With every slash of the blade, the opponent stepped back.
Ji Xinghuo’s momentum soared, quickly forcing his opponent to the edge of the platform, a fall from which would mean defeat.
Knowing retreating further would spell certain loss, the opponent shouted, forcefully parried Ji Xinghuo’s blade, and planted both feet at the edge of the platform.
The Long Stick swept horizontally, then stabbed forward, its head like a spear aiming for Ji Xinghuo’s chest.
Ji Xinghuo shifted his body half a step to the side.
At the same time, his War Blade scraped along the Long Stick, its edge rubbing against the wood, Shock Force bursting forth, igniting a string of sparks, and slicing towards the opponent’s hands.
The opponent decisively abandoned the Long Stick, letting it fall, and flashed to the side with Flash Step, avoiding the hand being slashed.
This Flash Step was very short, just over a meter.
They landed and instantly kicked, cleverly hitting the falling Long Stick, causing it to bounce back up, with the head of the stick aiming for Ji Xinghuo’s chin—a surprise move practiced thousands of times, often used to mount a comeback and defeat opponents.
The Long Stick struck Ji Xinghuo’s chin, but it rebounded as if hitting an iron plate.
Ji Xinghuo saw his opponent’s face change dramatically and cried out.
This tactic held no element of surprise against him, as he guessed the intention the moment the opponent lifted their foot. He deflected the Long Stick, stepped forward, and the War Blade came down on the opponent’s neck, turning their body into white light that disappeared.
The victory was decided.
Ji Xinghuo ignored the opponent’s desire to communicate and immediately exited the platform.
In recent days, nearly every opponent defeated by him wanted to talk after the fight, showing respect and evidently regarding him as a senior Martial Arts master.
Ji Xinghuo opened his character interface, and with this victory, his ranking points just reached 10,000, with a still terrifying win rate of 100%!
"Congratulations, you have been promoted to Martial Arts Ninth Dan." The system sent a notification.
"Finally, Ninth Dan!"
Ji Xinghuo’s face lit up with a smile. Ascending directly from Sixth Dan to Ninth Dan took many more days than he had anticipated, mainly due to the difficulty in matching with opponents.
Online ranks could be certified in real life.
By going to any Martial Arts Association office and verifying one’s character account, one could obtain a certificate of rank from the Association.
However, Ji Xinghuo had no immediate plans for that.
First, he didn’t care for the empty honor of a title, as proving his strength online was sufficient; second, his exaggerated win rate and undefeated record might attract some trouble.
To be promoted from Ninth Dan to a Martial Arts Grandmaster, one could only register for the offline Grandmaster certification contest, held once a year.
Or participate in national and international Martial Arts competitions and achieve ranking.
"I’ll consider it later."
Ji Xinghuo noted it was still early with no pressing matters, so he continued to queue for ranking matches. After reaching Martial Arts Ninth Dan, the strength of his opponents would increase again, no longer limited to Ninth Dan or below, with the possibility of matching against a Martial Arts Grandmaster, even a Martial Arts Grandmaster.
This time, the match was quickly set, waiting less than ten seconds before proceeding.
That surprised Ji Xinghuo.
Once the scene before him changed, and he found himself on the platform, he turned to look at his opponent on the other side of the screen and a hint of surprise showed in his eyes.
This time his opponent was a woman.
She was tall and slender, possessing a grace like his own, displayed in the default appearance and clothing of the system, wielding an ordinary Longsword, quietly standing there, silent and expressionless, yet exuding an indescribable unique aura.
Clearly, this opponent was strong!