Chapter 236: Battle Master

Li En was beaten up.

Beaten up by a coward.

But he was still happy.

Because he had vented well.

"That coward."

Li En suddenly woke up, still muttering under his breath.

That guy refused to activate the inheritance mode, using the excuse that "you haven't earned my approval." And Lex's chosen method of approval was "defeat me."

Heaven, never seen such a shameless person.

You say I must defeat the Continent's Hero to receive the Continent's Hero's inheritance—why don't you just say first save the world, kill a few demons, then I'll give you the Hero title and a starter sword!

So that night, it was one side cursing while the other fought.

Lex probably had his fill of fighting, and Li En had his fill of cursing. He couldn't even remember how many times he'd died or revived.

This was a battle destined to have no possibility of victory, yet Li En kept going—not because he was a pervert, but simply because the rewards were simply too great.

"How about I teach you how to fight, and you curse less? Isn't my mom your mom? At least don't curse that."

Leaving aside other things, in how to fight, Lex was truly insane.

He wasn't like Sul, who only had that rigid, decisive killing style, just wanting to slaughter for fun—Lex could suppress his strength, speed, even sword technique below Li En's, yet still win easily.

Li En lost, and in the first few battles he didn't even know how he lost.

In every battle, the ultimate victor was always Lex, yet the actual gap was always just a tiny bit.

"A tiny bit of the fingertip universe?"

Li En knew that unless Lex held back, this bottleneck that seemed breakable through effort was in fact an insurmountable barrier.

But when Lex imitated Li En's fighting style, sword techniques, and innate abilities, and demonstrated how a "better Li En" fought, Li En simply couldn't refuse this cheat-like growth.

"Footwork—the key is footwork. He held back his strength from start to finish, only exploding in an instant, causing his opponent to briefly misjudge and get crushed under the greatsword on his face."

"Just gained one extra innate ability and I'm completely outmatched—what the hell, can fire be used like this? A spiral acceleration engine? Does he have this technology?"

"How about you become a Red Dragon breed? Let me be the sick cat."

Though Li En never said it aloud, he truly respected the opponent's fighting talent and combat experience.

This wasn't merely a crushing superiority in technique and experience—it was more like a dimensional gap in combat wisdom and instinct, a true "pilot gap."

Lex used inferior hardware and techniques, yet could combine just a few abilities to forge a viable "instant combat power," seize that fleeting opening, and easily overcome stronger opponents.

He was assembling and simulating Li En's abilities, yet always produced a superior combat style—this meant Li En could find his own future path simply by copying the answers.

"I, in truth, have no fixed patterns or combat conventions. The term 'prodigal sword' more accurately describes a sword without fixed form, freely combining according to circumstance."

"Overcoming the strong? Doesn't exist. Reality always crushes the weak. You think I'm overcoming the strong, but in truth I combined abilities to be stronger in one instant, one aspect, one body part—and that momentary advantage, if seized, is enough to turn the tide."

The essence of Lex's combat style lies in seizing opportunities, exploiting the opponent's weaknesses. Fighting him is exhausting—any blind move, any foolish decision of yours, could be met with a crushing counterblow.

Even if you make no mistakes, this conservative response is still a foolish waste of time—tactical inertia could, in the next second, drag you into a death trap.

And his "single-minded focus" ability ensures he never misses a single opportunity. Li En even suspected he could never make a mistake in battle.

"No, I do make mistakes—only, to you, they might seem like my greatest strength. My mistakes are probably just the slightly worse choices among hundreds. Your optimal choice is merely a random decision among three or four."

"In combat, so-called right or wrong choices aren't absolute. If you swing your sword and can't anticipate at least ten possible instant reactions, or simulate three or four steps ahead, you're still just a beast relying on instinct."

Perfect calculation, beast-like instinct, preemptive prediction, pushing all hardware and software to the extreme in mechanism combinations—Li En met a true "Battle Master."

He had originally thought Hela, who had knocked him out, was an absurdly skilled swordmaster—but now it seemed she couldn't even compare to Lex's shadow.

"I can't learn it."

"You don't need to learn it. Just take it with you."