Swish, swish, swish!
It was uncertain how long the blades had been swinging, but the ferocious white-browed tiger was already a mass of mangled flesh. With one final, casual sword strike, the beam of light stabbed straight into the massive tiger skull.
The massive body of the ferocious white-browed tiger crashed to the ground with a resounding thud, its life extinguished completely.
"Hoo, hoo, hoo!"
Seeing that the ferocious white-browed tiger was dead, the young girl was left panting heavily as she dispersed the pale green glow surrounding her. Trembling, she staggered over to a tree, sat down, and began to rest.
Not far away, watching the battle-worn and utterly exhausted young girl, Lin Yichen felt a trace of surprise.
"Xu Shiyue, it's only been a month, and this girl has actually gotten this strong? The wind intent—though it's still just in its nascent form, this is something only beings at the Grandmaster Stage can comprehend. She's only a Level 3 Martial Practitioner and she's already grasped it? Tsk! Could it be that she's cheating just like me?"
"Ding! Target for binding detected. Please proceed to within one meter of the target immediately to complete the binding."
Hearing the System's voice, Lin Yichen walked toward Xu Shiyue by the tree.
Because the disparity in their strength was too vast, and Lin Yichen was a Spiritual Psionicist who had deliberately concealed his presence, even without employing his stealth technique, Xu Shiyue had no way of detecting him.
He quickly arrived within a meter of her.
"Ding! Target meets all binding requirements. Binding in progress... Ding! Binding successful. The host may view the bound target's status via the System interface, and keep abreast of the bound target's physical and mental health. In consideration of the host's successful binding of the Guardian target, the System hereby rewards you with a set of close-quarters combat techniques for Spiritual Psionicists! Does the host wish to use them?"
Hearing this, Lin Yichen found it rather interesting. A Spiritual Psionicist doing close-quarters combat? Putting those two terms together felt utterly absurd, so he immediately replied:
"Use them."
As the System poured the knowledge into his mind, Lin Yichen quickly grasped the meaning behind these combat techniques. By utilizing a special method to encase one's mental power around oneself or one's weapon, one could engage in close-quarters combat just like a martial artist.
There was another miraculous aspect to this method: as long as your vital energy reserves were sufficient, to onlookers it would appear as though you were constantly fighting with physical vital energy rather than psionic power. This meant that even though you were fighting entirely with mental power, anyone attacking you would fail to perceive that you were a Spiritual Psionicist. Of course, what was actually being consumed was still your own mental power.
"Quite an interesting skill. System, open the panel!"
The moment the words fell, a translucent panel appeared before Lin Yichen's eyes.
Host: Lin Yichen
Gender: Male
Talent: Superior
Realm: Level 4 Martial Artist, Rank 7 Telekinetic Master Early-Stage (Martial King Early-Stage)
Cultivation Methods: Emperor Scripture — Origin of All Laws Heart Scripture, Mystic-Grade Method — Scorched Sun Formula, Earth-Grade Heart Scripture — Shadow Illusory Heart Scripture
Combat Skills: Psionic Technique — Illusionary Pupils (Mastery), Special Combat Technique — Stealth (Mastery), Special Psionic Technique — Close-Quarters Combat for Spiritual Psionicists (Mastery), Basic Fist Technique (Mastery), Basic Sword Technique (Mastery), Mystic-Grade Sword Skill — Seven Apertures Sword Art (Great Achievement), Yellow-Grade Sword Skill — Long Rainbow Piercing the Sun (Mastery), Yellow-Grade Fist Technique — Through-the-Back Fist (Mastery)
Weapons: Nine Psionic King-Class Weapons — Dark Blades, Mystic-Grade Longsword — Clear Mind Sword
Wealth: 6.48762 million RMB, one Martial King-Level demon core, one Great Grandmaster beast core
System Evaluation: A mental patient with some actual strength
Guardian Target: Xu Shiyue
Current Status: Excessive expenditure of energy, currently in a state of exhaustion...
Glancing at Xu Shiyue's status on the panel, then looking at her leaning against the tree as if she had passed out, Lin Yichen sighed that this status-checking feature was quite intelligent.
