You Attack, I Defend

She would have to rely purely on her own groping in the dark.

"You attack, I'll defend." Xie Xu raised his blade and assumed a stance.

Tu Ran arched an eyebrow. "Then I won't hold back."

With that, she charged forward, blade in hand.

The razor-sharp tip of her long sword aimed straight at Xie Xu's face.

At a foot's distance, he dodged nimbly to the side.

Tu Ran quickly shifted angles, striking at his arm.

Xie Xu rotated his blade and intercepted hers at a remarkably precise angle, blocking her path mid-swing.

No matter how she tried to lift, she couldn't budge it.

Left with no choice, Tu Ran sought another route.

She pressed her body low, letting her blade scrape against Xie Xu's with a shrill, piercing screech that grated on the eardrums.

The onlookers winced and covered their ears.

Tu Ran herself found the sound grating.

Breaking free of Xie Xu's restraint, she stepped back, bent her knees, pushed off with her toes, and launched herself into the air, bringing her blade down in a vertical slash aimed at his head.

"Crack!"

The two blades clashed, the shockwave traveling from the point of impact up both their arms. Tu Ran's arm went numb.

"How do you block everything like an iron wall?" Tu Ran shook her arm to ease the numbness.

"My turn now," Xie Xu said.

"What?" Tu Ran's eyes went wide.

Her answer came in the glint of Xie Xu's blade.

Tu Ran hastily raised her sword to block the overhead strike.

The instant the blades collided, she let out a long breath of relief.

Good thing she blocked it—otherwise her brains would be splattered all over the ground by now.

But before her relief could fully settle, her heart lurched again.

Xie Xu's blade had already changed angles, swinging horizontally.

Tu Ran immediately blocked again.

Xie Xu's moves were fluid and ruthless.

All Tu Ran could see was the blade flying at her from every angle, with no blind spots.

She relied on her body's instinctive danger avoidance to dodge these lethal strikes, ducking left and right, leaping up and down.

She spun her own blade in a tight, impenetrable web, terrified that if she missed a single opening, Xie Xu would slip his white blade in and pull it out red.

Only one thought occupied her mind.

This is a blade!

A blade!

Getting cut by a blade is deadly serious!

If Xie Xu couldn't get her to the hospital in time, she'd bleed out and die on the road.

Clutching that conviction, she stayed coiled taut.

The longer they fought, the more impressed Xie Xu became.

She had no form to speak of, just chaotic wild swings, yet she managed to parry every one of his strikes.

Indeed, it was in life-or-death situations that her talent surfaced.

After who knew how long, Xie Xu finally halted his assault.

"Twenty minutes under my blade—not bad." Xie Xu praised without stint.

Tu Ran nearly rolled her eyes.

Only twenty minutes?

Those twenty minutes felt longer than a year.

It was like the sky had darkened and the earth had turned upside down, with no end in sight.

Tu Ran collapsed to the ground, utterly spent. She waved a hand. "I really can't go on. I need to rest. You practice on your own—oh, right, you can also practice with them."

Tu Ran gestured grandly toward the crowd below the platform.

Someone come up and save me, quick.

I'll be eternally grateful, forever in their debt.

But who would step up?

The onlookers' heads sank lower and lower.

They had no desire to be carried off with broken arms and legs.

Xie Xu swept his gaze across Tu Ran and his own band of subordinates.

Suddenly he spoke: "One by one, come up and spar with her."

"What?" That cry came from Tu Ran, tinged with a hint of pleasant surprise.

"What?!" That cry came from the crowd below, laden with dread for the future that awaited them.