146: Chapter 146 Even More Powerful?

The golden sun charged straight at Qin Ye with the speed of a full-power strike from a 9th-tier Supreme.

Everyone held their breath.

Then, at a distance of less than three meters from Qin Ye—it swerved.

The sun traced an almost right-angled trajectory in the air.

The golden plasma exhaust exploded at the turning point, unleashing a circle of blazing white shockwaves that sent the sand on the arena floor flying a dozen meters into the air.

The target had changed.

Master Mage Chen Taixu!

The young Daoist, sitting cross-legged on the other side of the desert, snapped his eyes open.

In those pupils reflecting the starry sky, a golden sun was expanding at an incredible speed.

"...Interesting."

He picked up the wooden sword from his knees.

The movement was not fast. It was as if he were picking up a brush in a tea room.

But the moment the wooden sword left his knees, Master Mage Chen Taixu transformed into an afterimage.

That afterimage dragged a zigzagging trail behind him, like ripples left by wind passing through a bamboo forest.

The golden sun brushed past his Daoist robe's right shoulder—missing by less than two fingers' width.

The high temperature instantly incinerated his cuff into a small pinch of ash.

Master Mage Chen Taixu turned half a circle while moving.

The tip of the wooden sword tapped the ground, and his body changed direction again, leveraging that slight reaction force.

He traced an extremely strange arc in the air, circling from the left side of the golden sun to its rear.

The sun chased after him.

He changed direction again.

Accelerated again.

By the third change of direction, he didn't even use the wooden sword.

He stepped into the air with his right foot—stepping onto a wall of wind that had condensed out of nowhere.

As the wind wall shattered, his body gained a second burst of acceleration, launching him far away in a diagonal backward direction.

The golden sun whistled past less than half a meter beneath him.

Master Mage Chen Taixu backhanded the wooden sword into the ground, the scabbard drawing a half-circle on the surface, and his body followed the arc, flipping three hundred and sixty degrees to land steadily.

The hem of his Daoist robe was lifted by the heatwave, revealing a pair of old, faded cloth shoes underneath.

"...That was close."

He looked down at the cuff of his right sleeve.

That sleeve had been burned away by a small section.

The fabric at the edge was still emitting faint wisps of blue smoke.

He flicked the remaining fabric with his finger to knock off the spark, then placed the wooden sword back on his knees.

Sat cross-legged.

Closed his eyes.

The entire process took less than three seconds.

The entire arena was silent for over two seconds.

Then the audience erupted.

"He dodged it!! He dodged it!!"

"Did you see that!! He stepped in mid-air!! He stepped on nothing and suddenly accelerated!!"

"No—how is that acceleration possible—what exactly did he step on beneath his feet—"

"Wind!! It's wind!! He condensed the wind into a solid form and stepped on it!!"

"How is that possible!! Wind-type elements are dispersed!! How can wind bear weight!!!"

Waiting area.

Shen Ye leaned against the metal railing, a holographic data panel floating in front of him.

His fingers traced three lines in the void, pulling up a frame-by-frame breakdown of Master Mage Chen Taixu's movement trajectory just now.

Peak speed—4th-tier Upper.

Direction change frequency—three changes, with an interval of no more than 0.3 seconds between each.

The acceleration of the second change exceeded the first. The third acceleration exceeded the second.

"Borrowing force to strike, as expected of a Myriad Elemental User, utilizing various elements with such ease."

Shen Ye said softly.

He understood.

Master Mage Chen Taixu was not dodging using magic.

His method of movement had only one core principle from beginning to end—converting the shockwave generated by the golden sun's impact into his own kinetic energy.

The faster the sun, the more force he could borrow.

Theoretically speaking.

As long as his reaction speed could keep up, that sun would never touch him.

Shen Ye turned off the data panel.

"...A bit interesting."

He glanced in the direction of the VIP box.

Su Bai was resting his chin on his hand, his expression as indifferent as if he were watching a weather forecast that had nothing to do with him.

Shen Ye looked back at Master Mage Chen Taixu's back as he sat cross-legged in meditation.

It was indeed a bit interesting.

But it was only a bit interesting.

Shen Ye tapped his fingers on the railing twice.

Master Mage Chen Taixu's footwork was indeed exquisite.

But that was only at the level of technique.

Wei Xiaoyu's normal output from that punch just now had already crushed a 5th-tier S-class sword formation head-on.

Technique is meaningless in the face of absolute numerical values.

He withdrew his gaze.

Wei Xiaoyu's furnace engine hummed low beside him.

The engine speed was stable at 40,000 RPM, far from the limit of overload.

"No need to rush."

Shen Ye said in a low voice.

"It's not your turn yet."

In the VIP box.

Zhao Dahai was hanging off the railing, his mouth open wide enough to fit a fist inside.

"He-he-he-he stepped in mid-air—"

"A wind wall."

Lin Xiao's fingers had stopped scrolling through the trending topics.

She turned her phone face down on her knees.

Her brows were knitted together.

"He compressed wind elements into a solid barrier. No magic circles, no card assistance."

Her voice was very low, "The Myriad Elemental User magic card has been lost for four hundred years."

"The core principles were sealed in the Sanctuary's Forbidden Library; no one except for a few 9th-tier Supremes has ever seen the original blueprints."

"Master Mage Chen Taixu is using the complete version, with zero loss in elemental conversion."

Lin Weiwei put down the dust-proof box in her hand.

"And when he dodged, his cuff was burned away."

"But the skin behind the sleeve was completely unharmed."

Lin Xiao took over, her brows furrowing even deeper.

The two women surnamed Lin exchanged a glance.

Both of them were Card Creators; one specialized in 4th-tier space-type, and the other had created an A-class Ice Bow for the Monthly Exam.

Their assessment of Master Mage Chen Taixu's move just now was highly consistent—

It was not a defensive card.

There was no mana fluctuation from any equipment-type card activation in that movement method.

From start to finish, there was only the wooden sword, wind elements, and his body.

Pure technique, pure application of laws.

This was more unsettling than equipping a dozen high-end cards.

"...Su Bai."

Zhao Dahai turned his head, the fat on his face squeezing into a smile that looked worse than crying.

"Aren't you nervous? That Daoist can even dodge a National Treasure artifact. Your Stand Card... can Qin Ye really fight?"

Su Bai thought for a moment and nodded.

"Yes."

"You're just saying one word?!"

"What else?"

Zhao Dahai buried his face in his palms.

Lin Weiwei and Lin Xiao turned to look at Su Bai at the same time, their expressions identical—are you joking or are you serious?

Do you even know how fast that sun is? Did you even see Master Mage Chen Taixu's footwork just now?

Su Bai rested his chin on his hand, his eyes half-open and half-closed.

Lin Xiao and Lin Weiwei exchanged a look.

A moment later, Lin Weiwei picked up the dust-proof box again.

Lin Xiao flipped her phone back over and continued scrolling through data.

Zhao Dahai peeked out with two eyes from between his fingers, looked left and right, then buried his face back in.

In this box, besides him, it seemed no one felt Su Bai should be even slightly nervous.