140: Chapter 140 Fighting the Sword Demon Barehanded!

"Fists and kicks?! She's going to fight the Sword Ghost barehanded?!"

"Luo Xinghan's Moon Eater can cleave through Tier 6 magical beasts!! She doesn't even have Tier 1 skirt armor!!"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. Su Bai's Stand System doesn't use armor to begin with—she said at the testing grounds last time that Stands don't have armor—"

"A Stand is at least an independent combat spirit!! What are fists and kicks supposed to do?? She's not even using a Weapon Card??"

"Is she hiding her moves? She's definitely hiding her moves, right?"

"Or maybe the Stand System isn't as strong as she claimed... so she's just not using it to avoid embarrassment?"

"You in front, you're overthinking it. When has anything Su Bai brought out ever been weak?"

"What does the Magical Girl being strong have to do with the Stand? What if this system just flops?"

"If it flops, she uses fists and kicks to fight the Sword Ghost?? Wouldn't that cause it to flop even faster??"

In the VIP box.

Zhao Dahai leaned over the railing, sweat rolling down his forehead in beads: "Su Bai... is Qin Ye planning to fight barehanded?? She was indeed barehanded when she took down that burly man in the Underground Coliseum before—but that was a Tier 3 small fry! Luo Xinghan is at the peak of Tier 4 with a Tier 7 B-grade Mimicry Heavy Sword! This is not the same!"

Su Bai pulled the lollipop out of his mouth: "When have you ever seen Qin Ye do something she wasn't sure about?"

Zhao Dahai opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again: "...I guess not."

"Then that settles it."

On the arena.

Luo Xinghan stared at Qin Ye for a long time. Then, he raised the greatsword, holding it level in front of his chest, and pressed his left hand onto the transformation trigger at the end of the hilt.

"In that case," his voice was very low, "pardon me."

The greatsword exploded in his palm.

It wasn't an explosion, but a transformation. The heavy blade instantly split into hundreds of extremely thin silver chains, each tipped with a palm-sized diamond-shaped blade. The chains twisted frantically in the air like living snakes, and the blades encircled Qin Ye from all directions simultaneously.

This was the second form of the Moon Eater—Chain Array. It was an omnidirectional blockade net woven from hundreds of chain blades. While the lethality of a single blade was inferior to the greatsword form, the attack angle and density increased by more than an order of magnitude. Once an opponent of the same tier was entangled by the chains for even half a second, the blades would pierce their vital points from all directions simultaneously.

Qin Ye didn't wait for the chains to wrap around her.

She moved.

She pushed off the ground with the tips of her toes, her entire body shooting forward like a steel ball fired from a slingshot, crashing straight into the densest area of the chains. A dozen chains tightened simultaneously, the blades grazing past her back and shoulders—at the very last second, she tilted her head half an inch, letting the chain that should have strangled her neck slide past her earlobe.

Then she grabbed the end of one of the chain blades.

Luo Xinghan's pupils contracted. He instinctively pulled the chain, trying to throw her off balance—but her body twisted in mid-air at an angle that completely defied human biomechanics, charging straight down toward Luo Xinghan, following the pull of the chain.

Right fist. Clenched.

The knuckles of her four fingers were aligned, with her thumb pressed against the second knuckle of her middle finger. This fist posture looked ordinary, but Su Bai twitched his eyebrows in the viewing Stand—Qin Ye's finger bones had been broken too many times in the Underground Coliseum, so she was accustomed to using her thumb to cushion the most fragile middle finger. This detail was likely something only he noticed.

"— — Tiger Strike."

Qin Ye's voice crashed down from mid-air, as light as a breath.

Then her fist landed.

At the very last moment, Luo Xinghan blocked in front of him with the broad blade of his right arm, instinctively activating the Moon Eater's blade surface defense array—then Qin Ye's fist slammed into the blade surface.

Clang—!!!

The crisp sound of metal colliding exploded, and the defensive array pattern was shattered directly by physical force. The defensive array on the broad blade's surface shattered into countless points of light like glass crushed by a boulder, the fist passing through the fragments, through the metal body of the blade—the greatsword snapped in two right down the middle—and then the fist slammed into Luo Xinghan's face.

