"Hoo—, cough cough!" Venti looked at the pure white in front of him and took a deep breath. However, nothing happened except his mouth opening. Caught off guard, Venti coughed heavily several times.
The space was filled with something, so much so that even the wind had nowhere to flow. This space was like a vacuum, yet it had many differences from a vacuum.
At least a vacuum wasn't so 'heavy'. Venti raised his hand; nothing obstructed his movement. Yet, he clearly felt a deep fatigue.
Something pressed down on him; their weight passed through his body, falling directly onto Venti's soul, giving him a sense of obstruction and suffocation, as if he were sinking into quicksand.
"There's no escaping this time, is there?" Yu Jin's voice came, very hoarse and completely different from before.
"Hey! Are you alright?" Venti looked at the truly 'blackened' Yu Jin, immediately feeling an indescribable unease.
This feeling came so suddenly that Venti himself was quite surprised.
"I'm fine, what could be wrong with me?" Yu Jin's voice was still hoarse, but his tone was still his usual carefree and lighthearted one.
Venti, having transformed into the Thousand Winds, was indeed difficult to deal with. And since this was a spar, Yu Jin couldn't reveal his killing moves. So, he could only use the weight of his soul to firmly suppress the wind, leaving no gaps.
The pitch-black on Yu Jin's body was proof of his strenuous effort to strip away his soul and will.
He didn't want to drive Venti or anyone else insane. It seemed he was the only one who had stared into the abyss and emerged unscathed.
In a sense, Yu Jin had actually gone mad once. But he eventually came back. He liked to smile, and people who smile often don't have too bad luck.
"Alright, alright, take this away! I won't turn into wind anymore!" Venti felt a chill from Yu Jin's gaze. He always felt that something beneath that armor wanted to rush out.
"Don't regret it."
"No regrets!"
"Alright." Yu Jin nodded, and the pure white light points were all absorbed into his body like rivers flowing into the sea.
And on Yu Jin's armor, the pitch-black receded, and the silvery-gray color of the old steel reappeared.
"If you don't transform into wind, how will you fight me? If I land this punch, you'll be lying in the Church of Favonius for several months!"
After Yu Jin spoke, he punched the flat ground.
"Click!" The sound of marble cracking echoed, and countless intricate runes appeared on the ground. However, none of these could stop the pure release of power.
With Yu Jin at the center, large sections of the floor were ripped up and shattered, revealing the original appearance of the Temple of the Thousand Winds' floor beneath.
Grit flew, and a good deal of it hit Venti's face in the distance. He wiped the dirt from his face, and the corner of his eye twitched involuntarily.
He now realized that Yu Jin was truly simple and crude. Pure power and speed were enough to shatter many things.
Venti sighed, having tried for a long time and gotten nowhere, feeling a bit aggrieved.
He looked at the Gnosis at his waist; its light was dim, but at least there was still a faint glow.
"This is probably the last time I'll use this thing, huh?" Venti looked at the Gnosis and couldn't help but smile.
Then he looked at Yu Jin again, thinking that using it on Yu Jin wouldn't be an insult to this gift from Sky.
Specks of azure divine power emanated from the Gnosis, converging on the lyre of the heavens. The lyre of the heavens, in turn, became even more verdant.
At the same time, Venti also began to emit a faint glow. The aura around him also began to change, becoming mysterious and vast.
"That is…" Jean felt her Vision being pulled by something; it, like Venti below, emitted a faint green light.
"The Gnosis, hoo—, what is Barbatos trying to do?" Dvalin's exhalations became heavy.
He seemed to not understand Barbatos anymore. Whether it was the contest with Yu Jin or the use of the Gnosis before him, he didn't know why.
"Ah? The Gnosis? What's that?" Paimon heard Dvalin's words and couldn't help but feel confused. It was the first time she had heard the term "Gnosis."
