The sword’s silhouette flickered, bypassing the area entirely as the Cyan Sword thrust toward Xu Wuyi’s left.
Xu Wuyi blocked with a horizontal sweep of his long spear.
CLANG!
The instant the spear and sword met, Xu Wuyi felt an incredibly pure "piercing" Intention travel up the shaft of his spear, aimed straight at the core of his consciousness.
This wasn’t a physical impact, but an attack on the spiritual plane.
Even with a 99% Simulation Level, virtual combat could never replicate a Sword Intention that attacked one’s consciousness so directly.
Xu Wuyi grunted. The dark-golden great marsh of his Heart Image rippled violently, forcibly engulfing and crushing that wisp of Sword Intention. The effort, however, consumed nearly ten percent of his Power of Heart Image.
"Not a bad reaction." The Sword Intention embodiment retracted his sword and stepped back, a flicker of surprise in his eyes. "Your Heart Phase Traits can devour external wills?"
Xu Wuyi had no time to answer.
The second sword strike came.
...
「Outside, beyond the intensive care unit.」
More than twenty people were already gathered in the observation area.
In addition to high-ranking military officers like Feng Zhuohua, Wu Dingbo, and Qiao Tongyu, there were seven or eight other men and women with solemn auras. Whether standing or sitting, all eyes were fixed on the enormous monitoring screen at the center of the room.
The screen was split into two sections.
The left side displayed Shen Jin’s vitals: heart rate, brainwaves, Spiritual Power fluctuations, Heart Image stability... Every graph was a chaotic mess of peaks and valleys, like the surface of a storm-tossed sea.
The right side showed Xu Wuyi’s monitoring data.
His vitals were relatively stable, but the curve representing his Spiritual Power fluctuations had climbed to an astonishing height and was maintaining a high-frequency oscillation.
"Brainwave activity is at seventeen times the normal value," a technician in a white lab coat reported in a low voice. "The load on the spiritual resonance equipment has reached 83% of its design limit and is still rising."
Feng Zhuohua’s face was impassive. "How long can the equipment hold out?"
"Five minutes, at most. Any longer, and the risk of overheating will increase dramatically. It could cause damage."
"Five minutes it is," Feng Zhuohua said. "If this isn’t over in five minutes, initiate the forced cooling procedure. We’ll fix the equipment if it breaks."
"Yes, ma’am."
In a corner of the observation area, five or six young people stood together.
Their ages ranged from their early twenties to their forties. They wore a mix of combat uniforms and casual clothes, but every one of them exuded a sharp aura—the mark of long-term Cultivation in the Saber Technique.
They were Shen Jin’s disciples.
At the front of the group stood a man who appeared to be in his thirties, with a stern face and eyes as sharp as a blade. He wore no rank insignia on his shoulders, yet the surrounding military personnel regarded him with clear respect.
Qin Qinghe, Shen Jin’s Senior Disciple. His actual age was just over forty. He had broken through to the Grandmaster realm three years ago and was now one of the Federation’s youngest Grandmasters.
"Senior Disciple, our teacher..." a younger female disciple asked softly, her voice trembling.
Qin Qinghe stared at the screen, saying nothing.
His gaze swept over Shen Jin’s wildly fluctuating data before shifting to Xu Wuyi’s monitoring curves, his brow furrowing slightly.
’Level 47.’
’That Level would make him a Genius out in the world, but in a Grandmaster Level confrontation, it’s far too weak.’
’The difference in standing is a very real form of suppression. Even with the equipment’s help, the strength Xu Wuyi can wield inside Shen Jin’s sea of consciousness is probably only seventy percent of his usual power, at best.’
’And he has to face the Sword Intention of Ye Yixin.’
’That terrifying entity defeated even their teacher. As Shen Jin’s disciples, they had all challenged the Illusion themselves, of course.’
"Junior Sister Hong," Qin Qinghe said suddenly.
Hong Nianyi, who had been standing silently at the back of the group, looked up. "Senior Disciple."
"You’ve had contact with this Xu Wuyi before?"
"We were on a mission together once," Hong Nianyi said calmly. She had no intention of publicizing what happened on Celestial Wolf Four.
Qin Qinghe looked at her. "Do you think he can succeed?"
Hong Nianyi fell silent for a few seconds.
"I don’t know if he can succeed," Hong Nianyi said at last. "But I know that if it’s him, he’ll fight until the very end."
Qin Qinghe nodded and said nothing more.
His gaze returned to the screen.
At that moment, the curve for Shen Jin’s Heart Image stability dropped another two percentage points.
「Within the sea of consciousness.」
The thirty-seventh exchange.
The edge of the sword pierced Xu Wuyi’s left shoulder, and a tearing pain shot through his conscious form. The pain in virtual combat was simulated; this was real trauma to his consciousness.
But he had also, at last, finished setting up his Gravity Swamp.
Six traps, covering an area with a 330-foot radius around him.
Each trap was only the size of a palm, but the combination of gravitational shifts within was complex to an extreme. This was the optimal solution he had designed over the past month, tailored to every possible movement pattern of the Sword Intention embodiment.
The Sword Intention embodiment clearly sensed the anomaly.
His movements became more cautious; he no longer darted about with the same reckless abandon.
With every thrust, the Cyan Sword’s angle would be minutely adjusted at the last possible moment to avoid the invisible "gravity nodes."
Xu Wuyi gasped for breath.
A deep gash marked the chest of his conscious form. The Flame of the Golden Crow burned at the wound, attempting to repair it, but the process was slow.
The wound inflicted by the Sword Intention had a stubborn, corrosive quality that constantly drained his Power of Heart Image.
"Your tactics are clever," the Sword Intention embodiment said, stopping about two hundred feet away. The Cyan Sword pointed diagonally toward the ground.
"Using a Gravity Field to interfere with the structure of space and restrict my movements... Shen Jin would never have thought of such a method. This is not the way of the Saber Dao."
Xu Wuyi didn’t respond. He was using every available second to recover.
A steady stream of Spiritual Power supplement flowed from his mask, replenishing his spent Power of Heart Image, but repairing the damage to his consciousness required time—time he didn’t have.
"But you are still too weak," the Sword Intention embodiment continued. "On this battlefield, anyone who isn’t a Grandmaster is like an infant challenging an adult with a wooden stick. No matter how exquisite your Gravity Field is, I can break it by force."
As the words fell, the Sword Intention embodiment raised his sword.
A brilliant light erupted from the Cyan Sword.
This was no longer a simple thrust, but the deployment of a "Domain."
With the sword as its epicenter, the space within a five-hundred-foot radius began to "solidify." The once-invisible Gravity Seeds were precisely pierced and shattered by streaks of cyan light from the sword.
Xu Wuyi’s pupils constricted.
He felt his connection to the gravity traps being severed. The Sword Intention embodiment’s attack wasn’t aimed at him, but at the "formation" he had laid out.
’The Illusion in virtual combat had nothing like this in its arsenal.’
’This is the true Sword Intention of Ye Yixin. It can cut not only people but also ’Momentum,’ ’formations,’ and all things, tangible and intangible alike.’
Within three breaths, all six gravity traps collapsed.
Xu Wuyi let out a muffled grunt, his conscious form taking another blow. The traps were linked to his Heart and Spirit; their forceful destruction sent a backlash that struck the core of his consciousness directly.
The dark-golden great marsh churned violently as the Golden Crow let out a silent, piercing cry.
"It’s over," the Sword Intention embodiment said.
He took a single step, and his figure vanished.
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