I gave him my patented eyebrow-raise. "Just like that? To me it looks like this could go either way."
"You must think I'm a fool—I've seen enough of your movement technique to know I can't hit you with Thunder Lance. What I've heard about you didn't do you justice, Champion of Snake. Few cultivators have battle styles as comprehensive as yours."
"If you've assessed the situation that much...what makes you think I'm just going to let you go?"
He answered with a toothy smile that was clearly a challenge. "Try, then."
Obviously, he couldn't avoid every Ninefold Spirit Arrow. But just as obviously, it wasn't exactly hard to tell the difference between one of those and an Arrow of Truth, and impressively, he was able to dodge those. After about five seconds, I let him go to conserve the less than 1/3rd capacity of spirit energy I had left.
