n

n

n

nXia Fei’s physical mobility had recovered at an unimaginable speed. In just a single night, he had managed to recover about 80 to 90% of his body condition, feeling like his entire body was brimming with energy when he woke up the next day.

nAfter a quick breakfast, Xia Fei arrived at a place 200 kilometers in the west and continued his own training.

nThere was a lone, large standing rock formation about 5 meters in height and 2 meters in diameter.

nXia Fei circled around the rock as he began to run around it at a constant speed, treating it as an opponent.

nSuddenly, Xia Fei’s figure darted to the west side of the rock as his Chasing Light came thrusting out. Logically speaking, the blade should stab the large rock from the west direction, yet Xia Fei had scored a hit on the north side of the rock when the tip of his blade made contact!

nDiversion strike!

nIf there were a slow replay feature, people could clearly see that in the moment Xia Fei had made his attack, he had forced himself to change the form of his body, his feet pedaling agilely even as his body made an unbelievable turn. From this vigorous spin he did, his footwork changed accordingly as well. Until the final moment when his Chasing Light slashed at the rock, everything he had done was in a single instant.

nThough he had finished his move, Xia Fei ended up falling down to the ground because he had lost his balance in the assault, causing clouds of sand and soil to fly up into the air.

nPhantom stepped forward to the rock formation and examined the opening that Xia Fei had made. “Your strength was a little uneven when you attacked, which caused a 2-centimeter deviation from the orientation of your blade’s entry. Furthermore, the sides of this cut have been widened, which means the speed by which your blade entered was too slow.”

n“The Crafty Thrust technique does not require strength, but it seeks for precision. After making your move, the wound you leave behind should match up with the body of the blade itself and perfectly fit together. Insert your Chasing Light here and see for yourself.”

nXia Fei nodded and got up to his feet. He inserted his Chasing Light into the cut he made on the rock and jiggled it. It was very loose, like a scabbard that did not fit because it had been made a little too big.

n“The root of the problem here is still your body; Crafty Thrust would cause users to momentarily lose their balance after executing it, so you need to find your own center of balance as soon as possible through your own coordination. Though you managed to pull off your move just now, you did not manage to find your center of balance, which is why you fell and caused the cut to be so sloppy.”

n“You need to experience balancing yourself to grasp the technique. Everyone has a different center of balance, and some need to take an extra step before they could adjust themselves. Others might only need to do a light pirouette with their bodies. To quickly find a way to maintain your balance while pushing your body to the limit, you need to keep training and experience it yourself. No one can help you with this,” Phantom very mildly hinted, trying to relay Xia Fei his own experience and understanding.

nThe moves for Crafty Thrust were mind-boggling. The instant a variation was made, the entire body would have to be in an extreme state of contortion, sometimes even needing to twist their body in inconceivable shapes.

nIt would require his coordination, resilience, explosive strength, and balance to all work together to successfully execute this fearsome technique. Any deviation from perfect would just ultimately result in failure.

nXia Fei did not say a word, his eyes deadlocked at this immovable enemy as if he were really immersing himself in a fight to the death, not at all being negligent even though he was up against a big rock.

nIncrease speed, variation, thrust, fall.

nSpeed up again, another variation, another thrust, another fall.

nHe continued to speed up, tried another variation, thrusted, but he still fell.

nFalling time and time again, and climbing up repeatedly, Xia Fei was like a robot, repeating the same moves without stopping.

nA careless attempt and Xia Fei fell and slammed on his jaw, as red blood began to flow.

nXia Fei reached out to grab a handful of yellow soil and pressed it against his wound to staunch the blood. He then stood back up and plunged into his training once more, not even showing a bit of hesitation at all.

nA layer of skin on his palms had started bleeding as he used yellow soil to stop it from bleeding.

nWhen his elbow started to hurt from falling down so much, he used his fist to punch it a few times to numb it and stop hurting!

nHe was crazy!

nThis was a crazy and grueling training!

nFrom the break of dawn till sunset, Xia Fei did not stop even once to take a break. Even the time he spent eating a meal was used to contemplate over his own movements.

nEvery two hours, Xia Fei would consume 12 cans of food and drink 6 bottles of mineral water to replenish his physical strength.

nObtaining a huge amount of energy from the food he ate, Xia Fei kept every cell in his body topped up to sustain the high intensity of his crazy and grueling training.

nA figure stood a distance away, quietly keeping an eye on Xia Fei the entire time. She wore an Adjudicator’s uniform, with a pair of long and slender legs that seemed to have been carefully crafted and kept in perfect proportion.

nWatching Xia Fei falling time and time again and repeatedly getting back up, the corner of Ye Xiaohan’s lips twitched slightly. Even this icy beauty could not help but be moved by seeing such stubborn and insane training.

nAs the setting sun made its last struggle in the distant horizon before finally disappearing, darkness soon settled throughout the land.

nXia Fei sheathed his Chasing Light and headed back to the base.

nThe day after tomorrow would be his match with Chen Dong, and though Xia Fei wished he could train some more, his brain reminded him that he needed to conserve his physical condition for the fight.

