81: Chapter 81 Glimpse

Where the thought pointed, the Rainbow Needle tore through the air, emitting a sharp, ear-splitting screech that ripped through the lock of the will. Its sharpness ignored the vast majority of energy and physical defenses, possessing terrifying and unparalleled penetration.

This stance emphasizes 'Penetration' and 'Sharpness.' It is the ultimate embodiment of the 'Point,' specifically created to break through all manner of tangible and intangible obstacles, piercing hard metal and stubborn rock as easily as passing through rotten soil. (Focus: Armor Piercing / Point Penetration)

【Flowing Rainbow Three Forms - Shou Que Style】:

The saber moves are circular and continuous. The seven-colored flowing light no longer radiates outward but instead spins and interweaves rapidly around the wielder, instantly forming a massive, inwardly spiraling vortex of glazed rainbow light.

The core of the vortex is deep and stable. All attacks that touch the edge of the vortex, whether energy blasts or physical weapons, are either deflected by the continuously flowing and ever-changing power of the rainbow light, decomposed and worn away layer by layer, or their force is delayed and eroded.

This stance emphasizes 'Defense' and 'Rotation.' It is an absolute defensive technique, embedding defense within movement, striving for flawless coverage and creating its own self-contained world. (Focus: Absolute Defense)

【Flowing Rainbow Four Forms - Overlapping Waves Style】:

The Intent suddenly turns heavy! With every strike, the saber light is not a single beam, but like seven heavy hammer images, each possessing a different color and containing a different attribute of force, continuously overlapping in an extremely short span of time!

One Saber, Seven Layers of Force! The flowing rainbow light that stirs the heavens pours down like a waterfall from the Nine Heavens, crashing down like a collapsing mountain.

Each superimposed phantom contains substantial, immense power and condensed Saber Intent explosive force. The seven layers of force overlap and resonate, causing the power to multiply geometrically!

This stance emphasizes 'Heaviness' and 'Explosion.' It is the ultimate venting of power, capable of destroying cities and shattering armor, unstoppable in momentum. (Focus: Ultimate Power / Explosion)

【Flowing Rainbow Five Forms - Lueying Style】:

As soon as this stance manifests, it is pure to the extreme! All variations and colorful illusions are discarded, leaving only a single, almost transparent, pale white 'Light' that tears through time and space!

It is so fast that thought freezes! The moment the saber moves is the result! The blade has already struck as the thought activates, as if ignoring the distance and process in between, leaving only the trajectory representing the end and the cold after-effect.

This is the ultimate Peak of speed, absolute swiftness! It is the tyrannical slicing of the time dimension!

Li Wen unhesitatingly locked onto this very stance—the speed he pursued deep in his bones resonated most strongly with this Blade Technique on this point.

The Virtual Mentor's voice, like carving characters onto a blade, deeply imprinted every complex, breath-taking piece of information—the core Profound Truth of each stance, the key points for visualization, the secrets of force manipulation, the nodes for Qi and blood circulation—into the depths of Li Wen's consciousness.

Every detail was like a searing hot iron, clear and burning, accompanied by the violent consumption of Mental Energy.

By the time Li Wen completely understood the entire information model of the 'Lueying Style,' an entire hour had quietly slipped away.

It was fortunate he possessed the Scholar's passive 'One Proof, Eternal Proof'; otherwise, learning everything in an hour would have been a foolish fantasy.

The fatigue from extreme mental exhaustion surged in like a tide, causing his temples to throb slightly.

But there was not a trace of listlessness in his eyes; instead, they seemed tempered by this pure 'Truth of Speed,' sharp as the stars on a cold night.

"Haste makes waste. Any powerful technique must ultimately be tempered by flesh and blood to become instinct. The virtual world is a sea of knowledge, but it is not the anvil for grinding a blade. Remember this."

The Virtual Mentor sheathed his blade and stood still, his figure gradually fading, the echo of his voice lingering.

Li Wen took a deep breath, bowed slightly, and thanked the mentor for the guidance.

