Sun Breathing

Only half the Sun Wheel Blade's hilt remained.

Water, flame, lightning, wind, rock, and mist whirled around the Nine-Slot Round Wheel, drifting farther apart. The Sun Pattern had only just awakened and could not sustain the entire Martial Soul on its own.

Yuan Yu could feel every element.

He could control them, too.

But the six powers no longer obeyed a single command.

Yuan Yu tried drawing the water and wind back into his body first. The moment the water neared his wrist, the flames outside broke free and burned straight through the mist. Drawn by the fire, lightning leaped across the wheel toward the Sun Pattern, making the newly gathered golden light waver.

He immediately gave up on recalling the Water Pattern.

Once the six elements began to separate, any move he made with one would disturb the other five. He could no longer deal with them one at a time.

Yet every force pulled in a different direction.

Water flowed downward, flames kept rising, lightning chased the wind around the wheel's rim, rock dust sank toward the ground, and mist split the surrounding scenery into layer upon layer of overlapping images.

Dugu Bo's voice came from beyond the glare. "Yuan Yu, fall back if you can't hold on!"

"Almost there."

Yuan Yu raised his right hand and reached for the hilt again.

His fingers passed straight through it.

He did not try a second time. Instead, he channeled Soul Power into the Six-Pattern Inner Wheel within his body. Now that the Sun Wheel Blade had dissolved into elements, forcing it back into its old form would only make it clash with the Light Origin again.

The wheel lacked a central axis.

And the axis he knew best had always been that blade.

Yuan Yu brought his hands together