Visiting every Saint in the Rhine Empire, along with the time spent cultivating after gaining insights along the way, had actually taken three years!
Jason was a little surprised that visiting a few dozen Saints had taken three years, but Edward and Dante looked perfectly calm.
He could only conclude that he was too inexperienced and had yet to fully adjust to how Saints viewed time.
Over those three years, both Jason and Ailin had made tremendous progress, especially Jason, whose rate of improvement was even faster than Edward had expected.
Now Jason, who was forty-two, and Ailin were both as strong as Haydson in the original story. Ailin had reached that level because of her innate talent, while Jason, a human, had cultivated so quickly that the two family elders were astonished.
So, on this day, Edward arranged for Jason and Ailin to fight once more.
It was also the subject of a wager he and Dante had made three years ago. The stakes were said to be one of Edward's treasured Blue Jade Fruits and a Blood Blade from Dante.
The battlefield was a stretch of wasteland south of Bloodshadow Valley, where it bordered the Blazing Sun Desert. Thanks to Edward's publicity, many Saints from Bloodshadow Valley had come out to watch the two juniors duel, while only a few ninth-rank experts were present.
Over the years, Jason had long since realized that the Saints' lives were so dull they were practically growing mushrooms, and he was used to it by now.
Jason used two short blades. His previous weapon, Leiming, had been made entirely from materials with an affinity for lightning and was not very easy to use.
Ailin used the Blood Blade she had nurtured herself.
As soon as the battle began, Ailin did the same as always and charged straight in.
Of the Edicts of Destruction, Ailin possessed two abilities, the Power of Destruction and the Will of Destruction, while her grasp of the Edicts of Death was still limited to Withering. She gave equal weight to physical and soul attacks, and in terms of attack power alone, she was no weaker than those in the second tier of Saints.
Jason, on the other hand, stuck to defending and counterattacking.
He had made no progress with the Water Element's Profound Mystery of Roundness. He had been trying to fuse the Water Body Technique with the Profound Mystery of Roundness, and three years of sparring had given the two Profound Mysteries the slightest hint of fusion. Yet that tiny hint alone had more than tripled Jason's water-attribute defense!
The Edicts of Death were difficult to describe, but lately Jason had felt that his understanding of Final Destination had deepened. As a result, his soul attacks were more than twice as strong as they had been three years ago.
As for the Lightning Element's Profound Mysteries, Jason had made little progress. He wanted to try fusing Lightning Flash and the Lightning Element while he had only a basic grasp of both, but he had no idea how to go about it.
His grasp of the Edicts of Destruction had stabilized around abilities related to the Will of Destruction and Annihilation, but his understanding was shallow, so they were of little use.
Ailin's Blood Blade was already upon him. Jason swept a blade in his left hand through a smooth arc, gently deflecting it.
The two had fought many times before, and Jason had long known Ailin's strength. Physical attacks alone could not break through his defenses.
Ailin struck again, unleashing the power of Withering. Jason blocked its physical effects, but the soul attack passed straight through his defenses and entered his Soul Ocean.
His Sea of Souls, originally a brilliant gold, turned gray in an instant, as though it had lost its vitality.
It did not directly attack Jason's soul, yet it gave him a splitting headache.
Jason lacked the ability to defend his soul, and that had always been his weak point. Among Saints, unless they had comprehended a particular Profound Mystery, they could only endure such attacks with their souls.
His spherical soul radiated a brilliant golden light, stirring the Sea of Souls back to life, but expended a great deal in the process.
During the brief time it took Jason's Soul Ocean to recover, Ailin's Blood Blade had broken through his defenses.
While Jason was slow to react, Ailin slashed at his left wrist, but a powerful Power of Death radiated from him.
Affected by Jason's Edicts of Death, Ailin seemed to lose interest in everything, and her Blood Blade lost its edge. But only an instant later, Ailin came to her senses and brought the Blood Blade down again.
Jason used that instant to retreat swiftly, relying on the speed Lightning Flash gave him. The Blood Blade barely managed to leave a shallow wound on his left wrist, which promptly healed-ever since the Water Body Technique and the Profound Mystery of Roundness had shown signs of fusing, Jason had discovered that he could use the water element to directly repair his body.
Ailin closed in again, preparing to suppress Jason in close combat.
