52: Chapter 52 Now, a sword is at your throat!

[A cold glint flashes in your eyes; this is your chance to turn the tables.]

[The thirty-seventh move.]

[You suddenly abandon your defense, thrusting your longsword straight at Wei Feisen's face, while simultaneously lunging forward, offering your own chest to his blade.]

[Wei Feisen's pupils contract, his right hand instinctively pulling back his blade.]

[Taking advantage of this gap, your sword tip grazes his left arm.]

[Fresh blood splatters.]

["Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" Wei Feisen roars.]

[You ignore him and launch another attack.]

[The same tactic: trading injury for injury, life for life.]

[Every sword strike leaves no room for retreat, every palm strike is a suicidal move; you point your sword at him while leaving your own defenses wide open.]

[Wei Feisen is forced to retreat several steps, but he is not stupid; knowing this is not a solution, he immediately becomes serious.]

[Soon, your shoulder is struck by a blade.]

[Blood seeps through your white clothes, quickly staining half of your sleeve red.]

[Your blood drips onto the ground, mixing with the blood flowing from the wound on Wei Feisen's arm.]

[Wei Feisen's breathing becomes rapid.]

["Enough!" With a horizontal sweep of his blade, the resulting wave of True Qi forces you back. "If you keep fighting like this, I really won't hold back!"]

[You spit out the blood in your mouth.]

["Then make your move."]

[You do not dodge this strike.]

[You actively move to meet his blade. Since his momentum is already committed, he cannot pull it back. The blade grazes your left arm, slicing through your sleeve as blood splatters.]

[At the same time, your sword thrusts toward his chest.]

[Wei Feisen's expression darkens completely.]

["Do you really think I dare not fight with full force?"]

["Then make your move," you say.]

[Your voice is calm, your sword tip unwavering.]

[On the fifteenth move, you abandon defense once more. The final move of the Frost Moon Sword Technique—Moon Sever—carries all your True Qi as you thrust directly at his heart. Wei Feisen is forced to raise his blade to block, holding it horizontally across his chest. Two streams of True Qi explode at the point of contact, the shockwave overturning stone slabs within a three-zhang radius.]

[You are repelled six steps.]

[He is repelled three steps.]

[The gap is obvious.]

[Wei Feisen's gaze turns cold—the kind of cold like having a basin of water poured over you from head to toe.]

["Since you won't listen..."]

[His blade momentum suddenly changes.]

[True Qi pours into the blade, and the black blade glow expands by three feet, carrying the full pressure of a Great Grandmaster Middle Stage, no longer holding back, no longer diverting.]

[He slashes horizontally, the wave of force like a mountain.]

[You are forced to raise your sword to block. With a clang, the webbing between your thumb and forefinger splits, and your longsword nearly slips from your grip. The second strike follows immediately, hacking down onto your sword. Your arms go numb, your knees buckle, and the stone slabs beneath your feet shatter upon impact. For the third strike, he ultimately holds back; the blade grazes your cheek, cutting off a few strands of hair without harming the skin.]

[However, the wind from the blade cuts a spider-web-thin line of blood on your cheek.]

[You are forced back to the stone pillars of the mountain gate.]

[The wounds on your body are still bleeding, and your white clothes have turned a mix of red and white. The consumption of True Qi makes your internal organs ache faintly—he is right; you have just reached the Great Grandmaster Early Stage, and your True Qi is unstable; you simply cannot withstand a war of attrition of this intensity.]

[If this continues, you will be exhausted in less than thirty moves.]

[Wei Feisen approaches with his blade, step by step, very slowly.]

["One last time." His voice returns to that gentle tone, but beneath the gentleness lies a layer of thin ice—shatter it, and you fall into an abyss.]

["Put down the sword."]

[You look at him.]

[You smile slightly.]

["No."]

[You sheathe your sword, then close your eyes.]

[In your mind, the inner Void Realm constructed by the Taixu Visualization Method begins to tremble. You actively compress the phantom image formed by your visualization toward the core of your inner vision. This is a self-destructive method of operation; the moment the phantom collapses, all the True Qi stored in the Void Realm is released at once.]

