"Jiaoqiu, you actually...!"

Although Hoolay, empowered by the abundance plague scourge, was deeply affected by this potent poison, the toxins within his body had already begun to slowly decompose. His sense of dizziness had lessened significantly, though his movements remained sluggish.

"Just a dose of poison... You think such means can turn the tide of battle? This doesn't mean you can win..."

"You are indeed difficult to kill, but that doesn't mean you cannot be subdued!"

Yanqing had leaped into mid-air at some point. Fine ice crystals on the arena began to collide, coating his longsword layer by layer. The chilling air filling the sky seemed to be drawn by him, condensing in an instant into a colossal object in his hands, spanning across the air!

"Celestial River Falls!"

"Hoolay! Look closely, the heavenly might of the Cloud Knights is all within this blade!"

As if the celestial river had burst its banks and glaciers were collapsing, that giant sword crashed down with peerless power, instantly burying Hoolay beneath a sky of swirling ice dust.

"How is this possible? A mere cub... how could he possibly defeat me?!"

But he was, after all, a ferocious beast who had crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood; this desperate situation instead stimulated an even more frenzied ferocity within him.

With a long howl, Hoolay not only charged out of the ice pile quickly but also swung his greatsword like the wind, each strike faster than the last. Yanqing couldn't dodge in time, and his longsword was sliced in two in the blink of an eye. Before he could react, Hoolay had already leaped forward, swinging his blade toward Yanqing's face!

The blade's edge arrived in an instant!

Yanqing's pupils constricted suddenly, but in that spark of a moment, he closed his eyes.

His mind sank deep into his sea of consciousness. Once all distracting thoughts were cast aside, Jingliu's sword technique, like the celestial river hanging upside down, flashed through his mind.

Yanqing's eyes snapped open, a cold light flashing within!

Instead of retreating, he advanced. The broken half-sword in his hand rose like a startled dragon, thrusting forward—

In that moment, Hoolay was actually dazed for a second, as if he saw her...

The woman who had captured him with a Frost Blade seven hundred years ago.

He was all too familiar with this sword strike... That moment then was just like this moment now. In that split second of daze, the youth's chill had already pierced through him, and countless ice crystals locked his limbs firmly in place, rendering him unable to move.

—

Baki.

"A genius."

Watching Yanqing unleash this earth-shattering sword strike in such a desperate situation, Retsu Kaioh couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

"Just from a brief clash with Jingliu in the past, he was able to learn by analogy and master the 'Celestial River Falls' to deal with Blade and Dan Heng. Now, he has gained even further insight, sealing Hoolay's movements with a Frost Blade just like Jingliu did seven hundred years ago..."

Kaku Kaioh picked up his hot tea. Gazing at the shallow liquid in the cup, he said meaningfully, "Could it be... he has already reached that realm?"

"What realm?" Katsumi Orochi asked.

"The third realm of genius."

"What is that?"

"You are all martial arts geniuses in the eyes of the masses; that is the first realm," Kaku Kaioh laughed. "As for the second realm, it is being a genius in the eyes of the eminent." He turned his head to look at Hanma Yujiro, who hadn't spoken for a long time. "Yujiro Hanma, who is the genius in your eyes?"

A sinister grin appeared on Yujiro Hanma's face. "...Me, of course."

As the man who became the strongest creature on Earth—a man with whom the President of the the United States had to sign a separate non-aggression pact—he claimed to be the strongest, and indeed, no one present dared to refute him.

"This third realm is the genius recognized by geniuses." Kaku Kaioh looked at the two young girls behind Yanqing who were already staring in slack-jawed amazement. "Yunli is already a renowned genius swordswoman of the Zhuming Xianzhou, and the genius in her eyes... is now likely only Yanqing."

—

Yanqing was panting heavily; sealing Hoolay's movements with the Frost Blade had already left him exhausted.

However, the hard ice on Hoolay's body soon began to loosen. Just as Yanqing was preparing to take a step back, Hoolay's right hand broke free from its shackles and swung a blade at him!

"Clang—!"

In the next second, Hoolay's blade was sent flying away.

Almost in an instant, Feixiao had arrived in front of Yanqing. She raised her left hand and effortlessly blocked Hoolay's strike with just two fingers.

March 7th clutched her chest, her heart still racing. "That... that scared me to death! I thought you were about to fall at Hoolay's hands. Thank goodness that General arrived in time."

Yunli quickly hurried over and asked impatiently, "Little brother Yanqing, you did great! That last sword strike that knocked down Hoolay—how come I've never seen you use it before?"

"Do you want to learn? I can teach you. But I'll have to wait until I've recovered from these injuries..." Yanqing rubbed his arm, which was nearly dislocated, feeling as if his whole body was falling apart.

Yunli pouted. "Although I'm a bit unwilling, if you can teach me, I suppose I can reluctantly admit that your skill level is a tiny bit higher than mine..."

"Yan Qing, the War Guard, can your body still hold up?" Feixiao walked over and asked with concern.

"...General, you actually didn't tell me about the plan on the Skysplitter!"

"Don't blame me; this was your General's idea. When he learned you gave up defending the arena to join my wolf-hunting squad, he asked me to keep it a secret from you. Perhaps he was afraid your impulsive nature would ruin things." Feixiao gave a slight smile. "See? After all that twisting and turning, didn't we end up back here anyway?"

—

Zenless Zone Zero.

"With just two fingers... she sent Hoolay's attack flying?"

Asaba Yuma extended his left hand, subconsciously touching his index and middle fingers, then giving them a squeeze... they were soft.

"Don't even think about it; your physiology is different from Feixiao's." Tsukishiro Yanagi adjusted the semi-rimless glasses on the bridge of her nose. "This person is practically a Yaoqing Superman; it's truly inconceivable. Could it be that the physical structure of a Foxian changes after a 'Moon Frenzy'? Given her muscular explosive power and speed, Feixiao doesn't look like an ordinary mortal no matter how you look at it..."

"Foxian." Hoshimi Miyabi touched the long ears on her head that helped her reach 170cm. "I have ears too, and I'm a Foxian. Is there also a power similar to 'Moon Frenzy' inside me that hasn't been awakened?"

"Hey, Section Chief Ya, although there's only a one-character difference between Foxians and Thiren, the gap between them is even larger than that between humans and Ethereals!!"

Tsukishiro Yanagi wiped the sweat from her forehead. Although Section Chief Ya's record of suppressing a hollow single-handedly in five minutes was also inconceivable to some extent, compared to a Foxian like Feixiao, whose arrows have a nuclear explosion effect, the gap was still far too wide.

Speaking of which, that arrow from Feixiao... could it wipe out Hollow Zero?

"No, no... you can't use that kind of monster's combat power to deal with this world's disasters." Ryu slapped her cheeks, trying to sober herself up. "That arrow probably wouldn't just destroy Hollow Zero; it would likely affect all of New Eridu as well, wouldn't it?"