"Good, keep fighting like that. Suppress him. Don't give him a chance to catch his breath, and don't give him a chance to strike back."
"Come on, Shi Poxiao! You're the best! We believe in you!"
"Awesome."
"A complete suppression—there's a chance in this fight!"
A burst of cheers erupted from the cultivators of Origin Continent.
Shi Poxiao's three moves had flowed together in one breath, each one heavy and powerful enough to set the blood boiling.
Shadow Fiend wiped the violet blood from the corner of his mouth and slowly rose to his feet.
He looked at Shi Poxiao, and his gaze changed.
The composed smile from before had become the focused scrutiny of a hunter sizing up his prey.
He lowered his head to look at the fist marks on his blades, then raised his eyes to Shi Poxiao's thick yet somewhat clumsy legs. The corner of his mouth slowly curled upward.
"Big guy, you're quite strong."
"Your strength is astonishing. You're one of the strongest people I've ever seen. If you smacked me once, this little body of mine couldn't take it."
"And you're fast, too."
"But that speed is only fast to other people."
"To me, you're very slow—slower than a snail, even."
Shadow Fiend gripped his twin blades again, their tips pointed at the ground.
Even as he spoke, his figure had already vanished from where he stood.
Shi Poxiao only felt his vision blur before a pitch-black figure appeared behind him.
Shadow Fiend's twin blades slashed in from both sides at once, their edges wrapped in grayish-white spatial severing force.
Even the light along the blades' paths was cut into two, forming two fleeting patches of darkness.
Shi Poxiao had no time to turn around.
He merely flung both arms backward, his elbows smashing