The courtyard shook beneath the storm of clashing forces.
The lizard dug its claws deeper into the broken stone—cracks spidering outward from each talon as lightning gathered around its body like a living mantle. Its wings flared wide, membranes humming with power. Every breath it exhaled shimmered with residual thunder.
Yuanji stood opposite it, blood dripping freely from his torn shoulder and sliced ribs. His robes fluttered in the turbulent wind, qi strands orbiting him in spiraling arcs. The glaive floated behind him like a loyal guardian, spinning at a speed that blurred its edges into a silver disc.
A hush descended between man and beast—brief, but crackling with murderous intent.
Yuanji exhaled.
"You adapt quickly…" he murmured, voice low and steady. "Too quickly."
His gaze sharpened. His divine sense pulsed outward like invisible ripples across a pond, brushing against the beast's presence—its killing intent, its fluctuating qi, the rhythm of its muscles tightening for the next strike.
For the first time, he perceived the pattern beneath the chaos.
A hidden structure.
A method.
A logic.
And once he sensed it—
He could exploit it.
The lizard moved first.
Lightning surged across its body, exploding into the ground in a thunderous burst as it launched forward—faster than before, the air itself warping around its charge.
Yuanji's fingers snapped upward.
The nearest qi strand coiled back—then lashed forward like a striking serpent.
The lizard flickered—vanished in a burst of static—
—and reappeared at Yuanji's flank.
A tail-spear stabbed outward.
But Yuanji had already pivoted.
He didn't need his limbs; his divine sense flowed into the glaive, pulling the spinning weapon downward like an executioner's blade.
CLAAAAANG—!!
Metal met lightning in a collision that cracked the courtyard's foundations. The force hurled both combatants apart—Yuanji skidding backward in a shower of shattered stone, the lizard somersaulting through the air in a spiral of golden arcs.
It hit the ground, claws carving trenches as it slid.
Yuanji forced himself upright, breath ragged but unwavering.
The beast snarled—a guttural, thunder-laced sound that vibrated through his bones.
Then it shifted.
Its wings curled inward, lightning condensing around its chest. Its tail lowered. Its posture grounded.
For the first time, it stopped attacking recklessly.
It was preparing something.
Something it hadn't used before.
Yuanji's heartbeat slowed.
A cold whisper ran down his spine.
His divine sense expanded sharply—searching, probing, predicting.
And his eyes widened.
"…You're gathering it all at once," he breathed. "Wind. Lightning. Qi. Coordinating them into one…"
His throat tightened.
"…one final strike."
The lizard's wings trembled violently with contained force—lightning feathers glowing as arcs leapt between them. Its tail lifted, rigid as a spear. Its jaws cracked open not in a roar, but in a steady stream of charged breath. The courtyard hummed like a thousand taut strings ready to snap.
Yuanji swallowed the blood pooling in his mouth.
In his current state, facing that attack head-on would be fatal. Even if it didn't kill him, it would leave him crippled—unable to continue the fight.
So he didn't intend to.
"Fine…" he whispered, raising his hands.
His qi strands tightened around him—one, two, four, seven—each glowing brighter, drawing faint lines in the air like the beginnings of a formation.
Behind him, the glaive's spin slowed…
…steadied…
…then began to reverse direction.
Yuanji felt his awareness sharpen to a blade's edge.
"If you're done hiding your true strength…"
His eyes burned gold, brighter than the lightning gathering ahead.
"…then I'll stop holding back mine."
The lizard roared—
—an eruption of thunder that shattered the last intact stones in the courtyard—
—and launched forward, a sonic wave of lightning tearing through the ground.
Yuanji stepped into the attack, qi roaring from his core, the glaive burning white-hot beneath his divine sense—
—and the clash that followed tore apart the sky.
Yuanji stepped into the attack—
qi roaring from his dantian,
the glaive burning white-hot under his divine sense—
And the world split apart.
