Chapter 1454 (1/2)

Huang Li’s breathing was heavy as he struggled to maintain his combat readiness. His body’s natural recovery quickly stemmed the blood spurting out of his shoulder, but he didn’t have much confidence in being able to stop the slash that would likely follow it.

Kayle’s hands were relaxed at his sides, yet someone they looked more like iron spikes and meat cleavers than human appendages. As much as he prodded and tested with his image, Li couldn’t even stir a strand of hair on his opponent’s head. That image of his ominously sliced away everything, leaving only the inviolable man.

Huang Li’s grip on his wodao tightened. He forcefully released a deep breath as Kayle took another step closer. At the very least, that strike from Kayle had completely disabused Huang Li of the idea of getting any cheap advantages by relying on the strange mechanism of Cloud-Slaying Slash. Kayle had sniffed out the trick and severed the connection between them before Li could strike, casually wounding him in the process.

Still, the wound helped settled Huang Li’s frayed nerves. No matter what else, he had made it to this round; this was enough to prove the power of Zone 7. He didn’t feel confident in winning against this opponent, but something in his heart shifted now that he accomplished that goal; his spirit could relax and simply meet the threat in front of him.

Huang Li felt confident that the millions of practice slashes and stabs he had done with this sword weren’t meaningless. Even here, at this high stage, the accumulation was significant. So when Kayle took his next step forward, Huang Li moved forward to meet him.

The wind gathered around Li’s feet and accelerated his advance. Around the arena, the chaotic flows of air rushed around like a messy confluence of rivers. Meanwhile, that horrifically sharp smile on Kayle’s face curved upward as he adjusted his speed to meet Li.

As Li and Kayle closed the distance between them, the other half of the stage was filled with repeated explosions. Huang Shou was throwing up carefully arranged formations in order to slow down Paolo’s advance, but the man threw knife-punch after knife-punch forward and shattered all of the hasty preparations without breaking a sweat. Still, Li couldn’t spare much attention to helping his adoptive grandfather. I hope you understand the risk you are taking, grandfather. Good luck.

I sense we will need it, on this day.

Huang Li slashed his weapon diagonally upward and Kayle calmly leaned back to avoid the strike. Hoping for his foe’s balance to be off, Huang Li twisted his sword midair as soon as it was clear the slash would miss and stabbed downward toward the other man’s thigh. If he could damage Kayle’s mobility-

But of course, Kayle spun away with his usual poise. His hand flicked out, almost delicately as he twisted around. Li grimaced and brought his sword upward to block. The invisible blade of air smashed into Li’s defense and forced him a few steps backward. Kayle lowered himself and rushed forward.

You even use wind blades against me…? Such… Huang Li wanted to accuse his opponent of arrogance as he swirled his flood dragon image even more violently around himself, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. That brief clash demonstrated that Kayle had more than enough reason to believe himself capable of challenging Li to a battle of wind.

The cloud blade had pushed him back. In terms of the potency of their Skills, it was clear that Kayle had a decisive advantage.

Kayle’s long-fingered hands flicked out several more times as he threw invisible cuts toward Li. For his part, Li gave up on any pretense of offense and settled his stance as best he could in order to just survive. His blade flowed reliably through the precise sword forms taught to him by the Huang Family, but his expression stiffened as he felt the small adjustments that Kayle kept making to his attacks.

More than the power, what filled Huang Li with apprehension was the delicacy and deftness with which Kayle struck. Li was forced to pull more and more deeply from the surrounding wind in order to keep up; he couldn’t give the wind even time to build itself up further, considering Kayle’s implacable strikes.

Congratulations! Your Skill Great Sky’s Embrace (R) has grown to Level 202!

If not with Skills… then with image...

Li was forced continually to retreat backward, his grip on his wo dao trembling as he practically shoved away Kayle’s strikes. As his image spread to the surrounding area, Huang Li felt his limbs trembling less and less from blocking his foe’s wind blades. Li was even able to unleash a few, counterattacks and achieved a reassuring rhythm in his movements. But the problem was Kayle was growing stronger just as quickly, if not a little bit more so.

“You’ve studied me.” Huang Li said as the realization hit him, feeling strangely honored and indignant in his heart.

The only answer that Kayle provided was an impossibly sharp palm attack aimed at Huang Li’s heart. Pursing his lips, Li prepared for the next stage of the fight.

“Dragon’s Dance-”

“Domain: Blade Halo.”

Just as Huang Li shot quickly backward with the sudden increase in mobility due to his Skill, Kayle crossed his arms and manifested a swirling circle of blades around them. Gritting his teeth, Li pushing his roaring dragon through his Skill with more violence than he ever had in the past. His body became slightly insubstantial. As long as he remained within the halo, he would need to be near perfect to survive-

But rather than pounce, Kayle paused. His brow furrowed and there was a strange second of stillness from him.

Huang Li passed through the edge of the halo and landed onto the ground. He adjusted his stance and lowered his wo dao, slightly bewildered. But then he saw that all the hanging blades of Kayle’s Skill shimmer and then transform into hands.

Li was dumbfounded. This was a legitimate Skill. And somehow, Kayle had adjusted its shape on the fly. “Are you kidding me?”

Can this really be done with just an image…? Huang Li wondered.

“I’m a man of my word,” Kayle responded. Then he rushed forward, that Domain of palms spinning and swirling outward to surround Huang Li.

But with the few seconds of a break, Li had regained his balance and connected with the air swirling around the whole of the arena. That forceful usage of his image boosted his physical performance to a point that he had never experienced in the past. His wo dao drifted downward and then he exploded forward to meet the palms directly.