Chapter 69: TO DRAW BLOOD

CHAPTER

69

TO DRAW BLOOD

JIEYUAN

—∞—

It worked. Jieyuan had taken Daojue by surprise.

There was no contesting that. Not when Daojue’s eyes widened. Just a fraction, sure, but this was Daojue. A slight flare of his eyes roughly translated to a gasp, a dropped jaw, and a saucer-wide stare rolled into one, by anyone else’s standards.

Problem was, this was Daojue.

Surprising him wasn’t the same as stumping him. The former was hard—the latter might as well be impossible.

The next few seconds made that crystal clear. Painfully so.

In a show of preternatural speed and instinct, without so much as a backward glance, Daojue thrust the butt of Gleaming End backward into the blade of the airborne Shifting Feather, perfectly throwing off the strike.

Without pause, Daojue followed up by driving Gleaming End forward, stopping Jieyuan’s frontal attack.

Jieyuan gritted his teeth as he and Daojue fell into another standstill, the Shifting Feather in his hands locked with Gleaming End. Even with a two-handed grip, his entire body behind it, and the weight of the Shifting Feather in his hands amplified, he barely managed to keep Daojue from disarming him a second time.

The way his attention was split didn’t help any, either. On one side there was his own body and the effort of holding Daojue at bay—on the other was the floating Shifting Feather, and the delicate, precise control required to maneuver it back into position after Daojue had thrown it aside earlier.

Soulforce’s biggest limitation was that it could only be used on something you’d bonded—which almost always meant a chromal gear—and only within the range of your soulsense. There was also a weight limit, one that rose together with your soulsign—though as long as something was within that range, you could accelerate it up to a set top speed, which also scaled with your soulsign.

Be it a boulder or a blade of grass, if you could lift it, you could accelerate it equally fast, regardless of weight. This meant you got more mileage out of your soulforce by moving heavier things. But it wasn’t all gold and gems—the closer the object’s weight was to your limit, the greater the concentration required to control it.

Jieyuan had reduced the off-hand Shifting Feather’s weight as much as possible through its prime gear-skill. That put it at only a tenth of its normal weight, so it was well within his soulforce weight limit. That was something he had Xianjun to thank for. It was his remote use of his realmskill, yesterday, that had given Jieyuan—or, rather, his subconscious—the idea.

But even then, he still had to steer the half-glaive—mentally sketch out its course and move the weapon through it until it was right back behind Daojue and ready to strike again.

But even then, he still had to consciously, deliberately guide the floating half-glaive’s movements—to imagine the exact trajectory he wanted it to follow, until it was back in the right position, just at Daojue’s back.

It was like growing a new limb and being told to duel with it half a day later. Jieyuan had gotten all the practice with soulforce he could squeeze into yesterday night and this morning—intense, nonstop practice—but there was only so much you could cram into twelve hours, even with Absolute Mind Command’s simulations.

Daojue leaned further into Gleaming End, and the pressure pressing against the Shifting Feather in Jieyuan’s hands went from overwhelming to unbearable.

Thinking fast, Jieyuan flicked his wrist, angling the half-glaive’s blade a fraction to the left, and let Daojue’s momentum do the rest.

Gleaming End shot past him, deflected to the side.

Daojue reacted instantly, reengaging. Jieyuan tightened his hold on his weapon, ignoring the flare of pain in his arms and hands as he met the blow with one of his own.

If Jieyuan had counted on his surprise attack with the other Shifting Feather succeeding—if he had been betting on Daojue failing to react in time—then he’d already be on the floor, hearing Sovereign Aoxin announce the end of the duel. He had hoped at least one of his simultaneous strikes would land, but hope and expectation were two different things. You could hope to win the lottery, but you didn’t bank on such a long shot—much less stake everything on it.

Jieyuan hadn’t intended the double-fronted attack as his finishing move. Not when Xianjun’s sneak attack yesterday had been much the same and produced no results.

No—that had just been the opening move. The setup.

In sync with Jieyuan’s movements, the hovering Shifting Feather struck at Daojue again from behind. This time, guiding it barely required thought—a trick he’d figured out yesterday, and the one that made all of this possible.

He wouldn’t have been able to move the weapon mid-fight like this otherwise—not if he wanted to do anything else with his body at the same time. But with the half-glaive in place, he could mentally link it to the one in his hands, bind his soulforce to the movement of his arms. This wasn’t a chromal technique, or anything fancy like that, but rather a mental trick he and Maeva had come up with—like a sort of self-hypnosis. And through it, he could fight while using his soulforce—no thoughts required.

Like with the first time, as though he had eyes on the back of his head—but was probably just an inhuman awareness of his soulsense—Daojue didn’t take his eyes off Jieyuan for even a second as the two attacks came at him. First he fended off the remote Shifting Feather with a precise backward thrust. Then he stabbed Gleaming End forward to intercept the other attack.

Huax—

He didn’t even get to finish the thought before Huaxin sent him a sequence.

PARRYADVANCEUPSWINGPARRY.

About three seconds, compressed into a perfectly clear instant. This time, Jieyuan had to bite back a smile as he got a glimpse of what was to come. Now they were back in familiar ground.

He threw himself into the future—already bracing himself for Daojue’s parry even as he carried out the swing, then weathering the ringing in his arm as Daojue managed to bat away both Shifting Feathers at almost the same time.

