He needed to familiarize himself with the various schools of Level 6 Killing Techniques and witness the Combat Wisdom of the billions of geniuses throughout the Empire’s domain, honing his terrifying power into the purest, most efficient killing instinct.
’I might as well save my Contribution Points and prepare for the Planetary Grade in the future.’
At this thought, all hesitation vanished from Qin Feng’s mind.
His consciousness withdrew from Canaan’s internal network and immersed itself in an even vaster, more immense virtual world.
—The Subspace Network: Imperial Arena.
BUZZ!
It was as if his soul was ripped from his body in an instant. An endless torrent of data transformed into a brilliant Star River flowing before his eyes.
The Mental Wills of countless human Martial Artists converged and collided within it, creating a deafening roar.
The next moment, Qin Feng’s consciousness descended upon a rustic stone platform floating in the boundless void.
This was his personal preparation area.
With a thought, he brought up the arena’s matchmaking settings.
[Vitality Index Locked: 108,000.0]
[Weapon Template: Long Spear]
[Equipment Template: Light Alloy Armor]
[Mode: Ladder Ranking]
[Searching for Match...]
...
In the tedious purity of battle, time lost all meaning.
Five years flashed by in the blink of an eye.
For the students of Canaan Starry Sky Martial Arts University, these five years might have meant one or two long-distance missions, a session of deep seclusion, or perhaps a few breakthroughs.
But for Qin Feng, these five years were one relentless, grueling war.
The first year.
Imperial Arena, Ladder Ranking matches.
Wielding a plain, standard-issue Long Spear, Qin Feng unleashed a bloody storm in the lower ranks with a combat style that was almost barbaric in its pure, unadulterated aggression.
His opponents came from every Star Realm in the Empire. There were direct disciples from various Martial Halls, battle-hardened veterans retired from the military, and tribal warriors raised on Barbaric Planets.
The Level 6 Killing Techniques they practiced were incredibly diverse.
Some wielded their swords like illusions, capable of unleashing a hundred indistinguishable flashes of light in one-hundredth of a second, making them impossible to defend against.
Some fought with wide, sweeping movements, each strike containing a crushing force capable of shattering mountains and splitting the earth—enough to obliterate a small meteorite head-on.
There were also Martial Artists with eerie Body Techniques, who moved like wisps of green smoke, closing in on their opponents in utter silence to deliver a fatal blow.
Qin Feng’s spear arts had no unnecessary flair, only the most extreme thrusts, sweeps, and cleaves.
No matter how exquisite his opponent’s Techniques were, he met them with a single spear strike.
One strike to shatter them all!
After just half a year and tens of thousands of high-intensity duels, the rank of [Qin] skyrocketed as if on a rocket, finally settling at [9th Dan, 300 Points].
Then, his winning streak came to an abrupt halt.
From that day forward, Qin Feng’s easy days were over.
Anyone who could make it to this rank was a monster.
What was even more terrifying was that every single person here had cultivated at least one—or even multiple—Level 6 Killing Techniques to the same Control Realm as Qin Feng.
Under the rules that equalized vitality, Qin Feng’s foundational advantage was severely weakened.
His days of steamrolling opponents were over.
...
The third year.
Qin Feng began to frantically study his opponents’ battle recordings.
He encountered a Martial Artist who used a Heavy Shield, with the ID [Unbreakable].
The man’s defense was truly like an insurmountable mountain range.
His Level 6 Killing Technique, *Wall of Sighs*, could convert Mental Power and Spiritual Energy into a Guardian Field of immense resilience.
When Qin Feng’s incredibly powerful killing move, "Star Shatter," struck it, it could only stir up ripples on its surface.
Qin Feng added him as a friend and proceeded to fight thousands of duels against the hundred or so "turtle shell" school Martial Artists in this rank.
He went from being completely helpless at first to gradually figuring out a way.
Then he started looking for the minuscule flaws in the conversion of their Defense Field, completely mapping out their combat patterns.
Finally, in one duel, Qin Feng used a long-charged "Qian Yuan" to successfully break through his opponent’s shield wall.
...
The fourth year.
Qin Feng’s combat style began to transform.
He no longer just charged and fought recklessly.
When facing an Assassin-type opponent with the ID [Thousand Faces], he even gave up on attacking proactively.
That opponent’s Body Technique and killing method fused principles of optics, psychology, and spatial disturbance. It was as if he had a thousand doppelgängers on the battlefield, each one startlingly lifelike.
Qin Feng closed his eyes.
He gave up on tracking his opponent with his eyes, instead immersing his entire mind in the most subtle perceptions of the surrounding space.
The flow of the wind, the disturbance of energy, the coalescence of killing intent.
After being killed over a hundred times, the golden nail above his brow bone flickered and condensed into a brand new golden Seal.
Two golden Seals!
Qin Feng didn’t notice the appearance of the golden Seal.
He had fallen into a state of epiphany. His Mental Power spread out, and amidst the chaotic illusions, he gradually captured the flash of killing intent that appeared one-thousandth of a second before his opponent’s true body manifested.
The Long Spear struck like a dragon, launching second but arriving first.
He won that battle.
...
The fifth year.
In the chat channel for the [9th Dan] division of the Imperial Arena’s Ladder Ranking, the ID [Qin] had already gained some renown.
People only knew that he was a Madman, a complete and utter battle junkie.
[Qin] was online almost around the clock, tirelessly initiating one duel after another.
He would challenge a single Shield Warrior hundreds of times in a row just to break their defense.
He would also stand still and let himself be killed for an entire day just to adapt to an Assassin’s Body Technique.