Born into the Alphonse family—a twisted, sinister family that stopped at nothing in pursuit of eternal life—Sean cherished his life deeply, which was why he had waited until now to risk it.
Life source energy poured forth. The red glow undulating over the knight broadsword looked like incandescent magma, withering and curling the blades of grass beneath his edge.
The surefire lethal situation tonight had gradually begun to shift. The scales of life, death, and victory were slowly tipping toward the other side, an outcome difficult to explain... Sean was beginning to believe something mentioned in the intelligence dossier he had received earlier:
Han Qingyu's combat power fluctuated—fluctuated in an incomprehensible way, growing stronger the longer he fought.
That was why he dared not drag this out any longer.
This opponent was strong, yet also tenacious and sly. Even though right now he appeared—no, even though he had looked like a spent arrow some time ago already.
Eight wounds covered his body, his left shoulder bone was severely fractured, and he was soaked in blood. Han Qingyu held his sword in his right hand, left hand empty, staggering even just trying to stand.
At this moment, the blue starlight column sword was planted quietly in the grass to the side. Han Qingyu and Sean stood facing each other, the three positions roughly forming a triangle.
The connection between Han Qingyu and the starlight column sword worked like this: within a certain distance, he could pull the column sword toward himself, or pull himself toward the column sword, with the speed of that process reaching an extreme limit.
However, he had no way to remotely direct the column sword to strike in other directions across midair.
The connection existed solely between two points, like two magnets under deliberate control: either you come to me, or I come to you. All variations of his combat style stemmed from this principle.
However, once the column sword left his grip, its power diminished, and in most cases posed no lethal threat to Sean.
*This hound of the Alphonse family is probably just a sliver away from reaching the super level.*
Thinking this, Han Qingyu stared at the magma-like red light on Sean's sword and found his mind wandering inexplicably. He recalled the forging technique Jiang Chou, that damned blacksmith from the same Sub-Sequence, had once told him about:
Dead iron was hard to melt; with someone continuously pouring source energy into it, it was practically impossible to melt. But when it had already reached a molten state and was promptly enveloped in source energy, it could instead remain in that state a bit longer, during which the dead iron became pliable.
That was the critical window for shaping, refining, and infusing source energy into dead iron weapons. Jiang Chou's unique forging technique was tied to this, as he was an expert himself.
Therefore... *This Sean... seems pretty well-suited for blacksmithing,* Han Qingyu mused silently.
*Bang!* Wen Jifei suddenly fired a shot.
An 18mm bullet came streaking through the grass and night, striking Sean's broadsword with pinpoint precision... The heavy round, not even made of dead iron, melted away silently the instant it touched the blade.
He was testing the current state of that sword for Han Qingyu.
Sean's brow furrowed.
Under the moonlit steppe, a wisp of warm breeze drifted past.
*Whoosh!* A surge of majestic source energy erupted. Sean gripped his knight broadsword with both hands, pointing it diagonally down to his right, and charged forward, churning up dirt and stones.
*Whoosh!* Another metal block melted away silently. The moment life source energy overflowed, Han Qingyu's source energy surged, and he met the charge head-on.
He couldn't stay still. Being at a natural disadvantage in strength, standing in place would rob him of momentum.
While they charged straight at each other, the blue starlight column sword shot toward him like a beam of light from the flank. Because he was advancing rapidly, the trajectory of the flying column sword leaped and shifted erratically along with him.
The ensuing battle scene was breathtakingly magnificent—if Wen Jifei were in any mood to appreciate it.
At forty meters apart, the dead iron straight sword slipped from Han Qingyu's right hand, drawing a shimmering arc under the moon as it struck toward Sean's left temple.
Sean swung his broadsword upward from the lower right, batting away the straight sword, shifted both hands to hold the hilt on his left, and continued charging forward without pausing for a step.
At thirty meters, Han Qingyu reached out mid-stride to catch the starlight column sword. The moment his fingers closed around it, he hurled it straight at Sean's face, while darting to the side to retrieve his sword.
The lateral distance widened by nearly a hundred meters.
The temperature of the retrieved sword was blistering hot to the touch; Han Qingyu hastily wrapped it in source energy.
*Clang!*
Sean chopped down at the starlight column sword from above. The column sword plummeted directly in front of him... right in front of him!
*Whoosh!* Han Qingyu held the sword horizontally in a reverse grip with his right hand. In an instant, he covered the hundred-meter gap to Sean like an apparition, slashing horizontally toward Sean's throat.
Sean brought his broadsword upright with a *clang* to parry, following through with a horizontal slash.
Han Qingyu pressed his blade down and vaulted straight upward at an incomprehensible angle. He was airborne, and the instant he took flight... the column sword on the ground trailed right behind him, shooting upward toward Sean's jaw.
*Clang!* The knight broadsword was too long to swing back in time, so Sean slammed the pommel down to knock the column sword aside.
At that very instant—
*Boom!* Han Qingyu gripped his sword in both hands and plummeted from midair like a falling meteor.
The dead iron straight sword, its edge already worn down earlier, carved a wound across the side of Sean's shoulder.