He understood that the virtual world was only suitable for learning the principles; true practice had to be completed within flesh, bone, and repeated life-or-death struggles.

To grasp everything now would only lead to superficial understanding.

He decisively abandoned the impulse to immediately comprehend the other four forms, focusing only on engraving the 'Lueying'—which concerned the ultimate of speed—into his heart.

In the turning of a thought, that tranquil world of scrolls quietly vanished.

Fourteenth Floor of Kindling Hall, Li Wen's exclusive independent Martial Arts room.

The magnificent shock of the virtual space and the profound Profound Truths of the Saber Intent Realm still churned in his mind, but that was ultimately the transmission of knowledge, not the mastery of flesh and blood.

The Virtual Mentor's words, "Haste makes waste," rang like an alarm bell in his mind.

"True mastery still requires practical tempering—" Li Wen murmured to himself, his gaze sweeping over the markings on one side of the Martial Arts room: 【High-Intensity Multi-functional Training Area】.

This area occupied a significant portion of the Martial Arts room. The floor was paved with specialized deep-gray energy-absorbing alloy plates, and the walls were inlaid with complex energy constraint field generators.

The air seemed more stagnant than elsewhere; it was a special atmosphere woven from gravity fields of different frequencies and intensities, mingled with environmental simulation energy.

He walked to the control panel in the center of the area and tapped a few times with his fingertip.

A ring of pale blue energy indicator lights illuminated around the area. The entire space seemed instantly enveloped by an invisible barrier, isolating external interference and leaving only a pure, stable training environment.

Li Wen slowly drew the standard fast saber from the weapon rack, but under the enhancement of his Primordial Spirit, it now carried the exploration of the 'Dao.'

He closed his eyes, letting the secrets of the 'Flowing Rainbow Startling Magpie Chapter,' especially the 'Lueying Style' concerning pure speed and Intent leading the way, flow through his mind.

"Intent rises, the rainbow light is already at the destination—the strike is the result—"

Thought moved Qi and blood!

Buzz! The jade-like Primordial Spirit in his Sea of Consciousness emitted a faint glow, like a cold core, instantly condensing Li Wen's will to a high degree.

【Absolute Focus】 activated silently.

The world instantly slowed down and sharpened in his perception.

The trajectory of floating air dust, the minute texture of the alloy plate under his feet—everything was rendered with perfect clarity by the Primordial Spirit.

He attempted to mobilize his Qi and blood, making them circulate along the complex, exquisite, and even somewhat counter-intuitive path of the 'Lueying Style,' while simultaneously guiding the power nodes of his entire muscle fiber with his wrist in a barely perceptible but extremely high-frequency vibrating manner, attempting to converge it onto a single point at the blade's edge!

First attempt—the muscles in his arm violently twitched!

The blade edge only emitted a short, faint 'hiss,' like hot metal slicing through cold water; it failed to leave even a clear trace of saber light.

The backlash force caused sharp pain in his wrist, Qi and blood violently congested at several key nodes, and a wave of oppression swept his chest.

Reason for failure: The Primordial Spirit scan clearly fed back—the waist and back twisting power generation was not synchronized with the arm and wrist movement. The shoulder stiffened for 0.01 seconds at the moment of drawing the blade, interrupting the chain of force transmission.

The Intent moved first, but the body failed to respond instantly.

"A hair's breadth difference leads to a thousand miles astray—"

Li Wen took a deep breath. The coldness of the Primordial Spirit suppressed the physical pain, allowing him to clearly dissect every minute error node.

He adjusted his posture and focused again.

Tenth attempt—the saber light was slightly faster than the previous few tries, and a very faint white phantom could be vaguely seen lingering for one ten-thousandth of a second.

But immediately, the blade body began to vibrate, emitting a 'humming' mournful sound, as if it could not withstand the imposed speed and force.

The counter-shock force spread along his arm, causing his entire right arm to go slightly numb.

