Su Zhan’s slash was extremely fast.
In Li Xingyue’s perception, it was comparable to some speed-specialized demons, perhaps even faster.
If Yan’er had possessed such swift swordplay, she might not have died on that rainy night.
Unfortunately, time was something that could never be turned back.
“Fleeting Life, array rise.”
Li Xingyue called out softly.
Facing the incoming sword, she neither dodged nor retreated.
Her right palm lifted slightly, and a pitch-black character pattern suddenly appeared in her palm.
Before anyone could see it clearly, the inky character flowed down from her palm to the ground and vanished instantly.
Immediately after, the wind howled fiercely.
The dense forest surrounding them roared as branches and leaves bent downward in all directions, as if stirred by surging waves or forcibly suppressed by brute strength.
A formation spread rapidly from beneath Li Xingyue’s feet.
In the blink of an eye, the array had covered the entire area, emitting a faint glow as spiritual energy poured out from her body.
Whoosh!
Ear-grating tearing sounds came from all around. The massive trees that required two people to embrace shook and rustled.
Under Li Xingyue’s command, they gradually bent at the waist, their branches and leaves trembling nonstop, wailing and quivering as if kneeling before a sovereign.
Su Zhan, who had already charged right in front of Li Xingyue, suddenly faltered.
A terrifyingly heavy force pressed down on her body, as if the heavens and earth themselves were trying to crush her flat.
Every inch of her body struggled in pain, forcing her to stop instead of continuing her charge.
Gravity control.
Having guarded the mountain alone for many years and fought countless battles, Li Xingyue had dealt with far too many fast demons.
While she herself couldn’t match their speed, she could forcibly equalize those demons’ speed with her own.
Once they lost their speed advantage, those demons usually couldn’t stir up much trouble.
Just like Su Zhan right now, who was already struggling just to stand in place.
“Do you still wish to continue, Junior Sister?” Li Xingyue asked softly.
She had already given one move, yet that single move was enough to show the gap in their strength.
Moreover, Li Xingyue had simply stood there motionless the entire time, without even the slightest desire to attack.
If Li Xingyue had attacked while Su Zhan was immobilized just now, Su Zhan would have already lost.
No wonder Li Xingyue said she wouldn’t use a sword.
With such high attainment in array formations, she probably had no time left to cultivate the sword.
Did she have a chance of winning? Su Zhan asked herself.
Actually, yes. Maintaining an array like this consumed a large amount of spiritual energy.
From her observation, Li Xingyue’s cultivation was similar to hers—roughly at the Nascent Soul realm. Five minutes would be enough to exhaust the spiritual energy in her body.
But how was she supposed to last those five minutes?
Su Zhan didn’t know what other methods Li Xingyue possessed.
Just this one technique was already enough to give her a headache.
However, she couldn’t simply admit defeat so easily.
“Of course.”
Su Zhan took a deep breath, straightened her back, and circulated her spiritual energy throughout her body to reduce the gravity pressing down on her.
Although she was still restricted and couldn’t move at high speed, protecting herself with spiritual energy allowed her to move normally.
Since close combat wasn’t working, she would attack from a distance.
Su Zhan narrowed her eyes, raised her hand, and hurled her natal spiritual sword at Li Xingyue with full force.
The blade, wrapped in spiritual energy, broke through the array’s restraint, spun in mid-air, and wobbled as it flew toward Li Xingyue.
But this move posed no threat at all. Li Xingyue simply shifted her body slightly and dodged it.
What was this?
A child throwing a tantrum?
Li Xingyue didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She felt like Su Zhan had completely given up.
After all, once a sword cultivator threw away her sword, she basically had no offensive options left.
“Junior Sister, are you seeing that I’m fighting bare-handed and want to compete with me in fist and foot techniques?”
Li Xingyue teased.
That was the second move.
But now that Su Zhan had thrown away her sword, did she still have any way to use a third move?
Or did this girl really want to fight her with bare hands?
Su Zhan remained silent.
She brought two fingers together, pointed them straight at Li Xingyue, and then swung them down sharply.
“Junior Sister wants to use some distant striking technique? It doesn’t seem to have worked. You might as well admit def—”
Li Xingyue chuckled, but before she could finish, her expression changed.
She instinctively sensed danger.
A sharp whistle sounded beside her ear as something broke through the gravity restraint of her array and shot toward her back with a fierce gust of wind!
She turned to look and caught a glimpse from the corner of her eye—the natal spiritual sword that Su Zhan had casually thrown earlier had somehow looped back through the air.
She quickly spun around, lightly stepped on the wooden stake beneath her, and leaped to another one using her spiritual energy.
The second and third moves had been connected—one to lower her guard, the other to launch a surprise attack while she was unprepared.
Sure enough, fighting people was much more troublesome than fighting demons.
Li Xingyue couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.
Su Zhan, however, had no idea what Li Xingyue was thinking.
She didn’t know many techniques.
Aside from movement skills and sword moves, she only had sword control techniques and various insignificant minor spells.
Among them, she had practiced sword control the most. At first, it was to fulfill her dream of flying on a sword.
Later, it was simply because she wanted to recreate the legendary Ten Thousand Swords Return to One.
However, controlling swords wasn’t as easy as she had imagined.
Forget ten thousand swords—even controlling five natal spiritual swords at once was her current limit.
And she couldn’t wield them as freely as her own arms unless she could multitask perfectly, which would eventually drive her insane.
Still, after repeated practice, Su Zhan had made some progress.
While she couldn’t achieve Ten Thousand Swords Return to One yet, she had successfully developed her own Heavenly Flying Sword.
Before Li Xingyue could catch her breath and counterattack, the natal spiritual sword twisted along a strange trajectory and shot toward her once again.
The sharp whistling as it tore through the air sounded like a snake hunting its prey.
The distance was far too close, leaving no time to form hand seals to reinforce the array.
Li Xingyue had no choice but to keep jumping between wooden stakes to dodge.
As she evaded, the speed of the flying sword grew faster and faster.
Su Zhan knew her own limits. She could see clearly that this wasn’t entirely the result of her own spiritual energy.
Rather, Li Xingyue’s gravity array was starting to show signs of instability after all the dodging.
Although she wasn’t an array cultivator, her master Lin Wan’er was an expert in the field and had often taught her how to spot the weaknesses when array cultivators cast their spells.
When an array became unstable, any external force could easily disrupt it.
Without much thought, Su Zhan took advantage of Li Xingyue’s constant evasion to close the distance herself.
Once she got close, her chances of victory would increase greatly.
After all, in terms of pure combat power, sword cultivators were ultimately stronger than array cultivators.
However, she failed to consider why Li Xingyue had been able to casually catch her sword during her initial probe, or how an auxiliary array cultivator had managed to guard the demons alone for so many years.
After another hasty dodge, not only was the gravity array faltering, but even Li Xingyue’s breathing had grown slightly unsteady.
At that exact moment, Su Zhan closed in.
Su Zhan reached out and gripped her natal spiritual sword once more.
She poured her spiritual energy into it, and the instant the gravity array collapsed, she thrust straight toward Li Xingyue’s back heart!
Did she… succeed?
Su Zhan felt a strange sense of déjà vu. She had put all her strength into the sword, yet it refused to advance even an inch.
She looked up in shock and saw that Li Xingyue had half-turned her body.
With one hand, she lightly pinched the tip of the sword, a faint smile on her face.
“Junior Sister, your three moves are up. It’s my turn now.”