Chapter 436: Zhongli's Critique
Up in the spectator stands, a heavy silence fell over the crowd. Everyone held their breath, their eyes glued to the massive light screen suspended above the arena. Across the digital display, a dazzling storm of clashing blades and blinding sword light unfolded, moving so fast it left afterimages burning into the retinas of the onlookers.
During the brief, fleeting gaps in this high-octane exchange, Hu Tao casually rested her chin on her cupped hands. She leaned forward over the railing, watching the spectacle with immense interest. Her lively plum-blossom pupils darted back and forth, tracking the chaotic flashes of light. Suddenly, she tilted her head, turning her attention to Zhongli. The former Geo Archon sat beside her, the picture of absolute tranquility, calmly blowing the steam off a freshly poured cup of tea.
"Consultant, take a look at Miss Miyabi's technique," Hu Tao chimed in, gesturing toward the screen. "That stance, flashing all over the battlefield and leaving behind a dozen slashes in the blink of an eye... why does it look so familiar to me? Doesn't it remind you a bit of our Yuheng back in Liyue, Miss Keqing? You know, that whole 'With sword comes shadow, severing all clutter!' vibe she always has going on?"
Hearing his eccentric boss's observation, Zhongli did not shift his gaze from the high-speed, intersecting figures projected on the light screen. He merely offered a slow, measured nod, taking a delicate sip of his tea before speaking in his usual, unhurried tone. "The Hall Master possesses a keen eye. There are, indeed, notable similarities between the two styles. Both use extreme velocity as their foundational core. They strip away unnecessary movements, simplifying the complex, and seek to entirely dismantle their opponent's guard through a continuous, overwhelming barrage of slashes executed in a fraction of a second."
"However, there is a fundamental difference in their execution," Zhongli continued, his deep voice carrying a scholarly weight. "The Yuheng's swordsmanship heavily benefits from the explosive acceleration and hyper-reactive neural pathways granted by the Electro element. It makes her movements as erratic and swift as a lightning strike. As for Miss Miyabi..." He paused, his amber eyes narrowing slightly as he observed the subtle, lingering traces of frost that trailed behind every arc of the young woman's blade.
"...she relies entirely on her own extraordinary physical conditioning and relentlessly tempered martial skill. She uses her ice-attribute power not just for elemental damage, but to restrain the raw sharpness of her strikes, refining her physical trajectory to eliminate air resistance and achieve such astonishing speed. To reach this level of mastery at her age... Section Chief Miyabi's potential is extraordinary indeed."
Hu Tao's expression twisted into a rather strange, exaggerated grimace. She stared at her consultant, her mind spinning with a sudden, highly suspicious thought.
'Consultant, oh my dear consultant,'she muttered internally.'I only asked a simple question about whether her moves looked like Keqing's. Yet here you go, launching into a full-blown lecture on martial principles and showering Miss Miyabi with high praise... isn't that taking a massive detour from the topic?'A wild theory suddenly popped into her hyperactive brain.'Wait a minute... could it be? Has the consultant actually taken an interest in her? Does he want to take her on as a disciple? Oh my archons, is he planning to abduct this martial arts genius from another universe, drag her all the way back to Liyue, force her to inherit his... uh, ancient martial arts legacy, and then make her protect the harbor?!'
The more she entertained the ridiculous scenario, the more amusing it became. She leaned closer, narrowing her plum-blossom eyes into a thoroughly scrutinizing glare, trying to read the stoic man's hidden agenda.
Zhongli naturally felt the weight of Hu Tao's highly suspicious, ill-intentioned glare boring into the side of his head. Yet, his expression remained perfectly indifferent. He simply adjusted his posture and kept his gaze locked on the battlefield, acting as though his extensive, glowing review of the girl's technique was nothing more than a casual, everyday observation.
Down below, within the simulated ruins of the shattered city, the high-speed clash of offense and defense raged on.
However, as the one relentlessly pressing the attack, Miyabi's understanding of the situation was becoming increasingly clear.
She was unleashing her 'Frost Moon' consecutive slashes—a relentless, high-speed barrage that would normally leave any elite opponent completely helpless or gasping for breath. Yet, Stelle's response was entirely devoid of panic. It wasn't a desperate, forced defense. It was... effortless.
The Trailblazer had woven an airtight curtain of sword light that perfectly intercepted every single strike. Not a single icy blade slipped past her guard. Even worse, the steady, rhythmic clashing of their weapons vaguely revealed a terrifying truth: Stelle wasn't even using a fraction of her true strength.
Miyabi's absolute pride—her extreme speed—wasn't applying any actual pressure to the gray-haired girl. Continuing this war of attrition would be completely meaningless.
With her mind made up, a sharp, decisive light flashed in Miyabi's eyes. Following a seemingly ordinary, heavy clash of their blades, she intentionally used the kinetic recoil to launch herself backward. Her boots skidded across the broken concrete, instantly putting dozens of meters of distance between herself and Stelle.
She was no longer in a frantic rush to press the assault. Instead, she lowered her stance and slowly slid her katana, Tailless, back into the scabbard resting at her waist. Her right hand clamped firmly over the hilt. In an instant, the entire atmosphere around her shifted drastically.
The agile, swift momentum that had previously whipped around her like a biting winter gale suddenly retracted. It settled deep into her core, replaced by an powerful aura of absolute condensation and heavy solemnity.
