Soon, Chi Xue and the others made their decision. One by one, they charged toward Ling Tian and Xiao Shi with imposing momentum, looking as if they were about to fight them in earnest. This further misled Venerable Sword Saint. More importantly, Venerable Sword Saint had focused almost all his attention on Ling Tian, so he naturally failed to notice anything unusual about Chi Xue and the others—especially since they were deliberately concealing it.
The two sides flew toward each other at great speed, so it didn't take long for them to meet. Venerable Sword Saint said nothing. The instant he spotted Ling Tian and Xiao Shi, he launched an attack, targeting Xiao Shi directly. Venerable Sword Saint was clever, too. He knew his attacks couldn't pose much of a threat to Ling Tian—not until Ling Tian was thoroughly worn down, at the very least—so attacking Xiao Shi was the best choice.
That was right: attacking Xiao Shi was the best choice. Venerable Sword Saint believed this would give him a better chance of gravely wounding or exhausting Xiao Shi, and thus a better chance of capturing him. Capturing Xiao Shi was crucial to him, far more important than killing Ling Tian, so he chose to attack Xiao Shi first.
One thing worth noting, though, was that Venerable Sword Saint didn't use Phantom Combo right away. Perhaps he had realized that the secret technique consumed too much energy and wasn't effective immediately, or perhaps there was some other reason. Instead, he attacked Xiao Shi using other secret techniques.
"Heh, just as expected. Venerable Sword Saint is deliberately targeting Xiao Shi," Po Qiong said in Ling Tian's mind. "After all, he knows that attacking you won't threaten you much; it'll only wear you down a little. But attacking Xiao Shi could