Chapter 190: Gap

Chapter 190: Gap

Yan Hongtu stared at Li Pin coldly, his eyes filled with a growing murderous intent. "Li Pin, are you... humiliating me!?"

"Humiliate you? How could I? My time is far too precious to waste on something as trivial as that," Li Pin denied, his eyes carrying a sliver of encouragement. "I'm waiting! Waiting for you to unleash a strike that will truly impress me, one so powerful that I can't even defend against, preferably one that can cleave me in two! Not like your last feeble attempt, which failed to even trigger the Spirit Force."

Spirit Force!

Both spirit and conviction were indispensable for the Spirit Force.

Apart from Martial Saints who have truly condensed their Martial Will, who else can ensure that every strike they deliver is imbued with the Spirit Force!? Yan Hongtu thought.

The fact that he could channel his mental spirit and unleash a strike combining both his spirit and qi in his first blow already placed him among the top fighters, second only to Martial Saints.

Besides, the Spirit-Qi Unity was extremely taxing on the mind! Even a Martial Saint could only manage a few such strikes!

"Your entire family is still waiting for you to bring back the glory of victory and throw a grand banquet, so—"

"Shut up!" Yan Hongtu growled.

He kicked the arena with explosive force, dashing forward. As he lunged, the murderous intent he had been building up surged violently, causing his blood to boil. His entire being seemed to transform into a savage beast, roaring as it unleashed a terrifying aura,

With intent and qi merging, he slashed out with a brilliant, deadly arc. "Don't you dare humiliate me!"

"Good!"

Li Pin precisely tracked the trajectory of Yan Hongtu's slash. The intense pressure of the imminent Saber Intent forced his spiritual perception to reach its absolute limit. In this heightened state, he continuously applied the profound techniques of the Lunar Youying, using his perception as a guide, his spirit as a medium, and resonating his qi and blood in harmony.

With each punch he threw, the space within a radius of over ten meters vibrated at an even higher frequency, neutralizing any force that penetrated this area. Each vibration was equivalent to a full-powered strike from an Aura Force martial artist. While this might seem insignificant at the level of Martial Saints, the frequency was simply too high!

An ordinary Aura Force attack would be negligible to a Martial Saint like Li Pin. Even Yan Hongtu would find it insignificant as well. However, if dozens of Aura Force martial artists struck simultaneously, it would be a different story altogether.

By stacking their Aura Force before releasing them all at once in a single instance, the resonance between the Aura Force would create a cumulative effect.

Under this effect, even if subsequent attacks didn't reach the level of Aura Force, they could still be stacked to a level comparable to a single, full-powered Aura Force strike.

It's like a rolling iron ball, once set in motion, only a fraction of the initial force would be required to keep it rolling. This was the essence of the Lunar Youying that Li Pin had newly developed!

The black hole, chaos, overwhelming pressure, and earth-shattering effects perceived by martial artists were merely mental illusions. The size of the iron ball that could be pushed depended on the initial force exerted. In order to break this technique, the opponent would need to be more powerful than Li Pin.

Zhao Yushi might stand a chance.

But Yan Hongtu...

Bang!

A deafening clang reverberated through the air!

Nan Lifeng had been displeased with Li Pin’s arrogance. However, he was momentarily stunned when he heard his advisor’s words. After a while, his gaze flickered slightly. "Master, are you saying—"

"Yan Hongtu thinks he's the hunter, exploiting Li Pin's perceived weakness to lure him into a fight. But he doesn't realize that the World's Top Martial Arts Competition’s stage is already Li Pin’s hunting ground. All of you are merely his prey!"

The aged Top-Tier Martial Saint let out a long sigh, a hint of nostalgia flashing in his eyes. "It's been too long since I've seen such a young man who's both so sharp and so brilliantly talented."

Nan Lifeng's expression turned somewhat sour. His master... was actually praising his opponent?

"Just watch. If the Great Sun Chosen One steps up next and challenges Li Pin and he accepts without hesitation, my guess will be confirmed." The tactical advisor glanced at Nan Lifeng. "I wonder if this is a blessing or a curse for your generation."

"Master... have you already decided that Yan Hongtu will lose? What if he has some hidden trump card?" Nan Lifeng said, a bit unwilling to accept this.

"If he had one, his ranking in the preliminaries wouldn’t have been merely so." Nan Lifeng's tactical advisor glanced at Yan Hongtu's. "If I were him, I'd have Yan Hongtu surrender at once. If this continues... Yan Hongtu's spirit will be shattered."

***

Yan Hongtu's tactical advisor noticed this as well. He immediately stepped forward and waved their white flag to signal surrender.

However, the white flag had no effect if the competitor was engaged in combat or had yet to collapse. A match could only be called off in the middle of battle if the competitors themselves verbally surrendered.

And to have Yan Hongtu willingly surrender?

At this moment, Yan Hongtu’s mental spirit was fully locked on Li Pin, and he was oblivious to his tactical advisor's signal.

"I, Yan Hongtu, began laying my foundation at nine, started martial arts at twelve, formed my Core at seventeen, and reached Aura Cultivation at twenty-three. Now, becoming a Martial Saint is almost within my grasp. Li Pin, even if you're a Martial Saint, you still can't defeat me!"

Yan Hongtu roared, pushing his mental spirit to its limits. "I've killed more than one mid-tier ferocious beast stronger than a Martial Saint! Today, I will once again—"

"Your blade has weakened," Li Pin interrupted before he could finish. "Is this all you've got? Only four Spirit Force strikes, and you're already spent? Are you not eating well at home?"

"You're so arrogant!" Yan Hongtu shouted, raising his broadsword high.

He slashed down with a radiant blade that seemed to tear through the sky. Like lightning cutting through the night, he struck fiercely into the chaotic domain formed by Li Pin's Lunar Youying.

However, instead of striking the blade with his fists to deflect it as he had done before, Li Pin reached out with his palm open.

Buzz, buzz!

The air within a dozen meters seemed to compress rapidly, forming a visible white aura. The aura vibrated violently as it collided with Yan Hongtu's incoming slash, dulling its sharpness, edge, and ferocity bit by bit.

In the end, Yan Hongtu's all-out strike landed squarely in Li Pin's palm, held firmly in his grasp.

This scene caused Yan Hongtu's expression to freeze

Not just him, but every other competitor felt an overwhelming sense of pressure bearing down upon them all of a sudden.