Chapter 168: 360 Acupoints! Vitality Index 3600! Level 2 Killing Method

Chapter 168: 360 Apertures! Life Force Index 3600! Second-Level Killing Art "Cold Gleam," Spear Like a Dragon!

In the two years that followed, Qin Feng transformed entirely into the most precise and efficient task machine imaginable.

He no longer fixated on challenging Canaan Tower, but instead poured all his time and energy into the vast, ocean-like list of missions.

Qin Feng began executing tasks.

Alongside heavy gunners skilled in positional warfare, he ambushed interstellar pirate fleets amidst the asteroid belts;

He joined elite squads of the war band to eradicate a degenerate family, entrenched in an abandoned space station, that worshipped the chaotic evil gods.

Two years passed, in his life, as if merely flipping through a few mission briefings.

The icy starry sky, the roaring ships, the battlefields of slaughter—these formed the entirety of his existence.

Two years later.

When Qin Feng once again returned to Canaan Starry Sky Martial University, back to his quiet dormitory, a faint, almost imperceptible ripple finally appeared on his calm, unruffled face.

He opened his personal asset panel, gazed at the fluctuating numbers, and harbored only one thought in his mind.

"Enough."

[Name]: Qin Feng

[Contribution Points]: 4409

[Fearless War Band Reputation]: 5000

Enough.

Two years had yielded this fortune, a veritable treasure trove.

Now, it was time to convert these cold numbers into a ladder leading to a higher realm.

Seated in his dormitory, Qin Feng did not rush into action.

First, he spent half a day washing away the fatigue accumulated from two years of relentless toil, using the "Great Sun Contemplation Method" and the "Emperor Meditation Method," restoring his mind to that state of absolute clarity and purity.

Then, he opened the exchange interface of the Imperial Trading Market.

It was an incredibly simple yet all-encompassing virtual screen.

Countless commodities drifted across the screen like stars.

Qin Feng’s gaze did not linger for even a second on the dazzling array of divine artifacts, battle armors, or secret arts.

His goal had been crystal clear from the start.

He first clicked on the exclusive list for reputation exchanges.

[Exchange Item: Enhanced Type I Psychic Potion]

[Description: ...]

[Price: 20 Contribution Points / 1 vial or 20 Reputation Points / 1 vial]

[Exchange Quantity: 250 vials]

[Payment Method: Fearless War Band Reputation]

[Total: -5000 Reputation Points]

[Confirm Exchange?]

"Confirm."

Qin Feng pressed without hesitation.

His Fearless War Band reputation was instantly zeroed, but his heart remained undisturbed.

"Reputation, after all, is merely an honor and a purchasing credential within the war band system. Contribution points are the universal currency across the entire empire," he mused silently. "More importantly, the legendary follow-up technique to the 'Great Sun Aperture Opening Method'—the 'Great Sun Aperture Merging Method'—can only be exchanged with a massive amount of contribution points. No amount of reputation will suffice. So, reputation must be spent first."

Next, he switched to the contribution points exchange interface.

[Exchange Item: Enhanced Type I Deep Repair Medicinal Bath Pack]

[Description: ...]

[Price: 10 Contribution Points / pack]

[Exchange Quantity: 160 packs]

[Payment Method: Contribution Points]

[Total: -1600 Contribution Points]

[Confirm Exchange?]

"Confirm."

[Exchange Item: Enhanced Type I Mental Recovery Potion]

[Description: ...]

[Price: 20 Contribution Points / vial]

[Exchange Quantity: 80 vials]

[Payment Method: Contribution Points]

[Total: -1600 Contribution Points]

[Confirm Exchange?]

"Confirm."

With the final confirmation, the contribution point balance on Qin Feng’s personal terminal plummeted from 4409 to a mere 1209.

A single lavish purchase consumed over seventy percent of his two years of hard-earned accumulation.

Yet in his heart, he felt an unprecedented sense of satisfaction and peace.

One by one, the potions and medicinal bath packs sealed in special alloy containers were precisely transmitted to his subspace storage unit. Qin Feng took them out and arranged them in the martial arts room.

Gazing at the mountain of cultivation resources before him, a blazing fire ignited in Qin Feng’s eyes.

Everything was ready.

What followed would be a solitary ascetic practice.

He walked to the dormitory’s control panel and activated the highest level of seclusion mode.

The heavy alloy door descended slowly, sealing off all light and sound from the outside world.

