"Wei Lin, focus on protecting Lin Mei" I said privately through spiritual sense, activating my Titan's Crest rune. I felt the familiar surge of physical enhancement flow through my body, my muscles growing denser and more powerful. "I’ll handle this."
"What are you planning?" Lin Mei asked nervously, her hands already weaving the beginning patterns of a defensive water technique.
"Something they won't expect," I replied as I ran forward, channeling red sun energy into my Blink Step rune.
Wu Kangming's eyes narrowed as he noticed the change in my aura, but he couldn't identify the source. Runes were essentially unknown in this world, giving me a significant advantage in terms of unpredictability.
Meng Haoran was standing approximately three feet behind Wu Kangming, well within the thirty-meter range of my Blink Step ability. The rune would allow me to appear directly beside him faster than even Wu Kangming should be able to react.
"This might get ugly," I whispered, then activated the rune.
The world blurred around me as I disappeared in a flash of red light, reality bending as I traversed the distance in an instant. I rematerialized directly beside Meng Haoran, my palm already thrusting forward with a Phantom Strike enhanced by the Titan's Crest rune.
The look of shock and terror on Meng Haoran's face would have been funny under different circumstances. He'd been watching Wu Kangming's position, expecting any attack to come from the front. Finding me suddenly beside him, palm racing toward his chest with enough force to cave in his ribcage, left him completely defenseless.
The real attack came from above.
A massive vine, thick as my torso, dropped from the bone-white trees overhead like a striking python. It wrapped around Wu Kangming's sword with crushing force, the woody coils tightening as I poured more qi into the technique.
"Clever," Wu Kangming said, his voice carrying that same emotionless tone even as he struggled against the binding. "But not enough."
He was right, of course. The vine was already beginning to smoke where it touched his blade, some kind of cutting aura working to sever my technique from within. But I'd bought myself the seconds I needed.
My other hand had been busy during our exchange, the Explosive Seed rune on my right index finger pulsed as I flicked the small projectile through the air.
The seed arced over Wu Kangming's head in a perfect parabola, aimed directly at Meng Haoran's chest.
Meng's eyes went wide with terror as he spotted the incoming impossibly fast projectile, but his cultivation level was too low to react in time. A direct hit from one of my explosive seeds would definitely eliminate him, and with him, their entire team.
"Big Brother!" Luo Yichen called out in panic.
But Wu Kangming was still tangled in my vine, his movements restricted despite his attempts to cut free. For a heartbeat, it looked like my gambit had worked.
Then Luo Yichen moved.
His Mirrorwater Blade flashed through the air faster than my eyes could follow, the reflection-based technique allowing him to intercept the seed at an impossible angle. But instead of destroying it, something strange happened.
The explosive seed made contact with his blade and simply... disappeared.
For a moment, I thought he'd somehow destroyed it completely. Then I saw the surface of his sword beginning to glow with the same qi signature as my explosive technique.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," I muttered.
The Mirrorwater Blade lived up to its name, the surface rippling like disturbed water before expelling my own explosive seed back at me with twice the velocity I'd originally thrown it.
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I activated Blink Step without thinking, red sun energy coursing through the rune on my left thigh as I disappeared in a flash of crimson light. The world blurred around me as I traversed thirty meters in an instant, rematerializing just as my own explosive seed detonated where I'd been standing.
The blast carved a crater in the rocky ground, sending up a shower of debris and superheated air that made my ears ring even from this distance.
"That was uncomfortably close," I said, brushing dust off my robes.
"Master," Azure's voice whispered urgently in my mind, "incoming attack from your six o'clock!"
I spun around just in time to see Wu Kangming's blade descending toward my neck in a perfect vertical slash. He'd freed himself from my vine and covered the distance between us faster than should have been possible, his sword trailing streamers of silver qi that seemed to cut through space itself.
There was no time to dodge.
The Aegis Mark rune in my inner world flared to life, red energy erupting around me in a hexagonal barrier pattern. The defensive formation absorbed most of the impact, Wu Kangming's blade skittering across the surface with a sound like grinding metal.
But not all of it.
A thin line of pain opened across my throat, warm blood trickling down my neck where the edge of his attack had found its mark despite my protection.
"Damn," I breathed, pressing my fingers to the wound. It was shallow, barely more than a scratch, but the fact that any part of his attack had penetrated the Aegis Mark was concerning.
Wu Kangming stepped back, studying me with those pale, calculating eyes. "Interesting defensive technique," he said conversationally, as if he hadn't just tried to decapitate me. "Some kind of barrier formation?"
I didn't answer. There was no point in giving him more information about my capabilities than he'd already observed.
I frowned as I studied Wu Kangming's perfectly composed stance. He was already settling back into a ready position, his sword held at the precise angle for optimal defense and counter-attack. Every movement was economical, efficient, displaying the kind of muscle memory that came from years of dedicated practice.
