The moment their blades crossed, a deep sense of bewilderment welled up in Sword Law's heart.
Counting carefully, though he had only met Yaxiu twice, they could be said to have clashed three times.
The first had been with the normal Yaxiu; the second, after the others were sealed into the Coffin of Weeping Rain, had been with the Yaxiu who had transformed into a dark wraith. Sword Law had fought countless bitter, brutal battles in his lifetime, but clashing with Wraith Yaxiu had without a doubt been the closest he had ever come to death.
Yet this encounter was completely different from the previous two. Yaxiu was no longer satisfied with maneuvering via his virtual wings. To him, the air was as solid as level ground, and like an untamed child, he strode freely through the sky, exploding air currents beneath his feet. Though his twin swords danced in what appeared to be an erratic frenzy, they unleashed sword arts esoteric techniques from impossible angles. The two distinct styles of "elegance" and "unfettered abandon" blended seamlessly within him: one moment a dancer resorting to any means necessary, the next a blazing, thundering locomotive. From the very first second of battle, he had driven the Angel of Sword Law—whose swordsmanship was second only to Fanxing's—onto the defensive!
Of the Sword Rain Pool's three eternal wonders, the "Self-Injury Prison" had already collapsed after losing the Heart Sword God, and the "Sea of Bitterness Boundary" was dedicated to severing the interior from the outside world, leaving only the "Curtain of Sorrow," a perfect defense, available for combat.
In truth, the Sword Rain Pool was a secret realm innately geared toward defensive counterattacks. First, the Sea of Bitterness Boundary trapped the enemy within; then, an unending deluge of sword rain continuously wore down the enemy's source energy. If an opponent attacked the caster, the Curtain of Sorrow would activate, harnessing the enemy's momentum to forge spell swords. These spell swords could not only fight but also augment the sword rain's intensity. Once this cycle was set into motion, it became an inescapable cage.
Yet Sword Law was shocked to find that the Sword Rain Pool had failed to enter this positive feedback loop. Yaxiu's defensive wonder, the "Refraction Prism," shattered only after cumulative damage reached a certain threshold, meaning his source energy depleted only at a crawl even as he bathed in the torrential sword rain. Meanwhile, Yaxiu's fierce, relentless offensive somehow fell short of the minimum damage threshold required to coalesce a spell sword—the Curtain of Sorrow had achieved its defensive effect, but yielded no offensive firepower in return!
Last time, only those four female sorcerers had been able to throttle their damage, yet now even Yaxiu could pull it off?!
Had Sword Law come alone, this might have proved troublesome. But behind him stood an ancient angel who had followed their Monarch for thousands of years!
Star Law tapped her staff lightly against the void. Instantly, starlight across the heavens converged into countless crisscrossing lines, partitioning the world into dense, innumerable cubes. Though Yaxiu immediately probed them with various techniques, none could affect these astral lines!
Eternal Wonder: Star Sea Chessboard!
Sword Law abruptly teleported behind Yaxiu. When Yaxiu spun to clash blades in the nick of time, Sword Law instantly shifted to his flank. Yaxiu followed through, thrusting his left sword while unleashing divine might to parry, only for Sword Law to teleport directly above him and bring a slash crashing down!
A layer of refraction burst around Yaxiu, sending him hurtling downward. But Sword Law instantly flashed beneath him, raising his Glazed Star Sword and thrusting straight toward the back of Yaxiu's heart!
"Interesting," Yaxiu murmured. A cold glint flashed in his eyes, yet the corner of his lips curled into an excited smile. Suddenly, he moved at breakneck speed through the curtain of rain, alternating between flight and air-stepping. His core posture remained unmoving; no matter where Sword Law blinked to ambush him, Yaxiu merely rotated his arms, countering with divine might!
Moving with blinding velocity, his arms blurred into afterimages, making him resemble an eight-armed statue from afar. He strolled through the air as if wandering a leisurely courtyard, his torso poised and steady, domineering and majestic, like mountains and the sea!
