"Peach blossom Sword Intent... was beautiful."
Phantom Shadow raised a hand and licked away the Blood Pearl on her arm, the light in her vertical pupils growing ever deeper.
In the depths of that light appeared a trace of unprecedented gravity.
"But too slow."
Mu Yunyao landed on the ground, his feet stepping upon the surface carved full of marks by his peach blossom sword qi. The soles of his shoes brushed against the sword marks with an exceedingly soft rustle.
He did not attack at once. Instead, he slowly spun the peachwood sword in front of him.
A layer of pinkish-white radiance began to glow along the peachwood grain on the blade.
The light spread from the palm gripping the sword up his entire arm, dyeing half his sleeve a faint peach color.
"The Way of the Sentimental Sword uses emotion as its guide."
Mu Yunyao's voice was several shades deeper than before, carrying a rasp from the depths of his throat.
"You can evade my sword, but you cannot evade my feelings."
He struck.
This sword was unlike any of his previous strikes.
Its momentum was no longer sharp, and even carried a sorrowful tenderness, like someone standing beneath a peach tree filled with drifting blossoms, gazing at an empty path.
The blade traced a winding arc through the air. Its path resembled the silent trail of moisture slipping from the corner of someone's eye when they missed another person.
Twisting and slow, as though it wished to carve every unfulfilled feeling into that curve.
That arc detached from the peachwood sword and transformed into a pinkish-white ribbon of light that drifted toward Phantom Shadow.
Wherever the ribbon passed, chains of laws retreated to either side of their own accord, making way for it.
A faint, fresh scent