The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 636 Moment, Tsubasa

You Zi'ang dared not turn back.

Although he longed to look back, he knew that the moment he turned around and lost focus, the old Taoist would cleave him in two with a single sword strike, and Mei Qinghe would be attacked from both sides.

Mei Qinghe has not yet fallen.

When faced with life and death, one must suppress all emotions in order to have a chance of survival.

"Can we still fight?"

he asks.

"It's out of the way."

Mei Qinghe's calm reply came from behind, as if she wasn't the one who had lost an arm. She didn't activate her healing techniques to regenerate flesh and heal the wound, but instead let the bowl-sized wound on her severed arm be exposed, constantly dripping blood.

Within moments, her face turned deathly pale.

You Zi'ang's expression changed.

"You know... no."

Mei Qinghe answered calmly.

"Only in this way."

"But I don't deserve it—"

"Only in this way."

The two exchanged a few words in a murky manner, seemingly debating for only a very brief time.

The alien swordsman frowned.

"You guys...you're not talking about how to escape, are you?"

He smiled disdainfully and touched Mei Qinghe's severed arm with the tip of his sword.

"Wasn't that sword strike just now enough to show you the difference between us?"

He made a casual sarcastic remark out of arrogance, but unexpectedly someone actually answered him.

"See clearly."

Mei Qinghe raised her pale face and said.

"I can see it very clearly."

"In swordsmanship, I am far inferior to you."

"In terms of skill level, I'm a whole step behind you."

"In terms of weaponry, your sword is far superior to mine."

"Even if I am in perfect condition, hone my swordsmanship for months, and then fight you in my best form, you will still easily defeat me—what is your Xuanlan?"

The alien swordsman was quite surprised.

He glanced at Mei Qinghe's wound. With this amount of bleeding, Mei Qinghe's vital energy would be depleted in less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. At that point, let alone fighting, she would even have difficulty staying conscious. He didn't understand why Mei Qinghe didn't take the opportunity to heal her wounds... but it was clear that chatting a little longer would only give him an advantage.

Moreover, Mei Qinghe's question did indeed hit the nail on the head.

So he said with a smile.

"What, trying to extract information and devise a countermeasure?"

"It doesn't matter—my profound and wondrous observation is called [Moment]."

"The effect? ​​It's very simple."

He twirled his sword with one hand and said.

"My Xuanlan is connected to Jizhao, haven't heard of it?"

“I can create illusions for myself, but these illusions are the real situation. The speed of mental evolution is much faster than that of true qi and the hands and feet, so in the illusions that I see and that are exactly the same as reality, everything is twice as slow.”

Mei Qinghe exhaled slowly.

"I see."

The alien swordsman severed her arm with three swords.

He thrust his sword straight at her, drawing her to parry. But just before they met, he abruptly changed his move, striking her at the weakest point on her sword with unparalleled precision from an odd angle, and then severed her arm with a single blow.

It sounds simple, but it reveals a huge gap in the two people's swordsmanship.

This chasm shouldn't have existed... Both were celestial swordsmen, their realms differing by only one level. While their accumulated experience might differ, their swordsmanship shouldn't be so clearly superior. Now she understood; their swordsmanship might be roughly equal, but in the eyes of the alien swordsman, her sword was half as slow.

If you're half as slow, you'll have twice as many openings.

In a sword fight where every second counts, this is enough to raise the probability of defeat to a hopeless level.

This is the most suitable mystical and wondrous realm for swordsmen.

Among swordsmen of the same level, none can rival the swordsmanship of a swordsman from another race.

Seeing Mei Qinghe deep in thought, the alien swordsman remained silent, waiting quietly until he finally spoke.

"You're bleeding almost dry."

"Are you trying to commit suicide?" He scoffed.

"I thought you could cheer me up, but you're just a woman after all. Once you see the difference in skill, you've lost all will to fight? As expected, you spineless cowards from the Central Plains are utterly unworthy of this fertile land, and you're not even worthy of being a swordsman—what are you doing!?"

His voice suddenly rose at the end.

Just as he was speaking, Mei Qinghe suddenly drew her sword and slashed it hard at her shoulder, which was beginning to stop bleeding. The blow was so fierce that it even scraped off a layer of flesh from her side ribs below her shoulder—and she didn't even blink.

Hearing his words, she even calmly said something.

