"Yes, Miss Ming. Eight zhang away, on level, open ground." Pei Ye paused for a while. "I want to use it to defeat Yong Ji."
Ming Qitian said nothing. She thought for a moment. "This strike should be on the Third Step of your Sword Ladder. Senior Yue used this very strike as the core from which he refined the five forms of Snow Sword, reaching the realm of Dao Sword."
Pei Ye nodded.
"Yong Ji certainly cannot parry this strike. Nor can anyone at the Profound Gate level beneath heaven parry it. At least, before they know about it, they cannot parry it; after they know about it, they cannot parry it with a sword," Ming Qitian said. "But whether you can injure them is another matter."
"I used it in Daming Palace to cut through the neck of someone on the Crane List. His name was Zhang Mengqiu." Pei Ye lowered his head and stroked Glaze. "But in Divine Capital City, that strike wouldn't have killed him; outside the city, I would have been the one who died."
Ming Qitian thought quietly for a while. "You can kill those people because, at a certain instant, their throats are just as fragile as a mortal's."
"...Yes."
"I think, if you want to defeat Yong Ji... you can no longer use an assassin's methods," she said. "He follows the simplest, most orthodox path: powerful, resilient sinews and bones without weaknesses, and sharp, immensely heavy attacks. He is a fierce general on the battlefield."
"But there is nothing a sword cannot do," she said.
"Though he is no swordsman, you can be a soldier." Ming Qitian handed him Jade Tiger. "To defeat him, you must meet his edge head-on."
Pei Ye stared. "I don't have Mountain and Sea Blood. Nor do