Two late stage foxes, eight mid stage foxes, and another eight early stage foxes appear before Lan Xiaohui, and this time, Lan Xiaohui does not give up the initiative.
In the true fashion of sword cultivators, Lan Xiaohui makes a mistake only once. In the end, the path of a sword cultivator is the act of sharpening their swords until it becomes a supreme existence.
The moment the flashes of light position her opponents before her, Lan Xiaohui is already in the midst of the late stage foxes, severing them from life with a single Storm Cleaver. Even at this cultivation depth, in both spirit and body, they cannot withstand Lan Xiaohui’s strikes. Not only is her innate Physique more powerful than theirs, but it is enough to overcome both the suppression of their far more advanced inner cores and to strike with enough power to shatter their bodies. This, in addition to the warping effects of her domain and her comprehension of [Fractured Sword] which she fused into her [Finality Moon, Liminality Flower] is enough to cleanly cut through their bodies as if they were made of grass.
They fall like wheat before the reaper.
Whether it is two, four, or eight late stage foxes, as long as Lan Xiaohui can strike first and eliminate the danger they pose with their ability to form lances, spears, and projectiles with their energy, dealing with the rest of the foxes is not an issue.
Even at this rate, any energy that she expends is quickly recovered through her highly advanced combat breathing via [Emptiness Prana] — a skill she polished fighting hundreds of evenly-matched opponents. In this way, the absurdity of how advanced and powerful Lan Xiaohui’s martial arts are perfectly demonstrates the advantage she has.
If her martial arts were any weaker, no matter how deep her cultivation or how capable she was at replenishing her inner energy and stabilizing it via [Emptiness Prana] — while in combat — it would all amount to nothing and be completely worthless.
Outside of this world, of course, Lan Xiaohui can use the “Lily” system command, or even [Nooparallelism], to enhance her combat prowess to overcome challenges even more difficult than this; here, she can only rely on herself and her own abilities.
However, this completely changes when Lan Xiaohui reaches floor fifty-two. In addition to the eight foxes of all stages — from late to early — there is now also a four-tailed fox of the peak stage Core Formation realm.
A Beast Lord, no less.
Not only does this fox have extremely high intelligence and control over its energy, but it also understands tactics and strategy, and it possesses twenty-four underlings through which it can enact this strategy.
It takes Lan Xiaohui only a split second to decide between attacking the Beast Lord or the late stage foxes, and she chooses the latter.
Once more, Lan Xiaohui appears in their midst, releasing another Storm Cleaver to instantly kill as many as she can, but my edge only manages to find two foxes, as the others, surprisingly, retreat and encircle my owner.
This development is completely different from what happened before.
Lan Xiaohui shoots the peak stage fox a glare because she understands, on some instinctive level, that this is the doing of the Beast Lord.
In the next moment, Lan Xiaohui is completely shrouded in dozens of blasts of dark fire energy that envelop her form.
Before these flames completely descend upon her, her sword domain pulses, and her Emptiness Prana causes her inner core to surge with power. Pure sword intent rises around her body, forming a thin sheet of translucent, glimmering black mist.
As the dark flames touch the mist of sword intent and energy, the flames flicker and cave inward, cut to shreds by Lan Xiaohui’s sword intent.
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But there’s just too much fire. Though the first rush of dark flames is defeated, it is only a small fraction of the whole. As the rest of the sea of dark fire smashes into Lan Xiaohui’s barrier, the black mist of sword intent fails and collapses.
Roaring flames explode around Lan Xiaohui, forming a pillar of dark fire that reaches fifty steps in height.
It lasts for only several seconds, and surprisingly, when the flames vanish, Lan Xiaohui kneels on the floor, her dress burned to an extensive degree, and her skin also, in several places, burned to a dark, charcoal black.
But she is still alive.
It occurs to me now that Sun Zhen may have picked the fire realm formation to practice not necessarily because he is a fire cultivator, but to learn how to resist this kind of fire.