The dormitory’s life support system, energy circulation system, and the defensive force field of the training room were all calibrated to their maximum levels.

The entire dormitory became a cocoon, isolated from the world.

And within this cocoon, he would undergo his most crucial transformation.

Time lost its meaning.

The rotation of the sun, moon, and stars, the shifting winds and clouds of the outside world—none of it mattered anymore to this small training room.

Here, there was only eternal darkness, and Qin Feng’s heart, as steadfast as a star.

On the first day of his secluded cultivation, Qin Feng swallowed a bottle of Enhanced Type-I Psionic Elixir.

Boom!

A torrent of psionic energy exploded through his limbs and bones in an instant!

The sensation was far from a gentle nourishment; it felt more like magma flooding his veins, like a star detonating within him!

Every cell in his body was screaming, and every inch of his meridians was being violently torn and widened by that rampant energy.

Agony! A heartbreaking, soul-tearing agony!

Yet, not a single trace of distortion could be seen on Qin Feng's face.

His willpower, tempered under the Emperor's Meditation Technique, had long become as unyielding as divine iron.

Enduring the excruciating pain that would cause an ordinary martial artist to instantly black out or suffer a mental breakdown, he circulated the Great Sun Aperture-Opening Method, guiding that rampaging torrent of energy to launch a death-defying charge against the barrier of the next unopened Great Sun Aperture!

Open... for me!

A roar echoed from the deepest recesses of his soul.

Puff...

It felt as though something had been pierced through.

The barrier of the one hundred and seventy-first Great Sun Aperture shattered at the sound!

And the price he paid was that the interior of his body had already become a complete wreck.

Countless meridians were severed, muscle fibers dissolved, and even his bones were covered in fine, dense cracks.

He did not stop; he dragged his battered frame into the prepared tub filled with the Enhanced Type-I Deep Repair Medicinal Bath.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle...

The highly active life energy, like the gentlest sweet spring, quickly enveloped his broken body, repairing his wounds at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Severed meridians were reconnected, becoming even more resilient; dissolved muscle fibers coalesced once more, becoming even denser.

Breaking to rebuild.

Every destruction was accompanied by a grander rebirth.

As the physical repair concluded, he would immediately ingest the Enhanced Type-I Mental Recovery Elixir, sitting cross-legged to visualize the majestic figure upon the Golden Throne, restoring the mental energy completely drained during the aperture-opening process.

The moment his spirit returned to fullness, he would hesitate no longer, picking up the next bottle of psionic elixir.

This was a cycle fraught with pain and destruction.

Injection, impact, shattering the aperture, severe trauma, repair, recovery...

Day after day, year after year.

Over these five years, Qin Feng treated pain almost like breathing and destruction like sustenance. Only these six monotonous and cruel steps remained in his world.

Meanwhile, the number of his Great Sun Apertures grew frantically at a speed unimaginable to outsiders.

One hundred and eighty...

Two hundred...

Two hundred and thirty...

Once the number of opened Great Sun Apertures surpassed two hundred and fifty, the difficulty spiked dramatically.

The solidity of the barriers for each remaining aperture far exceeded anything before.

More often than not, he needed to consume three or even five bottles of psionic elixir, crashing against them a dozen or dozens of times, enduring the agony of his body being torn apart dozens of times just to barely force open a new aperture.

The speed of progress slowed down visibly.

The thrill brought by the rapid rise of strength at the very beginning had long since vanished.

Replacing it was a suffocating, seemingly endless monotony and dullness.

This was the most brutal test of willpower.

Inside the cultivation chamber, a deathly silence reigned. No sound, no light, and no one to communicate with.

Solitude, like an invisible behemoth, gnawed at his mind and spirit at every single moment.

Sometimes, in the intervals of repairing his physical body, the smiling face of his father, Qin Dahai, would uncontrollably surface in his mind, along with the familiar faces of Shi Potian and Xiong Yanfu, and he would even recall the days of laughing and bantering with his classmates back at Qiming First High School.

Yet whenever this happened, he would instantly sever these chaotic thoughts.

Before his eyes, there was only the Emperor upon the Golden Throne, who had guarded hundreds of millions of humans in lonely isolation for countless eons.

Compared to that eternal solitude which carried the weight of an entire civilization, what did his mere dozen years of loneliness even amount to?

Only when you pass through the seventh layer of solitude can you become a truly strong person.

Qin Feng's heart, through repeated self-interrogations and steadfast conviction, became increasingly serene and pure.

