Escape

“You’re really in a hurry, aren’t you? That eager to kill me?”

Aise’s voice carried a hint of mockery, a touch of provocation. The wild smile on his face was just as insane as ever, unchanged from before.

Xia Lun said nothing, simply pressing his attack.

Flames tore across the sky, their crimson tails trailing a dazzling meteor, carrying an aura of destruction straight toward Aise.

Mian’s goal had been achieved—Xia Lun had finally moved. Unfortunately, Mian himself was no longer present, having fallen into slumber.

Compared to this battle, the earlier sparring session with Mian was truly nothing more than child’s play.

Now, Xia Lun held nothing back. Every strike was filled with deadly intent. The flames howled through the air, a wave of heat surging forward as if to incinerate everything in its path.

Aise knew, of course, that he had fallen into his own trap—just as he understood his father, so too did his father understand him.

Especially after Aise’s death, Xia Lun had revisited countless details of their shared life. In retrospect, he had even spent a period dissecting Aise’s psyche.

Xia Lun knew his son was an out-and-out monster. It was only with Aina’s gentle guidance that he managed to stop blaming himself for it and step out from the shadow of that guilt.

Now, Xia Lun, seething with murderous rage, swung his sword down without hesitation.

As Xia Lun had anticipated, Aise could not immediately switch with Mian—the act placed too great a burden on both their souls.

And at this level of combat, if Aise were to be distracted for even a moment, his father would end him before he could swap.

The Chaos Sword, wreathed in black mist, clashed against Xia Lun’s blade, blocking the deadliest strike. The black vapor and fire corroded each other, producing an ear-grating screech.

Aise felt no relief; Xia Lun felt no disappointment. The battle had only just begun.

Xia Lun gripped the hilt of his fire-sword with both hands.

The blade Aina had gifted him… was a flame that never died. That was how it could stand equal to Aise’s Chaos Sword. As long as magic was channeled into it to fuel the blaze, even if the Chaos energy destroyed it, it would regenerate endlessly.

With changes in the flow of mana, the fire-sword’s form could also shift—meaning it was no mere one-handed weapon.

“Heh… Father, you really intend to kill me…” Aise’s body trembled—whether from fear, excitement, or some other emotion was unclear. He could clearly feel the suffocating pressure radiating from Xia Lun.

BOOM—

The moment Aise finished speaking, a torrent of raging flames erupted from the sword’s guard. The single-handed longsword instantly swelled and transformed into a massive two-handed blade—over three feet wide and several yards long. The inferno rolled and roared across the blade, warping the very air around it with heat.

Aise knew his father was proficient in many weapons, but the longsword was his most favored.

He had never fought his father when he wielded something else.

In that moment, he truly tasted death.

The massive sword swept horizontally, carrying a scorching shockwave. Aise dodged hastily, but before the blade could even touch him, the hem of his robe was already scorched black and curling.

But Xia Lun’s assault was far from over. As the momentum of the horizontal slash still carried, he twisted his wrist, swinging the giant blade back in a reverse cut at an impossible angle. The two strikes merged into one—a colossal cross-shaped flame blade firing directly at Aise.

At this range, there was no way to dodge.

Gritting his teeth, Aise swung the Chaos Sword frantically before him, trying to neutralize the lethal strike. The black mist surged wildly, colliding with the flame blade in a thunderous explosion.

Such a massive infernal cross-slash—even the Chaos Sword could not fully disperse it. Though the black vapor steadily eroded the flames, the remnant force of the attack still struck Aise.

“Ahhh!”

Aise let out a scream. The fire did not spread across his clothes; instead, it clung directly to his soul.

The searing pain nearly stole his consciousness. Had he not spent nearly a millennium slaughtering in the spirit realm—forging his soul and will into something terrifyingly resilient—he might have blacked out then and there.

Already weakened, Aise was now like a guttering candle in the wind.

The giant sword… no fancy tricks, only pure overwhelming force. For Xia Lun, that was exactly what it was.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Xia Lun raised the massive blade again, bringing it down upon Aise’s head. The blazing colossus swelled in Aise’s vision, like a falling crimson sun, bent on reducing everything to ash.

“Mr. Xia Lun!”

In that instant, the blood-red gleam in Aise’s eyes faded, replaced by a pair of clear pupils. He let out a panicked cry, his voice filled with confusion and helplessness.

It was Mian! What happened? Had they swapped back so quickly? Xia Lun paused, his blade hesitating for a fraction of a second.

“Until next time, Father,” Aise said in that fleeting gap, that familiar insane grin curling at the corner of his mouth once more. The pause gave him the opening he needed to flee.

Xia Lun’s greatsword fell, but the blazing blade dissolved a hair’s breadth from Mian’s forehead. The scorching heat singed a strand of Mian’s hair.

Mian blinked back into groggy awareness, his face full of confusion and unease: “Mr. Xia Lun? What’s happening…”

Xia Lun stood there, the now-empty sword hilt in his hand, his expression dark as a storm cloud. He had been tricked—Aise had pulled a last-minute ruse, feigning the switch to buy himself an escape.

It wouldn’t be so easy to draw that bastard out again.

The flames flickered and died, fading into a wisp of white smoke.

“This…”

Seeing that Xia Lun did not reply, Mian knew something had gone wrong and wisely chose not to press further.

Aina appeared like a phantom behind Xia Lun.

She had, of course, noticed the commotion earlier. In fact, even Liyana and the others had been roused by the tremors of the battle.

But Aina had not shown herself sooner, afraid of tipping off Aise and letting him slip away.

“It’s all right, Xia Lun. There will be another chance.” Aina placed her hand into his.

Xia Lun let out a deep sigh.

After today’s near-miss, Aise was bound to be far more cautious.

Even if Xia Lun dropped all resistance and stood before Mian, who knew if Aise would ever emerge again…

And with each passing day, Aise’s control over Mian’s body would only grow more refined. The situation would only worsen… until, eventually, neutralizing him without harming Mian would become nothing more than a fool’s dream.