The lizard's charge struck first.
BOOOOOOOM—!!!
A sonic-laced shockwave ripped the courtyard in half, shredding stone into powder as a spear of lightning tore toward him. Every instinct screamed to dodge—but Yuanji did not retreat.
He advanced.
His seven qi strands spiraled inward, weaving themselves around his body—then outward—
forming a rotating helix of shimmering light, a proto-formation.
The glaive responded.
It flashed—
once—
and the entire blade ignited with blinding white radiance.
The air shook.
"HEAVEN-SCYTHE REVERSAL—!!"
The glaive spun downward—
And the world obeyed.
A crescent of pure force erupted from the blade, a sweeping arc that cut not the lizard—
but the air itself, reversing the direction of momentum before him.
The lizard's strike collided with the arc—
— — —
and bent.
Lightning roared in protest as its path curved sideways, redirected by Yuanji's technique, twisting like a river forced through a narrow gorge.
The redirected blast slammed into the courtyard wall—
SKRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAASH—!!!
Stone vaporized.
A crater dozens of meters wide appeared where a wall had stood a heartbeat earlier.
The lizard froze.
Its eyes widened—not in fear, but in shock.
It had unleashed its strongest fusion attack…
and Yuanji hadn't stopped it—
he had reversed it.
Yuanji staggered from the recoil, boots skidding backward, blood spraying from his nose, but he did not fall.
He lifted his glaive—slowly, deliberately.
"Your techniques rely on raw power," he rasped, voice ragged but steady. "But raw power has direction. And direction—"
He leveled the glaive at the stunned beast.
"—can be rewritten."
The lizard stared, stunned. It deflected my attack… how? Was that also a spirit art? Lightning trembled violently along its wings—its body thrumming with instability from the forced redirection. It steadied its stance, claws carving furrows into the ruined stone.
But Yuanji was already moving.
His seven qi strands snapped into place—
WOOOOM—!!!
A circular formation flared beneath his feet, each node tied directly to his divine sense.
Not a spell.
Not a technique.
Because Yuanji had imposed his will onto reality.
(Clarification):
He wasn't controlling reality. His divine sense acted as a "furnace" or anchor, and the spiritual art channeled through it imposed a temporary field of influence. Within that limited area, the instincts of living beings—movement, focus, perception, even reaction speed—became dulled or slightly misaligned. Not because the world changed, but because he altered how they interacted with it.
The lizard felt the shift.
Its lightning dimmed—
its wings faltered—
its tail lost a fraction of its precision.
The beast's greatest advantage—speed—
was no longer its own.
"…Now," Yuanji whispered, golden eyes blazing.
"My turn."
He vanished.
Not through speed.
Through intent.
A white arc from the glaive appeared above the lizard—
WHOOOOSH—!!
The beast jerked its head aside, barely—
KRRRRSHH—!!
—a line of white carved across its cheek, slicing scale from bone.
The lizard screamed, wings flaring—
—but a second arc fell from the side.
SKAAAAANG—!!
Its wings whipped up a moment too late—
blood splashing in burning droplets as the blade carved across its chest.
Yuanji's movements blurred around it, each step aligned with the seven-strand formation, each shift amplified by his divine sense. The lizard tried to track him—
—but every time it focused, he had already changed direction, position, or angle.
His will had seized control of the battlefield's flow.
The glaive drew another arc—
THWAAAAM—!!
The lizard smashed into the far wall, scales cracking, lightning sputtering wildly from its wings. The stone beneath it disintegrated to dust.
It struggled to rise.
Yuanji was already there.
He appeared before the beast, blood-soaked and trembling—yet standing like a man carved from unyielding iron.
The glaive hovered inches from its throat.
Yuanji's breath shook.
His voice did not.
"…If that was your strongest move," he said, eyes cold as tempered gold,
"then you're already dead."
Lightning flickered across the beast's jaws.
But for the first time—
it looked uncertain.