novelraw Chapter 282: A Worthy Opponent
Chapter 282: A Worthy Opponent
"Come on — don't hesitate. Attack with everything you've got. Don't worry about your lives, and don't worry about your weapons."
Li Wei called out, but before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, he was already moving — a lightning-fast lunge forward. The Enchanted Heavy Sword in his hand was like an ancient dragon breaking through the barrier of time, leaving a point at every throat in an instant.
No contact. But that alone was enough to blank the minds of Benjamin, Santiago, Xavier, Mark, and the others — their souls seemingly ripped out of their bodies by something demonic.
It felt worse than death.
Counterintuitive as that was, it was the truth.
Several seconds passed before the sound of pattering — like rain — could be heard. Two patrol members had wet themselves in fright.
The others fared only slightly better. Without exception, they were drenched in cold sweat, legs trembling, and it took over ten seconds before they gradually came back to themselves.
Interestingly, Mark recovered the fastest. That was promising.
Li Wei stood there, arms folded over the Enchanted Heavy Sword, watching with an amused expression.
Yes — this was his training method. Apparently it was Adai's as well. Thrown into death's shadow, forced to face fear head-on.Either be crushed by it, or break through it.
He didn't have the luxury of building them up slowly.
The external situation didn't allow for it either.
Because if a raid succeeded, ordinary freemen might be taken away — but these men would be the first to die.
"Ten minutes. Clean yourselves up. Then we continue."
Benjamin and the others looked like they had been pardoned from execution. They genuinely needed a moment.
"Li Wei — I want to try. How about a round?"
Thomas, not far away, was itching to join. Or rather, he had seen the method behind it and felt this might be an opportunity to sharpen himself.
"Sure."
Li Wei smiled slightly. The word had barely left his mouth when he was already sprinting at full speed. By the time Thomas reacted and raised his shield, Li Wei had already used the momentum of his charge to leap into the air, bringing the Enchanted Heavy Sword down on the Enchanted Heavy Shield with a thunderous overhead cleave.
No holding back. Full force.
"No no no — what the—"
Thomas was startled. He rolled aside on the spot, dodging the full-force strike. This wasn't a training dummy — if he had taken that hit head-on, the Enchanted Heavy Shield wouldn't have split in two, but it would have lost at least 10 points of enchantment durability. His shield only had 200 total. That wasn't how you trained.
"BOOM!"
The Enchanted Heavy Sword slammed into the concrete ground, cracking it with dozens of massive fissures. Li Wei genuinely hadn't held back.
He had meant every bit of it.
"Li Wei — damn it, I'm not sparring with you. That one strike alone must have cost you at least one point of enchantment durability. We can't be wasting it like that."
Thomas clutched his beloved Enchanted Tower Shield with a lingering look of alarm.
Li Wei laughed and said nothing.
Nearby, He Yuying's expression showed faint contempt. She could see Thomas's problem clearly. In a word — this type of person worked well under direction, could perform admirably when someone else was calling the shots, but ask Thomas to stand on his own and he would be the very picture of hesitation and second-guessing.
"He Yuying — want to give it a try?"
Li Wei spoke casually, and after what had just happened, it didn't feel out of place at all.
He Yuying paused, genuinely caught off guard.
But she didn't have much reason to be wary. She was going to be plot-killed at the end of the month anyway — what did she have to fear? And honestly, her hands were itching.
The fact that she had just silently mocked Thomas proved she had her own distinct understanding of combat and a strong confidence in it.
As for this Li Wei — the rising star everyone was talking about — she wanted to take his measure herself.
"Why not? Though I hope you'll show some restraint. Don't actually skewer me." He Yuying stood up with an air of indifference, though she actually cared quite a bit. Not about dying — Li Wei obviously wasn't going to kill her — but because a clash at this level was an opportunity for both of them. Why refuse a free benefit?
This time Li Wei didn't move first. Instead, he stepped back three paces — and the moment his third step landed, He Yuying had already launched herself at him like lightning, a sapper-shovel-style weapon in hand.
She wasn't just fast — her footwork was steady, her force control precise, her movements agile yet measured, always keeping something in reserve. In that instant, Li Wei saw a reflection of himself in He Yuying.
