Standing and Falling

“Luo Feng!” “Luo Feng!” The entire Martial Arena, along with countless humans across hundreds of millions of galaxies watching the broadcast, erupted in excited cheers. Ever since the promotional videos for Luo Feng and Rongjun were released, the Virtual Universe Network had been flooded with data, analysis, and more, with many experts dissecting their strengths and weaknesses. The ‘Yan Shen Weapon’ was naturally a hot topic, so many viewers knew how incredibly difficult it was to wield. Luo Feng, wielding a single golden illusory sword, was already peerless, but now he had simultaneously unleashed two golden illusory swords. It was simply too, too formidable!

“Ah!!!” The wild youth let out a low roar, taking a massive stride that covered a kilometer in an instant.

“Boom!” “Boom!” Carrying shockwaves, two golden sword-rainbows followed, striking towards him.

“Break them!” The wild youth’s face contorted in a ferocious grimace as he lightning-fast cleaved towards one of the golden illusory swords.

“Clang!” The moment his battle blade struck, it subtly shifted direction. Simultaneously, the wild youth spun around, using the impact force to execute a body-circling slash, “Clang!” blocking the second golden sword-rainbow!

“Pfft!” Bright red blood spurted out, and the wild youth stumbled back two steps, his face slightly pale. Yet, his eyes blazed with intense fighting spirit as he transmitted, “Luo Feng, two golden illusory swords are indeed powerful, but... you’re splitting your focus to control both, so each golden illusory sword only has about ninety percent of its previous power!”

“Ninety percent power, two combined, you’re impressive to block it once. Let’s see how many times you can block!” Luo Feng, floating in mid-air, his pupils constricted, transmitted back, “Again!”

“Haha... hahahaha...” The wild youth suddenly burst into laughter, simultaneously flinging the battle blade in his hand.

Whoosh! The battle blade in his hand transformed into an afterimage, like a hidden weapon, shooting directly towards Luo Feng in mid-air.

“Hm?” Luo Feng frowned. One of the golden illusory swords in mid-air simply arced to intercept it. “Clang!” The battle blade was directly flung away by the impact, landing on the distant arena floor.

“What is he trying to do?” A clamor erupted in the Martial Arena’s spectator stands.

A warrior throwing away his weapon? It’s like asking a warrior to cut off his own hand; he must be out of his mind!

“What’s going on?”

“Why did he throw away his weapon?”

“Is this wild man surrendering?”

“Well, with that madman ‘Luo Feng’ from the Heilong Mountain Starfield unleashing two golden illusory swords... it’s not surprising the wild man knows he can’t win and is surrendering! This is not strange at all!”

“Surrendering without a fight to the death?” A cacophony of voices filled the spectator stands.

Inside the Martial Arena, however, silence reigned. Luo Feng, suspended in mid-air, frowned slightly, coldly observing the wild youth on the distant ground.

Though his interactions with this wild man were few, through their simple exchanges and clashes of will, Luo Feng was absolutely certain... the wild youth before him possessed unwavering confidence. Even if he were to lose, he would fight to the death; surrender was not an option!

“Luo Feng!” The wild youth, standing on the arena, blood still at the corner of his mouth, his eyes shining, burst into laughter. “I never cared about the selections within the Ganwu Universe Nation! My baseline is to enter the top thousand in the overall cosmic rankings, and my true goal... is to be number one in those overall cosmic rankings!!!”

Luo Feng was stunned. The billion people in the spectator stands were stunned, and the countless humans across hundreds of millions of galaxies watching the broadcast were stunned. At this moment, innumerable people throughout the entire Ganwu Universe Nation were dumbfounded.

Number one in the overall cosmic rankings? A baseline of entering the top thousand? This was a competition among countless geniuses from various Cosmic Nations, averaging less than one person per Cosmic Nation! To dare declare ‘my baseline is the top 1000 in the overall cosmic rankings’ and ‘my goal is number one in the overall cosmic rankings’—this could no longer be simply called arrogance. He was utterly insane!

...In the Martial Arena.

“You...” Luo Feng couldn’t help but be shocked.

The wild youth on the ground flipped his hand, and a new battle blade appeared—a colossal, pure black battle blade! It was noticeably two sizes larger than his previous one.

“I never thought that even securing a spot in the Ganwu Universe Nation would force me to bring out the ‘Earth-Rending Blade’.” The wild man’s entire aura transformed. Wielding this colossal battle blade, the wild youth instantly seemed to become a savage War God, prompting Luo Feng in mid-air to shout, “If you have any ultimate moves, show them now!!!”

Boom! Boom! Two golden sword-rainbows cleaved directly towards him!

“Haha...” The wild youth laughed. Buzz! Instantly, two wild youths appeared in the arena, both figures charging forward at an incredibly terrifying speed.

“What?!” Luo Feng, controlling the two golden illusory swords, was greatly startled. The greatest fear for a psychic controller was ‘being unable to pinpoint the target.’ “One of these two wild youths must be fake, but... a sweep with my psychic energy shows both are real. How is that possible?”

Creating illusions is very simple. In fact, for experts like Luo Feng, their astonishing movement speed would create a series of afterimages in the eyes of ordinary Earthlings due to visual persistence, making it seem as if there were multiple body phantoms. But no matter how fast they moved, it was still just one person! A single sweep of psychic energy would reveal their true form.

“Arc Light! Arc Light!!!” Luo Feng roared in shock in his mind.

The Golden Horned Beast studied two great secret techniques, one of which was the ‘Absolute Space.’ The first layer of ‘Absolute Space,’ ‘Arc Light,’ once mastered, would cause space to distort when the body moved, creating the effect of two bodies. The second layer: ‘Myriad Transformations,’ once fully mastered, could even manifest thousands of bodies within a certain range. The third layer: ‘Teleportation,’ reaching this stage was considered invincible among Immortals.

