Chapter 45: Crazy Competition

Chapter 45: Mad Arena

Upon the stage, the stars and rivers turned.

【Matching opponent for you...】

【Match successful!】

This time, the system matched him with an opponent, whose information panel was clearly displayed.

【ID】：Iron Wall-079

【Rank】：First Tier

【Points】：5

The opponent was a heavily armored warrior wielding a tower shield and a short spear, with a steady style focused on defense and counterattacks.

The battle began.

Qin Feng no longer played as he had against Zhou Yu, prioritizing control and suppression.

He chose a more direct, more aggressive approach.

The long spear in his hand turned into deadly streaks of silver light, pouring like a storm toward the opponent’s defensive circle.

Thrusts, flicks, sweeps, chops...

Each strike carried a deeper understanding of the *Thousand Army Spear* he had just grasped in his epiphany.

The warrior named “Iron Wall-079,” under Qin Feng’s fierce and precise assault, lasted less than a minute. His proud tower shield defense was shattered by a heavy downward chop, leaving his guard wide open. Qin Feng then pierced his throat with a single thrust, ending the fight.

【Victory!】

【You have gained 11 points.】

【In real combat, you summarized the experience of spear techniques. *Thousand Army Spear* proficiency +1】

Qin Feng stood with his spear, pausing not a moment, and immediately started the next match.

Opponent, First Tier, 12 points.

Battle duration: two minutes fifteen seconds.

Victory.

【You have gained 10 points.】

【*Thousand Army Spear* proficiency +1】

Third match, opponent, First Tier, 23 points.

Victory.

【You have gained 10 points.】

【*Thousand Army Spear* proficiency +1】

...

In the time that followed, Qin Feng transformed entirely into a tireless battle machine.

He fought one match after another, digesting, verifying, and integrating all the insights from his previous placement matches and epiphany into these high-intensity real combats.

His spear technique grew increasingly refined, increasingly seasoned.

From the initial precise control to the current ease of release and restraint, his grasp of battle rhythm had reached a new height.

He encountered all kinds of strange opponents.

Some excelled at speed against speed;

Some had elusive, drifting footwork;

Some wielded giant axes with immense strength;

Others used exotic weapons with bizarre techniques...

Every battle was a new lesson and trial.

Victory, defeat, then victory, then defeat again.

On Qin Feng’s personal panel, the points steadily jumped and grew.

11, 21, 31, 40, 32, 42, 53, 64, 73, 65, 75...

Winning a match added about 10 points.

Losing a match deducted about 8 points.

After more than twenty fierce and intense duels,

Qin Feng’s personal panel finally settled on this number:

【ID】：Qin

【Rank】：First Tier

【Ranked Record】：22 wins, 10 losses

【Points】：105

Twenty-three matches, sixteen wins, seven losses.

Win rate: nearly seventy percent.

That was a terrifying figure, enough to prove that at this score range, his strength was dominant.

Yet, when his points broke the hundred mark, the situation began to shift subtly.

Twenty-fourth match.

Opponent, First Tier, 108 points.

A warrior wielding a longbow, with exquisite archery and footwork.

Qin Feng paid a heavy price, even using the Wandering Dragon technique, but still took three arrows. Finally, he struggled to close the distance and took the opponent down with a single spear thrust.

When the battle ended, his own injuries were severe.

It was barely a pyrrhic victory.

Twenty-fifth match.

Opponent, First Tier, 112 points.

A warrior who had reached the minor achievement stage of the *Thunderclap Blade Art*.

He did not use a blade, but wore light armor and employed fist and palm techniques. His strikes were as fast as thunder, as forceful as a galloping horse, each blow carrying an unstoppable, domineering momentum.

His footwork was even more absurd, easily bypassing Qin Feng’s spear, engaging in close combat, each move like lightning.

Qin Feng was brutally crushed, utterly powerless to resist.