Like a stubborn stone washed by flowing water for ten thousand years, all its edges and impurities were ground away, leaving only the core essence.

He stopped counting the time, and stopped anticipating the results.

He simply cultivated.

As if this were the most primal form of life.

Two hundred and eighty...

Three hundred...

Three hundred and twenty...

The final forty Great Sun Apertures were a true natural chasm.

They were hidden in the deepest, most mysterious corners of the body, and the firmness of their barriers had reached an almost absurd degree.

Qin Feng's resources were being consumed at a staggering speed.

His body had also long developed a resistance to that heart-tearing pain.

He could even calmly contemplate the angle and force of the next impact while his meridians were shattered and his internal organs were broken.

He was like the most rigorous craftsman, using his willpower as a carving knife and endless pain as a whetstone, performing the final and most difficult sculpting upon this divine treasury known as the physical body.

Three hundred and forty...

Three hundred and fifty...

Three hundred and fifty-nine...

When all his elixirs and medicinal bath packs were completely depleted, and when all his energy was on the verge of exhaustion, he finally stood before the last threshold.

The three hundred and sixtieth Great Sun Apertures.

It was located at the center of all apertures, functioning like the central imperial court of the entire Great Sun Star Map.

Qin Feng condensed the final trace of energy in his body into a piercing cone, utilizing all the willpower and strength he had accumulated over seventeen years to launch a charge toward that final barrier.

There was no sound.

There was no loud roar.

At the exact moment the impact succeeded, the entire world seemed to stand completely still.

Qin Feng felt as if the three hundred and sixty "Solar Cavities" within his body were all being ignited at this very moment!

They were no longer isolated stars, but rather, through countless newly formed, golden energy channels, they connected to one another, forming an immensely grand, profoundly mysterious, and utterly perfect... three-dimensional star chart!

This star chart slowly rotated within his body.

Each cavity was a sun; three hundred and sixty suns formed a miniature, flawless, and complete universe.

A never-before-felt aura of harmony, self-consistency, and endless vitality emanated from the deepest part of his being.

The fourth level of the Cavity-Opening Realm was now utterly perfected!

Seventeen years of solitude and bitter cultivation, in this moment, transformed entirely into the most radiant light upon that perfect foundation.

In the training chamber, the deathly silence was broken by a long, slow breath.

Qin Feng slowly opened his eyes.

In that instant, it seemed as if two miniature golden suns had ignited deep within his pupils; a dazzling divine light flashed and vanished, ultimately sinking into profound darkness, like a starry sky containing an entire universe.

He quietly examined his own body. It was a strange, unprecedented sensation of perfection and flawlessness.

In his perception, his physical form was no longer merely a collection of flesh and blood, but a vast sea of stars.

The three hundred and sixty "Solar Cavities" were like three hundred and sixty never-extinguishing suns, arranged according to some unfathomable law, forming a perfect, three-dimensional "Solar Star Chart."

This star chart was the most perfect martial foundation he had forged for himself, consuming a full forty years, with endless pain and solitude, to create!

"Hum——"

Even without him actively circulating his technique, the spiritual energy around him spontaneously formed a visible tide.

Pure spiritual energy was drawn in through every pore on his body, flowing, refining, and expanding within those three hundred and sixty "Solar Cavities," then slowly expelling a portion of the energy imbued with his life's imprint.

Between each inhale and exhale, there was an efficient cycle of cultivation.

On the surface of his body, at the positions corresponding to the three hundred and sixty Solar Cavities, faint golden light was being emitted and absorbed, like three hundred and sixty miniature, ever-living stars, full of sanctity and majesty.

He merely sat there, like a deity suppressing a divine kingdom.

"Hammer."

Qin Feng's voice rang out in the training chamber, which had been silent for seventeen years, carrying a hint of hoarseness from long disuse.

"Master, Hammer is here."

Hammer responded immediately.

"How many years have passed since I entered seclusion?"

"Master, since you activated the highest-level seclusion mode, seventeen years and one month have passed."

Seventeen years...

Even though Qin Feng's mind was already as firm as rock, upon hearing this number, a ripple stirred within his heart.

Forty years had passed since he enrolled.

He himself was now fifty-seven years old.

"Hammer, are there any important events recently?"

He continued to ask.

"According to priority ranking, there are six months until the new 'Canaan Freshman Cup' officially begins. The system detects that your cultivation level matches the qualification for the fourth-level competition zone. Do you need me to register you?"

