"I don't know anything about paths stretching long or people drifting far, Master Xiang. I just want to look at you. That's all."
Just to look at him — that was enough.
In the final moments of his life, Hu Shuanzi still struggled to cast one last glance at Dugu Xiao.
Was that it?
Was that truly enough?
There was too much powerlessness in this world, and yet there was also too much willingness!
Xiang Qian stood up.
That was enough.
Then he stepped forward and flicked his finger.
The flying sword shot forth once more, its violent, frenzied shriek making it seem like a living, savage creature!
All of this seemed to unfold in extreme slowness, yet in the heat of battle, very little time had passed.
At that moment, Dragon Mask and Jiang Wang had only exchanged a dozen or so moves in the air.
"If you keep this up, you'll be killed sooner or later!" Jiang Yan's voice echoed through the Celestial Palace.
Jiang Wang kept his eyes locked firmly on Dragon Mask's gaze, burning Dao essence at every moment so he could dodge incoming attacks at the first sign of danger.
"Jiang Wang, you know this — I am very familiar with the Path of White Bones' techniques," Jiang Yan said.
Flame Meteor exploded once more. Jiang Wang materialized at another corner of the sky, casually flicking out several flame blossoms as a temporary barrier.
At this level of ferocious combat, expansive techniques like Detonation Flame Sparrows and Sea of Flame Blossoms simply didn't have time to deploy — and the Sea of Flame Blossoms had already proven useless against Dragon Mask.
Instant-cast techniques like Binding Tiger and Flame Blossoms were equally ineffective. If not for Jiang Wang's Three Swords of Heaven, Earth, and Man, which could occasionally pose a threat from unexpected angles, Dragon Mask would have seized him long ago.
But as Dragon Mask grew more familiar with Flame Meteor and Jiang Wang's sword techniques, it was only a matter of time.
"Dragon Mask's weakness is the top of his skull! Let me at him — I can kill him in ten breaths!" Jiang Yan shouted.
"Shut up!" Jiang Wang responded from within the Celestial Palace.
No matter what, he would never hand over his body.
If it truly came to a moment of certain death, he would rather sever his own Dao path and extract his divine abilities first.
Right at that moment...
Xiang Qian's flying sword shot toward them.
Xiang Qian himself was only at the Soaring Dragon Realm, fighting the Monkey Mask to a standstill. But after activating his sword formation, he had already achieved killing power rivaling that of the Inner Palace Realm.
One flick of his finger killed the Monkey Mask. With another flick, his sword struck at Dragon Mask!
"Brother Dragon!" the Rabbit Mask shrieked a warning.
Dragon Mask, who had been relentlessly pursuing Jiang Wang through the sky, whirled around abruptly. His fist, covered in golden scales, slammed down directly onto the screaming flying sword!
The flying sword veered off course, flying away as if wounded.
Blood inevitably trickled from the corner of Xiang Qian's mouth.
"Your flying sword — quite interesting."
With those words, Dragon Mask took another step and crashed toward the flying sword, hammering down another fist!
The flying sword was smashed into the ground.
"Pfft!"
Xiang Qian spat out a mouthful of blood, suffering heavy injuries on the spot.
Chiu chiu chiu! Chiu chiu chiu!
The piercing shrieks rang out again.
Dragon Mask barely managed to turn around when the space before him was already filled wall-to-wall with Detonation Flame Sparrows, leaving no room to dodge.
And yet he simply closed his eyes, golden light erupting violently from his body!
Golden scales spread across every inch of his flesh, making him look like a demon or a fiend.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang...
That was the sound of the Flame Sparrows pecking against his body.
The high-grade technique obtained from the Qi Kingdom royal family — a supreme-grade Dao art of the finest tier — could not breach his defense even for a moment!
Boom!
Jiang Wang willed it, and every single Flame Sparrow detonated simultaneously, countless sounds merging into one.
The berserk fire-attribute elemental power briefly dominated the space, forcing all other elemental forces to retreat for a single breath.
In that very instant, Xiang Qian, regardless of his grievous wounds, bit the tip of his tongue and flicked his finger once more.
The fallen flying sword leaped from the ground — a leap like a carp vaulting the Dragon Gate — surging forward with an aura of absolute dominance, ramming straight for the back of Dragon Mask's heart.
This sword raised thunder from flat ground and stirred winds and clouds as it soared.
There was a quality to it, as if between heaven and earth, this were the only sword that mattered.
People felt they could see Xiang Qian himself hurtling forward in a full-body charge reflected in this blade — even though he clearly stood in place, looking so disheveled, so much like a loser — who would have noticed?
The flying sword was the man, and the man was the flying sword.
This sword was self alone.
And the self could slay all things!
Jiang Wang's timing was impeccable. Even a powerhouse as formidable as Dragon Mask could not claim to emerge unscathed from the deluge of Detonation Flame Sparrows.
