CHAPTER 47: ONE MORE STRIKE

The last man looked at Yu Tian nervously.

He remembered Yu Tian’s words: "Three strikes and you’re out." From these words, he could infer that it wasn’t a slow-acting poison but rather a poison that was conditional, requiring three strikes.

He was still on his first strike, meaning he still had a chance.

Although his energy was almost over, Yu Tian wasn’t any better. He glanced at Yu Tian. From what he had seen, Yu Tian was making textbook perfect economical moves and ensuring the least use of energy - it didn’t look like he had that much energy to spare.

He could see that Yu Tian was already getting low on energy despite how hard he tried to hide it.

The man readied his sword and Yu Tian did the same. The two then charged towards each other.

This time, the man took a more defensive approach, keeping his guard high and making conservative strikes. He parried Yu Tian’s attacks with minimal energy expenditure, trying to go for a battle of attrition and avoid stacking poison strikes.

Yu Tian thought to himself that the man seemed to have figured out the secret behind the poison.

"As if," he thought.

As he was charging at the man, Yu Tian suddenly made a mistake, stepping on uneven ground and losing his balance. His body tilted awkwardly as he stumbled forward.

"This is my chance!" the man thought, abandoning his defensive stance and charging at Yu Tian.

He swung his sword upward, the force causing Yu Tian to lose grip of his weapon and sending it flying.

"Time to end this!" the man shouted triumphantly, tackling Yu Tian to the ground.

He pinned Yu Tian beneath him and raised his sword high for the killing blow, his face twisted with satisfaction.

"You fell for it," Yu Tian said calmly from beneath him.

"What?" the man asked in confusion, his sword frozen mid-strike.

"How could a martial artist stumble on uneven ground?" Yu Tian asked with a knowing smile.

"Ah-" The man’s eyes widened as he turned to look up, but it was too late. A sword descended from above, piercing clean through his back.

Yu Tian then threw the man off of him and made a hand sign. His sword came off the man’s back, flying back to his outstretched hand.

"A flying sword?" the man wondered in shock, blood trickling from his mouth. "No way... how could I not sense it?"

Yu Tian just smiled. He had improved his perception-type poison quite a bit since the first time, now it didn’t just work on spiritual sense but also qi sense. The man’s ability to detect incoming attacks had been completely compromised from the moment he’d been cut.

The man struggled to get up. He thought to himself that the attack was just shallow - since he was above Yu Tian, it seemed he had held back so as not to pierce himself in the process. He smiled maniacally.

This was just the second strike. He was still a strike away from...

Before he could complete the thought, he began coughing up blood violently and collapsed to the ground.

"Huh? Why?" he wondered, his vision growing dark.

Yu Tian swung his sword to get rid of the blood before sheathing it. "Why?" he questioned the already dead man. "Since you don’t have that much energy, there is no need for qi paralysis, and I can just jump straight to the last poison," he said matter-of-factly.

He then let out a deep exhale. It was really tiring. Now he just needed to disable the heart of the formation.

He wondered how Xueling was faring.

...

Su Jiang charged at Xueling with fury.

Xueling found herself constantly on the defensive, her sword barely keeping pace with his relentless assault.

A horizontal slash caught her across the ribs, drawing blood. She stumbled backward, gasping, but Su Jiang was already there, his blade seeking her heart. She twisted desperately, the sword grazing her shoulder instead.

Throughout it all, Xueling tried to concentrate, not even caring about the damage being dealt to her. Her mind reached desperately for that elusive feeling, that glimpse of something greater she’d experienced before.

Su Jiang attacked once again.

Xueling concentrated with everything she had. Suddenly, lights began to flicker in her vision. She could see something - it was a path. The attack materialized as a red line extending from her brother’s weapon straight to her neck.

She maneuvered around the red line, evading the attack gracefully.

Su Jiang spun around and pursued her immediately, his face twisted with frustration. This time, the line didn’t appear again, and Xueling jumped up onto a nearby tree branch.

"So close," she thought, leaping from the tree as Su Jiang sliced it down with a single strike.

She wondered what she was missing.

The battle continued in this maddening pattern. Sometimes the ability would flicker to life - she’d see the paths of attacks, the optimal routes of evasion, the perfect counters. But then it would fade, leaving her vulnerable.

When the battle instinct worked, she was untouchable, dancing between his strikes like a phantom. When it failed, she took brutal hits that left her clothing torn and blood streaming down her arms.

Su Jiang drove her back step by step, herding her toward a cluster of large rocks that would limit her mobility. His strategy was working - even when her strange ability activated, the terrain would give her fewer options.

Finally, he cornered her against the stone wall. Xueling’s back pressed against the cold rock as Su Jiang raised his sword high, gathering his qi for a final strike.

"This ends now!" he roared.

Xueling looked nervously at the incoming attack, her battle instinct nowhere to be found.

But before it could reach her, she felt her energy suddenly recovering...

"This is..." She looked at her hands, feeling her full cultivation return.

She smiled. "Yu Tian..."

She then gazed at Su Jiang with an angry expression, her aura exploding outward.

"Fuck!" he cursed, but before he could retreat, her sword had already moved.

His head flew clean off.

Xueling looked at her sword thoughtfully. In the end, she wasn’t able to completely master that feeling. Although she could activate it, it was still inconsistent. If she had another life-and-death fight like that, could she unlock it fully?

"What are you thinking about?" Yu Tian asked as he landed on a nearby tree, tossing something her way.

"Nothing," she responded, catching the throw. It was a healing pill.

"Although you’ve preserved your energy, your condition isn’t looking good. Take the pill," he said.

"What about you? You don’t look so good..." she began.

"It’s all superficial," he said, waving his hand dismissively.

"But..." she began.

"Take it now..." Yu Tian said with a serious expression.

She was startled at first, but quickly settled down and swallowed the pill. It was the first time seeing Yu Tian with such an expression - he seemed nervous. She wondered if what was coming was really that dangerous.

Yu Tian watched Xueling with a nervous expression. "Shit, we’re in big trouble," he thought, looking at the numbers before him. "Nothing has changed."