"Canaan Freshman Cup..."

A trace of reminiscence flickered in Qin Feng's eyes.

He recalled the Freshman Cup he participated in when he first enrolled.

Back then, how weak he was—eliminated in the first round by an "old" freshman named Zou Yun with a single move.

The second Freshman Cup, he claimed the title of uncrowned freshman king.

The third, he didn't participate; the fourth, he missed again due to seclusion, and this was already the fifth.

"Register."

Qin Feng said indifferently.

"Command confirmed. Registration for 'Fourth-Level Competition Zone' successful. Your participant number is: K-4-9527."

Qin Feng paid no attention to that number; his thoughts had already drifted further away.

He carefully calculated.

The enrollment assessment and initial adaptation took nearly a year.

After his first crushing defeat, he secluded himself for three years.

After the Freshman Cup, he secluded himself again for twelve years.

Then two years of missions, plus this seventeen-year session...

Unknowingly, forty full years had passed since he set foot in this highest institution of learning in the universe.

His life had also gone from seventeen to fifty-seven.

What an exaggerated span of time.

Qin Feng's heart was filled with myriad emotions.

These forty years, he had spent almost entirely in isolated, bitter cultivation.

He had missed too many sights of the outside world, abandoned too many worldly pleasures; his world had been compressed to only one thing: cultivation and becoming stronger.

Was it worth it?

When he felt the perfect, flawless star chart formed by the three hundred and sixty Solar Cavities within him, he had his answer.

Worth it.

Lowly desires for pleasure are to be discarded by martial artists.

"Otherwise, one would sink into the embrace of Slaanesh."

Qin Feng constantly reminded himself.

He would rather be tempted by Khorne than by Slaanesh.

Battle and honor are the path of a martial artist.

"I originally planned to complete the opening of three hundred and sixty cavities in thirty years, but in the end, I couldn't manage it."

He murmured to himself. "Still, walking this path in forty years is beyond ordinary people."

After all, according to the official data released by the Imperial Martial Academy, the average cultivation time for the cavity-opening stage of the "Solar Cavity Opening Method" and similar "supreme-grade cavity-opening methods" is one hundred years.

He had taken less than half that time.

"So, now I..."

With a thought, Qin Feng summoned his vitality index detection.

A pale blue light screen unfolded before him, and a clear number appeared.

[Vitality Index: 3600.0]

Looking at this number, Qin Feng's brow lifted slightly.

"3600 points? It's not 3630."

Based on the basic conversion where one Solar Pore provides 10 points of life force index, three hundred and sixty Solar Pores, plus the 30-point base from his breakthrough to the fourth level, the total should have been 3630.

But at this moment, the index was stubbornly stuck at the round number 3600.

"So that's how it is..."

Qin Feng quickly understood the crux of the matter.

He could clearly feel an invisible, unyielding shackle within his own flesh. This shackle firmly locked his life level at the critical point of 3600.

No matter how surging the energy within his body, it could not make that number budge even 0.1.

"This must be the so-called 'minor limit' beyond the 'Four Great Limits' in martial arts cultivation."

In the path of martial arts, before the planetary level, there are the "Four Great Limits": life force indices of 18,000, 36,000, 72,000, and 100,000.

And beneath these four great limits, when a martial artist cultivates a certain realm to its true extreme and perfection, they will also encounter a "minor limit." Only by opening the next path and successfully merging apertures can his life force index break through the shackle of 3600 and continue to surge forward.

The next path is the fifth level, the "Aperture Merging Realm."

Without hesitation, Qin Feng immediately opened the Imperial Trading House and, in the vast list of items, entered the name of the technique he had long desired.

Soon, a line of golden text appeared before his eyes.

[Supreme Cultivation Method: Solar Aperture Merging Technique]

[Description: The advanced technique of the Solar Aperture Opening Technique. By cultivating this method, one can merge the three hundred and sixty opened "Solar Apertures" in pairs, ultimately condensing a single "Great Solar Aperture," laying the most solid foundation for advancing to the sixth level, the Soaring Void Realm.]

[Exchange Requirement: Must have mastered the Solar Aperture Opening Technique]

[Price: 7000 Contribution Points]

"Seven thousand contribution points..."

Qin Feng's current contribution point balance was only 1209.

"But it's almost there."

His gaze shifted back to the registration information for the "Canaan Freshman Cup."

According to the rules, the Freshman Cup is held once every ten years and is divided into different divisions such as Level 4, Level 5, and Level 6.