The first wave of sharp pecking was indeed blocked by the Dragon Scales, but the violent explosion that erupted in the very next instant dealt him a silent blow.
Before he could even catch his breath, Xiang Qian's flying sword had already arrived.
A sudden alarm blazed in his heart!
Even he dared not take this sword head-on.
The air around him exploded again, and his entire body plummeted like a boulder, using the momentum of the fall to evade the blade's edge.
But the man arrived, and the sword arrived with him.
Through this delay, Dragon Mask realized that the sword's momentum had not weakened in the slightest — it grew stronger with every moment of pursuit.
Delay was no solution.
He made his decision swiftly. Dense, unyielding golden light wrapped around his fist until it became gold itself.
The Golden Fist thundered forward!
The flying sword stalled for a fraction of a second. Beneath Dragon Mask's feet, the ground sank several inches. And from his fist, droplets of blood fell to the earth.
All of this fell silent — then erupted into motion once more.
The entire flying sword flew backward, and Xiang Qian toppled over with his head thrown back.
And Dragon Mask, too, could not hold back — a mouthful of blood burst from his lips.
To face such a savage sword head-on — even he could not escape grievous wounds.
But this was the choice he had weighed and made.
To achieve killing power that could match the direct confrontation of an Inner Palace Realm cultivator while only at the Soaring Dragon Realm — what manner of swordsmanship was this?
Even as Dragon Mask's mind churned with shock and doubt, Rabbit Mask's panicked voice already rang out from behind him: "Brother Dragon? What happened to you?"
Truly a weak, helpless woman.
Dragon Mask thought coldly.
But of the original twelve White Bone Mask bearers, only the two of them remained now...
"Just a small wound..."
Dragon Mask stopped mid-sentence, his voice cutting off as a sudden shock struck: "You!"
Rabbit Mask had approached from behind, seemingly to join forces against the enemy. But once she arrived, the timorous eyes behind her mask abruptly turned blood-red!
Rabbit Mask — the thinnest, weakest of them all — harbored her most terrifying ability in her frenzied, bloodthirsty aspect.
The moment her eyes turned red, a broken thorn had already pierced into the back of Dragon Mask's heart.
Before he could even spin around and strike with his elbow, she had already backflipped away.
The speed and strength displayed across those few movements were in no way inferior to the Monkey Mask operating at full power with his Dharma Aspect deployed.
Where was the feeble, helpless little Rabbit Sister now?
"A Heart-Wearing Thorn..."
Feeling his heart rapidly weakening, Dragon Mask instantly understood what had struck him.
As its name implied, the Heart-Wearing Thorn targeted the heart, corroding and destroying it — a vicious artifact designed specifically for that organ.
It belonged to the same series of consumable artifacts as the Essence-Sealing Spike, which could suppress an opponent's Dao essence flow. They were expensive, but their effects were extraordinary.
Of course, compared to the Essence-Sealing Spike, the Heart-Wearing Thorn was worth incomparably more and far more formidable.
Hu Shaomeng had used a single Essence-Sealing Spike to end the life of the Xi family's Soaring Dragon Realm elder, and now Rabbit Mask's Heart-Wearing Thorn had caused Dragon Mask's injuries to deteriorate rapidly.
Jiang Wang would never let such an opportunity slip away. No matter what was happening within the Path of White Bones, this was the best chance he would ever have.
So while Dragon Mask counterattacked and Rabbit Mask retreated, Jiang Wang surged forward!
Using himself as the blade and Changxiangsi as the edge, he transformed into a streak of flowing light, his sword piercing through mountains, rivers, earth, sun, moon, and stars, as he arrived in the air above Dragon Mask.
Dragon Mask's body tried to react at the very first instant, but his strength was failing, little by little, inevitably and irreversibly.
The Celestial Palace operated at a frenzied pace. The Inner Palace surged violently. These two power sources fought to hold his body together, dragging him upward from the abyss of death — pulling, pulling...
But it was a moment too late.
Jiang Wang had already descended, sword and man as one. Changxiangsi fell vertically, piercing straight from the crown of his skull into Dragon Mask's body!
If only...
If he had not been careless, the Heart-Wearing Thorn, no matter how vicious, could never have pierced his body.
If only...
If Jiang Wang had not been so resolute, had Dragon Mask been given just one more breath, he could have mustered the strength to fight back.
If — if, at the very first moment of the Heart-Wearing Thorn's impact, instead of counterattacking Rabbit Mask, he had used that strike's force to deal with Jiang Wang — perhaps the outcome would have been different...
Yet he had underestimated Xiang Qian, underestimated Jiang Wang, and even underestimated Rabbit Mask.
To make so many errors in a single battle was already cause enough for death.
But the most terrifying thing of all was that he had underestimated that person...
In that instant, Dragon Mask had already figured everything out, but all he could produce was a roar of pain and hatred: "Zhang Linchuan!"