My Arts Evolve When Perfected

Now was the perfect time to build up an audience!

With this thought in mind, Jiang Qiu stood silently in place, quietly staring at Xiaoxiao. And although Xiaoxiao didn’t know what he was thinking, she too remained frozen, not moving a muscle.

Not only was she still, but fine beads of sweat trickled down her body. Her heart hammered wildly in her chest, and her two pairs of eyes darted around, as if trying to dissect the very air around Jiang Qiu.

She was no arrogant fool like Sansan. Before this challenge even began, she herself had already racked up a three-win streak.

Even though they were both new members who had instantly killed their opponents, as a young genius of the Spider Lady Race, she was exceptionally vigilant. Caution was an instinctual part of her Talent.

Only those with the ability to kill in an instant could truly understand the fear and despair of an enemy being killed in an instant. It was because she had watched the recording of Jiang Qiu’s stream before the challenge that she now didn’t dare to move.

’If I’m being honest with myself, I wouldn’t have been able to block that attack from Sansan at all,’ she thought. ’But this human in front of me killed him instantly from a distance. It’s clear he has a powerful long-range attack ability.’

’The scary part is, what if that ability is linked to my movements? What if I move and it triggers the instant kill?’

’In the stream replay, you can see it clearly. Sansan was killed the moment he made a move to throw his spear!’

At this thought, Xiaoxiao grew even more vigilant, not daring to move an inch. She simply remained in a standoff with her opponent. Unfortunately, she couldn’t see his face at all, making it impossible to analyze his mental state.

"Scree—"

A good while passed. She tentatively let out a meaningless vocalization. Jiang Qiu didn’t move. She let out a couple more yelps. Jiang Qiu still didn’t move.

And Xiaoxiao didn’t move either!

’I’ll just wait him out,’ she resolved. ’Let’s see how he plans to fight me. He must be analyzing my attack patterns, my entire fighting style!’

And so, another half an hour passed. The two were still locked in a staring contest, but the bullet comments had already gone wild. "Holy shit, what are these two doing?"

"Damn it, at least in the last match that Sansan guy would run his mouth to entertain us. This match, these two are just standing there? Not even a twitch?!"

"I’m done. Either fight or surrender! If this keeps up, I’m reporting them!"

"See? See? Jiang Qiu doesn’t dare to move. My analysis was spot on! He’s already used up his ultimate move and can’t use it again. So now he’s just waiting for the Spider Lady, Xiaoxiao, to surrender out of fear.

But unexpectedly, Xiaoxiao wasn’t intimidated. She’s remained completely vigilant, not revealing a single opening. I believe it won’t be long before she sees through Jiang Qiu’s plan, and he’ll be poisoned by one of her tricks..."

"Oh, Master of Logic, please, put away your Divine Abilities! A mere mortal like me can’t possibly comprehend them!"

Amid the banter, the viewer count rose to 400,000 and then stalled, even showing signs of dropping. But it was at this very moment that a new bullet comment flashed across the screen: "WTF?!"

Immediately after, the few lines of bullshitting were washed away, replaced by an endless flood of "WTF." Every viewer’s eyes were glued to the stream. Some looked like they were trying to press their eyeballs through their screens.

"Wait, seriously?!"

On the stream, Jiang Qiu was seen pushing open the door and casually walking out of Arena 10086. Meanwhile, on the other side, Xiaoxiao—who seemed to have taken a single step—had collapsed in a pool of blood.

The scene was fleeting. Almost no one truly saw what had happened. In fact, very few even noticed Jiang Qiu make a move.

"Incredible! That was another damn instant kill! Weren’t the Spider Lady Race supposed to have amazing predictive senses? Supposed to be able to anticipate all kinds of danger? How did she just... bite the dust?"

"Predicting danger isn’t Transcendence! What damn good is anticipating it for a split second when you’re still instantly killed!"

"Forget predicting it, even if we watch the replay at one-tenth speed with a magnifying glass, you still can’t see what the hell flew past..."