Even Luo Feng’s teacher, the Yunmo Star Master, hadn’t reached the stage of ‘Teleportation.’ It was extremely rare even among successive generations of Golden Horned Beasts to achieve it. This set of secret techniques was, in fact, a secret technique for comprehending the laws of space.

If someone comprehended the laws of space, they could also achieve the ‘Arc Light’ effect, where their body, bursting with speed along a strange arc, could create the illusion of two bodies. And the instantaneous burst of speed... was astonishingly fast!

...In the Virtual Universe, within the colossal structure on the floating island above the Ganwu Continent. On their massive thrones, one by one, the great beings, who had previously been casual and unconcerned, now—

“Laws of Space Origin!”

“It’s space!”

“And his comprehension is quite high, not at all inferior to his comprehension of the Laws of Earth Origin. He can actually distort space to create a doppelganger effect.”

“This kid!”

“How many years has it been since our Ganwu Universe Nation produced such a peerless genius?”

“He’s arrogant enough, this kid is truly arrogant. No wonder he dares to say his baseline is the top thousand in the overall cosmic rankings, and his true goal is number one in the overall cosmic rankings! With such high comprehension of both ‘Earth and Space’ laws, and his domain reaching the ‘Ninefold Domain,’ who exactly cultivated such a peerless genius?”

These great beings were all shocked. Because if a Universe-level expert could cross the threshold of laws, they were already considered an extraordinary genius, but that kind of genius belonged to the ‘Galaxy-level’ tier. And those like Nabini and Hong belonged to the ‘Starfield-level’ tier. Luo Feng, wielding a single golden illusory sword, belonged to the ‘Cosmic Nation-level’ tier of genius. Wielding two golden illusory swords... he was among the cream of the crop of Cosmic Nation-level geniuses.

As for the wild youth! Comprehending both ‘Earth and Space’ simultaneously, and with such deep comprehension, while still merely a Star-level junior. This was simply defying the heavens. He... belonged to the ‘entire cosmic humanity’ level of genius! And he was among the absolute top of them!

“Arc Light?” Luo Feng, who had been desperately studying ‘Absolute Space,’ instantly understood what was happening with his opponent.

“Die!!!” Luo Feng, in mid-air, pointed at the wild youth and roared.

Boom! Boom! Two golden sword-rainbows shot towards each ‘wild youth’ respectively. Both by naked eye and psychic energy sweep, there appeared to be two wild youths, but in reality... there was only one person. It was merely because the space around him was distorted, creating an effect similar to a ‘mirror.’

“Haha...” The wild youth laughed, completely unafraid of the two incoming golden illusory swords, and directly moved to charge towards Luo Feng.

“Split!” Luo Feng roared from afar.

Having constantly studied and cultivated ‘Absolute Space,’ Luo Feng was very clear about the power of its first layer once mastered! Precisely because he was clear... Luo Feng knew that even if he shot out two golden illusory swords, they would be dodged. The most crucial action now was—Split!

The two golden illusory swords instantly split into 18 golden small swords, wildly shooting out in all directions, enveloping the area! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!... An explosive burst of instant disintegration!

Immediately, two golden small swords struck the wild youth. Although their power was weakened after splitting, they still disrupted his movement technique.

“Die!” Luo Feng swooped down. Simultaneously, the two Duntiansuo beside him shot out two golden lights, transforming into two golden fish! Disintegrating the golden illusory swords! Unleashing the ‘Sword Fish Array’! All at the same moment!

The two golden fish shot towards the wild youth, whose movement technique had been broken.

“What?” The wild youth was secretly alarmed. “My movement technique, comprehended from the Laws of Space Origin, has astonishing burst speed. I could easily evade his golden illusory swords even if they split a bit further away.”

If only two or three golden small swords burst forth at close range, it would be nothing, but there were a full 18 golden small swords. This completely hampered the wild youth’s speed and disrupted his movement technique.

“Pfft!” “Pfft!” The two golden fish were already upon him.

“Clang!” “Clang!” The wild youth’s colossal battle blade swung out, as if space itself was suppressed, directly cleaving away the two golden fish. Then, he raised the colossal battle blade high, bringing it down directly towards Luo Feng’s head!

“Go!” As the wild youth’s blade descended, his domain, combined with his comprehension of the laws of space, completely suppressed Luo Feng.

“Die!” Luo Feng roared.

Boom! Boom! The 18 golden small swords that had disintegrated earlier swiftly reassembled into two golden illusory swords behind the wild youth. As the wild youth cleaved towards Luo Feng, those two golden illusory swords were already shooting towards him.

The wild youth, sensing the danger through his domain, not only didn’t escape but roared, “Go to hell!”

“Thump!” The blade was as fast as lightning! Luo Feng, holding his shield, felt as if he had been struck by a mountain. With a thunderous crash, he lost consciousness.

“Thump!” After cleaving with his blade, the wild youth desperately tried to dodge, but he had already missed the optimal window.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Under inertia, one golden illusory sword grazed the wild youth’s body, while the other pierced through his chest, creating a bowl-sized hole, shattering his internal organs, and causing blood to gush out...

“Thud!” The wild youth landed, blood streaming from the hole in his chest, like a gravely wounded War God. Yet, he stood there, staring at Luo Feng’s ‘corpse.’

At this moment, the 18 golden small swords, having disintegrated from the two golden illusory swords, fell from mid-air, striking the arena floor with a series of crisp, melodious “Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!” sounds, echoing throughout the entire Martial Arena.

The billion people in the Martial Arena fell silent, gazing at the two peerless geniuses in the arena. One stood there. One lay down.