87: Chapter 87 Eight Steps to Catch the Cicada, a Cure for All Fancy and Superficial Things

A cyan streak of light traced a long trajectory across the arena.

Su Feng truly had the capital to be arrogant.

His speed was ridiculously fast; the naked eye of an ordinary person could only catch a few blurry shadows.

The wind pressure around the arena suddenly increased; it was the disturbance of air currents caused by his high-speed movement.

"Too slow."

Su Feng's voice came from all directions, shifting left and right, making it impossible to pinpoint his location.

"I've already run around you three times, and you haven't even turned your head?"

Lin Qi stood in the center of the arena, his feet planted on the ground like nails, the heavy sword still strapped to his back, with no intention of drawing it whatsoever.

His eyelids were half-drooped, and his gaze did not follow the flitting shadows, but instead stared vaguely at a certain point in front of him.

Chasing after shadows was something only a fool would do.

He was listening.

The rustling sound of shoe soles rubbing against the ground, the whistling sound of his robes tearing through the air, and even the sound of Su Feng's rapid breathing as he caught his breath.

For a former Martial Saint, the spatial model constructed by these sounds was more real than what the eyes could see.

"Stop playing games!"

Seeing Lin Qi unmoved, Su Feng felt a bit annoyed.

He suddenly stopped thirty meters to the rear left of Lin Qi and waved his staff.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Three cyan wind blades shot out in a triangular formation.

These wind blades were not ordinary physical attacks; they were enchanted with [Slow] and [Knockback] effects.

As long as they grazed the skin, movement speed would be forcibly reduced by 30%.

For a warrior without displacement skills, this was simply the beginning of a nightmare.

Zhang Wei in the stands grabbed the railing nervously.

"Brother Qi! Rear left!"

Lin Qi did not turn his head.

Just as the wind blades were about to strike, his upper body suddenly swayed to the right in an eerie way, like a roly-poly toy.

The amplitude was extremely small, just enough to dodge the topmost wind blade.

Immediately following that, he raised his left arm, and the metal plates on his bracer met the two wind blades below.

Clang! Clang!

Sparks flew.

The wind blades exploded, turning into a cluster of turbulent air currents.

Borrowing this impact force, Lin Qi pivoted on his heel, his body spinning back to center like a top, and while he was at it, adjusted his orientation to face exactly where Su Feng had landed.

Unscathed.

"Pretty lucky, huh."

Su Feng sneered and his figure disappeared once again.

This time he learned his lesson, no longer pausing, but releasing skills while moving at high speed.

Dense wind blades poured down like a rainstorm.

The arena was filled with the shrieking sound of wind blades cutting through the air.

Lin Qi's maneuvering space was rapidly being compressed.

He no longer blocked head-on; the footwork beneath him became small and erratic.

Sliding half a step to the left, turning his body to the right, lowering his head, lifting his leg.

Every movement was refined to the extreme, without any superfluous flair.

It was like dancing on the tip of a knife; although it looked perilous, every single time he was able to avoid vital spots by a hair's breadth.

Although disheveled, he had not collapsed.

In the VIP box, Li Shaobai swirled the red wine glass in his hand and gave a soft huff.

"Is this what they call a Body Cultivator? Just a living target that can only take a beating."

The lackey beside him quickly chimed in: "Young Master is right, this Lin Qi is just relying on his strength to bully the slow and heavy type like Lei Meng."

"When encountering an agility-build like Su Feng, he can't even touch the corner of his clothes, and he'll be kited to death sooner or later."

"This is the suppression of Rank and class." Li Shaobai took a sip of wine, "Without long-range methods, without displacement skills, just relying on running with two legs, he'll never catch up to Su Feng even if he runs himself to death."

On the arena, the situation was indeed as Li Shaobai said, presenting a one-sided trend.

Su Feng fought more and more smoothly.

He was like a cat playing with a mouse, tossing out a skill every now and then to annoy Lin Qi, watching the other party struggle in the rain of wind blades.

"How is it? This doesn't feel good, right?"

Su Feng laughed loudly, his figure flickering to Lin Qi's right side again, "Admit defeat, as long as you call me Brother Feng, I'll let you off the hook."

Lin Qi ignored him.

He was counting.

"One, two, three..."

Lin Qi's gaze remained calm as water; he was waiting for an opportunity.

Su Feng's fighting style seemed erratic, but in reality, it had extremely strong regularity.

Everyone has habits, this is what is called muscle memory.

For ordinary players, this is proficiency.

But in the eyes of a Martial Saint, this is a fatal flaw.

Every time Su Feng finished a round of high-frequency wind blade suppression, he would subconsciously slide-step to the left to adjust his center of gravity, which had been offset by the casting motion.

This movement was very subtle, and very fast.

There was only a 0.5-second stiffness period.

For most people, they couldn't react to this 0.5 seconds at all, and couldn't even catch it.

But for Lin Qi, this was practically telling him: come and hit me.

Three more wind blades came whistling in.

The light on the staff in Su Feng's hand dimmed; the old force was spent.

Just at this moment.

Su Feng's left foot indeed stepped out to the left.

"Right now."

Lin Qi's figure, which had been dodging, suddenly froze.

That transition from extreme motion to absolute stillness caused a sense of visual confusion.

Boom!

The arena's specially made alloy floor emitted an unbearable groan.

The ground beneath Lin Qi's feet exploded into a circle of spiderweb-like cracks.

This wasn't some skill effect, but purely the reaction force generated by the explosive power of his muscles reaching its limit.

Eight-Step Cicada Chase!

This was the ancient martial arts movement technique with the strongest explosive power for a straight-line advance.

Without the support of Internal Energy, Lin Qi was purely overdrawing the explosive power of his leg muscles.

But he didn't care.

Taking this step, his whole body was like a cannonball fired from its chamber, the gust of wind he brought with him even dispersed the remaining wind elements in the vicinity.

The five-meter distance vanished in the blink of an eye.

Lin Qi, who had been thirty meters away just a moment ago, instantly closed the distance by a large margin.

The smile on Su Feng's face froze.

He didn't expect that Lin Qi, who had been passively taking a beating like a turtle just a moment ago, had suddenly turned into a hunting leopard.

This was too fast!

"Not good!"

Su Feng instinctively wanted to retreat.

But his left foot, which he had just stepped out, hadn't landed yet, and his center of gravity hadn't been adjusted.

This retreat not only failed to open up distance, but instead caused him to stumble.

Just in the time it took him to adjust his center of gravity, Lin Qi took the second step.

Thud!

Another muffled sound.

Lin Qi's figure surged forward again, and the overwhelming pressure that rushed toward him made Su Feng feel suffocated.

He could even see the bulging veins on Lin Qi's forehead.

The distance was only ten meters left!

This was already the kill range for a melee class.

"Get lost!"

Su Feng panicked, unable to care about adjusting his posture, waving his staff wildly.

A cyan wind wall rose out of thin air, standing between the two.

This was his life-saving skill [Wind Barrier], which could deflect all physical collisions.

"Let's see how you crash into this!" Su Feng shrieked.

Lin Qi looked at the whistling wind wall in front of him, his eyes without a trace of fluctuation.

At this time, slowing down was courting death.

Since you want to block it, then I'll tear down the wall along with you.