Chapter 1 The Loading is Complete

[Peak Tournament S3, Round Four]

[Venue: Ruins of the Haiyuan Clan]

Upon completion of the teleport, system prompts echoed in the ears of the [Warring States] and [Useless Alliance] team members.

Immediately afterward, a desolate landscape dotted with ruined walls and broken tiles came into view.

Looking around, all that remained were shattered castles, dried-up moats, dilapidated houses, and broken, withered trees…

The scene couldn't help but make one wonder – whether this clan had suffered from war or been attacked by monsters?

[The match will begin in thirty seconds]

Soon, the "vanguard battle" of this match entered the preparation phase; as the system voice sounded, the "vanguards" of both teams transformed into white light and entered the arena.

The vanguard of [Warring States] was [Sasaki Mei].

And the vanguard of the [Useless Alliance] was actually… [Useless Uncle]?

Sasaki Mei was surprised when he stood on the field and saw his opponent.

As the strategist and main force of the [Warring States] team, Sasaki had a very high priority in the team's formation; today, he had arranged himself in the vanguard position.

The reason… was because he was certain that the opponent would send either [Seven Kills] or [Sky Horse] in the first match.

This was indeed a very reasonable guess. Everyone knew that Seven Kills and Little Ma's individual combat abilities were very strong, but their ability to cooperate with others was extremely poor. Considering that the strength of the two sides in this match was very close, and it was very likely to go to the full five rounds, in the first of the three singles matches, one of these two guys who, in the eyes of outsiders, "can only play singles," should come out.

Sasaki Mei was precisely sure of this point, and arranged himself, the most suitable person to deal with these two, as the vanguard.

But the reality was – the [Useless Alliance] actually sent Useless Uncle in the first match.

With Useless Uncle's strength, it would be best to let him fight in the lieutenant, vice-general, or general battles, but to let him fight in the vanguard battle… was really beyond everyone's expectations.

"I've been tricked…" After a few seconds, Sasaki quickly calmed down, and then thought to himself, "The 'Wise General' Honghu… is indeed not a vain name, I'm afraid there will be some other calculations in the subsequent 2v2…"

The preparation time was limited, and before he could think too much, the system's voice [fight!] had declared the start of the match, and the isolation barrier disappeared accordingly.

However, at this moment of the start of the war, both sides did not move at all.

Useless Uncle's hands were on the belt of his tattered bathrobe, standing leisurely; his whole body was in a loose and unconcerned state, as if he was defenseless… However, his eyes under his sunglasses were staring at his opponent, without even blinking.

On the other side, Sasaki Mei was not so "relaxed", at least his hand was already on the hilt of his katana, and his body was also in a fighting stance with one step forward and his body sideways to face the enemy.

They maintained this state, stalemated for about a minute, then Useless Uncle suddenly opened his mouth: "Found it?"

"Heh…" Sasaki Mei smiled, "If I had found it, I would have already made a move, wouldn't I?"

"Hmm…" Useless Uncle groaned, spreading his hands, "Alas, I didn't find it either, it's not easy."

There was no doubt that they were discussing the same thing – flaws.

In the field of shogi (also known as Japanese chess), there is a saying… "The most perfect formation is the state before the first step has been taken at the beginning, as long as you take one step, there will be a flaw."

At this moment, the game between Useless Uncle and Sasaki Mei was like this; although their postures were different, the essence was "a perfect state without revealing any flaws", so no one was willing to take that first step.

"It's not like there's nothing that can be done…" Sasaki Mei thought for a few seconds, then continued, "There are other methods, aren't there?"

Hearing this, Useless Uncle raised an eyebrow, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth: "Okay, I'll play along…"

As soon as he finished speaking, Useless Uncle proudly stepped forward, his battle qi soared, and he unfolded an invisible killing field.

Sasaki Mei was also prepared, and his superb sword intent surged out, instantly resisting the opponent's momentum.

In this way, the fight between the two came from the tangible to the intangible realm.

On the battlefield, the killing intent suddenly condensed, and the two forces entangled in the air and refused to disperse, not giving way to each other… causing a radius of a hundred meters to be shrouded in a solemn and eerie atmosphere.

"So… your limit is almost here?" After a while, Useless Uncle was the first to speak, breaking the silence.

The fact that he could say this meant that… in this not-too-long silent confrontation, he had won.

"Listening to your tone…" As he said this, sweat was already dripping from Sasaki Mei's forehead, "...you seem to have some strength left…"

"Not just some strength left…" Useless Uncle still pretended to be relaxed, and continued, "To this extent… I haven't even used 50% of my strength."

This was naturally not true, but the fact that Useless Uncle was at least a notch higher than Sasaki Mei in terms of hard power was something that the latter had truly felt in this fight.