Wounded in two places now, with his life source energy steadily draining away, Sean roared in fury. He clearly held the upper hand in strength, yet possessed no initiative whatsoever, thrown into complete disarray...
Spinning around, he swung a slash that launched Han Qingyu backward and upward into the air, dodging past the blue starlight column sword flying in from behind.
Han Qingyu caught the sword midair.
*Boom!* This time, what plummeted straight down was the column sword.
*Boom!* Drawn by the column sword, the man crashed down right behind it.
Sean batted away the column sword, scrambled to evade Han Qingyu's slash, and looked for him again... only to find him already tens of meters away, pulled along with the deflected column sword.
*It can't go on like this.* Sean couldn't comprehend Han Qingyu's endurance, but the fact remained that he was taking a beating passively, denied any chance for a direct clash of strength.
His advantage in raw power could not be brought to bear at all.
Sean had tried to restrain or intercept that blue starlight column sword, but it proved utterly impossible, only throwing off his own balance and center of gravity.
"This is the most incredible fighting style I've ever seen." Regaining his footing once more, Sean looked up. At his feet lay the corpses left behind by his comrades.
Ahead, Han Qingyu charged straight toward him once again.
Just before clashing, Sean suddenly swung his broadsword downward across the earth. Amid a thunderous roar, dirt and stone scattered as six swords on the ground were launched into the air at once, hurtling toward Han Qingyu.
At the same time, Sean spun around to track the trajectory of the column sword, putting all his power into a midair strike to knock it far away.
Everything was premeditated.
Through precise calculations of angle and force, Han Qingyu's movement was herded to brush right past the seven surviving men of the enemy line.
"Shield thrust formation," Sean called out in French from midair.
In that instant, the seven-man formation that had been standing back-to-back suddenly wheeled around, sweeping out like two arcs before closing into a ring, enclosing Han Qingyu in the center.
At some point, each of them had produced a washbasin-sized shield-like object in hand.
*Clack-clack-clack...* Amid a flurry of snapping springs and mechanisms, every shield extended sections from the top and bottom, expanding to nearly half the height of a person.
*Boom!*
All shields slammed inward at once, crashing toward Han Qingyu.
The column sword ripped through the air toward him.
Halfway there, Sean knocked it flying once more, flowing smoothly into a spin midair as he slashed horizontally over the shield formation to prevent Han Qingyu from vaulting out.
"Kill!"
With that command, the shield formation thrust...
The aperture on every shield sat at a different position.
Through every aperture, a blade thrust inward.
Seven swords stabbed simultaneously toward different parts of Han Qingyu's body.
"Ah!" Han Qingyu had no choice. With his four turbines spinning at their peak, he aimed at one shield and struck with all his might. *Boom!*
Amid the deafening crash, men and shields were sent sprawling. Han Qingyu barely managed to break through the shield ring, tumbling onto the ground before scrambling up desperately.
Another slash opened on the back of his right thigh.
Beneath his left shoulder blade, a blade had nearly pierced through his body.
His left arm hung completely limp.
... The column sword flew back.
Han Qingyu sheathed the sword in his right hand onto his back, reached out to catch the column sword, gripped it, and propped himself up with it against the ground.
He dared not let the column sword fly around anymore; he had to keep it to save his life. This was something both Han Qingyu and Sean understood clearly now.
The shield-bearers picked themselves up off the ground.
This was likely the real reason they had never chased down Wen Jifei: they were one of the hidden finishing blows.
At this point, the battlefield finally fell into a momentary stillness.
*Drip.*
*Drip.*
"If you... *cough, cough*... if you come over here, our brotherhood is finished for the rest of our lives."
Han Qingyu said these first words without turning around, his tone not even heated.
He spoke with great difficulty. Devouring metal blocks beyond his limits was causing the bone source in his body to slip out of control; his skeleton creaked, and agony flared through his spine.
A faint rustle came from the grass in the distance as Wen Jifei froze in his tracks.
Han Qingyu uttered his second sentence: "Block his sight."
This sentence was spoken in dialect—the local dialect from around Fenglong'ao.
Wen Jifei flattened himself back against the ground... focusing his mind, holding his breath.
*Block his sight...* This was vastly more difficult than landing a bullet squarely on the blade. He had to calculate all trajectories so the bullet would graze right past Sean's eyes at the exact critical moment.
Wen Jifei didn't know what Qingzi planned to do specifically, but he knew that the next few shots would be the most important shots of his entire life so far.
Despite studying Chinese diligently for six years, Sean could not understand that second sentence. His brow furrowed, then smoothed out just as quickly. The outcome was already decided... He looked Han Qingyu up and down carefully.
"I'm sorry to kill you like this... But as I've said, life, death, victory, and defeat are just this unfair. Only staying alive is what matters most."
Han Qingyu looked up at him...
Without saying a word, he suddenly flashed a smile, as if in agreement.
At the same time, slowly, the column sword in his right hand lifted from the ground, the tip angled downward, assuming a stance to meet the enemy once more.
"Can you still fight?" Sean asked, looking at his swaying frame.
"I can," Han Qingyu said. "I still have to go home alive to see my parents."
Chapter 334