Darkheart’s hands flickered, casting a series of seals in quick succession. A giant glowing formation circle appeared above his head, hundreds of feet wide, its center pointing straight at Cade. Compared to the circle’s enormous size, the manhunter was like an ant, a black dot on the backdrop of the morning sky.

  The many rings inside the circle blurred in motion. Shifting law runes came to life, and a huge, dark blade began to emerge, burying a massive patch of desert in its shadow.

  Cade used that time to sprint away from the Arrow while manifesting his Blood Wings, choosing to wrap them around his torso. After the fight with Castien, his body had grown notably tougher. He had a feeling it could now bear the strain of an infusion from ignited mist, at least briefly, which would turn his extremely sharp ribbons fully corporeal.

  It was worth expending the extra blood qi to keep his wings a secret. Besides, he had several bloodstones concealed in his pockets, ready to replenish his reserves.

  The air displaced by the projection turned into buffeting winds, and Cade’s robes fluttered among the sandstorm they unleashed. He promptly covered his eyes in a thin layer of ignited blood qi.

  “I gave you a choice, boy. I don’t think you’ll live long enough to experience regret,” Darkheart chuckled malevolently, then pointed his finger at the young Asura.

  The humongous black sword instantly shot towards the lone figure on the ground, ready to tear the world. The rushing roar of air being ripped apart was so loud, just its echo could easily deafen a mortal.

  Darkheart seemed to have matched his qi expenditure on this art to his opponent’s cultivation. While the gigantic projected weapon appeared absolutely terrifying, it wasn’t that fast. The air screamed against its massive form, wrapping the blade in a heated glow as it slowed just enough for Cade to slip aside. Even if he didn’t have his sixth sense, he would've been able to make an escape. However, if he was an average early stage Skeletal Reinforcement body refiner, this enormous sword would've spelled his end.

  Fortunately, he had his Blood Wings and 2,000 prismatic spherules. The Asura pushed a little ignited blood qi into the ribbons wrapped around his torso, and his body blurred forward, crossing several hundred feet of desert in half a breath, leaving behind a number of faint afterimages.

  Darkheart’s black blade rammed into the ground where Cade had stood just a moment ago with cataclysmic force. Rumbling shockwaves tore at the desert, obliterating everything near the point of impact. A giant fountain of sand erupted into the sky, and the world trembled.

  The manhunter’s eyes darted around until he finally spotted Cade’s silhouette. His opponent stood several hundred feet away, hands clasped behind his back, seemingly unharmed.

  Darkheart frowned before his face split with a nasty grin.

  “You’re still in one piece? Good!” He laughed maniacally, pulling a weapon from his storage ring. It resembled something between a sword and a ribbed club. “Where would the fun be if you died so easily?”

  An orange blaze surrounded the manhunter, and his figure burst forward, slashing at Cade with his strange weapon.

  To the Asura’s surprise, the club-sword extended into flexible sections, turning itself into a whip. He pulled out Legion, instinctively sensing he could not allow Darkheart’s blow to land. He pushed another batch of ignited blood qi through his wings, propelling himself into the air towards the manhunter with great speed.

  A whip was a precise weapon, and by moving forward, Cade escaped from its most effective striking zone. A displeased grimace passed through the manhunter’s face, who had apparently expected him to continue running. His arm flickered, and the whip twisted itself in the air before once again snapping towards the Asura.

  It became obvious Darkheart was playing, clearly not considering him a serious opponent.

  The whip arrived from the side, and Cade shifted his body mid-flight, diving underneath the strike with a slight push of qi. As the ribbed cord passed over his head, he could hear a characteristic high-pitched sizzle coming from the weapon, suggesting it was charged to the brim with qi.

  Let’s see what happens if I sever its spiritual qi laws.

  Cade didn’t want to engage the manhunter directly for now. He had no idea of his true capabilities, and with every move Darkheart unveiled a piece of the puzzle.

