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Translator: Truth
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
There was no denying that Lan Zi Yi was incredibly strong. Her strength was identical to Lu Ye’s in the sense that they had both exceeded the realms they belonged to. At this stage, the Three Tumors were the only ones who could defeat them, and only because they had remained at the Spirit Creek Realm for over a decade. Their abnormal strength was a product of time, not circumstances like in the case of Lan Zi Yi or Lu Ye.
Every powerful cultivator had their own secret. Lan Zi Yi of course was no exception.
It was a secret that no one could possibly know too. Although she was only at the Spirit Creek Realm, her horizons, skills and knowledge were far greater than any Spirit Creek Realm cultivator.
She lifted a thumb and wiped the corner of her lips. She looked down and confirmed that she was, indeed, bleeding.
She did not think that a Spirit Creek Realm cultivator who could hurt her existed.
The small smile she had been wearing on her face this whole time disappeared. For the first time, she faced Lu Ye with a serious expression.
As she raised her great sword in front of herself, she suddenly gave off the feeling of an impregnable fortress. It was as if no attack could defeat her so long as she remained standing.
Lu Ye wasn’t going to give her the time to catch her breath, of course. The ground beneath his feet dented as he launched himself forward like a lightning bolt.
Before he could get close to her though, Lan Zi Yi abruptly spread her arms wide. Her greatsword had split into two greatswords!
Who would’ve thought that her greatsword was really two greatswords combined? She really had been treating this as a game until now. The revelation didn’t affect his speed and determination to kill her though.
As the distance between them continued to shorten, Lan Zi Yi abruptly assumed a strange stance. One of her greatswords was pointed toward the sky, and the other the ground. Then, she did a little twirl before swinging at Lu Ye.
Their blades clashed, and Lu Ye’s charge was brought to a halt. To his surprise, it was he who won the clash of strength this time. He could tell that the strike was distinctly weaker than before.
Instead of feeling elated, a sudden sense of doom loomed over him. He hurriedly backed away from the woman. However, the moment he took a step, Lan Zi twirled yet again and brought her second greatsword down on him.
Clang!
Lu Ye backed another step.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Every time they clashed, Lu Ye was forced back a step. When Lan Zi Yi was wielding just one greatsword, her attacks were slightly clumsy despite their formidable strength. Now her strength had diminished, but her dexterity and speed had shot right off the charts!
Lan Zi Yi’s fighting style had changed completely after she started wielding two greatswords. What was shocking was that her grasp of the new fighting style was as masterful as the transition was as smooth!
The woman was tall to begin with, and her greatsword was at least one-sixth of a meter longer than the standard sword. The spinning sword style meant that everything within several meters of her was within her attack range. Every time she swung the weapon, it would whistle through the air faster enough to severe space itself.
Suddenly, the image of Lan Zi Yi executing this sword style against a horde of enemies passed through his mind. She could probably kill every single enemy surrounding her with this technique alone!
It was like he was trying to weather a storm of death. At first, he was still able to block her attack. However, the further he was pushed back, the faster she would spin, and the more frequent her attacks became. He had only backed away a dozen or so steps when he was beginning to fall behind her attack rhythm. For every five attacks, one would land on his body without fail!
Although he was able to use Protection to block it, it did not change the fact that it was a one-sided beating. Another dozen steps later, Lan Zi Yi sped up even more. For a time, the battlefield was filled with the resonant sound of metal clashing against metal.
Sometimes, Lan Zi Yi’s attacks would shatter Protection and draw blood. In just a few breaths, Lu Ye had gained a dozen or so wounds, some deep, some shallow.
He knew he couldn’t retreat any longer. The arena was only so big, and if he reached the edge then he would literally have nowhere to run. He had to break out of this situation somehow, or it was only a matter of time before the storm of death sliced him to many tiny pieces.
[Should I use Flash? Will it even work? I caught her completely off guard with a Flash that was empowered by two Sharp Edges the first time, but her barrier still blocked it perfectly. Can I really risk this?]
Even now, Lu Ye still hadn’t figured out how his enemy had blocked the attack or what the nature of that barrier even was.
It would be a bad idea to use Flash again without figuring that out.
His mind made up, he stopped retreating at the same time the Inviolable abruptly burst with Spiritual Light. Then, he charged toward his enemy instead.
The counter-charge came at a severe cost. Protection shattered practically the moment it was formed, and his body immediately gained a couple more deep wounds.
However, Lu Ye was able to land a hit on Lan Zi Yi’s body. At the same time, he created Insight in his eyes and watched closely.
Once again, the invisible barrier had appeared out of nowhere to block the attack. It vanished as soon as the attack was over. Unfortunately, Lu Ye still couldn’t figure out what the barrier was even with Insight.
The attack successfully interrupted Lan Zi Yi’s combo and threw her about thirty meters across the air. She landed lithely on her feet before pointing one sword at Lu Ye and hiding the other behind her back.
