Like Ice and Fire

“Uncle! Uncle! You can’t fight him!” Che Gulu cried whilst throwing punches at Xun Feng’s face. All of Che Gulu’ previous fear of Xun Feng seemingly became a thing of the past.

Bai Ju was so annoyed that he smiled. He believed that his gullible nephew had fallen for another enemy ploy. He was never one to care for reasoning with people, and he wasn’t about to make an exception. Nevertheless, in order to impose his will, he needed to deal with an obstacle first.

For once, Bai Yumo pulled no punches. She wasn’t trying to murder Bai Ju, but she was angry and sensed that her opponent was dangerous. Her instincts told her that she’d still fail to hurt the elder even if she went all out. Just as she feared, she didn’t have the strength to even break his true qi armour.

Seeing as strength wasn’t a viable solution, Bai Yumo switched up her style. Instead of trying to overpower Bai Ju, she stuck to him; even if she wasn’t his match, he’d have no time to think about getting away since there was always another attack to deal with.

Bai Ju chuckled, finding Bai Yumo more interesting than he gave her credit her. Unfortunately, her lack of real combat experience and lack of desire to inflict harm rendered her impressive internal energy and broadsword prowess moot. Had she utilised another broadsword discipline with such an innocent mindset, he’d have been able to punch her guts out in one shot. Thanks to Yearning Broadswordplay being a manifestation of one’s mindset, though, she was able to bring out a profound version.

If it was Bai Zhiqing utilising his “Troubled Heart Broadswordplay”, then Bai Ju really would’ve had a hard time disengaging. However, the young maiden was inexperienced and, therefore, was highly susceptible to the most effective way of dismantling her broadswordplay – her mind.

“Lass, you have a crush on that boy?”

“You! You’re a pathological framer!”

Combining the accusation with the theft of food sent Bai Yumo into a fury. She whipped out a violent gust of wind with her next slash; she was clearly too inflamed to remember that the person who framed her for stealing food was actually the person she was protecting.

Bai Ju took his head off the line and then initiated an attack. To his surprise, Bai Yumo accelerated herself backwards and raised her blade parallel to the floor to block. Still, she went drifting off as a result of the impact.

Bai Yumo saw Bai Ju split in two, so she hurriedly tried to land to go to Tang Ye’s aid. She didn’t expect Bai Ju to use it as a feint. By the time she was aware of it, he had parked himself at her landing spot and aimed his finger spear at her face. The qi she moulded was old by then, and she couldn’t pull herself out of its trajectory. She expected to be hit, but she saw the five fingers change direction and smash a brick before turning back to her, by which point she had already retreated several inches out of range. A moment later, it occurred to her that she could smell a man and feel a hot hand around her waist. She looked over her shoulder to Tang Ye, who kicked the brick in between before pulling her out of range.

Bai Ju: Interesting. I left you be, yet you came to offer up your own life?

“We’re enemies today. Why did you help me?” questioned Bai Yumo.

Tang Ye wasn’t sure how to answer. He was aware of the fact. He was bored standing around just spectating. When he saw Bai Yumo losing, if he didn’t help… He had too much time on his hands… If he helped… He’d still have too much time on his hands. Since he wasn’t doing anything, he figured it couldn’t hurt to help when she was finally in danger. It wasn’t a nice answer, so he chose to coldly ask, “Why did you help me?”

Bai Yumo, whether she wanted to admit it or not, did have some intention of helping Tang Ye back there. “No reason in particular… You’re hurt. I was worried you’d be killed.”

Tang Ye didn’t know how to respond as he never thought Bai Yumo was so nice.

“It’s time you two face reality.” Bai Ju was nice enough to give them time to converse in the middle of a ring, but even he had his bottom line. “Did you know that we old ones have a saying? If you’re in a ring, but you don’t fight, you’ll have to give each other three hundred kisses.”

Tang Ye didn’t bat an eye, while Bai Yumo gasped and touched her lips, wondering if that many kisses would leave her lips too swollen to eat.