An invisible, bone-piercing chill radiated outward, using her body as the epicenter. Frost began to creep across the shattered asphalt beneath her boots. She was mobilizing every ounce of her spirit and physical energy, establishing a deep resonance with the dormant power dwelling within Tailless. She was preparing to unleash the absolute strongest strike she could muster based on her current martial comprehension.
Seeing the dramatic shift in her opponent's stance, Stelle did not take the obvious tactical opportunity to interrupt the charge-up. Instead, her golden eyes lit up with genuine excitement. She casually drove the tip of her stellar sword into the cracked earth beside her and actually clapped her hands together. "Oh? Finally getting serious? Now that's more like it!"
A second later, the chaotic, playful grin vanished from the Trailblazer's face, replaced by a rare look of absolute, unyielding focus.
Just as she had promised at the very beginning of this spar: when facing a truly respectable opponent, she would answer them with everything she had.
She gripped the hilt of her stellar sword with her right hand, ripping it free from the concrete, and dropped into a low, grounded starting stance. An invisible, suffocating wave of pure sword intent began to gather and rapidly compress directly in front of her. The sheer density of the gathering energy caused the surrounding air to warp, letting out a low, vibrating wail that echoed across the ruined city.
For a brief moment, Stelle considered attempting the apocalyptic technique she had used to incinerate the Swarm—the devastating Heaven and Earth Eternal strike that had felt as though it could physically tear the sky and earth asunder. However, under her current, relatively calm mindset for a friendly spar, she simply couldn't capture that desperate spark of determination. She lacked the extreme emotional resonance and the accidental, deep state of enlightenment required to trigger it.
Accepting this limitation, she settled for the next best option. She forcefully directed the violently condensed cosmic power swirling around her blade into another peerless, devastating sword technique.
The actual preparation time was incredibly short—lasting no more than three breaths—but for the captivated audience watching from the spectator stands, those few seconds felt agonizingly stretched out, as if time itself had slowed to a crawl.
The entire simulated environment seemed to freeze in anticipation. Only two rapidly rising, terrifying auras surged violently above the desolate ruins. The sheer output of energy was so immense that even the arena's external light screen was affected, the high-definition image flickering and distorting under the strain.
The momentum on both sides finally crested its absolute peak.
"Evil Slaying!"
Miyabi's cold, authoritative voice rang out, crisp and sharp as cracking glacier ice! The right hand firmly pressing against her hilt completely vanished! No—it hadn't vanished. The sheer velocity of her draw had simply shattered the physical limits of human vision.
A blinding streak of highly condensed, azure blade energy erupted outward. It carried a terrifying absolute zero temperature, looking as though it were capable of freezing and slicing through the very fabric of space itself.
Wherever that crescent of blue energy passed, the concrete ground was violently plowed into deep, jagged gullies. The towering ruins of the city on either side were instantly flash-frozen in thick layers of crystalline ice, only to silently crumble into glittering, frozen dust a fraction of a second later.
This single, ultimate strike contained her absolute will to annihilate evil and cleanse all worldly filth, perfectly fused with the extreme, world-freezing cold of Tailless.
Almost at the exact same millisecond, a brilliant, burning golden light flared to life within Stelle's eyes.
"Golden Light—Demon Subduing!!!"
She lunged, driving her sword forward in a devastating, linear thrust. A magnificent, roaring pillar of golden light erupted from the tip of her blade. Carrying a righteous, world-shattering intent designed to obliterate all darkness, the golden beam crashed head-on into the incoming azure blade energy.
"BOOM—!!!!!!!!"
A deafening roar, far exceeding the combined volume of every previous collision in the match, exploded outward. The sheer acoustic force was so violent it felt as though it detonated directly inside the minds of the spectators, completely bypassing the simulation space's audio dampeners and the viewing system's safety protocols.
Azure and gold. Freezing absolute zero and blazing cosmic heat. Piercing sharpness and crushing impact. Two powers of entirely different natures, yet equally vast and majestic in their scale, ground against each other in a violent, blinding stalemate.
A terrifying, omnidirectional shockwave violently expanded outward in a massive ring. It tore through the arena like an invisible giant's hammer, mercilessly smashing everything in its path.
The surrounding remains of the simulated skyscrapers, which had already been teetering dangerously from the previous exchanges, instantly began to disintegrate. Their foundations were pulverized into powder by the destructive aftershock, causing thousands of tons of steel and concrete to collapse inward, kicking up a massive, suffocating cloud of dust that completely blotted out the artificial sky.
In a matter of mere seconds, the sprawling, multi-tiered simulated city ruins were brutally leveled, reduced to nothing more than a perfectly flat, smoking field of pulverized rubble.
Slowly, the blinding mixture of blue and gold light began to dissipate.
Ultimately, after a grueling, high-intensity consumption of energy, Stelle's brilliant golden light finally overcame the azure blade energy. It violently shattered the freezing crescent, completely annihilating and swallowing the frost into its burning depths.
The slightly weakened, yet still devastating golden pillar swept directly over the spot where Miyabi had been standing, instantly vaporizing the terrain and turning the entire area into a scorched crater of absolute nothingness.
In the very next moment, a flicker of digital light and shadow materialized up in the spectator stands. The simulation's safety protocols engaged flawlessly, teleporting Miyabi's figure directly next to her original seat just before the lethal blow could connect.
Her complexion was slightly pale from the massive exertion of energy, yet her posture remained impeccably straight. Her eyes burned with a bright, exhilarated intensity. She stood there silently, her chest rising and falling as she savored the lingering adrenaline of that earth-shaking strike, deeply analyzing the deep application of power and the raw clash of wills she had just experienced.
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