[You once saw a record of this usage in a fragment of a manual in the Martial Repository.]

[There was only one sentence.]

["Forcibly collapsing the martial arts phantom can grant temporary power, but the Dantian will inevitably crack, leaving no hope for further progress. A second use will cause the Dantian to collapse and destroy both body and soul."]

[Burning Essence.]

[A tearing pain radiates from your Dantian.]

[One crack, two, three.]

[Blood gushes from your seven orifices simultaneously: eyes, nose, ears, and mouth.]

[Your True Qi compresses, compresses, and compresses again, turning from a liquid state into a nearly solid point of light, which then explodes within your Dantian.]

[Power far exceeding the Great Grandmaster Early Stage surges out from your body.]

[Wei Feisen's pupils contract sharply.]

[He feels it—that Aura is no longer within the scope of the Great Grandmaster Early Stage; it is approaching the Middle Stage, and for a fleeting moment, it even touches the edge of the Great Grandmaster Late Stage.]

["You're crazy!" he roars.]

[For a moment, Wei Feisen is bewildered; which one of you is the real lunatic?]

[You do not answer.]

[Mountain-Shattering Palm, Collapse!]

[Your figure vanishes from where you stand.]

[The next moment, you appear before Wei Feisen.]

[Close enough that his blade cannot be brought across, close enough that his True Qi cannot coalesce.]

[Your palm presses against his chest.]

[All your power pours out.]

[Boom—!]

[True Qi at the level of the Great Grandmaster Late Stage, carrying the unique meridian-shaking power of the Mountain-Shattering Palm, penetrates his protective True Qi and slams directly into his Meridians.]

[Bang.]

[Wei Feisen's body is pushed away as if by an invisible giant hand, flying backward.]

[His mouth opens, and a mouthful of blood spews out.]

[He forcefully twists his body in mid-air, thrusts his blade into the ground, and drags his feet to leave two deep furrows before barely managing to stand.]

[But the circulation of his True Qi is already in chaos.]

[The effect of the Mountain-Shattering Palm—disrupting Meridians and throwing True Qi into disorder.]

[He tries to regulate his breathing, but the True Qi within him is like muddied water, clashing against itself, making his complexion shift between pale and green.]

[You do not give him a chance to catch his breath.]

[You step forward and thrust your longsword.]

[Wei Feisen raises his blade to block, but the strength in his arm is only sixty percent of his usual, and your sword knocks it aside.]

[Your sword tip presses against his throat.]

[The blade rests against his skin, in the exact same spot where you had held it to your own throat just moments ago.]

[Wei Feisen, pinned by you, looks up; his face is covered in blood, yet there is no fear in his eyes.]

[He looks at you and suddenly smiles again.]

["As expected of my Wanwan." His voice is slurred, the foam of blood at the corners of his mouth stretching with his smile. "How ruthless, what a cold-hearted person..."]

[You do not speak, but out of Wei Feisen's line of sight, your bloodshot eyes are filled with excitement. It is not just about having lived through three lifetimes; you have finally, for the first time, completely broken free from this lunatic Wei Feisen. Most importantly, you are certain that he definitely knows something about Immortal Cultivators.]

[Five miles away, the Black Tiger Gang's party senses the disturbance here.]

[The two Great Grandmaster Late Stage Protectors simultaneously spring into action, their figures turning into two afterimages as they dash toward the mountain gate.]

["Gang Leader—!"]

["Release the Gang Leader! Otherwise, all of us in the Black Tiger Gang will raze the Cangyun Sect to the ground!"]

[Two oppressive Auras crush over from the distance; the ancient pines on both sides of the stone steps are bent by the wind of their True Qi, their needles falling with a rustle.]

[You press the blade a fraction closer.]

[A drop of blood seeps from Wei Feisen's throat.]

[The two Protectors come to a sudden halt.]

[And further back, behind them, that Black-robed man still does not move.]