Chapter 55: Breakthrough! Global [996]

"Clang!"

"Clang!" Li Yuan's spear shifted continuously, parrying the three consecutive claw strikes.

Immediately after, he executed a sudden roll, his movements incredibly agile, once again evading the combined strike of two more claws.

It was incredibly perilous.

"Puchi~" The moment he rolled to his feet, Li Yuan casually executed a counter-thrust, the spearhead striking like lightning into the eye socket of a Yuling clansman who couldn't dodge in time.

He withdrew upon contact, but the spear tip had already shattered the brain through the eye socket.

Boom~ It fell directly.

"Kill count +1." The system's prompt sounded.

Compared to the four previous times he had attempted the promotion match, Li Yuan's spear technique had no essential improvement.

What had improved the most was his movement technique, allowing him to face the encirclement of these Yuling clansmen with greater composure.

"Too clumsy," Li Yuan thought to himself. "In terms of physical fitness, these Yuling clansmen should all be at the eighth rank or even approaching the ninth, significantly stronger than me."

"But their skill level is likely at the peak of the second stage."

If it were one-on-one, Li Yuan could kill a Yuling clansman in a single exchange.

Unfortunately, there were too many of them.

Even an ant colony can kill an elephant, and these Yuling clansmen's claw strikes carried an impact force of over a thousand kilograms.

"Roar~"

"Howl!!" These Yuling warriors roared. Seeing their companion killed, they seemed even more enraged, their scarlet eyes fixed on Li Yuan, wanting to kill him.

"Puchi!"

"Puchi!" Li Yuan dodged and parried, only occasionally erupting with his spear.

Most of the time, Li Yuan was on the defensive.

However, whenever he found an opportunity to strike with his spear, the Yuling clansmen were either killed or wounded.

"They seem numerous, but due to spatial constraints, at most three or four can attack me at once." Li Yuan constantly used their own force against them.

Time ticked by, second by second.

"Kill count +1"

"Kill count +1" The system reminded him constantly.

In less than a minute, six Yuling clansmen lay in a pool of blood, and the pressure Li Yuan faced continued to decrease.

Suddenly.

"Wawa~" One of the Yuling clansmen suddenly let out a strange cry, its four arms waving frantically, its claws like blades, grazing the end of Li Yuan's spear.

"Boom~" The spear shaft's force shifted, exceeding Li Yuan's initial expectation. His arm went numb, and his dodging body couldn't help but slow down by half a beat.

In a life-and-death struggle, half a beat is the difference between life and death.

"Whoosh!"

"Swish!" Several emerald-green figures pounced toward Li Yuan, giving him no space to break out of the encirclement again.

A full six blade-like claws whistled in from all directions simultaneously.

"Clang!" "Clang!"

"Boom!"

Li Yuan held his spear, swinging it twice to parry two of the claws, only to feel a terrifying impact strike his back.

It felt as if he had been heavily slashed by a blade! It left Li Yuan's whole body numb and his blood churning.

"Puchi~" A mouthful of blood sprayed out.

Whoosh!

Li Yuan stabilized his stance, exerting all his strength to step forward with the claw's momentum, evading the claw that whistled in right after.

However, more claws slashed down, exactly when Li Yuan's old strength was spent and his new strength had yet to be born.

"Not good." Li Yuan's scalp tingled.

He felt a death crisis.

In his four previous attempts at the promotion match, the first two times he was swarmed and killed immediately.

The third time, he killed three Yuling clansmen.

The fourth time, he killed five.

He had thought that with his improved movement technique, he had a chance to pass this time, but Li Yuan discovered he had still underestimated the difficulty of the Meteor promotion match.

After killing six Yuling clansmen, the remaining six seemed to have entered a berserk mode, their speed and power becoming even more exaggerated.

"Kill!"

"I must be faster! Faster!"

Li Yuan's eyes turned faintly red, completely crazed. Knowing he could hardly escape, he exerted his utmost to unleash his spear technique.

In this instant, Li Yuan felt all the blood in his body faintly boiling.

It was as if it were the instinctive eruption of a living being facing death.

All the strength in his body seemed to be mobilized; his spirit, will, and body erupted to the extreme simultaneously, reaching a state of mysterious integration.

"Whoosh!"

At this moment, Li Yuan felt his control over his body break through a certain boundary, shattering the shackles.

The transmission of his body's strength became so wonderful; it was a feeling Li Yuan had never experienced before.

"Boom!"

The speed of the spear in Li Yuan's hand surged violently, and the momentum it carried increased by a large margin.

The spear tip instantly traced a semicircle in mid-air.

"Puchi!" "Puchi!" With one sweep of the spear, he deflected a claw, and the spear tip directly grazed the throats of two Yuling clansmen, blood splattering.

