It was a vertical attack—a manifested wind slash that cleaved through the morning air like nature's own razor-edged blade.
The technique materialized as a faint white light, crystallizing into the form of a glowing sword slash with undulating edges that seemed to bend and distort the very atmosphere around it.
Towering over Ji Wuye's height and encompassing his entire form, the attack drew ever closer with an otherworldly whistle, its ethereal radiance dancing across his chiseled features and casting an almost supernatural shimmer in his narrowed crimson pupils, which had constricted like a predator's beneath the interplay of soft morning light and pulsating magical energy.
Without a moment's hesitation—Ji Wuye's lithe movements flowed with the fluidity of water cascading over polished stone.
His white hair, long and luminescent as moonlight spilling across a still pond, streamed behind him in a glorious fan before suddenly arresting mid-air as his white shoes found silent purchase on the stone-paved path.
The abrupt stop kicked up a veil of dust that swirled lazily around his ankles like earthbound clouds. His hands, wrapped around the jian's intricately hilt with a grip both precise and unwavering, moved.
The back of his hand turned earthward, sinewy muscles coiling with controlled power as he executed a diagonal upward slash to deftly intercept the approaching wave of sword energy.
BANG!
A thunderous metallic clash split the air asunder, its deep resonance vibrating through the very ground beneath their feet and rattling the nearby leaves with its force.
Despite the attack being comprised of pure elemental energy rather than physical steel, the collision with Ji Wuye's jian produced an ear-splitting sound that rang out like the ancient clarion bells of war. The deafening impact scattered twinkling particles of light like a starburst of celestial shards across their battlefield.
The raw, unrestrained force of the earth-shaking clash sent powerful shockwaves rippling up Ji Wuye's outstretched arms, as it pushed him backward. His feet carved twin furrows through the stonework as he deftly planted his weight low and shifted his stance to regain his equilibrium.
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[!] Your passive skill, Deflecting Blows (D), has been triggered!
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A shimmering transparent screen, like the wavering heat haze of a desert mirage, pulsed briefly before his narrowed eyes in the aftermath of the shattering impact.
BOOM!
In that same heartbeat, the WindBlade Emperor's powerfully built form became an unstoppable projectile, launched backward with staggering force by the very torrent of energy he had so recklessly unleashed.
His body hurtled through the air in a graceless arc before impacting the courtyard with devastating, bone-jarring force—unleashing a thunderous detonation that sent shards of shattered masonry and plumes of pulverized rubble exploding skyward.
Thick, billowing clouds of suffocating dust bloomed outward like malevolent grey flowers, momentarily obscuring the catastrophic sight of one of the surrounding buildings collapsing inward in an ear-splitting chaos of splintering timber and crashing stone.
'Instead of attacking me directly with physical force, he attempted to catch me off-guard by manipulating his Qi and converting it into a long-range projectile attack,' Ji Wuye swiftly analyzed in the fleeting stillness. 'An impressive display of wisdom, as expected from someone bearing the title of the Five Emperors.'
His ruby-red eyes, fathomless and steady as a frozen mountain lake despite the devastation raining down around him, tracked the slightest hint of movement through the slowly settling clouds of dust and debris.
Then...
A series of flickering translucent screens manifested in the air before him.
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[>> QUICK ADAPTATION (C) <<]
The proficiency of your passive skill has slightly increased!
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[>> QUICK ADAPTATION (C) <<]
The proficiency of your passive skill has slightly increased!
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'But unfortunately for him, my Deflecting Blows is equally effective against magic-based attacks as it is against physical blades,' Ji Wuye's inner thoughts carried a razor's edge as his crimson pupils contracted into predatory slits.
From deep within the dense cloud of swirling dust and smoke—still thick with pulverized stone fragments and scattered debris—came an ominous sound unlike any other, a harbinger of the devastation still to come.
A shuttering, colossal wave of compacted wind exploded outward with the unholy shriek of a banshee's howl, the displaced air carrying with it the unrelenting promise of annihilation as it surged forth.
In the next breathless heartbeat, three diagonal lances of solidified sword energy erupted forth—each slash smaller and more compact than the first cataclysmic attack, yet now honed with infinitely greater lethality and precision.