"My blood is almost gone, so I want it to flow faster."

What words is this!

What do you mean by wanting it to flow faster?
If you kill yourself first, I'll never be able to kill you, right?

The alien swordsman's expression twisted for a moment, thinking to himself, "Has this woman gone mad from practicing swordsmanship?"

Then he heard Mei Qinghe say something.

"You're right, I am committing suicide."

As Mei Qinghe spoke, she reversed the tip of her sword and stabbed herself in the abdomen again!
Without holding back at all, the longsword pierced right through her!

Even the old Wudang Taoist priest, who had been frowning all along, turned cold.

By now, even the most oblivious person should realize that Mei Qinghe's actions are suspicious.

Since something seems amiss, we can't let her continue.

Swish!
In the blink of an eye, the two men advanced and attacked from both sides.

"I'll hold you off for three breaths! Watch out!"

You Zi'ang flashed forward, his figure transforming into several afterimages as he surrounded the old Taoist priest.

His skill level is insufficient, but in terms of lightness skill and talent, there are fewer than five people in the world who can surpass him!
The old Taoist's eyes flashed, and he was about to step forward again, raising his sword to strike Mei Qinghe.

He couldn't tell where You Ziang was, but You Ziang couldn't break through his external martial arts either. This all-around gap in their levels of skill couldn't be made up for by so-called lightness skills. But as soon as he took a step, his heart tightened suddenly!
A sudden chill ran down his back; it was an instinct he had developed from countless life-or-death struggles, a warning that danger was imminent!

The old Taoist priest turned sideways and then struck with a palm!
clang!
He stopped a dagger that had silently pierced through his clothes in the back.

The blade tip was a deep blue; You Zi'ang's attack missed, and he immediately vanished into a blur.

"You damned old man, come and bite your father's ass!"

A mocking voice came from the afterimage.

The old Taoist priest was naturally not angry about this, but instead calmly said...

"The Xu Lady Sword, the imperial court has even collected this ancient sword."

"With your lightness skill, you are indeed enough to hold me off for three breaths!"

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly raised his sleeve and swept it horizontally, unleashing a torrent of powerful true energy that sent countless fragments of stone flying like arrows, shattering most of You Zi'ang's scattered afterimages. Then, several more sweeping attacks pierced through the remaining few afterimages.

"found it."

The old Taoist snorted coldly, stepped forward, and with a single palm thrust from his sleeve, a pure and exquisite Tai Chi move, "Grasp the Sparrow's Tail," swept upwards, pulling You Zi'ang out from a blur of afterimages.

Meanwhile, behind him.

Clang clang clang clang clang—Bang!

With another sticky sound, the alien swordsman pierced Mei Qinghe's thigh with his sword, then drew it and raised it above his head, bringing it down with a powerful split. Mei Qinghe managed to raise her sword to block it, but due to exhaustion and severe injuries, her legs gave way and she fell to the ground on one knee.

The alien swordsman suddenly pressed down on his longsword, the blade slowly approaching Mei Qinghe's neck.

Mei Qinghe has been self-harming ever since we met, and her strange behavior is already quite obvious.

He didn't want to know the truth behind Mei Qinghe's scheme; only the dead don't resort to tricks. Although he felt it was a pity to kill such a good opponent, he wouldn't actually hold back because he underestimated his enemy—this was the most basic common sense for a swordsman.

creak creak-

The two longswords locked in a stalemate, gradually approaching Mei Qinghe's neck and slicing into her flesh.

The skin and flesh on both sides of the wound were rolled up and pale, with only a drop of blood flowing out, as if Mei Qinghe's body had completely run out of blood, and this was her last drop of blood.

But it was with the flow of that drop of blood.

The alien swordsman suddenly heard Mei Qinghe's voice.

Perhaps it was just his imagination... but he instinctively felt that Mei Qinghe's voice was more refined and sharper than before, as if it had lost all human emotions and transformed into a sharp sword that could only spit out cold light.

He heard Mei Qinghe say.

"【Edge bone】".

“You told me about your Xuanlan, so I will tell you mine as well.”

"This name was given to me by the commander, but I never knew the true purpose of this magical art—none of my colleagues told me. Now I know why. I understood when you severed my left arm."

She raised her head, her face completely bloodless.

"I have a sword, with bone as its edge and death as its sharpness."

"Please taste it."

(End of this chapter)