Night

"Clang! Clang!" The sounds of blades colliding rang out through the somewhat dim Calamity Shadow Ruins.

At that moment, two figures were locked in fierce combat, using only the purest Great Blade Skill, without the slightest assistance from Star Skills.

Four Flame Puppets acted as torches, forming a square. Within that square was a blur of flashing blades, with sparks occasionally bursting from the interweaving and scraping of the Steel Great Blades.

Not far away, Xia Yan sat on a straw mat with her knees hugged to her chest, watching the two figures fighting in the arena with an almost rapturous gaze.

One was Jiang Xiao,

And the other was also Jiang Xiao.

To Xia Yan, this might have been the most precious practical lesson in two-handed weapons in the world. Even more frightening was that such lessons took place every day, with Xia Yan as their sole student, receiving exclusive tutoring daily.

On the first day Jiang Xiao "and" Jiang Xiao began fighting, there had been another spectator—Han Jiangxue. But Han Jiangxue had merely watched for a while before going off to cultivate her Star Power on her own. Xia Yan, however, was unwilling to give up even the slightest detail.

There were always aspects shared between Greatswords and two-handed Great Blades.

The two of them had completely shut off their shared senses, becoming two independent individuals—and also each other's best sparring partners.

However, their Great Blade Skills came from the same source. They could even be said to be identical. To determine superiority, they naturally needed an X factor.

This so-called "X factor" might be a Star Skill, or it might be a Star Map.

The rule Jiang Xiao had set for himself was that Star Skills were forbidden, so the Star Map seemed to have become the