Self-Refinement

Amid the rising and falling sword rain, an angel and a fiend danced together! Sword Law skimmed swiftly across the surface of the pool, gripping the Glazed Astral Sword tightly with both hands as the kicked-up waves formed a protective barrier before him. His Azure Star Eyes could pierce through the trajectory of every sorcery's colored hue; his Hollow Ears of Perception could hear the sounds of all creation; his Pearl-Diamond Skin could sense all environmental information through the air currents with every breath; and his starlight reflex nerves operated far faster than an instant. From the inside out, he was a weapon of war reconstructed through miracles. *The Sword Rain Pool is still my home ground. Yaxiu Heath is already a trapped beast,* the angel thought. Though he did not know how Yaxiu could borrow the Spectre Prophet's virtual wings, wonders, and gods, the two of them combined still amounted to merely an ordinary demigod. The Sword Rain Pool, on the other hand, was a world secret realm capable of slaying even a Divine Lord. Painstakingly cultivated in Sword Law's hands for over a millennium, it was sufficient to withstand three wars against Divine Lords. Pitting a thousand years of foundation against a newly ascended demigod—the advantage lay entirely with him. The Coffin of Weeping Rain had not failed. Even if Yaxiu could temporarily protect them, they were sealed within water coffins and unable to move. Without the seamless coordination of the four of them, no matter how exquisite Yaxiu's combat skills were, it was impossible for him to suppress Sword Law. As an angel bestowed with the name of "Sword Law," he retained immense confidence in battle. The only reason he had been beaten so thoroughly earlier without any chance to retaliate was that the girls' relentless, tempestuous siege left no openings to exploit, surging with lethal intent from every angle. But now, Yaxiu was alone. No matter how powerful he was, he could not shut down every avenue of evasion. At most, it would degenerate into an attritional battle of mutual entanglement... Even Sword Law himself did not realize that, despite having such a massive advantage, he had already completely abandoned the possibility of "defeating Yaxiu" in his heart. Perhaps precisely because he was a thoroughbred weapon of war, he could sense that the man bound by four chains was an incarnation of violence far higher in caliber than himself. It was like a psychopathic killer encountering an even more seasoned psychopath: even if the former was physically stronger, fear was still unavoidable. The damp scent of the sword rain saturated the air. Fully braced to withstand the collision, Sword Law suddenly realized Yaxiu had vanished. Not above, not in front, not to the left, not to the right, not behind... Below! From the angel's shadow at the bottom of the Sword Rain Pool, the fiend surged violently out of the waves! Wonder: Soul Reflection—Shadow Dimension! Yaxiu was completely unrecognizable now. He was wrapped head to toe in Dark Veil Armor, boiling gloom resembling grotesque bones. Six chains wrapped around his left arm, while his right hand held Sonia's ruby longsword. Nine shadow swords impaled his body, each one howling madly, tearing and gnawing at the fiend's soul with every passing second! In a thousand years, Sword Law had never seen such a terrifying enemy. It was as if all the malice and rancor in the world had converged into a single, maddened creation. By all rights, Yaxiu should have collapsed long ago. It was as if what supported his body now was not the consciousness of a normal human being, but some cruel, violent shadow—allowing him to devour agony, swallow despair whole, and thirst uncontrollably to repay tenfold everything he endured back upon the angel! *Clang!* In the instant the raindrops splashed, the ruby longsword and the Glazed Astral Sword clashed dozens of times, the violent shockwaves tearing through the curtain of rain filling the hall. Sword Law was forced back all the way against the wall. Even though his Glazed Astral Sword could neutralize each of Yaxiu's savage strikes, his soul body was still shredded with dozens of hideous gashes—as if licked by a barbed tongue. Azure angelic blood splattered across the walls, gleaming with an eerie radiance. His exquisitely enchanting, elegant visage was utterly gone, leaving behind only a withered blossom battered by a torrential storm. Sword Law finally understood why the Curtain of Sorrow had failed. The tiny breach Vichy had torn open earlier had become Yaxiu's breakthrough point. Though it was baffling how Yaxiu could effortlessly rip through the Curtain of Sorrow that Vichy had struggled so bitterly to breach—as if tearing through thin paper—perhaps this was simply how the younger generation operated. Even without the Curtain of Sorrow, Sword Law was still a demigod sorcerer; he still possessed defensive wonders for emergencies. Yet the dripping blue blood on his angelic soul body proved beyond doubt that his defensive wonders were as thin as a sheet of paper before Yaxiu. Yaxiu had flawlessly integrated the "Soul Screech Sonic Wave" into his swordsmanship: the blade cleaved the flesh, while the intent severed the soul. Yet Soul Screech Sonic Wave alone should not have been enough to breach his defensive wonder. Sword Law had deliberately restructured his defensive wonders during the Demonic War to focus on repelling soul offensives. In theory, even if the Spectre Prophet cast the spell in person, she could not have breached his defenses! There was only one explanation. Sword Law looked at the Dark Veil Armor on Yaxiu: with every second, the gloom clinging to Yaxiu grew thicker, and the soul strikes he unleashed turned ever more vicious. Yaxiu's soul feather hue was expanding at a furious pace with every second! The depth of feather hue dictated the potency of all sorceries. From the moment they stepped into the divine realm, sorcerers could condense wings of varying colors, choosing to specialize in different sorcery factions. For instance, Sword Law's fifth hell wing was sword-colored; his sixth wing, being the Sword Rain Pool, was also sword-colored. The strength of his swordsmanship was over a thousand percent higher than that of a colorless demigod. Theoretically, feather hue could only increase through virtual wings, but certain miracle wonders could temporarily augment it. Yaxiu's Dark Veil wonder was unequivocally one that enhanced the soul feather hue! Yet if Sword Law was not mistaken, the operating principle of this Dark Veil wonder was to strengthen the veil by refining souls. The only subjects Yaxiu had access to for soul-refining were his girls—so what was he using to empower the Dark Veil? The answer was the nine shadow swords. The essence of the "Prison of Self-Harm" was using psychological shadows to disintegrate an enemy's soul. In truth, it was also a form of soul-refining—and because it pursued extreme agony, its efficiency was even higher than normal soul-refining. If Vichy's soul-refining efficiency was a ten, the shadow swords' efficiency was at least a hundred! Whether Yaxiu refined the soul or not, his soul would still be disintegrated by the shadow swords. Rather than letting it go to waste, he was devouring it back to empower himself. What was supposed to be the insoluble "Prison of Self-Harm" had now become a resource the enemy could exploit. Though Sword Law could understand the underlying logic—and even regarded it as a high-level counter to the shadow swords—he still could not accept that such a thing was unfolding right before his eyes. How could anyone calmly exploit agonizing torment while enduring it at its absolute peak? It was as absurd as a mortal slicing open their own chest without anesthesia to perform a precise, perilous heart surgery on themselves. "I give up," Sword Law suddenly said. Yaxiu paused, startled. "Though I address you honorifically as the Deputy Sovereign of Heaven, I secretly harbored the delusion that I could easily bring you back and preserve the dignity of the Law Angels," Sword Law said. "Yet even my Lord regards you as an equal. What dignity could a Law Angel possibly speak of before you?" "Please allow me to offer you my utmost respect." Sword Law took a deep breath. His entire demeanor suddenly radiated brilliance, and all his wounds closed on their own. "All offense, no defense—blood with every strike!"