"Insane…" Tianming and Shaoyu could barely blink, eyes stretched wide.
"Their sword-aura keeps climbing," Da Tiechui muttered, struggling against the poison's drain yet unable to hide his awe.
"Neither has even unleashed his full '势' yet, and the pressure is already this overwhelming," Xiao Gao said under his breath.
Wei Zhuang barked a sharp shout. Blood-light surged along Shark-Tooth as he drove in like a raging dragon, ferocious and wild.
Gai Nie stood calm by contrast; blade in hand, aura keen yet steady.
Zheng—!
Shark-Tooth and Yuanhong smashed together, swordsong rolling like thunder. Wind and cloud heaved about them as if two great dragons fought to the death.
A gale tore through the hall; dark cloud boiled. Both men were blasted back, then fixed on each other with razor focus.
They launched again—no flourish wasted, no motion spare—swords sketching streaming arcs of light, each stroke lethal, each angle fatal. The floor split beneath their feet.
Dang!
Steel bloomed; both slid backward, the ground between them carved by a long, smoking scar.
"Oh? He's finished storing it. It's coming," Goku said lightly, appearing at the hall's edge just as Gai Nie bounded back.
"So this is the opening for Hundred-Step Flying Sword," Xue Nu murmured, eyes on Gai Nie as his toe kissed stone, his body settled—and Yuanhong slipped from his hand and shot out like a meteor.
Gai Nie extended one palm, guiding the blade. Man and sword moved as one, aura lancing forward like a dragon tearing through the sky—like lightning rending the clouds, an edge that could pierce the ninth heaven.
"I've heard the legends of it," Xiao Gao whispered, stunned. "Seeing it… it's even greater."
Wei Zhuang did not dodge. His eyes were viciously bright. Whether he could or not, there was only one choice left: take it head-on.
Zheng—!
Swordsong devoured the hall. Sword-qi criss-crossed; the sky seemed to dim, wind howled, dust skittered, stone cracked.
Yuanhong became a dragon of light, shredding the air as it lanced around Wei Zhuang, streak after streak, each pass ripping cloth, scoring flesh—blood flashed like petals in a storm.
The radiance waned; light fell as drifting rain. Gai Nie's figure slid past with unhurried grace, Yuanhong already returning to his hand.
Pffft!
Wei Zhuang spat blood. His robe peeled away in frayed layers, lines of red tracing his torso. Shark-Tooth whirled end over end and stabbed into the flagstones with a ringing zheng.
"A throat-cut in one stroke—Hundred-Step Flying Sword." Wei Zhuang stood with his back to Gai Nie, wiping his mouth, voice flat but eyes like knives. "So you've mastered the apex kill of the Vertical Sword."
Peak-state, uninjured, Gai Nie had driven the killing form cleanly—and still Wei Zhuang caught and survived it.
"If it were truly an unavoidable kill," Gai Nie said coldly, "you'd already be dead."
"When I left Ghost Valley with you, I bowed beneath your sword," Wei Zhuang replied. "Had you not used Vertical Sword then, you could not have beaten me."
"Today you loosed the apex of Vertical Sword," he went on, fingers closing around Shark-Tooth's hilt, stroking the spine as his aura swelled, harsher and harsher, "and it only wounded me."
"You have grown stronger," he admitted—and then smiled without warmth. "There's something you should know… Today is the last time you'll use Hundred-Step Flying Sword."
His breath exploded. Hair whipped; the vault blackened; lightning spidered overhead; swordsong roared like a dragon. A phantom wyrm seemed to coil above Wei Zhuang, howling at the heavens.
"Impossible…" Da Tiechui choked.
"It's Hundred-Step Flying Sword," Xiao Gao said, face gone solemn. Everyone present blanched.
Gai Nie's brows drew together; frost edged his eyes.
What he had released as inevitability, Wei Zhuang molded as slaughter. The air ran blood-red; the killing will was suffocating—and the force even more savage than Gai Nie's.
Blood-light speared forward. Wei Zhuang fused with his blade, Shark-Tooth streaking as a crimson bolt straight for Gai Nie—
Pchi—! Zheng—!
A storm of scarlet edges tore around Gai Nie—
—and ended with Wei Zhuang sliding past, Shark-Tooth wheeling back into his palm on a whistle.
Gai Nie's gaze turned diamond-hard. Yuanhong flashed and scythed at Wei Zhuang—
Ding!
Edge met edge in a shower of sparks.
"You can use Hundred-Step Flying Sword?" Gai Nie's voice was cold, shocked—and angry.
"I am a disciple of Ghost Valley. Why wouldn't our master teach me?" Wei Zhuang answered, pride clipped and edged, a shade of grievance beneath it.
"What did you do?" Gai Nie snapped.
Wei Zhuang shot upward, a dragon stooping to strike, Shark-Tooth falling like a thunderhead.
Clang!
Gai Nie braced and took it. Sword-force boomed; stone crazed underfoot; blood-qi churned; sparks spat where the blades locked—and the duel surged on.
...
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