Chapter 1195: Chapter 1193: Confrontation_1
Dodging sideways to avoid the sword tip, Liu Ruofei pivoted on his left leg, yet he didn’t attack from the right side where the Sword Qi was coming. Instead, his right hand, driven by his body’s momentum, swept to the left rear side.
Clang!
The two swords collided.
Shi Xiaole had indeed appeared there, his long sword subtly shifting and then swiftly slashing towards the Cleansing Evil Sword. The tidal-wave-like surging power transmitted through the blade, striking at Shi Xiaole, was the distinct Dual Sword Unity.
Time seemed to freeze, even the howling wind shattered by the Sword Qi.
At the point of friction between the two swords, a transparent sphere grew from small to large, enclosing two sharp streams of Sword Qi in conflict. They should have exploded instantly, but due to the highly concentrated Sword Qi, they mixed together, each trying to penetrate the other.
With a bang!
Both figures flew backwards simultaneously, like autumn leaves in the wind, but while still in mid-air, they dashed back toward each other with the speed of lightning. They fought from the ground to the sky and back to the ground again, leaving a trail of ominous sword shadows.
The sword shadows didn’t coalesce into light not because they weren’t dense enough, but because the two types of Sword Qi were too horrific. It seemed as if sensing their master’s will, they wouldn’t stop until they tore through their opponent, shattering as soon as they formed.
This battle alone, judging from the current momentum, was a level higher than Fan Shengnan and Ding Yufang’s contest of blades.
Everyone watched without blinking, not daring to relax their focus in the slightest, afraid of missing any splendid moments.
For others, Dual Sword Unity was an unattainable skill, yet Liu Ruofei had already perfected it to an effortless state, able to execute it at any time, in any posture.
But he found that Shi Xiaole was no less skilled, even a bit more proficient.
The recoil from the collision made Liu Ruofei’s arms numb, but his heart surged with indescribable excitement.
Shi Xiaole was excited too. Up to this day, few swordsmen had been able to catch so many of his moves, even though he was only using fifty percent of his power.
Pushing his strength to sixty percent, Shi Xiaole swung his sword, creating layers of sword shadows amidst their mixed momentum.
Clang!
Liu Ruofei’s arm went numb, his body retreated, Shi Xiaole seized the opportunity to charge forward. He had just struck out with his sword when, without waiting for a response, he flashed to Liu Ruofei’s rear side, his sword sweeping horizontally.
The second block was expected by Shi Xiaole, who used the momentum to pivot, circling to Liu Ruofei’s right side. The Cleansing Evil Sword had already been raised in preparation, slashing down with force.
Boom!
Liu Ruofei was sent flying, his vital energy locked by Shi Xiaole, unable to break free. The two great swordsmen, one retreating and the other advancing, their Sword Qi pierced the void, creating two cone-shaped ripples. The ripples spread wave after wave, causing the Array Systems around the stage of Fate to tremble incessantly.
"Am I seeing things, or is Liu Ruofei at a disadvantage?"
"No, you underestimate Liu Ruofei."
Acquaintances conveyed their opinions to each other rapidly through telepathy.
At that moment, Liu Ruofei, still retreating, suddenly braced himself. His right arm and sword aligned into a straight line, streaking like a shooting star, faster than before.
"Divine Sword Control!"
Some swordsmen exclaimed.
Shi Xiaole remained composed, his posture steady, his sword meeting the attack with equal acceleration, also employing Divine Sword Control.
There was no thunderous noise, no tempestuous Sword Qi, only two sword tips that collided and came to a standstill.
"Kill!"
Liu Ruofei shouted coldly, and a mysterious power affected his arm and sword, increasing the aggressiveness of his swordplay as if there were no limits, able to pierce through everything.
"Minor accomplishment in Divine Sword Control!"
Screams strung together, accompanied by heavy breathing.
When Liu Ruofei first revealed Divine Sword Control, it was just the initial realm, but it already shocked all the swordsmen of the South Sea. This Supreme Sword Realm was mastered by no more than five people in the entire South Sea.
But no one could have imagined that Liu Ruofei’s Divine Sword Control was not just at the initial level, but at minor accomplishment!
Bursting forth unexpectedly, he attacked Shi Xiaole with an overwhelming force as if to crumble him to dust, signaling that if Shi Xiaole was forced to use an ultimate move, it would mean that he lost in terms of the Sword Realm.
In fact, in many people’s eyes, the moment Liu Ruofei revealed this technique, the outcome was already anticipated.
"Well done."
What should have been a stabbing motion became a flick, Shi Xiaole raised his sword in a movement almost no one could see clearly, let alone understand how he executed it.
"You’ve also reached minor accomplishment?"
Liu Ruofei’s attack was blocked once more, his wrist stinging from the strike, waves of shock surging within him.
This was one of his trump cards to suppress Shi Xiaole, intended to crush the opponent’s momentum, yet to his astonishment, the opponent was at his level. Amidst the shock, Liu Ruofei trembled with excitement.
When had he ever encountered such an opponent?
"Mutual feelings."
In Divine Sword Control, one relies on the power of Heart Sword, and secondly, on high-level sword skills. Perhaps due to age, Shi Xiaole’s Heart Sword wasn’t the foremost of the times, but when it came to skill, he possessed a confidence of unparalleled prowess.
For him, stepping into the realm of Divine Sword Control was an expected development, something that happened naturally. Of course, the aura of the Supreme Sword Way from the stage of Fate also accelerated this process.
What the crowd didn’t know was that Shi Xiaole’s Divine Sword Control wasn’t at minor accomplishment, but had already surpassed it. If this realm were to be divided from one to ten levels, with minor accomplishment being three, then Shi Xiaole should be at five.