To motivate students, the champion of each division receives a massive reward of ten thousand contribution points.

"With my current strength, in the Level 4 division, I should be able to easily take first place."

Qin Feng made a judgment in his mind. "Once I get those ten thousand contribution points, the starting capital for the Level 5 Aperture Merging Realm will be completely settled."

The plan was now clear.

Qin Feng's mood relaxed accordingly.

He closed the Trading House and instead had Hammer pull up the latest hot topics from the campus forum, while also opening the "Canaan Starry Sky Martial Arts University Private Domain Forum" on the subspace network, intending to catch up on what had happened in the outside world over these seventeen years.

Like a hermit long isolated from the world, he quietly scrolled through the rolling posts, feeling a long-missed sense of worldly vitality.

Before long, Qin Feng's attention was drawn to a hot post with a particularly eye-catching title. As he read on, he couldn't help but laugh out loud.

[Post Title]: #Shameless Behavior! Senior Zhou Run Still Dominates Level 4 Division, Claims He Wants to Squeeze Out the Last Bit of Profit!#

[OP]: Insider here! According to reliable sources, Senior Zhou Run, who has long dominated all competitions in the Level 4 division, stated in a recent public interview that he has completed all aperture openings of the Nine Revolutions Golden Aperture Technique, and his life force index has officially reached the perfection of 3600 points. But he does not plan to advance immediately. Instead, he intends to participate one last time in this year's Freshman Cup, take the ten thousand contribution point champion reward, and use it as starting capital for his assault on the Level 5 Aperture Merging Realm!

[1F-Discipline Committee Member]: Shocking! Senior Zhou Run is such a shameless leech! Have some decency! Leave some room for the newcomers!

[2F-Anonymous Gambler]: 6666, I knew he'd do it again! I'm going all in on Zhou Run winning the championship! Villa by the sea!

[3F-Rational Observer]: To be fair, isn't the reason these past few editions only had "uncrowned freshman kings" precisely because old monsters like Zhou Run and Zheng Dong, who cultivate supreme aperture-opening techniques, have been stubbornly hanging around? Their life force indices have long crushed everyone else.

[4F-Don't Bash the Above]: Enough, enough. Who can blame them for cultivating supreme aperture-opening techniques? The rules allow it, and they haven't broken any. Besides, Senior Zhou Run said this is the last time—after he takes this reward, he's heading to the Level 5 division. Let's just consider it a chance to witness a legend.

...

Qin Feng read these replies, some teasing, some complaining, some admiring, and his smile grew even wider.

Zhou Run—this name was all too familiar to him.

Back then, when he had wisely withdrawn from the Freshman Cup finals, the final champion and runner-up had been taken by Zhou Run and another old monster named "Zheng Dong."

He hadn't expected that after so many years, Zheng Dong, perhaps too concerned with face, would rather take on high-risk missions than stoop to competing in the Level 4 division again. He had probably already advanced to the Level 5 Aperture Merging Realm by now.

Only this Senior Zhou Run had truly thick skin, as pragmatic as himself, showing up every ten years to reliably plunder the Freshman Cup champion's wool.

"But this time, that wool won't be so easy to pluck."

A glint of amusement flashed in Qin Feng's eyes. "I've got my eyes on this fat prize too. We'll see who's stronger."

He continued browsing the posts with keen interest.

With the Canaan Freshman Cup about to begin, the forum was already flooded with pre-event posts.

The most popular among them were the "Championship Favorite Rankings" jointly released by several data analysis teams and betting companies, based on the task performances and historical records of well-known students.

Qin Feng glanced at the Level 4 division list. Zhou Run's name unsurprisingly topped the chart, with odds so low they were laughable.

As for his own name, after seventeen years of absence, it had vanished from the list entirely, forgotten by all.

He just chuckled at this.

Then, he clicked on a post ranking the strong in the Level 5 division, and a familiar name jumped out at him.

"Stone Man—Shi Dang."

"A newly risen top expert in the Level 5 division, hailing from Qiming Star, possessing the rare Stone Clan bloodline, with innate divine strength and an indestructible physical defense. His will is firm, his killing techniques exquisite and astonishing, and he has already mastered several killing techniques to the level of control."

"Current strength estimate: Has completed all cultivation of the Level 5 Aperture Merging Realm, about to advance to Level 6 Soaring Void Martial Artist. A strong contender for this year's Level 5 division championship!"