Yes — this was a master of mountain warfare.
He gave a silent nod of appreciation. Li Wei immediately shifted to a two-handed grip on the Enchanted Heavy Sword and retreated — but in a single step, he was already surging forward again like lightning. No flourishes, no tricks — just a lunge with a straight thrust.
But the speed was so extreme and the core force so overwhelming that it looked almost weightless — his entire body and the Enchanted Heavy Sword merged into a single unit, moving in an indescribable streamlined form, like a spear locked onto a single point.
In that moment, Benjamin, Santiago, Xavier, and the others watching from the side were dazzled — the cold sweat they had barely wiped away began pouring down again, and the urge to bolt surged up once more.
Even Thomas felt his hair stand on end, his expression shifting. It was only now that he realized — Li Wei's earlier overhead cleave had been holding back.
If he had activated the City Builder title and taken that full strike head-on, he would have been in serious trouble.
As for the spectators — He Yuying felt the same shock in that instant. Cold sweat erupted across her entire body.
If she were at Thomas's level, she would have surrendered on the spot.
But as Li Wei had judged, He Yuying's fighting spirit was iron. Faced with the force of that thrust, she didn't try to block it head-on — she immediately retreated, anticipating that Li Wei's momentum would eventually run out.
Her judgment was correct. No movement could be sustained indefinitely; everything was organic, flowing, changing.
Li Wei was human — he followed the same rules. The thundering thrust could only be held for less than a tenth of a second before it had to shift. That shift came right in the gap of He Yuying's backward leap — and in that alone, her mastery of rhythm was exceptional.
In the next instant, He Yuying's sapper shovel came down on the tip of the Enchanted Heavy Sword. Even with Li Wei's 32 Strength, the tip of a blade was always the most vulnerable point for control and balance — especially when the timing of the strike was perfectly calibrated.
The Enchanted Heavy Sword swayed slightly. And in that opening, He Yuying had already closed the distance in a flash, driving into Li Wei's space. That speed, that agility, that flexibility — worthy of a Four-Star Mountaineer.
And she must have triggered the hidden talent Perception as well.
Silently impressed, Li Wei shifted his footing smoothly, adjusted his position, and in one motion changed from a two-handed grip to one-handed. The blade trembled, and in an instant it had exchanged seven or eight rapid strikes with He Yuying's shovel — not only sealing off her advance, but completely abandoning the heavy-sword thrusting style from before, becoming fluid and unpredictable, like a viper's tongue, driving He Yuying back seven or eight steps in a single burst.
Then Li Wei stepped back, twirled the heavy sword one-handed in a perfect flourish with a sharp click, and hooked it onto the backpack clip behind him — expression still calm, eyes still composed.
He Yuying, on the other hand, was soaked through front and back in those few seconds, breathing hard in great gulps, the arm holding the shovel trembling faintly.
It was obvious she wanted to curse.
That had been complete tactical deception.
She shouldn't have been this badly outplayed — but from the very beginning, Li Wei had given her the impression that he was a two-handed greatsword specialist. Every move — the lunge, the overhead cleave, everything — had been textbook two-handed greatsword technique. So she had dared to exploit a small opening and close the distance, planning to use her own agility and speed to beat speed with speed. Get the rhythm right, and the outcome would be decided in an instant.
And then —
Li Wei's Perception was sharper than hers. His footwork was faster. And most infuriatingly, he had just started wielding the heavy sword one-handed.
No — like a dagger.
That fluid, unpredictable, wildly creative attack style had nearly been the end of her.
She had fought with everything she had, using every technique she knew, just to block seven or eight strikes.
And every block felt like being hit by a charging dragon. That heavy sword was absurdly heavy — twelve and a half kilograms — and every time they clashed, her arm went numb like she'd been electrocuted. By now half her body was tingling.
"After you."
Li Wei smiled pleasantly and went back to explaining combat techniques to Benjamin, Santiago, Xavier, and the others as if nothing had happened.
He Yuying stood there catching her breath for a long time before limping away. Thomas considerately brought her a chair, looking thoroughly impressed.
But He Yuying's mind was numb. Genuinely. Her defenses had been cracked.
