[V6C85 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
Qianye took a step forward and arrived in front of Julio. He was half a stride ahead of Zhao Jundu and Li Kuanglan.
“Qianye, come back.” Zhao Jundu held his Blue Sky Edge horizontally. A meter-long azure glow materialized to block Qianye’s way.
Qianye pressed the blade lightly with his hand and said, “This is the most optimal combat position for me.”
This actually made sense—if only the level-disparity wasn’t that great, and if only the opponent wasn’t Julio. Qianye’s defenses were the strongest out of the three. Add to that his Oceanic Domain and East Peak’s heavy sword characteristics, he was the best candidate to fight the enemy head-on. But presently, no one believed him to be capable of receiving an all-out blow from Julio.
Zhao Jundu’s hand on the blade didn’t move at all. The green radiance therein flickered as he said in a deep voice, “Move back.”
Li Kuanglan said with raised eyebrows, “You must know that I don’t have any more Stillwater Rebirths. Take it easy, if you die this time, it’s over.”
Qianye nodded. “I know.” He slowly raised East Peak as the Profound Combatant Formula circulated inside his body. In a few breath’s time, faint sounds of thunderous tides emerged around him.
“Clap, clap, clap”. Julio applauded. “Not bad, you have talent and guts. Now, even I can’t bear to kill you immediately.”
Qianye replied calmly, “I’m afraid you might not be able to.”
Julio removed his gloves. “Is that so? I’m worried about that, too.”
It was at this time that violet flames ignited around Zhao Jundu, and eight pillars of fire began revolving close to his body. An illusory shadow of Julio appeared to the right of Zhao Jundu. It reached out to claw at the latter but gradually retracted its hand and disappeared after touching the pillars. It was really just a shadow because Julio was still standing in place as if he had never moved at all.
Li Kuanglan was currently standing to the right of Zhao Jundu. Her expression shifted slightly because she simply hadn’t sensed the attack. It was fortunate that the assault was aimed at Zhao Jundu. If the target were her, she definitely wouldn’t be as calm.
“Deceptions!” Li Kuanglan snorted coldly as Cold Moon’s embrace flew up and shot an aqua blue beam of light at Julio’s forehead. This sword strike was as quick as it was straightforward, so much so that one couldn’t see any special abilities in it. To Li Kuanglan’s path of the sword, the smaller the movement at launch, the greater the might of her attack.
Julio only raised a right hand in front of him, seemingly poised to block the sword energy with his body. But just as the blue radiance was about to arrive, the marquis’ hand immediately turned transparent and faded away. The blue sword energy flew around Julio as though it had lost its target and finally shot into the wall beside him.
Julio’s right hand then appeared anew as though nothing had happened.
Li Kuanglan’s expression transformed once more. This time, she had finally seen that Julio’s maneuver wasn’t a secret art. He had simply drawn her sword energy away by means of an amazing combat art. This sounded easy, but in truth, those with an inferior strength and combat arts might even lose their lives in the process.
However, Julio had performed it so effortlessly. It seemed as easy as shaking water off of one’s hand.
Only Qianye hadn’t moved since the very beginning. It was not that he didn’t want to but that he couldn’t. A wisp of Julio’s blood energy had locked onto him from afar and would shoot into his heart at the first sight of an opening. Qianye had a strange feeling that Julio was focusing the greater part of his attention on him, and this made it difficult for him to rush into action.
Beads of sweat appeared on Qianye’s forehead under the immense pressure. This was strange because his strength was the lowest of the three. Julio had no good reason to focus so much attention on him unless he knew about the Shot of Inception. But Qianye hadn’t exposed himself even in front of a high-ranking divine champion like Duke You. He didn’t believe Julio could see through his secret.
Julio was also looking at Qianye, but there were no clues to be found in the vampire’s eyes.
The stalemate lasted mere moments before eight flaming pillars suddenly appeared around Julio. The flames immediately turned azure after their appearance and caused all origin fluctuations within a hundred meters to turn stagnant. Everyone found it momentarily difficult to circulate their origin power, but the sensation soon receded.
This was Zhao Jundu’s Omniscient Seal. He was able to exercise such precise control over it that Qianye and Li Kuanglan were exempt from its disturbance despite being in the area of effect. Li Kuanglan couldn’t help but sigh after her origin power regained its flow. At her level on the martial path, she was very clear what this meant.
Most domains couldn’t differentiate friend and foe. That was why a fight between high-level experts was difficult to supplement with numbers. Normally, only experts above the level of divine champion possessed the power and control to minimize their domain’s effects on allies. But Zhao Jundu could already do this at rank-twelve. He was truly deserving of his fame as the empire’s number one in the younger generation.
The appearance of the Omniscient Seal reduced the mysterious ambiance around Julio, and his movements were no longer as unfathomable. Li Kuanglan trod forth with Cold Moon’s Embrace glowing in her hand. But this time, she was no longer shooting frost qi. She had opted to maximize her advantage by concentrating power on the sword edge as she moved about and slashed at Julio like a raging tempest.
Qianye finally made his move. Roaring, he raised East Peak high up and slashed down without any fancy moves! The sword descended on Julio’s current position. Qianye cared not whether the target would evade—he only delivered an all-out strike free of distracting thoughts.
East Peak fell noiselessly, and the greater part of the blade pierced into the stone floor as though it were tofu. As expected, that sword strike didn’t find its target, but Julio couldn’t flicker and reappear in his original position as he had before. Instead, he was forced to take two steps back in order to evade the strike.
