Chapter 138 A Battle of Wits

"Five-tenths of the sword's power, seven-tenths of luck, and still this kind of might…" Feng Bujue muttered, "It seems… the me from before wasn't even qualified to fight you." As he spoke, he activated Spiritual Consciousness Gathering Technique and stepped on Moon Steps, suddenly accelerating. His figure shifted from solid to illusory as he lunged toward Si Yu.

Si Yu's eyes narrowed slightly, her killing intent growing colder. She spun Feng Sheng in her hand upward, and a sharp sword Qi howled out.

Feng Bujue was equally unwilling to be outdone, meeting her attack with Lan Jiao, kicking out a black, arcing burst of energy.

With a *chi* sound, the two strikes collided in mid-air, and energy exploded on impact, sending surging turbulence in all directions. Feng Bujue was in the air and felt the impact more strongly, being forced back a few paces for a moment. After this exchange, he was clearly at a disadvantage.

"It's not over yet," Si Yu said, and the longsword in her hand instantly moved again.

*Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…* Waves of sword Qi, like layers of surging tides, slashed out continuously. Si Yu moved the sword extremely fast; to onlookers, the sword's body had already transformed into layers upon layers of afterimages.

"As expected…" Feng Bujue replied lazily, immediately taking a Moon Step backward to steady his figure. At the same time, he launched dozens of Lan Jiao kicks in succession, meeting the incoming sword Qi one by one.

At this point, the fire sprinklers on the ceiling had been turned off, but the humidity in the surroundings was still very high. The slashes unleashed by the two exploded in the air, sending out bursts of misty vapor, which instead formed a rare and beautiful scene.

"Not good… she's even more powerful than I imagined," Feng Bujue thought to himself.

Although on the surface, he was acting like "I'm already invincible," in reality, he knew very well… the power and speed after transforming were only three times his original stats.

This level of improvement was actually not much different from the effect of Spiritual Consciousness Gathering Technique. It was just that [Demon Descent] also came with three times the survival value, as well as the characteristic of unlimited stamina and spiritual energy. That was why skills like Lan Jiao and Moon Steps, which had no cooldown time, could be unleashed at will.

In addition, if he were to activate Spiritual Consciousness Gathering Technique at this moment, the effects would stack. Then, his strength would be equivalent to more than six times his original state.

However, even so, his strength was still only about on par with Si Yu's.

Because… of Soul Intent.

First, let's talk about Feng Bujue. His Soul Intent was the continuously active "Zero-Time Difference Calculation." This ability seemed somewhat similar to "Observation Haki," but it was fundamentally different. Zero-Time Difference Calculation was not predicting the opponent's attack intention but, at the instant the attack had already occurred, calculating the most reasonable reaction that his own strength could make and precisely implementing it.

This ability had only one problem, which was that "prediction" and "calculation" needed a basis. Whether attacking or being attacked, the calculation of Soul Intent was based on the foundation of "intelligence." For example, if you wanted to dodge a bullet, you at least had to have a concept of the bullet's speed and trajectory; you had to know—"supersonic speed, straight line"—otherwise, the calculation would be wrong, and the reaction you made would also be wrong.

Taking Feng Bujue's battle with Shiva as an example, the reason why he was able to win so easily in the end was that, by the time his Soul Intent awakened, he had already been entangled with Shiva for a long time. Therefore, he had a very accurate concept of Shiva's martial arts, skills, and the firing speed of his psionic weapons. And the more precise the intelligence he had, the more perfect the response he could make.

Taking Little Red Riding Hood in "Climbing the Tower Records" as another example, although Feng Bujue didn't directly fight her, he could still construct a basic concept in his mind, such as—"her punches are faster than bullets, and one slap can turn me into a pancake." Based on this, using Soul Intent to calculate the result of "me rushing up to fight her" would result in—"death, death, death, death, death, death" anyway, a thousand or several hundred ways to die…

That was roughly how Jue-Ge's Soul Intent worked. Now, let's talk about Si Yu.

The Soul Intent of the female warrior Si Yu was "Limit Efficiency," which belonged to the instant-use type. This ability was not effective at ordinary times, and there were no quantifiable records in the data, so the system could not include it in her combat power. This was also the reason why Si Yu was ranked outside the top twenty.

However, the effect when this Soul Intent was activated was still exceptionally outstanding.

When a player entered the "Limit Efficiency" state, all flaws in their movements would be corrected, and consumption would be reduced to the minimum.

