You can read ahead up to 70 chapters on my patreon https://www.patreon.com/GGS6395
"Whoooosh......!"
The noisy wind blew in once again from afar, sweeping across the weed-covered outskirts, pressing all the wild grass down as though an invisible power were crushing it flat.
Fang Li and Kanzaki stared at each other from a distance.
The gap between them was roughly ten meters.
Without question, that was beyond the attack range of both Fang Li's Moon Blade and Kanzaki's nodachi.
If they had remained standing still, neither weapon should have been able to reach the other.
That is, unless there was some ability to compensate for it.
"Nanasen…"
Suddenly, Kanzaki's low voice drifted through the wind.
"BOOM......!"
At that very instant, an explosion erupted but it was no ordinary explosion.
It was caused by seven terrifying slashes that generated violent air currents the moment they appeared, bursting forth like a storm.
Kanzaki merely rested her hand on the sword at her waist, and the seven slashes were already unleashed.
Like seven invisible sickle-weasels, they tore through the atmosphere, ripped open the earth, and charged forward with fierce gusts of wind.
Their speed was far beyond what human eyes could easily follow.
Even the air itself screamed beneath the astonishing velocity of those seven slashes.
An ordinary person facing this attack would be chopped into countless pieces in an instant and reduced directly into a bloody pulp.
Unfortunately, Fang Li was not included among ordinary people.
"Flashing Scabbard - Four Crossroads…"
A blade flash suddenly appeared.
"Shua shua shua shua......!"
Four crescent-shaped slashes emerged.
Like curved moons appearing beneath a clear sky, they streaked out in intersecting arcs of brilliant light.
In response to Kanzaki's seven impossible-to-track slashes, Fang Li refused to be outdone and swung out four equally astonishing blade flashes.
Like colliding storms, they smashed violently into each other.
"CLANG......!"
The collision between slash and slash produced a perfectly sharp metallic impact.
As though invisible steel had clashed with overwhelming force, the bell-like sound transformed into a shockwave that exploded outward between Fang Li and Kanzaki.
"PA......!"
The ground instantly shattered apart.
Witnessing this scene with her own eyes, Kanzaki's expression became solemn.
Although Kanzaki Kaori was a magician, she was also a martial artist with superb swordsmanship. Possessing mind, technique, and body in equal measure, she could freely wield even a nodachi over two meters long and cut through anything with her exceptional sword skills.
Of course, though Kanzaki Kaori was a warrior, she was still fundamentally a magician.
Her greatest specialty in combat was using magic to strengthen her body while engaging opponents in close-quarters blade combat.
Furthermore, as the former Priestess of the Amakusa-Style Church, nearly all of her magical techniques were hidden within her clothing, movements, and even breathing itself. She needed neither incantations nor magic circles. During battle, she could unknowingly cast spells to attack opponents or reinforce herself.
For Kanzaki, combat itself was a form of magic.
And at this moment, the attack she used, known as "Nanasen," was actually a mid-to-long-range combat technique activated through steel wires.
Therefore, the seven storm-like slashes were not sword strikes swung at impossible speed, but techniques produced by Kanzaki manipulating seven steel wires invisible to the naked eye.
The wires were normally stored inside the sheath of her nodachi.
When attacking, Kanzaki's apparent sword-drawing motion was merely a disguise to conceal the hand movements controlling the wires.
In other words, Kanzaki had not even drawn her blade. She had only attacked using seven invisible steel wires.
However, because this technique could kill a person seven times in a split second, it was also known as…
"Instant Kill."
But Fang Li was different.
Although Kanzaki held the numerical advantage, unleashing seven slashes while Fang Li only released four, Kanzaki still understood something clearly.
"Those were real sword slashes…"
Nanasen merely used steel wires as a medium, achieving instantaneous consecutive slashes through wire manipulation.
In other words, the seven slashes were already formed the instant Kanzaki's hand moved, merely directed toward the opponent under her control.
But Fang Li truly swung his sword. He had genuinely completed four slashes within a single instant.
It was an astonishing technique.
"Just as expected of an assailant that countless magic factions have been unable to deal with…"
Kanzaki's evaluation of Fang Li instantly rose several times higher. He possessed Mystic Eyes capable of killing everything, along with an astonishing technique.
The opponent before her was absolutely not someone to underestimate.
Even if she herself was a Saint, it made no difference.
Thus, Kanzaki became serious.
"Nanasen!"
The probing attack from before now became infused with genuine murderous intent, transforming into a true killing move.
"BOOM......!"
Just like before, an explosion suddenly erupted.
Seven invisible slashes stirred up a violent storm, becoming a force of slaughter capable of crushing everything as they swept forward.
Only this time, both their power and speed had increased by several ranks.
For a human to stand before this storm of slashes would simply be suicide.
Facing it head-on, Fang Li appeared as tiny as someone about to be swallowed by a typhoon.
But being small did not mean being weak.
"Heh…"
Faced with the slash-storm charging at terrifying speed, Fang Li merely responded with a faint laugh, as though mocking it.
"Flashing Scabbard - Seven Nights!"
This time, it was not four slashes.
It was a single slash.
Yet the speed of this one slash had already surpassed the realm of human comprehension.
"QIANG......!"
Amid a clear cry that echoed through the air, a chilling blade flash shot out like a streak of white silk, violently cutting forth in an instant. It transformed into a descending blade-light from the heavens and crashed directly into the incoming storm.
"Puchi......!"
With a tearing sound like flesh being sliced apart, the incoming slash-storm was forcibly split open by a single strike and completely divided into two halves.
"BOOM......!"
The storm generated by the seven slashes exploded on the spot, transforming into a terrifying shockwave that swept across the surroundings.
"Pa… pa pa pa pa......!"
Under a chorus of cracking sounds, wherever the shockwave passed, the ground shattered inch by inch. Soon, the fractures spread into a spiderweb pattern that expanded across an area dozens of meters wide.
As for the weeds, not a single blade remained.
They had all vanished completely.
Only after some time did silence finally return to the scene.
Fang Li and Kanzaki still stared at each other.
Even their positions had not changed.
But their expressions were completely different.
One remained calm.
The other was filled with gravity.
In the next second, Fang Li broke the silence and spoke words that would send chills down the spine of any third party who happened to hear them.
"Well then." Fang Li smiled faintly and said, "The warm-up should end here, right?"
That's right.
Everything until now had merely been a warm-up.
The proof was that Fang Li had not used his Mystic Eyes, while Kanzaki had not yet released her Stigma.
Thus, Kanzaki took a deep breath.
"BOOM!"
A terrifying aura surged outward from her body.
At this moment… The Saint descended.
(End Of This Chapter)