  In the meantime, his opponent’s arm swung around, and the whip followed, first returning, then leaping towards Cade like an enraged viper.

  However, this time the Asura was ready. His black-robed form powered forward, propelled by a surge of ignited qi. Darkheart’s eyes grew wide open, but he was a fraction too late in pulling back the weapon. A whip, after all, was not a sword.

  “Legion, work with me!” Cade screamed in his realm of consciousness.

  “Haha, good! Let’s break this shitty whip!” Legion laughed excitedly.

  Cade funneled a huge amount of ignited qi through Legion, pushing it to its current limits. A blinding scarlet glow surrounded his six-foot sword, and he brought it down on the incoming whip.

  The gleaming blade crashed into the buzzing cord in a grating explosion of brightness. The spiritual qi protecting it erupted as its severed laws rebounded with staggering force, threatening to tear the sword from Cade’s grip. The manhunter’s eyes narrowed to slits as a violent tremor surged up his weapon, nearly ripping it from his hand. The impact split the webbing of his thumb and fractured several fingers.

  “What?!” Darkheart could not believe his eyes. Pain spiked in his hand, and less than a half of his whip had returned. He snarled with rage, shifting his gaze to his opponent, who was blown away by the explosion.

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  In the meantime, Cade had already managed to stabilize himself. His body was much tougher than the manhunter's, and other than being pushed a few dozen feet away, he hadn’t been harmed. He lazily flourished Legion, the ancient blade chuckling maliciously, completely undamaged by the explosion of qi. He met the manhunter’s furious gaze with his steady eyes.

  “A mere Skeletal Reinforcement child dares to destroy my whip?!” Darkheart roared, but his voice quickly regained its previous mocking tone. “Once you’re dead, I’ll treat myself to your sword. It's suits my style. Now, since you seem to possess some meager ability… Let’s see how you deal with my Black Sun Killing Formation!”

  His broken weapon disappeared, and the manhunter’s hands blurred once again, executing a series of rapid seals.

  Cade maintained several hundred feet of distance from Darkheart, his wariness at its peak. It seemed his enemy possessed a number of arts and artifacts, none of which he had seen or heard of before. When he asked Jade if she knew anything about the manhunter’s capabilities, she only shook her head. Var Du Long could have likely told him a lot more, but he had returned to the Empire.

  He had no choice but to act with utmost caution.

  The manhunter’s seals manifested a huge, dark sphere of bubbling energy above him, which split into two, and then each of the smaller masses went through a similar division. In less than a breath, there were a few dozen fist-sized balls filled with gleaming darkness, aligned in a wide rectangular formation.

  The Asura immediately formed a thin sheath of dense, ignited blood qi over his chest and head. He couldn’t use it to protect his whole body, as there were no special defensive laws used in this simplistic technique. He had to directly control every particle of qi with his mind, and he could only do so much.

  Suddenly, each ball—or rather, a small black sun—started to grow brighter around its shell, and the whole formation began to glow like a squadron of living fire beads floating in the sky. As the radiance reached its peak, the balls sizzled and released extremely thin beams of bright light before dimming once again.

  The rays pierced the space towards their target so quickly Cade barely had any time to react. He instantly ignited his wings, trying to outmaneuver the dozens of rays by rapidly changing the direction of his flight with bursts of speed, but he could not avoid them all; there were simply too many. The beams crisscrossed space around him, turning it into a deadly web of light. At least half of the rays pierced into his body, each burning a narrow channel deep into his flesh. No amount of early warning from his danger sense was able to change that.

  A smell of scorched skin and burnt meat hit his nostrils. While the pain was akin to being stabbed with dozens of searing-hot nails, it was still well below his threshold. This kind of widespread damage could instantly kill many cultivators, as with so many blistering rays, it was difficult to fully protect one’s most important organs—the heart and the brain. A full-powered qi barrier would have likely shattered with half a dozen of such strikes.

