A blinding crescent of white light split the midday sun.
SHING.
The sound report arrived half a heartbeat after the visual flash. A high-pitched faster-than-sound shriek that tore through the air like the screech of a dying dragon. The displaced air blasted outward in a sharp bone-shaking ring, instantly shredding the loose gravel on the arena floor into fine white flour.
Jian Chen had not moved his feet.
His Star-Shattering Sword was half-drawn from its dragon-bone sword sheath. Its meteor-core blade shone with a blazing bright astral soft glow that cast long, stark shadows across the diamond-faced stone. Floating around his white shoulders, the seven orbiting astral magic charms sped up into a nonstop ring of silver fire.
The First Fold: The Crescent Horizon.
A five-pace arc of pure, condensed sword aura hurtled across the dueling circle, moving at four hundred and twelve meters per second. It wasn’t a diffuse energetic wave. It was a razor-thin flat sheet less than a tiny fraction of an inch thick, sharp enough to divide atom-deep bonds.
Lin Tao didn’t dive. He didn’t roll.
