You're Strong But Now You're Mine-Chapter 65: Inescapable Doom

After completing the "Survive 15 Days" challenge, the system hadn’t introduced a new challenge, so Leyu never wanted to spend the rewards.

But right now, this was the ultimate moment! If you didn’t use the rewards you earned, what was the point?

He added 3 points to "Residual Blood Physique," upgrading it to the highest-level Ice Blood Physique!

"Ice Blood Physique (Highest Level): your ice blood could deceive your body—no matter what negative condition your body was in (poisoning, serious injury, severed limb, paralysis, etc.), you could forcibly drive your body, and reduce both the effect and duration of negative statuses by 50%."

He upgraded the eternal skill point and invested it in "Beginner Qian Yuliu Biting Battle Technique!"

"Intermediate Qian Yuliu Biting Battle Technique (Intermediate): your current body’s physical attributes increased by 30%, and you mastered all intermediate combat technique skills."

Kui Zhao keenly sensed that Qian Yuliu’s aura suddenly turned illusory, the light around Qian Yuliu’s body beginning to twist and refract in regular patterns. A hint of surprise appeared on his shadowed face, "I didn’t expect you to be hiding your true strength all this time. At your age, to have reached this level... I really underestimated you."

Although the steps of Hall Entry and Integration and Mastery were only divisions within the combat technique realms, after more than a thousand years of development, martial artists had gradually discovered some fighting skills unique to each realm. "Integration and Mastery" meant that, using combat techniques as a medium, the martial artist’s spiritual power over light surpassed 80%.

If Hall Entry meant "framing all the light and A-ing it outward," then Integration and Mastery meant the martial artist could "divide and micro-manipulate the beams." Outwardly, the most obvious sign was that a martial artist, even in a normal state, would subconsciously distort light—creating a semi-real, semi-fake illusion cloak.

During close combat, this illusion cloak could effectively disrupt the enemy’s judgment, making your attacks appear slow yet fast, left yet right, in front yet in back. If you cultivated this skill to a profound level, you could even create an illusion entirely different from your actual actions.

Just now, Kui Zhao had been able to easily dodge Chen Fu’s gunfire at close range not only because of his quick spiritual sense, but also thanks to the illusion cloak, which caused Chen Fu to misjudge Kui Zhao’s exact position.

But training the illusion cloak was never simple—a few years’ foundation was necessary just to grasp the basics. Kui Zhao himself had only started to master it after years of competitive battles in the Linhai Army, taking more than two years to gain an introductory grasp.

So when he saw Qian Yuliu’s illusion cloak, he was shocked, and at the same time, murderous intent burst forth—how old was Qian Yuliu when he entered Integration and Mastery? How much time did it take him to master the illusion cloak?

Even that top student at the Royal Academy, Richard, hadn’t learned this skill! If not for favorable circumstances that day, Richard would never have been his match!

Qian Yuliu was more than a decade younger than him, yet somehow possessed a realm on par with his own!

Kui Zhao didn’t like to snuff out geniuses, but... he didn’t mind it either!

Thud!

Like a sudden thunderclap, Kui Zhao lunged at Leyu, grasping with a hand—five streaks of bloodlight claws spiraled toward Leyu from different directions!

Wolf Eagle Fist, One-Handed Move!

Leyu steadied himself, drawing a torrent of radiance from his legs to his waist. He shouted, thrusting his left hand to unleash a blast of lightborne energy, meeting and shattering the spiraling blood claws of Kui Zhao!

Biting Battle Technique, Huang’s Sigh!

Normally, a burst skill would require several seconds to charge. But after stepping into Integration and Mastery, "Desolate Bite," "Celestial Echo," "Vast Spit," and other preprocessing actions could supercharge light gathering, using every technique as fuel to speed up the charge time for burst skills!

"That was the essence of Integration and Mastery—every move flowed perfectly, every strike seamless!"

After a round of probing exchanges with energy blasts, both of them entered each other’s optimal attack range, fists and feet striking ruthlessly for each other’s vital points!

Biting Battle Light Armor!

Blood Wolf Armor!

Both warriors shimmered with a shallow suit of armor. While this light armor couldn’t stop lethal blows, it could greatly dampen the explosive light damage the opponent dished out!

Kui Zhao’s hands grasped and tore out a blossoming scene of blood, the blood light not even spanning half an inch—yet Leyu already felt the air rip itself into countless shreds, as though he’d helplessly offer himself, a fish on Kui Zhao’s hooks!

In close-range killing, Wolf Eagle Fist ranked top three among all combat techniques. Whether a ravenous eagle or a hungry wolf, both were apex predators, and a technique named after them was, without question, about one thing: "hunting."

Every strike he made was like a natural predator killing its prey, making the enemy feel fear and leaving nowhere to run!

"The best strategy against warriors trained in Wolf Eagle techniques was to widen the distance." In this respect, Lingxu Battle Technique and Wolf Eagle Technique were totally like the relationship between a hunter and a beast: at range, the hunter held the advantage—up close, it became the beast’s turn. As for other warriors, they never dared let Wolf Eagle users close the gap to arm’s length.

