Time seemed to freeze in an instant. Qiu Mubai's body, straight as a sword, suddenly hung motionless in midair.
Hu Xiaotian held his sword in one hand and stepped forward with his right foot. The blast of air from their collision blew aside the black gauze over his face, revealing an ugly, grotesque visage. This face was utterly unfamiliar to Qiu Mubai; Hu Xiaotian's skill at changing his appearance was already enough to fool his eyes.
The crossing blades gave off a piercing creak. The longsword in Qiu Mubai's hand actually cut into the edge of the iron sword, splitting it more than half an inch. But his internal power had reached its limit, and in the end, he could not complete the fatal strike that would break sword with sword. That he had damaged Hu Xiaotian's iron sword at all was entirely thanks to the sharpness of his precious blade.
Hu Xiaotian's internal power, however, surged without end like a mighty river, attacking his opponent in waves that rose higher with every surge.
Qiu Mubai's body abruptly shot upward from where it had hung in midair. Like a startled swan descending from beyond the heavens, he soared some thirty feet into the air, bent his legs against the trunk of the old pine behind him, and kicked off hard. Heavy snow cascaded from its crown. Qiu Mubai plunged down amid the falling snow, his longsword trembling rapidly as nine flowers of icy swordlight blossomed in the air and swept toward Hu Xiaotian's body as though hunting his soul and claiming his life.
Hu Xiaotian stamped his right foot heavily on the ground. With a whump!, the snow flew upward, enveloping him like a surging wall of waves.
The nine flowers of swordlight tore nine great holes through the wall