Chapter 232-1: Champion’s Lecture, The Way of Technique (1) |
Upon learning that Phase Kill was about to receive guidance from the Champion Fighter, the number of viewers in the livestream exploded.
Especially the arena players, who flocked in.
With the livestream feature, they could openly follow along and steal techniques. If the Champion Fighter taught one person, it was equivalent to teaching all players.
Many players were already preparing to clip the upcoming training into video segments, save them, and rewatch repeatedly.
For many who loved combat techniques, this was a rare learning opportunity.
Players were all self-taught rogues, and their fighting always lacked system and form.
The vast majority, when facing enemies, would crush with attributes if possible, and never bother to win with technique.
They believed that if you are weak, you go hunting, not that if you are weak, you train more.
Raise Inherited soul levels, star vein levels, body tempering levels, and all kinds of power-boosting indicators, then crush everything easily with a numerical advantage.
Learning combat techniques, in the eyes of this group, was meaningless.
As players, one should push one’s own specialties to the extreme.
When you could apply firepower coverage, choosing to play precision tapping was undoubtedly putting the cart before the horse, so combat techniques were indeed seen as fringe and crooked by players.
Yet there was still a group who felt that improving combat technique could bring a deeper gameplay experience and sense of achievement.
They believed that while relying solely on numerical crushing could win quickly, it robbed the game of challenge.
Winning through technique not only led to better understanding of the game’s mechanics, but also allowed one to display higher operation and adaptability when facing strong enemies.
While raising their upper limit of combat power, they could also better control their extraordinary bodies.
But improving combat technique was not easy.
The only place where players could learn real substance was the Grind Kings’ livestreams.
In the Anti-Tide training camp, professional teaching clips from combat instructors were often edited and posted on the forum.
Every time they drew considerable clicks.
The problem was that this combat knowledge did not apply to all players.
The Anti-Tide Legion was a war legion. Its entire combat system was built around war, not solo duels.
Battle formation systems, charge-breaking systems, siege systems… these were not centered on individuals. The individual had to serve the whole, maximizing the mustered strength through tight coordination.
By stacking 1+1+1… they burst out terrifying power that could fight beyond one’s rank.
Top guilds were indeed learning this system.
But ordinary players just watched the spectacle, and for solo players it was outright useless.
The Champion Fighter’s knowledge, however, was clearly different from the Anti-Tide Legion’s.
Comparing the two.
The Champion Fighter emphasized the individual’s ultimate performance, while the Anti-Tide Legion emphasized overall coordinated combat.
For players of different branches, both systems had value.
But for arena players who yearned to break through themselves in battle, as well as solo players, the Champion Fighter’s instruction could undoubtedly help them step out of their rough, rogue fighting patterns and move to a higher level.
As a pinned comment in the livestream explained:
The Champion Fighter is a warrior who carved his way out of 1v1 duels. All of his combat knowledge necessarily serves the maximization of his own capabilities, fusing technique, physical aptitude, and willpower for ultimate performance.
This was also why Phase Kill’s livestream was so incredibly lively.
Compared to the Anti-Tide Legion’s war system, the combat system shaped by the ancient gods was more suitable for ordinary players.
Amid the expectations of countless players and guests, three hours passed and the teleport finally opened.
In the arena room on the eighth ladder where Phase Kill stood, winding, interlaced spatial spirit patterns surfaced beneath his feet.
With the onset of weightlessness, the environment blurred in Phase Kill’s eyes.
When he appeared again, he was already on the Combat Plaza.
Mist and clouds rolled nearby, as if he stood in the sky. The ground was paved with countless black crystals.
Around the plaza stood several colossal warrior statues, each exuding a biting battle intent.
To the east, a warrior holding a spear stood towering, the spear pointing straight to the heavens as if to pierce the sky. Faint lightning flickered at the tip.
To the west, a warrior statue with a greatsword on his back bowed his head, both hands resting on the hilt. The blade was driven deep into the ground, as if storing up power to cleave forward.
To the south, a bow-drawing warrior had eyes like an eagle. The bowstring was taut, and the arrow seemed ready at any moment to break through the air and pierce all obstacles.
To the north was a warrior holding twin blades, lithe of form, the edges crossing…
White light flashed unceasingly. More and more warriors were teleported in.