In a momentary lull, Yaxiu slashed an arc of ink-black light, sweeping toward Star Law at the edge of the battlefield. Seeing her instantly blink away, however, he showed no surprise; after all, there was no reason she could teleport others but not herself.
The Star Sea Chessboard's effect was straightforward and brutal, yet its tactical utility was unmatched: within the zone blanketed by the chessboard, Star Law could teleport any target simply by expending starlight. And the starlight accumulated over thousands of years in the Ocean of Stars was enough for her to wage a hundred divine wars.
Seeing Sword Law still unable to breach Yaxiu's defense, Star Law lowered her eyelids and traced a radiant arc with her staff. The starry sky seemed to flicker with light, though amidst the glittering shower of starlight rain, these flickers were exceedingly subtle.
Upon noticing this, Yaxiu's expression changed drastically. His speed surged abruptly as he darted frantically through the downpour, as if fleeing from something. A swarm of glittering motes of star dust, hidden within the curtain of starry rain, pursued him with unerring precision. Fast as they were, they appeared utterly frail—fragile enough, it seemed, that even a Lalafell could smash them to bits.
Yaxiu struck out with a tentative slash, but never dared attack them again: the mote he cleaved instantly split into two!
Harried by the pursuing star dust and pressed hard by Sword Law, Yaxiu gradually found himself on the back foot. Though he still managed to hold his ground, defeat was only a matter of time, for the star dust multiplied ceaselessly. As his maneuver space shrank, he would be forced to cut through the star dust to carve out an escape route, only creating more motes and constricting his room further in a vicious cycle.
*He's already seen through the secret of the Ocean of Stars' three eternal wonders,* Sword Law thought.
Yet Sword Law wasn't surprised. With Yaxiu's caliber of combat genius, deducing the secret was only natural. Perhaps from the moment Star Law first relocated Sword Law, the Ocean of Stars' inner workings had been laid bare before his eyes.
For the logic was simple: if Star Law could teleport anyone, why hadn't she teleported Yaxiu?
Wouldn't it have been far easier to pin him to the earth, rob him of movement, and let Sword Law batter him into unconsciousness?
Having grasped that, Yaxiu could readily infer the functions of the Ocean of Stars' other two eternal wonders: there had to be a wide-area attack method and a special curse capable of converting him into a "teleportable unit." Coupled with the limitless blinking of the Star Sea Chessboard, they formed a lethal system designed to pin and crush an enemy outright!
The star dust chasing Yaxiu was none other than the eternal wonder "Falling Stars." Once struck by the dust, even if a defensive wonder blocked the impact, the companion eternal wonder "Indestructible Star Mark" would still trigger, stamping a star mark onto his soul body!
Sword Law bore an Indestructible Star Mark, which was why Star Law could teleport him. This combat system was truly easy to deduce; in fact, across the entirety of Heaven, virtually everyone knew the Ocean of Stars' mechanisms. Yet knowing was pointless. The true horror of the Ocean of Stars lay in its despair-inducing pressure.
The star dust multiplied with time and multiplied when attacked, doomed to flood every inch of space until there was nowhere left to run. The moment you were touched, the game was over: Star Law would pin you to the ground, your death or capture subject entirely to her whim.
Combined with the Sword Rain Pool, the Ocean of Stars gained an immense boost. The Sea of Bitterness Boundary severed all hope of flight; the star dust grew even less conspicuous amidst the glittering astral rain; and the lethal sword rain covered the Ocean of Stars' lack of direct killing power. It was practically an unbeatable synergy.
Even though Yaxiu had been backed into a corner, Sword Law felt not the slightest shred of joy. Instead, an inexplicable sense of dread crept into his heart. Fighting Yaxiu up to this point, something felt profoundly wrong—not just because Yaxiu had grown far stronger, but because...
He saw the shadow of someone else.
