"Huh? This, this is my name?" She tilted her head 45 degrees to the upper left, a look of confusion on her face, one hand resting below her chin in thought. "Demon Lord Yao Jiang, Yao Jiang? Forget it, I'll just be called Yao Ji. Hmm, I'll use 'Yao Jiang' when speaking to outsiders; it sounds more intimidating."
As her thoughts drifted, a small black dot in the distance gradually enlarged, kicking up waves of air behind it, and emanating a chilling aura. Its 200km/h movement speed clearly caught Yao Ji's attention; her hairs stood on end, and she quickly pulled back, creating distance from Liu.
"Liu, is this the shapeshifting Eihai you mentioned?" Hoshimi Miyabi arrived on the wind, residual blue shadows still clinging to her. "??? Who are you?"
Hoshimi Miyabi, having long relied on Liu as an external brain and rarely using her own, had experienced some cognitive decline. Coupled with her naturally clumsy disposition, she pouted her small mouth and stared blankly at the person who looked exactly like her.
"No, that's not right." Hoshimi Miyabi stared at her own chest for a long time, then shifted her gaze to Yao Ji, appraising her 'Little Leiyin Temple'. "In this regard, I am far superior to her."
"..."
What do you know! Little Leiyin Temple is the correct one! You damned Zhenyu lackeys! In the name of the Water Bear! Elbow strike!
Liu immediately stood up from the ground and whispered cautiously into Miss Miyabi's ear, "Chief, be careful. I sense... the same aura from this one as from you."
After hearing this, Hoshimi Miyabi said to Liu, who was beside her, "Understood. Leave it to me." Then, her left hand gripped the hilt, her right hand used a fingerprint to unlock, and she drew Wubei from the sword. Chilling glints emanated from her body, tinged with a hint of crimson, forming a stark contrast to Yao Ji's entirely red aura.
"Let's finish this quickly and go eat," Hoshimi Miyabi said expressionlessly, as if defeating her opponent would be as easy as blowing a breath of air. At this, Yao Ji, already tense, felt an even greater alarm bell ring in her heart. Her moves were all remembered through muscle memory, which meant she could fully handle opponents weaker than herself or those with predictable attack patterns.
But Hoshimi Miyabi was different. Despite the game's constant talk of "Six Beans connecting to the brain, charging replacing thinking," her attack patterns in the game's story were almost impossible to predict. This could only mean two things:
First, her stats were so overwhelming that she didn't need skill, and likely didn't have much. It was all about brute force.
Second, on top of explosive stats, her skill had reached its peak. Her moves seemed unpredictable, yet each strike was infinitely varied, allowing her to chain anything she desired.
Clearly, Yao Ji belonged to the first type, and Hoshimi Miyabi to the second.
Hoshimi Miyabi gripped the hilt with both hands, the blade pointed forward at an angle, covered in a blue glow. Her surrounding aura erupted. Seeing this, Yao Ji felt her own sword stir. Then, a spherical creature with two horns on its head sprang from her sword. The only difference was that this Eye Soul had an extra layer of armor compared to Miss Miyabi's, and a very short cape on its back, making it look incredibly majestic and imposing. Its red pupils darted around, appraising the world with ill intent. But as soon as it saw Miss Miyabi drawing her sword, Yao Ji clearly felt the Eye Soul tremble, and then it burrowed back into her own sword, causing the entire blade to shimmer with red light.
There was no time for much thought; after all, she had just arrived in this world and was already facing an extremely high-intensity battle. Confronted with Miss Miyabi's move, Yao Ji immediately recognized it as the one that had defeated Bringer. She was no fool; even with her Eye Soul buffing and enchanting her, there was no need to take this blow head-on. This particular attack pattern was either a vertical or horizontal slash, but in either case, she was absolutely confident she could dodge it. In this situation, talking about snatching the radish from her opponent was absurd; just getting out alive would be a huge success.
Just as Yao Ji was about to dodge the blow, she heard Miss Miyabi exclaim, "Got you!" Then, instead of the imagined massive sword energy sweeping everything away, there was only a figure that vanished almost instantly from its spot.
Yao Ji's pupils dilated. In a flash, she drew her sword and slashed horizontally backward, hearing only a "clash" as she met a fierce, chilling glint.
It was a battle of blades and frost. At this moment, two swords, one red and one blue, intertwined. Neither woman was willing to yield, and they began to grapple. Initially, they were evenly matched, with red and blue energy waves overturning the surrounding Eihai. Even Liu was sent flying to the side. But after a little while, Yao Ji clearly felt herself faltering. Suddenly, she realized she hadn't eaten yet, and her stamina was starting to deplete.
Facing an increasingly unfavorable situation, fragments of memory flashed through Yao Ji's mind like meteors. Then, in an instant, she simultaneously lowered her body and slightly relaxed her grip on her sword. The struggle, originally a direct push-and-pull between two people, transformed into Miss Miyabi sliding past Yao Ji's katana. Hoshimi Miyabi's entire body brushed against Yao Ji's katana as she glided past.