This was the first time Julio had stepped backward since the battle had begun. He finally revealed an astonished expression, his gaze on Qianye tinged with admiration and regret.
Zhao Jundu and Li Kuanglan became spirited after seeing Julio retreat, and their attacks grew all the more violent.
The Omniscient Seal’s range didn’t change at all, but Zhao Jundu pulled back all of a sudden. He stood at the threshold of the corridor with the Blue Firmament in hand and took aim at Julio.
The vampire’s expression changed slightly, and the skin on his forehead began twitching. His figure flickered several times, but his forehead was still tingling. He simply couldn’t shake off that pin-prick sensation. Julio recognized this as the sensation of being locked onto. What surprised him, however, was the fact that he couldn’t extricate himself regardless of the evasion or secret arts used. A name popped up in his heart: “True Shot.”
True Shot was a skill both factions could possess, and its might was inversely proportional to the chances of it appearing. The most terrifying part of True Shot was that its firepower would increase depending on the shooter’s strength.
Julio recognized the Blue Firmament in Zhao Jundu’s hands. He wasn’t willing to take on this shot at all, regardless of the type of bullet in the chamber. However, evading a powerful skill like True Shot was easier said than done.
Naturally, True Shot wasn’t completely indefensible. As long as Julio maintained high-speed movement, some minor deviations would appear in Zhao Jundu’s lock on him. This was enough to evade the vitals. But high-speed movements under the suppression of the Omniscient seal involved significant blood energy expenditure. Even a marquis wouldn’t be able to hold out for long.
The best way to deal with Blue Firmament was to charge into a melee battle, but Li Kuanglan and Qianye wouldn’t give him such an opportunity.
Li Kuanglan pushed her speed to the limits until she was practically flying around Julio. Streaks of blue splendor poured out from Cold Moon’s Embrace and spiraled around the vampire marquis. Qianye’s attacks, on the other hand, were bold and powerful. East Peak was as heavy as a mountain and every slash from it would always force Julio to move about. One could still trace him while he was moving. He was, on the contrary, more elusive while standing in place.
In this manner, Qianye, Zhao Jundu, and Li Kuanglan attacked in perfect coordination—restraining, attacking, and seeking the opportunity to deal the final blow. For a while, the two parties were evenly matched and none of them could deal with the other.
Qianye and Li Kuanglan hadn’t used their own domains. On one hand, it was to avoid a conflict in origin power, while on the other, it was because Zhao Jundu’s Omniscient Seal was able to restrict Julio the most. With the marquis’ unimaginable speed and unfathomable arts, the trio probably wouldn’t last long if there was no suppression at all. Zhao Jundu never joined the battle, but the drain from constantly maintaining the domain didn’t lose out to that of Qianye and Li Kuanglan at all.
But everyone knew that this situation was only temporary because more imperial reinforcements would arrive as time went on. Julio would likely fall in battle if he didn’t break out of the siege right now. But the vampire seemed completely calm with no sign of anxiety or fear. It was almost as though time wasn’t on the empire’s side.
Qianye became increasingly suspicious as he fought on, but he didn’t dare split his attention to anything else. Julio had been defending all the time, but it would be terrifying if he were to find an opening and launch a counterattack. The highest-ranked among them, Li Kuanglan, was four levels below the marquis. They might not be able to take a single blow from Julio unscathed, even if his attack was merely a spent force.
Finally, Julio seemed to have decided that the Omniscient Seal was too much of a restraint. Following a low growl, blood energy suffused a hundred-meter radius around him and began to fight back against Zhao Jundu’s azure energy.
In a clash between two domains, the azure energy held the upper hand, but the blood energy was far greater in quantity. The azure glow barely held out for fifteen minutes before growing thinner and thinner. Soon, the Omniscient Seal arrived on the verge of collapse.
Qianye let out an explosive shout as the oceanic vortex formed within him. The tyrannical force of his Oceanic Might poured out onto the battlefield, shattering both the Omniscient Seal and Julio’s blood energy domain. The oceanic vortex lasted a mere moment after destroying the two other domains before it, too, dispersed. Qianye’s complexion immediately turned pale—the energy consumption from fighting a domain battle beyond his rank was simply too great.
The three domains had just vanished when an icy blue frost immediately covered the scene, and Julio’s newly increased speed grew stagnant once more. Li Kuanglan had taken action at the precise moment and used her own domain to once again restrain Julio. The timing was perfect.
Zhao Jundu finally made his move as Julio’s movements slowed down briefly.
Blue Firmament rumbled as an azure trajectory appeared through the air. The bullet practically arrived at Julio’s chest after leaving the chamber!
Despite Julio’s rapid reaction and evasion, he only managed to barely move his vitals out of the way. He let out a muffled groan as blood sprayed out from his shoulder.
Zhao Jundu’s aura fell after this shot, but he lifted Blue Firmament once more and took aim at Julio’s blood core.
The battle once again fell into a deadlock.
At this moment, all of them had noticed the gunfire outside of the castle had grown sparse, and the artillery had more or less stopped firing. There were sounds of imperial squads quickly approaching from the distance.
All of a sudden, the wall behind Julio collapsed backward—door and all—revealing an empty hall. Numerous deep fissures had appeared on the floor, and the nearby walls were filled with cracks. The entire building seemed to be on the verge of collapse following their fierce battle.
Meanwhile, a petite figure was standing in the distant wilderness of Evernight Continent. There were hundreds of corpses lying around her, and judging from their clothing, they were all imperial soldiers. There were several generals among them and even a lieutenant general.