"Yi-jie, I'll hold him off. Look for an opportunity." Xu Jingming said in the team voice chat, his eyes fixed on his master, Liu Hai, as he reached behind him to grab a pair of shields, one in each hand. Xu Jingming took a few steps, blocking his master from Yi-jie.

"Using shields?" Liu Hai chuckled and suddenly charged forward.

His burly figure blurred as he rushed straight at Xu Jingming, making Xu Jingming's heart jolt. "So fast! He's much faster than me."

The instant Liu Hai reached him, Xu Jingming also charged forward, slamming his shields forward as if to push away the sky.

Whoosh!

Liu Hai's figure flashed, seemingly moving sideways, appearing to Xu Jingming's side, and a flash of his saber came down.

"Bang." Xu Jingming slightly retracted his left-hand shield, intercepting the blow.

Shields were highly adept at defense. Even ordinary people who knew nothing could block a large area with two shields held in front of them. For experts like Xu Jingming, slightly moving the shields could seal off the enemy's attack angles.

"Bang, bang, bang!" But the saber light didn't stop. Three consecutive strikes, each with fierce power, landed on the left-hand shield, causing Xu Jingming to feel the shield tremble and his arm weaken. As Xu Jingming was about to deflect the fourth strike,

The instant this fourth strike came down, it strangely stuck to Xu Jingming's shield, causing Xu Jingming to miss his parry. Xu Jingming's expression changed slightly, but the clinging saber suddenly exerted force, causing Xu Jingming's shield to be shaken open. But Xu Jingming reacted quickly, immediately closing his right-hand shield to block the incoming saber light.

"Bang! Bang! Whoosh! Clang!"

The saber light flickered, seemingly identical, but the sounds of impact with the shields were different. The different impact sounds represented different exertion techniques, making Xu Jingming feel very uncomfortable, as if he had fallen into an undercurrent. The undercurrent was turbulent, and the different saber force made it difficult for him to adapt.

"My techniques of borrowing and deflecting force are useless and only make me more confused." Xu Jingming realized this. "Only by attacking with attacks, using *Beng* force to instantly disrupt Master's saber techniques, and coordinating the dual shields to compensate for defensive flaws."

Almost instantly, Xu Jingming's shield techniques changed.

The defensive shield techniques were also extremely powerful. The instant the saber and shield collided, the shield would suddenly exert force, either colliding head-on, pressing down, or slashing! Each weapon collision made Liu Hai feel as if the shield in front of him was a rotating reef, rotating clockwise or counterclockwise, and sometimes even colliding head-on.

"Interesting." Even so, Liu Hai continued to suppress Xu Jingming with his saber, teasing Xu Jingming, tearing at Xu Jingming's dual-shield defense.

...

In the Xia nation's official livestream, countless people watched the battle.

When Liu Hai charged at Xu Jingming, countless viewers became excited! It was here, the peak battle they had been anticipating!

"Xu Jingming, don't get killed with one strike."

"Block a few strikes at least."

The audience watched nervously.

Liu Hai's saber light was like a white bolt of silk, seemingly identical, but the force was completely different. There was firmness, gentleness, yin and yang changes, causing Xu Jingming to feel somewhat chaotic even with his dual shields, and gaps began to appear. But immediately afterward, Xu Jingming's shield techniques changed, becoming extremely powerful, attacking forward into a large area with each move!

Under the fierce shield techniques, Liu Hai's saber continued to suppress and pull, but with the coordination of the dual shields, the defense stabilized, and he couldn't break through for a while.

"Fierceness is the way to go!"

"Xu Jingming, be fierce like that. Fierce shield techniques are hard to crack."

"Haha, Xu Jingming blocked it. This is going to be great."

The audience became more and more expectant, wanting to see a turning point in the battle.

"Bajiquan excels at close combat." Xu Hong, who had been eliminated, was with his wife, watching the battle and nodding in satisfaction. "Close-range force exertion is especially good. Even the captain won't find it easy to crack Jingming's shield techniques."

This was the difference in fighting styles.

Shield techniques were good at defense, and Bajiquan was good at close combat. When the two were combined… within three feet, Xu Jingming's dual shields were extremely fierce, and even Liu Hai found it difficult to break through the dual shields with a single saber.

...

In the forest map.

As Liu Hai was hacking at Xu Jingming, Wang Yi, who was fifty meters away, stood behind a large tree and raised her hand to fire an arrow!

"Whoosh."

Wang Yi, who had a high-level evolution method and level-3 swordsmanship, now had an arrow speed that was equally terrifying.

"Hmm?" Liu Hai, who had been paying attention to Wang Yi, frowned slightly and dodged the arrow. The arrow shot into the tree trunk behind him, causing the tree to explode and fall with a crash.

"Wang Yi's evolution method has also broken through. Her arrow speed is fast enough." Liu Hai noticed this.

"Whoosh." "Whoosh." "Whoosh."

At a distance of fifty meters, Wang Yi looked for opportunities, firing arrows again and again.

Liu Hai had to dodge after attacking Xu Jingming a few times.

"I can't focus all my attention on dealing with my disciple. More than half of my attention has to be on that girl Wang Yi." Liu Hai thought, "Letting a level-3 archer fire arrows while still killing Xu Jingming? Even I can't do that."

"If I'm careless and get hit by an arrow, I'll lose. My footwork isn't as good as Lei Yunfang's. Lei Yunfang fell." Liu Hai didn't dare to turn his back to Wang Yi carelessly. He had to keep seeing Wang Yi, focusing most of his attention on her.

