The King's Avatar

Was he enraged?

Seeing Huang Shaotian rant so angrily that he didn't even bother to use punctuation, many people thought this way. But just as many weren't fooled at all. Huang Shaotian's fighting existed on a completely separate channel from his trash talk. His trash talk didn't reveal any of his cold, brutal, opportunistic style at all.

So, seeing him yell in the chat that he couldn't endure Steamed Bun any longer, at least half of the audience didn't believe him all.

It looked like Steamed Bun didn't believe him either. He completely ignored Huang Shaotian, and instead focused on controlling Steamed Bun Invasion to fight Lu Hanwen's Flowing Cloud.

This was simply too normal of an action. The opponent in front of him was strong, how could he simply turn around to go and fight someone else just because they yelled something?

But, everyone who saw this scene couldn't help but think: Steamed Bun looked down on Huang Shaotian and didn't want to bother with fighting him anymore.

What was up with that?

Those who thought this didn't know whether to laugh or cry. This was such an important playoffs match, with such a fast rhythm, so many changes, endlessly wonderful. But as soon as the scene focused in over here, how come it seemed like it was hiding this unseriousness?

Were these two people really treating this match seriously?

Even Blue Rain's own fans couldn't help but begin to question their Sword Saint.

And what was the Sword Saint actually doing?

After shouting at Steamed Bun, Huang Shaotian's Troubling Rain actually dropped the opponent in front of him and prepared to kill his way toward Steamed Bun Invasion.

"He lost his cool?"

Seeing this, countless people began to shout. Shock, disappointment, delight in disaster, all sorts of emotions were pulled forth by this one action of Huang Shaotian's.

Such a strong retreat was obviously unwise. Even the chaotic Steamed Bun, in these conditions, didn't lose the opponent in front of him, Lu Hanwen. And Huang Shaotian, who was supposed to be more mature, actually did such a childish action, and the opponent he dropped was Ye Xiu! An opponent even scarier than Lu Hanwen.

As expected, Ye Xiu didn't miss this opportunity. Lord Grim immediately went for the opening that Troubling Rain exposed as he forcefully retreated.

At that moment, swordlight violently burst forth.

Formless Phantom Blade!

The Level 70 Blade Master skill, the skill that still dealt the highest damage, Formless Phantom Blade. Troubling Rain retreated and went after Steamed Bun Invasion, but before he got there, the skill was already activated.

And then, one step, one turn.

The opening that Troubling Rain had exposed while retreating was suddenly completely covered by swordlight.

Ohhhhh!!!!

Blue Rain's Xiaochuan Stadium was instantly filled with the cheers and hollers of Blue Rain's fans.

They were simply too moved, because their core, their ace, their idol, their Sword Saint, hadn't let them down in the end.

He hadn't lost his cool. This was a trap, a trap inviting the gentleman to enter the funeral urn.

But Ye Xiu wasn't without defense.

Facing the sudden turn and explosion of swordlight, Lord Grim swiftly retreated, the sword chasing him.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh… ding… whoosh whoosh…

The interwoven arcs of swordlight flashed through the air, punctuated with the occasional sounds of contact. Huang Shaotian's Formless Phantom Blade was simply this fast, so fast that no one could see how he was actually attacking. It seemed as though it was just that one moment, swordlight burst forth, dazzling the eyes, drawing attention, and then in the next moment, the light was gone, and all was still…

It looked like it was all over. Troubling Rain, Lord Grim, the two characters stood in their original positions.

What happened?

While too many people were still in a daze, Lord Grim suddenly rushed forward.

And Troubling Rain? Troubling Rain didn't move. Huang Shaotian actually just stood and watched as Lord Grim came at him with a Double Stab, impaling his body.

And he still maintained that pose.

Formless Phantom Blade, the pose after retracting the final slash…

Huang Shaotian had unleashed the final slash of Formless Phantom Blade, but he hadn't managed to hit the target.

An opening, this was undoubtedly a huge opening. Many Blade Masters, if they felt they didn't have full grasp of the situation, would rather give up on the last and most powerful slash of the Formless Phantom Blade.

Huang Shaotian unleashed this slash, but this slash hadn't managed to hit. Any Glory player could stand up and tell Huang Shaotian what that meant.

So how could Huang Shaotian not know this principle? And with his skill, how could he have let this happen?

This was why everyone was so shocked by this situation. The doubt was so strong that even the televised broadcast decided not to play the currently unfolding battle at full screen. Instead, they split to a small window, and in slow motion replayed the Formless Phantom Blade exchange between Ye Xiu and Huang Shaotian just now.

What kind of exchange had it been?

Even though it was slowed down to a quarter of the speed, everyone could still clearly sense how fast it was.

Formless Phantom Blade was that fast. But Ye Xiu's responses seemed to be even faster.

Lord Grim, with almost miniscule movements, dodged the slashes that this skill sent at him one after another. The tip of the sword, the blade of the sword, it all seemed to go right past him, without a single one landing. The audience watched as one slash looked like it was about to hit, and they felt their hearts leaping into their throats - and this was watching a slow-motion replay!

