Gao Feng's words caused Jun Li to furrow her eyebrows. "Annoying… You act like I'm doing something out of the ordinary, but that's just how it is in the Jianghu, right?" Her mind called back memories of 'Junzi's' past as a young Daoist Cultivator. "If you have the ability and incentive, not killing someone is a special act of kindness."

  Gao Feng did not respond, having already expected that kind of response, and Jun Li was left in silence, enduring his gaze. He simply steadied his breathing and observed both her and Little Yun with care.

  With the moment of silence, a thought crept back into Jun Li's mind, having been lost in the chaos of combat. 'How the hell did he get that strong…? It's not even been two days…'

  Logically, the answer was quite obvious and wouldn't take long to guess at. But for someone of Jun Li's mentality, the notion that one would willingly sacrifice the future for the present was absurd to the point of being disturbing. For now, her mind simply didn't perceive the possibility.

  Gao Feng had more practical considerations on his mind. 'That snake… newt… lizard thing… It's pretty strong, it might be an issue…' While in contemplation, his eyes drifted to a glinting object discarded on the stones a few dozen meters away.

  'That thing…? She left it here?' He chucked internally, averting his eyes so that Jun Li didn't follow them. 'Yeah, that makes sense, it's a bit too big to fit in a normal Spatial Ring…'

  Grasping his saber a bit tighter, Gao Feng slowly began to circle Jun Li at a distance. 'I don't need to kill the beast, I just need to avoid it and kill her…"

  Seeing Gao Feng begin to move, Jun Li discarded her thoughts and focused on her body. Some superficial damage had been done to her mouth and teeth, small pinpricks bled lightly across her face, and shallow cuts spread across her body.

  Most importantly, her left arm was cut halfway through, rendering it useless. The Drifting Ghost Blade was able to be used one-handed, and the Sparking Thorn was designed to be used as such, so it wasn't a crippling loss, but even so, she felt compelled to do something.

  Jun Li carefully hardened the silver beneath the skin of her left arm, giving rigidity to its compromised form. Making a handseal with her right hand, Jun Li swept her hand over her left arm, freezing it into a solid club of ice.

  Allowing her frozen arm to hang down, Jun Li placed it against her thigh and pressed into the ice with her right hand, melting it with her Authority, allowing it to droop and flow into a pointed tip before she ceased its melting.

  Raising her left arm once more, a sharp, pointed icicle now replaced her left forearm, turning a useless limb into a solid implement of offense and defense.

  Although it takes some time to describe, in reality, Jun Li had achieved this in only four seconds.

  "Little Yun… keep your distance, intervene when you see an opportunity…" At Jun Li's words, the young serpent took off, rapidly slithering away. Propelled by its new forelimbs, Little Yun travelled a great distance, deliberately placing itself at the furthest edge of Gao Feng's peripheral vision.

  Jun Li believed that her young companion's direct combat power was significant, but might potentially interfere with her ability to perform her best during combat. Thus, she decided to use Little Yun in a better way, to increase Gao Feng's mental load during combat with the ever-present threat of 'another opponent's interference.'

  "I'd rather not kill you if I ca-" Gao Feng's sudden charge interrupted Jun Li's words, forcing her to pull her saber from her Spatial Ring and swing it in the path of his movement, forcing him to avert his course and fly past Jun Li's flank, too far to strike, and too far to be struck.

  Following his path with her eyes, Jun Li quickly responded to his change in movements and raised a proper defense. Now a few meters away and barely having avoided crashing into his own death, Gao Feng's expression made it clear that he wasn't about to engage in any further dialogue with Jun Li.

  Letting out an exacerbated breath, Jun Li spoke under her breath. "Alright then… Have it your way." Neither of the two had the senses to spare on the slowly intensifying rumble above, in the looming bones of the Earth Dragon.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  … … … … … …

  Within a crack in the jaw of the Earth Dragon's skull, a subtle, nearly invisible red glint peeked out from within, from where the next drop of blood would be condensed and fall.

  From this glint, the Immortal who named himself Junzi looked down towards the pair of young Cultivators fighting below. The great, resonant power of the blood served as an anchor point through which his soul could perceive the world outside Jun Li.

  "This is truly a lovely place… a bountiful playground for young Martial Cultivators to compete and develop…" He spoke with delight, his words directed to an unknown recipient. "What resources this place has are… cosmetic. Mere bait, held aloft to tempt the unknowing into diving in."

