who had originally been slightly stronger than him…
Looking back at Bai Qiu—after mastering the intermediate spear combat technique, he had gradually begun to break free from Gilshak’s suppression.
It wasn’t that an intermediate spear technique alone could surpass Gilshak’s blade mastery, but rather that Bai Qiu’s rate of improvement was simply too fast!
So fast that even Gilshak couldn’t help but remark, “With such talent… to be possessed by a mere human…”
What astonished him wasn’t just Bai Qiu’s spear techniques, but his overall learning ability—including them—which was so powerful it was jaw-dropping!
For example, at the beginning, Bai Qiu’s magic condensation had been too loose.
But now, it had reached a level nearly equal to Gilshak’s.
Moreover, the same move could almost never work on Bai Qiu a second time—and might even be learned and used against him…
If Ye Lingtian could see Bai Qiu’s status panel at this moment, he would find that the proficiency of his intermediate spear combat technique was skyrocketing as he mastered more spear forms—not increasing by tens or hundreds, but by thousands or even tens of thousands at a time.
It was like a download progress bar suddenly jumping from 1% to 5%, then to 15%…
Seeing this, Gilshak was both incredulous and deeply envious.
He immediately stopped holding back and began to unleash all of his techniques!
He was genuinely starting to worry—if he allowed this human in front of him to keep growing, he might truly lose to him in terms of skill!
Thus, Gilshak abandoned his previous slow, methodical approach and instead twisted his wrist, his blade casting flickering shadows.
Going all out, his attacks became so fast that one could barely even perceive the motion of his swings…
Caught off guard, Bai Qiu—who had been steadily improving—was suddenly overwhelmed.
Several new gashes appeared on the Dragonslayer Set (MAX), and even his face was accidentally cut by a streak of dark blade aura!
Yet Bai Qiu did not fall.
Instead, he endured the pressure with difficulty.
After repeatedly taking the attacks head-on, he gradually found the strength to counterattack… and by this point, the spear techniques he had mastered had reached seventy-two forms!
After comprehending the [Advanced Spear Combat Technique], Bai Qiu easily blocked the incoming blade aura, quickly retreated a few steps, and swung his spear to clash with the long blade once more!
Just as Gilshak was about to withdraw his blade and press forward, Bai Qiu did the opposite—stepping forward instead.
Gripping the center of the spear shaft with both hands, he used the butt end of the spear to sweep upward diagonally, interrupting Gilshak’s next move.
Immediately after, he retreated sharply, switching from a two-handed grip back to one hand—holding the end of the shaft—and then thrust the spear forward like a dragon!
Caught off guard by this sudden close-range engagement, Gilshak faltered.
Logically, in a spear-versus-blade fight, the spear should maximize its reach advantage to suppress the blade.
Thus, Gilshak’s strategy had been to close the distance and prevent Bai Qiu from fully utilizing his spear techniques.
But Bai Qiu reversed this approach—closing in instead, using technique to catch him off guard.
Only at the final moment did he employ the spear’s true offensive method, gaining a slight advantage and piercing several small holes into Gilshak’s body…
Just as it was difficult for Gilshak to break through layer upon layer of defenses to injure Bai Qiu, it was equally difficult for Bai Qiu to deal any effective damage to it!
In the following exchanges, Bai Qiu’s spear was suddenly knocked out of his hands by a sweeping strike from Gilshak.
The moment he lost his weapon, Bai Qiu immediately retreated at high speed!
Gilshak was briefly stunned at first, unable to understand how such a major mistake could occur.
But then it quickly realized—perhaps this human had already reached the limit of his talent, and in trying to push further, had made a fatal error!
Without hesitation, it gathered dark energy into its blade, rapidly closed the distance, and slashed down!
While retreating, Bai Qiu continuously formed magic barriers in front of himself to block the attack—but the results were far from ideal.
The barriers were instantly cut apart the moment they came into contact with the dark blade.
Left with no choice, Bai Qiu clapped his hands together at the moment the blade descended, trying to buffer its force as much as possible!
Although his palms successfully caught the blade, it still came down along the center of his chest—cutting through the magic armor and even slicing into the Dragonslayer Set (MAX)!
However, after being weakened layer by layer, even this empowered strike could go no further…
“To make such a fatal mistake… it seems this is all you’re capable of!”
The soul-fire in the eye sockets of the Dark King, Gilshak, flickered.
Hearing the mocking voice rising from within his mind, Bai Qiu bared his teeth and clenched his palms tightly.
Surging magic reinforced his entire body, forcing Gilshak into a position where it could neither advance nor retreat!
A sense of danger surged through Gilshak—and sure enough, in the next instant, a spear shot in from behind, stabbing fiercely into the back of its head!
“Graaah!!!”
Gilshak roared in pain as dark energy erupted.
Bai Qiu didn’t get greedy—he seized the opportunity to disengage, and the Purgatory Darkflame Spear flew back into his hand.
In truth, letting go of the spear had been a necessary move for Bai Qiu—because the duration of his fully stacked Ring of Liberation (99 stacks) was about to expire…
From the moment he entered the battlefield, Bai Qiu had already stacked the Ring of Liberation to full.
Then, during the second wave of clearing the battlefield, he refreshed its duration by killing passing Dragonfang soldiers.
Finally, while comprehending spear-control techniques, nearly half a minute had passed…
The reason he feigned a mistake and let go of his weapon was because he didn’t want Gilshak to realize that his ability to contend with it depended on having the Ring of Liberation fully stacked!
Otherwise, that would become a fatal weakness in battle!
At the same time, Bai Qiu was also probing Gilshak’s abilities.
Aside from the initial summoning it displayed, its control of dark energy to enhance itself and its weapon, its superb blade mastery, and that empowered strike just now—whether active or passive, it had already revealed at least four abilities!
Based on the Dragonfang soldiers’ mechanics, Lord-tier monsters typically had three abilities.
Bai Qiu wasn’t sure how much stronger King-tier monsters were compared to Lords—but he was certain that Gilshak possessed far more than just four skills!
Because up to this point, it had never used anything resembling a trump-card, high-destruction ability!
It already possessed intelligence no less than that of humans—its limits couldn’t be judged by ordinary logic.
The battle… had only just begun!
— The end of the Chapter–
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