Like streaking meteorsearing across the night sky, they carved through the superheated air and left shimmering, coruscating trails of disturbed elemental qi screaming in their wake.
Though more tightly focused than their devastating precursor, each slash hummed with a higher, more harmonic pitch that spoke of obscenely concentrated destructive power barely constrained.
But...
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[!] Your passive skill, Quick Adaptation (C), has been triggered!
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The world around Ji Wuye seemed to slow to a dreamlike crawl. Faint, ghostly overlays of ethereal guidance manifested across his field of vision—a series of precisely angled arrows and trajectories that tracked and identified each incoming attack vector.
The swiftly converging slashes shimmered with a pale emerald aura, each one marked with glowing numerals and accompanied by detailed tactical prompts that materialized like streams of illuminated calligraphy drifting across the shifting air currents swirling around his poised form.
Attack "1" called for an full-body evasive bend, the angled arrow and accompanying prompt suggesting a precise angle and degree of flexion required to allow the first slash to pass overhead with mere cuns to spare.
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The second glowing advisory, marked with the numeral "2," clearly indicated a fluid forward combat roll from the low bent position Ji Wuye would find himself in—a slashing, sinuous movement designed to carry his lithe form under the searing arc of the second attack in one seamless, flowing evasion.
The final ghostly guidance overlay bloomed to life, labeled "3," its urgent instructions culminating in a perfectly timed vertical jump and bodytwist combination meant to clear the final, inexorably descending energy slash with split-second timing.
'The effect stated to identify and exploit weaknesses in the enemy attack patterns,' Ji Wuye's mind raced, a slight furrow forming between his brows. 'But so far, all I perceive are relatively straightforward instructions outlining various contortions and acrobatics to simply dodge the incoming slashes...'
Rather than submitting to the suggested ground-hugging roll, Ji Wuye began channeling his Qi, directing the invigorating flow to pool around the balls of his feet like roiling quicksilver.
SWOOSH!
Defying all accepted combat logic, he boldly initiated an aggressive advance directly towards the rapidly converging slashes rather than attempting to evade their lethal arcs.
Yet his measured footwork and body positioning maintained an almost taunting awareness of the arrow trajectories suggested by the screen overlays, as if daring the incoming attacks to alter their vectors and trajectories in response to his brash forward movements.
At the crucial moment, he executed a controlled pivot and bodyshift that seemed to bend and fragment the laws of spatial geometry—the movement so devastatingly precise that the screaming vortex of the nearest slash merely brushed against and parted the flowing strands of his luminous white hair as his tensed form passed beneath its edge in a blur of inhuman speed.
Only a few pale strands drifted lazily away in its wake, scattered like ethereal moonbeams torn from the night sky and dancing across the scorched air currents.
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Cloudsoaring Step, Whirlwind Pivot!
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The movement of the Cloudsoaring Step — Whirlwind Pivot, that allowed practitioner to transform the very elemental essence of wind itself into a steadfast ally—enabled any skilled practitioner to harness their hard-won momentum and channeled Qi to execute an instant, physics-defying directional pivot, as though their tensed form were being caught up in the swirling vortex of nature's own whirlwind.
Ji Wuye executed this breathtaking display of martial prowess with the casual, his lithe, muscled form seemed to momentarily take on the fluid, boneless consistency of quicksilver as he pivoted and flowed around the second incoming slash.
His long white hair trailed behind in his wake like a ghostly contrail, the pale strands tracing mesmerizing arabesque patterns across the charged air currents before settling back into place as if guided by unseen hands, seamlessly following the dangerous arcs and eddies of his defensive technique.
Each component motion transitioned flawlessly into the next in a seemingly never-ending cycle of Balance and Flow, his footwork alone a blinding blur of precision that suggested these ostensibly lethal attacks from the WindBlade Emperor were little more than the first warm spring raindrops to be danced around—at least, until the final incoming slash abruptly revealed its true, vicious nature.
SHRILL!
The very air itself seemed to scream in protest as Ji Wuye pivoted and his upswept foot displaced the atmosphere, the sound cutting through the battlefield with a piercing dissonance akin to shards of shattered glass scattering across a stone floor.
