Qin Jiji flew towards Qiao Yun with merciless intent.
His body trembled in fear.
For a moment, the words 'I surrender' crossed his mind.
It would be so easy to just utter those two words.
But how could he?
He clenched his fists.
His sister was in great danger; she had fallen ill.
If he did not gain the inheritance, how could he save her?
Even more so, because he was at the very end.
"I do not even have to win. As long as we both die together, I can accept that outcome!" His fighting spirit roared; his trust in Le Tu was absolute.
With his resolve, he raised his middle and index finger a myriad of rays were shot from all directions.
Observing this, Qin Jiji merely snorted coldly.
"Do you know how to do anything else but point your fingers and shoot?" She muttered before shaking her head.
No matter what his aims were, she would easily overpower him.
Her body flew gracefully, evading with very precise little movements any ray shot by him; her reflexes were absolute.
And even as she kept evading, her gaze remained eerily on him.
Barely darting away for a tenth of a second, as she evaded.
Indeed.
Whilst Light Cultivators were the fastest, Time Cultivators were those with the strongest reflexes, and even regarding speed.
The sheer difference in Dao Marks made even this advantage null.
At most, his only advantage was that his projectiles were still faster than her.
But he had his own plans.
Qin Jiji raised his eyebrows seemingly in surprise.
Even while flying midair, she was forced to 'bow.'
And just as she did, a light beam passed through where her head previously was.
She squinted her eyes slightly.
"Those rays are like boomerangs, huh? Clever.
But, pointless." She smiled lightly, with her superior speed and reflexes, now that she was aware of his petty tricks, all she needed to do was to take a few glimpses behind, and his strategy would ultimately be rendered pointless.
Qiao Yun did not give up; however, he attacked with increasingly more complex and complicated patterns.
The rays of light changed their direction, increased or decreased their speed, and in some instances, they even stopped completely.
But those unpredictable moves were simply too telegraphed in her eyes.
Soon.
She was just a few hundred meters away from him.
But in that situation, which seemed despairing.
He simply had a tiny smile on his face.
He raised his two palms next to each other.
In that precise instant.
An overwhelming, dazzling white light surged.
Qin Jiji felt the surging energy and subconsciously opened her eyes wide to observe him.
A grave mistake.
Just as she did this, the white pulse stretched further and further.
Everything became a deafening, blinding white.
"You…You are using the light to hide yourself?" She muttered, opening her eyes with difficulty.
She continuously employed her best healing methods to keep her vision stable, but just as quickly, the light burned her retina; it was a heated battle.
She frowned deeply.
This seemed problematic.
"So what? Even if I cannot find you, I doubt you can see a thing either. No matter if you are a Light Cultivator, you are at the center of the storm; the light you must be receiving is two orders of magnitude more than I.
Besides, a move as sophisticated as this, able to not only blind my eyes, but also my investigative Killer Moves, must be very thorough. Just how much energy does it expend? And for what end?
You are just wasting your energy!" She shouted to the void, as if trying to convince herself.
Qiao Yun laughed heartily amidst the distorted lights.
"I know! But that's not the point!"
Silently, hundreds of meters away from them.
Several pillars of light appeared, slowly being lifted and surrounding the area.
And as this happened, the blinding, deafening light slowly receded.
Revealing the barrier that had quietly been created.
Qin Jiji observed the barrier and narrowed her eyes.
Understanding dawned upon her face.
"I see! So, you are trying to trap me in a barrier."
Then, she tilted her face as she added.
"If this were a genuine Formation, I would be worried, but just this? What do I have to fear?"
But just as she said those words, the situation changed.
Surrounding Qiao Yun, countless clouds emerged; he smirked widely.
"If I am not mistaken, was this not the move that defeated you?"
Qin Jiji's pupils trembled as he observed the man.
Qiao Yun laughed heartily.
"I may not be able to resist it, but you. I very much doubt you can do it either!" And just as he concluded those words, the barrier around them began to shrink.
Qin Jiji turned her head side to side, and a panicked expression appeared on her face as she shouted.
"Don't you dare!"
"Too late! Let us die together!" Qiao Yun laughed heartily.
Those Clouded Thought Gu's detonated in masse.
Stretching across the full dome.
But just as the clouds approached.
The worried expression on her face dissipated.
"You fool." She stated plainly, with a tiny smile on her face.
Those Clouded Thought Gu's flew towards her brain, but an invisible barrier stopped them entirely.
On the contrary, Qiao Yun's mouth began to tremble, and his whole body convulsed and trembled.
As the Clouded Thoughts Gu entered his brain, he lost control over his muscles and heartbeat, and his whole body trembled unconsciously.
