The twilight was torn apart by the lightning.
Purple electric arcs exploded in the air, colliding with the katana radiating golden divine light.
Clang—!
Metal clashed against metal.
Kakizaki Kageie held her katana horizontally before her, the blade glowing with a faint golden light. The power of the so-called divine artifact flowed along the blade, steadily catching Kanbe Hikaru's slash.
But that was all.
She caught it, but she didn't block it.
The moment the blades met, an irresistible force traveled through the blade, causing Kakizaki Kageie's arms to sink violently, and a bloody crack instantly split open at the web of her thumb.
Her body was pushed back several zhang by that single blow.
Iron boots carved two deep furrows into the muddy ground, her silver armor skirt was lifted and then fell by the shockwave, and her legs, clad in long boots, braced tightly against the ground, preventing her from falling backward.
"Hmm?"
Instead, Kanbe Hikaru tilted his head slightly.
When he slashed down just now, he clearly felt his Demonic Qi being peeled away by that golden light.
If it were an ordinary demon below the Materialization level, even if it had undergone six changes, there would still be a high probability of being suppressed by that power to the point of being unable to exert any strength at all.
But the problem was—
He was not an ordinary demon.
Although he was nominally at the Six Transformations level, in terms of the thickness of his Demonic Qi, he was already approaching the eight transformations, and his strength even more so.
It had shaved off a layer of his skin, but the flesh beneath the skin, the bone beneath the skin, and the demonic power beneath the skin—which had become so thick it was almost solid after merging with lightning during the Sharp Body Transformation—
Remained completely unmoved.
"Your blade is quite interesting."
Kanbe Hikaru's voice drifted out from beneath the ghost mask.
It was very flat.
So flat that it didn't sound like he was speaking to an enemy who had almost blocked his attack, but rather like he was evaluating an object he found somewhat interesting.
Kakizaki Kageie's pupils shrank abruptly.
Her intuition was screaming in warning, vibrating with alarm.
That strike just now—the monster's attack power was too heavy, so heavy that her arms were still numb, so heavy that the tachi in her hand, which carried the power of Bishamonten, was buzzing and trembling.
And.
It hadn't used its full strength.
A battle-hardened general could tell whether an enemy was serious or not.
The speed of that strike was astonishingly fast, and its power was even more inconceivable, but the movement itself—it was too casual.
It really felt like a throwaway swing.
"Don't daze off."
The voice suddenly rang in her ear again.
Kakizaki Kageie's body reacted faster than her consciousness; her tachi swept across, golden light erupting.
But her blade cut through empty air; Kanbe Hikaru was no longer in that position.
He was close to her.
Left side? Right side?
No—
He was above!
Kakizaki Kageie looked up abruptly.
Under the twilight canopy, that gray figure was flitting over her head, his pale long hair trailing an arc in the wind, the crimson ghost mask looking down at her from above.
In those eyes glowing with an eerie red light, there was no killing intent.
Only—looking down.
"Too slow."
His voice fell from above.
Immediately following—
Bone Spikes.
White Bone Spikes shot out violently from his elbows; they weren't aimed at her, but were pinned into the muddy ground beneath her feet.
Kaka-kaka-kaka—!
Four Bone Spikes, like wooden stakes, were driven in around her, completely locking her position.
Kakizaki Kageie tried to move, but the Demonic Qi emanating from the Bone Spikes formed a miniature cage, compressing her so that every step felt like treading through a swamp.
"You—!"
She gritted her teeth.
The golden light on the tachi erupted again as the power of the divine artifact surged out frantically, attempting to shatter the surrounding Bone Spikes.
The moment the golden light touched the Bone Spikes, fine cracks did indeed appear on the white surfaces.
That power was indeed suppressing the Demonic Qi.
It indeed could suppress all things extraordinary—
But.
Puchi.
Where the Bone Spikes cracked, purple electrical arcs flickered out from the fissures.
Lightning.
The lightning from the merged Thunder Muscle was not some superficial trick attached to the body's surface; it had become an essential part of his physical essence.
That lightning conducted along the Bone Spikes, surging back into the golden light.
Zila—!
The golden light shattered.
The tachi in Kakizaki Kageie's hand vibrated violently; the bloody tear in the webbing of her thumb ripped further open, blood trickling down the hilt.
Her body was forced back another step by the aftershock.
And Kanbe Hikaru had already landed in front of her.
Very close.
Close enough that she could see her own disheveled reflection in the crimson eyes beneath the ghost mask.
"Your blade can suppress Demonic Qi."
His tone even carried some appreciation: "But it can't suppress me."
Muramasa was held horizontally at his side, the tip pointing down.
This was not a combat stance; it was—an indifferent posture after confirmation was complete.
Kakizaki Kageie looked at the ghost mask inches away.
That face beneath the silver-gray long hair was now full of unwillingness.
But she wasn't stupid.
She clearly recognized one fact—on her own, let alone taking this guy down in a short time...
She barely even had the qualification to exchange blows.
The opponent hadn't been serious from start to finish; this realization was more lethal than any sword.
She immediately made a decision.
She retreated abruptly!
"Entire army!"
Her voice simultaneously pierced through the battlefield, clear and resonant: "Form ranks! Surround and kill!"
Boom—!
The thousand-man army, which had been silent, moved.
The cavalry began to charge, the infantry raised their wall of long spears and advanced, and the archers in the rear drew their bowstrings.
The great 'Bi' character flag snapped loudly in the wind.
That pressure, like a landslide or a tsunami, came flooding in from all sides.
It was no longer a duel; it had turned into a war.
A thousand men in formation—the momentum was staggering.
Hundreds of arrows rose like a black cloud, blotting out the sky where the sun was setting.
Kanbe Hikaru looked at the rain of arrows filling the sky, then at Kakizaki Kageie, who had already retreated into the army formation, preparing to use the military momentum to launch a finishing blow.
He smiled.
Beneath that half-crimson ghost mask, the corners of his mouth curled into a wanton arc.
"Calling for backup because you can't win?"
He didn't dodge; he didn't even move.
[Blood Transformation].
Red mist erupted from his body.
It wasn't a tentative thin mist, but a substance as thick as blood plasma.
The blood mist instantly expanded, swallowing an area with a hundred-meter radius.
Arrows shot into the blood mist—
And vanished.
Wrapped, decelerated, and stalled by that blood mist, they finally fell silently to the ground like stones sinking into a mire.
Of the hundreds, nearly a thousand arrows, not a single one penetrated through.
Immediately following.
Purple light exploded.
[Thunder Muscle] fully activated.
Kanbe Hikaru's figure vanished from within the blood mist.
In its place was a streak of purple lightning racing through the red sea of mist.
He charged into the cavalry ranks.
"General's orders, stop him!"
The front-row cavalry roared, thrusting their long spears.
A spear tip hit; it hit his shoulder.
Then the spear shaft shattered.
It was like a chopstick poking a city wall—the bone armor didn't even vibrate; the spearhead simply snapped off, and the ricocheting fragments embedded themselves into the cavalryman's own cheek.
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