Tang Ye was aware of the fact that he was taking a risk when he chose to intervene, particularly when he knew he wasn’t going to be able to just run through his opponent. Both his experience and knack for combat alarmed him to the fact that Bai Ju was on a different level to his previous opponents. Their previous clash also highlighted the gap between them. It, nonetheless, wasn’t the first time he was pitted against an opponent stronger than him. Ever since setting foot into the pugilistic world, he was mentally ready for the scenario of encountering a foe tougher than him. Besides, he wasn’t alone this time.

“You attack. I’ll back you up.”

Even though they only had physical contact for a brief while, Bai Yumo’s heart rate did pick up. She instinctively looked over her shoulder and nodded. Then, Tang Ye shoved her away.

Unprepared Bai Yumo: “???”

“I thought you nodded” Tang Ye: “???”

“Does the order matter when you’ll both lose in the end?!” Bai Ju vaulted up with a smile and unleashed a vacuum palm strike that raised a wall of dirt, separating the two.

As she wondered what to do, Bai Yumo heard Tang Ye say, “Draw your blade. Fight.”

Despite not knowing how to attack when the force of Bai Ju’s palm strike had yet to evaporate, Bai Yumo chose to trust Tang Ye. She stacked three attacks on top of each other, easily penetrating the big shockwave to target Bai Ju with a stab. Upon slicing an opening into the vacuum, she saw Tang Ye finger thrust scorching true qi through the vacuum.𝗳𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝐨𝐯𝗲𝗹.𝐜𝐨𝐦

Strength-wise, Tang Ye couldn’t overcome Bai Ju’s strength even if he imbued his strikes with Yang Blood True Qi. However, reducing the surface area he had to infuse with true qi empowered him to pierce through Bai Ju’s vacuum through reducing the amount of force he had to overcome. Equally deserving of praise was Tang Ye’s ability to accurately predict where Bai Yumo would strike and coordinate accordingly in the short time.

Bai Ju’s double palms went in circles, forcing him backwards, putting him in a defensive and passive position for the first time in the fight. Upon regaining balance, he grinned. “Good stuff, kid.”

While Tang Ye remained vigilant, Bai Ju chuckled as he relished the challenge. Bai Ju might not have been famous in the Central Plain, but nobody would’ve left him out of a conversation centering around the martial world, and nobody in it would brush him off. He had no defined principles and hard to request the service of, but he was unquestionably good at destruction once he got going. Not many people knew about Bai Ju’s life besides him being unmatched as a whip user in the north. Had he not been in a small country, people believed he could’ve rivalled the best of Beijiang. Tang Ye should’ve been honoured to receive praise from Bai Ju, but Bai Ju didn’t just value Tang Ye’s skill.

Bai Ju spread open his old black cloak. Bai Yumo and Tang Ye instantly felt somewhat suffocated. Bai Ju slowly raised his arm, creating a diagonal line as his arm rose. The summer breeze didn’t move the cloak even a fraction. The sight resembled dark clouds shrouding the sky. Bai Ju reached out his right hand, introducing a silver light against the dark backdrop. Ling Shaoxuan and Su Xiao were both dropped before they even got to see Bai Ju’s notorious “Iceriver Whip”. Seeing it was a sign of receiving respect from Bai Ju as it signified that he was going to get serious.

Still feeling as though her insides were being jumbled around despite using her energy to resist, Bai Yumo questioned, “What do we do now?”

Tang Ye never took his eyes off Bai Ju, but he wasn’t so tunnel visioned that he couldn’t think. He felt he had a reliable skeleton of Iceriver Whip’s form based off the silver glimmer he caught under the black coat. He was able to rapidly formulate ideas based on the sparse information whilst mentally remaining as still as water, similarly to the two opposing true qis in him maintaining a perfect balance.

Upon inhaling deeply, Tang Ye felt icy energy wreath around his scorching true qi without either cancelling out the other; it as if they had formed an alliance to fight a common foe. Rising to the summon of his energy, in a voice that carry the vigour of his fiery energy and the calmness of frozen water, he answered, “Fight head on.”

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