Its opening move looked unremarkable—just a simple, direct thrust.
But this thrust wasn’t ant to kill. It was ant to plant the "Cold Light" seed around the enemy.
Once this seed was planted, every subsequent attack would cause this montum of Cold Light to stack and grow stronger.
The spear would grow faster and heavier.
The enemy, in turn, would feel as if they were trapped in a shrinking quagmire of cold, ford from countless spear afterimages. Their movents would beco more and more sluggish, their mind more and more suppressed, until they were finally pierced by a single strike.
It was a classic snowballing fighting style: the longer the fight went on, the stronger and more valiant one beca.
But at first, Qin Feng couldn’t grasp that feeling at all.
His first opponent, an Axe Warrior from the Pegasus Star System, had a wild and domineering combat style.
Qin Feng’s first thrust was effortlessly batted aside by the opponent’s great axe. Imdiately after, a storm of furious chops rained down on him.
Qin Feng tried to block with the defensive techniques of the Thousand Army Spear, but he discovered that with a life force index of only 500, his strength was completely insufficient to stand against the heavy axe.
He wanted to use the deceptive footwork of the Dragon Snake Spear to dodge, but his opponent’s precise predictions locked him down completely.
The fight lasted less than thirty seconds before Qin Feng’s light armor was split by the great axe, and his entire body dissolved into motes of light.
[Battle over. You have been defeated.]
Qin Feng wasn’t discouraged. He imdiately started matchmaking for a second bout.
His opponent was an Agile Female Swordsman wielding two swords.
Her Swordsmanship flowed like rcury, seeping into every opening. Qin Feng didn’t even have ti to plant the "Cold Light" seed before her dazzling sword flashes threw him into a panic, and he was ultimately killed by a sword to the throat.
[Battle over. You have been defeated.]
The third match, his opponent was a Military Array Martial Artist using a shield and short spear. His fighting style was as steady as a mountain, completely impenetrable.
Qin Feng’s spear couldn’t break through his opponent’s shield defense at all.
...
For the next month, Qin Feng spent nearly all his ti in a continuous losing streak.
He maintained a high-intensity schedule of nearly three hundred matches a day against opponents from every corner of the Empire, all with bizarre and varied fighting styles.
There were Spiritual Ability Users who excelled at psychic assaults, Half-chanical People with modified cybernetic limbs, and martial artists who had trained their hand-to-hand combat to a subli level...
He was like a sponge, madly absorbing the combat experience from all these different schools of fighting.
He began to abandon his own First Level Gun Skill, which he had already perfected, forcing himself to use only the techniques from "Cold Light."
He no longer pursued victory, instead treating every defeat as a precious learning opportunity.
After several days of failure, a day ca when he was facing an opponent who also used a Long Spear. Inspiration struck. At the very instant his opponent’s spear tip was about to touch him, he thrust his own spear out from an unbelievable angle.
DING!
A soft chi.
The tips of the two Long Spears collided with perfect precision.
The rest of the battle flowed with flawless grace.
His spear technique grew faster and faster.
The Gunman opposite him, however, grew more and more frustrated as the fight went on. He felt as if his spear weighed a thousand pounds, each swing sluggish and difficult.
In the end, Qin Feng finished the fight with a clean, crisp thrust to the throat.
[Battle over. Congratulations, you are victorious!]
Although he had lost over nine thousand matches that month, he had finally crossed the threshold of "Cold Light" and begun to master it.
Once he had taken that first step, the path forward beca clear.
Qin Feng was no longer the rookie who got beaten up at every turn.
He fought a grueling battle against a Heavy Armor Warrior wielding a giant hamr, lasting a full ten minutes.
He was like a tireless hummingbird, circling that "Iron Mountain" and delivering thousands upon thousands of thrusts.
Each thrust left an inconspicuous white mark on the opponent’s thick armor, and with it, a sliver of ever-deepening chill.
When the ten-thousandth thrust landed, the sturdy Heavy Armor, like glass doused in liquid nitrogen, instantly shattered, revealing the utterly horrified Warrior within.
He had learned how to use a single point to break an entire surface.
His fighting beca more and more thodical.
He was like a master chess player skilled in strategy, placing a key piece at the opening and then consolidating his position step by step, constantly expanding his advantage until he lured the enemy into an inescapable checkmate.
His win rate also climbed from its initial, abysmal level of less than 10% all the way to 30%, 40%...
The spear art "Cold Light," in his hands, had already reached the "Lesser Accomplishnt" stage.
