Xu Taiping remained impassive at those words.
Unlike Shang Jiu, this contest concerned not only his own life but also Second Senior Brother's. He could not afford a single slip.
"But for a blade cultivator, the body only needs to be good enough. What matters most is the blade in your hand."
As Shang Jiu spoke, he leaned forward and abruptly quickened his steps, charging up to Xu Taiping in two or three strides with his blade in hand.
Whoosh!
With a whistle through the air, Shang Jiu swept his blade horizontally toward Xu Taiping's neck.
The angle of his strike was extremely tricky. Xu Taiping could not clash blades with him as he had before and could only dodge backward, looking for an opening to strike.
But Shang Jiu seemed to have anticipated exactly where he would retreat. He arrested his blade, aimed its tip at Xu Taiping's throat, and thrust.
Xu Taiping had no choice but to retreat again.
Yet Shang Jiu accurately anticipated his every move. Had his footwork and reactions not been fast enough to bring his blade up to block in time, he would probably have taken more than a dozen cuts already.
More importantly, Shang Jiu's blade was growing faster and fiercer.
An ordinary martial artist facing such ferocious blade force from Shang Jiu would likely not have lasted even the time it took to brew a cup of tea before panic led to a mistake with his hands, leaving him unable to stop Shang Jiu's blade.
But Xu Taiping had fought Blade Ghost more than ten thousand times within the Blade Domain. Blade Ghost had tested his blade on him using over a hundred blade techniques and thousands of attack patterns. His current situation did not even qualify as a warm-up.
**Clang, clang,