In the blink of an eye, the White-robed figure had no choice but to wrench his wrist around. His blade skimmed past Long Xuanye's ribs, drawing a string of blood droplets.
The backlash from reversing his Spiritual Power left his chest tight and his breath painfully constricted.
One strike forced him back.
Long Xuanye didn't pause for an instant. He spun around and lunged again, clinging to him like a bone-deep parasite!
The White-Robed Assassin felt anger rise within him.
You're trying to pressure an assassin like me into a corner?
His figure flickered like a ghost as he rushed forward again. This time, his blade flashed faster, its angle even trickier.
But the result was exactly the same.
Long Xuanye still didn't dodge or evade. He offered his chest to the other man's blade.
The White-Robed Assassin could only force himself to pull back a second time.
"Pfft—"
This time, he couldn't fully suppress the Spiritual Power surging backward. His throat turned sweet, and his breathing instantly grew ragged.
His injuries were worse.
"Long Xuanye!"
Saint Cai'er let out a heart-rending scream. Stumbling over, she shielded the wounded Long Xuanye behind her. Her tear-filled eyes glared at the White-Robed Assassin, brimming with bone-deep hatred.
Watching the scene, the White-Robed Assassin felt inexplicably helpless.
He'd looked after this girl in secret for so long. In her heart, did he really mean less than this boy she'd only met twice?
Before he could sort out his thoughts,
the blood-soaked young man swayed to his feet once more. His eyes were bloodshot as he took up an attacking stance.
At last, the White-Robed Assassin understood.
Unless he killed the boy here today, he couldn't take Saint Cai'er away.
And the boy's secret technique was far too bizarre. With a third-tier body, he could just barely keep up with the speed of an eighth-tier fighter.
Though he posed no lethal threat, this kind of all-or-nothing fighting style was truly a headache.
But... would it work?
The White-Robed Assassin slowly raised a hand.
"This ends here."
Hum—
An invisible field of energy abruptly spread out from him!
Within the field, the air grew as thick as mercury, and gravity seemed to increase tenfold.
Long Xuanye, who was about to charge again, suddenly stiffened. It was as if an invisible hand had pinned him down. Even moving a finger became immensely difficult.
This was the crushing power of rank.
Faced with absolute strength, all technique and fearlessness seemed utterly insignificant.
The White-Robed Assassin no longer looked at him. He walked toward Saint Cai'er.
Saint Cai'er backed away in terror, but the force held her in place.
The assassin stopped before her. Not a trace of emotion could be heard in his voice.
"Hate me."
"For the future of humanity, someday... you can kill me if you want."
The White-Robed Assassin's words struck Saint Cai'er's heart like a boulder.
Hate him?
No.
She only hated herself.
She hated being so weak, hated being unable to do anything, and hated that all she could do was watch Long Xuanye bleed and fight for her.
In that moment, despair became fuel.
The tears in the girl's eyes evaporated in an instant. A deathly gray-white swallowed the once-clear gaze.
It wasn't confusion, but... destruction.
Hum—
The dagger in her hand rang out with a clear, pure note.
Brilliant white light soared into the sky, illuminating the entire cave as brightly as day.
It was no longer an ordinary dagger.
It transformed into a magnificent longsword, pure and sacred, wrapped in mysterious runes.
The Reincarnation Sacred Sword!
Saint Cai'er gripped the sword in both hands and, summoning all her strength, brought it down against the invisible barrier before her!
"Rip—"
A piercing tearing sound rang out.
The oppressive field cast by the White-Robed Assassin was cleaved open by that strike, leaving a jagged fissure!
At almost the same moment,
Long Xuanye, who had been pinned down, erupted with astonishing light in his eyes.
Now!
A thought exploded in the depths of his soul.
Chaos Begins!
His Spirit Furnace whirled frantically, as though it were burning!
A strange energy awakened within Long Xuanye.
Starting from his heart, countless mysterious patterns of dark gold and milky white spread wildly across his body.
Holiness and the ominous.
Creation and destruction.
Two utterly opposite forces blended perfectly within him.
A ten-meter-diameter vortex, woven from light and darkness, burst open around Long Xuanye!
The White-Robed Assassin's pupils contracted for the third time.
Without hesitation, he flicked a finger.
A solidified sphere of shadow shot straight toward Long Xuanye!
Then, in midair, it transformed into a net of shadow!
Yet the attack, powerful enough to kill any third-tier cultivator instantly, visibly slowed for a moment as soon as it entered the field around Long Xuanye.
Just a moment.
But it made all the difference.
The net of shadow skimmed past Long Xuanye's cheek, leaving a streak of blood.
He was injured.
But he was still standing!
Long Xuanye's [Chaos Begins] had survived its most vulnerable startup moment!
A distorted vortex appeared!
Crack—
A shattering sound rang out.
A wound split open in the White-Robed Assassin's eighth-tier field.
The Reincarnation Sacred Sword in Cai'er's hands dimmed!
The next instant, the net of shadow that had missed earlier was slowly drawn into the vortex around Long Xuanye! It transformed into streaks of black blades, which swam through the air like fish!
That was precisely the effect of Chaos Begins!
Assimilation. Absorption!
Transformation. Detonation!
"Pfft!"
Long Xuanye spat out another mouthful of blood, his body swaying unsteadily.
But the fighting spirit in his eyes burned brighter than ever.
He could fight with his life on the line again.
The blades formed from the White-robed figure's power would unleash force far beyond Long Xuanye's normal limits.
The White-Robed Assassin instinctively took a step back.
Looking at the blood-drenched boy still shielding Saint Cai'er behind him, he felt something he'd never felt before: this was trouble.
A monster.
The boy was a bona fide monster.
He was only third-tier. Just third-tier.
And yet, with sheer madness, he'd forced the White-Robed Assassin back twice. Now, together with Saint Cai'er, he'd even broken his field.
"He can even use my power to unleash another attack."
"Could this boy... be descended from a Seal Knight?"
The White-Robed Assassin knew very well:
He could still take them down.
But the price had changed completely.
Subduing the boy before him without taking his life or damaging his potential was now... impossible.
Especially since Long Xuanye had forcibly manipulated a move released by an eighth-tier powerhouse. His meridians were bound to be shattered!
The White-Robed Assassin's gaze moved back and forth between Saint Cai'er and Long Xuanye.
One was a Reincarnation Saintess, a once-in-ten-thousand-years prodigy who embodied humanity's hopes for the future.
The other... was a boy with nothing to his name, yet whose sheer talent had let him counter the assassin's move.
Saint Cai'er was important.
But this boy called Long Xuanye was just as important!
Perhaps... even more important!
The cave fell utterly silent.
The vortex of intertwined light and darkness continued to turn slowly around Long Xuanye, radiating a chilling aura.
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