The moment they clashed, Yaxiu felt terribly uncomfortable.
It wasn't because the blood seed inside him was constantly channeling his life energy into his opponent, nor was it because Silver Lantern's combat strength far exceeded his own...
In truth, after a full day of trial rewards, Yaxiu's physical constitution had surged. Even if it still fell short of Silver Lantern's Silver Dragon Blood Body, the gap was no longer vast, certainly not enough for her to trample him at will.
What made him uncomfortable was that Silver Lantern possessed sensory perception on the exact same level as his.
Honeyed Words and Belly Sword crossed with the chain gauntlet, screeching with a harsh, piercing shriek. In that split second, Yaxiu keenly foresaw Silver Lantern's follow-up counter, but Silver Lantern also anticipated every possible variation of his strike. Their predictions leapt straight to the final step, resulting in yet another collision of blade and hand!
After several exchanges, neither bore a single scratch, yet the fatigue in their eyes was undeniable. I predict your prediction, and you predict mine. When both parties instinctively made the optimal move, combat devolved into a tedious, exhausting pantomime.
As if struck by an unspoken flash of understanding, their eyes met, and they ruthlessly plunged into the deadliest form of close-quarters infighting! Since both possessed the power of foresight, they would drag the fight into a lethal quagmire where life and death hung by a thread, using the muddy terror of mortal peril to skew the other's judgment!
When it came to putting their lives on the line, both possessed absolute confidence!
This time, Yaxiu did not release his sword. He lunged forward, thrusting the blade obliquely with his right hand. Weise swatted it away with her left hand, and Yaxiu leveraged her deflection to twist his wrist. The longsword traced an ellipse, cutting back toward Weise's throat with an attack that struck before her own could land!
Water Moon Swordsmanship.
Even without a sorcery spirit's support, over the course of more than a dozen battles, Yaxiu had recalled Sword Princess's combat grace, extracted the essence of that miracle, and managed to execute its counterattack effect using mere mortal swordsmanship!
As a Truth Sorcerer, Weise naturally recognized the brilliance of this technique. If he continued to study and cultivate this swordsmanship, he might even summon a Water Moon sorcery spirit out of thin air... Yet the more exceptional Yaxiu's talent proved to be, the hotter the murderous intent surged within her!
Smack!
She batted the longsword straight into midair, and within two seconds, they exchanged more than a dozen strikes. Although Weise blended a myriad of techniques from Senluo's cults, Yaxiu had a foundation in the Gold-rank fists and claws faction. He had indeed been beaten nearly to tears the night before, but could the same tricks work on him a second time?
Of course they could.
Weise was no gluttonous, lazy Lalafell. If Yaxiu could make tremendous strides in today's trial, could she not innovate as well?
Even without sorcery spirits or sorcery power, she was still a Truth Sorcerer!
As the airborne blade descended, Yaxiu snatched the hilt, sweeping it across in a reverse grip. Weise was forced to retreat to evade the slash. But Yaxiu pressed his advantage, closing the distance once more. How could Weise permit him to widen his lead? Her chain-clad hand coiled like a serpent toward the blade, attempting to disarm him.
To her surprise, Yaxiu did not merely let go; he thrust the hilt straight into her hands and unleashed a savage barrage with his fists, striking like tiger cannons.
Weise also possessed a Silver-rank swordsmanship realm. She immediately brandished the blade to counter, but Yaxiu parried her strikes barehanded, forcing her to abandon the weapon and defend herself. Yaxiu promptly snatched the sword back and slashed twice in rapid succession, shearing through her clothes. Had Weise not dodged in the nick of time, he would have struck a vital spot.
Outrageous!
Weise could see through his tactics now. Yaxiu was fusing and restructuring his Gold-rank swordsmanship faction with his Gold-rank fists and claws faction. He not only unleashed the lethality of the sword, but also retained the agility of unarmed strikes. His fighting style was wildly chaotic and bizarre, like an acrobatic performance—one moment bursting forth like thunderous fists, the next cleaving the air with razor-sharp steel! Furthermore, he could fling his sword into the sky or shove it directly into her grasp, ensuring it never hindered him in close quarters!
In other words, Yaxiu was using his sorcery realm to bully her!
