Mu Yunyao's footsteps abruptly halted. He flipped the peachwood sword and stabbed back, condensing a ball of compressed peach blossom sword qi at its tip before blasting it toward Phantom Shadow's face.
That ball of sword qi transformed into three twin peach blossoms in midair.
When all three blossoms bloomed at once, the Sword Intent they released stacked together, like a fan-shaped net of blades dropping over her head.
Phantom Shadow tilted her head aside, and the peach blossom sword qi grazed past her ear.
It exploded at the edge of the arena behind her, becoming a skyful of peach blossom light-rain. Every drop of light trailed a long, slender pinkish-white streak through the air.
Using the motion of tilting her head, she spun once. Her tail swept out like an iron whip, its tip wrapped in a pitch-black blade of shadow that slashed straight for Mu Yunyao's waist and abdomen.
Fine fragments of shadow laws curled along the edge of that blade, densely packed like serrated teeth.
Mu Yunyao raised his sword and pressed it down.
The instant the peachwood sword collided with the shadow tail-blade, his wrist suddenly loosened slightly.
It was not that he could not block it. He deliberately guided the force of the tail-blade into his sword, using the impact to make the peachwood sword rotate half a turn in his palm.
The hilt pointed downward and the tip upward. From below, it stabbed toward Phantom Shadow's chin like a silver fish swimming upstream.
Every peachwood grain on the sword tip lit up, forming a complete peach blossom mark.
Phantom Shadow threw her head back and retreated, the sword tip sweeping past three inches before her throat.
Sword qi left an extremely shallow scorch mark at her throat. The scales in that area curled slightly