【Defeat!】

【You have lost 8 points.】

【In the fierce exchange, you discovered the shortcomings of your spear and footwork when facing fast attacks of the same level. *Thousand Army Spear* proficiency +2】

Points dropped back to 97.

Twenty-sixth match, opponent, first rank, score 99.

Victory.

Score, 107.

[Thousand Army Spear Proficiency +1]

Twenty-seventh match, opponent, first rank, score 115.

Defeat.

Score, 99.

[Thousand Army Spear Proficiency +2]

Twenty-eighth match, opponent, first rank, score 118.

Defeat.

Score, 91.

[Thousand Army Spear Proficiency +2]

Twenty-ninth match, opponent, first rank, 121.

Defeat.

Score, 83.

[Thousand Army Spear Proficiency +3]

Thirtieth match, opponent, first rank, 125.

Defeat.

Score, 75.

[Thousand Army Spear Proficiency +3]

A bitter streak of five consecutive losses.

Except for the first match, which was a narrow defeat, in the following four he was almost always beaten by opponents with a clear advantage.

These opponents, all with scores above 110, had without exception cultivated a killing art to the realm of “Minor Mastery,” and were formidable fighters with no weaknesses in practical experience or combat awareness.

Although Qin Feng’s spear art had also reached Minor Mastery, his overall combat acumen still revealed a certain rawness compared to these seasoned veterans who had long immersed themselves in the arena.

Until the thirty-first match.

He was matched against an opponent whose score had also dropped to around 80.

The two fought bitterly for nearly ten minutes, and in the end, Qin Feng seized a mistake from his opponent and won by a hair’s breadth.

[Victory!]

[You have gained 9 points.]

[Thousand Army Spear Proficiency +2]

His score returned to 84.

Qin Feng looked at his latest record and score, then withdrew from the matchmaking queue.

He knew well that this was roughly his current limit.

One hundred points was a watershed.

With his present strength, floating around this score range, without a new breakthrough or improvement, his win rate would gradually settle around fifty percent, turning into a long, slow process of climbing points through sheer volume and incremental progress.

He did not continue fighting. Instead, he opened the recording of his last defeat.

The opponent was that spear fighter with a score of 125.

The art he used was also derived from the military, the Formation-Breaking Spear, which shared the same essence as the Thousand Army Spear.

During the battle, the two had several brilliant exchanges of spear against spear.

Qin Feng paused the image at the moment just before his defeat.

At that time, he had seized an opening in his opponent’s defense and swept out with a “Thousand Army Repulse,” but his opponent countered with a more exquisite, more condensed spear technique, breaking through his spear momentum with a single point, then struck back in one decisive thrust.

“What a pity…”

Qin Feng murmured softly, gazing at the spear tip in the image—swift as flowing light, condensed as a needle.

“If at that moment I had not chosen ‘Thousand Army Repulse,’ but instead tried to gather all my strength into a single point, seeking ultimate penetration and speed… perhaps I could have grasped the true meaning of ‘Flowing Light Chasing Shadow’ in that instant.”

He watched and pondered that moment of attack and defense over and over.

A long time passed.

He let out a long breath, gathering all his insights and regrets.

[Through review and reflection, your understanding of the spear art deepens. Thousand Army Spear Proficiency +5]

He glanced at the final proficiency.

[Killing Art: Thousand Army Spear (Minor Mastery)]

[Proficiency: 489/1000]

The series of fierce battles and reviews had brought no small increase to his proficiency.

Having done all this, Qin Feng lingered no longer and chose to exit the Imperial Arena.

His consciousness returned, and he slowly opened his eyes. What met his gaze was the now-bright lighting of the public martial arts hall.

Unbeknownst to him, the time had already reached eight in the evening.

Inside the martial arts hall, Qian Duoduo and Shi Potian had just finished their body-tempering practice and were sitting to one side, drinking water and quietly waiting for him.

(End of chapter)