Unhindered, Jieyuan stepped into the gap he’d just opened in Daojue’s defense, the other Shifting Feather drawing closer from the opposite side, and swung his arms upward.

Across him, the other Shifting Feather swung at Daojue from behind in perfect parallel.

Each and every time so far, Daojue had always dealt with the unmanned Shifting Feather first—but this time he broke the pattern and started with the frontal attack.

That could’ve easily caught Jieyuan off-guard, made him fumble the offensive—and against someone like Daojue, that was pretty much as good as admitting defeat.

But it didn’t—because he had the future playing on his side.

Jieyuan side-stepped the counterstrike, pitching his arms to the side and angling his body out of Gleaming End’s path—before driving his half-glaive into Daojue’s side.

Daojue whirled on his feet and reoriented Gleaming End in a half-spin to catch the strike, of course.

But there was still the attack coming from the back.

The off-hand Shifting Feather burrowed into the fabric of Daojue’s robes just as Daojue jerked back, throwing himself out of the way.

Jieyuan could feel the Shifting Feather cutting a line into Daojue’s robes, but that was as far as it went—Daojue managed to move in time before it could tear skin.

But that didn’t matter—he had Daojue on the back foot.

What Huaxin did was pick the most advantageous future possible for Jieyuan. Jieyuan didn’t quite know how that worked, but that’s what it did. Earlier in the duel, Huaxin hadn’t been able to come up with any particularly good sequences—because Jieyuan himself wasn’t good enough to gain the upper hand in a fight with Daojue, no matter what he did. All it could manage was allow Jieyuan to hold on.

But now, wielding the other Shifting Feather with soulforce? Now that he could attack from two opposite directions at the same time?

Now Huaxin had a little more to work with.

Daojue’s feet had barely touched the ground again as Huaxin followed up with the next sequence.

ADVANCESTRIKEDODGETWISTTURNSTEPPARRY.

He lunged at Daojue, swinging his arms out as he moved—the other Shifting Feather likewise coming in swinging behind Daojue. And it was proof that Daojue had really been thrown off his game, because instead of ramming Gleaming End into the floating Shifting Feather like every time so far, he dodged, sharply swerving aside. And Daojue never dodged if he could help it.

Even as he dodged, Daojue came at him, thrusting Gleaming End at Jieyuan’s chest. The moment Daojue’s spear whipped out, Jieyuan ducked to the side, slipping out of the spearhead’s way, then dropped even lower, sweeping his weapon at Daojue’s midsection—the other Shifting Feather following suit from behind.

Again Daojue had no choice but to break off, retreating. Jieyuan had probably never seen something more beautiful.

And he reckoned he was about to see an even greater sight. It was time for the finisher.

“See Maeva,” he whispered.

A smidgen of chroma vanished from his soulprism. Another presence appeared in his mind. There was a shift inside him. The floating Shifting Feather twitched.

Jieyuan made sure to keep his gaze firmly fixed on Daojue.

Huaxin sent him another sequence.

And as the next few seconds flashed past him, glorious and brilliant—well, Jieyuan really couldn’t help his grin now.

Now we’re talking.

Jieyuan charged at Daojue again as the floating Shifting Feather repositioned itself. He swung at Daojue, and the other Shifting Feather swung with him, mirroring his movements. Daojue parried both attacks, then swept Gleaming End forward. Jieyuan had no choice but to meet the strike with his weapon, blocking it.

The impact almost sent Jieyuan back. Daojue looked about the same, violet eyes intent, face expressionless, but he must be pissed now.

Good.

Jieyuan had no doubt whatsoever Daojue had already figured out how exactly he was using soulforce to control his other weapon. Jieyuan hadn’t made any efforts to mask how the other Shifting Feather only attacked when he attacked, and always in the exact same way. Daojue might not have figured out the specifics of what he was doing, but he’d have long since cottoned on to the correlation.

Jieyuan broke off, jumping back—and Daojue surged at him, taking advantage of his retreat.

And that was when the other Shifting Feather blurred forward, striking at Daojue’s back—even as Jieyuan was busy retreating.

Daojue’s eyes went wide—proper wide this time, normal-person wide—and it was testament to his absurd reaction speed that he suddenly stepped out, twisting his body.

Of course, Jieyuan wasn’t about to let him. He lunged forward at the exact moment Daojue reacted—with foresight like that, hindsight had nothing on him—and struck at Gleaming End with the Shifting Feather in his hands.

His arms shook under the effort, and his footing was an absolute mess—if he had stopped his own retreat too early, Daojue might have noticed something was off, so he’d had to rush it in the very last moment. If Daojue turned on him now, he’d be done for.

But that didn’t matter, because the Shifting Feather not in his hands, having adjusted its course as Daojue twisted his body, continued on.

And struck home against Daojue’s back.

And this time around, cloth wasn’t the only thing it cut.

Jieyuan’s grin could’ve split his face in half.

The fire in him sung, roaring to the Heavens—blazing, triumphant, unstoppable.

First blood, baby.

He looked up, not at Daojue but across him—locking his eyes with Maeva’s bright blue ones.

Maeva, who stood behind Daojue, glorious in the brightgold glow, in her yellow sundress and stark white lab coat, grinning back at him.

Maeva, who had his other Shifting Feather in her hands.