Xiao surged forward, sword drawn, his heart pounding in sync with each footstep. His mind raced, grappling for a plan. Yan was too powerful to face directly, and Xiao knew that much. His eyes flickered to the altar glowing ominously behind Yan. 'That's it. The source of his power.'
Xiao's grip tightened around the hilt of his sword. He didn't have time to waste. With a quick inhale, Xiao activated the Titan's Meridian Breath, his muscles swelling with newfound strength. His legs propelled him toward the altar like a fired arrow, each step reverberating through the ground.
Yan was still drawing power, his form growing more imposing by the second, the air around him crackling with energy. 'Just a little closer.' Xiao's breath hitched, his sword raised high above his head. He slashed down with everything he had.
But the blade bounced off the altar harmlessly, a dull thud ringing through the chamber. It hadn't even left a scratch. 'What?' Xiao questioned his strength.
Yan turned slowly, a smirk curling on his lips. "You thought your blade could pierce an altar charged with over a thousand human essences?" His voice dripped with mockery, eyes gleaming with amusement. "You'd have better luck trying to level a mountain."
Xiao's pulse raced. He couldn't let Yan finish gathering power. But the altar was untouchable. 'How in the hell am I supposed to destroy it?'
Yan chuckled, his figure now looming over Xiao. "Come now," he said, stepping forward. "Let me show you real power."
Yan raised his arm, and qi began to flow through it. Slowly, he pointed his finger at Xiao, and then, with an abrupt burst, qi shot out like a bullet at the speed of a gunshot.
Xiao, who could see the direction of Yan's finger, didn't have enough time to dodge the entire bullet but managed to move slightly, letting the qi bullet strike his left side.
"You should've left when you had the chance," Yan said, as he kept shooting qi bullets from his finger in quick succession.
Xiao knew he couldn't wait for a weak spot like in his last battle, so he looked around for any vulnerability he could exploit.
Then, it hit him, it was 'nighttime'.
Xiao realized that the demon was only active during nighttime and, for some reason, was not during the day.
'But how can I capitalize on this?' Xiao wondered. He couldn't think of anything except that nighttime had something to do with Yan's power.
As Xiao realized that it would be fully night in just ten minutes, panic began to set in. 'There has to be something I can do before night falls.'
He continued dodging the relentless qi bullets. Despite the danger, he decided to trust his instincts and run toward the altar.
Xiao needed to gamble if he was going to fight against this overwhelming power.
Though it wasn't obvious, he still hadn't used Time Acceleration. He had been preserving his qi, but that didn't matter now.
Xiao made a sprint toward the altar. While Yan remained close to it, absorbing power, there was a small separation as Xiao had managed to move him slightly away. He needed to keep Yan off the altar, even if only by a few feet.
Despite his efforts, Xiao hadn't dodged everything. Several of Yan's attacks had hit their mark, leaving bloody wounds across his body. His stamina was rapidly depleting, putting him in even more trouble.
Then, Xiao noticed something as Yan moved further from the altar, the altar's energy was weakening, ever so slightly. It was as if its power had slowed from 200 mph to 190. It wasn't a huge difference, but in a battle, every difference mattered.
Xiao's mind raced. 'Could this work?'
Without hesitation, he dashed toward the altar to test his theory.
Yan didn't seem to have any other techniques in his arsenal—or maybe he was hiding them, content to toy with Xiao. Either way, Xiao didn't let his guard down. He knew each of Yan's qi bullets was at least at Stage 8 of qi condensation.
Xiao inched closer to the altar, dodging the bullets as best he could. As he neared it, he slowed down, glancing up at the nearly non-existent sun. 'If I can get that last bit of sunlight to touch the altar, Yan might become vulnerable.'
Xiao's plan took form. He began manipulating the way Yan shot his qi bullets, dodging in such a way that the bullets would hit nearby structures. Bit by bit, the falling debris brought down parts of the buildings around them.
To Yan, it looked like Xiao was desperately dodging, running in strange directions but Yan didn't suspect anything; he just assumed Xiao was frantic because of his wounds and, grasping at straws.
Once Xiao had forced Yan to destroy several nearby buildings, a small amount of sunlight flowed into the town square and hit the altar.
Xiao had hoped that as soon as the sunlight touched the altar, Yan would be left in a vulnerable state, his source of power cut off. But nothing happened.
Yan didn't even seem to notice. He continued to toy with Xiao, relentlessly shooting qi bullets, treating the fight like a game.
Still, Xiao believed there had to be some kind of vulnerability now that the sun was hitting the altar. 'There has to be a weakness somewhere.'
Xiao refused to give up. 'If the altar itself wasn't weakened, then the connection must've been affected.' He reached this conclusion, but he wasn't sure how to sever that connection—the one that gave Yan his seemingly unlimited power.
Then, Xiao thought back to how this all started. 'The ritual.' Suddenly, an idea struck him, and he remembered the scroll he once had, the one detailing the paintings he had inscribed on the altar.
He had only painted three of the designs, but he still remembered all nine. Using this knowledge, Xiao began to search for a flaw in the ritual.
A plan started to take shape in his mind, and Xiao was ready to implement it.