Chapter 189 Third Order

"My spearmanship has finally broken through to the third order." Xu Jingming was somewhat elated. After all, many of the world's top experts were stuck at the second-order limit and found it difficult to break through, proving that this bottleneck was indeed difficult to overcome.

"I thought I would be trapped in the bottleneck for a month or even longer."

"Fortunately, it came sooner than I expected." Xu Jingming grinned, then revealed a puzzled look. "But why is my feeling different from what my master said?"

Xu Jingming stretched out his hand, and a spear appeared.

"Bring ten bandits with a basic combat strength of 2,000." Xu Jingming easily set the parameters, and soon ten bandits appeared. There were men and women, some burly and strong, others thin and wretched, but none of them were easy to mess with.

"Kill!"

The ten bandits naturally dispersed and surrounded him.

Even hidden weapons like darts streaked through the sky, heading for Xu Jingming.

"Boom."

Xu Jingming's eyes faintly turned red, and his whole figure blurred as he quickly rushed out. In his eyes, the movements of the surrounding bandits, and even the movements of the darts and other hidden weapons, seemed to slow down a lot.

"Their movements can't have slowed down, it's just that my reaction is faster." Xu Jingming circled his spear, easily deflecting several darts.

Whoosh!

At the same time, five bandits had already rushed in close, coordinating their attacks. Blades, spears, and chain hammers came at him simultaneously.

Xu Jingming took a step back, dodging most of the attacks, and then moved his spear.

Pfft, pfft, pfft!

In an instant, the throats of the three bandits closest to him were pierced.

"My usual moves are even faster than Shadowless Thrust now!" Xu Jingming was delighted. "Body like fire, the whole body is hot, blood is boiling! With a thought, every part of the body responds accordingly. Speed and strength have reached a new level."

"Most importantly, my reaction is faster." Xu Jingming cared more about this.

Faster reactions! That meant seizing the initiative with every move.

The enemy attacks, and I strike first!

Even when facing an archer, my dodging ability is much stronger.

When facing a siege, I can easily control the situation. After all, when the surrounding enemies are moving in slow motion, it's much easier to deal with them.

"Bang! Bang!" Xu Jingming's spear seemed to be parting grass, sweeping left and right, sending four bandits flying away.

"Boom."

With a single splitting thrust, he forced a bandit holding a large shield halfway into the ground, causing him to cough up blood before he vanished into nothingness.

"Refreshing, refreshing! My body hasn't improved, my body index is still 135, but the explosive power and speed are much stronger. I understand now why my master, with the same physical fitness as me, could still beat me easily." Xu Jingming unleashed his spearmanship wantonly, and bandits were killed one after another, turning into illusions.

"Shadowless Thrust!"

At this moment, Shadowless Thrust was truly a Shadowless Thrust. The bandits with a basic combat strength of 2,000 didn't even see Xu Jingming's movements of thrusting and withdrawing the spear before their chests were pierced.

"So fast." Xu Jingming himself was amazed. Even he could only vaguely sense the spear thrusting out and returning. "This is what you call Shadowless Thrust. What's the point of calling it Shadowless Thrust if the enemy can see it?"

All ten bandits dissipated, leaving only Xu Jingming in the training ground.

"Hahahaha…" Xu Jingming laughed, laughing heartily. "Master really misled me, saying 'body like water'! I don't feel like water at all!"

"My body is like fire, my whole being seems to be burning, and I explode with a thought!" Xu Jingming liked this feeling. If his past body was an old car, stepping on the gas was slow and sluggish, now it's a supercar, a light touch and it shoots out!

Agile, terrifying power, explosive…

Even his brain worked faster in this state, and his reaction was much quicker.

"From the second-order limit to the third order is a complete qualitative change. Nothing else about me has changed, just my spearmanship going from 99% of the second order to 1% of the third order, and my combat strength has increased by about a thousand." Xu Jingming sighed inwardly. "No wonder the other experts in Xia country were powerless against Master Liu Hai, Lei Yunfang, and Zhou Yi!"

"Moreover, my evolution method hasn't broken through yet. Improving to the high-level of the evolution method will boost it even further!"

"No rush, I'll consolidate my spearmanship first, then go to the Star Tower!" Xu Jingming was full of fighting spirit and went straight to the mission space.

Beneath the Star Tower.

Xu Jingming looked up at the huge leaderboard beside the Star Tower, looking at the six names. "Soon, it won't be long before my name is on this list too." Thinking this, he rushed into the Star Tower.

However, just ten minutes later, Xu Jingming was kicked out.

"The Tiger King is too ferocious. One claw and I was done for." Xu Jingming muttered. "Looks like I have to reach the high-level of the evolution method."

Actually, Xu Jingming had already guessed that it wouldn't be so easy to pass the third level of the Star Tower.

