High Martial Arts: Become a God by Spending Money, Start by Spending All Your Compensation Funds

When Ivan fell, the White Elephant Kingdom's troops moved.

Instead of rushing towards the crater where the Heart of the Gods resides, they slanted into the battlefield, landing right between the Sakura Kingdom's position and the Dragon Kingdom's allied forces.

The leading ascetic was shirtless, his bronze skin marked with rings of old scars, like the rings of an old tree.

He clasped his hands together and bowed slightly to Ruri Jinguji, who was blocking his way.

"Amitabha."

The live chat exploded instantly.

"Baska?! The number one unit of the White Elephant Kingdom has personally intervened!"

"What is he trying to do? Steal the Heart of the Gods?"

"No, he stopped Jinguji..."

Ruri Jinguji tightened her grip on the sword: "You want to compete for Basska of the White Elephant Kingdom too?"

On the viewing platform, the leader of the White Elephant Kingdom suddenly stood up.

This was not part of their plan.

According to his pre-match agreement with Basca, the White Elephant Kingdom should wait until both Long Ying and Basca are severely injured before entering the field to reap the rewards.

But now, this ascetic monk has taken it upon himself to stand before Jinguji Ruri's sword ahead of time.

"He's gone mad..."

The leader of the White Elephant Kingdom murmured.

Sitting in the Dragon Kingdom delegation's seat, Qin Shanhe stared at the screen and suddenly smiled: "No, he's perfectly sober."

On the field, Basca had already answered her question.

"This humble monk is not interested in fighting." Basska's voice was soft, carried by the wind from the crater, yet every word was clear. "This humble monk simply does not wish to see the carnage on this island ultimately benefit someone else."

Before the words were even finished, the blade was already flashing.

Ruri Jinguji's sword was unbelievably fast.

Many martial arts masters on the viewing platform saw it clearly: she didn't even make a gesture of drawing her sword, yet the sword was already drawn, slashing diagonally at Basca's throat—the same Iaijutsu that defeated Ivan with three strikes.

Pascal did not dodge.

He fell at an angle that defied the laws of human anatomy, his spine pressed against the ground as if boneless, the blade barely grazing his nose and severing a strand of gray hair.

Immediately afterwards, his arm lashed out from behind like a whip, his five fingers forming claws, grabbing at Jinguji's wrist holding the knife.

Jinguji sheathed his sword, blocked the attack, and used the momentum to drift back three steps.

She glanced down at the blade. Five faint finger marks on the blade were slowly fading away.

"Yoga and martial arts," she said softly, "without bones in the muscles and bones, and without joints in the flow of qi and blood."

Pascal smiled and clasped his hands together, saying, "You have excellent eyesight, benefactor."

His words were not a compliment.

The Jinguji school of swordsmanship emphasizes discerning the key points in an opponent's blood and qi circulation, cutting off the flow with a single strike – this is precisely the interception of the flow.

For a warrior like Ivan, whose attacks are wide and sweeping, her sword is a natural nemesis.

But Basca's kung fu was such that his muscles and bones could be folded to any angle, and his blood and qi flowed through his body like mercury, with no fixed points to follow.

Her knife couldn't find a place to strike.

The two clashed again. Their swords flashed and their palms moved in a chaotic blur, so fast that the live stream had to slow the video down to a quarter speed, and even then, the chat was still flooded with comments saying "I can't see it clearly."

In the fifth strike, Jinguji's sword slashed at Basca's left shoulder. The blade stopped less than half an inch into the flesh, and the muscles there seemed to be alive, gripping the blade tightly.

She decisively abandoned her knife and retreated, her palms flying as she exchanged seven close-quarters blows with Basca before seizing an opening to reclaim the knife hilt.

In the eighth move, Basca glided along the ground like a fully drawn bow, her palms striking at the back of her knees from an impossible angle; she leaped up and slashed down with her sword in mid-air, the blade's energy carving a two-zhang-long trench in the ground.

Basca rolled in the ditch, a bloody gash appearing on his bronze back. When he rolled out of the ditch, the gash had shrunk and closed, as if someone had pinched it shut from the inside.

The viewers in the live chat were stunned.

"What kind of body is this... it automatically heals itself after a knife is cut into it?"

"When yoga and martial arts are practiced to their highest level, it is said that one can control every muscle and every acupoint in the body. The flow of qi and blood does not follow fixed meridians, so the Jinguji family's method of seeing through the nodes is completely ineffective against him."

"Everything has its counter. She could defeat Ivan with three strikes, but she couldn't do anything to this ascetic."

After more than ten rounds, neither side could gain the upper hand.

Jinguji's sword struck Basca's body three times, each time as if it had pierced a clump of oil-soaked old vine, incredibly resilient.

Basca's claws were twice brought to Jinguji's throat, but both times she narrowly avoided them.

In the twelfth move, Pascal suddenly stopped, leaped back ten feet, and landed with his hands clasped together.

The retreat was swift and clean, without even a lapse in breathing.

Someone on the viewing platform muttered "slippery" under their breath.

Everyone could see that if the fight continued, Basska would be the first to fall, but he retreated at just the right time, just before Ruri Jinguji decided to get serious.

That's enough.

Ruri Jinguji stood holding a sword, a tear in her sleeve revealing a purplish-blue finger mark on her forearm.

"You are no match for me," she said.

"I know," Baskar nodded frankly. "If we fight another thirty rounds, my bones will break before your blade. But you..."

He raised his eyes, and a trace of almost compassionate calm shone through his cloudy eyes.

"You wouldn't dare fight this humble monk for thirty rounds either."

Ruri Jinguji fell silent.

He was right.

She had to maintain her composure. The Dragon Kingdom's team was tearing through her defenses layer by layer, and the young man named Lin Yun was coming with a sword, his momentum at its peak.

If she were to fight Basca to the death here, all the preparations made on the crater would have been for nothing.

"Your knife is the most exquisite I have ever seen in my life."

Basca turned and walked toward the White Elephant Kingdom's ranks, his voice drifting back on the wind.

"It's a pity that I don't know if I'll ever have the chance to learn from such a fine knife again."

Ruri Jinguji did not answer. Sheathed her sword and turned to rush towards the crater.

The crimson hem of her dress fluttered in the sulfurous wind, like a cluster of fire rising against the current.

On the other side of the battlefield, Lin Yun deflected the sword of the last defensive warrior with a single strike and looked up.

The crater is right in front of us.

The last line of defense, the samurai of the Sakura Kingdom, had collapsed. The stone steps leading into the crater were exposed to the red light of the lava, one step at a time, leading to the crimson light that floated in the center of the cave.

The heart of God.

Even from dozens of feet away, Lin Yun could feel the rich blood and energy contained within that crystal.

The crystal, the size of a fist, possessed a vitality even more astonishing than that of a third-tier S-class alien beast.

No wonder the organizing committee dared to offer 10,000 points for it.

"team leader!"

Guo Po attacked from the flank, covered in blood, his wound on his left shoulder reopening, grinning with his teeth showing.

"It's the last part, let's finish!"

Lin Yun took a deep breath, suppressing the inexplicable tremor in his heart.

"beat."

With each word spoken, the team's morale both plummeted and surged simultaneously.

After guarding the position for two days and accumulating points for two days, having survived the encirclement by Korea, the pressure from Russia, and the sabotage by Japan, all the paths led to this final stone step.

The outcome will be decided in this final battle.