Chapter 111: Chapter 90: Saber Force, Formed

All of his perception, all of his processing power, and all of his will were focused on the edge of his blade, on the ninety-nine percent mastery of his Shadow-Stealing Form, and on his opponent’s hopelessly fast movements.

As he executed one extreme dodge after another, evading lethal sword glints by a hair’s breadth, his Primordial Spirit’s power was fully unleashed, granting him a higher-dimensional insight. Under this perception, the speed Rukawa Gale was so proud of was being deconstructed like a precision instrument.

The core trajectory of its energy flow, the patterns of muscle exertion, the very triggers of its conceptual power... all of it was being imprinted, piece by piece, deep into Li Wen’s consciousness.

His Shadow-Stealing Form, stuck at ninety-nine percent, was being fed the purest fuel of enlightenment in the fiery crucible of this life-or-death battle.

The more silent and focused Li Wen became, the more Rukawa Gale’s contempt was tinged with a twisted anger.

The screams, the fear, the pleas for mercy he had been expecting—none of them came.

His opponent was like a stubborn stone, silently weathering his furious onslaught.

"Let’s see how long you can keep this act up!" A savage look crossed Rukawa Gale’s face, thoroughly enraged at being ignored.

His killing intent flared! He switched tactics in an instant, compressing the overwhelming presence he had been building to its absolute limit. His entire body seemed to transform into a bolt of black lightning tearing through the void—this was his finishing move, Gale Flash Cut!

"DIE!!!"

A terrifying shadow of death fell upon him. The pressure, far greater than before, made Li Wen’s bones groan under the strain.

Yet, in the instant this killing blow was unleashed, just as everything seemed to be over, the combination of the extreme pressure, the overloading of his Primordial Spirit, and his ultimate comprehension of the Shadow-Stealing Form’s final truth... seemed to trigger a nuclear explosion deep within his mind.

BOOM—!

Within his sea of consciousness, the small, jade-like figure of his Primordial Spirit erupted with an unprecedented, sun-like brilliance.

An impossibly profound state of perception was forcibly activated. Time itself seemed to stretch infinitely, growing thick and viscous before solidifying.

In Li Wen’s mind, Rukawa Gale’s killing blow—a strike so fast it transcended the limits of perception—was now clearly deconstructed into a series of slow-motion frames.

The core energy nodes behind that incredible speed, the minute flaws in the pathways of power transmission, even the very essence of the conceptual power that this killing blow represented—all of it was laid out before him with textbook clarity.

But now, with his Primordial Spirit burning itself out at all costs, this insight was pushed to an unprecedented level.

’So this is another way to use the Primordial Spirit. It doesn’t directly boost my combat power, but it can provide support. It’s the perfect disguise for an insight-type Awakened.’

One breath! Li Wen could clearly sense it. He could only maintain this overclocked state for a single breath with his remaining Primordial Spirit, which was now burning away at a terrifying, unprecedented rate.

’But one breath... is enough!’

In that eternal instant contained within a single breath, all his enlightenment, all his struggles, and his entire understanding of the principle—’Speed is absolute; precision and purity are paramount; abandon everything to cut down the obstacle before you’—converged like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea, forming a single, resolute will.

’It’s not about mimicking my opponent’s speed, nor is it about chasing a superficial velocity. It’s about seeking the very essence of my own speed.’

’Where the mind wills, the blade follows!’

’Abandon all distractions! Abandon all variation! Abandon all sight and sound! Abandon all defense!’

’I will bet my entire will, my life, my potential, on this single, razor-thin edge.’

Driven by pure instinct, his body followed the single optimal path his Primordial Spirit had perceived, executing an extreme movement that seemed to defy the limits of human physiology.

The arc of his arm’s swing was incredibly short. All of his strength, his vital energy, his Spiritual Power, and the power of his Primordial Spirit connected with unimaginable efficiency, instantly converging upon a single point.

VMMMM—

There was no shriek of displaced air, no roar of energy.

Only a single flash of light appeared on the stage.

It was an almost transparent gleam of light, as thin as a cicada’s wing and so fast that thought itself couldn’t keep pace—the pale light of a blade.

This light was so pure, so quiet, as if it were born to sever the very boundaries of existence. Its speed was so absolute that it transcended even the friction of the air.

The savage killing intent on Rukawa Gale’s face, along with his confident certainty of victory and his contempt for a mere insect, all transformed into frozen astonishment the instant that pale blade light appeared.

SHK!

The blade light flashed past. Precise. Lethal.

It was as if its trajectory had been calculated a thousand times over. Within that single, overclocked breath, it pierced the absolute core—the weakest node—in the energy flow of the Gale Flash Cut.

It struck the key juncture in Rukawa Gale’s wrist at the precise, hair’s-breadth instant where his old power was spent and the new had yet to be mustered.

Like a balloon pricked with a needle, that single, imperceptible strike caused the entire aura of speed Rukawa Gale had built up to instantly collapse.

The terrifying edge of the Gale Flash Cut dissipated in an instant! With his power flow severed and its core node shattered, his body went completely rigid and he lost all control.

And the silent, pale blade light, without a moment’s pause, slid through the opening his uncontrolled body had exposed. Like moonlight skimming across the surface of a lake, it settled—gently yet unstoppably—upon the vital point of his throat.

Thud.

Rukawa Gale’s charging figure froze mid-stride, the bewilderment and utter disbelief in his eyes reaching their absolute peak.

His virtual body dissolved into countless motes of light, silently scattering across the stage without the slightest hint of resistance.

Dead silence.

Absolute dead silence.

In the livestream chat for Japan, which just a second ago had been a frenzy of cheers and profanity, every sound seemed to have been abruptly choked off by an invisible, giant hand.

The broadcast seemed to freeze-frame. On countless ecstatic faces, expressions solidified as if weathered by the wind, before shattering into indescribable horror.