Mortal Combat

"On my own." Leng Tianfeng understood the meaning behind Yaoguang's words at once. The next instant... He laughed out loud. "Su Yaoguang, was it? Let us call you Su Yaoguang for now..." Watching Yaoguang draw his sword, Leng Tianfeng was amused by the gesture. "Very well, you have successfully caught my attention. Now—" *Whoosh!* A flash of sword light tore through the air. Like a bolt of white silk cleaving the empty sky, it carried a chill that pierced straight through the soul, appearing before Leng Tianfeng in a fraction of an instant. A split second later... Leng Tianfeng struck with lightning speed. His right hand, clad in a glove woven from some peculiar material, seized Yaoguang's lunging blade with uncanny precision. An indescribable precision. The way Leng Tianfeng moved to catch the thrusting blade displayed an extraordinary mastery of force and immaculate timing. It was as though the two were not engaged in mortal combat at all, but rather performing for a film—one executing a choreographed move for the other purely to produce the finest visual spectacle. *Hum—* The blade's resonance reverberated in the air. A cold glint flickered across Leng Tianfeng's brow. "Even without my combat assistance module, with my countless years of fighting experience, against swordsmanship of this caliber, I could give you a hundred years and you still wouldn't harm a single hair on my hea—" Blood and qi erupted. The instant his sword was caught, the potential ignited by the Star Ignition secret technique caused the force imbued within Yaoguang's blade to surge violently. The high-frequency vibration of the sword tore free from Leng Tianfeng's gripping palm, driving straight forward in a fierce thrust. "Triggered your adrenaline?" Leng Tianfeng's expression barely shifted. He tilted his head with effortless ease, looking not like a combatant fighting for his life, but a graceful dancer. Even as the Shenying Sword drove past his ear, expending its momentum into empty air, his right hand struck out in pursuit. He pinched his fingers into a sword hand, moving at a pace that seemed unhurried yet contained an unspeakable profundity. A solitary point seemed to form at his fingertip. That point turned into something akin to a spiritual and circulatory black hole, inexorably pulling Yaoguang's essence, qi, and spirit toward it, causing them to collapse and drain inward. Yaoguang's spirit was not merely disturbed; even the flow of his blood and qi drifted off course, leaning toward that outstretched finger. It was as though... Yaoguang were deliberately directing his own essence, qi, and spirit into Leng Tianfeng's finger, cooperating so that a single strike would completely shatter them. *This is...* Yaoguang's pupils shrank. *Life Force Field!* *He is using his own Life Force Field to interfere with another living being's essence, qi, and spirit!* Unlike spirit intent, which only affected the mind, this twisted a person's very perception of the external world from the foundational level of essence, qi, and spirit. Even Yaoguang could not achieve such a feat yet. *His realm...* Yaoguang pushed his mental focus to an unprecedented peak. A Life Force Field abruptly erupted around him, instantly holding off the fingertip's disruption of his essence, qi, and spirit. At the same time, without dodging or retreating, he whipped the Shenying Sword around from where it had stabbed into empty space. Sweeping in a sharp horizontal slash, its freezing edge shaved within a hair's breadth of Leng Tianfeng's skull. "You can actually deploy a force-field protection module at such an energy level?" Leng Tianfeng was somewhat surprised. Yet he soon came to a realization. "A protective field directly concerns survival. It is indeed the module most easily activated in life-or-death crises." Even as he spoke, his movements reached an extreme speed. His head tilted sideways, letting the edge of the Shenying Sword brush past against his skin. The force riding the blade swept up dozens of severed hairs, scattering them into the air. At that exact moment, his thrusting finger landed squarely on Yaoguang. Although the technique's wondrous ability to manipulate essence, qi, and spirit had been broken by the Life Force Field, the instant the finger struck Yaoguang's body, he felt an electric shock of destructive force permeate every corner of his frame. His blood and qi, his internal force, and even his thoughts seemed to stutter to a halt under the impact. The penetrating momentum carried by the finger forced him back three stumbling steps. However... The physical toughness of Leng Tianfeng's body was not exceptionally high. Because Yaoguang had activated his Life Force Field to shield his internal organs, the penetrating force failed to rupture his viscera. Furthermore, the supposed disruption to his blood, qi, and force was neutralized almost instantaneously by the circulating Life Force Field. Sensing the dozens of hairs shorn off by the Shenying Sword, a cold malice crept into Leng Tianfeng's eyes. Just moments ago, he had boasted that even with a hundred years of training, Yaoguang's swordsmanship would never touch a single hair on his head. Yet barely any time had passed... And he had been slapped squarely in the face. Humiliation gave way to rage. "With your body's energy level, that Life Force Field won't last long. I could easily drag this out, let you burn through your vitality, and leave you to suffer the backlash. But... I don't intend to do that!" Leng Tianfeng's body gradually began to manifest demonic traits... "I am going to smash your skull, extract your soul, seal it into a canister, and refine it into one of my three thousand six hundred virtual pets. Every single day, the moment you see me, you will come crawling to wag your tail and beg for—" A sword burst forth like thunder! Knowing full well that a demon grew vastly more formidable once it manifested its true form, Yaoguang attacked again without the slightest