"The Gnosis is the medium through which the Seven Archons wield their authority; it is a higher form of your human Visions. It's just a playful spar, not a life-or-death battle, so why would Barbatos use his Gnosis?"
Dvalin's eyes were filled with confusion. Barbatos generally wouldn't easily use his Gnosis.
"Then hurry down and stop them!" Paimon saw Venti's light below growing brighter and immediately shouted anxiously.
That was power on the Archon level, and Paimon didn't think Yu Jin could withstand it.
However, no matter how much she flailed in Lumine's arms, no one had any intention of going down to break up the fight.
Lumine looked at the bright, Vision-like object at Venti's waist, wondering what she was thinking. She asked Lanssangx, "Lanssangx, aren't you worried about Senior?"
"Hehehe, no worries. After all, the King can't die. And he's met more powerful individuals than you can imagine." Lanssangx ran to Lumine's side, rubbed Paimon's head, and comforted her:
"So don't worry, he's definitely more reliable than us."
"Is… is that so?" Paimon looked disbelieving. That was an Archon, after all. Was Yu Jin really that powerful?
But seeing Lanssangx's confident expression, Paimon couldn't help but believe her a little.
She was now beginning to ponder if she had offended Yu Jin anywhere. After all, if Yu Jin was really that strong, it wouldn't be too embarrassing to admit defeat… Yu Jin blinked, feeling the power emanating from the Gnosis. The power of faith? Or perhaps a special power aggregated from human will?
Something he hadn't seen before.
Yu Jin was always fully curious about things he hadn't seen. So, he didn't interrupt Venti's channeling.
The wind began to flow again. But this time, the wind carried some other characteristics.
The sensation of a gentle breeze was so comforting. Venti played his lyre of the heavens, and the wind stirred with the music.
These winds blew, their rhythm and amplitude slowly changing, eventually transforming into their past appearance.
The past wind had once blown over Yu Jin in the Temple of the Thousand Winds. The wind brushed past his armor, outlining his form in unseen places.
The wind also passed through the gaps in the armor, through the darkness, and blew upon Yu Jin's never-extinguishing body. They had once taken human form, but ultimately, they turned back into wind.
The past winds intertwined between the two, gradually forming a blurry human figure. This figure was very indistinct, like a flickering light and shadow. One could vaguely make out that it was a person wearing full plate armor.
"Hmph!" Venti's face suddenly turned pale. So many people, so many that even the wind couldn't fully depict them.
He looked up at Yu Jin, who was squatting on the ground, looking back at him.
"Ha—" Venti took a deep breath, squeezing out all the divine power from the Gnosis at his waist.
More winds flowed, constantly feeding back everything they had carved to Venti. The people drawn by the wind began to emerge from the blurry figures.
Yu Jin looked at the blurry figure between himself and Venti, then at Venti, who had his eyes closed and his fingers moving rapidly.
Fine sweat began to seep from Venti's forehead, and the muscles in his face twitched involuntarily. It was the first time Yu Jin had seen Venti exert himself so much.
"Sizzle—" The sound of raging fire ignited, and Yu Jin's body showed some molten traces.
However, this time his aura was incredibly restrained; if one closed their eyes, they probably wouldn't even know there was a person standing there.
The scorching, vast aura that should have echoed was used by Yu Jin elsewhere.
They, with the wind, returned to the past.
Venti in the distance suddenly felt a lightness in his heart. The feeling of being watched by countless people dissipated.
In its place was a warmth like a mother's, like the sun. The person, it seemed, had turned into fire? And carving it out seemed even easier than before.
Venti opened his eyes and saw Yu Jin, who had returned to his normal state. The latter felt Venti's gaze and nodded at him.
Venti's heart settled, and his fingers moved rapidly. At the same time, the wind blew even faster.
Within a whirlwind, the blurry human figure finally became clear.
Yu Jin looked up; it was a slightly stiff version of himself. It was drawn by Venti using wind, a projection of his past self in the present.
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