Chapter 441: Chapter 426 Unrivaled Gun Soul (First Update)

Juan Canyun and Zhao Mingwei entered the arena, and the environment of the entire competition field changed rapidly.

The Catastrophe Lady, who had been put to sleep, was teleported back to Juan Canyun’s Fureya room, with the originally gloomy dungeon-style arena instantly transforming into three floating islands in midair.

The three islands were each styled distinctly, one covered in lava with scattered magma pools that would burn anyone stepping into them, and another covered with frost which would slow down anyone who carelessly stepped on it.

In the center island, there were only a few artificial hills that served as hiding places, and Juan Canyun and Zhao Mingwei stared at each other from opposite sides of this central island.

The match had already begun. Juan Canyun took a deep breath, assumed his stance, and watched Zhao Mingwei, who stood motionlessly in the distance.

Historically, Juan Canyun and Zhao Mingwei had not clashed often in disputes. When Zhao Mingwei retired, Juan Canyun had just secured his starting position. The last time he faced Zhao Mingwei was in the dispute score match a year ago.

In that match, Juan Canyun had defeated Zhao Mingwei, and as a newcomer, Juan Canyun distinctly felt Zhao Mingwei’s condition had declined to a point where he could no longer be called a front-line player.

A year had passed, and Zhao Mingwei was now twenty-six, considered quite old among professional players. This veteran, who was already considered elderly, had undergone a transformation after switching to a game called Saint Spirit; his condition could not merely be described as warmed-up.

It was a super evolution!

Juan Canyun was tense, waiting for Zhao Mingwei’s attack, his eyes intently focusing on Zhao Mingwei who was gradually surrounded by Telekinesis Energy…

When Juan Canyun blinked, Zhao Mingwei’s face, which had previously been a hundred meters away, suddenly appeared in front of him.

Instant Step?

Juan Canyun didn’t see how Zhao Mingwei moved in front of him, but the roar of a dragon and tiger was already assaulting his face; Juan Canyun tried to dodge the punch by tilting his head.

However, Zhao Mingwei withdrew the punch in a flash, and taking advantage of the moment Juan Canyun tilted his head, he immediately used a sweeping leg, causing Juan Canyun to lose his balance and hang mid-air.

So fast! When Juan Canyun regained his senses, he hadn’t even seen Zhao Mingwei’s punch retraction clearly, but his body instinctively thrust a spear towards Zhao Mingwei while floating.

His spear hit… it hit the phantom formed by Zhao Mingwei’s Telekinesis.

The phantom instantly exploded, sweeping Juan Canyun with the released Telekinesis, causing not very high damage to display above his head.

But that strike caused a stiffness in Juan Canyun’s body, and while mid-air, he unleashed Cloud Formation*Fall… A spear formed by Unrivaled Gun Qi hurled at Zhao Mingwei, who was swinging the power of a Furious Dragon Roar towards him.

The spear disrupted Zhao Mingwei’s rhythm of attack, and Juan Canyun landed somewhat awkwardly… watching from a distance as Zhao Mingwei caught the thrown spear with his hand.

“Adapted yet?”

Zhao Mingwei held the spear Juan Canyun had materialized, and under the destruction of Telekinesis, the spear disintegrated into fragments in his hands, vanishing.

“Adapted?”

Juan Canyun was slightly startled, and as a talented young player, he quickly grasped what Zhao Mingwei meant by adapting to his rhythm of combat.

But what was that ghostly attack speed?

During their brief encounter, Juan Canyun’s eyes couldn’t even follow Zhao Mingwei’s movements, and he had only managed to counterattack instinctively to break free from Zhao Mingwei’s assault.

Playing with mouse and keyboard would have been better, but this was a VR game… Zhao Mingwei wasn’t using the system’s default auto-attacks; each punch was swung by himself.

So fast… but Juan Canyun could see clearly! He now felt something flowing inside his body, making everything in his vision seem slower.

It wasn’t an illusion, the time recording on the bottom left of his vision had indeed slowed down by half, but in this world where everything should have slowed down, only Zhao Mingwei’s attacks seemed incongruously fast.

But… he had to win this match.

“Senior… it’s my turn now,” Juan Canyun said, holding the spear in his right hand and lightly touching the ground with his left, readying himself like a cheetah about to pounce.

In an instant, the ground beneath Juan Canyun cracked, and he charged towards Zhao Mingwei, the hundred meters closing in an instant as the spear thrust towards Zhao Mingwei’s chest.

Telekinesis Energy Shield!

A Telekinesis Energy Shield spread out from the center of Zhao Mingwei, but Juan Canyun swung his spear, using Thunderbolt Life-taking Spear.

The system helped Juan Canyun perform the move, and his spear struck the Telekinesis Energy Shield like a torrential rain, shattering it instantly, and the one releasing the move was a phantom created by Juan Canyun using Cloud Formation.

Juan Canyun’s real body, amidst the rain-like stabs, unleashed an extremely sneaky move that caused a forced floating effect with his spear.

However, Zhao Mingwei dodged it. Only a few blades of the Thunderbolt spear touched Zhao Mingwei’s body, allowing him to avoid Juan Canyun’s truly lethal attack. In the moment he dodged, he released a Charged Thought Cannon.

Under a tiger’s roar, the Charged Thought Cannon swept over Juan Canyun.

Counterattack!

The Charged Thought Cannon did not cause any stiffness on Juan Canyun, or rather, he controlled his movements to minimize the stiffness.

The next second after the Charged Thought Cannon exploded on Juan Canyun, what greeted Zhao Mingwei were two cold gleams as Juan Canyun and his phantom simultaneously thrust their spears towards Zhao Mingwei’s chest and legs.