Because he had watched the video of his master Liu Hai challenging the Star Tower back then. The Tiger King's power, speed, reaction, and agility were all above Liu Hai's. His master had relied on combat skills and put in all his effort to pass. As for Lei Yunfang, who had long since reached the high-level of the evolution method and whose movement technique had reached the terrifying third order, it also took him a long time to pass, making him the fifth person in the world to do so.

As for Zhou Yi? He still hadn't passed it.

"After fighting for a while, my spearmanship has increased to 2% of the third order? I'll keep practicing, consolidate my spearmanship, and then practice the evolution method." Xu Jingming was extremely enthusiastic. After breaking through the bottleneck, he had finally started to improve again.

…

"Ba ba ba."

At lunchtime, Xu Jingming ate voraciously, devouring the meat and dishes quickly.

"Is there any need to be so hasty?" Li Miaomiao ate in small bites beside him. "Why are you eating so fast today?"

"I'm done eating. I'm going into seclusion. Miaomiao, don't disturb me today unless something big happens." Xu Jingming put down his bowl and chopsticks, wiped his mouth, and immediately sprinted towards the bedroom. After a month of the virtual world's opening, his body in reality had also undergone a complete transformation, and he ran much faster, like a gust of wind, entering the bedroom in a flash.

Li Miaomiao ate alone, muttering, "Don't disturb him unless something big happens? He's gone into seclusion? Looks like he's really made a breakthrough."

"I knew it! During that battle with Cheng Zihao's team, Jingming was so fierce at the end, his whole body seemed to be on fire, he must have made a breakthrough. Some people said Jingming was stimulated and had an ultra-state burst. What's so-called ultra-state burst? That's just a legend, it's not that easy to burst." Li Miaomiao thought.

In reality, some people do suddenly experience a state burst, unleashing power far beyond their usual ability.

But this kind of thing is too rare.

Although Xu Jingming was very angry during the previous battle, he was still within his limits… After all, that was just a virtual world battle, and it hadn't even broken through Xu Jingming's limit of reason, let alone his physical limit.

It could only be said that Xu Jingming's accumulation was deep enough, and the previous anger was a trigger, the fiery thoughts causing his whole body to seem to burn, breaking through the bottleneck.

The first breakthrough was still unfamiliar, and the outburst was too frantic, causing even capillaries to be broken by the blood. Once he was familiar with mobilizing his body's potential and consolidating it, he could burst out easily.

******

That night.

Li Miaomiao, in her personal space, invited Wang Yi and Dai Xiaoqing to accompany her.

"Maomao." Although Wang Yi was aloof, she happily ran over and hugged Li Miaomiao when she saw her. "My idol actually invited me, I'm so excited."

"Calm down, calm down." Li Miaomiao was a little amused by the hug, and said, "You are the strongest female archer in our Xia country, you have to have the demeanor of a female Great Demon King."

Wang Yi released the hug, sat aside looking at the azure sea, and picked up a watermelon to eat. "People should be true to themselves, like what they like, and dislike what they dislike. Why pretend? Maomao, I really like your singing so much, when are you going to do a singing live stream? You have to let me know in advance."

"Okay, okay, I have to prepare in advance for singing live streams. I plan to do another singing live stream after the Fire Seed Cup competition." Li Miaomiao said.

"My sister-in-law opens a singing live stream as if she's holding a concert." Dai Xiaoqing said, "The preparation is quite thorough."

"Singing, you have to immerse yourself in it and enjoy it." Li Miaomiao said, "By the way, Archer, I'm looking for you because I have something to ask you."

"Maomao, just ask, I'll tell you everything I know." Wang Yi said.

Li Miaomiao said, "I heard that many teams have invited you to join, but you haven't decided on a team yet?"

"Mm."

Wang Yi nodded. "Actually, many teams value my popularity. Those teams have large group companies behind them, and they hope that my popularity will bring them advertising effects. Like every time I live stream, there are basically millions of people watching online… It's like I'm advertising for them every day."

Li Miaomiao nodded.

"But what I care about isn't that, popularity? Advertising? I don't care about any of that." Wang Yi said, "I want to pursue higher archery skills. I really want to know, what is the end of archery skills like? I want to explore it myself, to master it. That's the most fascinating thing."

"Then what does that have to do with you choosing a team?" Li Miaomiao asked.

"So I want strong enough teammates." Wang Yi said, "The stronger the better! Strong teammates will allow the team to go further. This is just a domestic competition, in the future there will be global competitions… Only if the team goes far enough can we face more strong opponents! Otherwise, if we're eliminated in the first round, we won't even have the qualifications to fight top experts."

"The truly top-level confrontations are the most challenging and the most capable of improving people." Wang Yi's eyes were burning.

"I understand." Li Miaomiao nodded.