The truth was, I couldn't underestimate Wu Kangming. Not after watching him casually eliminate that massive stone golem with a single strike. And that had been his base state, before he'd unlocked whatever mysterious seal was suppressing his true power.
But here was the thing, I wasn't trying to defeat Wu Kangming right now. I wasn't that delusional.
A proper battle against Wu Kangming would require everything I had: both suns, every rune, probably even some luck. That kind of all-out fight would take time we didn't have, and by the end of it, the final remaining slots would be taken while we were busy trying to kill each other.
Both our teams would be eliminated while we were proving who had the bigger ‘sword techniques’.
No, all I needed to do was distract Wu Kangming for a few crucial seconds. Get past his guard, eliminate Meng Haoran, and secure our advancement.
Simple, direct, effective.
I activated the Hawk's Eye rune, feeling the familiar sensation of enhanced perception flow through my consciousness. Wu Kangming's micro-expressions became crystal clear: the slight tension in his jaw, the way his pupils tracked my movements, the barely perceptible shift in his stance that indicated he was preparing for another sword technique.
More importantly, I could see the pattern of his breathing, the rhythm of his qi circulation, even the tiny tells that preceded his attacks. The rune let me read his intentions like an open book, predicting his next move before he'd fully committed to it.
"Let's see how you handle this," I muttered, activating Blink Step once again.
Red sun energy flared through the rune inscribed on my thigh, and I disappeared in a flash of crimson light. I rematerialized directly in front of Wu Kangming, close enough to see my reflection in his pale eyes, my palm already thrusting forward with a Phantom Strike enhanced by both the Titan's Crest and Shockwave runes.
The combination was devastating.
The Titan's Crest flooded my body with enhanced physical essence, making my muscles dense and powerful as steel cables. The Shockwave rune added concentrated force manipulation to the attack, turning my palm strike into something that could punch through mountain stone.
Wu Kangming's eyes widened slightly as he recognized the threat, his sword moving in a desperate counter-strike aimed at intercepting my attack. But the Hawk's Eye rune let me read his movement before he'd even started it.
I twisted aside, letting his blade slide past my shoulder by mere inches, and stepped inside his guard. At this range, his sword was useless, too long to bring to bear effectively in close quarters.
My enhanced palm strike connected with Wu Kangming's chest, and the combined force of two activated runes sent him flying backward like he'd been hit by a catapult. His body carved a straight line through the air before slamming into one of the bone-white trees with enough force to crack the trunk. Bark and splinters exploded outward as he hit, and I heard him grunt in pain as he slumped against the damaged tree.
I didn't waste a moment savoring the successful strike. The instant Wu Kangming was out of the picture, I activated Blink Step again, reappearing directly in front of Meng Haoran with my palm already charged for another Phantom Strike.
But Luo Yichen was ready for me.
The younger cultivator's Mirrorwater Blade intercepted my attack path, its reflective surface gleaming with stored energy. I could see my own reflection in the weapon: multiple copies of myself, each one slightly different, creating a disorienting kaleidoscope effect.
"Sorry," Luo Yichen said grimly, "but I'm not letting you hurt Meng Haoran."
For a split second, it looked like I was going to strike directly into the blade and have my own attack reflected back at me with enhanced force. That would be a disaster, getting hit by my own Phantom Strike enhanced by the Mirrorwater Blade's amplification effect would probably eliminate me.
But I had other options.
Just as my palm was about to connect with the reflective surface, I activated Blink Step for the third time in rapid succession. The red sun energy reserves in my inner world dipped noticeably as I pushed the rune beyond its normal usage limits, but the technique responded perfectly.
I disappeared in another flash of crimson light, completely bypassing Luo Yichen's defensive position and reappearing directly behind Meng Haoran. The seventh-stage cultivator's back was exposed, vulnerable, just a hand's breadth away from my enhanced palm strike.
"No!" Luo Yichen screamed, trying to spin around fast enough to intercept me again.
But he was too late.
My palm was already racing toward Meng Haoran's spine, powered by the Titan's Crest and guided by perfect targeting. In less than a heartbeat, the strike would connect and eliminate their entire team.
It was right at that moment when something slammed into me from the side with the force of a runaway boulder.
The impact sent me tumbling through the air, my enhanced reflexes barely allowing me to control the fall. Fortunately, the Aegis Mark activated again, its hexagonal barrier patterns absorbing most of the kinetic energy before it could pulverize my ribs.
I managed to land in what some might call a "hero pose"; one knee down, one hand braced against the ground, head raised to assess the threat. It looked dramatic and composed, though honestly, I was just trying not to face-plant into the rocky terrain.
When I looked up, my eyes widened at what I saw.
Wu Kangming stood protectively in front of Meng Haoran, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth where my earlier strike had obviously caused internal damage. His white outer disciple robes were torn and dirty from his collision with the tree, and his usually perfect hair was disheveled.
But what concerned me wasn't his physical condition. It was the aura radiating from his body.
Pseudo Elemental Realm.