Chapter 677: Liu Yuan’s Victory

Xiahou Zhenghong frowned slightly. He was a traditional swordmaster who, aside from mastering sword techniques, had only learned a few elemental powers. Now, as the head of the Xiahou family in the Virtual Realm, his cultivation level was at the peak of the Half-True Realm. Even so, he dared to focus solely on swordsmanship in martial arts.

Ye Feng’s extraordinary talent amazed Xiahou Zhenghong as well, but his overly ambitious aspirations really displeased him. It wasn’t because Ye Feng wanted other martial arts powers that worried him—it was because he felt the young man was unrealistic. After all, mastering martial arts powers was extremely difficult, and achieving mastery was even harder. With his talent, he had only successfully integrated eight out of nine sword techniques by now. Attempting to master two completely different martial arts powers at the same time would undoubtedly ruin his prospects.

“Elder, if you don’t have them, then forget it!” Seeing Xiahou Zhenghong’s uncertain expression, Ye Feng assumed the elder couldn’t answer because he didn’t possess other martial arts powers, so he quickly found an out for himself.

Hearing Ye Feng’s question, Xiahou Zhenghong returned to reality and asked seriously, “Why do you want other martial arts powers?”

“I plan to master three types of martial arts powers: swordsmanship, sword-and-swordsmanship, and general martial arts. So far, I’ve mastered eight sword techniques, seven sword-and-swordsmanship techniques, and only four general martial arts techniques. So I plan to focus on swordsmanship and sword-and-swordsmanship first, delaying the general martial arts path for now,” Ye Feng explained.

“You want to master three martial arts powers?!” Xiahou Zhenghong’s eyes widened further.

“Yeah, that’s right!” Ye Feng nodded, looking at Xiahou Zhenghong with confusion. He didn’t understand why the elder reacted so strongly.

“Do you realize that each martial arts power is extremely difficult to master?” Xiahou Zhenghong warned. “I’ve spent my entire life on it, yet I still haven’t mastered all nine sword techniques. If you choose all three paths—swordsmanship, sword-and-swordsmanship, and general martial arts—at the same time, have you thought about wasting endless effort without achieving anything?”

“I haven’t thought about it. I just feel like I don’t want to give up any of these three paths, so I’ll just master them all at once. As for the outcome, it’s not something I need to worry about now. If things go wrong, I can switch to one of them later,” Ye Feng replied without hesitation.

“Sigh…” Seeing that persuasion was useless, Xiahou Zhenghong shook his head helplessly and said, “Alright, I have the Yellow Spring Sword Dao Divine Ability, which is the rarest among all sword dao divine abilities. Of the two sword dao divine abilities you lack, this one should be what you need, right?”
Ye Feng was overjoyed upon hearing this. “Elder, this Yellow Spring Sword Dao Divine Ability is extremely rare. I had been worrying about how to find it in the future. Today, you’ve truly come to my rescue!”
“Take it!” Xiahou Zhenghong still shook his head as he handed the sword dao divine ability to Ye Feng. “You’re cultivating three different great paths at the same time. If you encounter any obstacles in your progress, switch to one of them immediately. Don’t waste time.”
“I understand, elder! Thank you for your concern.” Although Ye Feng said this, he didn’t take Xiahou Zhenghong’s words to heart. He had the privilege of comprehension, giving him an endless advantage over others in cultivation. He wasn’t worried at all about understanding and integrating various divine abilities.
With this deal, Ye Feng had reaped a huge benefit. He was just one more divine ability away from mastering both sword dao and swordsmanship dao abilities, and he had already found the two most difficult ones to locate. The remaining two could be easily purchased in the Virtual Realm with a little financial investment, which put Ye Feng at ease.
Back at the competition site, the quarterfinals were nearing their end. Liu Yuan’s match was still ongoing.
On the arena, Liu Yuan kept dodging, seemingly without any ability to counterattack. His dodging style also appeared rather awkward. Although more than half an hour had passed since the match started, with several cuts on his sleeves and robe, he still seemed lively, indicating that his injuries didn’t seem to affect his physical condition.
The crowd waited patiently. The match had already lasted for over three hours. All other matches on the arenas had ended, except for the one on arena number seven.
From start to finish, Liu Yuan hadn’t attacked once; he had only been dodging. With his strange movement patterns and posture, the number of cuts on his clothes kept increasing, yet not a single attack had managed to harm him.
In fact, his opponent had also become smarter. He had paid attention to Liu Yuan, who seemed to be cheating, and watched his matches over and over. He noticed that Liu Yuan’s opponents only encountered problems after making physical contact with him. So, he decided not to touch him anymore.
While dodging, Liu Yuan also tried to get closer to his opponent, but was always driven away, resulting in the stalemate continuing to this day.

“Beauty, have you discovered anything?” Ye Feng sent a message to Pearl.
“Nothing. This guy named Liu Yuan has been dodging the whole time, never making a move of his own. If I could figure out his background just like this, I’d be a genius,” Pearl said with a laugh. “But his movement style is quite strange. Though it seems unstructured, it always manages to get him out of trouble. So far, he’s only had his clothes slightly torn—his opponent hasn’t caused him any real harm at all.”
“Your observation skills are getting better and better!” Ye Feng replied with a smile through the message.
Liu Yuan’s match continued, and as time passed, many of the spectators below grew impatient.
Many in the crowd were cursing Liu Yuan, “What a luck-dependent guy! He doesn’t even have the strength to fight back.”
“If you’re not good enough, don’t come and embarrass yourself!”
“He only knows how to dodge. Is that what a man does?”
“If this goes on, there won’t be a result even by tomorrow morning…”
…
Most of those curses were aimed at Liu Yuan, as it was after all his actions that made the match drag on endlessly. If every match were as exciting as Ye Feng’s, the spectators would surely enjoy watching them. But this match had absolutely no entertainment value, no wonder the audience was full of complaints.
“The limited time for each daily match is four hours. If no winner is determined after four hours, it’s considered a draw,” the chief referee finally spoke up. “A draw means both fighters are eliminated. So, please hurry up and finish this match.”
At these words, the audience below cheered.
Liu Yuan was also stunned. After hearing this, he finally changed his direction of dodging and stepped closer to his opponent, even risking injury to finally touch the other person’s body.
After that touch, the opponent suddenly knelt on the ground, crying bitterly while holding his head, slamming his head violently against the ring floor, ignoring Liu Yuan standing nearby.
The referee seemed unimpressed and immediately declared Liu Yuan the winner, making the scene even more baffling.