San Tian Liang Jiao
Chapter 1503 Strategy
Boundless desert, sealing the sword's intent, blood staining the martial world, leaving no life.
Extreme technique against extreme technique, a wild and uninhibited style, battling the boundless sword intent.
In that instant! A black flash pierced the void, a deadly strike closing in.
As the fighting spirit gradually subsided, the two stood back-to-back.
This fated battle had determined the victor.
"Hoo..." Kuang Zong Jian Ying gazed at the sky, exhaling a long breath, and then slowly said, "In the end, your skills are superior..."
At the same time, Feng Bujue, standing several meters behind him with his back turned, as if having eyes on his shoulders... reached out without even raising his head, perfectly catching the nunchaku falling from the sky.
"Ah..." Feng Bujue added, "Only slightly superior."
This sentence could be considered Jue-Ge's affirmation of Sword Demon, as he acknowledged the "slight superiority" the other mentioned, instead of correcting it to something harsher.
"You bastard..." However, after two seconds of silence, Sword Demon said with a wry smile, "...you're lying to me, aren't you?"
"Heh..." Feng Bujue also smiled, "You... I'm giving you an out, and you don't even want it."
At this moment, they both knew perfectly well--the outcome of that final exchange had been decided long before they even made their moves.
The moment he threw the nunchaku, Feng Bujue had already calculated all the possibilities that would follow; even the details like "how high the nunchaku would fly after entering the No Sword Domain, how long it would take, and where it would land" were calculated with precision. This showed that he had completely analyzed Sword Demon's moves and the intensity of the sword energy (energy) within the No Sword Domain... He only made his move with absolute certainty.
"No need." Sword Demon shook his head in response. "What you've given me is already more than enough."
As soon as he finished speaking, his injuries finally erupted...
Instantly, a "pfft--" sound was heard, and a cloud of blood mist burst forth from the countless crack-like wounds on his body.
Blood, reflecting the crimson sky, staining the yellow sands.
Sword defeated, body perished, Kuang Zong Jian Ying fell to the ground, transforming into light and disappearing.
As he fell, his face held an expression of relief...
At least for Sword Demon personally, even if this Peak Tournament journey ended with this battle, he had no regrets.
............
"Not easy..." As soon as he returned to the spectator space, Feng Bujue stretched his voice and howled in a tone as if he had just finished a long period of heavy physical labor, "Exhausting!"
"Are you trying to get us to praise you?" Ruoyu said, looking at him.
"Ha! How is that possible?" Jue-Ge laughed loudly, scanning the crowd. "I don't expect you guys to praise me anyway, so I'll just flaunt my achievements proactively and emphasize the fact that I've worked hard."
"Alright, alright... Seriously, that was a beautiful match." Miss An still said something fair. "It's rare to see you not using any tricks, and winning a head-on fight fair and square, and your opponent was that Kuang Zong Jian Ying."
"But I still don't quite understand..." Snow had another question at this time. He looked at Jue-Ge and said, "Why didn't you use Chuck Norris' Razor?" He paused, and added, "You didn't use it in the previous rounds, but those opponents didn't have the strength to force you to use that item... But the last match against Qiufeng Se seemed a bit close, right? And in the match just now, if you had just shaved your head in the first thirty seconds, you would have won immediately, wouldn't you?"
"Tch... Do I need you to tell me?" Feng Bujue's response was not unexpected by Snow, it was just that arrogant kind, "It's strategy, okay? Strategy!"
"So..." Snow squinted and replied, "What exactly is the strategy..." He showed a rather helpless expression, "Last round, you forcefully sold blood to open your three-stage transformation, saying it was strategy, and this round, you insisted on not using the razor... Really?"
"Aren't you supposed to be pretty smart? Figure it out yourself." Feng Bujue immediately looked at Snow with a contemptuous gaze and said, "Also, don't you think you're asking too many questions? Who gave you the right to ask so much? Don't you know that the final questioning right of this team belongs to Wang Tanzhi?"
"Uh..." Faced with such cheap power, Snow had nothing to say.
"Hold on..." At this time, Xiao Ling suddenly showed a look of realization. "So... After the last round against Qiufeng Se, what you spouted about 'strategy'... was actually true?"
"Hey hey... Your reaction is a bit slow..." Jue-Ge said, "Are you pregnant or something?"
"Hmm... Maybe." Xiao Tan didn't get the point that she was being called stupid, and nodded thoughtfully.
Then he got hit by his wife...