Reading the introduction of Shi Dang, Qin Feng couldn't help but calculate in his mind.

Shi Dang had enrolled three years after him.

That meant, in the thirty-plus years since he had gone into seclusion, Shi Dang had caught up from behind, traversing the two complete major martial realms of Aperture Opening and Aperture Merging, and was now standing on the threshold of the Level 6 Soaring Void Realm.

The Aperture Opening Realm and the Aperture Merging Realm—the Empire's published average advancement time for each was thirty years, totaling sixty years.

But Shi Dang had done it in just thirty-seven years, barely more than half the average.

"What a genius, and hardworking too."

Qin Feng admired in his heart.

Of course, if converted, he himself had taken forty years to complete the Aperture Opening Realm, less than half the average time, so his speed was still crushing.

But that didn't deny Shi Dang's talent and diligence.

That "fellow townsman" who had once been defeated by him in a single move had now grown into a formidable expert, and Qin Feng felt a touch of gratification.

He just wondered if he could still defeat this "fellow townsman" in one move now.

Qin Feng thought he could, because even with a superior aperture-opening technique, after opening all aperture shells and merging them, one only reached a life force index of 1080.

The gap in raw strength was too great.

He also looked at the hot news specially compiled by Hammer, finding that most of it revolved around the Canaan Freshman Cup.

Besides that, there were also some discussions about the higher-tier "Starry Sky Cup."

But the Starry Cup was a stage reserved for true experts at Level Seven and above, those who had already mastered the use of psychic power in combat.

The discussions in the posts were all about bizarre realms of psychic killing techniques and willpower clashes; Qin Feng couldn't understand them for now, so he didn't pay much attention.

Closing the subspace forum, Qin Feng stretched, and his bones crackled with a series of crisp pops.

"Half a year left—can't waste it."

His gaze fell on the killing technique panel, on that second-level technique he had long shelved.

"Cold Gleam"!

Earlier, he had been too busy accumulating contribution points for seclusion to practice this second-level spear technique personally recommended by his mentor Yu Han, one that perfectly matched his martial philosophy.

Qin Feng deeply felt that time was never enough.

Now, he would use the final half-year before the competition to master it completely.

"Oh, right."

A thought suddenly surfaced from the depths of his mind.

"I should call my father and check in."

He opened his contacts and saw his father Qin Dahai's avatar.

The latest message record was from a few months ago, simple content—just a report of safety, saying everything was fine at home.

Qin Feng looked at those few lines, and a warmth surged in his heart.

He thought it over but ultimately didn't dial the call immediately.

"I'll call before the competition."

He made the decision.

Now that he had just emerged from seclusion, his spirit was high—this was the perfect time to hone his killing technique.

Once he made the call and chatted about family matters, he would inevitably get distracted.

"Hammer, enter the Imperial Arena."

He gave the command.

"Remind me the day before the competition starts."

"Understood, master."

As the words "Understood, master" settled in his mind, the dormitory scene before Qin Feng's eyes rippled like water disturbed by a thrown stone, then transformed into countless streams of dazzling data, swallowing him whole.

The next moment, he found himself on a vast platform filled with a cold metallic texture.

This was the Imperial Arena.

Here, only the purest martial arts skills and battle will were pitted against each other.

Qin Feng deftly opened the arena's settings interface.

[ID: Qin]

[Battle Mode: Ranked Match]

[Life Force Index Locked: 500.0]

[Weapon Selection: Standard Alloy Spear]

[Armor Selection: Light Combat Suit]

He set his life force index at a value neither too high nor too low, one that best reflected the comprehensive strength of a fourth-level Awakened Realm martial artist—500 points.

This value was enough to support him in executing most killing techniques, yet not so strong as to mask flaws in technique.

What he sought was not domination, but refinement.

Refinement of that second-level spear technique he had high hopes for but never had time to practice—"Cold Gleam."

[Settings saved. Matching opponent...]

[Match successful! Opponent from: Terra Core War Zone - Pegasus Galaxy]

[Scene randomly generating... Scene: Roman Colosseum]

With the cold prompt, the metal platform before Qin Feng rapidly transformed.

The cold metal turned into ancient sand and stone bricks; towering circular stands rose around him, as if he could hear the deafening cheers of tens of thousands of spectators.

And a hundred meters away, a burly figure in light armor, wielding a massive battle axe, materialized.

The battle was about to begin.

A half-year-long, insane grind against the entire empire had just begun.

