Chapter 406: You

"Sss! Master-level Gale Phantom Body! Impressive!"

"Damn, I'm blinded— which one's the real Cao Ren?"

"He opens with his ultimate move right away— Commander Cao Da gives Xu Jingming not a single chance!"

"Compared to Master-level proficiency in Gale Phantom Body, Xu Jingming's combat skill proficiency is indeed far too low."

"......"

Gale Phantom Body is an A+ combat skill only elemental wind-affinity adepts can learn.

At beginner proficiency, it can form only one phantom body.

The higher the proficiency, the more phantom bodies it can form.

Cao Ren's twenty-three phantom bodies undeniably gave every spectator in the arena a minor shock!

If it were merely an illusion to confuse vision, that would be enough—but more crucially, these phantoms can also cast spell-based combat skills alongside the original!

That's some weird stuff!

Twenty-three spell-based combat skills released simultaneously—who can withstand that?

Meanwhile, this Master-level proficiency combat skill.

Stands in stark contrast to Xu Jingming's merely Intermediate-level proficiency in Thunder Prison.

"Master-level proficiency—come to think of it, the combat skills Xu Jingming knows are all indeed not very high in proficiency."

Su Qingli thought silently.

This was also the only current weakness she had identified in Xu Jingming.

But Xu Jingming is only twenty years old—he's managed to rapidly raise his level while mastering so many combat skills.

Slightly lower proficiency is understandable.

"Look! Cao Ren's attacking!"

A voice from somewhere made everyone refocus their attention on the arena.

Indeed, the twenty-three Cao Rens in midair simultaneously raised their right hands, then slashed downward!

Shuu! Shuu! Shuu!......

Under the enhancement of wind-element weapons at their wrists, violent cyan gales.

Coalesced into twenty-three razor-sharp wind blades, shooting toward Xu Jingming!

These wind blades seemed compressed with terrifying energy, their edges razor-sharp—where they passed, even the air appeared to be sliced apart!

"Done for! Twenty-three wind blades have completely sealed off Xu Jingming's escape routes!"

"Judging by the energy fluctuation of these blades, they must also have reached Master-level proficiency, right?"

"Indeed, it seems Xu Jingming has no choice but to take them head-on."

"......"

After the battle with Chen Hai, everyone knew.

After activating his Mind Net, Xu Jingming can predict opponents' movements and dodge in advance.

But Cao Ren unleashed twenty-three wind blades at once—even if Xu Jingming sensed their trajectories, he still couldn't escape!

And spell-based combat skills require casting time—they're nowhere near as fast as simple wind blades!

In other words, Xu Jingming can only rely on his physical body to brute-force endure these wind blades!

But sixth-rank mid-tier wind blades are no joke—even a true sixth-rank enhancement-type adept might not survive them.

Not to mention Xu Jingming, who's only a fifth-rank lightning-affinity adept who's merely trained body-strengthening combat skills.

Even with an S-class battle suit, he still couldn't withstand them!

"Will this battle end now?" Spectators held their breath, watching the arena closely.

Yet, just as the twenty-three wind blades were about to strike Xu Jingming, golden light blazed suddenly.

Crackling—

Amidst piercing thunderous roars, a perfectly smooth golden thunder barrier.

Instantly coalesced around his body, shielding him completely!

Ding! Ding! Ding!......

A series of sounds rang out—the razor-sharp wind blades slammed into the thunder barrier, all rebounding!

The entire thunder barrier showed not a single crack, not even the slightest tremor!

"Huh?!"

The Cao Rens in midair froze in surprise.

The phantom bodies formed by Gale Phantom Body can cast combat skills, but only those below B-rank.

Their power is only two-thirds of the original.

Even so, twenty-three continuous wind blade strikes shouldn't fail to break through a thunder barrier.

Also, isn't Xu Jingming's casting speed too fast?

Remember, B-rank combat skills like wind blades are indeed weaker than A-rank ones—but they win on speed!

