558: Chapter 558 Zhou Yan vs. Ma Hao

Ma Hao, dressed in black tight-fitting clothes, and Zhou Yan, in the form of Feng Xu, attacked almost simultaneously after their eyes met.

Feng Xu vs. Ma Hao (Reference Image)

The Wooden Sword and the longsword collided, and Sword Qi overflowed like an electric current. The repelled Sword Qi continuously bombarded the ground, shrouding the ice field in a layer of icy mist.

But as soon as the icy mist rose, it was swept away by the Sword Qi, repeating in a cycle as new mist rose again.

One green and one black figure fought for a long time within the icy mist, battling all the way from the ice mountain to its foot.

In their final exchange of slashes, Ma Hao used a sophisticated Sword Technique to turn a swing into a parry, blocking Zhou Yan's slash, then used the reaction force to turn the parry into a thrust, aiming straight for Zhou Yan's heart.

However, Zhou Yan turned with the momentum, placing the parried sword against his back and bending slightly, using the blade to block the thrust.

Seeing his attempt fail, Ma Hao retreated several yards to create distance.

"I really didn't expect that you, who have never shown sword skills before, would possess such sophisticated Sword Techniques; this isn't something that comes with the teacher."

Ma Hao's eyes were full of vigilance, while Zhou Yan became more relaxed and at ease.

Sword Heart was equipment, and Sword Techniques were special skills; these were all good things contributed by Long Tianxing.

Even though Zhou Yan was wearing the skin of Feng Xu, he could use them with ease, becoming more courageous as the battle progressed.

Zhou Yan knew that since this guy dared to fight him alone while he possessed Feng Xu's power, he definitely had something to rely on to win, possibly including that Great Crucifix in the sky.

Otherwise, Ma Hao wouldn't have failed to call Li Heng.

So Zhou Yan wasn't as relaxed as he appeared; without knowing the opponent's trump cards, he could only stall and counter each move as it came.

Until Ma Hao could no longer sit still, or... his own backup arrived.

Ma Hao saw the opportunity and unexpectedly drew a longbow, firing three arrows.

Looking at the three arrows flying toward him, Zhou Yan prepared to block them with his Wooden Sword, but the arrow that was fired first suddenly appeared at the very end, while the last arrow appeared at the very front.

This parrying error allowed one arrow to quickly strike Zhou Yan's shoulder; after quickly blocking the subsequent two arrows, Zhou Yan was about to pull out the arrow stuck in his shoulder, but he grabbed nothing.

"It's not over yet!"

Ma Hao appeared in front of Zhou Yan again—it was that familiar segmented time jump.

Zhou Yan was about to use Feng Xu's Law of Time to cancel out the opponent's Law and make his jump fail.

But his shoulder suddenly lost strength, and the Law of Time was interfered with, failing to activate.

Helplessly, Zhou Yan could only temporarily switch to Unstained Dust for parrying.

But Ma Hao seemed to have anticipated this, swinging his sword horizontally to strike Unstained Dust; the blade indeed reversed direction, making Ma Hao spin in place, but Ma Hao used the momentum to accelerate his arm, swinging it in a wide arc to smash into Zhou Yan's shoulder where the arrow was lodged, violently driving the arrow deep into Zhou Yan's arm.

Everything happened so quickly, in the blink of an eye, that Zhou Yan didn't even have time to react before the arrow vanished.

But Zhou Yan still deployed a Wind Net to envelop the area, preparing to tear Ma Hao into pieces.

With a series of crackling sounds, chunks of flesh and blood fell to the ground; Ma Hao died on the spot.

But in an instant, he restored himself to his original state, though his face grew slightly paler.

He immediately closed in again, clashing Sword Techniques once more.

The two clashed again; Zhou Yan still held the upper hand, but he could no longer maintain his composure.

Just now, after that arrow quickly sank into his body, Zhou Yan understood its purpose.

Anchor Time—this must be one of the few Magic Treasures Ma Hao took away back then.

Now Zhou Yan's time was anchored, making the time around him incredibly stable, and the Law of Time difficult to mobilize.

However, Zhou Yan was somewhat confused about why he did this; for instance, when Ma Hao used time acceleration to jump just now, he didn't directly rush up and punch him like in their last meeting.

Instead, he accelerated to his front, stopped, and used the reaction force of Unstained Dust to give him another blow.

This indicated that Ma Hao was also affected by the arrow and could not use the Law of Time around him.