Before long, the number on the plaza broke ten thousand.
It was evident that being selected did not mean he had some unique trait. There were many warriors in the arena just like him.
A glance around showed figures of alien warriors of every form.
At that moment, upon a thick stone pillar at the front of the plaza, a figure appeared, standing with arms crossed.
He was nearly three meters tall, with a humanoid body. His dragon-gall blue skin gleamed with a cold luster in the light. Crimson interlaced spirit lines, like burning flames, spread from his shoulders to his arms and finally converged at his chest to form a lifelike, ferocious crimson beast totem.
Different from what he had seen in the video, seeing the Champion Fighter with his own eyes made Phase Kill’s face turn instantly pale.
The blood and qi waves radiating from the Champion Fighter were like a rising sun, bursting with endless heat.
He could even clearly hear the rushing of blood and qi inside the Champion Fighter, as if a roaring river surged within him. The rumble flowed like the tide, and even each breath made the air tremble.
Standing there, he was like a towering primordial mountain that could not be shaken, exuding a terrifying pressure.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Each heartbeat pounded like war drums, making Phase Kill’s ears buzz.
He felt his own blood and qi suddenly surge, rampaging through his meridians.
Feeling the dampness at his nose, he reached up and found he was actually having a nosebleed.
“So damn strong!”
He glanced at the alien warriors around him. They did not look well either.
Mm, that felt better. He was not the only one suffering.
“Body arts are the foundation of killing.”
Just then, the deep, resonant voice of the Champion Fighter sounded directly in Phase Kill’s mind.
Evidently, considering that languages might not align across races, the Champion Fighter chose to teach via spiritual communication.
The Champion Fighter’s voice rang out again, with an unquestionable majesty.
“You may think that strength, speed, and the vigor of blood and qi are the keys that decide victory. This is not wrong. Absolute strength is the key to victory, and all techniques are meaningless under absolute crushing power… but what I want to tell you is that when strength is not far apart, combat technique can let you win from a weaker position. It will be the marked difference between life and death.”
“Then, what is technique?”
The Champion Fighter slowly raised his right hand, palm up, five fingers slightly spread.
With his movement, a mass of blood-colored airflow gathered in his palm, forming a tiny vortex.
The Champion Fighter’s voice was cold as a blade.
“This is a blood-and-qi energy spin.”
With that, his palm flipped sharply, the palm facing down. The tiny energy vortex burst at once, turning into an invisible force that struck the ground.
Boom.
With a muffled thud, the black crystals on the ground did not shatter, but centered on his palm, the ground within several meters sank, forming a perfect circular depression. The edges of the depression were smooth as a mirror, as if precisely cut by some invisible force.
“You generally all have mastered the use of various energies, but how you use them is the key. Condensing the power of blood and qi to a single point, then releasing it with rotation will markedly enhance the energy’s lethality.” The Champion Fighter withdrew his hand, his gaze sweeping the crowd.
“With the same strength, a straight, direct attack might only smash a stone, but if you add rotational technique, you can easily pierce the earth.”
With that, the Champion Fighter’s blood and qi interwove in front of him, displaying a trajectory map of energy rotation.
Phase Kill stared fixedly at the trajectory map, then released the Vital Qi trait.
Following the trajectory of blood and qi, he controlled Vital Qi to spin.
In terms of control, he possessed absolute mastery over Vital Qi. This was one of the players’ ‘plugins.’
Doing so, a Vital Qi vortex surfaced in Phase Kill’s palm. Feeling the rapid flow of Vital Qi, his mood instantly surged with excitement.
Vital Qi was his main combat means, but its lethality in battle varied with how it was used.
What the Champion Fighter taught was how to make one’s own energy more lethal in confrontation.
But with no nearby target to test on, he did not know how much lethality the airflow spin would add.
His doubts were quickly answered in the livestream.
“I’m in the test space. Tested Vital Qi direct release versus release following the Champion Fighter’s rotation trajectory. The damage actually differed by more than double. Insane.”
“Field test. What he’s teaching is real stuff. Lethality skyrockets. Facts prove technique is truly useful. It lets us take mastery of our Inherited soul traits up a level.”
“I learned it wrong, I learned it wrong. Give us more. Hungry for knowledge.”
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