Chapter 23 Suppressing Firepower

Xu Jingming suddenly thrust out with his spear. The spear was as fast as lightning, the red tassel dancing, directly stabbing towards Lei Yunfang, who was circling around him. Lei Yunfang, wielding dual blades, paused slightly in his footwork. The spear thrust landed three feet in front of Lei Yunfang, hitting empty air.

For Lei Yunfang, even a supersonic arrow from a sharpshooter would only pose a threat within ten meters. He could easily evade Xu Jingming's spear thrust, even accounting for the momentum of the attack.

Even if Xu Jingming thrust a hundred times, he wouldn't touch Lei Yunfang once.

Missing with the thrust, Xu Jingming didn't dare to follow through. He immediately retracted his spear.

"Clang."

The moment Xu Jingming missed, Lei Yunfang closed in, his blade flashing. Fortunately, Xu Jingming retreated and withdrew his spear with lightning speed, the shaft narrowly blocking the blade.

"Pfft." The right-hand blade was blocked, but the left-hand blade was already upon him.

"Bang!" Xu Jingming immediately raised both arms, his arm guards colliding with the left-hand blade. The Bajiquan explosive force affected Lei Yunfang, and Xu Jingming immediately retreated, holding his spear defensively.

Lei Yunfang glanced in surprise at the blade mark on Xu Jingming's arm guard and said, "Using the arm guard as a shield? Employing Baji?"

"A desperate measure," Xu Jingming said.

The armor's defense wasn't uniform. The chest plate and arm guards offered the highest protection. Many close-combat experts used their arm guards as 'small shields'. Lei Yunfang's quick blades couldn't possibly cleave through the arm guard.

"Arm guards are too small, how many blows can you block?" Lei Yunfang, like a hunter, strolled leisurely around Xu Jingming, changing direction from time to time.

Xu Jingming had to turn with him, constantly keeping his opponent within sight. Lei Yunfang was simply circling, like a gust of wind. Xu Jingming was merely turning, but with his nerves stretched taut, having to follow constantly only increased the pressure.

"I only made one thrust just now, a thrust that was both offensive and defensive, and it allowed Lei Yunfang to find an opening, relying on my arm guard to block it," Xu Jingming mused. "Attacking gives him an opening, but if I don't attack, will I just keep getting beaten?"

This feeling was unbearable.

He understood how Fang Yu had felt. Before, with his advantage in footwork, he could attack whenever he wanted and retreat whenever he wanted, completely suppressing Fang Yu.

Now Lei Yunfang was doing the same! Xu Jingming's attacks couldn't touch him at all. Yet he could attack at any moment. If his attack failed, he could attack again, ten times, a hundred times... Xu Jingming couldn't see any hope of victory.

"Swish." As Lei Yunfang circled Xu Jingming, he occasionally unleashed a blade, unpredictable and dangerous.

If Xu Jingming's defense faltered slightly, Lei Yunfang would immediately launch a wave of close-quarters attacks.

"Clang!"

Again, he relied on his arm guards to repel Lei Yunfang.

"I was constantly defending this time, and he still found an opportunity?" Xu Jingming felt the pressure increase. "What should I do?"

Attacking meant he couldn't hit his opponent.

Defending still allowed his opponent to find opportunities!

"I'm getting a taste of how terrifying the world's number one footwork is," Xu Jingming lamented inwardly. He was also at the third-tier in footwork, yet in front of Lei Yunfang, he was laughably clumsy.

...

In the Xia Country livestream, even ordinary people could see the current situation clearly.

"Lei Yunfang's footwork is too powerful," the male commentator, Jin Fan, concluded. "When he fully unleashed his footwork, Xu Jingming couldn't even touch him! Xu Jingming has no chance at all. He's destined to lose."

"Relying on arm guards to compensate for defensive weaknesses, but arm guards aren't shields, they can't block every time," the female commentator, Ju Wenqing, nodded in agreement. "I don't see any possibility of him winning. Actually, Xu Jingming is already doing very well, facing the all-out assault of the world's number one in footwork, and he's still holding on."

"That's right."

The host, Liu Xin, also favored Xu Jingming and nodded. "Before, Lei Yunfang would kill his opponents with a single strike. This time, two blades aren't enough, he has to fully utilize his footwork... Xu Jingming has managed to hold on for so long, he really is strong."

The audience awaited the outcome.

"It looks like Xu Jingming is going to stop here."

"He's already excellent."