"Damn, this is just godly! Is that really not some supreme Secret Technique? Has the Celestial Star Arena’s staff really not noticed this guy is hiding his Realm? Instantly killing Xiaoxiao, a contestant with a three-win streak... Is this what a normal first-layer Spirit Body Realm cultivator can do?!"

"So f*cking awesome! I have to follow him! I want to see just how many matches this human, Jiang Qiu, can win with that unpredictable technique of his!"

"Following! Following!"

"Followed."

"+1"

"..."

After leaving the arena, Jiang Qiu didn’t check his account information. He found the private messages too noisy, and besides, there was no need to look now. After all, his follower count wouldn’t grow that fast. It was a long road ahead.

What he didn’t know was that his follower count was actually skyrocketing. The climactic instant-kill moments from both of his streams had been clipped by Celestial Star Arena technicians skilled at spotting hot content and were featured directly in the premium match section for the Spirit Body Realm.

After all, it was exceedingly rare for a debut match in the Spirit Body Realm to break one hundred thousand concurrent viewers. This wasn’t just due to promotion; the fight itself was more captivating and distinct from other matches.

There were plenty of evenly matched fights, but an instant kill was the highlight that stood out from the crowd. And an incomprehensible instant kill? That was the highlight of highlights.

The clipped video of him killing Sansan alone had garnered millions of views, attracting a swarm of armchair experts to analyze it.

However, perhaps because their knowledge was limited by years of watching only the Spirit Body Realm section, not a single one of them produced an analysis that everyone could find convincing. The debates only grew more heated.

They were roughly divided into two factions. One believed Jiang Qiu was a fraud who must have relied on external items to achieve such a feat. They claimed he was only here for the gimmick and that his actual strength was nothing special.

The other faction argued that Jiang Qiu wasn’t using external items, but had definitely made an enormous sacrifice—like offering his life to the Ancient Demon Clan or something similar. They believed he had paid a terrible price and would drop dead within a few more matches.

The majority of the remaining onlookers were just there for the drama, wondering how he did it, what the highest Realm he could instantly kill was, and just how many matches Jiang Qiu could possibly survive.

Driven by curiosity, more and more people started following Jiang Qiu through the clipped highlights. Then, after just one afternoon, they were suddenly shocked to discover— "WTF, no way, he’s starting another one!"

"What, he’s in another match already?"

"I thought some contestants were diligent for fighting once every three days. I never expected this guy to fight three matches in a single day!"

"I heard that even the most hardworking humans in the slave division only fight once every three days. This Jiang Qiu is fighting like his life depends on it! Is he even more desperate than the slaves who have no choice?"

"Tsk, tsk. He must have some kind of unspeakable secret, right?"

"What bullshit unspeakable secret? I’ve never seen anyone frantically queuing for challenges in the Celestial Star Arena and claim it’s because of some ’secret’. This place doesn’t force members to complete challenges."

The bullet comments scrolled by in a frenzy, but Jiang Qiu was oblivious. He had already entered Arena 10086—which, likely due to his frequent matchmaking, was practically becoming his personal arena.

Soon, he saw his opponent: a member of the Stone Man Clan, standing thirty feet tall. Its massive body looked as if it were pieced together from boulders, and each heavy step it took left deep footprints on the ground.

The sense of pressure from this opponent was clearly a cut above the previous two, both in terms of physique and combat record.

Before the challenge, Jiang Qiu had already glanced at his opponent’s public information. He was a Third-Layer of the Spirit Body Realm with over one hundred matches and a peak nine-win streak!

Achieving a nine-win streak in the Spirit Body Realm was no easy feat, but having fought over one hundred matches in total was what was truly terrifying. It meant he had participated in over a hundred Duels and survived them all.

In a dueling environment like the Celestial Star Arena, the higher the match count, the more fearsome the contestant. It required not only confidence and the luck of betting on an opponent’s mercy, but also the strength to avoid being so seriously injured that you couldn’t queue for another match.

And this opponent before him was someone who earned a second look from Jiang Qiu.

Soon, the challenge began. Just as the viewer count started to climb, Jiang Qiu received an electronic notification. He froze on the spot, finding it slightly incredible, yet somehow, perfectly reasonable.