Chapter 85: Finals! Qin Feng vs Lei Yi

Chapter 85: The Finals! Qin Feng vs. Lei Yi

After a brief hush, the arena erupted into absolute bedlam!

The commentator’s voice trembled slightly, frayed by sheer, unadulterated excitement.

"Good heavens! Good heavens! Yet another mastery-level killing method!"

"Lei Yi from Tianshu Martial High has actually been hiding his true strength all this time!"

"His Wind and Thunder Staff technique has also achieved the mastery realm!"

It had to be said, the commentator knew how to stoke the fires of the crowd.

With Lei Yi's dominant victory, the pace of the tournament quickened once more.

The final top five were officially established: Qin Feng, Lei Yi, Shi Potian, and two other freshmen who had crawled their way up, having achieved lesser mastery in their respective killing methods.

The subsequent drawing of lots was laced with sheer dramatic irony.

The system's lights flashed, and the result materialized—Qin Feng had drawn a bye for this round as well, advancing directly into the top three!

The other two matchups unfolded entirely without suspense.

Lei Yi dispatched his opponent cleanly and decisively.

Shi Potian, meanwhile, endured a grueling, bitter battle, ultimately leveraging his superior combat will and rich practical experience to secure a narrow victory over the other lesser-mastery freshman.

The final three competitors stood beneath the ring, awaiting the final round-robin draw.

Yet, in that very moment, Shi Potian let out a long, slow breath. He glanced beside him at Qin Feng, whose aura was as deep and immovable as a mountain, and then toward Lei Yi, whose battle intent pierced the sky like a spear. A smile of quiet resignation touched his lips.

He turned to the two of them and spoke.

"Making it to the top three is enough to satisfy me; I’ve already exceeded my goals. The stage from here on belongs to you two monsters. I won’t go up there just to serve as a foil and ruin the crowd's fun."

With that, he turned on his heel and spoke clearly to the referee.

"Referee, I forfeit. I will gladly take third place."

His decision was born not of cowardice, but of a clear-eyed self-awareness and a profound respect for true strength.

He knew that what the entire audience yearned to see most at this moment was that pinnacle clash of spear against staff, a battle of absolute equals.

Shi Potian’s free-spirited grace earned him a deafening, thunderous ovation from the entire arena.

With Shi Potian's withdrawal, the final match of the Morning Star Inter-School League Freshmen Tournament was officially set!

The atmosphere in the arena was instantly whipped into a fever pitch!

On the massive holographic screen, the portraits of Qin Feng and Lei Yi stood side by side, and beneath them lay profiles impressive enough to strike terror into the heart of any adversary.

The Spear of Morning Star: Qin Feng - Thousand Army Spear, Mastery Realm

The Thunder of Tianshu: Lei Yi - Wind and Thunder Staff, Mastery Realm

The commentator’s voice was hoarse and manic, shouting with every ounce of strength left in his lungs.

"Ladies and gentlemen! After eight rounds of fierce combat, we have finally arrived at the ultimate showdown of this league! Mastery-level spearmanship against mastery-level staff technique! Two peerless geniuses who have swept through this tournament with invincible might are about to determine the sole king upon this grandest stage!"

Amidst a tidal wave of roaring cheers, Qin Feng and Lei Yi walked out from opposite ends of the arena, stepping forward rhythmically onto the central main stage, which was bathed in a brilliant expanse of light.

Their gazes locked in mid-air, as though invisible bolts of lightning were violently colliding.

The spectators' blood boiled, their cheers and roars converging into a colossal wave of sound that threatened to blow the very roof off the Arctic Crown.

The match was about to begin!

The battle hung on a knife-edge! —

The central main stage drew the gaze of tens of thousands.

Snow-white spotlights illuminated the hundred-meter-diameter alloy platform, turning night into blinding day.

Qin Feng and Lei Yi stood thirty meters apart, facing each other down from a distance.