"Pregnant my ass!" Xiao Ling raised her hand and treated Xiao Tan to a "chestnut," then turned to Jue-Ge and said, "What does this have to do with my reaction speed? The way you said it last time sounded like you were making excuses after messing up, who would take it seriously and try to figure it out?"
"Alright, alright... Blame me." Feng Bujue spread his hands, and looked at everyone again. "So now you all know, right? There is indeed strategic significance behind my actions."
"Once we know, it's not a very difficult plan to guess." Xiao Ling's mind was quick. After confirming that Jue-Ge's so-called "strategy" was not nonsense, she almost immediately said the correct answer, "In short... this is to convey 'some kind of information' to players on other teams, right?"
After she reminded them, everyone else reacted.
"Oh!" Snow slapped his forehead, widened his eyes and said to Jue-Ge, "So... the match against Qiufeng Se was just to tell others that 'Feng Bujue can use other players' skills'?"
"To be precise..." Jue-Ge replied, "What I want to convey is the information that 'Feng Bujue can take skills he sees in matches and use them as his own'."
"So... the three-stage transformations you used in that match were all skills that players from other teams in this S3 tournament had used... and all of them were transformation techniques that were impressive and visually easy to identify." Ruoyu closely followed his train of thought and added.
"That's right." Feng Bujue replied, "There were reasons for opening those three transformations. If it was just to win, I would have opened Soul Advent as well."
"Oh?" Upon hearing this, Xu Huai Shang's expression changed slightly. "You can even use Soul Advent?"
"I can." Feng Bujue replied, "In fact... the principles behind most S-level abilities are not that complicated. The reason why these abilities are high-level is just because they have a high energy intensity and consumption when they are generated..." He paused for half a second, and added, "Of course, there are some abilities that I can't learn or use, such as the Demon Fighting Descent that has already lost its source of power, and Gui Xiao's 'Left and Right Hands' that he mastered through blood sacrifice of high-ranking NPCs."
"Wait a minute." The next second, Ruoyu said again, "We can talk about how many skills you can learn slowly... The question now is, what is the purpose of your strategy? Why do you want other teams to know that you can use other people's skills?"
"It's very simple." Jue-Ge spread his hands and replied, "To set up psychological barriers for them in their next matches."
"That is to say..." Xu Huai Shang muttered, "They will be afraid to use powerful skills in the match because of their concerns about you?"
"Yes." Feng Bujue replied, "Especially those strong teams with hopes or intentions of winning the championship... They, or their teams behind them, must consider the possibility of encountering me in a later round; in order not to turn some of their trump cards into weapons that will backfire on them in the future, they have to make adjustments in all aspects, from troop deployment to skill tactics."
Hearing this, An Yueqin didn't understand a bit: "But... even so, the gap between those strong teams and casual player teams is still impossible to close, they will still win the games they should win, they won't lose just because they hid a few big moves." She curled her lips, "Your strategy will at most affect the outcome of a battle between two strong teams; moreover, it's not good for us at all... On the contrary, it will make those strong teams keep their trump cards until they meet us."
"No... no..." A second later, before Jue-Ge could answer, Ruoyu took over the conversation with a pensive look. "This move is very useful..."
"Eh?" An Yueqin asked suspiciously, "How do you say that?"
"Let me explain." Feng Bujue smiled at Ruoyu, who already understood, with a rather smug expression, and then looked at the others and said, "First of all, regarding the battle between strong teams and weak teams... I never expected those seeded teams to lose to casual players because of the 'restrictions' I set, but... in order to defend against me, the difficulty of winning the game will inevitably increase, and the process may therefore become more tortuous."
"Hmm... In order to hide some things, they exposed more things instead..." Snow added in a timely manner.
Feng Bujue didn't respond to him, but cast a look of affirmation towards him, and continued: "Secondly, the situation of two strong teams competing... is even less of a problem; in that kind of strong duel between similar strengths, neither side can needlessly increase the risk of the entire game in front of them for the sake of a victory that has not yet arrived and may not arrive... Taking a step back, even if they really want to hide something, they may not have the spare energy."
"That's true..." An Yueqin nodded, " 'Hiding big moves' is indeed only possible when there is a certain gap in strength between the two teams."
"So, the statement that 'let those strong teams keep their trump cards until they meet us' is also non-existent." Feng Bujue shrugged and continued, "When two strong teams meet, the big moves that should be opened still have to be opened as usual."
"Eh? Thinking about it this way..." An Yueqin said again, "If people just ignore you from the beginning, pretending they don't know that you can learn other people's skills... wouldn't it be fine to fight as usual?"
