The shrill clang of steel rang out without pause. Sparks flew as two blinding lights, one bright and one dark, collided furiously. Shockwaves rippled outward, shattering and hurling away every ornamental rock, stone pillar, and plant in the courtyard.
The woman's twin blades flashed like lightning, layers of blood-red blade shadows piling upon one another. Every move was vicious—cleaving, chopping, slashing, thrusting, sweeping—each aimed at a vital point. Her blade work was fierce and precise, backed by decades of hard-won combat experience. Attack and defense flowed as one, leaving no opening.
Qian Xunzong moved with effortless grace, his footwork shifting unpredictably. Drawing on the immense foundation of his transcendent divine martial soul and the boost to his body, he calmly blocked with the Judgment Blade and counterattacked with precision.
His golden sword light was sharp and concentrated. Every swing carried the majesty of judgment over all things, cutting through layer after layer of blade shadows and forcing the woman to change her moves.
The woman frowned slightly, her shock deepening. She was the commander of the Radiant Sun Empire's Dark Rain Guard. She had guarded the Imperial Palace's Forbidden Ground for decades and was a Level-97 Peak Douluo. She could crush an ordinary Super Douluo head-on. Yet this black-clad intruder was only a Seven-Ring Soul Sage, and despite that gulf in cultivation, he had withstood her fierce assault. His moves were exquisite, his composure unshakable, and he had not yielded an inch.
"You have some skill. No wonder you dared break into the palace alone!"
With a cold shout, the woman intensified her assault. All nine of her soul rings pulsed violently, and her third and fourth soul skills erupted together. The blood-red blade shadows filling the sky suddenly converged into two vast crimson full moons. They closed in from