  However, the Asura had a very tough body, more so thanks to his recent near-death experience. It was well suited to dealing with small, localized wounds—a boon he had gained while still in Blood Transformation. The rays seemed to be enhanced with laws allowing them to penetrate living flesh effectively but had no lingering effect.

  Even before the volley had reached him, Darkheart’s hands began to flicker once again, and the little black suns started powering up another barrage.

  Cade noticed this formation wasn’t easy to handle and required utmost concentration from the manhunter. He briefly switched to his realm of consciousness to check the status of his wounds, and the world around him slowed down. A big smile stretched his face after noticing that only two pulses of ignited blood qi released from his voracious heart were enough to heal most of the damage, and then he was back in action. Not willing to let Darkheart do whatever he wished, he started launching qi-severing arcs using Legion’s comprehension to enhance their strength.

  Cade’s arm blurred in a sequence of chained attacks, each producing a bright, glowing slash. Each energy arc instantly shot forward upon completion, slicing the air towards the manhunter with a hair-lifting buzz.

  Darkheart snorted but was no longer grinning like a maniac. He clearly wasn’t expecting his target to shrug off the damage so easily, not to mention launch attacks of his own. The Black Sun Formation dimmed back down, and the manhunter’s hands shifted into a different set of seals. A sphere of glowing golden light surrounded him, and a contemptuous smile twisted his face.

  “Little pup wants to hurt me with his itty-bitty sword lights? Hmph, even a dog knows its place is at its master’s feet!”

  Whether the manhunter was unaware of the capabilities of the Law Severing Art or he just assumed that Cade’s energetic discharges were a joke, he simply ignored the incoming surges after launching his golden barrier. Instead, his hands shifted into seals, and he pushed even more spiritual qi into the killing formation.

  However, the Asura’s arcs weren’t just simple energy strikes. They carried powerful anti-spiritual qi laws, vastly enhanced through Legion’s own understanding.

  Before the killing formation managed to light up once again, Cade’s attacks crashed into the manhunter’s barrier one after another, and the thick shell of energy audibly cracked.

  Darkheart’s smug expression dropped. He instantly abandoned the killing formation, shifting his full focus into sustaining the golden sphere. As a result, nearly a hundred black suns fizzled out, turning into glowing dust.

  The manhunter’s eyelid twitched, anger twisting his features.

  “I admit you have a little bit of skill, boy, but if you think landing a few strikes is enough to destroy my barrier, you’re dreaming!” he snarled, spreading his arms wide. Streams of golden light burst out of his palms, flowing into the golden sphere. The cracks stopped spreading, and actually began to reverse, despite continuously resisting a barrage of anti-law energy surges.

  His qi reservoir is insane!

  Cade frowned. He was already using the full power of his Law Severing Art, and each arc was launched using Legion’s full qi capacity. Unfortunately, the sword wasn’t capable of accepting more blood qi at his current stage.

  True Core cultivators are clearly no joke. I can’t hope to outlast him. I have to take a risk.

  Cade gritted his teeth. Since he couldn’t break Darkheart’s barrier with energy attacks, he had to resort to what he knew best—brute force.

  He pushed a mass of ignited blood qi through the ribbons wrapped around his torso, and his silhouette blurred, leaving behind multiple shimmering afterimages.

  Darkheart’s eyes narrowed at first, then widened like saucers in the very next moment, as Cade appeared a step away from his barrier with his huge glowing sword raised overhead and a grimace of ferocious determination on his face. The scarlet light of the weapon shone so brightly it was reflected from the clouds above them, lending them a menacing scarlet hue.

  With a fierce roar, Cade brought down Legion in a brutal arc, as all 2,000 spherules instantly turned into tiny whirlpools, pouring their prismatic energy into his muscles. Over half of the blood qi coursing through his body was instantly ignited. There were no special techniques used, no finesse, just sheer, overwhelming power driven by the will to destroy.

  Darkheart’s golden barrier shattered like thin porcelain. The Asura’s deadly slash barely slowed down, tearing through the air towards the shocked manhunter like the grim reaper's scythe.