The solidified wind sword slash— should have harmlessly carried onward its initial trajectory and passed through the empty space now vacated by Ji Wuye's evasive movement—instead defied all convention and rational logic as it thrashed and contorted like a living serpent of pure energy.
The blade of condensed elemental force distorted and twisted violently upon itself in a blur of motion too swift for the naked eye to track, abandoning its preordained path to wickedly snap back at a seemingly impossible angle in a vicious diagonal arc aimed directly at Ji Wuye's abdomen.
CLANG!
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[!] Your passive skill, Deflecting Blows (D), has been triggered!
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With the casual, almost arrogant precision, Ji Wuye smoothly raised his jian into a vertical guarding position, the folded steel singing out like a clear bell as it met and deflected the redirected blade of energy in a blinding shower of golden-white sparks and roiling clouds of disturbed elemental Qi.
The next moment, the side effect of the Deflecting Blow sent him sliding backward in an unstoppable rush, his white shoes carving parallel twin furrows through the hard-packed earth beneath until the full brunt of his movement was finally arrested by the reassuringly solid and embrace of a solitary bamboo tree.
Standing there, Ji Wuye turned slightly, his front now facing to the side as the thick cloud of dust around them slowly began to dissipate.
Through the slowly clearing veil of lingering dust and powder cast aloft by their clashing forces, the WindBlade Emperor's imposing form emerged like a manifestation of some primordial force of nature breaking through the obscuring morning mists.
His body was already flowing into the next deadly stance and technique even as his feet found their way across the debris-strewn battlefield, his powerful physique and towering presence exuding the supreme confidence and lethal focus of an apex predator that had just sighted its prey through the dissipating miasma.
The WindBlade Emperor's piercing eyes, as keen and pitiless as the talons of a hunting raptor, remained fixed upon Ji Wuye with an intensity that brooked no distraction.
One arm was raised high in a practiced guard as the other drew back in flawless concert—the rigid tendons standing out in harsh relief as the digits of his clenched hand curled into an ancient gesture suggesting that of a master archer drawing an invisible bow of pure focused power unto the point of firing.
And in continuation of this precise metaphor, the razor-sharp edge of his wickedly curved jian extended outward into an unerring trajectory that passed directly alongside the center of Ji Wuye's torso in a steady, unwavering line.
Yet despite the WindBlade Emperor's imposing form and undeniable aura of strength, a thin crimson rivulet escaping the corner of his mouth stood as grim testament to the sheer devastating recoil and internal trauma he himself had sustained when Ji Wuye's flawless deflection had reversed the impossible energies of his earlier attack.
In addition, the sight of it only fanned the raging tempest of his qi into a visible corona of swirling elemental forces that blazed around his form like a miniature cyclone given visceral and terrifying shape.
His once neatly-bound mane of midnight hair had been thoroughly ruined in the chaotic fury of their exchange, the thick obsidian strands now unfurling and whipping wildly through the charged air currents like a dark flame against the lightening indigo sky of dawn.
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Pulse of Blade – Third Move, Piercing Tempest Thrust!
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Though the open distance spanning the space between them would have taken even the most fleet-footed of ordinary men multiple heartbeats to traverse, the WindBlade Emperor obliterated that reassuring gap of separation in what amounted to a single indrawn breath.
His built form seemed to dissolve into a blurring streak of unstoppable force and motion, more akin to an unleashed tempest of nature itself than anything resembling a human body as it blazed across the hard-packed earth.
A veritable hurricane's-breath corridor of howling wind erupted in the wake of his Qi-enhanced passage, the invisible pressures bending the towering stalks of bamboo into surrendering arcs and sending a tornado of scattered leaves and detritus swirling skyward.
The very air itself seemed to resist being parted before the WindBlade Emperor's devastating advance, the atmosphere visibly compressing and distorting as his focused Qi preceded his form like some intangible shockwave of pure inertia.
The sheer blinding swiftness of this Piercing Tempest Thrust technique was such that Ji Wuye's entire world and perception of objective reality itself seemed to shift and fragment in those scant few instants.