"Lei Yunfang has been using his full strength and footwork, Xu Jingming has lasted for three minutes, right?"

...

Countless viewers were waiting for the result of this duel. Whether it was Cheng Zihao, Sun Li, and others harboring animosity, or Xu Jingming's friends and family, they were all soberly aware that the odds of winning this duel were almost zero.

"Yi-jie and the others have taken care of those four opponents," Heng Fang said.

The livestream scene was vast, showing the entire kilometer radius of the small town, but almost everyone was focused on the peak battle between Xu Jingming and Lei Yunfang. Very few were watching Wang Yi and Yang Qingshuo chase down Lei Yunfang's team of four. Those who did would quickly shift their gaze away.

But at this moment...

Lei Yunfang's team of four had been completely wiped out.

Accompanied by a spear thrust, Yang Qingshuo watched his opponent disappear in a virtual flash.

"Yi-jie, all opponents have been eliminated," Yang Qingshuo said on the team voice channel.

Whoosh.

Wang Yi also arrived at the alleyway, nodded, and looked into the distance. "Captain is fighting Lei Yunfang. Let's go help him."

"Mm," Yang Qingshuo nodded.

The two of them quickly made their way to an inn seventy or eighty meters away from the battleground. Both of them reached the roof of the inn, where they could clearly see the battle unfolding seventy or eighty meters away.

Xu Jingming was being suppressed terribly. He had to give it his all, unable to even launch an attack with his spear. He was just desperately defending! Even then, he would occasionally lose his defense and have to rely on his arm guards to block.

Fortunately, he only needed to protect his head! Lei Yunfang's blades couldn't pierce Xu Jingming's armor, after all, having reached the advanced stage of the evolution method, Xu Jingming's armor weighed much more and offered a higher degree of protection.

"I can't help Xu-ge. If I go over there, I'd probably be gone in one move," Yang Qingshuo said.

"I'll try,"

Wang Yi watched carefully.

She sensed the wind, sensed the drifting rain, and focused her gaze on Lei Yunfang moving in the distance, and began to draw her bow, nocking an arrow.

"Swish."

Wang Yi's eyes turned cold, and she released her fingers. The arrow instantly tore through the air, a supersonic arrow, hurtling towards its target.

Lei Yunfang, who was fighting Xu Jingming, sensed the wind, his footwork ghostly, riding the wind. Suddenly, he sensed an unusual vibration in the 'wind' and glanced over. It was an arrow, already twenty meters away. Lei Yunfang slightly altered his rhythm of movement. *Chiii*, the arrow flew past Lei Yunfang, finally burying itself in the stone slab ground, creating a pit.

"Zhou Yi's arrows require me to go all-out to deal with. Little girl, your arrows? I don't even need to look," Lei Yunfang said with a smile. He really didn't need to look.

With his keen sense of the wind, as long as the arrow approached within a certain distance, he could detect it, even if it was a surprise attack from behind.

"He dodged that arrow so easily?"

Wang Yi, seeing this from a distance, felt that Lei Yunfang had simply moved normally, slightly altering his rhythm, and her arrow had missed.

"Again, I at least have to disrupt Lei Yunfang."

Wang Yi gathered her strength again and fired another arrow.

Lei Yunfang didn't need to deliberately pay attention to the arrow, nor did he need to look. He simply sensed the unusual fluctuations in the wind, paid attention, and changed his movement rhythm accordingly. Lei Yunfang treated it as a fun exercise to train his footwork.

"In the training grounds, I would simultaneously generate a group of sharpshooters to surround and attack me. I would dodge while killing enemies. Compared to the virtual opponents, this little girl is just one person, no threat at all," Lei Yunfang stared at Xu Jingming. "On the other hand, Xu Jingming can really hold on. Let's see how many times you can hold on."

He suddenly closed in again, his blades flashing.

Xu Jingming's mind was completely focused on Lei Yunfang, and he used all his strength to block with the spear.

Defend, defend, defend!

Lei Yunfang's ghostly footwork and sudden swordsmanship forced Xu Jingming to defend instinctively every time, leaving no time for his mind to think.

"Clang." Another desperate block with his arm guard, forcing the opponent back.

"That's the fifth time. How many more times can I block?" Xu Jingming's skin was flushed red, and his eyes were bloodshot. The flow of his blood and qi had reached its peak, and he was fully mobilizing every bit of strength from the depths of his body, but he still felt like a prisoner trapped in a desperate situation, the more he struggled, the more powerless he felt.