The voice stopped, and the intent of the blade rose.

Before Xu Huai Shang could make a move, her two opponents had already adopted a defensive stance.

They were both well aware...that reacting after seeing the attack would likely be too late.

Two seconds later, Xu Huai Shang lowered her stance, shifted her weight backward, and crossed the double blades in her hands forward, instantly unleashing the move [Bei Tian Shi Zi Huang] (Northern Sky Cross Phoenix).

This move was an evolved technique, transformed from the C-grade martial art [Bei Tian Shi Zi Que] (Northern Sky Cross Sparrow).

Similar transformations had been mentioned many times in previous chapters. For example... Feng Bujue's [Careless Repair] later became [Not-So-Careless Repair]; Juan Meng Huan (Corpse Blade as King)'s [Turning Cloud Wave Thousandfold] became [Turning Cloud Wave Myriadfold]; and Li Ruoyu's [Seven Clear Frost Chill] and [Blazing Sky Flying Snow] merged into one, becoming [Bipolar Killing Rhapsody]; and then there were techniques like [Wild Ball Fist] and [Mingyu Gong], which had inherent upgrade attributes.

The phenomenon described above is generally called "skill evolution."

In fact, any skill has the potential to evolve. The trigger for skill evolution is usually frequent and skilled use of the skill, or... a specialization breaking through to S-grade.

In Thriller Paradise, when a player's level is maxed out and their main specialization reaches S-grade, there is basically no room for improvement in explicit stats. However... there are still many implicit stats that can be improved. For example—"creating your own skills."

At this stage, the players who can access this area are few and far between. For example, Feng Bujue's use of Lan Jiao, and Tian Ma Xing Kong's control of Tian Ma Liu Xing Quan (Pegasus Meteor Fist)... have already stepped on the threshold of "creating your own skills." As long as they take another step forward, they can enter a vast new world.

Of course, to create your own skills, S-grade specialization is indispensable. This hard indicator can also be said to be the watershed between masters and ordinary people.

And Xu Huai Shang is undoubtedly a master—a top master. Her ability, awareness, mental fortitude... are not inferior to any top male player, and may even surpass them. She is now far stronger than she was during the "Butterfly Battle" when she activated [Soul Advent] state...

Whoosh—

No sooner said than done, a cross-shaped blade aura bloomed from the tips of Xu Huai Shang's blades, rushing towards Yongzhe Wuju and Yongzhe Wudi.

These two weren't very fast, but their offense, defense, and reaction abilities were strong. Since they had already prepared in advance, they naturally chose to "defend" against that skill.

Facing the scarlet red slash, Yongzhe Wuju thrust his spear forward in a line, releasing his battle qi; Yongzhe Wudi joined his fists together, sinking his strength into his dantian.

Soon, the left and right ends of the "cross" blade aura struck the two players. At that moment... they faintly heard a terrifying phoenix cry in their ears. Immediately afterward, they felt their bodies enveloped in a chill...

Although the temperature on this icy peak was already very low, until just now, Brother Wudi and Brother Wuju had not been affected by the cold. Because level fifty players already had a high resistance and adaptability to ambient temperature, even in environments of forty degrees above zero or twenty degrees below zero, they would not lose survival points; it was only that the physical sensation of hot and cold, discomfort, and the extra consumption of stamina would still take effect as usual.

However... after coming into contact with the energy of [Bei Tian Shi Zi Huang], the two of them simultaneously felt their bodies stiffen and become difficult to move.

They both reacted almost in the same second... that although the effect of this skill looked like burning flames, the essence of that "flame" was actually the power of extreme cold.

"If you only watch the recording..." Xu Huai Shang immediately closed in after launching her attack, and said, "...you would definitely think this move is a fire attribute attack, right?"

"Hmph..." Yongzhe Wudi quickly took out a bottle of [Antifreeze] from his knapsack to remove his "frozen" status, then guarded his teammate and replied, "It was indeed a bit unexpected... If we had known it was an ice attribute skill, we wouldn't have taken it head-on."

Clang—clang—

Before he could finish speaking, Xu Huai Shang's double blades had already slashed at Yongzhe Wudi's wrists.

"Ugh—" The latter's movements were delayed due to the previous frozen state. He hurriedly blocked the attack but lost his balance, and was immediately knocked back a dozen feet with a muffled groan. Including the previous skill damage, Yongzhe Wudi had lost a total of 32% of his survival points.