Here, let's give a few more examples. Take running, for example… why can long-distance runners still stand after running 10,000 meters, while someone like me would collapse halfway? In addition to hard conditions such as muscles, weight, and lung capacity, the most important thing is the method. The same distance, running with reasonable movements, rhythm, and breathing, is definitely more energy-saving than an amateur running wildly.

Let's talk about… brick breaking. It's the same arm, skin covering bones and flesh, why can someone break a brick with one palm, while I can only break my palm bone? It's also this principle.

Through arduous training, muscle memory becomes a part of instinct, and nerve reflex speed will increase several times. When speed, strength, and skill… coincide and explode at one point, you can do things that ordinary people cannot do.

Limit Efficiency is the ability that allows people to be in this state at all times.

When this Soul Intent is activated, Si Yu can exert her own strength to the theoretical limit. The same sword swing can be done faster, stronger, but consume less stamina.

Of course, such heaven-defying means naturally have weaknesses. Although this Soul Intent does not consume any in-game stats, it requires the player to bear the burden with their mental strength. Once focus is lost, the effect cannot be maintained.

Comparing Jue-Ge's and Si Yu's Soul Intent, it can be found that Si Yu's Soul Intent obviously improves the player's hard power more. She is like a bullet that cannot be dodged. As long as her strength is strong enough, no matter how Feng Bujue calculates and responds, he cannot overcome the absolute difference in stats.

However, there is still a variable at this moment, which is [Demon Descent].

The effect contained in this title skill is not just what is written in the skill description.

Feng Bujue has already noticed that, after demonizing, his "realm" is already different.

There's a joke that goes—"Having the life of a tofu seller, but worrying about the Prime Minister's affairs."

Feng Bujue is now pretty much like this. His "realm" is already at the level of a martial arts expert, but his body is still at the level of a second-rate sect disciple. He can see the strengths of Si Yu, but his strength is difficult to match.

However, an expert is an expert after all. In an instant, Feng Bujue has already formed a strategy and is determined to seize the opportunity to win.

Indeed, three minutes is enough. The mid-range slashing exchange is just a preliminary probing between the two sides. The real victory or defeat can be determined within three moves.

In an instant, within that ball of black fighting Qi in mid-air, crimson bloody light bloomed again. Feng Bujue activated Spiritual Consciousness Gathering Technique, stepped on Moon Steps, and killed with all his might. This time, the speed and power could no longer be forced back with sword Qi.

Seeing this, Si Yu remained as calm as ever. Her footwork changed drastically, she withdrew her momentum to avoid the strong force, and her sword's edge slanted to block, both attacking and defending.

In one step, Feng Bujue borrowed the momentum of his downward rush and挟 (xié) (held) several death poker cards in each hand, scattering them. He saw golden light move rapidly, each shining card falling into the gaps of life and death, extremely dangerous.

Si Yu snorted coldly, and her sword bloomed like a lotus, with continuous shadows of blades, smashing the poker cards one by one. In the collision, there was a burst of metallic sounds.

Taking advantage of the situation, Feng Bujue moved forward, took another step, and snatched a breath's distance in front of Si Yu.

At this moment, the distance between the two was closer than ever before.

They both knew each other's killing moves, and they both knew what the other was going to do.

[Nanto Flying Dragon Fist] was undoubtedly Feng Bujue's sure-kill strategy. In the state of Demon Descent plus Spiritual Consciousness Gathering Technique, this was a well-deserved ultimate move. An ordinary script Boss could not possibly survive this move.

And Si Yu's killing move was naturally a sword style—[Seven Clear Frost Cold].

The two used their ultimate moves, pushing their skills, states, and Soul Intent to the limit. Sword shadows and fist shadows intertwined, collided, and shattered in the air.

In this seemingly frozen moment, the expressions on the faces of the two were actually smiles.

These two people, who were not too normal in real life, seemed to have found some kind of tacit understanding, some kind of strange way of communicating that only they understood… and enjoyed it.

A few seconds later, the moves ended…

The fist and sword stopped, and the victory or defeat was decided.

In the end, only one figure stood on top of the cargo container. And the other person had already turned into white light and dissipated.

[The current task has been completed. All main quests have been completed.]

[You have completed this scenario. You will be automatically teleported in 180 seconds.]

Hearing the system prompt, Feng Bujue let out a long sigh. He lowered his head and looked at his bloody hands. "Hmm… if I weren't in a demonized state, her sword moves would have directly interrupted my skills, right…"