Reason for failure: The Qi and blood burst nodes were precise, but the Primordial Spirit control power was over-consumed suppressing the blade's counter-vibration, causing a slight delay in the subsequent Intent guidance. It failed to maintain that will's sharpness for 'extreme penetration.' Speed had taken shape, but the Intent failed to carry through to the end.

Sweat had already soaked Li Wen's training uniform, and the veins on his forehead were slightly bulging.

Every full exertion of the 'Lueying Style' prototype placed a huge burden on the body. The violent surge of Qi and blood, the twisting explosion of muscles, and the extreme scheduling of nerves all brought tearing pain.

More critically, the consumption of Primordial Spirit power under the state of 'Absolute Focus' was like opening a water pump to draw from the lake of the Sea of Consciousness.

But the sharpness in his eyes grew stronger. The closer the attempt was to the limit, the more tempting the ultimate thrill of 'the strike is the result' became.

The result of failure was precisely captured, disassembled, and optimized by the Primordial Spirit; each time brought him a fraction closer to success.

He adjusted his breathing, letting 'Absolute Focus' temper his will like a cold furnace.

He no longer pursued the smooth continuity of the entire saber move, but locked all his concentration onto the 'initial instant' of drawing the blade—how the thought transformed into an action signal at a speed exceeding the limit, how Qi and blood erupted along the optimal route within one-hundredth of a breath, and how the power converged to the truly 'unbladed' point just before the blade was about to move.

Twentieth attempt—thirtieth attempt—

Li Wen's movements grew faster, the lingering white phantom of the saber light grew clearer, and the duration it remained extended slightly for an instant.

But his face grew paler, and the jade-like Primordial Spirit light in his Sea of Consciousness had dimmed by more than half. The world under the 'Absolute Focus' state seemed covered by a thin mist, and the level of detail began to decline.

He knew his Mental Energy was about to run out.

"Limit—on the verge of a Breakthrough—" a thought flashed through his mind.

He suppressed the dual fatigue of spirit and body, a fierce glint flashing in his eyes, deciding to gamble with all his remaining power.

Buzz!!! The jade-like Primordial Spirit suddenly contracted in the depths of his Sea of Consciousness, burning out almost the last trace of light, like a star erupting with the most intense radiance before collapsing!

【Absolute Focus】 power at maximum!

In this instant, the perception of external time and space completely solidified.

The faint constant temperature airflow in the training room, the trajectory of his own tiny sweat droplet falling onto the floor, even the subtle particle fluctuations generated by the blade's vibration—

Everything seemed frozen in an ultra-high-definition, infinitely slowed-down film reel.

"Now—Lueying!!!"

A silent roar exploded in his heart!

Intent, Qi and blood, and the extreme vibration of muscle fibers achieved unprecedented, perfect synchronization under the absolute command of the burning Primordial Spirit.

There was no dazzling seven-colored light, no earth-shattering energy explosion.

Only a single streak of pure, absolute white!

This white streak detached from the blade itself, seeming to materialize out of thin air ahead of the trajectory extended by Li Wen's wrist movement.

Fast! Beyond the limit of visual capture!

Before Li Wen's Intent was fully conveyed, that pure white mark had already traversed five meters to strike a piece of special high-strength alloy block, about a foot thick, intentionally placed as a test target.

Sssshhh—!!!

The sound seemed to be stripped away. The air only managed to emit a dull explosion, like cloth being ripped to its absolute limit, after this white mark had swept past.

Sharp! Brief!

Immediately following, a long, straight white line of turbulent air, resembling a path cut by a high-temperature laser, violently burst open.

This was the sight of the air explosion as the vacuum channel left by the high-speed object breaking the sound barrier was instantly filled.

The intense sonic boom then fiercely impacted the surrounding energy barriers, producing a muffled echo.

Turning his gaze to the test alloy block—amidst the lingering sound of the piercing sonic boom—it appeared as if it had never been touched, its surface as smooth as before.

Plink—Plink——

Two drops of sweat slid down Li Wen's taut jaw and dripped onto the alloy floor, making a crisp, light sound.