“Not bad at all.”
The handsome man narrowed his eyes slightly, his expression far more solemn.
“You’re not bad yourself.”
Dustin’s face remained calm, though inwardly he felt some surprise.
Since stepping into the Land Immortal realm, he had never encountered a single worthy foe. Yet here, he had found an opponent of equal level.
“Again!” the handsome man barked.
The white light around him condensed once more. The shattered whale’s phantom did not vanish but instead split into thousands of silvery fish, each fin edged with sharp blades. They darted through the sea, weaving an impenetrable net of light.
With a flick of his finger, the net contracted. Countless light-fish shrieked in piercing unison as they surged toward the sword platform beneath Dustin. Wherever they passed, the sea split open into countless fine cracks.
Dustin’s eyes sharpened. His wrist turned, his sword traced three flowing arcs.
The sword platform suddenly rose a hundred meters higher. From the sea surged countless peaks of azure sword qi, sharp as blades, breaking through the net’s blockade like bamboo shoots after the rain.
The light-fish that struck the peaks burst apart into motes of white light, yet those behind pressed forward relentlessly, colliding again and again, filling the sea with a rapid ringing of steel.
The handsome man snorted coldly, his hands forming seals. “Whale Swallowing—Annihilation!”
The scattered motes of light gathered above Dustin’s head, re-forming into a colossal white whale phantom.
This whale was several times larger than before. As its jaws gaped wide, the black vortex within spun faster, unleashing a suction far stronger than before.
The sword platform beneath Dustin shook violently. Cracks spread across the surrounding sword peaks, and even the edges of his white robes flapped as though about to be torn away.
Drawing a deep breath, Dustin’s sword qi erupted, his figure becoming a streak of azure light as he charged headlong into the maelstrom of waves and fire.
“Sword Dance!”
His silhouette weaved among fire and ice, sword qi forming an impenetrable barrier that shattered the ice and split the flames.
Each strike was precise—evading the deadliest edges while striking back at the whale’s vital points.
Wherever the sword light passed, the whale’s radiance dimmed, its body marked by deep, bone-cutting gashes…
Meanwhile, in the real world—
By the lakeshore, the camp’s atmosphere had frozen to its limits.
The handsome man hovered in the air, robes flaring though there was no wind. The light around him rippled violently, sending out concentric waves.
Where those ripples passed, grass withered and stone cracked.
A flush stained his pale face, and golden liquid glimmered faintly at the corner of his lips—the sign of excessive spiritual depletion.
At the stone table, Dustin too betrayed signs of strain. Though he sat still, his hands gripped his sword so tightly his knuckles blanched.
The air around him warped, the tea on the table had long since boiled. Beads of water floated upward, defying gravity, trembling with every wave of distortion.
“Miss, look at their aura…” Qingzhu whispered nervously.
She could clearly see the space between the two warriors twisting, sunlight refracting into rainbows, and within that halo everything subtly shifted.
The lake’s waters began to recede, the soil hardening like stone, even the air turning bitterly cold.
“Their spiritual force is reaching its critical point,” Margaret said gravely. “If this continues, the entire lakeshore will be leveled.”
As her words fell, the rippling waves of light between the two men collided violently, unleashing an invisible shockwave.
Several ancient trees at the camp’s edge snapped in half at once. Shards of wood flew, guards threw themselves flat to the ground, clutching their heads against the crushing spiritual pressure.
Then the handsome man’s body shook violently. His light-waves spread wider and wider, cracks spiderwebbed across the earth to the lakeshore, where the waters began boiling, spewing thick white mist.
The stone table before Dustin shattered. His white robes gleamed with a radiant azure glow, while the air around him twisted so fiercely that even light could not pass straight through.
The guards had retreated miles away, staring from a distance at the illusory battlefield, their faces pale with fear and awe.
Margaret frowned deeply. She could feel the terrifying pressure climbing swiftly, threatening to explode at any moment.
Then suddenly, the turbulent waves began to recede, as if the tide were reversing.
In the same instant, two blinding lights erupted from the bodies of both men.
Rumble—!
Thunder cracked across the heavens.
At that sound, both Dustin and the handsome man snapped their eyes open at once. - Marinien
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