Then he moved.
He braced a hand against the tabletop and sprang from his chair.
His Blade Forelimbs, wrapped in the spiritual power of the Dark Prison Reincarnation Art, thrust straight at Shen Hong's face.
He was fast. There was almost no pause between rising and striking, and the sound of his blade slicing through the air rang especially clear in the quiet courtyard.
Shen Hong reacted just as quickly.
The instant Shen Fei rose, he sensed the change in his aura. He pressed his right hand beneath the table and slid backward, his chair legs scraping shrilly across the stone floor.
At the same time, his consciousness sank into his soul sea, and the phantom of the Sacred Fire Roc Eagle emerged from the void behind him.
It was an enormous bird covered in dark red feathers, with a wingspan of over twenty feet. Searing flames shimmered along the edges of its wings, and its golden pupils gleamed coldly in the lamplight.
Shen Fei's Blade Forelimbs, wreathed in dark spiritual power, stabbed straight at Shen Hong's face. Shen Hong raised his right arm to block, and the Sacred Fire Roc Eagle's phantom folded its left wing in tandem. A layer of dark red spiritual power coated the wing as it collided with the Blade Forelimbs.
A muffled boom rang out. The shock wave from the collision of the two forces spread outward, jolting the bowls and plates on the table into the air before they dropped back down. Several cups of wine overturned, and wine streamed across the tabletop and over its edge.
Shen Fei's Blade Forelimbs struck the Sacred Fire Roc Eagle's wing in a shower of sparks. He did not withdraw. Using the recoil of the collision, he turned his wrist and slid the Blade Forelimbs along