Cultivation was the bedrock that determined victory or defeat between cultivators, but intelligence could, to a certain degree, gouge straight through that bedrock.
Having constantly shown his face in public over the years, Xu Yuan's techniques were no longer secrets to the Sect Alliance. As one of his most frequently used techniques, the Void-Stepping Slash had seen immense manpower and resources poured into researching its fundamentals by the Sect Alliance, yet up until now, almost no one had been able to mount a perfect counter against it.
The original Void-Stepping Slash had carried the fatal weakness of a fixed reappearance orientation, leaving the user vulnerable to being pinned on landing; however, after Xu Yuan's modifications, the landing point could now follow his every whim.
Facing him in battle, even someone as formidable as Wen Xinyun countered him only by diffusing Source Qi into the surrounding air and waiting until he emerged into the mortal realm before retaliating.
And so,
the sudden teleportation of the Four Symbols phantoms caught everyone present off guard.
Including Xu Yuan.
Because it had synchronized with him.
No,
rather than calling it synchronized, the Four Symbols Seal Technique seemed even faster than he was.
Unlike other spatial arts that triggered instantly without the slightest gap, the Void-Stepping Slash caused the caster to briefly vanish from the mortal realm before reappearing. That duration was exceedingly brief, yet undeniably real. And just now, during the very interval when he had vanished from the mortal realm, the Four Symbols Seal Technique had arrived a step ahead at the Void-Stepping Slash's landing point.
To the regret of the watching Sect Alliance higher-ups, however, the Four Symbols Seal Technique could not penetrate the Void Flash. Caught off guard though he was, Xu Yuan was not affected in the slightest by the suppressing effect of the Four Symbols Seal.
In a flash, Xu Yuan used the Void Flash teleportation to pull away once more. Yet just as he prepared to counterattack, a glimpse from the corner of his eye deepened the astonishment in his heart.
The Four Symbols phantoms had, once again, appeared around his Void-Stepping Slash's landing point ahead of time.
Amid the tempest of qi dynamics, the golden-eyed young woman's dark hair drifted lightly.
During this interval between activations of the Void Flash, Xu Yuan's peripheral vision stayed locked onto her flawless, delicate face, a subtle trace of unspeakable loneliness lingering in his eyes.
Perhaps because they knew each other inside out in the past, after just this single exchange, the surprise she brought him was even greater than Wen Xinyun's.
After all, Tianyan had always been bullied by him in the past.
No matter how vast the gap in cultivation between them was, Tianyan had never once defeated him—a complete, utter loss in every sense.
That memory had become a habit ingrained into his very bones, yet now it abruptly shattered amidst the murderous intent of combat.
For the young woman before him was now the Saintess of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion, bestowed with the name "Tianyan," and no longer the girl in his memories who had always flown into an impotent rage.
Xu Yuan gradually reined in the playful amusement in his eyes.
The fact that the Four Symbols phantoms could teleport had to be a derivative of the Instant True Word, while that uncanny, prophetic foresight was likely the Dao charm Tianyan possessed.
He made a few more attempts to break free, and as expected, the Four Symbols phantoms continued to appear precisely at his landing points.
As an entrapment technique, the Four Symbols phantoms were a persistent area-of-effect art. To evade their suppressing effect, Xu Yuan was forced to continuously deploy Void Flash to dodge. If this went on, the duel would devolve into a tedious war of attrition right from the start.
A war of attrition between the Void-Stepping Slash and the Instant True Word.
If only he and Tianyan were present, Xu Yuan wouldn't have minded giving this washboard-flat Saintess a little taste of a cheater's Source Qi shock, but the problem was that he still had to conserve enough strength to guard against Wen Xinyun and Luo Wei.
This couldn't go on like this.
Thoughts flashing through his mind, Xu Yuan suddenly spoke:
"You've truly given me quite a surprise."
Tianyan looked down at the blood-robed youth surrounded by the Four Symbols. Her golden eyes were divine and unfeeling, her voice crisp and clear:
"Xu Changtian, you aren't the only one in this world who keeps growing stronger. If you don't take this seriously, you really will die here."
