When Han Qingyu smiled, it was not out of ease. Rather, having taken Tian Hetai's mace blow head-on one after the other with Wu Xu, he knew full well in his heart that this fight would be tough—unimaginably tough.
It was a gap in sheer, hard power—a disparity in the density and depth of their source energy.
There was good reason why Tian Hetai had discarded his saber for a mace just as he prepared to unleash his full burst, giving up sharpness in favor of crushing heft. He intended to smash them with the raw mass of his source energy.
Han Qingyu was already at his peak three-turbine state, holding virtually nothing back, yet in a direct, frontal clash, he was still completely outmatched.
Neither he nor Wu Xu could withstand Tian Hetai's strikes head-on anymore.
What was more, they were caught in an encirclement—a six-man pincer.
By now, the fighting to the rear had subtly ground nearly to a halt. It seemed both sides understood the situation and were waiting for this decisive clash in the distance to conclude.
In the surgical building, doctors and nurses who had just finished an operation used the brief lull before the next to stand by the windows and watch.
The battlefield lay in the distance below their gaze, but thanks to the high vantage point, it was remarkably clear—a circle drawn along the line of life and death.
"What are you waiting for?! Attack!" Having entered his state of full explosive power, Tian Hetai seemed in a great hurry, as though every second exacted a massive toll.
*Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!...*
Amidst the roaring bursts of source energy apparatuses, six streaks of blue light converged.
"Here we go," Han Qingyu smiled again.
Wu Xu nodded.
The two streaks of blue light at the center of the ring erupted simultaneously, lunging in the same direction.
Meeting Tian Hetai head-on.
Han Qingyu drove forward in a charge, his feet slightly leaving the ground as his body leaned forward. Twin blades held parallel slashed down from upper right to lower left, aiming straight for Tian Hetai.
Tian Hetai still used no fancy technique. Relying purely on forward momentum paired with the surging tide of source energy, he brought the heavy mace straight down in a brutal cleave.
*Clang-clatter!*
The blow did not land solid. The twin blades only grazed past the heavy mace; Han Qingyu dropped his body low and spun toward the lower left.
The instant his right shoulder dropped,
*Thrum!* A black spear thrust forth, almost as if resting against the back of his shoulder.
Skimming past his shoulder, it stabbed toward Tian Hetai's throat.
At that exact moment, Han Qingyu landed to the left, slightly crouching. With a flick of his right wrist, he reversed his grip on the Azure warblade, spinning his body to whip the edge toward an enemy beside him.
He had only been serving as cover; this person had been his real target from the start.
*Snikt!* Caught off guard, the man suffered a deep gash across his thigh and screamed in agony.
Sounding at the same time as the scream was a sharp *clang* of clashing metal. In haste, Tian Hetai had blocked Binggu's spearhead with the crossguard of his heavy mace, his body forced back a step.
In the next instant:
Wu Xu dropped his wrists, flicked the spearhead upward, and drove forward again, thrusting toward his face.
Han Qingyu had also spun upward once more. This time, he used the momentum of swinging his twin blades to carry his body, spinning horizontally almost parallel to the ground as his blades tore through the air, slashing from behind toward Tian Hetai's neck.
*Whoa!*
Gasps of astonishment erupted from friend and foe alike.
Everyone present knew Tian Hetai was powerful, and they understood Han Qingyu and Wu Xu were formidable as well—especially now that the two had joined forces...
Yet only now, as this tempestuous assault was unleashed with seamless, unending synergy, did people truly realize what caliber of duel this was.
The roaring bursts of source energy apparatuses on the battlefield and the sonic cracks of weapons cutting the air detonated and echoed relentlessly across the right-angled zone beneath the moonlit sky.
The sounds were immensely heavy.
*Clang—buzz-buzz-buzz...*
In that split second, Tian Hetai chose to whirl around, sweeping his heavy mace toward Han Qingyu while sinking his shoulders and jerking his head aside.
*Boom!* Twin blades collided squarely with the heavy mace.
Still in midair, Han Qingyu plummeted away into the distance like a snapped kite.
At the same time, the black spearhead skimmed past Tian Hetai's vitals from behind his neck, carving a bloody gash between his earlobe and cheek.
In any combat powered by source energy apparatuses, offense invariably surpassed defense. Unless one was clad head to toe in dead iron armor, facing dead iron weapons empowered by source energy would breach defenses and kill just the same, provided the disparity in tiers was not an unbridgeable chasm.
"Seeking death!" Stung by pain, Tian Hetai whipped around, gripping his heavy mace with both hands. It tore through the air with a howling roar, sweeping toward Wu Xu.