"During the battle just now, I already noticed..." Xu Huai Shang relentlessly attacked Yongzhe Wuju, who had not yet regained his footing, sending him retreating step by step. "You rely too much on the pre-match intelligence analysis... as if you had already planned out 'which moves to take', 'which moves to dodge', and 'which moves to break' before the fight..." She paused for half a second, her footwork suddenly changed, using a light, exquisite, and beautiful movement, she slashed out a falling sideways chop, attacking the dead angle of her opponent's ribs. "This kind of tactic is indeed reasonable and efficient in a balanced or advantageous situation. But... once you encounter an experienced opponent who is good at adapting on the spot, it will become a double-edged sword that cuts you."

As she spoke, Yongzhe Wuju's ribs had already been slashed by Xu Huai Shang... and this was just the beginning.

Brother Wuju was different from Brother Wudi. Because he used a long weapon like a spear, the adjustment time he needed after losing his footing was longer, so Yongzhe Wudi, who had regained his posture first, came over to cover him. Unfortunately... Brother Wudi was knocked back after holding out for only a few seconds, which gave Xu Huai Shang an excellent opportunity to kill Yongzhe Wuju...

In this kind of combat using weapons, there is a very crucial basic element, which is "Maai." In a duel between masters, they often start by breaking into a "Maai" that is favorable to themselves in a defensive posture.

Generally speaking, "Maai" can be understood as—the distance, time, and psychologically real and unreal space required for both sides to strike.

To give a few popular examples... if you use a guandao to chop someone, then your Maai is at least one meter and two centimeters; if you use a watermelon knife to chop someone, the ideal Maai is two-thirds of your arm length plus thirty centimeters; and if you take a small paring knife to chop someone, then Maai is almost the same as chopping someone with your own hand knife...

In short, every weapon has its own most suitable Maai. If the distance during combat exceeds your own Maai, you can only defend and cannot attack; and if the distance is less than your own Maai, the power of the weapon and the performance of the user will be limited.

At this moment, Xu Huai Shang, who had rushed in front of Yongzhe Wuju, occupied an overwhelming advantage in Maai. Yongzhe Wuju, who used a spear, could not attack at all at this distance, and his defense also seemed awkward and dangerous. Moreover... Xu Huai Shang's strength was already stronger than Yongzhe Wuju, and under a burst of fierce quick attacks, Brother Wuju's survival points were dropping rapidly, and the cuts on his body were also increasing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"This is bad..." Yongzhe Wuju thought anxiously to himself while parrying, "...being counter-killed in a two-on-one, am I kidding?"

Originally, Brother Wuju wanted to use words to force Xu Huai Shang to attack, and then he and his teammates could rely on their intelligence advantage to take it easy and counterattack defensively. He didn't expect... that they couldn't withstand the opponent's attack.

"This won't do... if I die like this, I'll lose face and I won't keep the bonus... now I can only fight!"

Seeing that the situation was about to collapse, Yongzhe Wuju finally made up his mind to reveal his trump card, at least to fight the opponent to the death.

"Ah—" The next second, Brother Wuju let out a pig-slaughtering scream.

After all, they were teammates. Yongzhe Wudi, who was rushing back from several meters away to support, knew as soon as he heard this sound... that I don't need to rush over anymore.

Sure enough, Yongzhe Wuju stood firmly after taking two knives head-on, raised his spear high, and used his title ability...

[Name: Noodle Master Tornado]

[Special Ability Type: Active]

[Consumption: Immediately consumes 1000 stamina points upon activation, and then consumes 300 points per second; once the skill is activated, it cannot be stopped until the player's stamina points reach zero.]

[Effect: Raises the weapon above the head, using the strength of the arms to rotate it, creating a range-based continuous damage like a tornado (cooldown time 80 minutes, radius of effect depends on the environment, must be activated with a long weapon)]

[Note: This move was created by a noodle master known as the "Strongest Man on the Continent," who came from Shanxi. He was skilled in using a large steel rod, not only was he a good cook, but he was also highly skilled in martial arts. In addition to creating many chuunibyou dishes, he also created the famous Seventy-Seven Forty-Nine Roads Jie Family Staff Technique, and was known as the Sword and Staff Double Absolute alongside the Seven-Star Knife Rein in the same period.]

