Circular Dance

Within the Qionghua Realm, two figures were faintly visible across the boundless prairie. One figure stood suspended in midair, while the other lay inside a massive crater in the ground. For hundreds of zhang in every direction, the land lay in utter shambles from their battle. Gripping Jinghe's jade sword, Thousand Thorns, Xu Yuan dragged himself out of the earthen pit bit by bit, looking up at the girl in the sky who appeared entirely untainted by dust. With the light from the vault at her back, her palace dress fluttered like that of a banished immortal, the golden halo radiating around her making her look like a fairy descended to the mortal realm. Xu Yuan tightened his grip slightly on the jade sword. He couldn't beat her. Not at all. Ever since Tianyan broke through to third-rank Grandmaster, battling her had turned into an overwhelming, one-sided beatdown. The fight had already lasted a quarter of an hour. He had practically been turned into a punching bag, while he hadn't managed to graze so much as the hem of her clothes. Looking down from above, Tianyan's airy voice drifted down, laced with a faint trace of disdain: "Can't take it after just a quarter of an hour? How disappointing. I thought you might give me a pleasant surprise today." "..." Xu Yuan rolled his eyes at her words. Ever since she reached the third rank, this woman's trash talk during their spars had grown steadily more frequent. Not only did she launch physical attacks, but she also loved dishing out mental taunts. Having had to swallow her pride and endure for an entire summer, she had clearly built up quite a stockpile of resentment. Now that the tables were turned, the two of them had reverted to how they were in the outside world. It was just a pity that her barbs lacked bite. At least compared to the keyboard warriors in the games from his past life, she was leagues behind. Her morals were still in dire need of declining. Holding the jade sword, Thousand Thorns, Xu Yuan sighed and shook his head. "Little girl, swaggering like this just for beating someone who hasn't even cultivated for half a year? I really don't know where you get the nerve. Is this all your Overseeing Heaven Pavilion Master taught you all these years? Tsk, tsk." "..." The girl in the sky instantly clenched her fists. She glared down at him for several breaths, exhaled, and suddenly broke into a bright smile. "Keep talking tough." With that, she uttered a single word: "Flash." A ripple of Source Qi surged, and a distance of over ten zhang vanished in an instant. The girl's slender figure abruptly materialized right in front of Xu Yuan. Tianyan's "Flash" True Word was somewhat similar to his Void-Stepping Slash, though the "Flash" True Word produced a faint ripple of Source Qi. Xu Yuan's eyes narrowed. His trash talk had been intended precisely to bait Tianyan into closing the distance. This was her habit. Whenever she lost a war of words, she chose to settle things with her fists. Her literal, physical fists. And Tianyan, who cultivated the Heaven-Deducing Art, was without doubt a mage in the most traditional sense; her close-quarters combat was indisputably her weakest point. Yet hitting him with her fists was the most venting. Circulating his cultivation art, fiery-red patterns immediately surfaced across Xu Yuan's body. Huanyang Art, Six Yang Astral Qi. The moment the art took form, the fiery-red patterns, accompanied by a scorching heatwave that seemed capable of reducing everything to ashes, expanded outward with Xu Yuan at the center. Yet Tianyan simply stood in place and calmly uttered a single word: "Seal." Now that she had returned to the third rank, she no longer needed hand seals to cast the Heaven Character True Words. As the syllable left her lips, Xu Yuan instantly felt the unhindered Source Qi inside him obstructed and jammed by an invisible force. If he didn't halt its circulation, he would suffer qi deviation! He hurriedly broke off his cultivation art. With a snap, the fiery-red patterns that had just spread outward dissolved into a sky full of Source Qi. At the same time, Tianyan swiftly thrust out a slender, fair hand toward Xu Yuan's chest, only to be blocked by his jade sword. Though his technique was mediocre, his inherited cultivation base could still be considered among the best of the third rank. Xu Yuan stared at Tianyan and smiled. "Men and women shouldn't touch, Tianyan." Tianyan sighed. "Xu Changtian, if your strength were as hard as your mouth, I might actually save a lot of effort." "Have you tested my strength?" Xu Yuan retorted. "..." Puzzlement flickered in the girl's eyes. Without wasting words, she spat out a single word: "Break." Time seemed to freeze. *Buzz—* The tremendous force caused the jade sword to hum loudly, nearly tearing it from his grip. Seeing this, Xu Yuan's face fell, and he moved to retreat rapidly. However— "Swift." In an instant, Tianyan's figure was already beside him. *Boom!* A deafening roar! The ground fractured into a web of cracks. The jade sword, glowing with fiery-red light, flew from his hand due to lack of leverage, and a massive crater over ten meters wide fractured and caved in around them. The boom echoed across the prairie. Dust and debris scattered, and in the next instant, a figure flew backward! Hurled dozens of meters back, Xu Yuan stabilized himself in midair and flipped upright. Without a moment's hesitation, he beckoned with a hand, drawing the disarmed blade straight back into his grip across empty space. He landed steadily on his feet, about to make his next move, but in the next instant— "Cough... agh!" A mouthful of scorching blood surged from his mouth. He drove the blade diagonally into the ground to force himself upright. Only now did a plume of dust lazily rise from the shattered ground where they had clashed in the distance. Xu Yuan wiped the blood from his lips, pulled the blade from the earth, and fixed a grave, intense stare on the rising cloud of smoke nearby. Suddenly— *Whoosh—* Tianyan flicked her sleeve. A gust of wind pressure erupted from the center of the dust, instantly sweeping away the swirling sand and rock to reveal the dust-free girl in her light red dress standing within. Looking at him, she smiled and asked, "Shall we continue today? Keep this up, and you might not be able to get out of