He then condensed a surge of mental power in his palm, stepped forward, and pressed it gently against Xu Shiyue's fair forehead. In an instant, her originally pale face rapidly flushed with color.
As her injuries healed completely, her realm also broke through two tiers, reaching Level 5 Martial Artist. Presumably, this was a breakthrough brought about by the intense pressure of battle (the ball of mental power from Lin Yichen had merely healed her wounds), though it would still be a little while before she woke up.
Looking at Xu Shiyue, who currently resembled a sleeping beauty, Lin Yichen smiled and teased:
"It looks like Hushi's number one genius is about to lose the throne!"
Reflecting on the Xu Shiyue of the past, she had been nothing more than an invisible background character with mediocre martial talent—the kind of person for whom achieving anything was exceedingly difficult. Moreover, although her face had looked much the same as it did now, she had borne a large birthmark that severely marred her appearance.
This had made her deeply reclusive. Even Lin Yichen had run into female classmates bullying her on several occasions. Naturally, whenever he encountered such instances, Lin Yichen would deal severely with that group of students, with the most severe cases being expelled from Number One High School on the spot.
As time went on, no one dared to pick on her or bully her for no reason anymore. However, her reclusive personality remained unchanged; whenever she saw someone, she would lower her head and not dare to speak.
That was until a month ago, when she approached him. It was the first time Xu Shiyue had ever taken the initiative to speak to him, and she had done so simply to ask Lin Yichen to help her get a leave of absence, because their head teacher had refused to grant it when she asked herself. At the time, Lin Yichen had wanted to refuse as well—after all, the college entrance examinations were just around the corner, and asking for leave now was nothing short of reckless.
Yet, looking at the flicker of stubbornness hidden within her timid gaze, he didn't know what came over him, but he still helped her process the leave paperwork.
He still remembered what Xu Shiyue had promised him and the head teacher in the office that day: that she would definitely shine brilliantly during the college entrance examinations!
Back then, both the head teacher and Lin Yichen had merely smiled and offered words of encouragement, but in their hearts, they hadn't really believed it, considering that her talent was indeed rather subpar.
With the college entrance examinations so close at hand, her realm had remained stuck at Level 5 Martial Disciple, barely scraping past the threshold of the worst martial arts university.
Yet now, looking at Xu Shiyue before him dressed in combat gear, Lin Yichen was truly astonished by her.
In the span of a mere month, the birthmark on her face had vanished, transforming her from an ugly duckling into an immortal fairy so ethereal she seemed to need no mortal food. Her cultivation had reached Level 5 Martial Artist, and she had even comprehended wind intent—something attainable only by Grandmasters—while just moments ago she had slain a half-step martial master ferocious white-browed tiger.
With capabilities like these, even he, prior to activating the System, could only sigh in slight inferiority. One could only say she was truly worthy of being the Guardian target chosen by the System.
Having finished these thoughts, Lin Yichen stood up and swept his gaze sharply around their surroundings.
Back when Xu Shiyue was locked in fierce battle with the ferocious white-browed tiger, several unfamiliar auras had already surfaced in the vicinity, all of them eyeing the fighting girl and tiger with predatory eagerness, hoping to reap the spoils without putting in the work.
Had Lin Yichen not been present, Xu Shiyue's fate would undoubtedly have been utterly miserable.
With a mere thought from Lin Yichen, a Dark Blade began to harvest the malicious martial artists lurking nearby at a speed invisible to the naked eye.
When dealing with this sort of people, Lin Yichen, who had survived in the Forest of Annihilation, never showed mercy; every single one of these individuals had more or less human blood on their hands.
However, Lin Yichen deliberately left behind the strongest among them—though even this strongest one possessed a strength of merely a Level 9 Martial Artist.
As the leader of these martial artists watched his comrades drop dead one after another for no apparent reason, a bone-chilling frost instantly swept through his entire body.
He knew full well that every single one of his subordinates was an exceptional fighter; otherwise, they wouldn't have survived while lording it over others for so long.
Yet now, they were dying for no fathomable reason. Right up until the last man perished, the leader still had no inkling of how they had died.