Lan Xiaohui suddenly straightens, her movements unnatural. Wu Yulan mirrors Lan Xiaohui’s motion, bracing her sword against the palm of her hand.

Lan Xiaohui leans forward, bending her knees slightly. Electrical sparks of purple-gold lightning form around her as she suddenly launches forward with explosive power.

Wu Yulan disappears, reappearing in the middle of the island in a burst of Qi so thick it appears like snow falling from the edge of her sword.

[ Transient Sword:

< All is transient; all is finite. Where there is one; there are none. Where there are none; there are all. >

Martial Art inheritance of the Ancient Sky Dragon Empire.

First layer is suitable for Core Formation realm cultivators.

Efficiency bonus: 18% (Due to similarity with [Fractured Sword])

Current efficiency: 41% ]

When the two meet in the middle of the island, a great explosion of energy occurs that blows away the glowing motes of enlightenment, forming two jets of energy — one black and red, the other white and blue. Tongues of lightning spark from my vessel, striking into the snow falling off Wu Yulan’s sword; at the point where our vessels touch the metal glows with an orange hue, and a loud hissing sound is produced by the water vapor transforming into mist.

When the forces balance, the recoil follows pushing the two away from each other all the way to the edge of the island. The remnants of the two jets of energy fall around them like petals of black and white flowers, disappearing before they touch the ground.

The rocks pulse again in the brief moment of stillness.

In their trance-like state, their hearts burn with the desire to meet each other time and time again; to cross their swords as many times as there are stars in the sky. This burning desire may not entirely be an effect of their enlightenment, because even in this state their expressions are of elation and joy. Even if one of them should break because of this, they both desire for their swords to sing their orchestra of mayhem guided by their conductor of enlightenment.

Wu Yulan flips her sword so that it points to the ground and then drops it.

“Transient Sword,” Wu Yulan whispers. “Law of Emergence.”

When her cyan and white sword strikes the ground it crumbles into thousands of snowflakes that scatter about the area.

Lan Xiaohui, also guided by the mysterious principles of this proto-formation, raises my vessel until my vessel touches one of the currents of Qi that I detected earlier and my form slowly unravels into multitudes of black and red flower petals.

“Transient Sword,” my owner says. “Law of Transience.”

At the same time as my vessel disappears, my consciousness expands to several times its original size. With my absolute perception, I cannot detect my vessel, but instead feel as though I exist in all places at once — like I’ve become a collapsing wave of quantum probability.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

This [Transient Sword] is such a mysterious and profound martial art. The supreme sword embraces its own transience to smear itself across the axis of time and space and exist everywhere all at once — Where there is one; there are none. Where there are none; there are all.

I detect it then — countless copies of Wu Yulan’s sword reflected in each snowflake; I observe the same effect with my own vessel, albeit with far greater morbid curiosity.

I suppress all sub-threads that question which is the original, and if this means that my original body has been annihilated.

Sword cultivators do not care about such things.

But how can they use such techniques — they have not yet formed a Gold Core. Is it because of the formation — this so-called guidance of a supreme being?

It is fascinating.

Could it be that these rocks and lakes have captured the phenomena and now, using these two cultivators, are recreating the techniques of a supreme martial art?

Under the influence of her state of enlightenment, Lan Xiaohui gives herself to the currents of Qi. She leans forward once more, and though this is still [Vanishing Moon Steps] the infusion of lightning Qi transforms the technique into an order greater than what it was before.

She launches forward and up, and in order for her to climb into the air, my vessel appears beneath her feet like a platform for her to walk on. Each copy of my vessel crumbles into black and red flower petals soon after my owner steps on them, but without a doubt, several of them exist at the same time for brief periods of time.

Wu Yulan narrows her eyes as she follows Lan Xiaohui with her gaze and I only sense a slight distortion in the air, followed by the deathly cold of Wu Yulan’s sword. There is no warning and no other indication of the impending attack from Wu Yulan’s invisible sword — striking from dozens of steps away.

However, Lan Xiaohui can feel it — her instinct is able to detect it even in these circumstances where I cannot sense anything.

She lashes out with the back of her hand at the air, just as Wu Yulan’s sword emerges from the air, and knocks it away. The sword spins end over end several times before bursting into more particles of snow-like energy.

A bright red droplet of blood dislodges from a tiny cut against Lan Xiaohui’s hand — demonstrating just how dangerous that sword is if it is able to cut Lan Xiaohui’s skin, which is already very difficult to cut.

Where her blood droplet lands on the island, a black and red lily grows and blooms.

Dozens more slashes follow that one, all happening in the span of a second; my vessel flashes into existence briefly, in different positions around Lan Xiaohui’s body, intercepting each invisible sword, and creating a cascade of sparks to fall around my owner.

Lan Xiaohui flips in mid-air just as another copy of my vessel appears below her feet and arrests her drift, stopping her in place. Lan Xiaohui angles herself toward Wu Yulan and crouches, gathering the power in her legs.

Wu Yulan lowers her center of gravity, assuming a sword-drawing stance.

A pulse of energy expands from Lan Xiaohui as she launches forward, reaching over her left shoulder to grasp my hilt and pull me out of the air.

At the same time, Wu Yulan draws her own sword and slashes out at the approaching lightning bolt that is Lan Xiaohui, and a spire of ice forms and rises in the wake of Wu Yulan’s sword.

Mist explodes into the area as my vessel, crawling with lightning energy and sword Qi cuts through the ice spire and blows it apart.

It happens in a flash. Lan Xiaohui goes straight through the ice spire, knocked slightly off course by the collision and even cleaving off a large section of the island, the crumbling debris all falling into the lake below.

A thin cut appears on Wu Yulan’s cheek as her eyes widen — not in fear; in excitement.

Her heart wavers on the edge of fear and joy simultaneously. She could not even see Lan Xiaohui’s [Sundrinker Blade]. It happened too fast.

Slowly, Wu Yulan turns to regard Lan Xiaohui, standing on the surface of the lake below.

Their gazes meet, still burning with the same unquenchable desire to cross swords.

Then, Wu Yulan jumps off the edge, plummeting towards Lan Xiaohui, holding her sword high above her head.