*Clang—buzz-buzz-buzz...* Wu Xu brought his spear across to block, but he too was blasted back by the sweep.
*Thud!*
*Thud!*
When they landed and steadied themselves, the two stood before and behind Tian Hetai.
Wu Xu rested the black spear against his shoulder, keeping both hands behind his back. His right palm gripped his left wrist tightly... the bone in his left wrist had already cracked from the impact.
"Heh, *cough, cough*, heheh." On the other side, Han Qingyu, looking just as battered, suddenly broke into a cough-punctuated laugh.
Looking closely, everyone, including Tian Hetai and his men, discovered that among the five surrounding enemies, one had collapsed unnoticed at some point.
No one had imagined that while being hurled through the air by Tian Hetai, Han Qingyu had actually managed to release one of his sabers and execute Rusty Sister Dimple Slash.
Precisely because no one saw it coming, one of them had died.
"What a cunning move."
"No, what incredible tenacity. That wasn't something you could pull off just by being sly and looking to ambush someone. You have to realize what his body was enduring right then."
"Yeah, and it's intimidation too. Fighting like this, the others will definitely be walking on eggshells from here on."
"It's just their condition..."
In truth, by this point in the battle, Han Qingyu had already formed a theory in his mind: Why was that old dog Tian so unwilling to go all out? Why did he look barely fifty when his grandson was already in his thirties? And why was he in such a rush after unleashing his burst?
*His burst state, my overflow of life source energy, and perhaps even Legion Commander Chen Buer's "Twilight" slash are, in all likelihood, different branches of the very same path.*
*Only their price is lifespan and vitality... while mine is metal blocks and peeling skin.*
*It seems that the people in this world walking along different branches of this path are actually not few.*
Such a deduction made Tian Hetai seem terrifying, yet in reality, not quite so terrifying. In terms of strength, walking this path did not mean everyone was equally strong. If one were to truly measure it, Chen Buer was high in the sky, Tian Hetai was up in the tree, and Han Qingyu's current strength was beneath the tree.
And so, Han Qingyu could likely... wear him down to death.
He shot a glance toward Wu Xu.
"Attack!" Tian Hetai roared. Still taking the initiative, his heavy mace bore down straight at Wu Xu. Wu Xu did not block, dodging aside directly, though his footing staggered slightly.
*Boom!*
A large tree behind him, grazed only slightly by the tip of the heavy mace, instantly snapped and shattered into pieces.
"..."
The visual was so visceral that everyone instantly understood what a terrifying surge of source energy Han Qingyu and Wu Xu had been enduring head-on just moments ago.
Meanwhile, Han Qingyu had already struck behind Tian Hetai, buying time for Wu Xu to regroup.
Tian Hetai spun around with a horizontal sweep.
Han Qingyu likewise did not meet it. Tapping the ground with his toes, he leaned his entire body back and glided backward.
Tian Hetai lunged after him.
On the other side, Wu Xu swept his spear across, holding off the other four enemies. No longer able to hold the spear with both hands, he gripped it with his right hand, tucking the butt under his armpit as he fought four opponents alone.
"Die!"
The heavy mace smashed down.
Han Qingyu flipped and landed behind an ornamental boulder.
*Boom!*
Under the heavy mace, the boulder shattered with a deafening crash.
Dust choked the air and jagged rocks flew everywhere. A chunk of rock slammed into Han Qingyu's chest, knocking him flying.
*Spurt...* Han Qingyu coughed up a mouthful of blood in midair.
This turn of events baffled the non-combatant onlookers completely. After maintaining silence for so long, the crowd in the rear finally stirred with unrest.
"What do we do? We... they..."
The words were incoherent and left unfinished.
Because looking ahead, through the dispersing dust and flying stones:
Han Qingyu was still standing. Holding his twin blades, he stood there rapidly regulating his breath, and he even cracked a smile.
Shattered rock could not conduct a source energy surge. Thus, while the battle looked spectacular and terrifying now, it was actually far easier than when he had been directly tanking the blows earlier.
After fixing their eyes on Han Qingyu for a moment, many people turned as one to look toward Ran Qiuling. They remembered what she had once said: "When you call him a dead iron straight man in the future, remember: he truly is a piece of iron."
He truly was a piece of iron.
"If you regret this, you can run," Tian Hetai suddenly spoke up.
Han Qingyu ignored him, standing his ground.
"I am nearing seventy, and I have always known that in this life, only one's life is of supreme worth," Tian Hetai said again, striking the pose of a seasoned elder.
"Then I'm not like you. I'm still young," Han Qingyu said with a smile. "The blood in my veins hasn't gone cold yet."
Chapter 217