The ultimate battle of the City of Iniquity was not supposed to look like this.
In people's discussions, or rather expectations, it was supposed to be grand and magnificent—a clash between peak powerhouses that shook heaven and earth, leaving behind yet another tale for later generations in this city of exiles to recount with relish.
Just like the blade mark the Huaxia Legion Commander had carved into the Third District years ago.
That mark was not a humiliation to this city.
The people here relied on martial force, and revered it even more, worshiping the strong. They felt proud and their blood surged simply because this city had witnessed the might of the strongest in the mortal world.
Almost every youth here, upon receiving their first set of gear and blade in life, would carry the blade to stand before that mark... if only to stand in silence for a while.
So it was fortunate they couldn't see this.
Yet Shu You himself had originally thought the same, had harbored the same expectation. Thus, at this moment, holding his blade horizontally amidst the wind and sand, he was momentarily lost for words.
It was simply too difficult to reason with the man opposite him.
When that man judged others by his own cynical standards and believed everyone harbored sinister motives, what else could one do?
As the stalemate dragged on, Han Qingyu stood in the distance, watching Shu You for a moment. In truth, with facing Alphonse in mind, he genuinely lacked experience fighting against peak powerhouses...
"All right," he finally said, flicking his left hand.
The small blue starlight column sword landed a kilometer away to his left.
Then he recalled the large column sword and flicked his right hand, sending it landing a kilometer behind him to the right as well.
"What are you doing?" Shu You asked, bewildered.
"Making it easy to run away at any second! Just in case the gap is too huge, or you try to trick me." Han Qingyu offered a candid smile, reached behind his shoulder, and drew a sword.
One sword.
Two swords.
In his left hand, the sword was held in an ordinary grip, pointing diagonally at the ground.
In his right hand, the sword was held in a reverse grip, angled behind him.
Shu You hesitated for a moment. "Without the column swords, won't your combat strength be greatly diminished?"
"Perhaps. It's been a long time since I fought without relying on column swords, and I've been thinking that might not be right."
With that, Han Qingyu erupted his life source energy with a roar.
Those in the distance heard the boom.
"So it isn't over. They're still fighting."
Deep among the dunes, the sandy ground between Han Qingyu and Shu You split open in a deep gash. A cactus toppled as his right-hand sword flew from his grip—the Rusty Sister Dimple Slash.
Simultaneously, holding the left-hand sword, he lunged forward in a straight-line assault.
*Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...* Unmuffled in face-to-face combat, the Rusty Sister Dimple Slash followed an erratic, drifting arc, so fast it was almost invisible.
It struck toward the left side of Shu You's neck.
"This move is indeed great for seizing the initiative," Shu You remarked with a slight smile. Pivoting sideways, his silver blade slashed down almost vertically, precisely intercepting the spinning blade.
Yet at the very instant before the edges met—
*Swish!* The counterclockwise spinning sword suddenly reversed into a backward rotation.
The arc bypassed the silver blade, sweeping toward the right side of Shu You's neck.
*Buzz!* Caught off guard, Shu You quickly unleashed his trait.
A brief stagnation seized the air.
*Clang!* In the end, he knocked the dead iron straight sword away with the hilt of his weapon.
At the same time, through the rolling curtain of sand before him, another straight sword thrust out and rolled into a downward chop as Han Qingyu emerged.
Shu You raised his blade—no, he kicked off the ground and retreated rapidly.
Because in that split second, he realized raising his blade was too slow.
The reason wasn't that Han Qingyu had copied his trait again to hinder the air; Shu You had prepared for that. The slowness came from the silver blade itself, as if it had suddenly ceased to obey him.
A dead iron straight sword reversing direction?
A hindered silver blade?
"What was that?!" Shu You halted in the distance and straightened up to ask.
"Naturally, I have a trait of my own," Han Qingyu replied.
In truth, he didn't know what his trait actually was. Aside from briefly mimicking his opponent's trait, there was another effect—though he didn't know whether it counted—which allowed him to exert a degree of control over dead iron within the range of his overflowing bone source.
When he had first stepped into the Super tier, this control was very weak, so weak he could only nudge dead iron across the ground. But now, with nine bones' worth of power and his overall strength elevated, the control was growing stronger.
Considering that absorbed bone source required time to digest, this control was bound to become even stronger in the days ahead.
