The Cold Moon Saber rose.
Piercing killing intent surged skyward like a storm, wrapping Yang Ge in an almost tangible shroud.
The sky seemed to fill with dark clouds all at once, their oppressive gloom making it hard to breathe.
Even the weapons scattered across the surrounding ships stirred under the pull of that powerful, pure killing intent, threatening to take flight again...
It took longer to tell than to happen.
Only five or six breaths passed between Yang Ge raising the Cold Moon Saber in both hands to begin charging his skill and the purple-robed elder's failed attempt to threaten him into making peace.
The purple-robed elder was decisive, too. Seeing that Yang Ge was as determined as a turtle that had swallowed an iron weight, bent on following this road into darkness, he struck before Yang Ge could finish gathering his strength.
He sprang from the bow, conjuring the phantom of a white-browed tiger with upturned eyes as large as a ship in midair, then lunged at Yang Ge amid a sky full of fierce black wind...
"Boom!"
The tiger missed. Its paw slammed into the water, driving the surface down thirty feet. That terrifying force threw up several jets of water forty or fifty feet high, and the surging waves nearly overturned the surrounding cargo ships, each capable of carrying ten thousand loads.
Without the slightest pause after its missed strike, the tiger pushed off the water and leaped again, pursuing Yang Ge as he shot into the sky.
Seeing this, Yang Ge did not dodge again. Instead, he staked everything on one blow, violently pouring all his true qi into the Cold Moon Saber.
"Aaargh..."
With a furious howl, he slashed downward. In an instant, a forty-meter blade of almost tangible blade qi poured forth, identical