Zhao Mingwei stepped on the spear thrust by Juan Canyun’s phantom and stretched out his hand to block the spear aimed at his chest by Juan Canyun himself.

This block caused Zhao Mingwei to take damage, but Juan Canyun’s attack trajectory was deviated enough to miss.

It wasn’t over yet!

The moment one of Juan Canyun’s phantoms at his side dissipated, another Unrivaled Phantom split from his swinging motion and unleashed.

According to the skill description in Saint Spirit, Cloud Formation could create only one phantom to attack the enemy at a time, one phantom disappearing only to release another.

But when Juan Canyun swung his long spear, he felt a strange power accumulating within him; every time he swung the long spear, he felt as if someone behind him mimicked his movements.

Faster! Even faster! A voice inside Juan Canyun’s heart roared ceaselessly.

Thrust, spear pick, face flick, sweeping leg… In Juan Canyun’s eyes, time seemed extremely slow, but the only things that did not slow down were Zhao Mingwei’s defensive and offensive movements, and the swinging of his long spear.

The phantom that had always emerged behind Juan Canyun dutifully replicated Juan Canyun’s attacks–originally, the phantom that always swung slightly slower than Juan Canyun suddenly moved ahead of him, thrusting its long spear at Zhao Mingwei with an attacking posture.

The phantom did not possess its own consciousness; the phantom formed by the Unrivaled Gun Qi was merely a shadow, and a shadow cannot move away from its master’s actions.

The reason Juan Canyun saw the phantom thrusting its long spear ahead of him was… he had launched two completely different attacks at the same moment, without any delay!

Juan Canyun’s shadow had caught up to his actual speed!

But it still couldn’t hit! Or rather, it couldn’t deliver a critical strike to Zhao Mingwei.

The phantom behind Juan Canyun had now overlapped with Juan Canyun’s timing of attack; Zhao Mingwei was facing simultaneous fierce assaults from two Juan Canyuns.

But Juan Canyun just couldn’t find Zhao Mingwei’s flaw; it was as if Zhao Mingwei had anticipated everything either dodging like a ghost from Juan Canyun’s attacks or deflecting the trajectory of Juan Canyun’s long spear with his hands that bore the force of his spirit beasts.

Not enough! Still not enough!

If one shadow isn’t enough… what about two… three?!

Hot blood coursed through Juan Canyun’s veins, the shadow of the spear that always followed him split instantly into two in the blink of an eye… as Juan Canyun’s speed of swinging his spear increased yet again, the shadows behind him even split from the trajectory of Juan Canyun’s movements.

From a point to a line… from a line to a plane!

The moment Juan Canyun thrust his cold-shining spear, nine phantoms formed by the Unrivaled Gun Qi swung their long spears simultaneously behind him.

Roaring out like a dragon… yet striking with the venomous precision of a snake.

Nine spear phantoms struck at Zhao Mingwei from all directions at once… a sudden assault!

In that instant, fighting one against ten, Zhao Mingwei finally revealed a vulnerability, which let Juan Canyun’s true body leap into mid-air.

This was the moment Juan Canyun had been waiting for!

Thunderbolt Life-taking Spear! Furious Dragon Roar! Storm-like Attack! Rising Dragon Breaking Sky! Fearless Wave Gun! Tornado Gun Attack!

Juan Canyun released all the ultimate moves in his skill list that had no cooldown nearly at the same instant.

Nine Unrivaled Gun Souls unleashed the strongest moves of this class on the battlefield, sweeping across the sky island as if caught in a tempest.

Zhao Mingwei’s health rapidly depleted… visibly plunging at a frantic rate!

It’s over!

Juan Canyun employed his true form to unleash the awakening skill… Flowing Cloud Illusion!

But the moment he raised his hand to awaken, a hand accompanied by the terrifying roar of four spirit beasts, broke through the storm formed by the nine spear phantoms and grabbed Juan Canyun by his collar, hurling him away!

In the instant he was thrown, the hurricane on the sky island was thoroughly swept away by the thunderous outbreak of telekinetic energy.

And Juan Canyun was thrown towards another side of the island covered with magma, where he crashed against a faux mountain on the Molten Lava Sky Island, just shy of falling into a Magma Pool. With the butt of his spear, he vaulted off the faux mountain, skillfully avoiding the burning magma and landed safely on a patch of open ground.

But the moment Juan Canyun landed on the open ground, he suddenly went weak at the knees and outright collapsed.

Juan Canyun was stunned…

Why…

He tried to prop himself up with his long spear, but he couldn’t manage it… To Juan Canyun, it seemed time had returned to normal, and from a distance, Zhao Mingwei was calmly walking toward him.

Stand up!

Juan Canyun angrily slammed his fist on the ground, but at that moment, his legs had completely lost all feeling; his body’s strength seemed to be draining away, and his mind began to swirl dizzily.

It was so close! Stand up!

Juan Canyun wanted to roar loudly, but now he didn’t even have the strength to roar… Zhao Mingwei’s health was clearly just below a tenth remaining! And so was his.

Why? When did my health become so low?

Juan Canyun no longer had the energy to ponder these questions, he tried to use his spear to stand up, but halfway up, he collapsed again, helplessly dropping his spear next to him.

Is it over? Juan Canyun, looking at the closely approaching Zhao Mingwei, felt desperation spreading through his heart and an urge to cry.

“Do you concede?” Zhao Mingwei asked, kneeling beside the collapsed Juan Canyun.

“No!”

“Then stand up!”

Zhao Mingwei picked up Juan Canyun’s fallen spear, sticking it into the ground beside him, but Juan Canyun now lacked even the strength to lift his hand and grasp his own weapon.