The entire Arctic Crown arena fell into an uncanny, breathless silence at that moment. Hundreds of thousands of spectators held their breath in unison, terrified of missing a single fraction of a second of what was to come.

The air itself seemed to have congealed, leaving only the tangible battle intent radiating from the two men to clash violently in the invisible space between them, sending ripples through the air.

On one side was the dark horse that had burst forth from Morning Star First High, a master of the spear who swept away thousands, utterly matchless. On the other side was the deeply hidden trump card of Tianshu Martial High, possessing an equally masterful staff technique, swift as thunder and fiercely domineering.

This was a clash between kings.

The referee cast a deep look at the two confronting figures, retreated swiftly to the edge of the ring, and chopped his arm down violently!

"Match—begin!"

The moment the word left the referee's lips, Lei Yi moved!

He offered no probing strikes, held nothing back; from the very inception of the bout, he entered his absolute strongest state!

The Wind and Thunder Stride was pushed to its absolute limit!

His figure blurred into a streak of blinding electricity, and the alloy stage beneath his feet let out an agonizing groan the instant he propelled himself forward.

He lunged straight for Qin Feng, his speed mimicking instantaneous teleportation!

The twin half-meter short staffs in his hands tore through the air with sharp, whistling shrieks, an display of sheer momentum that was terrifying to behold.

Faced with this thunderous opening gambit, Qin Feng did not retreat; instead, he advanced!

Employing the Traveling Dragon Footwork, his form became ethereal and erratic, shifting like a wisp of insubstantial smoke to slip past the strike at an impossible angle.

Simultaneously, the three-meter alloy spear in his hand seemed to come alive.

Using his own body as an axis, he deflected, parried, and thrust, instantly weaving a visible zone of absolute defense composed of countless overlapping spear shadows!

Lei Yi’s figure was swift as lightning; missing his initial strike, he forcibly twisted his body mid-air and launched another furious assault from a different vector.

Staff shadows cascaded like heavy rain, carrying the roar of wind and thunder as they smashed frantically toward Qin Feng from every conceivable direction.

Yet no matter the angle of his approach, he was invariably met by a precise, sharp phantom of a spear.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The dense, rapid ring of clashing metal echoed across the ring.

Qin Feng's spear perimeter acted like an immovable dike, casting back the tempestuous waves of Lei Yi's offensive without letting a single drop through.

Fast enough, and plenty of power behind it.

A thought flashed through Qin Feng's mind.

But this staff work... is far inferior to Senior Sun He's.

Sun He's mastery-level staff technique had been forged one blow at a time in the private network of Morning Star First High, fed to him by countless upperclassmen and old monsters who had graduated years ago.

Every single form and stance was steeped in the flavor of a thoroughly refined killing art—concise, efficient, and lethal.

Lei Yi’s staff technique, though technically at the mastery realm, still carried a faint trace of academic rigidity; it was overly ornate and lacked the raw edge of slaughter.

It missed that profound simplicity that could only be distilled through countless brushes with death.

The longer Lei Yi fought, the more his heart sank.

The speed he took such pride in gained him no advantage whatsoever against Qin Feng’s ghostly, logic-defying Traveling Dragon Footwork.

And his tempestuous staff strikes, which possessed enough force to shatter stone monuments, were deflected every single time by his opponent with an exquisite, effortless grace that turned heavy blows to naught.

That long spear, now like a spirit snake darting its tongue, lightly tapped the side of his staff, deflecting his force; now like a giant python turning over, swept across to parry his attack.

No!

Lei Yi's inner alarm bells rang loudly.

His spear technique realm is definitely higher than mine!

Qin Feng's 'Thousand Army Spear' has been at Great Completion for a long time! It's even close to Perfection!

The transitions between moves are smooth and effortless, without any flaw, integrating offense and defense!

His 'Wind Thunder Staff' has only just entered Great Completion; in terms of subtlety of technique, he is completely suppressed by him!

(End of this chapter)