70: Chapter 70 First Battle, Two-Finger Sword Break!

"Boom!"

A blast of air suddenly exploded from the alloy floor beneath Li Feng's feet.

He did not hold back at all, exerting his full strength right from the start. Every drop of wind-attribute spiritual energy in his body was poured without reservation into the alloy longsword in his hand.

"Gale Draw Slash!"

Li Feng gave a sharp shout, transforming into a green afterimage as he instantly crossed a distance of over ten meters, appearing directly in front of Su Chen.

Gripping the sword with both hands, he swung it violently from bottom to top!

"Whoosh—!!!"

A materialized green Sword Qi, over ten meters long and accompanied by the sound of tearing air, slashed down fiercely toward the top of Su Chen's head with a terrifying momentum that seemed capable of cutting through anything!

The gale howled, and Sword Qi surged in all directions.

The air of the entire Ring One seemed to have been completely sucked dry by this single strike.

In the spectator stands, countless people held their breath.

"It's here! Li Feng's signature technique!"

"That kid is dead meat! The space on the ring is limited, so his bizarre movement technique won't be able to dodge such a wide-range Sword Qi at all!"

Liu Ruyan sat in the VIP section, her eyes glued to the large screen.

She could already envision the bloody scene of Su Chen being sliced in half by this strike.

However.

In the center of the ring.

Facing this terrifying Sword Qi that was enough to split a giant boulder in two, Su Chen did not execute that bizarre, micro-level dodging maneuver as everyone had expected.

Not only did he not dodge, but he didn't even budge his feet by half an inch.

"Scared stiff?" Li Feng looked at the motionless Su Chen, a trace of cruelty flashing in his eyes.

Enveloped by the howling wind, the blade was only ten centimeters away from Su Chen's forehead.

Just at this critical juncture.

Su Chen finally withdrew his right hand, which had been tucked in his pocket all this time.

He did not clench it into a fist, nor did he face his palm upward to block it head-on.

He merely extended the index and middle fingers of his right hand in an extremely casual manner.

Within a thousandth of a second of his fingers extending.

A faint sheen of mysterious black—so faint that outsiders could barely notice it—instantly coated his two fingertips.

Armament Haki: Hardening.

"Clang—!!!"

An extremely crisp and prolonged sound, like metal clashing against stone, rang out.

Amplified countless times by the sound-collecting Formations around the ring, it instantly echoed throughout the entire hundred-thousand-capacity Arena!

The sound was so crisp.

So crisp that it even drowned out the whistling sound of the Sword Qi tearing through the air.

The howling wind in mid-air came to an abrupt halt.

The moment that ten-meter-long green Sword Qi contacted Su Chen's fingers, it was as if it had slammed into an insurmountable wall of sighs, exploding and scattering into a sky full of spiritual energy specks.

Meanwhile, that incomparably sharp, expensive alloy longsword, fully infused with spiritual energy...

...was currently being clamped tightly in mid-air by Su Chen's two ordinary, flesh-and-blood fingers.

It did not budge in the slightest.

"What?!"

Li Feng's pupils instantly contracted to the size of pinpricks.

He felt as if what he had slashed down upon was not a person at all, but a ten-thousand-ton iron mountain looming between heaven and earth!

A massive recoil traveled up the hilt into his arms, splitting the webbing between his thumbs and forefingers and causing blood to flow. Yet, he could not care less about the pain; only one frantic thought remained in his mind:

How is this possible?!

Catching a bare blade with empty hands?!

Catching the full-strength strike of an A+ grade talent with just two fingers?!

The entire Arena fell into a deathly silence.

A hundred thousand pairs of eyes stared blankly at the large screen; not even the sound of breathing could be heard.

On the ring.

Li Feng's face flushed red, veins bulging on his forehead.

He gripped the hilt tightly with both hands, desperately channeling the blood qi in his body, trying to force the sword down.

He couldn't press it down.

"Move, damn you!"

Li Feng gritted his teeth so hard they nearly shattered. He changed the direction of his force, planting his feet firmly on the ground and leaning his entire body backward, attempting to pull the sword back from between Su Chen's fingers.

It still wouldn't budge.

Su Chen's two fingers were like the sturdiest hydraulic pliers in the world, locking the blade firmly in place.

No matter how desperately Li Feng struggled, howled, or even put every ounce of his strength into it, the alloy longsword did not move even a single millimeter between Su Chen's fingers.

Su Chen looked at Li Feng, whose face was flushed red and drenched in sweat.

In his deep, dark eyes, there was not a single ripple of emotion.

