Chapter 1 Some Time Ago

Time, turned back a bit.

Let us see the entrance to Burial Heart Manor…

At that time, the sky was not yet bright.

In the courtyard, murderous intent filled the air.

Under the dim light, two outstanding figures stood in silent opposition.

Li Ruoyu, Xu Huai Shang.

This was their first formal confrontation.

Neither… was willing to lose to the other.

"To be honest, I don't want to fight you." After a few dozen seconds of confrontation, Xu Huai Shang spoke first, "Because you might be stronger than Feng Bujue."

This sentence was not meant to weaken her for tactical reasons, nor was it misleading; it was Xu Huai Shang's genuine feeling.

"Likewise." Ruoyu's response was short and her tone calm.

They both expressed their regard for their opponent, but neither sheathed their killing intent.

Moreover… their hands remained on their weapons.

"But since we have to fight…" As Xu Huai Shang said this, the Dou Qi (battle energy) around her intensified sharply again, "Then I will win."

"Understood…" Ruoyu replied, "You plan to use 'that' from the beginning, right?"

Hearing this, Xu Huai Shang paused slightly, but quickly regained her composure: "Yes!"

"Okay." Ruoyu said, then slightly raised her left hand, summoning her spiritual weapon – the Original Water God Sword. "Then let's directly enter the battle at 'that level'."

What they were saying, others might not understand, but that didn't really matter… because people would soon "see" what they were going to do.

Another brief silence…

About ten seconds later, suddenly!

*Chi-*

A burst of Dou Qi announced that some power within Xu Huai Shang had finally broken through its limits.

This… was her Soul Skill – Soul Advent.

In the "Butterfly War" of S1, Xu Huai Shang had used the special item Eight Jingxia Pills to obtain this ability. But at that time, it was still a power she could not fully control and unleash.

However, after that competition, her combat instincts had vaguely remembered and inherited some of Soul Advent's shadow.

Finally, upon reaching max level, this ability awakened as her Soul Skill…

The Soul Skill version of Soul Advent had two effects. First: the moment it was activated, it restored all Survival Points, Stamina, and Spirit Points. Second: for the next five minutes, she could freely use the "moves of swordsmen from other worlds" without consuming Stamina.

Compared to the item version, the Soul Skill version removed the invincible effect of "Blood, Stamina, and Spirit all being infinitely positive" upon activation, changing it to a setting of "no Stamina consumption when casting moves"; correspondingly, it also deleted the side effect of reducing the player's stats to 1% after Soul Advent ended. Of course, another change was… it could only be activated once per script (generally, the cooldown time for this type of skill in Free Exploration mode was twenty-four hours).

In other aspects… there wasn't much else to say. The power of this move had already been demonstrated when Xu Huai Shang first fought Jue-ge.

Seeing this, some might wonder, since this move also had the heaven-defying effect of "full state recovery", why didn't Xu Huai Shang wait until she had fought with Li Ruoyu for a while before activating it?

The answer was simple… her intuition told her that if she didn't enter the Soul Advent state from the beginning, she might not even have the chance to activate it before being defeated.

And on the other hand…

Ruoyu also activated her Soul Skill, Maximum Efficiency, at the very beginning of the battle.

Moreover, this was the first time she had used the martial arts she learned from Feng Zhi Hen in combat.

Feng Zhi Hen, the Demonic Stream Sword.

Two sword styles, one calm and carefree, the other wild and frenzied.

Feng Zhi Hen himself could create clones to use these two sword techniques, but Li Ruoyu could not.

However, Ruoyu had other methods…

After receiving guidance from Feng Zhi Hen in the Peerless Martial Arts Tournament, Ruoyu integrated what she had learned, combined it with the special effects of her Seventh Level of the Bright Jade Skill, and underwent much training, eventually successfully mastering the skill of using two swords with her left and right hands, simultaneously performing two different sword styles.

Here, it should be mentioned that Ruoyu's Bright Jade Skill had now reached the Eighth Level, with the following specific effects…

[Name: Bright Jade Skill (Eighth Level)]

[Skill Card Attribute: Special Skill, Permanently Learned, Ability Increases with Training]

[Skill Category: ???]