nYe Xiaohan hesitated for a moment before walking over to approach Xia Fei. She still maintained her cold and business-like countenance, but there was a hint of admiration in her eyes.

n“Have you been here for a long time?” Xia Fei asked when the two of them were within earshot of one another.

nThe two of them kept a 5-6 meter distance between them as they walked parallel to each other, pacing slowly. Xia Fei couldn’t run as he needed some time to recover his strength first and give his sore muscles a chance to slowly relax.

n“I had specifically looked into Su Ruoyu’s affair. Unfortunately, I can be of no help. I am sorry about her disappearance,” Ye Xiaohan apologized in a halting manner.

nShe was quite a stranger to the word ‘sorry.’ She could hardly remember when was the last time she apologized to anyone like this. As someone who had followed along a path that was meticulously laid out for her, she had continued along like a machine, obeying the rules and hardly ever making any mistakes.

n“This isn’t your fault anyway, so there’s no need for you to apologize. Even if you feel the need to, you ought to be saying it to Xiao Yu’s family,” Xia Fei smiled before he continued, “Actually, you have been doing what was expected of your duty that day, and it was I who was too rash.”

nA cool wafting breeze lurked out in the dark night, as Ye Xiaohan suddenly felt a very uneasy feeling come over her while she was together with Xia Fei. It was a very subtle sensation that left her at a loss over what to do next.

n“If there’s nothing else, I’ll be heading off first,” Ye Xiaohan was not used to this feeling, so she was in a hurry to leave.

n“Your opponent for the second round is very powerful, so it’s best if you find more information on him,” After saying this last line, Ye Xiaohan disappeared into the distance in a streak of mesmerizing light.

n“This lady’s pretty interesting. Unfortunately, she’s a bit too old, though she would be a good fit to be your elder sister,” Phantom muttered to himself as he watched Ye Xiaohan’s shrinking figure.

n…

nAfter eating dinner and taking a cold shower, Xia Fei collapsed onto his bed and logged onto the interplanetary internet.

nThe interplanetary internet had a set of information collection tools that was publicly available, allowing users to search for the information according to specified parameters before aggregating the result and displaying it to the user.

nThis was an inexpensive service that was only priced at 10 star coins that Xia Fei had already ordered his AI computer to begin an automatic search. With all the information compiled, it was time to take a look at what it found.

nClicking onto the compiled information on Chen Dong, thousands upon thousands of lines of information had already undergone thorough analysis by the AI, leaving just the unique information without any instance of repeated information, which freed Xia Fei from the cumbersome task of sifting through everything collected.

nAfter a close inspection, Xia Fei slowly got a clear picture of this Nature Special Ability battle maniac.

nChen Dong, 19 years old. Freeze Special Ability User, Advanced Star Domain rank. He was a citizen of the Endaro Star Region’s Empire of Frost, one of the seven major territories in the Endaro Star Region. A level 3 civilized world, it was considered to be a very vital force in the Endaro Star Region.

nThe Chen familial clan resided in their own hereditary planet, White Nightchill. They were a clan with great strength, and most descendants served in the imperial army. They were pretty much a renowned military family that was settled in White Nightchill, so people called them the White Night Chen Clan.

nChen Dong’s grandfather was serving as the Secretary of Defense for the Empire of Frost, while his father was an admiral and his mother was a reputable doctor. Born in such a family, the military education he received respected ‘might as right.’

nHe was extremely combative, and a look at his history growing up was basically just a chronicle of unending bloodshed. No matter who his opponent was, none would dare to openly challenge Chen Dong. When he was 17, he challenged a respected martial artist in the Empire of Frost only to end up with a broken left arm and two ribs. After recovering from these injuries two weeks later, Chen Dong ran back to challenge the man again.

nThis time, the martial artist was heavy-handed when he struck, heavily injuring him outright, yet Chen Dong did not give up. Chen Dong was back on his feet and knocking on the martial artist’s front door a month later, forcing the man to helplessly shut his door and refuse to come out. As such, Chen Dong remained outside his door and squatted for seven days and nights, insisting on having a rematch. In the end, that old man had to beg Chen Dong’s father to help before finally chasing the fiend off his front porch.

nHis glorious history had an uncountable number of wins. He was like a cockroach who could not be killed. The more Chen Dong had trouble fighting someone, the more he wanted to challenge them. Furthermore, he had always been very lucky. He had been beaten down plenty of times, but he had gotten back up each time as well.

nThough Chen Dong would always be constantly challenging people, he did not have a record of initiating a kill, which showed that he was truly just a martial artist and not a crazy murderer.

nXia Fei furrowed his brows and turned off his AI computer. He reached out to the spatial ring he had obtained from Xiao Yong that he had placed by his bedside table and played with it in his hands. The emerald-stone ring looked very gorgeous and pleasing from the outside.

nHe decided to pour everything inside out on his bed only to end up blinking a few times, Xia Fei stared blankly at the mess of items as he turned speechless.

n“These things…”

n