After asking that question, he paused himself, then raised his head and said tonelessly, "Ah. In Li Zhi's hands."
Pei Ye did not answer. It was good news for him that his opponent had not attacked again with murderous force; it also gave him a moment to digest the unfamiliar information that had rushed at him in that lightning-flash instant.
Vermilion lotus flame burned the slick blood from his palm. Most of it had actually come from Black Chi. Pei Ye readjusted his grip on his sword.
The bone hub's location was right, he thought.
There could not have been a more precise thrust. Even that smooth sphere had failed to deflect his sword tip... Condensing true qi into threads with such precision at such a distance, striking under that manner of control-this was absolutely the pinnacle of his sword technique, a subtlety honed through suffering beneath Yang Zhenbing's sword day after day.
Nothing unexpected had happened when the qilin flame ignited, either. His opponent had not stopped it, and its heat had already scorched a black patch into the back of that purple robe.
But the bone hub simply had not broken.
Had Yu Sicheng plated the Flood Dragon Gold with another layer of protection? In twenty years, he certainly ought to have perfected this skeleton further... But the only weakness of [Mercury Blossoms Floating Raft] was qilin flame to begin with.
How could you eliminate qilin true flame? This was not a weakness; it was a symbol of loyalty, the qualification for holding a place in Daming Palace.
Or had he not found this flame's true use? But flames had never held any secrets in his hands. How else could a flame be used?
*Or perhaps he had been wrong from the very beginning. Yu Sicheng had not