The instant the longsword broke free, Cao Feiyu moved as well.
Rather than retreating to widen the distance, she borrowed the force of the returning sword, twisted her waist, and lightly tapped the void with her toes. Like a willow leaf swept aloft by sword wind, she slipped past the Vengeful Demon's thick arm, which had lifted slightly from the injury to both palms, by the narrowest margin and pressed forward again.
Her movements flowed with effortless precision, as though she had practiced them thousands upon thousands of times. From unleashing sword essence to cut apart his palms, breaking free of his restraint, and charging in once more, everything followed in one seamless breath, so fast it dazzled the eye.
Under Cao Feiyu's exquisite control, the longsword traced a subtle arc through the air and once again locked onto the Vengeful Demon's vital point. But this time, after being wounded, the Vengeful Demon instinctively turned sideways and raised an arm to block, concealing the weakness at the side of his neck.
The point of Cao Feiyu's sword now aimed directly at the center of the Vengeful Demon's brow.
This strike lacked the long-prepared momentum of the first, but it won in continuity. It exploited to the utmost the instant of stiffness and opening created by the injuries to the Vengeful Demon's palms.
"Roar!"
Faced with Cao Feiyu's fatal sword strike, which came again the instant she escaped his restraint, the Vengeful Demon flew into a complete rage.
A howl far more violent and crazed than his previous deep roar, carrying boundless hatred and a will to destroy, erupted from his gaping maw filled with sharp stone fangs.
The sound waves spread wildly in tangible dark-red ripples. Wherever they passed, space was squeezed into visible wrinkles, the ground cracked apart, and