Hu Xiaotian's body plummeted from midair toward the courtyard.
The gray-clad man pursued relentlessly. He planted his right foot on the eaves, visibly contracted his body, then stretched out again in an astonishing springing motion, multiplying the speed of his downward swoop. Raising his scimitar overhead with both hands, he cleaved through the wind and rain rushing toward him. Its cold gleam carried an astral wind straight toward the crown of Hu Xiaotian's head, as though he meant to split him in two.
Hu Xiaotian's flexible sword barely touched his opponent's weapon before he retreated again, overcoming hardness with softness. In combat, one had to choose a fighting style suited to the weapon in hand. Rather than meet his opponent head-on from the outset, Hu Xiaotian drew him down to the ground to give Huo Shengnan a sufficient opening.
Huo Shengnan had already reached the eaves. She drew her longbow, a feathered arrow nocked against the taut string. Rain battered the arrowhead, lending its normally fierce, cold gleam a forlorn haze. She sighted the gray-clad man's back. Whoosh! The arrow shot off, chasing the wind and pursuing lightning. Huo Shengnan was full of confidence in this shot. She had struck where he was unprepared, when he least expected it, and with the wind and rain masking the sound, he would have difficulty detecting her attack.
To Huo Shengnan's surprise, when the arrow was only about a foot from the gray-clad man's back, his figure abruptly vanished into the rainy night.
Facing the gray-clad man, Hu Xiaotian saw a blur before his eyes, and his opponent disappeared. Before he could locate him, he saw Huo Shengnan's arrow flying straight toward his own chest. He hurriedly slapped at it with his flexible sword. The blade struck the shaft with a muffled crack!