Without enhancing the power of Divine Sword Control, Shi Xiaole boosted his strength to seventy percent. He thrust his sword, its speed so swift that not even the void could constrain it, as if resistance itself had vanished.
Ding, ding, ding...
If Liu Ruofei’s swordsmanship was the surging Yangtze River, then Shi Xiaole’s swordsmanship was a levee-breaking flood, not only faster but also stronger, quickly gaining the upper hand.
After countless clashes of their swords, Liu Ruofei’s tiger’s mouth was bleeding, and he involuntarily staggered backward, his expression one of shock and terror.
Defeated.
In the contest of ordinary swordmanship, he was bested for the first time in his life. With no excuse for his defeat, he was pressed down by the sword.
"Impossible!"
The experts from Bright Moon Mansion turned pale with shock, while other observing warriors stood dumbstruck, clearly at odds with the scenario they had envisioned.
Only White Cloud Emperor and Fan Shengnan were thoughtful.
Without having crossed swords with Shi Xiaole, you could never understand that feeling of fathomless emptiness, not knowing how many moves or trump cards the opponent has.
Now they knew.
Taking advantage of his victory, Shi Xiaole thrust his sword at Liu Ruofei once again, quickly closing the distance between them.
"Flying Profound Static Stone Slash!"
His legs suspended in the air, Liu Ruofei stood as steady as Mount Tai. With both hands holding the longsword in front of his chest, a hundred-zhang-long sword shadow engulfed Liu Ruofei, splitting Shi Xiaole’s sword momentum with ease like a towering mountain of swords.
But this was only the beginning. Liu Ruofei suddenly switched from stillness to motion in a mere thousandth of a blink of an eye.
"Limitless Killing Sword!"
Sword Qi, killing intent, and spirit all merged at the tip of the sword, making this strike exceedingly sharp, like a steel ball gliding across ice, with ultimate penetrating and destructive force.
"Returning Sword!"
Shi Xiaole raised his Cleansing Evil Sword high and slashed down, a thousand-zhang-long cyan sword light cascading down like a gigantic waterfall tilting from a cliff, rushing towards his opponent.
Hissss!
The cyan sword light was continually split by the sword tip, which, despite strong resistance, increased rather than decreased in speed.
When it reached twice the speed, Liu Ruofei had vanished, leaving only a faintly visible sword that sliced through the cyan light, through space, through everything, unstoppable and overwhelming.
But this was not the end.
Within that short span of thousands of meters, the speed of the sword continued to skyrocket.
Three times the speed.
It was like a streak of lightning flashing across the night sky or like a thought in the human mind. Words could not describe its velocity. The sword completely disappeared, leaving only a faint point at the tip, twinkling like a grain of rice.
"This is the sword!"
On the outer circle of the Fate Platform, Xuanyuan Dao tensed up completely.
Other Forbidden Martial Emperors also had grim expressions, fear they had long suppressed once again surging from the depths of their hearts.
How could those who have never faced this sword know its terror? That sense of helplessness, of awaiting death, would be branded into your bones after just one encounter.
In the eyes of Xuanyuan Dao and the others, the potency of the thrice-speed "Limitless Killing Sword" was no less than Liu Ruofei’s ultimately executed "Breaking Extreme Killing Sword"—and in terms of speed, it was even superior.
Based on the strength Shi Xiaole had previously shown, he could not possibly withstand this sword.
"Old Ox’s Broken Cart!"
The moment everyone had been eagerly anticipating finally arrived.
Just as the sword tip was about to touch Shi Xiaole, a force of Sword Qi burst forth from within him, like waves crashing against the rock, causing countless collisions in an instant that finally revealed the trace of the sword that had plunged into the void, its speed steadily decreasing.
But it still wasn’t enough.
Boom!
The Sword Realm surged wildly.
Liu Ruofei’s killing sword suddenly fell to a mere single level of speed and could no longer pose a threat to Shi Xiaole.
"His Sword Realm’s power is far greater than before?"
"My God, he even hid his mastery of the Sword Realm; what else is this man concealing?"
In this battle of spear and shield, seeing the thrice-speed "Limitless Killing Sword" held at bay by the Sword Realm, everyone was shocked by the strength of Shi Xiaole’s skills and the depth of his concealment. The people from Bright Moon Mansion were so stunned they were speechless.
Liu Ruofei was stuck in the mire, inching closer to Shi Xiaole. The strong repulsive force made it difficult for his sword moves to unfold, while Shi Xiaole’s sword, driven by a spiraling force, inched closer and closer to Liu Ruofei.
Clang clang!
Liu Ruofei’s sword nearly flew out of his hand, and his arms burst into a mist of blood. Shi Xiaole’s third sword was coming again, and this decisive moment made everyone’s heart leap to their throats.
"Thinking you can defeat me with just the Sword Realm, you’re taking me too lightly!"
At the critical moment, Liu Ruofei’s arm shook violently, a distinctive spiraling sword force surged into the Sword Realm, shattering Shi Xiaole’s "Old Ox’s Broken Cart" and flinging himself back hundreds of meters.
Liu Ruofei’s spinning sword path also involved the power of the spiral. Using just two strikes, he managed to break the Sword Realm; once again, Shi Xiaole looked at his opponent with new respect.
"Shi Xiaole, I have one more sword, this sword will decide our victory or defeat."
Liu Ruofei took a deep breath, his expression more solemn than ever before.
Shi Xiaole’s tenacity far exceeded expectations; Liu Ruofei knew that the only chance to defeat his opponent now was with his ultimate sword, into which he had poured all his heart and wisdom.
