Wu Guang's overwhelming senses served him well, as they had been doing all the time he had spent in this plane. And so, his sword, a simple and common sword that he had bought just for training, met his opponent's weapon a few inches before the latter managed to touch him.

*Clank*

A hard block was not the best way to react, still, Wu Guang considered that if he wanted to give himself a real opportunity to incapacitate her without killing, then he should remain more or less engaged.

The Eagle Kindom Lieutenant was surprised at him even managing to block, but she was experienced enough to avoid stopping. Using the rebound, she changed heading and made a diagonal slice, aimed at Wu Guang's neck.

*Clang*

Which Wu Guang again blocked, with a simple, if not theatrical, swing of his sword.

At this moment, the message glyph darted towards the exit, and Yuan Xiuying allowed herself a small inward smirk. "I got you! Even if I do not manage to win or stall for enough time, the commander will know of everything that happened here and react. Knowing him, he will definitively send the nearest team to scout the place... And if this is your territory, then you are dead. After all, we three were the most weaker of the Advance Eagle Corps" She victoriously thought. It did cross her mind that the opponent in front of her was stronger, but even so... She would either win or be avenged.

Wu Guang could not read the thoughts of others, still, he could perfectly guess what had crossed her mind as the glyph flew with a speed far superior to the one he could manage himself.

"Regretfully for you, I do not need to touch the glyph to make it useless" Wu Guang thought to himself, and while making a waving motion with his free, right hand that was meant to distract the opponent, sent a quick spell at the rapidly passing glyph.

One of the easiest, if not basic spells that a Sage realm cultivator would learn was called 'Clean Slate'. By applying it on any unprotected message, writing, recording, or even storing object, the latter would return to its original, empty, condition. Oh, the spell did require a few seconds to work, but the only issue was to aim it well the first time.

Thankfully Wu Guang had no issues with timing and aiming, after all, his senses allowed him to see the trajectory of the glyph. And so when he waved his hand, he had actually used the spell.

Even though his opponent could not guess what happened, as no one without Mind Power could sense a spell, at least if it was not aimed at one directly, Wu Guang played it safely and tied the movement into a counterattack.

His hand moved, attracting at least some attention from Yuan Xiuying and then he quickly followed with a horizontal slash from his sword, and right about it was blocked, slightly jumped while spinning.

Normally such movement would be called a stupid one, but Wu Guang had the advantage of knowing where his opponent's sword was at the moment, and for some reason that he could not understand, neither of these Eagle Kingdom cultivators had attempted to use anything except the sword.

*Clang* *Clang* *Clang*

His spin allowed him to send three momentum imbued slashes at his opponent, making her concentrate on defense and totally forget about the glyph. And well, why would not she? The glyph had already left the building, and there was no one to intercept it outside, was there? Regretfully for her, she was wrong. If she had maintained her eyes on the glyph, as it was otherwise impossible to sense, she would have seen that as soon it passed the doorway it fell. In place of rising to the sky and flying towards her commander, the glyph simply fell on the ground, devoid of any direction... or message.

The exchange continued for ten or so minutes without any real change. Yuan Xiuying attacked with the intent to kill, while Wu Guang simply continued to use any opportunity to throw her off the balance by sudden slashes and movements.

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And even though the exchange could be said fierce and she was one of the combatants, Yuan Xiuying suddenly found out that the youngster had not aimed at her once during the entire fight. Yes, he slashed and even sent a few dangerous thrusts her way, but they were always intended to be blocked!

She had already begun wondering why she had not felt any life-threatening danger during the fight, and now she knew. Her opponent was simply toying with her. Or at least he was stalling for time as well.

Hit by this sudden recognition, she jumped backward, breaking up the distance.

"Why?! Why are you simply acting as if you are fighting?!" She could not resist the urge to scream.

But a cold silence was the only thing that answered. Her opponent had not moved, allowing her to disengage, but somehow she felt that he had planned all of this, including her thoughts!

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And he had, at least for the most part. Obviously, Wu Guang could not influence her mind, but he could subtly make her reach such a conclusion. He had not really been acting, he simply never intended to take her life. After all, he needed a living, and preferably mostly unhurt body for Chun Hua. Plus, he wanted to make sure that she deserved such fate, after all, forcefully stripping one's body while alive was... cruel, if that word could explain the feelings of someone who felt how every fiber of the body was slowly becoming someone's else.

But he did plan that she would break away as soon she realized he had not attacked to kill. And when she shouted angrily, he did not react anyway. Simply activating his planned movement.

'Earth's Spiked Shield'

Being the creator and having mastered it to such an extent that he only had to will for it to activate, Wu Guang did not need to even say the technique name. And so without any hint, the rock plates on the ground stood up, moved by his qi, and formed somewhat blunt spikes. The range he activated the technique was only a few feet in diameter, even so, every spike was aimed at his opponent's body, and they numbered at least a dozen.

