I Can Copy the Talents of All Creatures

Chapter 246: Chapter 179: Nine Swords (2)

Feeling the sword’s edge closing in, Lin Zihao had no choice but to swing his blade to block. He couldn’t spare a thought for Yu Fei’s potential feints, but because he was still wary, he held back about a third of his strength for a counter.

The instant their weapons met, Yu Fei suddenly accelerated. His arms became a blur, his sword humming and vibrating as it sliced through the air at incredible speed. In a flash, his longsword circumvented the arc of Lin Zihao’s blade and thrust toward his head.

The miraculous combination of Electric Arm and Super Speed Reaction gave him a crushing advantage in close-quarters combat.

BOOM!

In that instant, Lin Zihao instinctively pushed his Martial Artist’s minute senses to their absolute limit. He had no time to process the terrifying burst of speed from Yu Fei’s sword, nor could he worry about a potential feint. If he failed to block this strike, it was all over.

In the nick of time, Lin Zihao raised the hilt of his blade, barely deflecting the sword. He was lucky he’d held back some of his strength, but the close call still left him drenched in a cold sweat.

CLANG!

The joy of surviving the close call was fleeting. A terrifying, immense force nearly sent the long blade flying from his hand.

Yu Fei immediately followed up, raining down a flurry of overhead strikes with his sword. Sparks flew as blade met sword.

After the first strike, Lin Zihao’s hands went numb. His body contorted, and his lunge seemed to falter...

After the third strike, his face was flushed red, and he was forced to one knee just to brace himself...

After the fifth strike, the webbing of Lin Zihao’s hand tore, and blood began to trickle from his nose...

And Yu Fei was like a merciless pile driver, his longsword chopping down repeatedly with immense force and frequency. Lin Zihao had no room to breathe and could only grit his teeth and endure, but he was already at his breaking point.

After the ninth strike, his long blade shattered into two pieces. Lin Zihao’s will to fight broke with it. He coughed up a mouthful of blood and collapsed to both knees. With his weapon gone, he lost all thought of resistance and could only gasp desperately for breath...

The nine strikes had landed in less than a second. Lin Zihao had been running on fumes and pure instinct, his mind a total blank as he parried by reflex alone. By the end, his vision was darkening, his strength had failed him. ’It was just too terrifying!’

Only now did his Inner Qi start to recover, surging through his body to relieve the pressure on his overloaded frame and inject new vitality. But it was too late. If this had been a real battlefield, the moment his blade broke, Lin Zihao would have been a dead man.

"Hah... huff..."

Yu Fei sheathed his longsword. His opponent had lost. And it was a crushing defeat.

He pulled Lin Zihao to his feet. The other man panted, "You... damn it! You didn’t give me a single opening! I was still thinking about how to show off my blade work, but I didn’t even get to use a single technique. You just hammered me into the ground with that relentless swinging, like some kind of brute. You’re an absolute monster..."

Lin Zihao was still shaken. He couldn’t imagine facing a freakishly strong enemy like Yu Fei on a battlefield. No matter how many secret techniques you had, faced with such terrifying speed and power, you could only die in despair.

He looked at Yu Fei as if he’d just discovered a monster in human skin. Lin Zihao swallowed. ’Is he even human? Looking at Yu Fei’s lean build, how the hell does he train to get that kind of power?!’

At this moment, the viewing platform was deathly silent.

To be sure, Yu Fei’s fighting style against Lin Zihao was completely different from his match against Li Jueyin. The previous fight had been characterized by its unsettling strangeness, while this one was a showcase of extreme violence.

There were no techniques, no stances—just a direct charge to overwhelm his opponent. And Lin Zihao had been completely powerless to stop it.

’Is Lin Zihao weak?’ That was the question on everyone’s mind.

’Is Yu Fei strong?’ The crowd remained silent.

After watching Yu Fei’s two consecutive matches, the experts in the audience felt a sense of foreboding. ’Even if I were at my absolute best,’ they thought, ’I might not be a match for him. His frontal assault is so powerful, yet he’s also incredibly insidious. He’d be a nightmare to fight.’

The next person to enter the ring was Jiang Nianwei, a commander of the Yulin Army.

As soon as Jiang Nianwei got on stage, before she even drew her twin blades, she cheerfully skipped over and presented a bottle of pale green Hundred Herbs Dew to Yu Fei.

"Mr. Yu, you must be tired. Replenish your Qi Blood, then you can give me some pointers!"

Her eyes were bright with admiration. Yu Fei smiled and accepted it. Looking at the name "Hundred Herbs Dew," he suddenly remembered seeing it in a vending machine in the Geometric Pyramid Realm. It was a "premium version" Qi Blood replenishment drink, worth over a hundred merit points.

"How thoughtful of you. Thanks!"

