Chapter 10: Sparring

Xing Xi calmly watched the duel between man and beast from the shadows.

Strictly speaking, the Destruction Domain attached to Su Ziye’s Blade of Illusionary Ruin could be considered a fire-element domain. Its primary laws were incineration and destruction, but that was not what made the Blade of Illusionary Ruin truly special.

Its greatest distinction lay in the fact that the Destruction Domain was not merely a one-time ticket to the Heavenly Realm. Otherwise, it would never have been worthy of serving as the weapon of the Primordial Emperor.

The Destruction Domain was not a simple exclusive domain. Rather, it could be superimposed upon almost any other domain, unless that domain happened to be exactly the same as the Destruction Domain.

That was not impossible. After all, once one possessed the Blade of Illusionary Ruin, the laws one became most familiar with were naturally those of incineration and destruction. The easiest domain to awaken would likewise be the Destruction Domain. In a certain sense, it would be extremely simple for Su Ziye to break through into the Heavenly Realm.

All he had to do was break through into the Destruction Domain.

But doing so would be rather pathetic.

At least since the Blade of Illusionary Ruin had been forged, none of its previous wielders had ever settled for such mediocrity. Su Ziye naturally had no intention of becoming that kind of Heavenly Realm expert either.

Compared with Su Ziye’s Destruction Domain, Chasing Shadow’s domain belonged to the wind element. Its primary laws were severing and extreme speed.

Its domain was filled with blades of wind capable of slicing through almost anything. Within the domain’s laws, those wind blades moved so quickly that they were impossible to capture with the naked eye. Compared with the Destruction Domain, Chasing Shadow’s domain was somewhat inferior, but it possessed its own unique strengths. It might be at a disadvantage against an opponent of equal rank, yet against anyone below the Heavenly Realm, it could still achieve absolute suppression.

More importantly, Chasing Shadow’s domain was entirely its own.

The Chasing Shadow Pegasi were powerful magical beasts born in the Heavenly Realm, but that did not mean they possessed formidable domains from the moment of their birth. Every domain had to be repeatedly tempered and refined by its master before it could become a powerful weapon wielded with perfect ease.

During the early stages of their battle, Chasing Shadow had succeeded several times in tearing apart Su Ziye’s Destruction Domain. In a battle between Heavenly Realm experts, that was the most dangerous situation of all. Once one’s domain was shattered, defeat and death would follow almost instantly. When Xing Xi had slain that Heavenly Realm expert earlier, she had likewise needed only to break through his domain before killing him.

Under such circumstances, Su Ziye could already be considered defeated, and death might come within the blink of an eye.

Yet in the end, Chasing Shadow stopped its attack with remarkable honor, allowing Su Ziye to restore his domain before continuing the battle.

This could not help but make Xing Xi feel somewhat puzzled.

After all, Su Ziye and Chasing Shadow had no real friendship. Even if they had possessed some bond, the overlord magical beasts of the Heavenly Realm were all highly intelligent, but because they lived in the Forest of Duskfall, where fierce competition threatened them at every moment, there were scarcely more than a handful of overlord magical beasts capable of truly keeping their promises. Xing Xi herself was included among them.

Of course, if Chasing Shadow had sensed Xing Xi suppressing the situation from the shadows, then even without knowing that Xing Xi would never intervene to save it, its instinctive caution would still have prompted it to abandon the opportunity to kill Su Ziye.

Xing Xi nevertheless believed that Chasing Shadow had not noticed her presence—or else it had concealed itself exceptionally well.

As the number of their sparring sessions increased, Su Ziye’s control over the Destruction Domain grew stronger and stronger. By the end, he was able to stand on equal footing with Chasing Shadow and was no longer at a disadvantage.

Defeating Chasing Shadow was still utterly impossible, of course. The combat instincts of magical beasts were far superior to those of humans. Aside from anomalies like Xing Xi, most magical beasts also possessed vastly more battle experience than humans. Their lifespans were generally longer as well. In short, among opponents of equal rank, humans without special spirit weapons were always somewhat inferior when facing magical beasts.

For Xing Xi to kill a Heavenly Realm magical beast while still in the Earthly Realm had naturally been far more difficult than killing a human of the same realm.

And Su Ziye had accomplished all this in only ten days.

Throughout those ten days, aside from brief periods spent eating and resting, he had been fighting Chasing Shadow almost without pause. The battlefield had already been transformed into a completely barren wasteland extending more than ten miles in every direction.

A wasteland, in this sense, meant that every tree, blade of grass, and magical beast had vanished entirely, leaving behind only naked ground burned until it resembled red glass.

Chasing Shadow, naturally, had not grown tired.

In fact, the most terrifying aspect of Heavenly Realm experts was that their stamina was nearly inexhaustible, while their domains could be maintained almost like perpetual-motion engines.

Domains consumed spiritual power above all else, and beings capable of reaching the Heavenly Realm possessed spiritual reserves as vast as the sea. If two Heavenly Realm experts were not too far apart in strength, they could battle one another for months without difficulty. This also meant that among experts of the same rank, killing one another in the Heavenly Realm was extraordinarily difficult.

Naturally, this only served to demonstrate how astonishing Xing Xi’s talent and combat strength truly were.

Su Ziye also cherished this opportunity to spar with a suitable partner.

In truth, he had no way to find another opponent of the same level.

Outside the Forest of Duskfall, Su Ziye could not exactly be called universally hated, but danger lurked everywhere. Having offended one of the most powerful empires in the world, he was being hunted at almost any cost. The pursuit had continued even after the sacrifice of Heavenly Realm experts. If Su Ziye had not possessed the Blade of Illusionary Ruin, and if he had not been sufficiently calm and vigilant, he would never have had the chance to hide within the Forest of Duskfall.

Inside the forest, most of the Heavenly Realm magical beasts were opponents Su Ziye could not defeat, while the rest were capable of killing him instantly. Before encountering Chasing Shadow, he had never considered sparring with a Heavenly Realm magical beast to temper his abilities.

It was only after Dark Star issued that nearly impossible mission—which, for Su Ziye, nevertheless offered a slim chance of survival—that he finally resolved to attempt killing a Heavenly Realm magical beast entirely on his own.

That was why he had sought out Chasing Shadow.

When he had previously offered the bodies of the three pursuers as a gift to Chasing Shadow, it had merely been a gesture of goodwill. He had never expected that one day he would have to ask Chasing Shadow for help.

Now, however, the goodwill Chasing Shadow displayed toward him—something exceedingly rare among magical beasts—had allowed Su Ziye to truly understand how powerful the binding force of that contract was for the few Chasing Shadow Pegasi still remaining in the world.

It was even possible that Su Ziye could have signed a master-servant contract with Chasing Shadow on the spot.

But for the moment, he had no intention of doing so.

Or rather, the time had not yet come when such a step was necessary.

He hoped that Chasing Shadow would follow him willingly and wholeheartedly, rather than because of the ancient pact signed hundreds of years ago by the strongest figures on both sides.

With that thought in mind, Su Ziye hovered in the air and sheathed the Blade of Illusionary Ruin, gazing at the snow-white pegasus across from him.

“That is enough for today.”

His Destruction Domain slowly faded.