But as the katanas scraped past each other, Hoshimi Miyabi immediately changed her attack direction, delivering a spinning kick. It aimed directly for the back of Yao Ji's head. Fortunately, Yao Ji was quick to dodge and barely avoided it, feeling the rush of wind as it grazed the back of her head. It was truly a blade of wind and a sword of frost; if it had connected, that kick would have splattered her brains.
The two had barely separated by a few paces when Hoshimi Miyabi once again held her sword vertically in front of her and began her second round of offense. The blade thrust straight forward, a piercing strike aimed directly at the back. Feeling the change in airflow behind her, Yao Ji, relying on muscle memory, blocked the attack once more. But then Hoshimi Miyabi's brow furrowed.
"A bit troublesome. I need to finish this quickly."
Hearing this, Yao Ji's heart screamed 'not good.' She didn't linger after the clash. Instead, she used Miss Miyabi's force to turn and leap into the air, completing the actions of sheathing and drawing her sword again with an astonishing speed. However, Yao Ji's incredible vision still allowed her to catch this sight. She remembered a phrase she often used when playing Hoshimi Miyabi: "Six Beans connect to the brain, charging replaces thinking."
At this moment, Yao Ji already wanted to grab her sword and run, but she found she couldn't move at all. At first, she didn't know why. Later, when she looked for the reason, she discovered that her own sword was entangling her.
The moment Wubei was drawn from its sheath, the entire area was covered in various chilling blades. Their density was far beyond what was depicted in the game; they were truly omnipresent, helping matter return to its most basic molecular state. Yao Ji's hand uncontrollably reached for the hilt again—at this point, her katana had already been returned to its sheath. Her body's red aura transformed into a tidal wave, crashing like a flood. The katana in her hand seemed to transform into a divine dragon, and she herself was the one who controlled the dragon to tame the waters.
As the red tide rolled, patterns of spider lilies, invisible to ordinary people, appeared on the ground. Just as the impenetrable sword light reached her nose, Yao Ji vanished, reappearing in another location. That other location was also filled with impenetrable blades, but there was still some air. Within this almost incalculable amount of time, Yao Ji continuously performed spatial shifts. The result was that after Miss Miyabi's three-stage charged attack, Yao Ji didn't have a single hair harmed. At most, the already tattered refugee clothing on her body became even more dilapidated, almost to the point of being indecent.
Fortunately, Yao Ji wasn't as well-endowed as Miss Miyabi, otherwise her clothes might have truly burst open on the spot.
"???" Hoshimi Miyabi looked at her opponent with a hint of disbelief, seeing that she was completely unharmed after her three-stage enhanced normal attack. Although the damage from each strike wasn't particularly high, its strength lay in its impenetrability, making it impossible to dodge.
The red tide on the ground gradually dried up, and the spider lily patterns on the ground began to crack. Then, Yao Ji, as if by fate, placed her hand on the katana. Countless afterimages surged forth from the places where she had performed spatial shifts. From the moment she drew her sword, each afterimage transformed into a sharp edge, heading straight for Hoshimi Miyabi.
Hoshimi Miyabi had forgotten how long it had been since she last felt this sense of evenly matched power. The damage created by Yao Ji's afterimages was like her three-stage enhanced normal attack, each move seamlessly connected and impenetrable. If it were an ordinary person, or even many experts, they might have been cut into their original molecular state by this move.
But who was she? She was the youngest Void Hunter in Neo-Ailidou, an absolute genius who had reached the pinnacle of martial arts through her own skill alone—Hoshimi Miyabi. A fierce fighting spirit burned in her heart. Facing the surging tide of afterimages, the young girl actually closed her eyes, holding her katana to her chest, appearing as if she were ready to be slaughtered.
"Chief!" Liu's pupils dilated, and then her mouth also dropped open, though for different reasons.
When the first afterimage touched Miss Miyabi's nose, Miss Miyabi's figure became even more ethereal than the afterimages. In just two or three blinks of an eye, the entire sky was dominated by blue meteors. Beneath each blue sword shadow were countless afterimages, annihilated and then scattered by the sword wind. Blue arcs streaking across the sky enveloped the entire battlefield, leaving only one person standing in the center.
"Ah..." Liu understood. The Chief was incredibly strong, strong enough to stop the expansion of the Hollow with her power alone. Although Liu was nearby at the time, she hadn't directly seen what was inside the Hollow. Even if she had, she would have only seen a giant net made of blue meteors. That net covered the entire Hollow, but now, Liu directly felt how that net was created.
Drawing her sword from its sheath with a flourish, Hoshimi Miyabi said calmly, "Unleash whatever other moves you have." After a long silence with no response, the naturally clumsy young girl looked around, but where could she find any trace of Yao Ji? Liu clapped her hands to her cheeks, snapping out of her shock, and said with a hint of helplessness, "She's already run away. If she wants to run, we can't stop her."
Meanwhile, Yao Ji, who had already sprinted a kilometer or two, grumbled internally, "My sword, what the hell are you fighting? Is bronze six-god gear the same concept as challenger six-god gear? Are elementary schoolers the same concept as professional players?"