In truth, Fang Li was well aware of the situation.
Back then, if the match had continued, the likelihood of his own defeat was quite high.
Ardi's original performance was already formidable, and in terms of pure strength, he was not inferior to Fang Li. At least, without using the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception and without Bo Xie, Fang Li wouldn't have had a significant advantage over Ardi.
In this situation, when Ardi unleashed the power of the Urm Manadyte within his body, his performance improved dramatically. Combined with the inherent abilities of the Urm Manadyte, Ardi not only bolstered his own strength but also equaled the use of Ogre Lux, making him unequivocally the strongest in this year's "Phoenix Festa."
In fact, even in the original story, Amagiri Ayato, who wielded the Black Furnace Demon Sword, could only barely defeat the fully powered Ardi with the assistance of his partner. Without the Black Furnace Demon Sword and without help, Amagiri Ayato would have had no chance of victory.
Thus, Fang Li had no chance of surpassing Ardi in terms of raw power and had to rely on Bo Xie.
The problem was that Bo Xie consumed an enormous amount of energy and was unsuitable for prolonged battles. Therefore, after using Bo Xie, Fang Li had made a decisive choice to go all out, releasing Bo Xie's full power while his Prana reserves were still abundant. The end result was that both he and Ardi were defeated.
So, if the match had not determined a winner at that point, it would have been a great blow to Fang Li.
Fortunately, Fang Li ultimately emerged victorious.
"Defeating Ardi here is indeed a significant obstacle cleared," Fang Li reflected. After all, in terms of pure strength, there was no one in this year's "Phoenix Festa" who could surpass Ardi. From that perspective, engaging Ardi in a battle that ended in a draw, with both sides severely damaged, was indeed a good outcome.
"However, the Prana consumption was quite high…" Fang Li couldn't help but feel helpless as he sensed how little Prana remained in his body. Strega (Witch) and Magecraft practitioners often faced Prana depletion issues due to their power usage.
However, for most Genestellar, it was rare to exhaust their Prana. Running out of Prana would result in falling into a coma, and to regain consciousness, one could only rely on their natural Prana recovery.
Those with strong recovery abilities would wake up faster, while those with weaker abilities would take longer. Fang Li had a reasonably average recovery rate. However, if he had no Prana left, he would indeed fall into a coma, unable to continue the fight.
This illustrated how significant the consumption of Bo Xie's abilities was. Of course, consumption was proportional to power, and the final strike with Bo Xie had indeed been quite formidable.
"Oh, by the way." At this moment, Cecily raised her head and looked at Fang Li, asking a question. "I forgot to ask earlier, but how did you resolve that big guy's attack at the beginning? I mean, before you used Bo Xie when you were cornered inside the defense barrier, and you were struck by Wolnir Hammer."
"That?" Fang Li suddenly smiled, patted the pure white activation body at his waist, and said, "I used Bo Xie's ability to resolve it."
"Bo Xie's ability?" Cecily exclaimed in surprise. "Could it be that, like when you sparred with me, you directly touched the attack with Bo Xie and then manipulated the attack itself using Bo Xie's ability?"
"No, that would have been too risky. Unlike Senior Sister's Seisenjutsu, Ardi's Wolnir Hammer is a purely physical attack with tremendous power. If I had used Bo Xie to make direct contact, I would have been sent flying before I could even activate the ability," Fang Li shook his head and explained, "I used Bo Xie's ability to manipulate Ardi's defense barrier instead."
Indeed.
At that moment, Fang Li had used Bo Xie to make contact with the defense barrier that had trapped him, altering its form into a shield, which he held in front of himself to withstand the Wolnir Hammer.
"After all, it's called the absolute defense barrier, and so far, no one has broken through it. I assume it's capable of blocking attacks from its user," Fang Li shrugged and said, "The result was smooth; I came out of it unscathed, only consuming a portion of my Prana."
That being said, to change the shape of the defense barrier, Fang Li did expend a considerable amount of Prana.
"Before unlocking his true power, Ardi's defense barrier functioned merely as armor. But after unleashing his true power, I believe Ardi's defense barrier should be an extension of his Urm Manadyte's ability," Fang Li explained, "So, I think that in his normal state, Ardi's defense barrier is likely created by mimicking this ability."
Therefore, initially, Ardi could only deploy one or two sides of the defense barrier, but after unlocking his power, this ability underwent a substantial boost, allowing him to deploy it in multiple directions.
In other words, the true defense barrier was essentially a unique ability of Ogre Lux.
"Using Ogre Lux to resist Ogre Lux naturally consumes a lot," Fang Li removed the activation body from his waist and looked at the pure white Urm Manadyte on it. He sighed, "However, Bo Xie, as an Ogre Lux personally crafted by Master, is remarkable. Even when dealing with abilities of the same Ogre Lux, it still proves effective."
Unfortunately, the consumption was still significant, so it was best not to use it unless it was a life-or-death situation. However, considering the tremendous power of Bo Xie's ability, its consumption was acceptable.
"Looking at it from this perspective, Senior Brother Zhao's words were correct," Fang Li chuckled, "Relying solely on powerful weapons isn't enough. The most fundamental issue is to improve oneself."
"My practice is far from sufficient as well," Cecily agreed wholeheartedly. "We'll need to train even harder from now on."
"That's right," Fang Li smiled faintly. "Anyway, we passed today's challenge, so we'll have to continue to keep it up, Senior Sister."
"You're absolutely right," Cecily replied with a smile.
At this point, Fang Li seemed to recall something and said, "By the way, it seems that Amagiri Ayato's match is after ours. Since we can't move right now, let's watch the match."
Saying this, Fang Li opened a space window.
However, to his surprise, an unexpected scene unfolded before Fang Li.
...
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