Shhh! A sharp slicing sound pierced the air. Feng Yun Wuji instinctively tilted his head, but still, a gust of claw wind grazed past his ear. A faint claw mark appeared on his left cheek, gradually darkening to a bloody streak, tiny threads of blood seeping out.
A few hundred meters behind him, Ye Mei let out a chilling laugh. His shadowy form slowly took shape, half of his upper body and lower body materializing. He lightly licked the blood off his claw tip, a satisfied smile spreading across his pale face. "Such sweet blood... aged over twenty million years. Truly nourishing... Heh heh, it's been so long. The world seems to have forgotten us Night Clan, forgotten how swiftly we once ruled the world."
Feng Yun Wuji remained silent. Just now, he hadn't even caught sight of Ye Mei's form; his dodge was purely instinctual. Among all the myriad forces in the world, sword cultivators boasted the fastest speed. Even the Night Clan, swift as they were, couldn't compare to Feng Yun Wuji. Yet he never expected the clan chief's speed to be so unfathomably fast.
Ye Mei chuckled strangely. With a flicker, his figure blurred and vanished swiftly into the wind.
The black rainbow surged. Feng Yun Wuji slashed a diagonal sword strike. A strange scream echoed. Suddenly, the wrist holding his fifth sword gall bladder ached sharply—skin peeled back, blood gushing out.
But Feng Yun Wuji ignored the pain, eyes locked fiercely on Ye Mei several meters away. From beneath the slanted fifth sword gall bladder, a single strand of black hair floated gently down.
Ye Mei's pale hand brushed the dangling hair. The hair's ends were neatly cut. His face twisted with disbelief as he stared at Feng Yun Wuji, opening his mouth to speak but hesitating several times. Finally, he couldn't hold back: "How… how is this possible… you…"
"Do you really think I owe you an explanation? Or that I'm stupid enough to tell you and help you kill me?" Feng Yun Wuji cut him off coldly. He knew what Ye Mei wanted to ask, but wasn't foolish enough to reveal his secret.
"Hmph! You really think you can't be killed by me?"
Ye Mei's bat-winged cloak suddenly expanded, and to Feng Yun Wuji's shock, ten more identical Ye Mei shadows emerged from each side of his body. Then ten more appeared. In the blink of an eye, hundreds of Ye Mei's ghostly duplicates filled the space before Feng Yun Wuji, all suspended in the void, indistinguishable from illusions.
Feng Yun Wuji's heart trembled wildly. This far exceeded anything he had ever imagined.
With no time to waste, he crossed his hands and swept them across his chest, then spread his arms wide. His long hair whipped fiercely in the wind as he closed his eyes. The void filled with an intense chorus of sword hums, and streams of blazing white light began to take shape. Millions of slender spirit swords formed a dense, rotating circle, completely surrounding Feng Yun Wuji.
"Come. Show me your best trick. If you think speed alone can kill me, you're just dreaming. But I don't mind taking your head home as a trophy," Feng Yun Wuji said coldly. He swung his hands, and the dense sword formation shielded him like a rainstorm of blades. With a light step, he leapt off the cliff, the sword formation spinning swiftly, blades pointing toward Ye Mei.
"Is that so?" Hundreds of Ye Mei duplicates spoke in unison, their lips curling into eerie smiles. Their forms flickered and then vanished all at once into the void.
Crash!
Several spirit swords on the left shattered violently. Feng Yun Wuji's divine sight swept the area—Ye Mei was already retreating. Then on the right, another explosion—hundreds more spirit swords broke apart.
Crash! Crash! Crash!
Shadows surged from all directions into the sword formation, smashing every blade in their path. Feng Yun Wuji remained unfazed. Indeed, those dozens of shadows halted a few meters before him and abruptly turned to flee at lightning speed. But Feng Yun Wuji had anticipated this. As they paused, the previously still sword formation suddenly spun fiercely. The spirit swords overlapped, forming a blinding white glow—visible light without any solid shape.
"Heh!"
Feng Yun Wuji exhaled sharply, releasing a burst of sword qi. The sword formation roared in intensity. The shadows moved swiftly inside the formation, dodging and weaving, ignoring the razor-sharp sword qi—but they couldn't break free.
Outside the formation, dense shadows attacked the outer spirit swords relentlessly. Countless swords shattered into fragments under the onslaught of Ye Mei's avatars. Yet the sword qi quickly reformed, regenerated by the sword energy. Often, swords broke and reformed so fast that Ye Mei had no chance to break through.
Ching!
A sharp sword hum rang out. From Feng Yun Wuji's embrace, a black rainbow shot out, swiftly merging into the swirling mass of spirit swords.
Inside the sword formation, a gray shadow appeared. The addition of the fifth sword gall bladder made Ye Mei increasingly cautious—this was a divine weapon, and Ye Mei could sense the deadly aura clinging to the blade.
Rarely did Ye Mei dare to enter the sword formation in person. Feng Yun Wuji certainly wouldn't let him leave easily. His unparalleled divine sight surged forth, covering a hundred-mile radius. Every movement, no matter how slight, was clear as day.
What puzzled Feng Yun Wuji was that, despite his divine sight, those hundreds of frenzied attackers still carried the aura of living beings—far from mere spells or illusions. Though curious, Feng Yun Wuji didn't delve deeper, focusing his intent and unleashing his divine sight across the hundred-plus Ye Mei duplicates.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Outside the sword formation, one by one, Ye Mei's duplicates turned to ash and vanished. Inside, only one true Ye Mei remained, pain etched on his face, surrounded by drifting ashes...
This outcome surpassed Feng Yun Wuji's expectations. The power of his divine sight was beyond what he had imagined. With the fourth realm consciousness of "Intent Sword Body," few in the entire ancient era could rival him. Dealing with Ye Mei was naturally effortless.
Seizing this rare opportunity, countless spirit swords bombarded Ye Mei's true form. Then Feng Yun Wuji flashed forward, gripping the fifth sword gall bladder. In a lightning-fast strike, he sliced from Ye Mei's left shoulder down to his right hip.
Crash!
Ye Mei's eyes widened in shock, as if refusing to close even in death. His upper body slid diagonally, blood pouring out in torrents...
Wiping his sword clean, Feng Yun Wuji turned and walked calmly toward the Sword Pavilion. Behind him, Ye Mei's severed halves fell apart, blood raining down. The ground was a complete mess...