*Die here...*
Looking at that cold murderous intent stated like a matter of fact, the corners of Xu Yuan's lips tugged into a smile before he lowered his gaze in silence.
Heaven and earth fell silent for an instant.
The Four Symbols phantoms gradually bore down upon Xu Yuan.
Just at the moment the entrapment art was about to solidify completely, Xu Yuan's figure vanished from where he stood. When he reappeared, he was already right in front of her.
And this time,
the Four Symbols Seal Technique did not teleport again.
Because the weakness of the Four Symbols Seal was that it made no distinction between friend and foe.
Even if the caster was inside it, their Source Qi circulation would likewise be suppressed. Therefore, Tianyan would never trap herself within it.
Xu Yuan leaned forward slightly beside her ear, his blood-red pupils glancing sideways at the young woman's flawless profile.
Tianyan's magnificent golden eyes shifted slightly.
The two were so close, yet exchanged gazes without a word.
Time seemed to freeze in silence at this moment.
A rotating halo of light gradually formed within the young woman's golden eyes.
A blade of blood qi quietly manifested in the youth's hand.
In the silence, he whispered to her:
"My apologies."
In the next instant,
the halo in her eyes expanded.
At the same time,
the blood blade swept out.
Countless splashed-ink sword marks bloomed across the sky, accompanied by bewitching blood qi, like a magnificent, blooming spider lily!
There was no clash of techniques,
for both aimed directly at each other's physical bodies.
Xu Yuan took the hit of her technique head-on with his body, clean and direct. Piercing pain, accompanied by the sight of splattering flesh and blood, flashed into his mind.
Tianyan was not a monster like him.
The young woman's body could not endure the full brunt of his massive sword technique.
Countless slashes struck from every direction. The young woman standing in midair was instantly knocked out of the sky, her petite figure hurtling backward and plummeting toward the mountain peak at high speed!
Yet on closer inspection, Tianyan hadn't sustained any injury at all; even her sacred, pure white gown hadn't gathered a single speck of dust.
Her golden eyes rapidly tracked the trajectories of the sword marks. Before each mark could strike her body, it was intercepted by an invisible mirror surface, yet the domineering force of the slashes pushed her back relentlessly until she crashed into the dilapidated palace hall atop Heaven Sword Peak!
Yet just as the dust was about to billow up, a pure white thread reached out from where she had crashed through the palace roof. Like tumbling ocean waves, it whipped toward Xu Yuan against the sea of splashed-ink swords, pulling taut the instant it reached him!
Heaven-Severing!
This lightning-fast slash left the vast majority of Transcendent Realm experts present unable to react, but as the target, Xu Yuan saw it all clearly.
*Buzz—*
Tilting his body slightly, the Heaven-Severing True Word grazed past his cheek, leaving a trail of blood that was healed an instant later by the Dao charm of Life.
Yet in the next instant,
*Pfft!*
The pure white thread that had already shot toward the horizon abruptly teleported, slashing across the blood-robed youth's neck without any warning!
Feeling the tearing agony in his neck and the weakness from his draining vitality, Xu Yuan felt no panic in his eyes. After all, if having his throat slit could kill him, how could he be worthy of the name Eternal Night Calamity?
The scene before him only made him want to laugh.
Laugh at the impermanence of the world, laugh at the cycle of karma.
Back then, the erasure of his memories of the Charm God Illusion Realm had made his attitude toward her nearly cold-blooded and merciless, but now the tables seemed to have turned completely.
Truly fucking absurd.
Facing Tianyan, however, Xu Yuan had little time for sentimentality.
If that eye halo was something he had deliberately endured to trade blow for blow, then the Heaven-Severing True Word just now was something he had simply been unable to dodge.
As an enemy, Tianyan was formidable.
Because she knew him too well.
Living together day and night for thousands of days and nights meant that no one in this world knew him better than this washboard-flat Saintess.
And that naturally included...
the weaknesses of his techniques.
Heaven and earth fell silent.
Tianyan's figure flew out from the damaged roof of the great hall, her voice crisp and clear as before:
"Xu Yuan, have you forgotten? The Stacked Inscription Secret Art is a technique I helped you develop back in the Charm God Illusion Realm."
Chapter 774