The dull shifts between stillness and motion repeated again and again. Like rivals in a race, the two moved from the steps to the door, to the curtain, to the screen... Pei Ye could spring farther and farther, and Yue Muzhou had to expend increasingly subtle effort to stop him.
But in all honesty, though this was indeed much faster, it was not the same as the sword strike Pei Ye had seen last time.
An Eighth Growth body had its limits. You could approach that limit endlessly and produce greater speed, but the ceiling was drawn right there.
Pei Ye strove to approach Yue Muzhou's speed, but he still could not understand the strike that had pierced his throat last time.
After another exchange, sweat had begun to bead on Pei Ye, and Yue Muzhou's muscles and bones had warmed up too. The man watched him with interest. Pei Ye stopped, but said, "Speed like that won't stop He Wujian."
"Ah, yes." Yue Muzhou spoke casually. "Because I haven't used [Unbound]."
"What is 'Unbound'?"
"Hmm?"
"What is Unbound?"
Yue Muzhou looked at him. "You're Li Jian's trusted Wild Goose Inspector, and you seem to know me, yet you don't know 'Unbound'?"
"Never heard of it."
"[Unbound] is my fastest sword strike." Yue Muzhou lowered his head and sheathed his sword, the faint mist between his lips appearing and disappearing in the cold rain as he spoke. "It's also the fastest sword strike in this world. Daoism has no faster sword, nor does Yunlang. Nowhere has a sword strike faster than it."
"Within a hundred feet, it arrives the instant I think of it." He tilted his head to glance at the youth and smiled faintly. "At this distance between us, taking your head would require only a thought."