bed tomorrow." Xu Yuan grinned, leveling the jade sword horizontally. "Don't be in a rush. I can't control the move I'm about to use. One slip, and someone dies." Tianyan's willow-leaf brows arched slightly. She gave a two-word reply: "Is that so?" With that, she curled her finger at Xu Yuan with an amused smile. Xu Yuan took a deep breath. Tianyan had just used her "Seal" True Word, giving him a window of about ten breaths during which she couldn't use it again. This move ought to be enough to injure her. With that thought, Xu Yuan unleashed the trump card he had been preparing for so long. Void-Stepping Slash! Xu Yuan stamped his foot, sinking the soil, and his figure vanished instantly from the boundless prairie. Witnessing this, Tianyan's golden eyes narrowed slightly. Gone. Even with her Heavenly Pupils, she couldn't catch the slightest trace of him! Though she looked down on Xu Yuan's combat skill, she snapped into high alert upon seeing this. "Shield!" "Swift!" The moment the words fell, Tianyan moved to pull away. Yet in the next instant, the vanished Xu Yuan abruptly appeared right before her! The fiery-red glow on his jade sword was gone, replaced by an eerie light of blood and ink! The Void-Stepping Slash bridged a hundred meters. The instant Xu Yuan appeared— Leveling his blade, he slashed in a full arc. The edge carved out an arc of bloody, ink-dark light in the pristine air, sweeping overwhelmingly toward Tianyan's slender body! It was one technique from the only sword art recorded in the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art: Blood-Ink Jade: Circular Dance. Wherever the blood-ink sword arts passed, the lush green grass withered and died in an instant, and the world itself seemed to darken for a breath! Seeing this, Tianyan's breath hitched. The scent of death instantly engulfed every inch of her being like a rising tide. In the past, even when Xu Yuan managed to shatter Tianyan's "Shield" True Word, the golden light of the shield would burst into scattered sparks. This time, however, the instant the blood-ink sword arc collided with the golden shield light, those layers of golden shielding were sliced through like a knife cutting through tofu. And then, Tianyan's slender, delicate body was cleanly severed in two, slowly turning into specks of starlight that dispersed into the air. Yet this terrifying sword art caused not the slightest damage to the surrounding terrain; the quiet, blood-ink arc lingered in the air for less than a breath before vanishing into nothingness. Having unleashed this strike, Xu Yuan collapsed completely drained, sprawling flat on his back on the ground. And in the next moment, Tianyan's figure appeared in midair, her Source Qi in utter disarray. Her qi had been punctured. After a few moments of silence, she landed beside Xu Yuan without a word, glaring at him with indignance in her eyes. Word by word, she demanded, "Xu Changtian, are you insane?!" Xu Yuan smiled weakly, his voice thick with exhaustion. "What, almost died? I did warn you to be careful." "Are you an idiot? This move of yours might be strong, but it still can't kill me." Amusement mingled with anger in Tianyan's gaze. Her chest heaved slightly as she snapped, "If I had disrupted you with a Heaven Character True Word just now, you'd be dead already, do you know that?" Earlier, she had instinctively wanted to disrupt him with a Heaven Character True Word, only to realize that doing so would cause the bastard to blow himself up on the spot. She had no choice but to swallow the word at the tip of her tongue and switch to the secret technique from the Heaven-Deducing Art's Life and Death Chapter to substitute her death. Having finished scolding him, a trickle of blood spilled from the corner of the girl's mouth. She silently wiped it away, leaving her lips a vivid, crimson red. Still seething with anger, Tianyan scolded on: "Sparring with you is to let you test your moves, not to have you court death! Are you stupid? You haven't even mastered channeling your qi yet, and you dare use it in real combat?!" With that, she stamped a foot directly onto Xu Yuan's thigh. Though Tianyan wasn't wearing shoes, her foot was reinforced with Source Qi, making Xu Yuan grimace and bare his teeth in pain. After a pause, though, he simply asked with a grin, "So, what do you think? This combo of mine should be enough to slay a third-rank, right?" The Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art truly lived up to its blood-tier ranking; even the "Shield" True Word from the Heaven Character True Words had been sliced through like vegetables. Hearing that, Tianyan's brows shot up, her flat chest heaving again without much of a wave: "Hah, it really could. But what if you don't kill them? What do you do then?" Xu Yuan was completely shameless: "What else? Stretch my neck out and wait for death." Tianyan narrowed her eyes with a sneer. "That's about as far as your ambitions go." Xu Yuan looked up at the vast expanse of azure sky, his tone deeply contented. "Little girl, I'm only a seventh-rank who hasn't even comprehended a 'Dao.' Having the chance to kill across realms and take down a third-rank is more than enough to satisfy me." *Thud!* Tianyan kicked him again. "Don't call me little girl." Xu Yuan chuckled and shook his head, staring at Tianyan's gradually reddening cheeks. "You'd better suppress the Meishen flower poison first. Looking at your face, it seems like your condition is acting up again, yet you still have the energy to nitpick what I say." Tianyan stared at him for a few breaths. "Xu Changtian, your mouth really is tough." "Thank you for the compliment." *Thud!* "Hiss..." "..." "..." After catching their breath and regulating their qi, Tianyan carried Xu Yuan back to their courtyard with her Source Qi. Lying in bed and swallowing several medicinal pills sent over by Bai Fan, Xu Yuan rested and channeled his qi for a full two hours before he was barely able to walk. Within the courtyard stood an elegant pavilion. By the day's fading light, Xu Yuan sat in the pavilion leafing through ancient texts, while the girl in the palace dress tended to the flowers and herbs she grew in the courtyard. The sun gradually sank into the west, the sunset dyeing everything crimson. All was quiet and harmonious, just as it had been for the past few months.