Chapter 22 Nearly Lost

It was a gut feeling, but Lin Feng could feel that something have changed. Against He Yuan, he needed more to win.

Lin Feng turned slightly away from the crowd and opened the system.

[Current Rage Points: 2,127]

[Owned: Fleet Footed Coward Dash / Thin Face Amulet / Echo Mockery Bell]

The shop unfolded in front of his eyes, rows of useful absurdities and less absurd tools sitting under the same irreverent light. One item caught his attention.

[ Bone-Steady Patch — 480 RP]

When struck by a heavy blow, stabilizes bone and internal structure for three breaths. Does not block damage. Prevents immediate collapse.He bought it.

[480 Rage Points spent]

[Remaining Rage Points: 1,647]

Still not enough. He Yuan was not a problem one patch could solve. Lin Feng needed another active skill, something as practical as Fleet Footed Coward Dash, something that could change a losing exchange by one ugly inch.

He pushed into the skill section. Previously gray options were no longer all gray. Several locked techniques pulsed faintly under the weight of his accumulated points. One of them expanded when he focused.

[Unlock Active Skill: Thick Face Counterstep — 1,600 RP]

After enduring a hit, the user may immediately cut inward on a short, forceful counter line. Efficiency increases when the user is at a public disadvantage. Lin Feng stared at the cost then he spent it.

[1,600 Rage Points spent]

[Remaining Rage Points: 47]

[New Skill Unlocked: Thick Face Counterstep]

Lin Feng’s eyes widened a fraction. He could unlock skills directly with points this whole time.

"Wait," he muttered under his breath. "I could buy actual combat skills from the beginning?"Lin Feng’s mouth twitched.

An Enforcement disciple raised his voice.

"Second platform! Lin Feng of Block C versus He Yuan of Block D! Take positions!"

The crowd thickened around the stage at once.

Lin Feng climbed the steps. He Yuan cupped his fists properly.

"I have no personal grudge with you," He Yuan said. "But the assessment is not a theater. If you only brought tricks, step down early."

Lin Feng returned a loose salute.

"The assessment is a theater, otherwise it wouldn’t have gathered this many spectators."

A few people laughed. He Yuan’s expression did not change. The Enforcement disciple chopped the air.

"Begin!"

He Yuan moved first. There was no roar and no flourish. His body stepped into range with efficient economy, and his first palm landed on a clean line toward Lin Feng’s chest. The force behind it was compressed. Lin Feng activated Fleet Footed Coward Dash and slipped off the centerline, but He Yuan had already adjusted, turning the missed strike into a shoulder check that clipped Lin Feng hard and sent him sliding back two paces.

Lin Feng tried a short verbal cut while circling.

"Man you look kinda stiff. "

He Yuan answered with a low kick to the thigh and a rising strike to the collarbone. Lin Feng’s eyes sharpened. This guy is harder to crack.

They clashed across the platform in a rapid series of compressed exchanges. Lin Feng’s qi gave him denser reinforcement than before, enough to survive contacts that would have numbed him senseless before. Even so, each block rattled through bone. He Yuan’s fundamentals were simply better. Where Lin Feng disrupted, He Yuan restored. Where Lin Feng created ugly angles, He Yuan cut them smaller.

A straight punch broke through Lin Feng’s outer guard and slammed into his ribs and pain flashed up his side. The Bone Steady Patch activated on instinct, locking his frame for three critical breaths. Without it, the hit might have dropped him to one knee. With it, he stayed upright long enough to disengage through Fleet Footed Coward Dash and reopen distance. The crowd read the exchange as He Yuan’s dominance.

Lin Feng tasted iron and exhaled slowly. Panic was useless. So was pure shamelessness. He needed He Yuan to invest one degree too much force, one degree too much certainty.

He stopped talking to the audience and started talking to He Yuan alone.

"You’re strong," Lin Feng said between breaths, circling left. "Strong enough that if you lose, people won’t say I got lucky. They’ll say you mishandled a lesser opponent."

For the first time, He Yuan’s eyes showed some reaction.

He Yuan then answered with a harder combination. His strikes came faster, still controlled, but no longer completely economical. Lin Feng’s platform space shrank. A palm scraped his shoulder and an elbow drove into his upper arm. His back foot edged closer to the boundary, and for a moment the entire plaza leaned toward the expected conclusion. He Yuan committed to the finishing sequence.

That was when Lin Feng spent the new skill. The last hit landed across his guard and jarred his bones hard enough to blur the edges of sight. Pain lit every joint in his arms. Thick Face Counterstep ignited under that exact condition. His body, instead of bouncing outward, cut inward on a short, brutal line too close for He Yuan’s extended strike to recover cleanly.

Lin Feng slammed into He Yuan’s chest zone, hooked his front leg, and twisted with all the newly bought mechanics and all the qi he could force into one motion. He Yuan’s balance broke by few inches. Only few inches but on a platform, inches were a cliff. Lin Feng drove forward again and kicked. He Yuan toppled over the boundary and hit the stone below hard enough to shock the first rows into silence. The Enforcement disciple’s hand rose after a stunned half second.

"Winner: Lin Feng!" The plaza detonated into disbelief. But Lin Feng did not enjoy the sound.

The moment the result locked, the patch’s residual support faded and the effect arrived all at once. Pain flooded his side, his right arm hung limp and every breath scraped through his chest like it had Sharpened edges. His newly advanced qi was still ther but now he could feel how roughly he used it, pouring strength into panic lines, reinforcing randomly, wasting flow on fear and momentum.

In the middle of the noise, with blood in his mouth and the platform tilting under his stance, Lin Feng finally understood something simple and late. Qi was not just fuel for surviving hits.

Below the platform, Lu Cang shouted something and panicked. Down below He Yuan rose with difficulty.Lin Feng had won again. And he looked like he had paid for it with half his body.

Lin Feng stepped toward the platform edge. Each movement sending a new wave of pain through his body. When he descended the first step, his vision narrowed into a tunnel. He still had enough awareness left to open the system once.

[Rage Value +280]

[Current Rage Points: 327]

[Physical Status: Severe contusion / rib strain / rightarm shock]

[Not recommended continue fighting further ]

Lin Feng almost laughed, then stopped because laughing hurts. On the board, and his own name still advanced. But for the first time since the assessment began, he didn’t feel any joy. He set one foot on the ground below the platform and let the cost settle fully into his bones. Gao Ren was right The final stretch was no longer just a stage for collecting anger. It was a wall that demanded better use of strength.