"Oh, impressive! You're stronger than I thought." Shu You smiled with genuine appreciation and said, "Then let's have a proper fight."
With that, he launched a counterattack. With a simple opening stance, he slashed forward.
The blade had not yet arrived.
Yet where the edge pointed, the surrounding air seemed gathered together into a condensed line, extending ten or twenty meters from the tip of the blade.
Of course, this was no blade qi—there was no such thing as blade qi in the world of source energy. This was the effect produced by Shu You combining his trait with his strike.
Now Han Qingyu understood how the ship blocking the waterway at sea had been cleaved apart back then. At the time, that ship had been sliced in two without ever making contact with the blade itself.
He didn't intend to take this blow head-on.
However—
"This strike carries seventy percent of the power meant for Alphonse," Shu You stated.
At those words, Han Qingyu halted his dodging maneuver and charged straight ahead, answering with a ferocious counter-slash.
He charged straight beneath the invisible edge.
*Boom!*
Physical blades collided.
Both stood frozen, blades locked.
Yet the howling gale and sand blasted entirely toward Han Qingyu's side.
And a dune behind him had already been sheared clean through by the invisible blade.
*Pfft!* Han Qingyu coughed up a mouthful of blood.
He did not move—except for his right hand.
The right-hand sword flew back from the sand on its own. Gripping it, he slashed across Shu You's waist and abdomen.
Han Qingyu closed in for close-quarters combat.
......
The battle had finally turned fierce.
Hearing the colossal clashes one after another, the watching crowd shifted from excitement and fervent chatter... to quiet awe, and finally to deep sighs.
A battle lasting over an hour was exceedingly rare in the world of source energy.
At this level of combat, the two were almost certain to fight to the death.
At last, the fighting seemed to quiet down.
The din subsided, the airborne sand settled slowly back to earth, and the entire desert fell still.
The crowd fell silent, their eyes turning in unison toward the depths of the desert.
They were waiting to see who would be the one to return.
After waiting for about half an hour,
finally: "Someone's coming."
In the distant desert, the silhouette of a figure appeared, walking slowly forward.
"It's Mr. Shu You."
The white hair of that figure drifted gently in the breeze.
"Then, Major Qing..."
"Yeah."
Carrying his silver blade on his back, Shu You drew closer.
"He's covered in blood."
Blood on his clothes, blood at the corner of his mouth.
"Shu You is injured too."
"Yeah, and badly hurt at that."
"What a pity for Major Qing. If only he hadn't been in such a rush and had waited a few more years... the outcome might have been different."
Amid the subdued murmurs, suddenly, *thud, thud, thud, thud, thud*—a thunderous barrage of footsteps surged out from the city.
People turned around in alarm.
As the marching drew near, a dense black formation came into view.
Ten columns.
In each column, the tail stretched as far as the eye could see.
They finally recognized them.
"Looks like at least five thousand men."
"Who are they?"
"It's the Azure Dragon Gang."
"So that means—!"
The crowd quickly parted to make a path, their eyes snapping back toward Shu You, who was walking over alone.
None of the men from his own faction had shown up.
And before him stood the Azure Dragon Gang's Supers, top-tiers... and a five-thousand-strong army.
"Is the Azure Dragon Gang going to avenge him on the spot?"
"I don't know."
"...Doesn't look like it."
For Shu You had already walked past the leadership of the Azure Dragon Gang in silence, and none had taken advantage of his injuries to strike at him.
Then he kept walking forward.
The five-thousand-man formation halted at the city gates also parted down the middle, making way for him.
Shu You's retreating figure disappeared just like that. The wounds on his body bore testament to how brutal the duel had been. From start to finish, his head had remained bowed, not saying a word, and he looked far from pleased.
"So Shu You won, but what is going on?" The clueless crowd grew ever more bewildered.
"Wait, look at the Azure Dragon Gang!" someone shouted suddenly.
"What?"
"They... they're all carrying luggage."
"Huh? Are they leaving?"
Before the onlookers could even make sense of this,
all at once: "Look over there!"
Someone else cried out loudly.
Once more, the crowd turned as one.
At the far side of the desert, another figure had appeared.
*Whoosh!*
"It's Major Qing!"
"Major Qing came back too!"
Chapter 528