And so that morning, Li Wei called up Benjamin and the others in rotation every few minutes for short intensive sessions — working them over until they were crying out for their mothers, howling in misery.
Throughout it all, Li Wei didn't say another word to He Yuying. Cast a long line, catch a big fish.
Over the next two days, Li Wei called Leon over for a session, roughed him up, then called Zhao Xuanxuan for a couple of sparring rounds, and even goaded Thomas into another match.
Finally he called He Yuying up again for a genuinely satisfying exchange.
If He Yuying's fighting spirit hadn't been so resolute, she would have quit long ago. But in the atmosphere Li Wei had deliberately cultivated — and on the principle that only a fool turns down a free benefit — she threw herself into the sparring with enthusiasm.
At first she was burning with frustration. Then she began to relish it.
Every morning and afternoon she made sure to get in a round with Li Wei.
Her progress was rapid — exactly as Li Wei had expected. He also made technical concessions along the way, so even though every session was a thorough thrashing, it was a thrashing with artistry.
After a few days, she was almost addicted to the sparring.
She had completely set aside any adversarial relationship with Li Wei. She treated him as a sparring partner — nothing else, no sides, no enemies. Let the weapons do the talking.
On the days Li Wei was away, she even stepped in to run intensive sessions for Benjamin, Santiago, Xavier, and the others herself.
Working them over until they were howling in agony. This woman had an extraordinary fondness for going for the throat.
And so, by the time Li Yue had returned and Liang Yuzhi had produced enough Two-Star Blood Resistance Potions to cure all 108 Blood Plague carriers one by one, fifteen days of the month had passed.
Those ten days of sparring had been deeply satisfying and enormously rewarding. An opponent at Li Wei's level who could give her genuine positive feedback — that was extraordinarily rare.
Nonexistent, really.
To say nothing of the fact that the Destiny Grid of two of her Professions had each increased by two points through the sparring alone.
To put it somewhat dramatically — the gains of these few days surpassed the combined gains of half her life.
This trip had been worth it. Even if she was plot-killed back home at the end of the month.
As for Li Wei — the moment was ripe. He had learned what four Profession Cards He Yuying held, what she needed for the future, what her weaknesses were, and what her strengths were.
He had even drafted three different recruitment proposals for her, the best of which included a Five-Star Universal Gold Card.
In the end, who would refuse a good deal?
Of course, if He Yuying declined, that was fine too. Things had to be done step by step; people had to be cultivated gradually. Every small advantage was worth accumulating.
So he borrowed a One-Star Conspiracy Card from Zhao Xuanxuan, and that evening, when He Yuying finished her patrol shift, he intercepted her at the stairwell landing. But before he could even pull out the Conspiracy Card, He Yuying had already activated a Four-Star Conspiracy Card of her own.
"I'm with the Commerce Department. My assignment was to cause some trouble in your camp — the subtle, untraceable kind. Obviously I failed. That's everything. As for anything else — I don't know, and even if I did, I wouldn't say."
"And then?"
"What do you mean, 'and then'? That's it. Did you expect me to gnash my teeth and scream that I'll never rest until I've destroyed you? It's not that dramatic." He Yuying smiled. Over the past ten-plus days of sparring, she had not only gotten to know Li Wei well — she had developed genuine goodwill toward him. There was a kind of old-friend familiarity between them.
"So — would you like to stay and work for me? On the condition that you guarantee you won't cause trouble." Li Wei cut straight to the point.
He Yuying was genuinely surprised. After a long pause, she said with a strange look, "You've got some nerve. And your thinking is completely off the wall. But I'm sorry — I can only appreciate the gesture. I don't have the Widow's transcendent status and power to do whatever I please. If I help you next month, I can forget about ever working in the Commerce Department again. But I'm still grateful, Li Wei. The sparring with you has given me a great deal. Consider this a small token of thanks — please accept it."
With that, He Yuying pulled out two Resource Cards, three Four-Star Conspiracy Cards, and a full fifty One-Star Profession Cards, and placed them all in Li Wei's hands without going through any trade system.
"This isn't aiding the enemy. This is a personal gift between individuals. Good luck."
"You are a worthy opponent."