Chapter 17 Gunplay, Third Order

"My spear technique 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, making it clear that this bottleneck was indeed difficult to break through.

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

"Fortunately, it came sooner than I expected." Xu Jingming grinned, then revealed a puzzled expression. "But why does my feeling differ from what Master said?"

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

"Bring me 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 each one was not to be trifled with.

"Kill!"

The ten bandits naturally scattered, surrounding him in a siege.

Even throwing knives and hidden weapons streaked across the sky, heading for Xu Jingming.

"Boom."

Xu Jingming's eyes faintly turned red, and his entire figure blurred as he rushed out. In his eyes, the movements of the surrounding bandits, even the throwing knives and other hidden weapons, seemed to slow down considerably.

"It's not that their movements have slowed down, but that my reactions have sped up." Xu Jingming whirled his spear, easily deflecting several throwing knives.

Whoosh!

At the same time, five bandits had already rushed in close. They coordinated seamlessly, wielding knives, spears, chain hammers, and various other weapons simultaneously.

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

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

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

"My ordinary attacks are even faster than Shadowless Thrust now!" Xu Jingming thought with joy, "Body like fire, whole body burning, blood boiling! With a thought, my whole body responds. My speed and strength have reached a new level."

"Most importantly, my reactions are faster." Xu Jingming was more concerned about this.

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

When an enemy attacks, I can strike first and arrive later!

Even when facing archers, my ability to dodge will be much stronger.

When facing a siege, I can easily control the situation. After all, when the surrounding enemies move in slow motion, breaking through becomes much simpler.

"Bang! Bang!" Xu Jingming's spear moved like parting grass, sweeping left and right, sending four bandits flying away in succession.

"Boom."

With a single cleaving strike, he forced a bandit wielding a large shield halfway into the ground, causing him to cough up blood and vanish into nothingness.

"Wonderful, wonderful. My body hasn't improved. My body index is still 135, but my explosive power and speed are much stronger. I understand now why Master and I have the same physical stats, yet he can still easily beat me." Xu Jingming unleashed his spear technique with abandon, killing the bandits one by one, turning them into illusions.

"Shadowless Thrust!"

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

"So fast." Xu Jingming himself was amazed. Even he could only vaguely sense the spear's thrust and retraction. "This is what Shadowless Thrust should be. If the enemy can see it, what's the point of calling it Shadowless?"

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

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

"My body is like fire. My whole being feels like it's burning, and I erupt with a single thought!" Xu Jingming loved this feeling. If his past body was an old car, stepping on the gas was slow and sluggish, now it's a supercar, and he shoots out with a light touch!

Agile, terrifying power, explosive…

Even in this state, his brain was working faster, and his reactions were much quicker.

"From the second-order limit to the third order is a complete qualitative change. Nothing else has changed, only my spear technique has gone 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. If I raise it to the advanced stage, I can get another boost!"

"No hurry, I'll consolidate my spear technique first, then go to the Star Tower!" Xu Jingming was filled with fighting spirit and headed straight to the mission space.

Beneath the Star Tower.

Xu Jingming looked up at the huge leaderboard next to the Star Tower, gazing at the six names. "Soon, it won't be long before my name is on that list." Thinking this, he charged into the Star Tower.

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

"The Tiger King is too ferocious. I was gone with one claw." Xu Jingming muttered, "Looks like I have to reach the advanced stage of the evolution method."

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

He had watched the video of Master Liu Hai's attempt at the Star Tower. The Tiger King's strength, speed, reaction, and agility were all superior to Master Liu Hai's. Master had relied on his combat skills and spared no effort to pass. As for 'Lei Yunfang', who had long since reached the advanced stage of the evolution method and possessed a terrifying third-order movement technique, he had also spent a long time before passing, becoming the fifth person in the world to do so.

As for Zhou Yi? He hadn't passed yet.

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

…

"Ba ba ba."

It was lunchtime, and Xu Jingming was eating large mouthfuls, devouring the meat and rice quickly.

"Is there any need to be so rushed?" Li Miaomiao ate daintily to the side. "Why are you eating so fast today?"

"I'm done eating. I'm going into seclusion. Miaomiao, don't disturb me today unless it's something really important." Xu Jingming put down his chopsticks, wiped his mouth, and immediately sprinted to the bedroom. The virtual world had been open for a month, and his body in reality had long since been completely transformed. He ran much faster, like a gust of wind, and flashed into the bedroom.

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

"I thought so! During the battle against Cheng Zihao's team, Jingming was so ferocious at the end, his whole body seemed to be on fire. He must have had some breakthrough. Some people said Jingming was stimulated and entered a super state. What super state? That's just a legend. How easy is it to break out of that?" Li Miaomiao thought.

In reality, there were indeed people who suddenly broke out of their normal state, unleashing power far beyond their usual abilities.

But this kind of thing was too rare.

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

It could only be said that Xu Jingming's accumulation was deep enough, and the previous anger was a trigger. The angry thought was like fire, causing his whole body to feel like it was burning, and he broke through the bottleneck.

The first breakthrough was unfamiliar, and the outburst was too frantic, causing some capillaries to burst. Once he was familiar with mobilizing his body's potential and consolidated his gains, he would be able to erupt easily.

******

That night.

Li Miaomiao invited Wang Yi and Dai Xiaoqing to her personal space to keep her company.

"Meow Meow." Although Wang Yi was aloof, she happily ran over to hug 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're the strongest female archer in Xia country. You have to maintain the posture of a female demon king."

Wang Yi released her hug, sat to the side, looked at the azure sea, and picked up a watermelon to eat. "People should be true to themselves. If you like something, you like it. If you don't like something, you don't like it. Why pretend? Meow Meow, I really love your singing so much. When are you going to do a live singing stream? You have to let me know in advance."

"Okay, okay. I need to prepare for a live singing stream in advance. I'm planning to do another singing stream after the Tinder Cup competition," Li Miaomiao said.

"My sister-in-law puts on a live singing stream like it's a concert," Dai Xiaoqing said. "She prepares very thoroughly."

"When you sing, you have to immerse yourself in it and enjoy it," Li Miaomiao said. "By the way, Archer, I invited you here because I have something to ask you."

"Meow Meow, you can ask me anything. 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 are backed by large corporations that hope my popularity will bring them advertising revenue. Like, every time I do a live stream, there are basically millions of people watching… which is like doing advertising for them every day."

Li Miaomiao nodded.

"But I don't care about those things. 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 the end of archery skills will be like. I want to explore and master it myself. That's the most fascinating thing."

"What does that have to do with your choice of team?" Li Miaomiao asked.

"So I want teammates who are strong enough," 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 clash with more experts! Otherwise, we'll be eliminated in the first round and won't even have the qualifications to fight against top experts."

"The truly top-level clashes are the most challenging and the most capable of improving people." Wang Yi's eyes burned with passion.

"I understand," Li Miaomiao nodded.