She was not particularly fast; close combat was Ailin's greatest strength. She used a relentless, fierce offense to keep opponents from wearing her down by maneuvering around her, and because her defense was relatively weak, she always tried to seize the initiative.
But Jason's defensive counterattacks made it hard for her to find an opening. With his current defenses and ability to recover, even a strong fighter from the second tier of Peak Saints could not break through with physical attacks alone, unless they used a soul attack to briefly rob him of the ability to resist.
Jason's Edicts of Death also had the ability of Corrosion. Though it was not very strong and could only slowly weaken the bodies and souls of nearby enemies, the corrosive Power of Death surrounding Jason was like a death warrant for Ailin, who maintained a high-intensity offense in the hope of seizing the initiative.
If she could not defeat Jason within a certain time, Ailin was sure to lose.
Rather than slide toward inevitable defeat as she was worn down, she might as well stake everything on one attempt-there was a whole group of Saints nearby, including three Saint-level light magi.
Ailin drew another slender curved blade and stopped alternating between death and destruction. Instead, she unleashed wave upon wave of Battle-qi slashes, leaving Jason struggling to defend himself for a time.
Not only were her physical attacks fierce, but Jason's Sea of Souls also came under constant assault from Ailin. His entire bright Soul Space grew dim, and even the Soul Essence his soul continually dispersed could not wash it clean.
It was foreseeable that after this battle, Jason's soul would need at least three years to return to its original state.
But Ailin's stamina was still too low. After just one minute of all-out attacks, she was nearly spent.
Suddenly, Jason dodged one of Ailin's slashes, then abruptly twisted and moved to the right.
Ailin's strength was spent and had yet to return, so she pulled back her blades and retreated, avoiding Jason's attack. But in doing so, she also lost the initiative.
Once he had opened up some distance, Jason displayed his advantage in speed.
He kept moving and attacking, exploiting the brief moments when Final Destination caused Ailin to lose focus to close in and ram her, then withdraw again.
Other Saints had taught Jason this tactic.
Many Saint-level warriors specialized in defense. When facing an enemy, the most direct approach was to push their speed to the limit and rely on their powerful defenses to ram the opponent.
Though it sounded comical, it was remarkably practical, because defense generally consumed less energy than attack. Against an enemy with strong attacks and low speed in particular, this tactic could wear them down; as long as one held out, victory would follow.
Even after falling into a disadvantage, however, Ailin could still rely on her formidable attack power to hold on with difficulty.
There was a reason the experts of the Yulan Continent divided Peak Saints into three tiers-there were absolute gaps in strength between the tiers, but when Saints of the same tier fought, it was difficult to determine a winner unless they battled to the death.
When Linley fought Haydson in the original story, both his Profound Mysteries and his Battle-qi were somewhat inferior, yet Haydson still had to fight hard to defeat him. That was with Linley being relatively slow; otherwise, even if he lost, he could have withdrawn at his leisure.
In the end, Jason and Ailin's battle lasted nearly three hours. It concluded with Jason's victory when the magic in Ailin's magicite core ran out.
"Hand it over, hand it over." Edward laughed loudly and held out his hand to Dante.
"Tch." Dante tossed a purplish-red great blade to Edward.
Many of them who had become Saints in the family's early days had met the family's Deity-level experts and received some rewards. Moreover, because the great war had just ended, the family's experts had taken the opportunity to gather many possessions left behind by Deity-level experts, leaving them with quite a few good things.
(In the original story, O'Brien admitted that he had picked up his Lowgod Spark during the chaotic battles five thousand years ago.)
Ailin flew back, feeling a little ashamed.
Dante offered a casual word of comfort. "All right, as a Saint, you'll go through many battles. Don't take winning and losing too seriously."
He offered no further comfort. As a creature from the Abyss, she had to learn to grow through battle.
After exchanging a few words, several Saints nearby called out to the people beside them, then flew up and began fighting one another.
It was rare for so many Saints to gather, and they were all itching for a fight, wanting to test the results of their cultivation over the years.
Jason closed his eyes and reflected on the battle he had just fought. Well, he had gained no insights, but then, he and Ailin had fought many times before.
"These fights are worth recording." Jason looked up at the battles overhead and took out a Floating Shadow Orb. "It's even a free-for-all with several people. That's rare."