Before the Downpour (1)

Demon Shadow quickly sensed their position and slipped through the miasma like a ghost. A foul-smelling palm strike was already upon them. Shen Yuxi gripped his sword hilt, the spirit sword humming as it strained to leave its sheath, but Lin Huaixu suddenly caught his wrist.

"Second Senior Brother! Charge it up! Give it everything you've got!"

Lin Huaixu's voice held an urgency Shen Yuxi had never heard before. Veins bulged at his temples; he was clearly struggling to withstand the miasma's erosion.

Shen Yuxi did not understand, but he instinctively chose to trust his junior brother. He stopped rushing to draw his sword. The spiritual energy around him receded like an ebbing tide and poured into the spirit sword, which let out a low, dragonlike cry.

Demon Shadow's palm strike reached them, bearing the pressure of the Soul Emergence Realm—enough to grind a Golden Core cultivator to dust. At that hair's-breadth moment, Lin Huaixu thrust out his hand. A talisman flared before him, then tore apart the instant it touched the demonic energy.

A second followed, then a third... Dozens of talismans shattered in succession. Each burst with a fleeting golden light, like sparks falling into an ink pool. They could not stop Demon Shadow's attack, but they forced the palm strike to slow for half a breath.

The instant the last talisman exploded, light flashed in Shen Yuxi's eyes, and the spiritual energy he had amassed erupted! As the spirit sword left its sheath, a blue-white blade of light ripped through the miasma. With the force to cleave mountains and split stone, it struck straight at Demon Shadow's face.

Shen Yuxi swung his sword, and his opponent made no move to dodge—why would he? This was merely the struggle of a cornered beast. A mere Golden Core cultivator's