Yet a sorcery realm merely granted a commanding view within a specific faction; it did not mean one could casually blend different factions together. Even for a Truth Sorcerer like Weise, who had mastered over twenty factions, doing so was extraordinarily difficult.
Moreover, in the Void Realm, Yaxiu had always hidden behind Sword Princess and Witch as a glorified mascot. How could he possibly possess such combat genius? Weise knew he was hardly the type to hide his strength; he was the sort who, the moment he grew stronger, wanted everyone to shower him with praise. Therefore, this martial prowess could only have been forged during the past two days of trials.
Thrown into a trial where no god or mortal could hear his cries, he had actually made such astonishing progress?
In stark contrast to Weise's shock, Yaxiu felt increasingly exhilarated the longer he fought, as though walking on air.
Back on that rainy night in Nabistin, when he had stood alone against dozens of Sanctuary experts, he had vaguely felt himself rapidly assimilating the sorcery experience shared with him by Witch and Sword Princess over all those days. But afterward, the title of First Gospel was reclaimed by Lisi. Deprived of that built-in cheat, Yaxiu had naturally hit a progression ceiling.
After being forced into this trial, his physical attributes and senses sharpened, and he began to feel that bottleneck loosen. Now, locked in a private duel with Silver Lantern—an opponent whose combat skills were every bit equal to his own—Yaxiu threw everything he had into the fray, fighting with growing ferocity until he finally synthesized his swordsmanship and claw techniques into a seamless whole!
However—
Whoosh!
With pinpoint precision, Weise snatched the longsword and slashed back. Yaxiu tilted his head to dodge, but a bloody line opened across his cheek nonetheless.
Even though he immediately reclaimed the blade, he could no longer leverage his realm advantage to press ahead.
The scales of battle leveled once more.
Because Weise had already factored every single one of his moves into her foresight.
It was true that Yaxiu's techniques surpassed Weise's, but was the disparity in their realms overwhelming? It was not.
Unless Yaxiu could slash out shockwaves barehanded and shatter brain tissue from a distance like Tamashi, his fight with Weise remained within mortal limits.
Even if Weise's technical finesse was slightly inferior, so long as their offensive power remained comparable, she could naturally parry his strikes and even trade wound for wound.
Furthermore, as time dragged on, both grew intimately familiar with each other's fighting styles. Their foresight deepened to the point where they practically knew the other's script by heart.
The moment Yaxiu's gaze flicked downward, Weise saw the sword paths of his next dozens of moves; the moment Weise shifted her stance, Yaxiu instantly knew what fighting style she would adopt next.
They were no longer merely fighting; they were playing out the future they had already witnessed.
"How far can those eyes of yours see?"
Amid the tempest of life-and-death combat, Weise spoke with eerie calm, sounding entirely unruffled.
"Far enough to see you dead," Yaxiu answered without hesitation.
"I can see myself achieving all I desire, fulfilling my ideals, and reaching the far shore of eternity. The world will change because of me, destiny will diverge when it meets me, and while history may not record my name, I will become history itself," Weise said. "And what do you see? Marrying a few wives? Fathering a few children?"
"Why do you have to use 'a few' as a quantifier..." Yaxiu had gradually grown accustomed to the rhythm of bantering while trying to kill each other. "At most, I see myself growing old with the one I love."
"How pathetic. You don't even dare to pursue immortality?"
"Sure I do. Who wouldn't want that? But priorities matter. If I can hold firmly to my happiness and still have strength to spare, I'll naturally chase after those distant, unreachable luxuries."
"A life shrouded in aging and death possesses a happiness that is nothing more than an illusory bubble," Weise said. "A finite delusion."
"Aren't you the same?" Yaxiu countered. "Rushing so desperately to pursue your dreams, scheming endlessly, paying any price—isn't it just because you fear the treacherous, unpredictable nature of fate as well?"
The character of the Senluo people was inextricably tied to this wasteland. Or rather, the people of every nation bore the indelible imprint of their homeland.
Just as the people of the Blood Moon inevitably drifted toward self-destruction, the people of Senluo—surrounded by the Night Strangling Green, the apocalyptic ruins, and the rampant Green Calamities—had witnessed far too many sudden deaths. Naturally, they understood better than anyone that time waited for no one.