  "And when they dive into this great whirlpool of fate… some are pushed back, like those young men, Qin Yihua and Guan Heng. Some are pulled under, like that young woman, Bai Yuelin." Junzi spoke the names of the many disciples Jun Li had met in the Grave, recalling their shared memories of these acquaintances better than she herself did.

  "...and some are propelled forward, riding the waves of this realm's turbulent fate…" His gaze focused down towards Gao Feng, watching with intent. "Endure for a little longer, young hero… this realm's fate will lead you unto me, and I will lead you in turn, to a kind and prosperous future…"

  … … … … … …

  Below, Jun Li clashed with Gao Feng, rapidly transitioning between the principles of the Drifting Ghost Blade with her saber and the Sparking Thorn with her frozen left arm.

  Each moment that passed, more and more lines of blood fell from Gao Feng, and all that he could take from Jun Li was shards of ice, her left arm serving her both as a weapon and a shield, slowly splintering away as she favorably traded blows with her opponent.

  Gao Feng would love nothing more than to strike harder, to step in and tear into Jun Li, even if it caused him to take severe damage. He was willing to sacrifice an arm or a leg, even his Cultivation, if it meant killing Jun Li.

  But he didn't want to die here, and he knew that even if he killed Jun Li, if it left him unable to fight, he wouldn't be able to escape the reptilian best that loomed at the edge of his perception.

  'That ice is too tough, even when I take chunks away, it just heals back…' Gao Feng backed off. 'That sword could do it… cut right through…' As rapidly as he had charged Jun Li, Gao Feng shot away, rushing towards a specific point on the mountain's summit.

  Momentarily thinking he had decided to escape, Jun Li hesitated to follow until her eyes landed on his destination. There, Qin Yihua's greatsword laid discarded amidst the stones of the summit, Jun Li having left it there since she was unable to stow it away in her Spatial Rings.

  'Damn it…!' Jun Li knew that sword was a treasure far greater than she could afford to underestimate. Even if its shape made it incompatible with her and Gao Feng's sword styles, she couldn't downplay the strength it held as an implement of raw power.

  Dropping her own saber, Jun Li pulled a Medicinal Plant from her Spatial Ring. Grasping it tightly in her hand, Jun Li focused and rotated her hand forcefully. "Melt…!" The Medicinal Plant ruptured, sending streams of liquid out in a circle, the liquid spilling out through the fingers of Jun Li's hand as her wrist sharply rotated.

  "...and freeze!" Instantly, from the center of her palm, the streaming liquid froze, the spilling liquid forming a disc attached to her hand, made of an unrefined Medicinal Plant, the likes of which would wreak havoc on the body of anyone who might suddenly 'find it in their bloodstream.'

  Gao Feng had almost reached the sword, but Jun Li hadn't taken a step. Even now, she remained still, her hand tensing and untensing around the center of her frozen chakram for a few seconds. '...Now!'

  Throwing the disk with her full might, it sailed through the air, gliding over the ground like the shadow of a diving falcon. Gao Feng anticipated some manner of response from Jun Li, and although he had reached Qin Yihua's sword, he dropped it the moment he saw Jun Li's attack.

  With his newly refined eyes, enhanced through Viscera Tempering and Nerve Tuning, Gao Feng saw the frozen chakram as clear as day, even in flight.

  Stepping gently off the ground, Gao Feng's body flipped, and he faced down, watching the chakram sail through the air beneath him, before he reached out.

  Grasping the chakram, Gao Feng's body inverted once more in the air, before he landed on his feet, the force of the chakram causing him to slide across the stones for a moment.

  "Take this back…!" Reeling back, Gao Feng prepared to throw the chakram back to Jun Li, his eyes barely catching her making a hand gesture, and his ears barely perceiving her words.

  "Three-Second Taiji Melt-Compression Sphere…!" As Jun Li spoke, a violent burst threw Gao Feng to the ground, shattered ice buffeting his body and piercing into his flesh as he lost consciousness for an instant.

  When he came to a half-second later on his back, he rolled over quickly, getting to his knees and reaching out towards Qin Yihua's sword.

  Only, even when he reached out, he could not reach the sword. His forearm was completely missing, replaced with curled strips of flesh that bloomed out from his elbow like the petals of a fringe-flower. He felt no pain from his obliterated arm, only a pain of regret in his heart.

  Gritting his teeth, Gao Feng reached out with his left arm and grasped Qin Yihua's sword solidly, standing to face Jun Li. "...You'll regret not being able to kill me with that half-assed attack…!"