But then...
Time itself took on a gelatinous slow-motion quality, with every infinitesimal moment stretching into what felt like eons as reality warped and distorted sickeningly around Ji Wuye's poised form like a viscous liquid thick as chilled honey being slowly poured from a crystalline jar.
In this altered state of slipstream temporal perception, a cascading shower of razor-thin ethereal screens and overlays spontaneously materialized all around him.
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[!] Your passive skill, Feline Reflexes (D), has been triggered!
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[>> QUICK ADAPTATION (C) <<]
The proficiency of your passive skill has slightly increased!
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[>> QUICK ADAPTATION (C) <<]
The proficiency of your passive skill has slightly increased!
================
…
In this bizarre slipstream dimension where a subjective few seconds stretched into what felt like the span of countless subjective hours, Ji Wuye's narrowed crimson pupils remained laser-locked onto the lethal vector of the WindBlade Emperor's blade as it arced in for the final killing thrust.
The Emperor's sword took on the illusory quality of an impossibly slender silvered needle, its honed edge aimed squarely at Ji Wuye's unguarded chest with cold precision as it drifted ever inward—now a mere handspan from piercing flesh and bone.
Yet despite its dreamlike appearance, that razor-kissed steel carried the full mass and unstoppable momentum of the Emperor himself channeled into a single meticulously focused point of catastrophically penetrating force.
'A thrust, but a unique one,' Ji Wuye's inner voice rang with the calm clarity of a still mountain lake undisturbed by even the faintest breeze with a smile.
Yet despite the intense metaphysical reflection underscoring his actions, his gaze remained admirably steady and his mind firmly centered in the present reverie of combat. He watched with an outward aura of perfect tranquility as his own body and spirit flowed into a reflexive series of defensive movements.
Wreathed in a hazy azure luminescence of Qi, Ji Wuye's jian hummed with the active harmonic frequencies of the unleashed Slash Breaker technique as the ornately forged steel moved with the liquid grace of a master swordsman from its defensive starting position held before his side.
The blade seemed to rise of its own inscrutable volition, effortlessly carving through the charged air currents in a precise diagonal arc calibrated to perfection—its razor-edge destined to intersect the WindBlade Emperor's sword-thrust at the one singular angle capable of bisecting and shattering its seemingly unstoppable forward momentum.
The point of intersection between the two contrasting sword released a shockwave of conflicting energies that sang out like the pure, clarion peal of a ringing temple bell.
For the briefest subjective moment, the fabric of reality itself seemed to distort and wrinkle in accordance with the incredible mass and inertia being redirected in direct opposition to the Earth's timeless rotational pull.
As the WindBlade Emperor's forward thrust exploded outward in a shower of redirected force akin to shattering waves crashing against an implacable monolith, Ji Wuye's sinuous form flowed into the next linked sequence of his chosen countering techniques with the cold inevitability of the cosmos' untold cycles.
In a heartbeat's fleeting span, his leading knee lifted in a smooth ascending arc while the whole of his torso and shoulders curved backward into a physique-defying display of flexibility and sinuous control as his spine took on a distinctly serpentine profile.
Every nuanced aspect of this bizarre boneless contortion created the barest fractional increase of distance from the shattered remnants of the Emperor's deflected attack as Ji Wuye simultaneously threaded the path his own body would need to occupy in the following span of microseconds.
Without the briefest pause of disrupted potential, his chambered foot lashed outward like the propulsive coil of a striking cobra, cutting through the roiling eddies of superheated air in a whip-fast snapping kick aimed with cold precision directly for the WindBlade Emperor's exposed jaw and facial extremities.
Then, in an instant, time returned to normal, bringing all the chaos crashing back into reality.
CRASH!
Shards of shattered steel hovered briefly in the air, catching the light as Ji Wuye’s sharp crimson gaze lingered on the stunned expression of the WindBlade Emperor.
Flung backward by the immense force of the kick, the WindBlade Emperor collided with the ground and tumbled uncontrollably, ultimately crashing into the courtyard's main building.
Sadly, the impact shattered the structure, utterly destroying the building on his courtyard where Ji Wuye typically slept.