Jiang Nianwei said casually, "Mr. Yu, you defeated Li Jueyin and Lin Zihao in a row, setting an example for us in the Yulin Army. It’s only right!"

Yu Fei just smiled without a word, uncapped the bottle, and drank it all in one go. He had to admit, using feints and unleashing his full power in quick succession just now had consumed a lot of his Qi Blood.

The Hundred Herbs Dew had a pure taste and was highly effective. Yu Fei instantly felt fully restored, with a surplus of pure energy slowly converting into Qi Blood.

’Not bad at all!’

Down below, Liu Ze muttered to the side, "I was the one who bought that. It cost 132 merit points..."

He had wanted to buy the cheapest "premium version" Qi Blood potion, but he didn’t expect that even the cheapest one in this godforsaken place would be so expensive...

As the referee gave the signal to start, the match between Yu Fei and Jiang Nianwei began. He didn’t act as ruthlessly toward the Yulin Army commander from his own class as he had in the previous two fights.

For one, Jiang Nianwei’s strength was limited and didn’t put much pressure on him.

Besides, she was a classmate. He could go easy on her to help hone her combat experience, rather than trying to beat her into submission from the get-go. ’And it definitely has nothing to do with that bottle of Hundred Herbs Dew,’ he thought.

Jiang Nianwei was ranked S-rank 35 in the Positioning Competition, which was a relatively low placement.

Among the first-year S-ranks, Jiang Nianwei, Lin Zihao, and Zhang Xunyi all had red-level talents. They seemed about the same as most A-rank students, which Yu Fei guessed was probably due to the varying degrees of their talents.

The dual-blade or dual-sword style was practiced by a relatively small proportion of Martial Artists. It was a weapon style that was extremely demanding of one’s talent. Dual-wielding didn’t mean one’s power was doubled; if used improperly, it could easily put the wielder at a disadvantage.

Yu Fei held back his strength and speed, responding only with various techniques from his basic Swordsmanship. He could see that there were pauses and openings in Jiang Nianwei’s various abilities; her techniques had not been cultivated to a level of perfection. In terms of raw power, she was probably the weakest of the group.

He constantly maintained a certain amount of pressure, suppressing Jiang Nianwei with his fighting style to make her perform beyond her usual level while forcing her to correct her own shortcomings.

By feeding her moves like this, they clanged back and forth for nearly 20 minutes, drawing continuous boos from the crowd below.

Lin Zihao was especially vocal. ’He beat me to a pulp, but when it’s Jiang Nianwei’s turn, this is what he does? So this is what a "spar" looks like.’

Jiang Nianwei persevered for a long time, panting, her bangs soaked with sweat. In truth, sparring with Yu Fei was no easy task. It didn’t matter that he usually seemed like a sunny, cheerful, handsome, and approachable guy.

The power behind his sword strikes was immense; even as an Inner Qi Martial Artist, she found it difficult to parry. No wonder Lin Zihao had been defeated, coughing up blood after enduring just nine strikes.

Under Yu Fei’s rhythmic feeding of moves, her arms were already numb and trembling. She couldn’t imagine the pressure Lin Zihao had just endured.

Yu Fei’s longsword was extremely precise, always striking at the most awkward moments and at the weakest points in her defense. He seemed to never make a mistake in battle; he was terrifyingly calm.

’What a powerful and mysterious man.’ Jiang Nianwei’s legs felt weak.

Don’t get the wrong idea. She was just tired.

The young woman took a step back, wiped her sweat, and said gratefully, "I surrender, Mr. Yu. Thank you!"

With that, she leaped off the ring.

"Booo..."

Jiang Nianwei paid no mind to the crowd’s reaction. She had gained a great deal from her fight with Yu Fei, achieving new insights into several of her Cultivation Techniques. This one battle was worth a week of training. ’What do those foolish kids down there know? So childish!’

Yu Fei was similarly unconcerned. ’I’m the champion of this ring,’ he thought. ’I’ll fight however I want.’

Before he could even catch his breath, Zhang Xunyi, dressed in flowing white robes and wearing an ancient bronze mask, gracefully flew onto the ring. He struck a pose upon landing, but unfortunately, there was very little cheering from the audience.

Most of the students below had seen him in the Celestial Pride Positioning Competition. And the few A-rank and B-rank students who had advanced from the Celestial Pride Promotion Tournament, after being filled in by their friends, also knew about Zhang Xunyi’s history of being defeated by Yu Fei three times in a row. Naturally, they didn’t have high hopes for him, just treating it as what would hopefully be an exciting match.

Zhang Xunyi was not afraid at all. He snorted coldly and said, "Yu Fei, today I will show you what I’m made of! I’ll let you know what true, ultimate Sword Intent is!"