So far, Lan Zi Yi was obviously in much better condition than Lu Ye. At the very least, she hadn’t been wounded once since the battle began. On the other hand, Lu Ye looked as ragged as a beggar. His entire body was coated in a layer of blood qi as well.
He had never looked this sorry since he began challenging the Scroll of Supremacy. The woman before him was undoubtedly the strongest opponent he had ever faced at the Spirit Creek Realm level.
Meanwhile, Lan Zi Yi finally noticed that Lu Ye wasn’t bleeding even though he was covered in wounds. Moreover, the intensity of the fog of blood around his body seemed to be growing in proportion to his wounds.
Lan Zi Yi tilted her head in confusion. It made her look adorable especially because she was a tall, beautiful woman.
From her perspective, Lu Ye was like a wounded animal, one whose inner ferocity had been fully dragged out into the open.
Both cultivators vanished in a blur at the same time. They reappeared in the middle and clashed blades once more.
Lan Zi Yi let out a cry of surprise. It was because Lu Ye’s speed and strength were far greater than before!
Bloodrage was finally unleashing its power!
Earlier, Lu Ye had been pushed by Lan Zi Yi so hard that he was starting to wonder if the Glyph was working at all. To be fair, Bloodrage’s effects were gradual, not immediate.
Now though, Lu Ye had lost so much blood that the fog surrounding him was almost impenetrable. The more blood he lost, the greater the effects of Bloodrage. Naturally, he was much faster and stronger than he was before.
The Inviolable weaved through the air so fast it was as if he had four arms. Lan Zi Yi’s greatswords were moving at an unbelievable speed as well.
Lu Ye’s strength had completely surpassed Lan Zi Yi’s. Every time they clashed, the greatsword would be thrown back.
However, even with the empowerment of Blood Rage, Lu Ye was still behind Lan Zi Yi’s in terms of speed. She was just that fast. Not only that, she could always hit him from an unthinkable angle that riddled him with more wounds.
It wasn’t like he wasn’t scoring hits of his own, but Lan Zi Yi’s barrier had blocked them all.
It looked like the situation was hopeless, but Lu Ye finally figured out something after observing the barrier for a while. He still didn’t know how the barrier was formed, but he could tell that the barrier wasn’t invincible. It was because the barrier showed signs of weakening every time he landed a hit. The reason he wasn’t able to pierce it yet was because the damage he dealt hadn’t exceeded its threshold.
In other words, Lan Zi was unbeatable so long as he could not destroy this barrier!
As if sensing Lu Ye’s intentions, Lan Zi Yi suddenly spoke up, “This is my Spirit Dress. The Spirit Dress is unbreakable so long as my Spiritual Power hasn’t run out. The only way you can beat me is to deplete my Spiritual Power.”
Lan Zi Yi was a Heaven Nine cultivator, so of course her reserves were much greater than Lu Ye’s. Not only that, Lu Ye was going through his reserves way faster than Lan Zi Yi as a matter of course.
In other words, the chance he might win a war of attrition was exactly zero.
Lu Ye did not think that his opponent had told him the truth of her protection out of the kindness of her heart. The only reason someone might reveal their trump card to an enemy in the middle of a life-and-death fight was to attack their psyche.
By telling him that her Spirit Dress would never break so long as her Spiritual Power was unending, she was attacking his confidence and diminishing his fighting spirit. In fact, most cultivators would, consciously or not, begin fighting more passively due to the perceived hopelessness of the situation.
Suffice to say, a cultivator who grew such a mentality in the middle of a fight like this was mere moments away from death.
Lu Ye was sure that Lan Zi Yi was telling the truth. The Spirit Dress’ impenetrability was mostly like because of her Spiritual Power.
Suddenly, he recalled his final fight during the Battle of Goldentip.
His last opponent was a maiden of Cult Blackfyre, and she had constructed a similar defense that was theoretically unbreakable so long as she still had Spiritual Power. However, the outcome of that battle proved that there was no such thing as an unbreakable defense!
The only way to penetrate this type of barrier was to exceed its defense threshold. The question was, did he have a skill that could do this? Flash certainly wasn’t the answer. He had already tried that with every advantage stacked in his favor to no avail.
[I guess I’ll have to use my second blade technique then.]
The Blood Shifting technique and Blade Communion weren’t the only things he had learned from his third senior brother’s insights.
A simple blade technique had been jotted in the booklet. He had given it a go and grasped it almost instantly.
Even more amazing was the fact that the blade technique could be used in tandem with Flash, though he had never tried that in practice. That was why he had no idea if he could execute it in real combat.
It was his last hope though. If he failed the execution, then he would have to ask Yi Yi and Amber to join the battle.
This was the battle for the top place of the Scroll of Supremacy after all. The face of their factions was on the line as well. Ultimately, all was fair in war.
The dumbest thing so far – switching from two-hand grasp to dual-wielding same length blades somehow increases her alacrity. Unless those weapons are the ones doing the fighting or they weigh next to nothing – ain’t happening.