Chapter 87: Gamble

"Seeing Pei Ye!" the black cat called out on the other side, bringing Seeing Pei Ye, who was staring straight at the battle, his body stiff with tension, back to his senses.

"We're going over first," it said.

Seeing Pei Ye turned his head and saw Ming Qitian holding her sword and the black cat standing by the city wall. She nodded slightly to him and leaped down.

Seeing Pei Ye climbed the wall and leaned over to shout: "I'm going too!"

"You don't need to," the black cat said. "Wait until it's safer before you come."

Seeing Pei Ye was stunned for a moment: "Oh."

At this moment, a loud explosion sounded overhead, and a huge flame flower burst in the sky, reflecting Seeing Pei Ye's face in deep blue. He raised his head abruptly to look, only to see the old man falling like a kite with a broken string.

Yue Muzhou fell to the ground. He looked up, and the Immortal Lord had crashed down like a cannon hammer.

Yue Muzhou turned his sword blade, and the sharp, formless, cold sword Qi was like a night owl in the forest, suddenly rushing into the sky. Yue Muzhou flew into the sky to meet Him, following behind this sword Qi.

Half of the Immortal Lord's body was sliced off by this sword Qi, in exchange for his own offensive momentum not being weakened at all. He hammered his fist onto Yue Muzhou's shoulder, and Yue Muzhou's sword cut into His throat with a backhand strike.

The part of the Immortal Lord that had been sliced off arrived at this moment, turning into a long spear and stabbing at Yue Muzhou, while the Immortal Lord lifted His knee to strike.

Yue Muzhou's sword drew a tortuous yet smooth curve. This sword move must have had its original trajectory, and that trajectory must not have been so thrilling and sharp, but at this moment in Yue Muzhou's hands, it appeared as it should have been.

This sword strike first cut the "spear" head, then blocked the Immortal Lord's knee. In one sword strike, he first slashed and then blocked. This was not intent or Dao, and it had nothing to do with the Heavenly Tower or the Mystic Gate. This was pure "technique," the condensation of the old man's bloody time in the Life Vein realm, or even below the Fourth Life realm.

But the Immortal Lord also had perfect "technique." The flesh and blood on His knee changed and grew instantly, wrapping around the sword blade that had stuck to it. Yue Muzhou twisted his sword hilt to break the restraint, while the Immortal Lord's fist was already in front of his eyes.

Yue Muzhou met it with his other fist, and another surging air wave exploded. The ground for several feet around was cleared, trees were about to snap, and stones flew.

In the next round, the Immortal Lord was still attacking with full strength, but Yue Muzhou had to seek to retreat, because according to the rate observed in the previous exchange, this area would soon be flooded with fire that had no temperature and would explode immediately.

The Immortal Lord was focused on attacking, while Yue Muzhou had to seek to concede, naturally falling into a disadvantage. He braced his sword to take a punch head-on, suffered a small loss, and intended to leave borrowing this strike.

However, the scorching heat wave exploded at this moment!

Yue Muzhou's time calculation was very precise. He had a limit in his head, which was the time required to bury a sufficient amount of fire to cause damage to himself.

He began to build the opportunity to leave three breaths before this time, and should have been able to leave this range one breath before.

But the sea of fire detonated one breath early.

And the quantity was already enough to cause damage to him.

In the previous detonations, the Immortal Lord had deliberately delayed by one breath!

Under the impact of the heat wave, Yue Muzhou lost his posture for a moment. The Immortal Lord hammered him with a punch, and Yue Muzhou took it head-on, unable to return with a sufficient counterattack.

The "momentum" was suppressed even lower and tighter.

Without any chance to breathe, the Immortal Lord, who had grasped the advantage, launched an incomparably violent attack, no longer caring about Yue Muzhou's counterattack at all.

If he were to face that 【Cloud Sky Obscuring the Feather Loss】 again at this time, the Immortal Lord would definitely not retreat again.