"Is this your way of the sword?"

Su Chen spoke slowly, his voice transmitting across the venue through the loudspeakers, carrying a high-and-mighty coldness.

"Too dull."

The moment those words fell.

Su Chen's wrist didn't move; his two fingers clamping the blade simply twisted slightly outward.

*Crack!*

A crisp snap echoed.

That A+ grade alloy longsword—worth millions of Star Coins, crafted by a top blacksmith, and fully infused with wind-attribute spiritual energy...

...between Su Chen's two fingers...

...was snapped clean in half from the middle, just like a crispy cracker that had been left out for months!

"Clatter! Clatter!"

The shattered blade fell onto the alloy ring, breaking into several pieces of scrap metal.

With the longsword in his hand suddenly snapping, Li Feng tumbled backward due to inertia.

But before he could even fall.

Su Chen had already raised his right leg.

There was no vacuum slash of [Tempest Kick], nor any burst of blood qi.

It was merely an extremely simple and unadorned front kick.

*Bang!*

The sole of Su Chen's shoe planted itself solidly against Li Feng's chest.

"Pfft—"

Several ribs in Li Feng's chest instantly shattered. He spat out a huge mouthful of blood, and like a cannonball shot from its barrel, he flew backward, clutching the broken hilt.

His speed was so fast that his trajectory was a complete blur.

*Boom!*

Li Feng flew across a distance of nearly thirty meters, slamming heavily against the light-blue energy shield at the edge of the ring.

The shield flickered violently.

Like a puddle of mud, Li Feng slid down the shield to the ground, his eyes rolling back as he lost consciousness on the spot.

A one-hit instant defeat.

The entire process, from the moment Li Feng drew his sword to when he collapsed unconscious...

...took less than ten seconds.

*Beep—*

The referee in mid-air froze for a full two seconds before finally declaring the verdict.

"First Martial Academy, Li Feng, unable to battle."

"Third High School, Su Chen, wins."

On Ring One.

Su Chen retracted his right leg.

He didn't look at the unconscious Li Feng, nor did he listen to the referee's announcement.

Tucking his right hand back into the pocket of his black combat uniform, he turned around and walked down the steps of the ring with steady strides.

And behind him, the giant holographic Arena, capable of holding a hundred thousand people...

...experienced its very first bizarre silence, lasting for a full five seconds.

Everyone was rubbing their eyes frantically, wondering if they were dreaming.

An F-grade examinee with absolutely no spiritual energy fluctuations...

...had snapped the full-strength strike of an A+ grade sword dao Genius with just two fingers...

...and then kicked him dozens of meters away with a single blow?

"Is... Is this a movie?" In a corner of the stands, a spectator swallowed hard, breaking the silence of the venue.

Immediately after.

The entire Arena erupted like a splash of cold water into a pot of boiling oil!

"Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap! What did I just see?!"

"Catching a bare blade with empty hands! He snapped the alloy sword!"

"What's going on? Are his fingers made of titanium alloy? Why could he take Sword Qi head-on without even activating a spiritual energy shield?!"

"This is definitely no F-grade trash! This is a monster!"

In the waiting area.

Zhao Kuang, who had been waiting to see Su Chen make a fool of himself, stared intently at the replay on the large screen, the cruel grin on his face completely frozen.

He subconsciously clenched his fists, not even noticing his fingernails digging into his flesh.

"How is this possible... Even if I were wearing my battle armor, I would have to activate my fire shield to block Li Feng's Gale Draw Slash. How could he possibly catch it with just two fingers?"

A chill that was hard to describe suddenly rose from the bottom of Zhao Kuang's heart.

He suddenly realized that he had never truly understood this classmate whom he had always regarded as an insect.

In the VIP viewing section.

With a loud *clack*, the wine glass in Liu Ruyan's hand slipped and shattered on the floor.

Red wine splashed onto the hem of her skirt, but she was completely oblivious.

She abruptly stood up, pressing her hands hard against the glass railing in front of her, her beautiful eyes widening to their limits.

"No spiritual energy... Snapping an alloy sword purely through physical strength?"

Liu Ruyan's mind was in utter chaos.

This completely overturned her eighteen years of common martial knowledge.

Looking at that black-clad figure slowly walking down the steps with hands in his pockets, she felt as if her heart was being squeezed violently by someone.

She vaguely sensed...

...that the youth whose marriage contract she had once publicly torn up, whom she had regarded as a rat in the sewers, seemed to harbor a terrifying power capable of overturning all of Jiangnan City.