Even though Lan Xiaohui is alive, that brief contact with the flames is enough to afflict her with lethal heatstroke. Her eyes hold the Beast Lord in them, but they are too unfocused to see much if anything.
This is enough, I want to tell her. In the last cycle, no one other than Sun Zhen had reached fifty floors in the Pagoda of Infinite Slaughter. She has already achieved the second place.
But before I can even gather my consciousness to direct my thoughts at her, she steps forward, shimmers, and disappears.
— Finality Moon, Liminality Flower: Shattered Moonlight
Instead of striking with my vessel, she raises me into the air, and my form crumbles. No, it is not that it crumbles, but it dissolves into countless glassy flower petals; my vessel blooms.
Each flower petal glimmers with a silver light — moonlight — that pulses once and then turns dark as the petals wink out of existence.
Hundreds of sword lights appear around Lan Xiaohui, forming a sphere around her of such majestic presence that even I find it unfathomable. The sword I sense within each sword light is incredibly pure, nearly at the same level as [Fractured Sword]. I would expect no less from its related method: [Transient Sword].
Did Lan Xiaohui manage to comprehend the second layer of her martial art, on the brink of death?
The sphere of shattered moonlight collapses toward a single point, forming a stream of mysterious glimmers that follow the bidding of Lan Xiaohui’s finger.
When Lan Xiaohui points at the peak stage fox, the stream rushes forward and bathes the four-tailed fox in its annihilating light, stripping the flesh from the bones as countless swords cut into the creature. Then the top half of its body separates from the bottom half, and even its organs turn to dust.
Then the stream forms a tidal wave and crashes on the rest of the demonic beasts, attacking in all directions, and these creatures fare even worse.
Within only a few seconds, what remains of the twenty five creatures is nothing but dust and a few chunks of bone and flesh.
The power of a Supreme grade martial art cannot be underestimated. It is capable of grinding the body of a late stage Core Formation demonic beast to dust, which I find far more impressive than cutting a peak stage fox in half.
Even after the attack, the swarm of sword lights return to Lan Xiaohui’s side, a bit dimmer than before, as my owner falls to her knees, breathing heavily.
Even using Emptiness Prana at full capacity, maintaining this technique is not easy, or even comfortable.
Lights flash behind Lan Xiaohui as more opponents appear in the void.
Once more, as I try to tell Lan Xiaohui that she has done enough, she surprises me again.
She looks up, directly toward me. Not at my vessel — that thing no longer exists in this world — but at the point where I am observing her with my consciousness. Even injured to this extent, with blood pouring from the corner of her lips — internal injuries from using this technique — she smiles at me in the most genuine and adoring manner I have ever witnessed.
“I can do anything for you, Yaoyue,” she says with a soft, trembling tone.
She turns her head toward the new group of foxes, this time with two peak stage Core Formation Beast Lords, and then extends her hand toward them. The galaxy of sword lights swarm over the group, and when Lan Xiaohui closes her hand into a fist, all those glimmering stars of shattered moonlight collapse into the group, and turn the entire group into a pink mist.
Her sword domain trembles and disappears. The flow of her inner energy reverses briefly and becomes completely chaotic. The glow of the gold halo behind her head becomes dull and faint. Her sea of sword lights also loses much of its brightness and power.
She coughs, suddenly, forced to her knees once. She coughs up so much blood that I am surprised she is still alive. Even so, the edges of her dress that had been burned to cinders slowly begin to reform in the wake of glimmering black light. The black and red lily flower in her hair trembles, opening its petals a bit more.
When the next flash of light heralds the next group of enemies, her expression changes and becomes serious again. Indignant, even. As if to condemn them for daring to appear before her; to stand in her way.
Her hand trembles when she lifts it again. Her eyes widen as she feels her heart stop at that moment, her body giving up under the load.
She grits her teeth, her eyes becoming unfocused, but she still manages to sweep her hand down and send the dull sea of stars hurtling towards the group of enemies, as she loses her consciousness and collapses.
Even in death, she is smiling.
“I am proud of you,” I tell her, as the world inside the Pagoda of Infinite Slaughter collapses.