139: Chapter 139 One punch, one kill!

Master Mage Chen Taixu opened his eyes. This time, he did not close them again.

He stood up, brushed off the non-existent dust from his Taoist robe, and unslung the wooden sword from his back, gripping it in his left hand. His right hand remained empty.

Standing in the center of the arena, the wind gently lifted the hem of his washed-out, pale Taoist robe, revealing a pair of old cloth shoes stained with grass clippings.

Thunder God Xiao Juehan's mechanical arm erupted with a row of silver-white high-voltage arcs.

He rotated his shoulder, and his mechanical joints emitted a clacking sound of metal colliding. With every engagement of the joints, a ring of electrical shockwaves spread from beneath his feet, pushing the dust on the arena floor into a radial pattern centered on him.

"It's finally my turn."

He grinned. The excitement in that smile outweighed the killing intent; it was more like a weapon that had been locked in a laboratory for four full years finally being authorized to fire.

Chief Commentator Lu Ming raised his right arm.

"Countdown—three! Two! One!"

He brought his arm down.

"Begin!!"

Thunder God Xiao Juehan's left arm exploded before the word "Begin" had even landed. It exploded, quite literally.

That mechanical arm, constructed from a silver-white alloy skeleton, burst apart entirely from the shoulder joint, with every metal fiber bundle releasing maximum power current simultaneously. Silver-white arcs gushed out from his body, condensing around him into a giant thunder beast made of pure plasma.

In a fraction of a second, the thunder beast expanded to over ten meters in height. Its fangs and sharp claws were all formed from high-voltage arcs, and every movement left melted scorch marks on the ground.

"Overlord—Charge!!"

Thunder God Xiao Juehan's roar was swallowed by the thunderstorm he had triggered himself.

He transformed into a silver-white pillar of electricity several meters in diameter, hurtling in a straight line toward Master Mage Chen Taixu at an utterly unreasonable speed. The thunder beast's four giant claws trampled on the arena, melting the tiles into magma with every step, and all the air along the path was ionized into a pale blue plasma state.

This was Thunder God Xiao Juehan's trump card. No flashy changes in direction, no unnecessary wind-up; just a pure linear charge combined with the full output of the Star-Annihilating Core. Within the same rank, no defensive skill could withstand this move head-on.

Master Mage Chen Taixu raised his right hand. Just one hand.

He was still gripping the wooden sword in his left, not even turning the blade. He naturally spread the five fingers of his right hand, his palm facing the rapidly approaching silver-white pillar of destruction.

Wind.

An extremely gentle breeze, almost like the kind that brushes across a wheat field on a spring afternoon, blew out from his palm.

Then, that wind met Thunder God Xiao Juehan's charging path.

And that charging path—that plasma thunder beast driven by the full power of the Star-Annihilating Core, with a temperature reaching tens of thousands of degrees, capable of piercing straight through an entire mountain—shattered.

Starting from the very front of the charging path, like a pane of glass struck by a heavy hammer, it shattered layer by layer into silver-white points of light filling the sky. The thunder beast's four legs shattered in mid-air, its fangs shattered within the inertia of the charge, and every metal fiber bundle on Thunder God Xiao Juehan's mechanical arm let out a mournful cry as it reached its limit under the wind pressure.

"—What?!"

Thunder God Xiao Juehan's pupils shrank to the size of needle points. His brain hadn't even finished processing the information—which completely defied the laws of physics—that "his own charging path had been shattered head-on by a gust of wind," when Master Mage Chen Taixu had already arrived.

No one saw how he moved.

They only saw him appear in front of Thunder God Xiao Juehan. His right hand still maintained that open-fingered posture, his palm gently pressing against Thunder God Xiao Juehan's chest.

Then, he pushed.

Bang—!!

Thunder God Xiao Juehan was sent flying straight off the arena like a stone shot from a slingshot. His back slammed into the energy barrier at the edge of the arena, the impact so great that the transparent light wall, powered by a high-level defensive array, directly dented into a hemispherical depression. His mechanical arm was still hung with a few lingering wisps of electricity, his body embedded in the light wall, his eyes rolled back, and a small trickle of blood foam spilled from his mouth.

Instant kill.

Chief Commentator Lu Ming's hand holding the microphone was shaking. He had been the chief commentator for three National Competition seasons and had commentated on thousands of arena matches. He had seen suppression, but he had never seen suppression like this.