With foam coming out of his mouth, he fell unconscious.
"After all of that…This was the best you could come up with?
Did you truly think I would not prepare for this?" She replied teasingly, observing his fallen body.
Leisurely, she walked towards him, as she added.
"The only thing you've achieved is making my job much easier. Heh. Heh. I will use you as a hostage to deal with your little-"
Suddenly.
She felt a change in the air.
Instinctively, she knew there was danger.
So, she jumped forward to evade the attack.
Her instincts had been right; had she been a tenth of a second slower, a ray of light would have pierced through her body.
Unfortunately, even as she avoided the first move instinctively, she could not avoid the second one.
Before she had the time to even think, the supposedly unconscious Qiao Yun opened his eyes wide.
And shoot another ray at her.
This time, there was nothing she could do.
She could only stare in horror as the light beam pierced through her stomach.
Her body fell to the ground weakly.
She coughed up blood and stared with wide-open eyes at Qiao Yun.
"Y-You! From the very beginning, you planned this, didn't you?" She roared.
"From the beginning, when you were shooting those beams of light at me. You retrieved all of them, or so I thought….
You must have purposefully held one of them back, secretly, and made it linger just outside my view.
Then, there was that elaborate plan you made, with those flashy lights and Clouded Thoughts Gu.
In reality, they were just a smokescreen.
You never planned to defeat me with that; you were just wasting time and creating an excuse to fake your own unconsciousness.
Once the pieces were set, you 'retrieved' that beam of light and moved it towards me.
Then, just as I evaded it, you attacked me one final time…"
Qin Jiji stared at him, her rage and fear vanishing instantaneously.
Amusement appeared in her expression as she finally added.
"I admit it. It was a good plan. However, you made one mistake." The body of Qin Jiji turned into countless light particles, as if it had been nothing but a mirage.
"The curtain you so cleverly made was not one-sided." A voice whispered behind him.
Qiao Yun opened his eyes widely.
But it was too late.
[Decay touch]
Qiao Yun screamed in agony as a green-olive aura pierced through his body.
His body convulsed onto the ground.
His organs…He felt that they were burning inside of him.
"No…They are withering?" He muttered in disbelief.
If his ribcage had been opened, one would have been able to see the change inside of him.
As his lungs grew whiter than ash, and his heart more purple than wine.
Qin Jiji chuckled as she observed his reaction. Still, despite her amusement, she continued.
"That blinding light you made. Was so thorough that I could not detect anything, but neither could you.
Initially, I was not sure what you had in store for me. But I was certain your schemes ran deeper."
She shrugged.
"That is when I decided to make the switch, as the lights reached their peak, I created a clone of myself, whilst I hid beneath the surface."
She laughed heartily.
"Heh. Heh. Of course, I could not say this plan was mine.
You could thank your friend for teaching me this."
After saying those words, she stared at Qiao Yun.
"Speaking of which. As I said before, I have no intention of killing you just yet.
I still need you as a hostage, of course, at this stage, you could still surrender, which is why…" She grabbed him by his throat.
"There. Now, you can no longer speak. Heh. Heh."
She smiled widely.
"Le Tu, now that we are at this stage. Is obvious that I can kill your friend whenever I please.
And while I certainly am using him as a hostage, it is not as if I depend on this to win.
What I am trying to say is.
I can afford to let him die.
But can you?" She snorted coldly, as if replying to herself.
"I will give you 10 breaths to come out. If you do not, I will kill him, right here and now."
There was a short pause.
Le Tu, who had just recovered his limbs, was forced to return to the surface.
He sighed lightly as he stared at her.
Of course, he knew that this was a trap and that what he was doing was foolish.
But what else could he do?
To stand by as his friend died.
Qin Jiji smirked at him.
"Good! It does seem that you still have guts." She nodded repeatedly.
"Well. Now that things have reached this point. Let us conclude this promptly.
No more hiding, no more running, no more scheming.
Just you and me. And a clash of our power.
Do you dare accept?" She shamelessly replied.
Of course, her words were nothing but nonsense with her superior Dao Mark count it was basically impossible for Le Tu to win.
And she knew it.
"Also, if you dare to evade this. I will simply kill him!" Her aura surged; a dazzling golden orb appeared in her hand.
Le Tu frowned deeply.
Qin Jiji truly forced his hand by making him act so quickly without giving him a single chance to decide.
Still. His gaze remained firm, and he frowned deeply.
As he considered what he could do.
His eyes suddenly shone brightly.
He had an idea.
[The ground bears the weight of every footstep…]
Silently, he prepared the first Killer Move.
Followed by this.
From his bare mouth, a mud dragon soon took shape.
And the two forces collided.