[Effect 1: Divine Skill Initialized, Internal Breath Stabilized] (Stamina consumption rate reduced, can also remain active for a longer period of time in anaerobic conditions)

[Effect 2: Qi Travels Through Ren and Du Meridians, Reborn] (Basic Body Skill ability slightly improved)

[Effect 3: Mind Like Clear Ice, Unfazed by the Sky Falling] (Resistance increased when subjected to mental negative effects)

[Effect 4: Riding the Wind and Treading the Waves, Moving Like a Shadow] (Active Skill, allows the player to perform a theoretically feasible extreme dodge)

[Effect 5: Using Softness to Overcome Hardness, Lifting Heavy Weights as if They Were Light] (Physical damage ability increased by 1.5 times)

[Effect 6: Shifting Flowers Grafting Jade, Gods and Demons are No Match] (Active Skill, reflects half the attack power of an active damage skill back to the releaser, releaser is limited to players)

[Effect 7: Doing as One Pleases, Realm of Microscopic Precision] (Perfectly controls oneself, allowing the body to make any subtle adjustments that are theoretically possible)

[Effect 8: Uninterrupted Power, Profound Strength Like Ice] (Can add ice attribute to any attack skill)

[Learning Conditions: Female Player, Level 35 or higher, Melee Specialization A, Activate Spiritual Arts Specialization]

[Note: Peerless martial art of the Flower Shifting Palace, the ultimate authentic internal art. Those who achieve great success in this divine skill will have uninterrupted power, profound strength like ice, eternal youth, and be invincible in the world.]

The contents in parentheses were not the skill's own descriptions, but rather what Ruoyu had gradually comprehended through repeated attempts and exploration.

In fact, the skill description of the Bright Jade Skill itself only included the preceding part, which was similar to Xiao Tan's Heaven and Earth Reversal Divine Skill, in that just by looking at the words… you wouldn't know what it did at all.

So, let's now focus on explaining the special effect of the Seventh Level of the Bright Jade Skill: Doing as One Pleases, Realm of Microscopic Precision…

The so-called "perfect control of oneself" might not seem particularly difficult at first glance; because the body is originally one's own, being able to control it is taken for granted.

However, in reality, this is not the case…

Indeed, each of us is the master of our own body, but the human body is not so easy to control.

For example…

Okay, I know that many people reading this will definitely think of some lewd things, so let me state first that I am a person of integrity and will not write about those things.

So, continuing… for example…

A classic example is that a person cannot open their eyes the moment they sneeze.

There's also rotating the right wrist clockwise and the right ankle counterclockwise separately; swirling the tongue clockwise in the mouth while rotating the head counterclockwise; and drawing a circle with the left hand while drawing a square with the right hand…

There are many similar examples, and some obstacles come from the physiological limitations of the nervous system, while others are because the same area of the cerebral cortex has difficulty performing two tasks at the same time.

These are just the problems that ordinary people can directly experience. In addition… there are some examples related to body control that already transcend common sense, such as "controlling the ears", "controlling the hair", and even "controlling the bones", "controlling the organs", and "controlling the blood" and so on.

Saying so much is all to make one point… controlling one's body is actually very difficult.

So, putting it into a practical example, since "drawing a circle with the left hand and drawing a square with the right hand" is so difficult, the difficulty of "using one set of sword techniques with the left hand and another set of sword techniques with the right hand" can be imagined.

Even Ruoyu, who had raised the Bright Jade Skill to the Seventh Level, spent a long time perfecting this skill of "ambidextrous combat".

In summary, these two… both possessed supreme, transcendent martial arts, and… they had reached a consensus to abandon all probing and directly engage in the most peak contest!

…………

Dawn was approaching, and the light mist gradually thickened.

Under the light, the will to fight was vast, and the double swords met the double blades.

Without more words, everything had already been clarified in the clashing Dou Qi.

Even before their weapons had met, the auras of the blades and swords had expanded once again, almost encompassing a radius of fifty meters.

The surrounding players and NPCs could all feel this tangible force, and they were all forced back more than ten zhang, away from this chilling atmosphere.

Finally, when the Dou Qi of both sides rose to a critical point, in the same instant, both of them… moved.

Fast, unbelievably fast, dazzlingly fast.

The moment the blades and swords were unleashed, the two figures almost simultaneously disappeared from people's sight.

The three members of Red Cherry could not see their movements.

Yuan Qi and the assembled martial arts heroes could not see their movements either.

Hua Jian could not see their movements even more so…

Among all those present, only Wang Tanzhi, with his Eagle Eye Vision activated, could keep up with their fighting rhythm.

*Buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz—*

Amidst a blurry, chaotic mess of blade and sword shadows, only a dense, strange buzzing sound could be heard, but there was no sound of metal clashing.