"—Master Mage Chen Taixu! Master Mage Chen Taixu only used one strike! One strike!!"

The entire audience stood up in unison.

Their bodies stood up on their own—their brains hadn't finished digesting the scene just now, but their spines had reacted first.

"Wind!! He used wind!! The lowest-tier basic element!! He broke a thunderstorm charge driven by a Star-Annihilating Core!!"

"He pierced through all of Thunder God Xiao Juehan's defenses in one strike!!"

"Mystic Shadow!! Mystic Shadow!!"

Master Mage Chen Taixu withdrew his hand. He looked down at his palm and blew away a trace of electricity clinging to it. Then, he slung the wooden sword back onto his back, walked back to the center of the arena, sat cross-legged, and closed his eyes.

It was the exact same posture as before. It was as if that crushing victory just now was merely a noise that shouldn't have occurred, not worth wasting a single expression on.

When the medical team pried Thunder God Xiao Juehan off the light wall and carried him away, his Star-Annihilating Core was still emitting a faint crackling sound of electricity. Like a bug that had been squashed but was still kicking its legs.

The chat stream completely lost its sanity.

[One strike!! One strike!!]

[Thunder God Xiao Juehan is a strategic weapon of the military!! Gone in one strike?!]

[Master Mage Chen Taixu didn't use his left hand from start to finish!! The wooden sword is still on his back!!]

[Is this the gold content of the Stand System that has been lost for four hundred years?]

[The gold content of the Dao Sect's true inheritance is hard to say, but what's up with that wind?? Mental Power directly converting elements??]

[Forget about Tier 4, this shit is overpowered even for Tier 6]

[I'm really worried about Qin Ye now, if she runs into Master Mage Chen Taixu—]

The first chat comment worrying about Qin Ye had just floated past.

The light screen above the arena jumped to the next match-up list. Chief Commentator Lu Ming glanced down at the teleprompter, and then that face of his, which had finally regained its professional smile, once again showed an irrepressible excitement that had already appeared many times today.

"First Stage, Second Round—Qin Ye, versus, Sword Ghost, Luo Xinghan!"

A spotlight hit the other end of the arena.

It was a teenager, eighteen or nineteen years old, The Skinny Tall Guy, with several layers of old bandages wrapped around his wrists, and a school uniform jacket tied around his waist. His right hand gripped a tower-shield-style giant sword that contrasted sharply with his size—the blade was wider than his shoulders, and the surface was engraved with dense spatial storage array patterns. The scabbard hung at his waist, its opening slightly agape, like the throat of some slumbering beast.

Chief Commentator Lu Ming flipped through the data cards and quickly warmed up the crowd: "Contestant Luo Xinghan, Chief of the Sword Arts Department at the Imperial Central Military Academy, equipped with the Tier 7 Mimicry Greatsword, Moon-Eater. This sword can freely switch between four forms—greatsword, dual blades, long whip, and chain—in 0.5-second intervals during combat—it is a quite mature transforming Armament Card!"

Luo Xinghan slammed the giant sword onto the ground. The tip of the sword embedded deeply into the arena tiles, and he used this support to tilt his neck, his cervical spine emitting a crisp click.

Then he lifted his eyes. In those eyes hidden behind his messy hair, there was no contempt, only a kind of fighting spirit so calm it was almost devout.

"Qin Ye. I know you haven't used your Stand System yet, don't hide it—show it."

Qin Ye stood at the other end of the arena. She untied the last little knot of lace on her skirt, letting the entire hem hang naturally down to her knees. The dark gold gear pattern on the back of her hand rotated once.

She lifted her eyelids and glanced at Luo Xinghan.

"No need."

Three words.

The tone was as flat as if she were talking about the cafeteria menu for the day.

Luo Xinghan's eyebrows twitched: "What do you mean?"

Qin Ye let go of her skirt. She took half a step forward with her right foot, slightly bent her knees, lowered her center of gravity, and opened her hands, one in front and one behind. Her fingers were naturally separated, fingertips pointing down, palms cupped empty. It wasn't a Magical Girl starting stance, not a Stand user's pose—it was the nameless fighting stance she had used countless times in the cages of the underground gladiatorial arenas.

"Fists and kicks are enough."

The whole arena was silent for a fraction of a second.

Then, the audience erupted!