Bian had rushed into the room and went for the chess table while Executioner Yellow went for the set of geno armor.
The geno armor was all white and had a holy element to it. Bian doubted if Executioner Yellow could use such a contrasting element, but he reminded himself that Executioners weren't exactly normal.
"There's no point going for the armor, you know that right?" Bian said after taking a moment to assess himself.
If Executioner Yellow was the owner of the Geo Core, then she just had a gold geno core. He on the other hand had a gemstone geno core.
If he could find some free souls or a body composed of souls, he could even boost it up to a super geno core. The crux of the matter was right now, he shouldn't be any weaker than her.
'I feel like I'm missing an important detail.'
"Because it can't be used in the sanctuary? Yeah, just realised that. However, I don't need the armor to kill you."
Executioner Yellow, having gotten what she wanted from the room, was now bored of idle chat. Especially with someone who would be dead in a couple of minutes.
Standing in front of the door, she tried summoning earth from the ground outside, because the entire room they were in was made of crystal.
"Huh."
The ground which was her domain, was unmoved. It was like she saw it, but they were either not in the same space or time.
Bian also noticed her movements and his face immediately changed.
'Could that be what I was forgetting. Some crystalliser rooms have time discrepancies between their inside and the universe at large.'
Like an arrow leaving its bow, Bian dashed forward intending to use his strongest move to finish off the Executioner at once.
Executioner Yellow jumped backwards, but she could not evade his blow. Just as she stepped on the ground outside, her body turned incorporeal.
Bang!
Time Skip no longer worked against Bian. He had almost gotten used to using the Emperical Aura for its senses instead of the Dongxuan Sutra, but that was not the main purpose of the Emperical Aura.
Bian had once fought a nine-tailed ghost fox in the third sanctuary and made quick work of the creature, even though it was meant to be intangible.
The Emperical Aura was used to make all creatures killable. Just like the ghost fox, and even the ghosts he encountered in this sanctuary, could have been killed in it if he didn't have the Solum Mirror.
It initially didn't work on Executioner Green and her Time Skip simply because the Executioners were insanely powerful, but not anymore. Now Bian could concentrate its effect on specific targets, meaning there was no escape.
With the Altering Brush as his strongest geno core, the Dongxuan Sutra was his most powerful geno art right now.
He attacked with full force, well intent on destroying her sequence chain in a single hit.
Unfortunately, things did not go as Bian desired. He felt like he hadn't punched a person but an immovable piece of rock.
The ground beneath her feet for a hundred miles rippled before the majority of it turned to dust.
'Damage transfer to the ground. That's cheating.'
A Stone Wyrm suddenly jumped out of the ground, biting Bian by the waist and dragging him away from the Executioner.
Bian brandished the Edge of Ruin, cutting the head off the wyrm and taking to the skies. He summoned his beast soul wings and watched Executioner Yellow from above.
The ground was teeming with stone constructs, each filled with dreadful power and bloodlusted against Bian.
"How do I get her off the ground. That's what you're thinking right?" Executioner Yellow had a smile on her face, but she wasn't smiling.
"You're overthinking it. The only reason you could land an attack earlier was because of the cramped room."
"So you say, but you can't attack me while I'm so far off the ground."
Although some of her constructs could fly, they surely wouldn't be able to catch up to Bian who could use the Phoenix techniques. Only with ground propulsion could they have a chance of reaching him.
Just then Bian heard a chuckle, so light, he would've missed it if not for the Emperical Aura with which he saw her.
"I can always bring the ground to you." She said and summoned the Geo Core.
Then the ground began to rumble. Not just a hundred miles, but far exceeding that. Further than the eye could see, the earth was shaking.
Bian had a bad premonition, which prompted him to urgently flee towards the Dust-Air Shelter.
Right now he wasn't exactly at his peak, as he had just concluded the battle against the Stone Knights which took its toll on his mind.
Bian figured it would be better to get the super creature from the Dust-Air Shelter involved.
He had not flown very far, when a pillar extended from one of the mountains in the valley.
Bian avoided it, but then came the next and the next. Before he knew it, hundreds of pillars were coming for him at once.
Bian dodged, blocked and attacked, but the sheer number of attacks kept increasing. Then in an awe-inspiring moment of dread, he watched as the ground seemed to unravel.
The entire earth seemed to be rising and falling towards the skies.
[FIRING ON ALL CYLINDERS]
How terrifying was it to see the entire ground falling towards you?
Bian instantly fired up all three inner pillars and brandished his blade like a typhoon, destroying anything that came in his direction.
After shredding for some time, everything seemed to have settled down.
Bian knew he was in some sort of maze structure, but it was unlike anything he had ever encountered or even pondered upon.
As far as he could see, there were stone pillars interconnected to each other, sometimes leading to a flat platform and at other times to other stone pillars. Some parts around him were horizontal, some vertical and some diagonal.
The sky above was blocked and there was no light source as far as the eye could see. Only more of the stone maze.
There did not seem to be a rule guiding the creation of this place, yet it carried a solid structure and appeared intricate despite its complexity.
"Now the ground is everywhere."
A voice echoed through the maze from every direction.
"And so am I."
Executioner Yellow jumped out from a pillar with a sword heading straight towards Bian's neck.
Like a bolt of lightning, Bian dodged and decapitated her, just to find that it was a clone.
Several terrifying roars erupted, stone wyrms emerged from the pillars around, all lunging towards him.
"What kind of strategy is this. Are you so scared, that you won't show your face!"
This was actually the first time Bian fought an Executioner who did not straight up charge at him yelling bloody murder.
He certainly didn't expect it from this Executioner who seemed to be the playful type.
Executioner Yellow didn't answer him.
'She really must be bipolar.'
Bian beheaded the closest wyrm, unexpectedly causing it to explode, sending stone spears everywhere.
When the dust was revealed, Bian had several puncture holes in the unplated parts of his Silver-Plated Armor, and spears embedded in the chest region.
Removing those spears revealed part of his Jadebody which didn't have even a scratch.
'I can do this. I'm stronger than Executioner Yellow, I should be able to kill her off by myself and hopefully complete a solo fight against an Executioner without dying this time.'
Seeing that the Stone Wyrms couldn't pierce his flesh and Executioner Yellow felt the need to hide, Bian saw a light at the end of the tunnel.
He had been living in fear of facing the Executioners, yet here was one outclassed in almost every measure.
Bian had grown too fast, it was unknown who would actually be the executioner and who would be executed today.