He had specifically started with Sword Techniques just now, likely to test his close-combat strength; but knowing he was no match, why did he do it? What was his goal?

Realizing Ma Hao was definitely up to something bad, Zhou Yan decisively used Unstained Dust to force a Triple Parry, pushing through Ma Hao's offensive to create an opening.

Then, using the Law of Wind combined with a Space Jump, he fled to a great distance.

Standing on a small ice pillar, Zhou Yan used his Divine Sense to feel Ma Hao's figure rapidly approaching from afar.

Zhou Yan took a deep breath, a golden bow manifesting in his hand, while yuanwu xielü also appeared sitting cross-legged behind him.

He had been caught off guard by a trick at the start; now he had to use some of his trump cards to regain the advantage.

Since the opponent had first disabled the Law of Time, he wanted to see how Ma Hao would stop his kite-flying tactics without being able to accelerate through the Law of Time.

yuanwu xielü acted like tentacles, turning into branches that quickly wrapped around Zhou Yan, forming a suit of armor.

Then, several arms made of branches grew from his back.

Zhou Yan pulled the bowstring rapidly, as if playing a zither with multiple arms, reaching extreme speeds under the enhancement of the suihua heavenly record.

This was the benefit of stable time; in this situation, Zhou Yan could recklessly use time acceleration because Ma Hao only knew the Law of Time and couldn't disrupt the surrounding environment at all.

Thus, overwhelming Silver Bullets mixed with various attributes surged toward Ma Hao.

Ma Hao was also shocked to see these Silver Bullets and instinctively wanted to dodge, but they seemed to have eyes, following him closely.

Not until the first one hit him and exploded, releasing powerful energy, did the other Silver Bullets catch up and bombard Ma Hao.

Watching Ma Hao's rapidly decreasing health bar and the closing distance, Zhou Yan curled his lips and directly used acceleration to retreat quickly.

Although the distance between them was still closing, this undoubtedly wore Ma Hao down further.

By the time Ma Hao approached Zhou Yan again, he was in a wretched state, with only three-fifths of his health bar remaining, indicating he had sustained significant injuries.

Zhou Yan knew this wasn't very effective, as the other would use the Law of Time to backtrack, but Ma Hao's condition didn't look like he could use it many more times.

So next, it would be a matter of who could outlast the other.

Ma Hao caught up again, with the same flash of movement and unstoppable power, swinging his sword once more.

Zhou Yan blocked it with Unstained Dust as usual, preparing to use the same trick to escape with a Sword Technique.

But at that moment, the longsword suddenly changed, transforming from ancient and simple to brand new, and an invisible force was released from it.

Zhou Yan's heart instantly leaped into his throat.

"Unstained Dust actually failed?"

This sword was no longer restricted by the flow of direction; it broke convention and thrust upward against the powerful influence of the Law.

Zhou Yan's expression tightened, and he twisted his waist as much as possible to dodge the strike while staring straight at Ma Hao; as their eyes met, he suddenly activated the Golden Eyes of Delusion Breaking.

This enhanced power directly struck Ma Hao's Sea of Consciousness, causing him to fall into a brief state of daze.

Zhou Yan acted quickly, putting away the golden bow and manipulating yuanwu xielü to turn his gauntlet into a Chainsaw, violently sawing off Ma Hao's hand that held the sword.

With the longsword in his possession, a heavy kick infused with the Law of Wind struck Ma Hao's face, sending him flying backward.

Zhou Yan took the opportunity to put the longsword and the severed hand into his inventory, fleeing once more into the distance.

Again, he drew his bow and fired arrows.

Although he now held the upper hand throughout, Zhou Yan felt an increasing sense of urgency.

That last sword strike had ultimately grazed Zhou Yan's side, and Unstained Dust had been rendered useless; now, every time Zhou Yan activated it, air would leak from the wound on his side, losing its original defensive effect.

As long as it was active, even attacks that would have missed might be guided toward his side by Unstained Dust.

This was trouble; this guy could precisely target him with every move, while he could only barely suppress him.

Looking at the opponent's nearly empty health bar, Zhou Yan couldn't help but feel nervous.

At this rate, the expiration of the Feng Xu silhouette would likely come sooner than Ma Hao's next death reversal.

"I have to take the initiative!"

The brilliant golden eyes grew even brighter; as Ma Hao was about to approach again, Zhou Yan abandoned the golden bow.