This was a fairly simple principle. When both sides were evenly matched, they were naturally fighting with full strength, but they were also constantly cautious, weighing gains and losses in their hearts, striving to gain greater results than the other in every exchange. And when this round showed signs of suffering a loss, they would choose to avoid this exchange.

But after the advantage accumulated, the biggest goal became not to let the opponent have any chance to breathe, even if it meant exchanging ten for seven without hesitation. If they waited for this advantage to continue to expand and enter the execution stage, even if it meant exchanging ten for one, they would firmly press on.

Yue Muzhou tried to break the situation several times, but the Immortal Lord's determination to attack was unshakable, preferring to let Yue Muzhou take some advantage rather than interrupt the offensive.

Compressing the "momentum" tighter and tighter.

The Immortal Lord was like an iron hammer, every strike powerful and heavy, the rhythm of the hammering airtight. And Yue Muzhou was the iron block under this hammer. Although he could meet every strike and take it, never being shattered by any single hammer, he couldn't perfectly resolve any strike, let alone counterattack, and could only constantly deform under this hammering, being squeezed smaller and smaller.

Gradually, the space Yue Muzhou could control became more and more cramped, and he couldn't even fully stretch his arms, as if he were being beaten in an invisible small cage.

This was the helplessness of facing "another version of oneself"—never making a mistake, and never missing any opportunity. As long as there was a wisp of advantage, one could grasp it tightly.

As long as one touched a tiny crack in the cloth, one could immediately squeeze a finger in.

And then expand it with an impeccable posture.

Yue Muzhou could stretch less and less, and he could only constantly block, constantly block. Anyone could see that the outcome of this battle was decided. In the next move, or the move after that, this defense, compressed to the extreme, would collapse.

Yue Muzhou had become a small boat in a storm, and the "momentum" had been pressed to the lowest point.

In the Immortal Lord's dragon pupils, the "barrier" of defense was already weak and unbearable.

Just at this punch.

He wouldn't delay any time, and He abandoned any intermediate links.

At the moment the goal could be achieved, He headed straight for the target.

A punch was thrown, and the barrier shattered as expected.

And then, the entire mountain forest fell silent.

Only two breaths later could one recover—it wasn't that everything suddenly became quiet, but that the dragon-like sword roar drowned out all sounds.

The surging sword Qi drowned the Immortal Lord.

An iron hammer hits an iron block; the iron block won't shatter, but will only be forged more refined in the repeated hammering.

The "momentum" suppressed by the Immortal Lord didn't dissipate either, but was compressed into the old man's body, becoming more condensed, pure, hard, and extremely eager to release!

This was the sword strike Yue Muzhou had been preparing since 【Cloud Sky Obscuring the Feather Loss】.

It was the highest achievement forged in the sword path by the old man using his entire life as iron, originating from his repeated imaginings of the moment of soaring into the sky while lying paralyzed in the darkness listening to the cold rain for eighteen years.

That was straight from the abyss to the nine heavens.

When the "momentum" of life was suppressed to the lowest valley, he held on and wasn't crushed, so that "momentum" wouldn't shatter or dissipate, but was buried in his fate, waiting for the moment to soar into the clouds.

The old man geniusly introduced this "momentum" into the battle, which was to erupt with extreme power in the extreme predicament.

Since this sword strike was created, it was the first time it appeared in this world, and it would be the last time for a long time to come.

But this one time was enough to represent Yue Muzhou's sword entering the highest realm of this world.

The sword techniques used for fighting were "technique," and unique skills like 【Cloud Sky Obscuring the Feather Loss】 were only "intent" and "heart."

They were already top-tier sword techniques in the world, but just like the Mystic Gate and the Heavenly Tower, the mountain could not touch the sky.

Until this sword strike.

The old man held that ethereal "momentum" in his hand and dissolved it into the sword move, which was truly entering the level of "Dao." It was a talent that even the Sword Lord would look sideways at.

This was the final move of the Snow Night Flying Goose sword style.

【Soaring into the Sky, Reversing Floating Life】 ===== CHAPTER 88 =====