His fights began to get faster and easier.
On the last day of the fifth month, when he used a technique that fused "Cold Light" and the Thousand Army Spear to pin a powerful opponent to the wall, he knew that "Cold Light" had reached "Greater Accomplishnt" in his hands.
Through these countless trials of life and death, his spear technique had grown increasingly pure and refined, returning to its original simplicity.
Finally, with only a few days left before the tournant began, he was matched against a top-tier opponent.
The man also used a Long Spear. His technique was grand and orthodox, solid as a mountain, and every move was filled with the air of a Grandmaster.
From the mont the battle began, the two were locked in a pure contest of spear skills.
Every clash of their spear tips sent brilliant sparks flying.
His opponent t change with constancy, using the steadiest of defenses to neutralize Qin Feng’s increasingly fast and heavy attacks.
The battle lasted for a full half-hour.
He felt as if the Long Spear in his hands had transford into a great dragon that devoured everything.
But even though his opponent’s forehead was beaded with sweat and his breathing had beco ragged, his defense remained as solid as Mount Tai, completely impenetrable.
Qin Feng knew that conventional techniques could no longer defeat him.
Images from tens of thousands of battles over the past half-year flashed through his mind.
The insights he had gained on "Cold Light," from its initial stages to Greater Accomplishnt, flashed by.
In the end, all the images, all the insights, settled on a single point.
The opening move.
That unremarkable yet foundational first thrust.
A Point of Cold Light.
He suddenly understood.
’The true essence of "Cold Light" isn’t in the subsequent stormy barrage of attacks, but in that initial, earth-shattering... "point"!’
That point was the cause.
Everything that followed was the effect.
’When the cause is strong enough, the effect is naturally irresistible.’
’I have to seize the initiative first—A Point of Cold Light arrives first! Only by perfectly achieving this "first arrival" can the storm-like, dragon-fast spear strikes follow!’
At that mont, Qin Feng’s entire aura converged. Like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea, it poured back into the Alloy Long Spear in his hand, finally condensing onto the tiny, three-inch-long spear tip.
His opponent, the Spear Grandmaster, felt his pupils shrink to pinpricks!
He sensed an unprecedented, deadly, and terrifying crisis!
He saw Qin Feng move.
There were no fancy moves, no astounding aura.
It was just a simple forward thrust of the spear.
But this thrust seed to pierce through ti and space.
In the Grandmaster’s eyes, all that remained was that single point of icy, cold light, growing closer and brighter...
He wanted to block, but it was already too late to react.
And this impossibly fast point of cold light was ant to pave the way for the spear to strike like a dragon!
Qin Feng had seized the initiative. What followed was a torrential assault. The Long Spear howled like a great dragon, and his opponent was utterly defeated in less than ten exchanges.
[Your killing technique "Cold Light" has undergone its final sublimation in an extre battle. Your mastery level has been raised to: Perfection!]
[You have successfully comprehended the "Cold Light" killing move—A Point of Cold Light!]
A Point of Cold Light arrives first, then the spear strikes like a dragon!
Once this technique is executed, it maximizes the user’s initiative, forcibly locking down and suppressing the opponent to create an absolute "crowd control" advantage for subsequent combos. Under this advantage, follow-up spear techniques will receive a huge bonus, growing stronger and more ferocious with each strike!
Qin Feng slowly retracted his spear and let out a long breath of white air.
’Half a year of bitter training, and I’ve finally reached Perfection.’
He glanced at his Imperial Arena panel. The stats displayed on it had undergone a world-shaking transformation.
[ID: Qin]
[Rank: 2nd Dan (350 Points)]
[Total Matches: 65,049]
[Total Wins: 35,776]
[Total Losses: 29,273]
[Win Rate: 55.00%]
[Self-Introduction: Practitioner of the Thousand Army Spear]
[Reviews (999 ): A respectable opponent; Practitioner of the Thousand Army Spear? What the hell is that Fierce Owl Technique? The kid’s not honest...]
In nearly six months, he had fought grueling battles in almost three hundred matches per day, for a total of over fifty thousand matches!
His win rate had stabilized at 55%.
These numbers were proof of the terrifying amount of effort he had put in over the last half-year.
"Hamr, exit the arena."
At his command, the world around him once again dissolved into a stream of data.
Six long months of honing his spear technique had co to an end.
And now, a true, highly anticipated spectacle was about to unfold in the real world.
"Hamr, how long until the Rookie Cup?"
"Master, the tournant begins in three days."
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