"Your left foot was steadier than yesterday." Luo Wen's voice rang out from deep within the passage.
Lu Chi looked up and saw Luo Wen leaning against the mottled metal wall, toying with an exquisitely small silver flask. Beside him, Ning Xiaohe was meticulously wiping the jet-black Black God Fang dagger with a snowy white cloth. At her feet lay the freshly dragged-down corpse of a four-armed creature, three Armor-Piercing Shuttles embedded in its chest.
"When that big guy's powered arm activated, it made a charging sound for one second. I heard it." Lu Chi walked up to Luo Wen and wiped the sweat from his forehead. At last, his lips spread into a genuine smile, one that even carried a hint of swagger. "He was stronger, but I was steadier."
"Steadier?" Luo Wen raised an eyebrow. "If that had been a fight to the death, you shouldn't have slashed his windpipe. That species has tremendous vitality. Even with a ruptured windpipe, he would have had at least three seconds to launch a dying counterattack. You should have severed his spinal cord at the neck."
"I held something back." Unlike a few days earlier, Lu Chi didn't immediately lower his head at the criticism. Instead, he met Luo Wen's eyes, his gaze as bright as a freshly sharpened blade. "The muscles in my right leg were tense the whole time. If he counterattacked, I could retreat three meters in an instant. Besides-"
Lu Chi glanced down at the blade in his hand.
"Besides, I can feel this blade breathing now. Its five-hundred-kilogram weight used to be a burden. Now it's an extension of my arm. I don't think he could have touched me before I pulled back."
Luo Wen studied the young man before him. Twelve days. Just twelve short