"That's right." Feng Bujue said with a smile, "But that's impossible."
He was right, that was impossible...
Many people should have heard this example: When a person is faced with a small stream that is two meters wide, he jumps over it easily, but when he comes to the edge of a canyon that is exactly the same width as the stream, he has the illusion that the canyon is wider than the stream, and that he may not be able to jump over it.
This is the impact of "psychological pressure" on people.
In this world, not only does the "unknown" bring fear, but the "known" can also be used to create fear.
The timer on a bomb, the food reserves in a confined space, the battery level on a mobile phone that is running out, one's own age... these visible and knowable things all belong to the latter.
There are many things that you don't care about when you don't know, but once you know, psychological pressure will be generated...
People will be disturbed by this pressure, and thus fear, retreat, become abnormal, and change...
Feng Bujue's first strategy was this kind of pressure-inducing method based on the psychological level--if other seeded teams didn't know that he could learn skills, then nothing would happen to them, but once they knew, they couldn't be indifferent.
Even if someone told them to fight as usual, just ignore this matter, but when it comes to the game... especially when fighting those casual teams that are not as strong as them, they will still overcorrect because of this psychological pressure.
As a result, as Snow said--in order to hide something, they exposed more things instead.
"Okay... I understand what you mean." An Yueqin thought for a while, and said, "I have roughly thought about the reasons why you have been holding back until the tenth round to do this, so..." She asked again, "What is the strategic significance of you insisting on not using Chuck Norris' Razor?"
"It's for Gui Xiao." At this moment, Xu Huai Shang suddenly interjected.
As the only professional player in the club, her focus on an opponent like Gui Xiao is self-evident, so she immediately thought of the point, and made this reasonable and well-founded speculation...
"Yes." Feng Bujue responded, looked at Xu Huai Shang and said, "After all, that kid is the only person I know, besides me, who can see through data... Although he has not shown any ability to 'learn other people's skills' so far, he has mastered the 'data perspective' for much longer than me, and it is hard to say whether he is deliberately hiding some kind of power similar to mine, or even stronger."
"Wait a minute..." Snow heard this and said again, "Since he can see through the data, then what's the difference if you use it or not? He can see it as long as it's in your inventory."
"That's okay." Feng Bujue said, "As long as I don't take it out and use it, what he can see is nothing more than a special effect description like 'gives you a stylish appearance', what can he know?"
"Hmm..." Snow recalled, it was true... In all the publicly available video data of Thriller Paradise, there were no scenes of Jue-Ge fighting with his head shaved; he himself only knew about the actual effect of the razor after joining Hell's Frontline, after hearing his teammates talk about it, just looking at the item description wouldn't tell you anything, "That makes sense..." Snow thought and said, "But... you have gone to this extent to defend against him alone... From a certain point of view, would you be considered to be influenced by the psychological pressure exerted by Gui Xiao?"
"Where~ ah..." Feng Bujue stared with his dead fish eyes and replied, "Swallowing Heaven Gui Xiao has never been a psychological barrier; from beginning to end, he has been an objectively existing and unavoidable problem, all teams or individuals who want to win the championship have to face him and find a practical solution. From this perspective, everything I have done so far is taken for granted, and I will continue to do these things until I fight him." At this point, he paused, and changed the subject, "Of course, if you have to talk about psychological warfare, heh... that kid did make similar attempts..."
"You mean..." Ruoyu understood what Jue-Ge meant, "...his deliberate performance when fighting Shiva?"
"Ah..." Jue-Ge responded, "That kind of 'showing off' little kid's way of doing things, although it seems very clumsy and superfluous to me, but in general... that's his way of conveying information, right?" He tilted his head and added, "Everyone knows that he is ridiculously strong, he doesn't need to use this method to put pressure on people... A more reasonable explanation is that this kid wants to convey the message 'I'm just that strong, you can wash your neck and wait for me' to a few people, or one person... for example... me."
"Hmm..." Snow pondered for two seconds, and replied, "If this inference was made by someone else, I might say that he has a 'good sense of himself', but with you... I always feel that there could be a lot of hatred here..."
"Alright, if he really has any hatred or resentment, I will be the one to bear it... Besides, how do you know that it's not another one of my strategies?" Feng Bujue raised his eyebrows and said, "In short, what you should prioritize now is not the grudges between me and Gui Xiao, but how to deal with the brother and sister combination on the other side in the upcoming 'mid-tier battle'."