Only Xiao Tan understood… that was because both of their weapons were too strong, so strong that the energy on the surface of the weapons repelled each other, making it impossible for them to touch.

Ruoyu's Xuan Yuan Sword was a tangible holy sword, while her spirit weapon, the Original Water God Sword, was an intangible and unique sword. Neither of these two weapons had special effects or attributes specifically targeting players, but their attack power was already heaven-defying enough. Although the Original Water God Sword, which had not yet fully matured, was slightly inferior in strength to the Xuan Yuan Sword, its "indestructible" characteristic still made it no less than any divine weapon.

And Xu Huai Shang's dual blades were also spirit weapons, and spirit weapons that had already fully matured…

Left Blade:

[Name: Falling Blossom]

[Type: Spirit Weapon]

[Quality: Legendary]

[Attack Power: Extremely Strong]

[Attribute: None]

[Special Effect 1: Flower Bloom (deals 300% damage upon hitting)]

[Special Effect 2: Flower Wilt (nullifies 60% of damage upon successfully blocking)]

[Special Effect 3: Falling Blossom Flying Willow (Ultimate Move, can only be used with a combined attack of both blades, cooldown time four hours)]

[Note: Where on earth is the distant wanderer?]

Right Blade:

[Name: Flying Willow]

[Type: Spirit Weapon]

[Quality: Legendary]

[Attack Power: Extremely Strong]

[Attribute: None]

[Special Effect 1: Wind Flight (increases attack speed by 100% after each successful hit, this effect lasts for ten seconds, can be stacked up to three times)]

[Special Effect 2: Willow Falling (increases movement speed by 50% after each successful block, this effect lasts for six seconds, can be stacked up to four times)]

[Special Effect 3: Falling Blossom Flying Willow (Ultimate Move, can only be used with a combined attack of both blades, cooldown time four hours)]

[Note: A smile resolves the sorrows of the past and present.]

The special effects of these two weapons were quite astonishing. Whether fighting players or monsters… as long as it was a close combat battle, they could unleash extremely terrifying power.

If Ruoyu had not activated Maximum Efficiency, it would have been difficult for her to cope.

However, Ruoyu had Maximum Efficiency, and Xu Huai Shang also had Soul Advent…

After a round of rapid offense and defense lasting thirty seconds, they found that… so far, they were evenly matched.

Perhaps Ruoyu had more advantages in the first ten seconds, but after the two effects of Flying Willow gradually stacked up, Xu Huai Shang regained the situation.

But, this… still couldn't determine the winner.

Ruoyu knew of the existence of Soul Advent, so she asked "You plan to use 'that' from the beginning, right?" when she saw Xu Huai Shang unleashing the move.

But Xu Huai Shang didn't know the specific details of Maximum Efficiency, after all, her team didn't have the kind of character who could see through the opponent's stats, so… she didn't know how long Ruoyu's "extreme" state could last, nor did she know what other changes there were.

Under these circumstances, Xu Huai Shang, who could only activate Soul Advent for five minutes, would undoubtedly fight more aggressively…

Thus, when the battle reached the thirty-first second… Xu Huai Shang changed her moves first.

"Returning Circling Dance. Heaven!"

Xu Huai Shang was actually quite fond of announcing the names of her moves. In fact, the studio also had regulations in this regard… given that this behavior could increase style points, the studio encouraged players to announce them in battle… if they could.

Of course, this was a matter of opinion. Some people looked domineering, cool, and evil when they announced the names of their moves… but some people looked embarrassed or even obscene.

As for the standard… seven points depended on appearance and three points on temperament…

In short, in a situation where regular exchanges had yielded no results, the goddess Xu took the lead in seeking change.

Seeing this scene, Ruoyu had to respond in some way…

"Demonic Stream Sword…" Ruoyu used action to show that she could also announce the names of her moves, "…Sword. Weeping Rain."

Even when doing something so chuuni, she could still exude a sense of aloofness, which was truly remarkable.

"Feng Zhi Hen…" Moreover, the two sets of sword techniques from her left and right hands were still two different moves, "…Flowing Wind Easy Trace."

As their voices fell, the moves intertwined.

In that second, the clashing Dou Qi actually made crackling sounds like lightning and thunder.

The intertwined energy also bloomed with brilliant streamers.

A moment later, it could be seen…

Two figures passed each other, separated… to this point in the battle, the two people's figures had stopped for the first time.