The rain fell in relentless sheets, the air thick with the metallic tang of impending death. The Cloudweave Assassin, his voice a rasping sneer, spoke through the storm. "General Yue, your ruthlessness is renowned, but what makes you so certain I'll play your game?"
Yue Qingfeng's eyes burned with unyielding resolve. "Defeat this boy," he said, his tone cold as the rain, "and I shall grant you your life this night." The assassin, having witnessed Yue's slaughter and knowing his hidden refuge, recognized the words as a perilous lure. Yet, a flicker of hope stirred within him.
His gaze fell upon the boy clutching the blade, and, against all reason, he lowered the dagger poised for his own throat. "General Yue, deputy to Marshal Yue, whose word is iron," he rasped. "I trust your honor." Struggling to his feet, he sealed his wounds with deft pressure points, pain eclipsed by the desperate will to survive. His leopard-like eyes locked on the boy, Li Yongyi, as he drew a slender longsword with his right hand, a short blade reversed in his left. "Come, lad," he growled.
Li Yongyi's heart thundered, the blade's hilt searing his palm. Yue Qingfeng clapped his shoulder, and a surge of arcane force flooded his veins, Yue's voice echoing in his mind: "Step forward, raise the blade, Cloud-Cleaving Strike, Mountain-Splitting Slash."
The arcane force coursed like wildfire, compelling Li forward. His blade arced upward, a crescent moon slicing through the night, its chill radiance parrying the assassin's longsword. Though the assassin's strength was formidable, his wounds sapped his vigor. The arcane surge amplified Li's muscles, granting explosive power. The blades clashed, equal in force, until the arcane flow shifted, guiding his sword into a diagonal cleave that tore through the assassin's garb, blood blooming like crimson petals.
The assassin roared, lunging with desperate ferocity, but the Celestine Crossbow's bolt had shattered his meridians, dulling his speed and power. Li Yongyi, fueled by Yue's arcane force, wielded his blade artistry with lethal precision—cleaving strikes as the core, supported by sweeps, cuts, and hidden thrusts. Yue's voice guided, steady and commanding: "Horizontal sweep, Cloud-Scattering Strike." "Grip with both hands, Wave-Breaking Slash." The arcane tide surged, driving the blade through the rain-soaked night, blood trailing in its wake.
Discarding his short blade, the assassin thrust his longsword, a wave of killing intent crashing toward Li's face. Instinctively, the boy's body chilled, his mind blank, until Yue's shout pierced the haze: "Open your eyes! Face the killing intent!" Li's gaze locked on the assassin's bloodshot eyes, the air heavy with the stench of blood, earth, and the man's rancid breath. The arcane force surged, and he crouched, dodging the lethal strike, his blade retracting to his waist before thrusting forward like a dragon uncoiled.
"King-Piercing Thrust!" Yue's voice boomed in his mind. The blade pierced the assassin's armor, plunging into his abdomen, blood and bile spilling along the blood groove. Li Yongyi twisted aside, evading the assassin's grappling arms, and with a fierce twist of the hilt, he swept the blade outward, cleaving flesh and emerging into the night once more.
"Chariot-Slaying Strike!" Yue bellowed. The assassin, in his final defiance, roared and swung a fist toward Li's face. The boy countered, raising the hilt to strike the assassin's wrist. "Mountain-Pushing Strike!" he shouted, retreating as the blade scraped the earth, the arcane force roiling within. A flash of frost-like light erupted as the blade arced upward, creating distance.
Spinning, Li Yongyi raised the blade high, his right foot stamping forward, body taut as a drawn bow. With a crescent arc, he abandoned defense, channeling all into a final, devastating cleave. "Heaven-Wolf Slash!" The radiant strike sundered the assassin's flesh, shattering a decade of nightmares in a single blow.
The blade lodged in the muddy earth, Li Yongyi gasping for breath. Yue's arcane force dissipated, yet the blade artistry imprinted itself in his muscles, a faint cycle of energy now flowing through his meridians. His stamina returned with uncanny speed, surpassing even his earlier vigor. Gazing at the assassin's broken form—his enemy, the specter of a decade's torment—he felt an unshakable groundedness, a catharsis that threatened to spill into a primal cry.
Yue Qingfeng's hand ruffled Li Yongyi's hair, a grin splitting his face. "Well done, lad." With an effortless motion, he hoisted the assassin's corpse and impaled it on the blade's spine, severing the head in a spray of crimson that mingled with the rain.
"Welcome, boy," Yue said, his voice a thunderous echo through the storm, "to this world of chaos and blood!"
**(End of Chapter)**