Shi Feng vanished in an instant, leaving behind not even a trace of his presence.
"So that's the Void Step?"
Gray Hawk was startled. He'd seen footage of Shi Feng's signature technique, the Void Step, before—though he never imagined a living, breathing person could truly disappear right before his eyes, undetectable even to his keen five senses.
However, the Void Step had an obvious weakness.
The moment Shi Feng launched an attack, the fatal thrust would send a signal that the brain simply couldn't ignore. But blocking it was far from easy, given how razor-thin the distance was.
The most common counter was to train yourself to adapt to the Void Step, conditioning your brain not to discard those signals. Once that was achieved, the Void Step would be rendered useless. But pulling it off was extraordinarily difficult—it was like having hundreds of strangers walk past you simultaneously, with no one able to remember every face and outfit.
Being able to recall even a handful of them was impressive enough. The vast majority of the information was simply filtered out by the brain, which was precisely why fully countering the Void Step was so challenging.
"But you're underestimating me."
Gray Hawk's lips curled into a smirk. He pivoted the warblade in his grip and swung it at an empty spot where no one stood.
Clang!
Sparks erupted as the collision of metal sent a deep ring echoing throughout the entire arena. Shi Feng's figure materialized from thin air.
"As expected—he can still get a rough sense of the position."
Shi Feng wasn't surprised by Gray Hawk's performance. After all, Gray Hawk had already reached the Microscopic Realm, observing the world at its finest level. His brain discarded far less information, which meant he could roughly pinpoint Shi Feng's location.
It was like fighting Long Wu, who had mastered the Domain to an even more formidable degree. Within the Domain, every scrap of information was fed into the brain without being filtered out. Under such focused observation, the Void Step was utterly useless.
"Too bad. You only have one sword, while I can suppress you with a single hand."
Shi Feng gripped Abyssal tighter and drove downward, forcing Gray Hawk's warblade—gripped with both hands—aside. His other hand swept Purgatory's Shadow in a perfect arc, piercing through Gray Hawk's chest and leaving behind an almost imperceptible slit.
"Damn it…"
Gray Hawk clutched his chest, eyes blazing with defiance, but he still collapsed onto the arena's stone floor.
Gray Hawk's defeat plunged the entire arena into stunned silence.
This battle had been straightforward—deceptively so. But when masters clashed, victory and death were often decided by the slimmest of margins.
"What a shame," Ling Xiang sighed. "If Gray Hawk had been using dual weapons, Black Flame wouldn't have won so easily." After all, Gray Hawk belonged to the Dragon Phoenix Pavilion, and being killed by a single strike was hardly flattering for the Pavilion's reputation.
"Is it really just about dual weapons?" Feng Qianyu watched Shi Feng with a complicated expression. "What an insufferable guy."
Gray Hawk was a Berserker after all—the class renowned for its raw power, boasting the highest strength growth of any class. Yet Shi Feng had suppressed him using only one hand, which spoke volumes about just how high Shi Feng's strength stat really was.
With such an overwhelming advantage, he could have ended the fight from the very beginning. So why had Shi Feng deliberately dragged it out for so long?
What was the reason?