Whoosh whoosh whoosh—

In an instant, the spear had rotated over Yongzhe Wuju's head, and the rising sound of the wind being broken swept out waves of invisible storms around.

Xu Huai Shang's offensive... was actually forcefully blocked by this wind force, unable to continue.

............

"Holy crap... what kind of move is this, it has a lot of momentum."

"Will he just fly up like that, and then use his mouth to fire a machine gun?"

"You're all too naive! I've seen him use this skill before, it looks like he's just spinning the spear in place, but the consumption and power are both very high."

............

The spectators outside the arena were quite excited to see someone using a big move, but the players in the arena weren't so relaxed.

As soon as this move came out, Xu Huai Shang's expression obviously changed.

Although this title skill was quite full of flaws, its actual effect was quite powerful... the user didn't need to move at all, and could launch an attack and defense that was a complete circle with no blind spots against enemies in the 360 degrees around them, including in the air.

Moreover, this [Noodle Master Tornado] had a very strange attack judgment. People who were too close to the caster would feel repulsion, while those who were too far away would feel traction. In short... whether you wanted to escape the skill range, or wanted to approach the user, it would increase the loss of survival points. It was also difficult to attack him with ranged methods, because flying objects that were not powerful enough would be blown away by this tornado.

Therefore, Xu Huai Shang could only endure in the eye of the storm, waiting for the opponent's skill to stop.

But at the same time, the threat of Yongzhe Wudi was approaching again...

There was no doubt that Brother Wudi was also caught in the range of the tornado's effect, but this skill was not a "non-discriminatory damage skill," so although Brother Wudi would also be subjected to the pull of the wind force, he would not lose survival points.

Under this premise, if Yongzhe Wudi went to fight Xu Huai Shang, then the latter's situation would be quite bad.

Running away... was possible, everyone was in the eye of the storm, as long as they kept moving, no one could catch up with anyone. But moving meant giving up defense, and the loss of survival points would also accelerate.

Defending... was also possible, but while resisting Yongzhe Wudi's attacks, and also resisting the damage from the tornado, the loss of blood would definitely not be slow.

And the last option—attacking head-on... seemed impossible, because it felt like doing so would bear the sum of the damage from the above two options, which could be considered the fastest way to die.

However, Xu Huai Shang, when Yongzhe Wudi approached... chose to attack head-on.

Perhaps some people would think... that this was an impulsive, and even self-defeating performance, but that was not the case.

Xu Huai Shang was a player who would not be easily swayed by emotions (except when fighting Brother Jue). Most of the time, her judgments were calm and accurate.

She would do this because she saw an opportunity to reverse the situation in that seemingly most unfavorable option...

"Captain Xu, the victory has been decided... I'm sorry!" When Yongzhe Wudi withstood the wind force and moved to within two meters of Xu Huai Shang, he confidently uttered a declaration of victory.

"Yes... the victory has been decided..." Xu Huai Shang turned her head, a murderous intent flashing in her eyes, "But I don't know what you have to be sorry about."

In an instant, Yongzhe Wudi's fear value soared. Intuition told him that he felt an unprecedented danger.

But... at that time, it was impossible for him to maneuver anymore, he could only brace himself and face the opponent's killing intent head-on.

"Drink—" Whether it was to embolden himself, or to intimidate, in that second, Yongzhe Wudi shouted loudly, calling out the name of the move and launching a strike, "[Huang Ji Jing Tian Quan] (Imperial Zenith Shocking Heaven Fist)!"

"Using your fists in this wind is a mistake." At this moment, Xu Huai Shang even had the spare capacity to point out the other party's mistake, "The power of the strike and the outward released fist wind will become lighter and slower due to the wind force, and difficult to control..." As she said this, she actually abandoned the knife in her left hand, and lightly tossed it towards the other party's fist path.

Bang—

Accompanied by a strange noise, Yongzhe Wudi's fist had touched the blade surface. Although the short knife was immediately knocked away, his fist path was also deflected as a result.

"A little interference, and it will become like this." Xu Huai Shang said, and was already darting forward through the wind, bending down to dodge the opponent's attack, and using the single knife in her right hand to activate the skill, "In this environment, the best way to attack is... to completely contain the energy in the solid slash of the weapon."

After saying that, the knife rose, the shadows shifted, and the body was severed.

With a single move of [Ying. Yue Duan] (Cherry. Moon Severance), she gave countless viewers a textbook demonstration of a waist chop.