Gray Matter

Ye Xiao pressed forward again.

This time, his punches came faster and thicker than before.

Over five breaths of relentless attack, he threw several punches in rapid succession.

He barely paused between strikes. Instead, he moved sideways to set up each new attack, keeping the pressure on without a break.

Ye Xiao fought with more caution than he had shown in any previous battle.

He never overcommitted after throwing a punch.

Whether he hit Adam or not, he immediately pulled back.

Even when he had a chance to press his advantage.

Ye Xiao calmly let it go.

Adam, for his part, deflected the first punch and sidestepped the second.

On the third, he began countering with gray-white light.

When it met Ye Xiao's dark-gold fist, a steady scraping sound arose.

It sounded like two pieces of old, dry iron grinding against each other.

The fourth punch passed through the gray layer of light and struck the inside of Adam's forearm. A faint gray-white crack appeared where it landed.

The fifth punch missed.

Adam retreated farther than he had in the earlier exchanges. In half a breath, he shifted his center of gravity twice, as though testing the limits of his movement.

During his first pause, Ye Xiao noticed something.

Every time Adam used the gray-white light, the cracks across his body spread a little faster.

New cracks appeared especially often after he made a large movement or released a substantial amount of gray light.

Once Ye Xiao spotted that, he immediately understood: The longer this fight drags on, the sooner Adam's body will give out and collapse!

So Ye Xiao wisely changed his strategy.

He stopped trying to land every blow. Instead, he kept up the pressure to force Adam to use more of the gray-white light.

He shortened the