Furthermore, with the chance of becoming a grand law upon death, nearly everyone was impatient to burn themselves out in pursuit of their ideals. After all, even if they died, they could continue to exist as a different form of life.
To withstand the threat of the Night Strangling Green, every native of Senluo had to forge an excessively blazing sense of self. Faith in the grand laws was both a shortcut to shaping that self and a vessel in which to anchor it.
Once they lost that vessel, most souls would perish in emptiness until they found another. Only a rare few—like Crow Cull, Silver Lantern, and the founders of those cults—possessed a self vast enough to illuminate the night, burning until they themselves transformed into new grand laws to receive the devotion and reliance of others.
"Yet death to me is not withering, but rebirth; not an end, but a deadline." Even as the blade grazed her throat, Weise's voice didn't waver in the slightest. "Death has never spared you, but I have never spared death. That is the difference between us."
Trying to rattle me with words to force an opening, are you... Yaxiu adopted a posture of utter, shameless indifference: "So what? I don't care. All I want is an ordinary, peaceful life. Do you need me to applaud your towering ambition?"
"Do your companions share that view?"
Weise reversed her grip on the sword, holding it level against his throat. Behind her fox mask, her eyes locked firmly onto his. "Does the mind sorcerer wish to live a peaceful life? Does the necromancer desire to become ordinary?"
Yaxiu deflected the blade and struck back. "Of course they don't."
"Then do you know why they are willing to stay by your side?"
"Because of my extraordinary personal charisma, obviously."
"Indeed."
Yaxiu blinked. That brief moment of bewilderment nearly cost him his life under Weise's strike. He thought to himself that Silver Lantern was truly shameless—hurling insults one moment, then tossing out a sudden compliment to deal psychological damage... Talk about mental warfare!
"It is indeed because of your charisma," Weise said coldly. "Because you are sufficiently empty."
"Are your companions not all ambitious overlords with insatiable desires and burning ambitions, utterly incapable of accepting mediocrity? If you did not exist, do you truly believe they could get along peacefully and forge bonds?"
Images of his former companions flashed through Yaxiu's mind: Annan, Banjie, Lisi, Igola, Harvey, Langna, Ronald, Tamashi... as well as Sword Princess and Witch.
Though he was reluctant to brag about his own importance—it would sound far too conceited—when he thought about it seriously, could Igola and Harvey truly have stood together in peace? Had it not been for that string of encounters, Harvey would have holed up in some mass grave for decades until he became a Ghost King, and Igola would have long set out on his path as the Rust Crow.
As for Tamashi... Yaxiu could guess on his own that if he didn't return to Nightfall and regroup with the others soon, Tamashi's status in Igola's eyes would swiftly plummet from 'teammate' to 'tool,' perhaps even an expendable one.
Annan was an even more extreme case. Igola might let bygones be bygones, but Harvey certainly harbored thoughts of vengeance against her. If not for Yaxiu, and if Harvey ever returned to the Gospel nation, he would never have spared that Purple Moth who had once dominated him.
The relationship between Annan and Lisi was even more absurd: Annan sought to overthrow Gospel, while Lisi was the First Gospel.
As for Sword Princess and Witch, although they got along well now, Yaxiu asked himself honestly: if it had been only the two of them, could they have truly forged their current bond? In the beginning, Sword Princess had resented newcomers, while Witch had frequently lapsed into deranged states with unkempt hair...
"You've realized your importance, haven't you?" Weise said. "Yet why would someone as empty and devoid of ideals as you become the pivotal link connecting everyone else? Why would those people, brimming with passion, be willing to become your companions?"
"It is precisely because their desires burn too fiercely and their dreams are too immense that they need you so desperately. You are an empty vase, a vacant socket. They cannot become companions to one another; people who burn with equal intensity will only scorch each other. Only someone as empty and mundane as you can accommodate their colossal egos and grant them peace."
Smack!
Yaxiu finally slipped, revealing a momentary opening. Weise's hand-blade sliced past, tearing a bloody gash across his left shoulder!
"You are not their companion at all," the voice behind the fox mask spat, dripping with malice. "What they see in your eyes is merely themselves."
"The bond you believe in is nothing more than your own wishful delusion."
Chapter 577