"Youngster, keep that safe for me. I'll drink it in a bit!"
Raising his elbow to block the punch, [Thought-Madness] caught a trace of a strange power through the force transmitted by the fist.
Wan Lan seized [Thought-Madness]'s arm, leaped up, and drove her bent knee toward his abdomen.
"Don't get distracted. You'll get hit."
[Thought-Madness] lowered his arm. It should have blocked the blow, but it strangely missed the knee strike.
With a deafening bang, a windstorm exploded behind Wan Lan. The invisible wind blasted into visible arcs, forming rings of sonic booms that burst in front of [Thought-Madness].
Kicked several miles away, [Thought-Madness] looked somewhat astonished.
"This power is interesting."
Wan Lan extended her arm and beckoned with her hand.
"I know you suspect the Thousand-Wind Ancient Road is something we created by returning to the past, but I can tell you plainly that I can't command it.
"Or rather, I don't have the authority to stand above it, but I can borrow a small part of it."
[Thought-Madness] nodded. The next instant, his mouth stretched into an exaggerated grin. In the blink of Wan Lan's eye, he appeared behind her, raised his fist, and slammed it down.
As shattered stones flew, his voice remained utterly calm.
"Try stopping my attacks. Put up a 'no passage' sign in their path."
Struck in the back, Wan Lan forced herself to resist stabbing him with an arrow and concentrated fully on blocking [Thought-Madness]'s attacks.
But what followed was a head full of junk information.
Things like "turn back and find salvation" and "a good horse never returns to graze where it has been."
"The early bird catches the worm," and "the early worm gets eaten by the bird."
One said time flew like an arrow; another said a day dragged