Lin Lei watched the figure standing atop the tree canopy.
Silver short hair made the man appear sharp and capable, his light cyan robe rustling loudly in the wind, giving him an ethereal air.
"A master!" Lin Lei had a feeling this silver-haired middle-aged man’s strength wasn’t much weaker than his own.
"I am Lin Lei," he said, making no effort to hide his identity.
"Lin Lei? Lin Lei of the O'Brien Empire?" Miller looked surprised, then smiled. "I've long heard that the O'Brien Empire has a twenty-seven-year-old prodigy who’s achieved remarkable feats in sculpture, magic, and warrior arts. To think I'd meet you today—someone who could fight Hadeson to a draw. I, Miller, would truly like to spar with you, brother."
Lin Lei took an immediate liking to Miller.
His straightforward manner matched Lin Lei’s own temperament.
"Very well, then I’ll spar properly with you, Brother Miller," Lin Lei said. Having trained hard lately, he hoped to exchange moves with a roughly equal expert to gain new insights.
Lin Lei stripped off his deep cyan robe, baring his upper body. Instantly, black dragon scales spread across his skin, and vicious spikes sprouted from his forehead, back, and elbows. At the sight, Miller’s eyes lit up: "A Dragon Blood Warrior! Ha-ha, I’ve heard of you."
Lin Lei’s body was enveloped in cyan-black Battle Qi that began churning and pulsing in a distinctive rhythm.
Holding the Purple Blood Flexible Sword, Lin Lei faced Miller. "Come."
Miller flipped his hand, and a silver-white longsword materialized from thin air. He laughed heartily: "Lin Lei, you’d better be careful. The power of my swordplay is no weaker than Hadeson’s attacks." He spoke with supreme confidence. Inwardly, Lin Lei was startled—he knew all too well the terrifying force behind Hadeson’s 'Earth Cleaver.'
"Beware!" Miller shouted, and his figure tore through the air, appearing instantly at Lin Lei’s side.
Lin Lei pushed off with his toes, leaning back in a swift evasion, darting diagonally backward at high speed. Yet Miller’s longsword still grazed Lin Lei’s ‘Pulse Guard.’ In a blink, Lin Lei had retreated to the top of a large tree hundreds of meters away. "Incredible speed. Looks like I’ll have to use Wind Shadow after all."
After just one exchange, Lin Lei realized that in his comprehension of the Wind System’s element law regarding ‘speed,’ he was inferior to his opponent.
Lin Lei began chanting the ‘Wind Shadow’ spell while Miller stood still with his silver sword, waiting. Only after Lin Lei finished the incantation did Miller dash toward him at full speed. "Lin Lei, show me your ultimate technique!"
"Whoosh!" "Whoosh!"
Lin Lei moved with equal rapidity. Now matched in speed, he countered Miller’s attack with a ‘Wind Fluctuation’—a flurry of purple sword tips covering Miller’s entire form.
"Wonderful!" Miller’s laughter rang out as a silver-white sword shadow slowly traced a circle before him.
It looked slow, yet in reality, Lin Lei’s ‘Wind Fluctuation’ was completely neutralized before it even reached Miller. Lin Lei felt a jolt of excitement: "Is this the extreme state of slowness Miller has achieved within the Wind System?"
Slow… and fast!
The slowness and speed here weren’t merely about velocity, but about a kind of intent. Miller’s attack appeared slow, yet it was no slower than Lin Lei’s ‘Wind Flucturation.’
"Miller, take another strike!" Lin Lei roared.
The two of them flickered back and forth endlessly, changing direction with the slightest touch of a leaf. In an instant, they clashed again high above Black Crow Mountain. Lin Lei’s dreamlike ‘Purple Sword Shadows’ seemed both the pinnacle of slowness and the pinnacle of speed, the two opposing intents blending into a seamless, unbroken flow.
"Good!" Miller exclaimed with delighted surprise.
Miller’s silver sword abruptly slowed to an almost glacial pace, as if weighing billions of pounds, moving with tremendous effort. Lin Lei could feel the heaviness in that deliberate motion.
Yet his own Purple Blood Flexible Sword couldn’t evade Miller’s strike.
"Boom!" The two swords collided.
Lin Lei felt as if hit by something impossibly heavy moving at tremendous speed. His body trembled, and he was sent crashing into a distant cliff face, embedding himself into the mountain and leaving a human-shaped hole in the rock.
After a moment, Lin Lei soared back out.
Miller was now thoroughly excited: "Lin Lei, your sword intent… slow and fast? Two opposing states… this… this…" A flash of inspiration seemed to strike him. Lin Lei was equally thrilled.
He paid no attention to the trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth; his mind was entirely occupied by that last exchange. "Miller’s sword that countered my ‘Wind Fluctuation’ was as gentle as a breeze. But this strike carried force no less than Hadeson’s ‘Earth Cleaver.’ If I hadn’t recently gained insight into the Earth’s Pulsation, I’d have been hurt far worse."
"That strike… was an interpretation of the Wind System’s element law regarding ‘slowness.’ In that moment, it felt as though space itself had halted." Lin Lei vividly recalled the sensation.
It moved as slowly as a billion-pound sword drifting through space, making the world seem to freeze. He felt Miller’s blade was infinitely slow, yet even with his own faster sword, in that short distance, it was no quicker than Miller’s.
Miller and Lin Lei both wore traces of excited smiles as they hovered in midair.
When they emerged from their contemplation, they exchanged a knowing grin. Clearly, both had gained new understanding.
"Lin Lei, I never imagined two opposing states could complement each other so perfectly… You’ve done me an enormous favor," Miller said, somewhat moved. Indeed, among his friends in the mysterious valley, none other than himself cultivated the Wind System’s element law and could offer him this kind of help.