Yu Xie gripped the sword, his figure moving swiftly forward, like a specter in the dark of night.
The Cloud Cutter gleamed under the dim moonlight, but it appeared especially sharp and glaring.
Crucabena did not dodge, instead blocking the strike with her sword held horizontally.
"Clang——"
With a sharp, metallic clash, Yu Xie stopped right in front of Crucabena, their eyes locking.
"Yu Xie, if you stop now, I can still pretend this is just a rebellious phase, a joke on your part!" Crucabena said.
But Yu Xie ignored her and attacked again.
Cloud Cutter drew an arc through the air, accompanied by a sharp, whistling sound as it cut through the air.
Yu Xie and Crucabena collided, then separated, then collided again.
"Don't you want to become the 'King'?" Crucabena said again.
Yu Xie still ignored Crucabena's muttering.
This time, Crucabena seemed to be enraged, veins popping on her forehead.
"I have already been very lenient! What you're ignoring now is the expectation of the Harbinger, the 'Knave'!"
Yu Xie continued to remain silent, but his sharp gaze seemed to contain an innumerable number of blades.
After several exchanges, there was no clear victor.
Yu Xie was well aware that no matter how things went, Crucabena, after all, was the Fourth Seat of the Harbinger, and she wouldn't be easily defeated.
But this was only the beginning.
The Cloud Cutter in his hand seemed to respond to him, and in that moment, Yu Xie felt as if he could see many scenes that did not exist in his memory.
Before a continuous range of mountains, a man with white hair was holding a blade and swinging it down.
The mountains trembled, and the fierce wind never ceased.
At a marketplace built on the plains, a man stood with a blade before the gates, holding back an army of thousands.
One man stands at the pass, and no one can break through.
The blade of the Cloud Cutter emitted a sharp, never-before-heard buzzing sound, and Yu Xie's attacks grew increasingly fierce and tricky.
Crucabena was gradually becoming fatigued in her defense.
Yu Xie was far more difficult to handle than she had imagined.
Such capability at such a young age—if nurtured properly, he could soon become a true "king."
What a pity.
At this moment, Crucabena's gaze suddenly changed.
The ice element began to gather in her hand that wasn't holding the blade, and in an instant, it formed into a sharp ice sword.
A chilling aura emanated from the ice blade, and the temperature around them plummeted.
Yu Xie momentarily halted his attack and distanced himself from Crucabena.
He did not possess the Vision, nor the Delusion, nor any means to manipulate elemental forces.
Under the influence of Crucabena's ice element, in the blink of an eye, a layer of silvery frost had already begun to form on the ground.
To Crucabena, and to anyone else watching, the outcome of this battle seemed already decided.
Even though Yu Xie might hold the upper hand in a close-quarters fight, how could someone who couldn't wield elemental power possibly compete against one who could freely control it?
Elemental power could accomplish many incredible things, and that immense strength could even alter the very laws of physics.
This was common knowledge in Teyvat.
"Yu Xie, my child, if you give up now, I can still forgive you," Crucabena said, looking at him. Beneath her seemingly indifferent expression, it was unclear what thoughts she was hiding. "You are an excellent child. Her Majesty the Queen will recognize you and bestow her favor upon you!"
"Sorry, I'm not interested," Yu Xie replied.
"What a pity," Crucabena said coldly.
With that, she took the initiative to step forward.
The extreme cold of the ice element spread around her, and at that moment, she was like an unyielding source of freezing cold. The ground beneath her feet froze into hard ice.
In the blink of an eye, she was already in front of Yu Xie, her ice blade aimed straight at his face.
Yu Xie didn't dodge.
The sound of the blade cutting through the air rang in his ears, but the strike missed its mark.
A trace of surprise flashed in Crucabena's eyes.
She hadn't intentionally aimed off, but the facts spoke for themselves—the strike had indeed missed.
A strong sense of unease suddenly rose in her heart. She took a step back, distancing herself from him.
"What happened? What did you do?"
Yu Xie did not respond to Crucabena's question; he simply stared at her coldly.
"Pure Soul of the Blessed Land"—this skill had been with Yu Xie since the beginning of his life, and only now, as his life neared its end, did it finally reveal its true purpose.
It was a kind of illusion, though not exactly an illusion; it could alter certain small aspects of reality.
And it was more than just that—it could also give the user an oppressive presence comparable to that of a Archon.
In the two months since leaving the Hearth Manor, Yu Xie had been avoiding Crucabena's gaze, fully mastering the "Pure Soul of the Blessed Land".
Yu Xie adjusted his breathing and slowly took a step forward.
Crucabena unconsciously took a step back.
She felt an intense sense of oppression emanating from Yu Xie, as if the person standing in front of her was not Yu Xie, but a towering deity.
The intense pressure made her too afraid to take any action. She steeled herself and used the sword in her hand to cut across her thigh.
Blood splattered, the horrifying wounds were shocking to behold.
The pain allowed Crucabena to regain control of her body. She tightened her grip on the hilt, and the frigid ice element coalesced once more.
"What exactly are you?" Crucabena recalled the day she had brought Yu Xie back to the Hearth Manor.
A six-year-old child, alone, had managed to deal with a monster that two or three grown adults could scarcely handle.
She had known even then that Yu Xie was no ordinary child, which was precisely why she had brought him back to the Hearth Manor.
But it was only today that she realized—there seemed to be a secret hidden within Yu Xie, something she couldn't control.
"Me? Just a mortal," Yu Xie replied softly.
With that, he swung his sword.
The offensive resumed.
Compared to before, Yu Xie's attacks now were even faster, more ferocious.
Each strike was imbued with a strong intent to kill.
Crucabena had no other choice but to counter each strike, dismantling his moves one by one under the overwhelming pressure.
Gradually, in Crucabena's eyes, it seemed as though everything around her had changed.
The moon in the sky turned a blood-red hue, and the air itself seemed to be filled with flowing, blood-colored light.
"Yu Xie!" Crucabena shouted in frustration, a roar erupting from her throat.
The intense ice element immediately exploded forth, and hard ice rose from the ground, as if an ice storm had arrived.
Yu Xie raised the Cloud Cutter in front of him, bracing against the freezing storm.
Except for the one or two meters around Yu Xie, everything else was frozen into solid white ice under the intense cold storm, as if winter had arrived.
Crucabena, the Executive Harbinger, code-named "Knave," had finally unleashed her full power.
But the outcome was already decided.
A flash of cold light streaked through the night, the Cloud Cutter piercing the air like thunder.
It was as though it had transformed into a bullet leaving the chamber, the Cloud Cutter broke through the thick ice with overwhelming force and flew toward Crucabena.
Crucabena's face was filled with anger as the Cloud Cutter continued to close in on her.
But it was as if she had been frozen in place.
That divine-like oppressive aura returned, stronger than any she had felt before.
It was as if a pair of massive, imposing eyes were watching her from behind, preventing her from moving.
["Pure Soul of the Blessed Land" has reached Legendary level.]
End of chapter
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