A hissing sound filled the air.
Black aura flowed across the Red Cliff Lord's entire body. The protrusions on his shoulders swelled even more dramatically, until with a muffled pop, two blade-like black wings sprouted from his back. When the two black wings folded together, they resembled a dark cloak billowing behind the Red Cliff Lord.
At his forehead, two sharp black horns had also emerged.
The Red Cliff Lord's body had turned as black as ink, his violet pupils fixed squarely on Lin Lei.
"Those vertical violet pupils — they're not like an ordinary person's. I should have guessed earlier." Lin Lei looked at the Red Cliff Lord before him, thinking to himself. If this Red Cliff Lord could transform, then his strength would naturally increase further. Lin Lei felt a renewed sense of pressure. Could he win this battle?
Lin Lei was no longer fully confident.
He could only sigh inwardly — anyone who could become a Nine Abyss Lord should never be underestimated.
"Lin Lei!" The Red Cliff Lord's violet eyes locked onto Lin Lei, his lips curling into a grin. "No matter how this fight ends, I'll remember you!" The moment those words left his mouth, the Red Cliff Lord's scissor-like black wings beat once, and the surrounding space instantly formed a peculiar dual-ring gravitational field.
Whoosh!
Like a bird in flight, the Red Cliff Lord darted forward with breathtaking speed.
"Your speed has indeed increased a bit, but it's still far from enough!" Lin Lei showed no sign of retreating either. He turned into an arc of light and charged forward, the translucent Shadowtrace divine sword thrusting mercilessly toward the Red Cliff Lord's head. The thrust was so powerful that it easily punched a hole through the dimensional space itself.
The Red Cliff Lord swung his arm.
Clang!
The black blade, flowing with earthy yellow light, clashed against Lin Lei's divine sword Shadowtrace.
Boom!
Both fighters were knocked backward by the recoil, but in the next instant, they were rocketing toward each other once again. In terms of speed, Lin Lei clearly held the advantage at this moment — the Red Cliff Lord couldn't block every strike. However, the peculiar gravitational field surrounding the Red Cliff Lord caused each of Lin Lei's thrusts to be subtly deflected as they drew near.
That tiny deflection was enough to affect the outcome.
Whizz! A sword thrust executed at the absolute limit of speed.
The Red Cliff Lord was just a fraction too slow, but when the Shadowtrace divine sword entered that peculiar dual-ring gravitational field, its trajectory veered slightly off course. The Red Cliff Lord beat his wings once more, seemingly preparing to block again.
"Hmph!" Lin Lei instantly unleashed the full power of Shadowtrace.
Pfft!
The Shadowtrace divine sword pierced clean through the Red Cliff Lord's left shoulder, sending blood spraying into the air. Having landed a strike, Lin Lei didn't hesitate — he immediately retreated. After creating some distance, he launched another speed-based ambush. Although it was true that in terms of pure physical attack power, thanks to his divine artifact weapon, Lin Lei could match his opponent roughly equally...
Lin Lei refused to trade blows head-on.
Instead, he relied on the divine sword Shadowtrace and his superior speed to carve wound after wound into his opponent.
The Red Cliff Lord, even after transforming, was still significantly slower. He could barely ensure his head wasn't pierced, but the rest of his body was left vulnerable.
In midair, two figures darted through the colossal sphere of earthy-yellow gravitational space, clashing like lightning over and over. Lin Lei's invisible Shadowtrace sword repeatedly left fresh wounds on the Red Cliff Lord's body. The Red Cliff Lord looked somewhat disheveled, yet he showed no trace of discouragement, still fighting fiercely against Lin Lei.
The moment Lin Lei relaxed, he might suffer a devastating counterattack.
"This is getting troublesome. Looks like they won't be able to settle it anytime soon,"
"It is a bit troublesome. Even though the Lord has increased his speed after transforming, Elder Lin Lei clearly isn't engaging him in direct combat — he doesn't even get a chance to land a hit on Elder Lin Lei. But Elder Lin Lei can wound him. Elder Lin Lei is clearly at a slight advantage." A burly man in green robes standing beside Bei Bei spoke up. The entire Eastern Wasteland, with its hundreds of millions of inhabitants, had once again erupted into heated discussion, the battle above proving too close to call. At this moment, Lin Lei held a slight edge, blood continuously flowing from the Red Cliff Lord's body.
Yet such wounds had little impact on his fighting ability.
Who would win? Who would lose?
It couldn't be determined for now.
"If this goes on, how long will it last?" Many people began to wonder.
What the spectators loved most to see were the true head-on clashes. Such battles might be brief, but life and death were usually decided within those few exchanges. That was the kind of fight that made spectators' hearts race with tension and blood boil with excitement.
But now...
Lin Lei and the Red Cliff Lord clearly weren't going all out.
"Huh? That's strange — the Red Cliff Lord's speed seems to have increased," someone suddenly remarked.
"Yes, it has. It seems like Elder Lin Lei isn't able to wound the Red Cliff Lord as easily anymore." More and more spectators gradually noticed this shift.
Bei Bei noticed it too, and he immediately grew anxious.
From the ground, the fight between Lin Lei and the Red Cliff Lord appeared to be a stalemate, but both Lin Lei and the Red Cliff Lord understood that neither could afford a single moment of carelessness. The slightest lapse, and the other would seize the opportunity to kill them.
"That sword is far too treacherous." The Red Cliff Lord's mind was stretched to its limit, every nerve taut. The divine sword Shadowtrace kept thrusting toward him — if not for his gravitational field deflecting its direction and his desperate efforts to block, Lin Lei's Shadowtrace would have pierced through his skull long ago. All he could do was hold on...
"Just you wait. Soon, it'll be your turn to suffer." The Red Cliff Lord thought to himself.
Lin Lei, too, sensed that something was wrong.
"His speed is increasing again. More accurately... the gravitational field around his body is changing." Lin Lei noticed that the Red Cliff Lord's wings were saturated with earth divine power and were vibrating intensely, producing two distinct shock waves that interacted with one another.
Somehow, these interactions were causing the gravitational field to shift and evolve.
As time went on, those two shock waves continued to change, and the gravitational field grew increasingly effective at countering Lin Lei's Black Stone Space.
A gravity space was, in essence, the manipulation of gravity through divine power. If the opponent also mastered such techniques, it could be fully neutralized. Although the Red Cliff Lord didn't understand Black Stone Space, he was using it as a reference, slowly adjusting and refining his own approach to counter Lin Lei's Black Stone Space.
The longer the fight lasted, the faster he became!