________________________________________________________________________

Yuan Xiuying reacted instantly, though she was extremely surprised. After all, except for a slight movement of qi a few moments ago, which she took as a simple fluctuation, nothing indicated that her opponent had used a technique!

But, even though she was quick, the spikes surrounded all of her directions, leaving her the options of either defending and forcefully breaking through them, or flying by jumping. With the spikes suddenly flaring with qi, and her senses saying that it was a pretty decent amount of it, she knew that the former option would be risky. Still, the latter was even worse, as she would be practically unguarded while airborne.

She had only a moment to make a decision, but she made it up even quicker.

"Blazing Claws!" She bellowed and her curved sword, an army-issued Royal Feather, suddenly covered in flames.

And right before the spikes reached her, she continuously slashed several times.

________________________________________________________________________

Wu Guang expected her to act like that, after all, what experienced cultivator would avoid a ground-level attack by jumping? All of such techniques were meant to either injure the target directly or goad it to jump. With the latter being a perfect moment for the person outside the technique to land a deciding hit on an unguarded opponent.

He did not expect her to use a Martial Skill right of the bat, but at least she was moving in the direction he planned. That meant, right towards him. This was logical, as a Martial Skill could be reinforced constantly, allowing not only to break through the spikes but also attack him. Maybe even catch him with his guard dropped.

Wu Guang did not plat to meet the martial skill head-on in any case, and so he activated 'Counting Steps to Heaven and Hell', moving away and positioning himself at the far end of the room, more than thirty feet to the left from where he was just now standing.

*CRASH*

Savagely crashing through the spikes, several blazing slashes emerged. And following them, with her sword still covered in flames, his opponent.

________________________________________________________________________

Her senses had caught that the local cultivator position had changed, and even though she could not understand what technique or skill allowed him to move with practically total stealth, she knew more than to stop her skill. After all, she could not call upon it again for at least a few moments, a few moments that he would use to attack her!

So after escaping the spikes, she turned out to face him, preparing to continue using the 'Blazing Claws'.

________________________________________________________________________

A few burning slashes were released at him right as his opponent brought through the spikes, but Wu Guang avoided them easily by breaking into a run. He maintained his distance, circling around her and allowing her to spend qi and soul power. He did not know what was her mastery level or how much did this skill spend, but he was sure of something... That no cultivator, not even one with a so higher capacity like him, could continue doing it for long.

He was right, as only after a dozen or so slashes, she was forced to stop. Her sword was still covered in flames, but they were fairly dimmer than before. And the fact that she was breathing heavily meant that she had exhausted quite an amount of qi. After all, since the Spirit realm, qi was intimately connected to one's physique, and how it could make one stronger, quicker, and more resilient. Losing a big amount of it suddenly would provoke a feeling of fatigue, as well as slightly diminishing the combat prowess. Albeit even the normal absorption that any cultivator had would cover the basic needs of the body, but... The strain would still be there until one rested.

In fact, Wu Guang would be in a similar state right now, if not for his reserves being far higher than his cultivation required. And so, to make him feel fatigued, he would have to spend around nine-tenths of his qi. Not that he was far from doing it either, as right now his inner view informed that he was precariously close to that limit.

"Time to finish" Wu Guang voiced, and stopped moving. Changing the sword to his right hand, he called for a short spear from his storage ring.

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Yuan Xiuying could only be amazed. She had tired herself already, by her own mistake to say the truth, but her opponent still looked fine! And he had fought for longer. Still, being amazed at one's opponent was hardly the thing she needed to do right now.

So in place, she dedicated herself to finding a way to resolve the battle. Or at least make sure she remained alive until the relief came. But her thoughts were interrupted as the youngster spoke up.

"Time to finish" The voice was cold, but this time she felt no mock or anything else. It was simply as he stated out a fact.

Seeing that he took out a spear, and was now dual-wielding, she could only be surprised at the sheer amount of weapons he dominated.

But, at least this said that he intended to fight in close range. Which, hopefully, will give her a way to, indeed, finish this battle.

"Eagle Wings! Golden Armor! Scorching Claw!" Until now she did not need to resort to techniques, but now that they were nearing a final bout, at least by her opponent's words, she had to use every available card she had.

"Arrow Flight!" She bellowed a fourth technique name and launched herself right at him, intending to gain the advantage of the momentum.

________________________________________________________________________

Wu Guang's words were meant mostly for him, but seemingly they worked out perfectly to goad her into using up all of her cards at the same time. He had only a slight moment to watch the techniques she used, before a golden armored, winged, and holding a sword covered in flames far darker than the ones before figure launched at him with breathtaking speed.

Facing such an attack one would expect Wu Guang to start moving as to dodge, or activate his techniques and skills to meet her, or at least! At least brace and defend himself.

But Wu Guang did nothing of that, he did not do anything at all. He simply stood there, expressionless face, sword in one hand and spear in the other, and waited...