Inside the Illusion Realm, atop the arena.
Xu Feng had long since lost count of how many times he had died.
At first, he had counted silently: once, twice, ten times, a hundred times.
Later, the number grew so large that he could no longer be bothered to keep track.
All he remembered was that every time he opened his eyes in the darkness, he stood in the center of the stone platform.
Across from him stood the same young Azure Lord in his moon-white fighting attire.
His opponent still held his saber with effortless composure, wearing the same expression.
Then Xu Feng charged, or he didn't.
Either way, the result was the same.
Death.
When it was quick, the saber flashed, and his consciousness sank into darkness.
When it was slow, he lasted a few more exchanges, but the price of those exchanges was often an even more gruesome death.
Yet he never stopped, never withdrew.
The Silver Moon proficiency on his panel became his only measure of time within the Illusion Realm.
At one point.
[Silver Moon · Proficient (1/800)]
Xu Feng quickly opened his panel and glanced at it, feeling a flicker of delight.
From novice to practiced, then to proficient-how many times had he died?
At least ten thousand, surely.
Now, he could control four hundred silver Flying Blades.
And those Flying Blades could do more than swarm his opponent. They could also combine into four long silver blades.
They were more powerful and faster than the small Flying Blades.
As for the Azure Lord, he had gone from casually killing Xu Feng in an instant to needing a little effort to tear through his Flying Blade defenses.
At this stage, Xu Feng could occasionally leave a few shallow cuts on him.
Those wounds