-- Chapter 17:

Hui stood above a boulder under the moonlight. 

He calmed himself and attempted to reenter the war state, recalling the unparalleled focus he had felt when he gave up defense and threw himself into an absolute strike.

Hui’s surroundings seemed to blur away, fading into obscurity. Before him, a shadow came into being. Along with Hui’s focus, it gradually became clearer, forming a massive fiery red bird clad in pronounced feathers and possessing black talons which gleamed aweinspiringly. The bird hovered a meter in front of Hui, with its wings outstretched, tips cutting through the air. It looked down at him with piercing eyes that contained no substance behind them, no life.

As Hui’s aura became like a sword loose in its sheath, the bird’s imposing manner climbed towards its peak. When it had matched the levels it had when it was living, its hazy eyes brightened, then burned with vitality.

‘Xiao!’

An exquisite shrill call broke the silence.

Hui’s mind trembled slightly before he composed himself, his bloodlust towering as if he were fully unsheathed sword. 

The bird flapped its wings, launching itself impossibly swiftly at Hui with its talons arching forwards in anticipation of severing his insignificant body.

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Hui’s branches instinctively moved themselves following a long familiar arrangement. Coiling around each other in a spiral towards a point, he formed a lance. Impaling forwards between the approaching talons, he aimed at its body.

When they were about to tear into each other, blinding silver light flashed along Hui’s branches. The sapling seemed to grin triumphantly. Immediately, he revolved his lance. 

‘Clink!’

Silver energy spread out along with the whirl, colliding against the two talons passing by its side. 

The talons were deflected, scraping past Hui’s body leaving only flesh wounds. His branches flew unimpeded, using the remnants of silver to tear the bird’s defenses before impaling themselves through its body. The last sparks of silver disseminated within its entrails, rupturing anything in its path.

‘Chirp!’

The bird gave a final dying cry before collapsing, returning to nothingness.

Hui retracted his limbs as his aura vanished along with the murkiness that dulled the scene. 

He remained standing above the boulder, not having moved a step.