Then, they saw that the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella in Lord Grim's hand suddenly elongated, and that slash that seemed undodgeable was parried just like that.

He parried a Formless Phantom Blade?

Aside from dumbstruck, was there any more suitable emotion?

Everyone had only ever seen this kind of thing in performances before. Two pro players, both using Formless Phantom Blade, and then ping-ping-pong-pong clashing again and again, until it looked like there were flowers blooming around them from all of the sparks flying. But that was practiced beforehand, where both sides knew from what angle and with what speed the other player would come at them. Yet now, this was the playoffs battlefield, and the one behind the Formless Phantom Blade was the number one among Blade Masters, the Sword Saint!

And his Formless Phantom Blade had actually been parried by the opponent…

After that, Lord Grim continued to retreat, continued to dodge.

His one parry, of course, couldn't interrupt the Formless Phantom Blade attack, and the skill steadily reached the end. Just the fact that he'd been able to last this long was already breathtaking. No matter how they looked at it, though, there was no way for him to dodge or block the next slash, and this next slash just happened to be the most powerful, final slash of the Formless Phantom Blade!

The sword lifted!

Carrying an incomparably sharp swordlight. Those sword shadows that had been all scattered earlier now seemed to gather and accumulate upon the blade, and the final gleaming blade of light flashed forth!

What was that?

And then everyone looked at where the swordlight had travelled, and they blinked, or rubbed their eyes.

Had their vision gone fuzzy?

Everyone thought this, because in their view, in that one moment, it looked like there had been a double image of Lord Grim. An instant later, it had vanished.

The scene rewound and replayed in slow motion, this time at one-eighth the speed.

This time, everyone saw clearly.

Shadow Clone Technique!

It was Shadow Clone Technique. Lord Grim's two hands moved so fast as to be undetectable. He'd completed the seals in the span of time of the already incredibly fast Formless Phantom Blade…

What kind of handspeed was that?

Everyone searched for a number on the screen, hoping it would tell them, but there was none…

No number, they could only rely on their feeling. But for this sort of inhuman thing, how could an ordinary person rely on their feeling?

The Shadow Clone Technique didn't send the original body far away, so the real and false bodies stood very tightly together. The final slash of the Formless Phantom Blade arrived, and at one-eighth speed, everyone could finally clearly see that the instant this skill had activated, the clone had been broken by this final slash. At one-fourth speed, everyone finally identified this double image that they'd mistaken for their eyes going blurry, because it really had only appeared for an instant.

And even at one-fourth speed, it had only been there for a moment, allowing everyone to realize that that was the only way he would have been able to dodge that slash. Normal movement couldn't be made faster with faster handspeed. Only the hand seals of a Ninja would, with an increase in handspeed, release a skill faster.

Ultimately, Ye Xiu succeeded.

Using a method that surpassed everyone's imagination.

And no one could forget that Ye Xiu was an old general of ten years. This sort of unbearably fast handspeed, wasn't that supposed to be something that only the youth had?

The final slash of Huang Shaotian's Formless Phantom Blade hadn't landed, but at this time, no one felt that he had made a mistake.

He had already done very well, using blade after blade to attack the defending Ye Xiu, forcing him back until he had nowhere to dodge and nowhere to block. What happened afterward couldn't be called Huang Shaotian's fault. That sort of transcendence of natural human limits, how could that be treated as a miscalculation?

It wasn't Huang Shaotian's fault, but no matter what, his Troubling Rain once again fell into an unfavorable situation as Ye Xiu controlled Lord Grim to unleash another flurry of attacks at him. But those who had just been watching the small window reply found that for now, they couldn't re-immerse themselves back in the normal battle. That moment, that instant, they still weren't sure if it had even been real. They needed to watch it a few more times.

In comparison, the live audience was better off.

The screens suspended at the center of the stadium were large enough to replay that moment over and over… but in truth, they didn't replay it for too long. After all, this was Blue Rain's home stadium, and that wasn't a thrilling moment that belonged to Blue Rain.

But just once was enough to render the entire audience speechless.

Xiaochuan Stadium, at this moment, was dead silent. This was a moment that belonged to Happy, but even Happy's diehard fans sitting on the west side were so shocked that they forgot to cheer.

Beyond all belief.

That was perhaps the only way to describe that scene. Pan Lin and Li Yibo, in the broadcast, were reciting those words as well.

But on the battlefield, a Chaotic Rain silently fell at this moment. The initiative that Ye Xiu had gained with his unbelievable controls was immediately broken by this silent Chaotic Rain.

"No matter how exciting, he just dodged one attack." In Blue Rain's channel, Captain Yu Wenzhou spoke calmly.

Huang Shaotian's calm was to help him clearly and accurately seize killing opportunities. But in Blue Rain, the one who was truly as calm as an unmelting glacier of a thousand years was still their captain.