Another figure, equally brilliant, equally skilled in swordsmanship, but far more intoxicated by battle, far more proud and intractable. She blended seamlessly with Yaxiu; her technique, her talent, and her character were all manifesting through him.
In a daze, Sword Law felt as though he were fighting two people at once.
As the star dust choked off every avenue of retreat, Sword Law clearly saw Yaxiu's left eye flash with a ruby gleam. Immediately afterward, an additional wing sprouted alongside Yaxiu's Silver Wings—just like when they had fought Wraith Yaxiu, he had borrowed a virtual wing once more!
Yet virtual wings were not all he could borrow!
Yaxiu crossed his twin blades, unleashing two crimson surges of sword light that engulfed the star dust and tore through the curtain of rain!
Star Law instantly realized something was amiss: the star dust had not split and regenerated!
This was star dust produced by Falling Stars, carrying law fragments of the Ocean of Stars. Each mote was equivalent to a sorcery spirit, autonomously tracking its target without requiring Star Law's focus; even when struck, it should merely expend starlight to split.
She naturally recognized that wave of blood-red sword light as Sonia's signature miracle, "Blood Moon Shattered Lake." But as far as she remembered, that was purely an offensive miracle—could it truly destroy fragments of law? Was it the power of the Shattered Lake God?
Mid-thought, a chill shot down Star Law's spine. Without hesitation, she teleported herself and Sword Law to a safer corner.
Yet it was futile!
The torrential crimson tide abruptly condensed into two falling vermilion tears. The faint ripples splashing outward resonated through time and space, instantly piercing the Star Law Angel's defensive wonder. Starlight flickered across her form, leaving her miraculously unharmed; the Angel of Sword Law, despite blocking with the Curtain of Sorrow, coughed up a mouthful of blood!
This wasn't Blood Moon Shattered Lake.
This was Vermilion Water Moon!
"You..." Sword Law wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, astonishment written across his face. "You and her..."
"Now," Yaxiu said calmly, bathed in the glittering astral rain as the red light in his eye burned with mounting fervor, "I finally understand her."
Had he opened Aurora's Sorcerer Handbook, Yaxiu would have seen the Sword Princess's bond level wildly fluctuating between 4.1 and 4.2, and before long, even 4.3 entered the shifting range. Even without looking, though, he knew his bond with Sonia was growing ever closer.
Her personality, her talent, her thoughts and feelings—Yaxiu felt as though he were gradually merging with the Sword Princess, yet there was no strange revulsion or conflict, because he could clearly tell which parts belonged to him and which to her. This wasn't merely a sharing of power; it felt more like... an opportunity to truly feel what she felt.
He didn't know why the Sword Princess's six-wing trial would deepen their bond, but he was profoundly grateful for the experience. Because he understood her thoughts, he knew she didn't want to disrupt her mother's quiet life, nor did she want her mother to worry; she only wished for her mother to be proud of her... And so, Yaxiu hadn't fled with them. He had come here alone to intercept the Law Angels, allowing that mother-daughter reunion to conclude in peace.
Because he possessed the Sword Princess's genius, Yaxiu harbored no fear even when facing two Law Angels. Her combat talent—growing stronger the longer she fought—instilled in him unmatched confidence. He hadn't been boasting earlier: even if Fanxing's avatar descended with her consciousness, so long as she couldn't strike him down in a single blow, Yaxiu was confident he could slay her all the way back to Heaven.
Yet because he felt the Sword Princess's heart, his own heart ached terribly.
It ached so violently he could hardly breathe, ached until a bone-deep chill gripped him, ached until he wanted to kill others and kill himself.
This is the price I must pay. This is the pain I must bear.
Yaxiu looked at the two Law Angels, his left eye having turned completely into a radiant ruby. Source energy surged violently. Atop Ruby Mountain in the Soul Kingdom of Heaven, the Heart Sword God sat upon its throne, reaching out to grasp the hilt before it.
At the same time, three sheathed swords materialized behind Yaxiu.
Unique Wonder: Sorcerer Bane!
Chapter 1211