The first month was the hardest for Qin Feng, and the one where he lost the most miserably.

The core "principle" of the "Cold Gleam" spear technique lay in the creation and accumulation of "momentum."

Its starting move seemed unremarkable—just a simple, direct thrust.

But this thrust wasn't meant to kill; it was to plant a seed of "Cold Gleam" around the enemy.

Once that seed was planted, every subsequent attack would cause this "Cold Gleam momentum" to stack and grow.

The spear would become faster and heavier.

And the enemy would feel as if they were sinking into a shrinking, icy quagmire of countless spear shadows, their movements slowing, their spirit oppressed, until finally pierced through by a single thrust.

This was a classic snowballing style—the longer the fight, the stronger, the fiercer.

But at first, Qin Feng couldn't find that feeling at all.

His first opponent, the axe warrior from the Pegasus Galaxy, had a wild and domineering fighting style.

Qin Feng's first straight thrust was easily deflected by the opponent's massive axe. Then, a storm of slashing blows followed.

Qin Feng tried to block with the defensive stance of "Thousand Army Spear," but found that his strength, at a life force index of 500, was utterly insufficient to counter that heavy axe.

He attempted to evade with the erratic footwork of "Dragon Snake Spear," but the opponent's precise predictions locked him down.

The fight lasted less than thirty seconds before Qin Feng's light armor was cleaved open by the axe, and his entire form dissipated into specks of light.

[Battle over. You have lost.]

Qin Feng didn't lose heart; he immediately started a second match.

The opponent was an agile female swordswoman wielding twin blades.

Her swordsmanship was like quicksilver, seeping into every gap. Qin Feng's "Cold Gleam" seed couldn't even be planted before he was flustered by her dazzling sword light, eventually struck down with a single thrust to the throat.

[Battle over. You have lost.]

Third match: the opponent was a formation martial artist using a shield and short spear, with a steady, impenetrable style.

Qin Feng's spear simply couldn't break through the shield defense.

...

The following month, Qin Feng spent almost entirely in consecutive defeats.

He maintained nearly three hundred high-intensity battles each day, with opponents from every corner of the empire, their fighting styles bizarre and varied.

There were psychics adept at mental assaults, cyborgs with engineered mechanical prosthetics, and martial artists who had honed their hand-to-hand combat to absolute perfection...

He was like a sponge, frantically absorbing the combat experiences of these diverse schools.

He began to abandon his long-mastered first-tier spear technique, forcing himself to rely solely on the forms of Cold Glint.

No longer seeking victory, he treated every single defeat as a precious exercise in trial and error.

After weathering days of failure, the moment arrived when he faced an opponent who also wielded a long spear; a flash of divine insight struck him, and at the precise instant the enemy’s spear tip was about to pierce his flesh, he thrust his own weapon from an unimaginable angle.

Clang!

A soft, crisp ring echoed.

The tips of the two long spears collided with pinpoint precision.

The battle that followed flowed like water and moving clouds.

His spearplay grew faster and faster.

Conversely, the opposing spearman fought with increasing frustration, feeling as though his own weapon weighed a thousand pounds, each swing agonizingly sluggish.

In the end, Qin Feng brought the bout to a close with a clean, decisive thrust to the throat.

[Match ended. Congratulations, you are victorious!]

Though he had suffered over nine thousand defeats during this single month, the Cold Glint spear technique had finally opened the door to basic mastery in his hands.

Once the threshold was crossed, the path ahead suddenly opened up.

Qin Feng was no longer the novice who took beatings at every turn.

He locked horns with a heavily armored warrior wielding a giant hammer, fighting fiercely for ten whole minutes.

Like a tireless hummingbird hovering around that iron mountain, he thrust his spear thousands of times.

Every strike left an inconspicuous white mark on the opponent's thick armor, along with an increasingly dense chill.

As the ten-thousandth strike hit, the sturdy armor shattered instantly like glass doused in liquid nitrogen, exposing the utterly terrified warrior within.

He had learned how to shatter a whole plane by striking a single point.

His combat style grew more and more methodical.

He was like a chess grandmaster skilled in strategy, placing a crucial piece at the opening and then consolidating his position step by step, continuously expanding his advantage to lure the enemy into an inevitable checkmate.

His win rate climbed steadily from an initially dismal sub-10% to 30%, then 40%...

In his hands, the Cold Glint spear technique had already ascended to the realm of minor mastery.

His battles began to grow swifter and more effortless.

