Not just Lixue—even I was stunned I could draw out power like this, like a tide breaking through bone.
But heaven keeps a ledger; power comes with a blood price.
I could feel my already-thin stamina burning fast, like oil splashed on coals.
Worse, binding Shattered Light with Sword Intent chewed at my mind like winter wind.
As Xinuo warned, I had at most five minutes of Shattered Light; step past that line and someone dies, carved in frost.
So this battle had to end fast, like a blade drawn before the breath fogs.
I bit my lip to sting the fog from my head, then rushed Lixue like a streak of light.
Destruction: Sword Aura Impact!
Sword Aura, countless times stronger than before, wrapped me like a comet’s tail and hurled my speed to the limit.
In a blink I was on Lixue, like thunder leaping between clouds.
She didn’t flinch; excitement and warlust burned in her eyes like cold stars.
Snow-Moon: Phantasmal Reflections.
She neither dodged nor parried; she cast a blade art no weaker than the earlier Mirror Calm Water, calm as glass over deep water.
The sky dimmed; the world blurred, as if misted glass boxed me inside an illusion.
An illusion? Ice ran through me—not good.
My strike missed… no, not quite; as Lixue’s figure vanished, my Sword Aura grazed her like a passing gale.
A ripple opened behind me, the air wrinkling like disturbed pond-water.
Instinct took the reins; I spun and hewed upward with Shattered Light, gold blazing like a newborn sun.
Clang!!
The spillover shockwave turned the restored stretch of the Palace of Ice Crystal back into splintered ruin, frost and stone bursting like shrapnel.
As expected, the one blown back this time was Lixue, not me.
“Hah… hah… so this is Shattered Light’s power?”
Her face had gone pale; her breath came in thin threads like winter smoke.
My guess held: she could sling mighty sword arts inside the Palace without worrying about aura or energy, but bone isn’t ice and flesh has limits.
“Even my Phantasmal Reflections couldn’t block that. No point staying on the ground. All-out, then.”
Her body vanished on the last syllable, then reappeared half a heartbeat later in her home turf—the sky, wide as the sea.
Pressure pressed down even through my golden surge; Lixue in the air was a storm, not a duelist.
Only aloft could she bare her full strength; a Sword Wielder who loved aerial war and sweeping range, to my helpless dismay.
“Ready?” Her color had returned, light as dawn on snow; she spoke it, then struck before I could answer.
Too crafty. A rain of ice-blue Sword Aura fell like monsoon hail.
I dipped into a half-crouch, set Shattered Light at my hip, and drew in a flash, like lightning under a night sea.
Bang, bang, bang!!
Arc after arc of golden Sword Aura fanned upward like crescent moons; the falling blue auras popped on contact and vanished like melted frost.
Snow-Moon: Rainfall.
Seeing the arcs near her, Lixue’s expression shifted like wind on water; she tossed her twin blades into the sky.
Ice Illusion Moon hit its apex and burst into a storm of ice-blue short swords made of Sword Aura, a blizzard clawing down.
Boom!!
The golden arc finally got smothered under the countless shortswords; Ice Illusion Moon spun back into Lixue’s hand like a returning swallow.
Two moves—she needed two to erase one of mine.
I wanted to cheer, but my body was a sinking boat; dizziness swelled, strength ran like sand through fingers.
Five minutes were almost up.
When that clock ran out, forcing it meant death; letting go meant defeat.
No choice. We end it now.
I dragged in a breath sharp as ice and hurled slash after slash toward Lixue’s sky.
Sword Qi Dance!
Dozens, then hundreds of Sword Auras streaked upward; the air cracked, space itself spiderwebbing under the pressure.
Shattered Light truly was tyrannical, even a sliver of it, like a sun shard in my hand.
Lixue’s face tightened more than I’d ever seen; for the first time, solemn weight glazed her eyes like frost.
“No helping it. Looks like we’re at the end.” She murmured it, resolve flashing like steel.
Her aura surged severalfold; inside the Palace of Ice Crystal, a blizzard rose again, roaring bigger than before, burying the world in white.
Ice Moon Feather.
As with Rainfall, the sky seeded with uncountable short swords of aura—feather-shaped, silver-blue, clear as ice under moonlight.
They packed the heavens, twice the number of Rainfall, wings upon wings like a storm of knives.
Wait… this wasn’t just more. It was something else entirely.
Through Sword Intent I felt it pure and sharp: every feathered blade held the power of Laws, cold as decree.
At least Saint-level peak in ice, each blade its own executioner under winter sky.
An omen crawled up my spine like black frost.
What had always been irresistible—my golden Sword Aura—bent under that rain like reeds under flood.
Sword Qi Dance got erased in breaths; the sky of feathers had only lost half, and the rest were upon me like falling stars.
Sword Qi Storm!
I ignored the acid in my arms and spun, carving with Shattered Light like a windmill in a hurricane.
A vast tornado of golden Sword Aura blossomed around me, a dragon column grinding the incoming feathers into glittering dust.
It chewed the last blade to powder; then the tornado, riddled with holes, unraveled and blew away like torn silk.
I’d been counting since I woke Shattered Light, tick by tick like drops on stone.
About three and a half minutes had burned; less than ninety seconds remained.
My body was wrecked; even a twitch hurt; my mind flickered like a candle in wind.
Too bad—no time to care. I’d wager everything.
With FrostyLily Dream here, and for Xinuo’s sake, she’d patch me up after—she had to, like spring after winter.
Destruction: Invisible Sword!
Along Shattered Light’s blade, a colossal edge of golden Sword Aura erupted, too vast to even glean its shape, like a mountain of light.
Its violent energy made the air tremble, space shivering like water under thunder.
I didn’t hesitate. I drove that giant edge down at Lixue with everything I had.
...