hesitation. Under the Star Ignition secret technique, his blood and qi surged to an unprecedented height. Compounded by the fact that he had reached the culmination of blood exchange, his body operated as if driven by a titanic engine, brimming with seemingly boundless power at every turn. Channeled through his flawless control over his internal force, every ounce of that strength converged into the Shenying Sword. As the blade thrust forward, a visible white shockwave broke across the edge, and a dull clap of thunder tore violently through the open air. Yet against this thunderous, crushing thrust, Leng Tianfeng did not even blink. Staring fixatedly at Yaoguang's body, he lunged forward with savage ferocity. "No matter how powerful an attack is, what use is it if it can't hit anything?!" The instant their figures met, Leng Tianfeng twisted his torso, once more evading the thunderous thrust at the razor's edge. It was perilous, yet seemingly calculated to perfection. "Tell me, what use are you?!" He snarled, spreading his hands wide to clamp down on Yaoguang's skull. He clearly intended to strike inward from both flanks with the combined force of both hands, crushing his head into paste. However, before his hands could slam into Yaoguang's temples, a violent surge of force detonated across the tip of the Shenying Sword, which had stabbed into empty air. It was as if a miniature shell had exploded at the sword point. A furious burst of force, laced with splintering sharpness, blasted against Leng Tianfeng's head from point-blank range. This was... An exquisite mastery over dan jin that allowed him to cast it out of his body and let it detonate in midair after a single second! Evidently, when Yaoguang had struck, he had already anticipated that the initial thrust would not hit Leng Tianfeng. His true killing move had been this restrained, primed burst of dan jin all along! The sudden turn of events made Leng Tianfeng's expression warp in horror. No matter how incomparably rich his combat experience was, he was powerless to react in time against an attack he believed he had already dodged, only for it to detonate right beside him. The bursting force tore savagely into his head, instantly shredding his ear to pulp. The undiminished force slashed deep sword gouges across his face, soaking half of it in crimson blood! This was far beyond a slap in the face! Half his face had been torn to pieces! "Die!" At this moment, no matter how suave and courteous Leng Tianfeng had appeared when he first arrived, he could no longer suppress his towering fury. His facade of gentility was cast aside without hesitation. Roaring, the hands that had been aimed at Yaoguang's skull suddenly plunged downward, shifting from open palms into downward strikes that crashed brutally into Yaoguang's chest! Instantly, an explosive force rippled outward from the point of impact, shattering his Life Force Field like deadwood. The moment the Life Force Field collapsed, an unprecedented wave of weakness washed over Yaoguang. It felt like having every garment and layer of protection stripped away, leaving him entirely exposed before a crowd. That utter vulnerability and defenselessness sent a bone-chilling shiver running through him. Worst of all, after shattering his Life Force Field, those two palms acted just like the previous finger strike, completely sealing off the circulation of all his essence, qi, and spirit. No! The profundity within these two palms was far more thorough and extreme than the earlier finger strike. It was as if the transmission of his nerve signals had been severed, cutting off the connection between brain and flesh. He lost all control over his physical body, reduced to a paralyzed state, helpless on the butcher's block. Eight Gates Golden Lock! "I will tear you to pieces! You will die in the most agonizing torment imaginable!" Leng Tianfeng growled. Once his palms had utterly sealed off all blood, qi, internal force, and neural signals, his hands clamped down into claws, seizing Yaoguang's shoulders in a vice grip... Clearly... Having pinned Yaoguang's shoulders, he meant to rip Yaoguang's arms straight from his torso in a brutally bloody display. Only in this way could he avenge the shame of his mangled, bleeding face. At this life-and-death juncture, Yaoguang abandoned all caution. Divine Descent! Heavenly Demon Disintegration! In the next instant, his consciousness seemed to break free from the shackles of his physical vessel. Force and blood disrupted? Neural signals suppressed? He commandeered this body from a detached, third-person perspective akin to an astral projection. He seized control of this vessel, which had laid everything on the line to become stronger than ever before. Pain vanished. The body's constraints vanished. At this moment, he possessed absolute dominion over his physical form. He could even twist his own head a full three hundred and sixty degrees. Of course, rotating his neck three hundred and sixty degrees would inevitably snap his cervical spine, guaranteeing death the moment Divine Descent ended. He would not do that. But it did not stop him from weaponizing his own body. Just as Leng Tianfeng was about to rip his arms off, Yaoguang delivered a vicious headbutt straight into his skull. *Thud!* A sickening, dull crack echoed between their heads. The tremendous impact left Leng Tianfeng—who had held absolute dominance just a second before and was about to tear Yaoguang limb from limb—reeling in dizzying shock. For a moment, he could not comprehend how Yaoguang, unmistakably immobilized by the Eight Gates Golden Lock secret technique, was suddenly bursting with vitality again. Yet while he was trapped in his daze, Yaoguang, operating under the dual states of Divine Descent and Heavenly Demon Disintegration, was not. The Shenying Sword clutched tightly in his hand swept horizontally to the side. Force erupted! *Slash!* A fine head was cleanly lopped off, tumbling away as easily as a melon split by a blade.