"Hmph… okay, then I'll learn about your so-called 50% strength!" In the next second, Sasaki Mei snorted coldly and flashed forward.

After testing out the gap between himself and the enemy at the energy level, he had no reason to continue to waste time with Useless Uncle (wasting time means losing); since he couldn't win at the energy level, he could only charge into the battle, wield his sword to break the enemy, and rely on moves and tactics to win.

But we just said… when neither of them has flaws, the one who makes the first move is at a disadvantage.

Useless Uncle, who was waiting for the opportunity, completely captured Sasaki's movement trajectory and the trend of his sword moves with his dynamic vision. When the enemy approached, Useless Uncle circulated his palms and used a move of [Unemployment Bankruptcy Palm] to meet him, hitting the flaw that the opponent revealed when he made his move.

If this palm landed, Sasaki Mei would be seriously injured even if he didn't die, but Sasaki Mei was not so easily hit… like him, a brainy player, would leave a backhand in every step he took if he could; now, knowing that his first move was very likely to be countered, how could he act without any countermeasures?

In the blink of an eye!

In that split second, Sasaki Mei forcibly used a move of [Sick Sword · Bamboo Dragonfly] to the side, restraining the momentum of his sword technique; instantly, his whole person whirled his sword and turned sharply to the side… he relied on this attack skill with mobility to barely avoid Useless Uncle's S-class palm technique, and jumped to the side and rear of his opponent.

"Chance!"

The opportunity vanished in an instant, there was no waiting when one should make a decision.

Seeing that Useless Uncle's palm power had not been exhausted and his posture was slightly shifted between taking back his palm, Sasaki Mei immediately decided to use a killing move, seeking to defeat the enemy with one blow.

Instantly, a sinister sword intent condensed and bloomed, and the entire world, when Sasaki Mei made his move… suddenly became pitch black.

Ying——

The sword blade danced, its sound like a wind chime.

At this moment, from the perspective of an observer, two lines of words actually appeared in front of them…

[Three Hundred Years to Live, Unbeaten Sick Swordsman]

These fourteen large blood-red characters were like being "cut" out by a sword, and they were brushed onto the broadcast screen.

After the two lines of words were fully displayed, pieces of pink cherry blossoms emitting a hazy glow slowly fell, gently brushing away the words.

When the words faded away, the sun shone down on the earth again, dispelling the abrupt darkness just now.

After the picture lit up, Sasaki Mei had already sheathed his sword and was facing away from the enemy; and Useless Uncle… was lying face down on the ground, and a large pool of blood was spreading on the ground beneath his body…

"I won!" Sasaki Mei, who had not yet caught his breath, excitedly clenched his fist with one hand and whispered; obviously, being able to overcome the strong and defeat a master like Useless Uncle made him very excited.

But two seconds later, he staggered and knelt on one knee…

"Haa… haa…" After quickly panting a few times, Sasaki Mei swallowed and thought to himself, "This title skill is powerful… but it consumes too much… I originally wanted to hide it until the last few rounds of the match… Alas, it's better to expose weaknesses than to lose…"

Just as he was already thinking about the next round of the match…

"Ah~ ah~ I've lost a lot of blood." Useless Uncle's lazy voice rang out again.

This meaningless and nonchalant sentence sounded like a death knell to Sasaki Mei, scaring him and causing his fear level to explode.

"How is that possible?" In the next second, Sasaki Mei quickly stood up staggeringly and turned around suddenly.

But just as he turned around, a large hand had grabbed his throat.

"Among all the sword techniques I've learned, your move may be the strongest single-target instant kill skill…" As Useless Uncle exerted more force on his hand, he said, "Unfortunately… I'm not the type who will die if you 'kill me once'."

Crack——

As soon as he finished speaking, the sound of a broken cervical vertebra followed.

Sasaki Mei's head drooped weakly to one side, and his eyes lost their luster.

Seeing this, Useless Uncle let go of his hands, letting his "corpse" fall to the ground naturally…

"Huff… all done." Useless Uncle clapped his hands, looking like he was "done with work".

At this time, although the slash marks on the bathrobe on his chest were still there and a large patch of bright red blood had not yet dried, the sword wound on his chest had disappeared.

At this point, the audience also believed that the match was over; Useless Uncle's ranking on the comprehensive strength list was already higher than Sasaki Mei's, so this result was not too surprising.

But!

Chi Ying——

A sword cry shattered the settled situation.

A sword light reopened an unknown battle.

Who would have thought… Sasaki Mei's "corpse" lying on the ground could still move!

A person whose neck had been broken, not only didn't die, but also suddenly launched a cold sword attack while lying on the ground, slashing and shattering Useless Uncle's left knee from bottom to top.

Then, Sasaki Mei quickly stood up with a strange movement that seemed like a "zombie mechanical dance", tilted his head, and re-established his fighting stance.