On the final day of the fifth month, when he pinned a powerful adversary to the wall using a technique that fused Cold Glint with the Thousand Army Spear, he knew that Cold Glint had reached grand mastery under his command.

Yet through these repeated trials of life and death, his spearplay became increasingly pure, refined, and restored to its primal simplicity.

Finally, with only a few days left before the tournament commenced, he was matched against an opponent of top-tier strength.

That man also used a long spear, his technique upright and majestic like a towering mountain, every movement brimming with the aura of a grandmaster.

From the very start, the two plunged into a contest of pure spearplay.

Every collision of their spear tips erupted in brilliant sparks.

The opponent met all changes with constancy, deploying the most rock-solid defense to dissolve Qin Feng’s increasingly fast and heavy assaults.

The battle raged for half an hour.

He felt the long spear in his hands transform into a great dragon that devoured everything.

Though sweat beaded the opponent's brow and his breathing grew ragged, his defense remained as immovable as Mount Tai, flawless and unassailable.

Qin Feng knew that conventional forms could no longer defeat this man.

Scenes from the tens of thousands of battles he had fought over the past six months flashed through his mind.

Every insight from Cold Glint's progression from basic mastery to grand mastery flickered by.

Ultimately, all the images and insights froze upon a single point.

That was—the opening stance.

That unremarkable, yet foundational first straight thrust.

A single point of cold glint.

Suddenly, he understood.

The true essence of Cold Glint lay not in the tempestuous accumulation of subsequent strikes, but in that initial, earth-shattering... single point!

That point was the cause.

Everything that followed was the effect.

When the cause was powerful enough, the effect became naturally irresistible.

To seize the initiative, a single point of cold glint must strike first! Only when this priority was perfectly achieved could the subsequent tempest roar like a dragon from the spear!

In that instant, Qin Feng’s aura retracted completely, like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, pouring entirely back into the alloy spear in his hands, finally condensing onto that small, three-inch spear tip.

His opponent, the spear grandmaster, saw his pupils contract to the absolute limit!

He sensed an unprecedented, fatal, and terrifying crisis!

He saw Qin Feng move.

There were no flashy flourishes, no breathtaking displays of power.

It was just a simple, straightforward forward thrust.

Yet this single strike seemed to pierce through both time and space.

In the grandmaster's eyes, nothing remained but that approaching, brightening, icy point of cold glint.

He wanted to parry, but it was already too late to react.

And this blindingly fast point of cold glint served precisely to pave the way for the dragon-like onslaught that followed!

With the initiative firmly in Qin Feng's grasp, a tempestuous barrage of attacks ensued, the spear roaring like a great dragon; the opponent could not hold out for even ten exchanges before being utterly defeated.

[Your combat style Cold Glint has reached its ultimate sublimation through this extreme battle. Realm upgraded to: Perfection!]

[System: You have successfully comprehended the Cold Glint ultimate move—A Single Point of Cold Glint!]

A single point of cold glint arrives first, then the spear strikes like a roaring dragon!

Once unleashed, this move maximizes the advantage of priority, forcibly locking down and suppressing the opponent to create an absolute field-control advantage for subsequent chain attacks. Under this advantage, subsequent spear techniques receive a massive buff, growing stronger and fiercer with every strike!

Qin Feng slowly retracted his spear, exhaling a long plume of white vapor.

Half a year of bitter cultivation had finally culminated in perfection.

He glanced at his Imperial Arena dashboard, where the data had undergone a earth-shattering transformation.

[ID: Qin]

[Rank: Second Dan (350 points)]

[Total Matches: 65,049]

[Total Wins: 35,776 matches]

[Total Losses: 29,273 matches]

[Win Rate: 55.00%]

[Self-Introduction: Practitioner of the Thousand-Arm Spear]

[Reviews (999+): A worthy opponent; Practitioner of the Thousand-Arm Spear? What the hell is the Fierce Owl Style? Kid, you're dishonest...]

For the past six months, he fought nearly three hundred matches daily, totaling over fifty thousand battles!

His win rate stabilized at 55%.

This statistic alone proves the terrifying effort he has put in over these six months.

"Hammer, exit the arena."

At his command, the world around him once again dissolved into streams of data.

The six-month-long training in spear techniques had come to an end.

And a true, highly anticipated feast was about to begin in reality.

"Hammer, how long until the Rookie Cup?"

"Master, three days until the tournament begins."

(End of this chapter)