By the time Ji Yuan returned to Li Manor, it was already the fifth watch. The city's night watchmen had only just gone down the streets, striking their gongs and clappers.
Once back in his room, Ji Yuan took out the Xiezhi Scroll again. From time to time, bursts of violent, struggling commotion still came from it. Clearly, even having reached its true home ground, the contest between Xiezhi and Zhu Yan was far from over.
After placing the Xiezhi Scroll on the table and slowly unrolling it, Ji Yuan found that it did not bear Xiezhi's usual image. It was instead a sheet of utter blackness.
This time, he had ambushed Zhu Yan, comprehended the sword formation midway through, and then forcibly altered the formation. Furthermore, the sword formation had been far from complete beforehand. Every time Zhu Yan attacked in an attempt to break the formation, striking the Heaven and Earth Diagrams and the sword formation, Ji Yuan had been the one to dissolve the force.
Zhu Yan had certainly endured the terrifying Power of Slaughter from the sword formation, but his own counterattacks had not been entirely ineffective, nor had they been easy to bear. To speak frankly, Ji Yuan himself had already suffered damage to his vital essence. That was precisely why Zhu Yan had believed Ji Yuan to be greatly weakened, thinking he could break free.
Yet, seeing the state of the Xiezhi Scroll, Ji Yuan still asked in a deliberately relaxed tone.
"Xiezhi, can you handle it? Don't force yourself if you need help!"
After his words fell, it was quite a while before Xiezhi's voice came through. It was not soft, but brief and urgent.
"No need—"
As Xiezhi's words ended, an immense stream of vital essence actually spilled out from the scroll,