"Kill count +1"

"Kill count +1"

Two consecutive system prompts flashed by.

"Boom!" "Boom~" The attacks of the other few Yuling clansmen finally arrived, their claws slashing fiercely onto Li Yuan's body.

Especially one claw, incredibly precise, whistling down from mid-air, slashing fiercely toward Li Yuan's neck.

Puchi! A sensation of the world spinning.

Intense pain transmitted to Li Yuan's consciousness, and he instantly disappeared from the spot.

Meteor promotion match, fifth challenge failed.

Kill count, eight!

……

Star Combat Network, inside his personal space.

"I."

"What just happened?" Li Yuan stood dazed on the spot, not feeling the slightest bit dejected by the failure of the Meteor promotion match.

On the contrary, his eyes were full of excitement and joy.

"That last spear strike?" Li Yuan recalled the strike from just a moment ago.

Between life and death.

Under that unprecedented pressure, Li Yuan only wanted to be faster! Faster!

He hadn't deliberately executed any moves; all that remained was the madness of "even if I die, I must bite off a piece of the enemy."

Under this frenzy, Li Yuan's mobilized body strength reached a state of true perfection and fulfillment.

This allowed him to launch a final counterattack in a desperate situation, killing two Yuling clansmen first.

"The transmission of strength is perfect, without a trace of stagnation." Li Yuan's mind stirred.

His gaze swept over the Vision Divine Palace panel, to the section regarding skill realm.

——

Skill Realm: Spear Technique (Third Stage 99%), Movement Technique (Third Stage 99%), Fist Technique (Fourth Stage 0%)

——

"The realm, it really broke through."

"Fist technique, crossed into the fourth-stage level." Li Yuan's eyes brightened slightly. "Fist technique is the combination of body and mind, the focused control over the body; it was destined to be the first to break through among my skills."

"Hahaha!"

Li Yuan finally couldn't help but burst into loud laughter, feeling an unprecedented sense of relief. "My fist technique was already at Third Stage 99% three or four months ago."

"My spear technique reached Third Stage 99% two months ago."

"For these past few months, I have been practicing spear technique like a madman." Li Yuan's eyes held a glow. "Yet I couldn't break through, it was hard to enter the gate."

"Last night, the teacher even told me to try and ponder it on my own later, saying that perhaps I would break through at some point."

"I didn't expect."

"So quickly, in a single promotion match, I actually broke through?" Li Yuan felt very satisfied in his heart.

Promotion match failed, martial arts skill broke through.

Li Yuan knew this couldn't be called a breakthrough between life and death; after all, it was just a virtual battle, and deep down he knew there was no danger of death.

Being able to break through was more importantly due to the thousands of times he had practiced spear and fist techniques, the numerous accumulations, his comprehension, and finally, a little bit of—luck.

From this breakthrough, he stepped into a different world.

"Master."

"Congratulations, Master, your ranking on the Blue Star Youth List has surged into the top 1000." The young girl beside him giggled. "Your current ranking is 996."

"996th?" Li Yuan was stunned upon hearing this.

He had just scanned a system notification.

"Guardian·Yuan, you killed eight defenders in the promotion match. Your ranking on the Blue Star Youth List has improved from 【1132】 to Global 【996】, Xia Nation District 【243】, Jiangbei Sub-district 【9】."

Li Yuan had been too excited just now, focusing entirely on himself, and hadn't seen this message.

"996th?"

Li Yuan muttered to himself, "The uncle I met just now, his points were also 996."

"Could it be that I am fated with 996 today?"

"But I clearly have already been grinding to 007." After mocking himself, Li Yuan stopped paying attention to the ranking.

996th?

This Blue Star Youth List ranking was determined based on rank points and performance in promotion matches.

Each of the four previous times he had attempted the promotion match, it had caused Li Yuan's ranking to soar.

This time, he had successfully broken into the global top one thousand.

This was already an astonishing ranking.

After all, Li Yuan's gaze swept over a data display regarding the Blue Star Youth List: the number of people on the list for the 2042-2043 term was '36,874'.

Half a year.

The Blue Star Youth List had surged from over four thousand people when Li Yuan first made the list to over thirty thousand.

Li Yuan couldn't see the specific list, but he could see the total number.

This was to ensure that every martial arts genius on the list had a rough positioning of themselves and wouldn't be blindly arrogant.

"If I could try the promotion match one more time, I should be able to pass the Meteor rank match," Li Yuan thought to himself. "Unfortunately, there's no chance now."

Once a promotion match fails, the cooldown period is seven days.

"Xiaoyu, on the Blue Star Youth List, how many have reached the Meteor rank now?" Li Yuan asked casually.

"As of today, there are 164," the green-clad girl Xiaoyu said. "The list cannot be disclosed."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 56 =====