Three seconds into the stalemate.
He ignored her blatant flaunting of her power, and focused more on the Way. He would need a lot of power if he were to contend with her like this. His radiant heart worked automatically, providing him with more essence than he should be capable of wielding under normal circumstances.
The complicated layers of scripts over the matrix spun to accommodate more of the power he pulled from the way. He didn't think he could overwhelm the Radiant Heart, but it only took a month and a few days for him to reach the ceiling of the ability.
For all it was worth, he was contending with a transcendent's one by two-thousand five-hundredth fractions of power. And she wasn't like her younger avatar, who had barely advanced to the fifth step recently.
No, the elder avatar had been transcendent for decades, cultivated all her abilities to a deeper realm of mastery, and who knew how far she went in the paths.
Eight seconds...