...

"Wang Yi's arrow speed exceeds 700 meters per second. Liu Hai is panicking a little at that speed."

"Allowing the archer to attack wildly while still focusing on Xu Jingming, Liu Hai is still a little too arrogant."

"If he gets hit by an arrow, Liu Hai might lose the match."

Countless viewers could see that under the terrifying bow and arrow, Liu Hai was also dodging with all his might, or desperately using his saber techniques to block.

The arrow was just too fast!

Even the world's number one needed to be careful of such bows and arrows.

"That female archer is quite powerful." The envoys from various countries in the Blue Star Alliance delegation watched the match and made their judgments. "That shield expert is also quite good at defense, blocking Liu Hai's saber."

"A shield expert and a female archer like that, in our Sakura country," the Sakura country envoy said solemnly, "would also be among the top three experts. The Xia nation is truly powerful. Our Sakura country still doesn't have anyone who has passed the third level of the Star Tower. The younger generation of the Xia nation is so powerful… we must make our people work harder. We have a small population, and if we don't work hard, we will only fall further behind!"

...

Liu Hai suddenly took out a shield from his back, holding a shield in one hand and a saber in the other. This startled Xu Jingming, making him even more cautious. "Is Master going to use his full strength?"

Whoosh.

But Liu Hai charged straight at Wang Yi in the distance.

"What? Not dealing with me, but going after Yi-jie?" Xu Jingming was shocked and quickly followed.

"Coach Liu Hai is going to defeat us one by one?" Wang Yi panicked. "I thought he would be confident enough to let me shoot arrows at will."

Liu Hai's full burst of speed made the distance between him and Xu Jingming, who was chasing behind him, grow further and further.

Wang Yi immediately judged, "He's much faster than me. I can't escape."

"The only hope is an arrow."

Wang Yi instantly took out an armor-piercing arrow.

The armor-piercing arrow, combined with the great bow in her hand! It was enough to break through the light armor of these level-3 experts.

"Ordinary arrows must be shot at the head. He has a large shield in front of him, so I can't hit him at all. Only an armor-piercing arrow will work… and at short range, I only have time for one armor-piercing arrow."

"I only have one chance."

Wang Yi stood calmly in place, her bow and arrow pointed at Liu Hai.

A distance of fifty meters would take Liu Hai less than a second to reach Wang Yi, but in that time… a sharpshooter of Wang Yi's level could turn her thoughts around a few times.

She looked at Liu Hai charging towards her expressionlessly and coldly.

Thirty meters, twenty meters… letting the distance shrink.

"I don't believe he'll have time to block an arrow fired from within ten meters." Wang Yi waited for the best opportunity.

But when he reached fifteen meters, Liu Hai suddenly threw the saber in his hand, catching Wang Yi off guard. She almost instinctively released the arrow! Originally, she wanted to wait until they were seven or eight meters apart before suddenly firing the arrow.

But Liu Hai was too cautious.

The saber thrown from a distance of fifteen meters was extremely swift. Wang Yi had no time to dodge and was struck, piercing her body.

And Wang Yi's armor-piercing arrow, at a distance of fifteen meters, Liu Hai merely moved his left hand down slightly and blocked the arrow.

"He must have practiced the knack of throwing sabers." Wang Yi thought unwillingly as her body turned illusory, "This Coach Liu Hai is too cunning."

Liu Hai came to where the saber had fallen and picked it up.

"When charging at an archer head-on, you always have to throw hidden weapons. It's just that there's no need to carry hidden weapons when dealing with juniors." Liu Hai was so accurate whether he threw sabers or stones, and he had indeed developed a knack for hidden weapons.

It was just that he hadn't chosen to carry them when selecting weapons and equipment for this match.

He had simply thrown the saber at close range!

For him, with a shield in one hand at close range, he was confident that he could defeat any opponent in a one-on-one fight. The saber was gone, so be it.

"It's uncomfortable being stared at by a sharpshooter all the time. Now it's comfortable." Liu Hai held the shield in his left hand and the saber in his right, looking at his disciple Xu Jingming charging towards him.

"Master, with your strength, is it necessary to be so cautious?" Xu Jingming couldn't help but say, "Do you have to eliminate the sharpshooter first when dealing with the two of us juniors?"

"Naive."

Liu Hai said in a private voice chat, "This is the national finals. Being careless is a lifelong matter. Also, you have to remember… when fighting, you have to use your head more! There's no need to make it so difficult unless you have to. Otherwise, why make the match so hard?"

"In a fight, you have to be steady! If you can win, try to win. Do you think your master never got injured in the five consecutive grand competitions I participated in back then?" Liu Hai looked at Xu Jingming. "You little guy broke your leg the first time you participated in a world competition? That's because… I'm more steady."

"Being rash can easily lead to a fall. You've suffered so much, and you still haven't learned your lesson." Liu Hai looked at Xu Jingming. "Fighting isn't about being rash. Fighting strategy is also part of the Taiji principle."

Xu Jingming sighed inwardly. He was clearly powerful enough to be the best in the world, yet he was still so steady and careful. Could he defeat such a master?

"Come on, without the interference of the sharpshooter, I can give you better training." Liu Hai looked at Xu Jingming with a smile, looking very gentle.

—

Fanqie just finished doing math with his son when he discovered that the monthly votes had exceeded 35,000, and he had to add an extra chapter. He quickly coded until now to update a chapter for everyone.

This monthly vote addition ends at 12:00 tonight.

Adding more chapters is still too much pressure for the current Fanqie, sigh…