Just now, from casting to impact on Xu Jingming, it took less than half a second.

Yet even so, Xu Jingming still managed to activate his thunder barrier—that was unexpected.

In fact, not only Cao Ren was confused—the many spectators in the gymnasium were equally baffled.

"Thunder Barrier is an A+ combat skill—its casting time is usually one to two seconds. How did Xu Jingming cast it so fast?!"

"It's absurdly fast, and the defense is way too strong."

Most spectators here were only second- or third-rank adepts—it's normal they couldn't understand.

But soon, a master from the Thunder Temple stepped forward, astonished, and explained:

"An ordinary Lei Ting Barrier really isn't that fast, but Xu Jingming's Lei Ting Barrier is no ordinary one.

Judging from the condensation level of the Lei Ting and its defensive power, the proficiency is at least Grandmaster level!

It might very well be Perfection-level proficiency!"

The Lei Ting Barrier is also a combat technique that lightning-element users must master.

With their sharp eyes, they only needed a single glance to see the root of the problem.

"Ah, this... Perfection-level proficiency? Isn't that too heaven-defying?"

"A combat technique at Perfection-level proficiency can be cast instantly! No wonder Xu Jingming is so fast!"

Combat techniques below C-rank can reach Perfection-level proficiency as long as one is willing to put in the time.

But combat techniques above C-rank are different — Perfection-level proficiency is almost only achievable by the technique's own creator!

Ordinary ability users can reach Grandmaster-level proficiency at most.

Yet Xu Jingming not only reached it, but on a complex combat technique rated A+ at that!

At this moment,

those who had just been saying Xu Jingming's technique proficiency wasn't high suddenly felt their faces being slapped.

"Per... Perfection-level?"

Xia Lan in the very front row of seats couldn't help but widen her eyes at the sight, a storm of shock surging in her heart.

She had thought it was already outrageous enough that Xu Jingming had learned an A+ combat technique in a single afternoon.

But she hadn't expected that not only had he learned it, he had also raised it to Perfection-level proficiency in just over a month!

This was simply inconceivable!

Cao Ren on the alloy arena had also heard the discussions coming from the audience.

His expression briefly stunned, he quickly came back to his senses:

"A Perfection-level Lei Ting Barrier is indeed powerful, but defense alone won't be enough to defeat me.

Besides, how many more hits like that can you take?"

As he spoke, those 23 phantoms actually began darting through the air rapidly with no discernible pattern.

At the same time, the rings on both hands glowed faintly, a terrifying energy fluctuation brewing within.

Clearly, Cao Ren was preparing to unleash his next spell-type combat technique.

And from the look of it, this technique was far stronger than the Wind Blades from before!

"Cao Ren is about to use an even more powerful combat technique!"

"This is trouble now — there are too many phantoms, there's no way to find the real body!"

"Indeed, one can only say the Master-level Swift Wind Phantoms have too great an impact on the battle."

"......"

Element users fear zerg tactics the least, but Cao Ren's 23 Swift Wind Phantoms are different.

First, they're all flying in the air, too far away.

Second, the phantoms move too fast, making spell-type combat techniques hard to aim.

Take right now, for example — Cao Ren's phantoms are scattered all around above Xu Jingming's head.

They won't cluster together at all, so there's no way to take them all out at once!

"We can only break them one by one, or wait for Cao Da's phantoms to exhaust their ability energy and dissipate on their own."

Swift Wind Phantoms, when it comes down to it, are made of wind element.

At most, after releasing two or three combat techniques, their wind element will be completely consumed and they'll vanish.

But those two or three combat techniques alone are enough for Cao Ren to suppress Xu Jingming, and even inflict considerable damage.

After all, even though a Perfection-level Lei Ting Barrier is strong, it can't withstand a continuous output of abilities.

However, just as most of the audience were thinking this, a low voice suddenly rang out from the alloy arena:

"Lightning Chain!"

PS: There's still one more chapter later, it's been a while since I last asked for gifts, thanks to all you reader bosses~~