The Slash-Happy Duo

"Now it's our time!" Wang Mian stood before the ruins, facing Lin Qiye from a distance.

"Just what I wanted!" Lin Qiye smiled faintly. He had never intended to join the attack on the Mask members. Instead, he wanted a one-on-one fight with Wang Mian, a fellow God's Agent.

In terms of the overall situation, that was a rather selfish idea.

But it was what Lin Qiye truly wanted.

Fortunately, fate indulged him.

Only a faint golden line remained on the distant horizon. The sun was setting.

The last ray of sunlight fell on Lin Qiye and Wang Mian like a spotlight.

The instructors underground stared at their screens. Wang Quan watched the two of them, and the Mask members looked their way...

Everyone held their breath, waiting for a spectacular battle.

Clang-!!!

A crisp ring of steel shattered the silence. Lin Qiye moved, and at that moment, the last sunlight vanished from the horizon.

Night fell!

[Starry Night Dancer] activated. Lin Qiye moved as swiftly as the wind; from a distance, all anyone could catch was a string of afterimages.

"Hmm?"

Wang Mian frowned slightly. He noticed that Lin Qiye had become much faster, but paid it little mind. Yiyuan slowly slid from its sheath, and the invisible time Divine Ruins unfolded.

To Lin Qiye, Wang Mian drew his saber so quickly that the movement blurred. He could not see it at all and had to sense it with his mental power. Fortunately, Mind's Eye worked far better than his eyes.

The next moment, a vicious slash tore through the air, flashing toward Lin Qiye.

Vrrr-!

The air wailed. Relying on his powerful dynamic vision and keen perception, Lin Qiye predicted the blade light's trajectory and dodged it by a hair.

A few strands of hair drifted down as the blade light skimmed past Lin Qiye's forehead. Without pausing, he continued charging forward.

"Interesting!"

Lin Qiye's agility far exceeded Wang Mian's expectations. He could not help smiling. Now this was an interesting opponent.

Without any hesitation, he unleashed a second slash, then a third...

Just as before, the blade light wove into a vast net that enveloped Lin Qiye.

Baili Pangpang and the others watching from afar immediately tensed. Wang Mian had used this very move to crush the recruits' ambush. A net of slashes this dense was impossible to dodge.

Within the blade net, Lin Qiye remained completely calm. A sharp gleam flowed through his eyes as he pushed his dynamic vision to its limit.

In his eyes, Wang Mian's movements slowed, and the gaps in the blade net became clearly visible.

But in that brief instant alone, Lin Qiye's eyes began aching relentlessly.

As the dense blade net closed in, he leaned backward while driving the Straight Saber into the ground, slipping through the largest gap in a bizarre posture.

Lin Qiye could even clearly sense the chilling menace of every streak of blade light.

The slightest mistake would have cut him to pieces.

The blade light plunged into the ruins behind Lin Qiye, clearing a clean, level path straight through them as dust billowed.

At the same time, Lin Qiye noticed that Wang Mian had slowed down.

The time Divine Ruins had reached its limit!

He had known that Wang Mian, at the lamp realm, could not sustain such an absurd ability as time manipulation for long.

Seizing this chance, Lin Qiye pushed [Starry Night Dancer] to its limit, becoming even faster. Wang Mian could barely follow him. Waiting for his time Divine Ruins to recover, he instinctively guarded his mask.

After all, the mask was the key to victory or defeat. In his position, Wang Mian would have seized this opening to attack it too.

But Lin Qiye did no such thing. His figure flashed past, and a strip of tape stuck to [Yiyuan]. With a faint tremor, the forbidden item was sealed.

Lin Qiye had achieved his goal.

"You've done your homework!" Wang Mian was not surprised. Instead, he praised Lin Qiye. "Exactly what I'd expect from a God's Agent. Well done!"

As he spoke, Wang Mian glanced at Baili Pangpang. He did not even need to think about it. Only this pampered young master of the Baili family could have supplied the [Scroll of Sealing].

"Hehe!" Baili Pangpang scratched his head sheepishly.

Turning his gaze back, Wang Mian blocked Lin Qiye's slash with a reverse-handed parry. A numbing vibration spread from Yiyuan, but that was all.

"Your Divine Ruins boosts your speed too?"

"Does [Mortal Dust Divine Domain] have that ability?"

"It's 003, after all. Being a little stronger is normal!" Panic stirred in Lin Qiye's heart. This was not the first time someone had seen through him. Back during his hellish training, Wang Quan had raised the same question.

"Oh!"

Compared with Wang Quan, this Agent of the God of Time was easier to fool. As a fellow God's Agent, he found it easier to understand someone like himself.

"You're damn well stalling!" Lin Qiye finally realized. The thought that he might expose Nyx had made him forget he was in the middle of a fight.

"No, I'm not!"

"We've been talking while fighting, haven't we?"

The moment Wang Mian finished speaking, a faint light shone in his eyes, and the time Divine Ruins activated again.

The black blade slashed down, leaving a crescent-shaped trail in midair.

Clang-!

Lin Qiye held his saber horizontally to block it. Without his blade energy, Wang Mian was no longer quite so monstrous.

Of course, within this domain, Wang Mian still held control.

Abandoning his blade-energy-centered fighting style, he focused only on slashing-slashing furiously. In a single second, Wang Mian unleashed at least five hundred strikes.

Lin Qiye's movements were sluggish. He could only block, with no chance whatsoever to strike back.

That was entirely thanks to Wang Quan's hellish training and Chen Muye's saber instruction. Otherwise, he would not even have been capable of defending himself.

The black blade and pale blue Straight Saber resembled two enormous dragons soaring through the heavens. Their flashing blades overlapped, weaving a murderous tableau.

Soon, the time Divine Ruins ended.

Then it was Lin Qiye's turn. With [Starry Night Dancer] empowering him, Wang Mian without his Divine Ruins was no match at all.

Lin Qiye became a thunderstorm at sea, forcing Wang Mian back step by step.

If not for Wang Mian's wealth of experience, he would have lost long ago.

As Lin Qiye's offensive ended, Wang Mian pushed back.

And so the two took turns hacking furiously at each other.

"Don't those two get tired?" Baili Pangpang rubbed his eyes. He was exhausted just watching. The dizzying flurry was no fun to watch at all.

"Doesn't look like it!" Vortex took a small sip and answered leisurely.

"Ahh..." Wang Quan yawned, then suddenly shouted toward the two battling in the distance, "My disciple, keep it up! Cut that guy down!"

"Your master's month of stinky socks is counting on you!"

At those words, the instructors in the surveillance room fell silent.

Bro, you're an instructor. Whose side are you actually on?

After speaking, Wang Quan leisurely lifted his teacup. Before it reached his lips, it shattered.

He took a closer look. It was Lin Qiye's turn now.

Wang Quan shook his head and picked up the cola beside him. Just as he was about to drink, that burst too.

Right. It was Wang Mian's turn now.

The two were deep in their fierce battle. Naturally, little stones and the like flew off now and then-and just happened to hit Wang Quan.

"Seriously!"

"You two, I fucking..."

Wang Quan stood up, cursing. The Mask members beside him hurriedly held him back.

"Brother Quan, they definitely didn't mean it!"

"Easy, easy! We agreed we'd just watch!"

"Brother Quan, don't do anything rash!"