Luo Xinghan flew backward. The broken sword flipped a few times in mid-air, the tip pointing straight down as it embedded itself into the floor tiles at the edge of the arena. His back slammed into the energy barrier, the impact so great that the light wall exploded into ripples like water spreading out from him. His eyes rolled back, his chin stained with skin debris scraped off by the wind of the punch, and his whole body slowly slid down along the light wall, collapsing at the edge of the arena.

The silence lasted for less than a fraction of a second.

Then, all the spectators in the arena seemed to be struck by an electric current, springing up in unison.

"Tiger Strike!! She said Tiger Strike!! She broke the Moon Eater with one punch!!"

"A Tier 7 B-grade Mimicry Heavy Sword!! Broken with one punch!!"

"It wasn't a Stand shadow!! Not any skill!! Pure physical strike!!"

"Is she even human?!"

"Qin Ye used to fight in the Jiangnan Coliseum barehanded!! Ninety-nine consecutive underground victories!! She once strangled an opponent twice her weight with a naked choke!!"

"Coliseum?? She's a former gladiator?!"

"Su Bai dug her out of the Underground Coliseum!! Bought her from human traffickers!!"

"Never mind how she was dug out!! Breaking a Tier 7 B-grade sword with one punch, how many years has this talent been buried!!"

"She wasn't wearing armor at all!! No transformation!! No Stand!! Pure fisticuffs to KO the Sword Ghost!!"

"This is the real monster."

On the arena, Qin Ye withdrew her fist.

She opened her right fingers one by one, seeing a few shallow white marks on her knuckles caused by the blade surface defense array. She looked down at the white marks, closed her fingers back into a palm, and shook her hand twice, flicking the residual magic debris between her knuckles onto the ground as if shaking off water droplets.

She turned around and walked toward the waiting area.

She paused when she passed the greatsword that had been snapped in two.

"Sorry."

Just two words, her tone as indifferent as when she said "Not necessary" earlier.

She continued walking.

Chief Commentator Lu Ming gripped the microphone, his lips moving several times before he finally organized his words.

"Ladies and gentlemen—contestant Qin Ye did not activate the Stand System at all during that duel! She used pure combat techniques! She shattered the defensive array of a Tier 7 B-grade Mimicry Heavy Sword with her bare hands! The first round of the elimination tournament—Qin Ye wins!!"

The roar from the audience rose another wave.

"Hiding her moves!! She's definitely hiding her moves!!"

"Just how strong is the Stand System that she felt fists and kicks were enough to deal with a peak Tier 4 opponent?!"

"Maybe the Stand System isn't meant for combat at all? That thing Su Bai mentioned last time about posing and shouting 'Za Warudo' might be a support skill?"

"A support skill paired with a monster that can dismantle a Tier 7 B-grade sword with her bare hands seems even more terrifying..."

"So, has Su Bai run out of talent or not?? I completely don't understand anymore!!"

"It's normal not to understand. Su Bai's cards are always incomprehensible at first, and then you get slapped in the face."

"Next round!! Let her fight Wei Xiaoyu!! A battle between geniuses is what's worth watching!!"

Chief Commentator Lu Ming took a deep breath and turned to the camera. His facial expression management finally returned to a controllable range, but his voice still carried the lingering excitement from being shaken by that punch just now.

In the VIP box.

Zhao Dahai was slumped over the railing, the sweat on his chubby face finally finished rolling off. He turned his head and said in a tone that suggested his worldview had been crushed once again: "...She shattered a Tier 7 B-grade sword barehanded. You know, Su Bai, sometimes I feel like everyone around you is sprinting toward absurdity."

Su Bai shoved the lollipop back into his mouth.

"Normal. She hasn't even started getting serious yet."

Soon, Chief Commentator Lu Ming's voice rang out again.

"Qin Ye's fight was truly spectacular! Let me see who the next match is..."

"Oh, my goodness! The next round of the match is actually Wei Xiaoyu VS the Sword Saint's successor—Lu Xinghe!"

"Haha, I'm afraid you all don't know yet. This host has received news that Wei Xiaoyu has a grudge against Su Bai. Qin Ye's Stand Card was originally prepared for Wei Xiaoyu, but she refused it! And I'm sure you've all heard of Wei Xiaoyu; she is the eldest legitimate daughter of the number one Magic Card Master, the War Emperor!"

"— — Let us welcome Wei Xiaoyu!!"