And yet Leyu didn’t back down a step—neither dodging nor evading—in the face of Kui Zhao’s killing move, his hands became savage beast fangs, clamping fiercely onto their foe!

Qian Yuliu killed best in close-quarters—his Biting Battle Technique... "That was the deadliest, most vicious form of hand-to-hand slaughter!"

It looked like two beasts tearing at each other—rivers of blood and sheets of white-air bursting, warping the light across the whole area into gloom, the smooth ground sunken into sand pits at every step, the exploding light beams effortlessly boring holes through the yard’s walls.

"The blood that flowed grew hotter and hotter, but Leyu’s heart only grew colder."

He could not win!

Even though Leyu had raised Biting Battle Technique to intermediate level, even though he maxed out Ice Blood Physique, even though Kui Zhao had already fought an earlier battle, he still couldn’t avoid being steadily pushed into a disadvantage.

"This was the downside of system point allocation."

"Just as, when Leyu first took over the Qian Yuliu identity, it took him ages to adapt to Qian Yuliu’s legacy—after all, his most advanced martial training had been the morning calisthenics they taught in middle school. Suddenly he had all this new combat knowledge and spiritual theory, and it was hard enough to even change his way of thinking, let alone integrate all of it seamlessly!"

When upgrading Biting Battle Technique to Intermediate, the new knowledge he gained wasn’t much. What he felt and experienced—that was a different matter. "It was like in MOBA games: bronze-level players only tracked what’s in front of them, maybe noticing if enemies vanished from the map—but a master-level player could glance at the map and, using details like monster spawn times, player levels, and team comps, instantly deduce exactly what the enemy was doing and make the smartest play."

Now, Leyu had suddenly become a master-level player. He knew how to use the minion waves, how to lure away tower aggro, knew every detail of the game and how to maximize his skills’ effectiveness—but what he lacked was actual combat experience... And the first enemy he ran into after leveling up was Kui Zhao, a veteran master player!

In every clash, every savage exchange, Kui Zhao managed to protect himself while still inflicting maximum damage on Leyu.

He was bleeding Leyu out!

Even if Leyu matched him blow for blow, exchanging wounds, Kui Zhao still guarded his vitals—his injuries and pain didn’t affect him one bit. "Martial artists at this level could suppress pain’s side-effects in battle."

It was like pitting two armies against each other: every time, Leyu went all in, but Kui Zhao only fought and retreated, slowly eating into Leyu’s forces, never giving Leyu a chance for a desperate killing blow!

Biting Battle Technique was "bite to kill," but Wolf Eagle Fist was "hunt"—and bleeding out your prey was a highly efficient hunting method.

Even with Ice Blood Physique making him unafraid of injury, continued worsening wounds would only make Leyu’s chance of victory slimmer and slimmer.

Sooner or later, he’d just have to watch Kui Zhao kill him, then be wiped out body and soul!

He could not let Kui Zhao die so comfortably!

For a second, Leyu saw the long braid flying behind Kui Zhao.

"A strange idea flashed through his mind," so he feinted an attack at Kui Zhao’s left hand. Kui Zhao dodged in sync, tearing the flesh from Leyu’s right hand, a claw slashing at Leyu’s face—at that moment, Kui Zhao’s braid whipped through the air as he turned!

This was it!

Disregarding the blood claws, Leyu threw out his right hand, hooking a burst of light to snap at Kui Zhao’s long braid!

Biting Battle Technique, Desolate Bite!

Kui Zhao’s blood claw was just about to rip off half of Leyu’s face, but his expression suddenly changed dramatically—he abandoned the attack and struck to shatter Leyu’s Desolate Bite burst!

Just as he’d thought!

"This is your tribulation!" Leyu exulted, casting intricate marks of light with both hands—one grabbing for Kui Zhao’s hair, the other striking for Kui Zhao’s chest!

As mentioned before, an Awakener’s Tribulation Master could be a person or a thing. But without exception, the Tribulation Master was something extremely important to the Awakener.

The loss, disappearance, or death of a Tribulation Master wouldn’t do much to the Awakener—at worst, they just couldn’t cross their tribulation. But there was one exception: if the Awakener saw their Tribulation Master destroyed by someone else with their own eyes.

This feeling—"of watching the thing you cherished shatter before your eyes"—would make an Awakener’s spiritual power plummet, might even shatter their will, crushing them completely. If this happened mid-battle, it was about the same as instant defeat.

If forced to choose between severe injury and Tribulation Master destruction, an Awakener would always choose the former—severe injuries could still heal, but the destruction of the Tribulation Master was almost like death.

But the Tribulation Master was the deepest of secrets for every Awakener—nobody else could know it. Kui Zhao’s long braid was so unusual that Leyu had suspected from the start, and Kui Zhao’s reaction to his probe only confirmed his theory!

"Kui Zhao, you’re doomed to calamity now!"