"Huh, he can even block that? What is that thing?" Tuyue’s eyes lit up, her earlier drowsiness and impatience vanishing in an instant.

She straightened up, staring intently at the transparent airflow swirling around Lin Hui.

"This is a special Secret Technique I developed through my own training, the Wind of Surrounding," Lin Hui said calmly.

SHIING.

He drew his longsword.

Fog People. Since the day he was born into this world, their name had echoed in his ears as the strongest group in existence.

They stood at the very peak, looking down on all creation, on everything. Everyone was their plaything, their slave.

And now, he was about to challenge this group at the apex of the world.

The strongest individuals.

The strongest of the Fog People...

Closing his eyes, Lin Hui sensed Tuyue’s aura not far away.

It was a terrifying mass of light, as blinding and dazzling as the sun.

Just by letting his Heart and Spirit draw slightly closer, he felt an immense pressure and a tingling numbness that spread through his entire body.

"Lin Hui, Daoist Master of the Clear Wind Dao, asks for your instruction."

"If you can actually manage to injure me, then you’ll have earned the right for me to remember your name," Tuyue said with a laugh.

"Then let’s see."

Lin Hui raised his Ruyi. Holding nothing back, three Seal Techniques transformed into golden light and appeared behind him as he activated the Feathering Secret Technique.

SWISH!

In the next instant, he crossed several hundred meters in a flash and passed straight through Tuyue.

But the feeling of striking nothing but air made his heart lurch, and he immediately shifted several hundred meters to the side.

BOOM!!

A massive shockwave grazed past him and slammed into the sea.

A cavity instantly formed in the ocean—a massive hole hundreds of meters deep, its bottom out of sight.

The hole was over a hundred meters wide, embedded in the surface of the sea as if an invisible force was resisting the pressure of the surrounding water, forcibly maintaining this huge, dark chasm.

Lin Hui controlled the wind to hover above the chasm, looking up at Tuyue, who was slowly materializing in front of him.

’Is this the speed of a Fog Person!?’ It was the first time he had ever encountered a being that could match him head-on in speed.

"Is this the speed you’re so proud of?" Tuyue smiled. "It’s fast. But still within the realm of mortals. If you plan to fight me with just this? You will surely die."

After a pause, she suddenly giggled.

"Of course, I couldn’t bear to kill you. Such a fascinating specimen isn’t easy to come by..."

A thousand meters in an instant—Lin Hui was now capable of this.

But in her eyes, it was still not enough.

Lin Hui had long known that fighting a Fog Person would be difficult, but he had never expected the reality to be even more dangerous than he imagined.

Taking a deep breath, he raised his Ruyi vertically.

"Again!"

SWOOSH!

The next instant, he vanished from his spot once more.

Everything around him blurred, losing its form. Only Tuyue rapidly grew larger in his vision.

A slash!

The Ruyi slashed across Tuyue’s neck like lightning, but it only struck an afterimage.

In the next moment, Tuyue appeared behind Lin Hui and threw a palm strike.

BOOM!!

The palm struck Lin Hui’s back heavily.

The terrifyingly immense force, in the instant before it made contact with Lin Hui’s skin, first met the Wind of Surrounding Special Effect.

The transparent, swirling airflow held on for an instant before shattering on the spot.

Behind it, Lin Hui’s skin and flesh had yet to be hit, but they were already beginning to twist and deform.

But just then, a strange ripple flashed across Lin Hui’s body.

SWISH!

Tuyue’s palm strike actually passed straight through Lin Hui’s body.

It, too, had struck an afterimage!

’What!?’

In the distance, Gongsun Xinlian’s fists tightened, her expression frozen in shock.

It wasn’t just her; on the distant Moon Tower, the two Black Cloud City Lords had also fallen silent.

Even they were stunned by this move, to say nothing of Tuyue herself.

Her palm having struck nothing, she froze in a daze, hovering in mid-air. She looked at her right palm, seemingly unable to process what had just happened.

"Just now...!?" She turned to face Lin Hui. "What was that just now!?"

"...I don’t know," Lin Hui said after a moment of silence.

He turned to face Tuyue directly as well.

"I just... moved on instinct."

He wasn’t lying. He had simply sensed danger, moved instinctively, and then everything had fallen into place naturally.

Micro-flash.

This Special Effect, which he had previously thought was just for stomping noobs, seemed to have a true purpose that was not passive at all.

But rather... active use!

He had just used it actively and, in an instant, completely evaded Tuyue’s terrifying attack.

Although he only used it for a moment, in that instant the Micro-flash took effect, he felt as if he had entered a wondrous plane, completely detached from reality and matter.

"Are you humiliating me!?" Tuyue’s expression changed.

"I am merely stating a fact." Lin Hui was still basking in the strange sensation from a moment ago.

"Fine... Do you really think you have a chance to beat me just because of that little trick?" Tuyue was clearly getting worked up.

"Who do you think you are? With a mere Secret Technique, you think you can stand on equal footing with us!? What do you take yourself for!?"

"You’re right. I’m not a ’thing,’ I’m a person." Lin Hui gripped his Ruyi, his focus entirely on his opponent.

"You dare talk back!? You’re courting death!!" Tuyue was furious.

She abruptly raised her right hand.

"I’ve changed my mind! It would be better to cut off that mouth of yours first, so it doesn’t spoil my mood."

HISS.

Immense, transparent, and distorted Void Power appeared around her palm. It condensed, contracted, and finally formed a thin, faintly blue glove.

"Die!"

In an instant, Tuyue vanished from her spot.

’I can’t keep up!?’ Lin Hui also began to move at extreme speed, but the moment he did, he realized he couldn’t keep up with her Body Technique!?

He cultivated speed-focused Martial Arts, yet at this very moment, even he couldn’t match her movement speed!?

Before he could think any further, a hand in a pale blue glove slapped down on his left shoulder like lightning.

SWISH!

The Micro-flash activated.

The palm passed through him, but in the next instant, it changed its attack and struck toward his chest again.

SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH!!

Over the sea, Lin Hui and Tuyue exchanged blows at extreme speed. His figure constantly flickered and blurred as he dodged her hyper-speed attacks.

But because of the huge speed difference, his own attacks couldn’t even touch the hem of Tuyue’s clothes.

One massive Palm Force after another continuously stirred the air before crashing down into the sea.

They repeatedly blasted bottomless, dark chasms into the water below.

These chasms lingered, resembling giant, transparent spikes piercing the sea.

The sea churned, gradually forming larger waves that spread out in all directions.

"What is this Secret Technique!?"

Gongsun Xinlian heard the question from her big brother, Xie Chang’an.

"Although Tuyue is on the weaker side, even the most basic Fog Person Palm Force can destroy a small city with a single strike. Is she holding back?"

"No!" Gongsun Xinlian was also watching with rapt attention. "Tuyue isn’t holding back. From the very start of the fight, she already tried to invade his mind with her Heart and Spirit, attempting to forcibly alter Lin Hui’s thoughts, but she failed. It was repelled by some unknown power."

"Then she attacked at a godlike speed. Her speed did indeed far surpass his, but she was blocked by that bafflingly strange flashing Secret Technique. In that blurred state, it seems no attack can touch Lin Hui!"

The more she explained, the more shocked she felt.

"Although Tuyue hasn’t gotten serious yet, to be able to fight her to this extent is already incredible!"

"Indeed!" her big brother Xie Chang’an agreed. "Since point-blank attacks aren’t working, Tuyue will definitely resort to area-of-effect attacks next. Be careful and don’t let the tsunamis affect the port."

"Understood," Gongsun Xinlian nodded slightly.

Elsewhere, the people of the Clear Wind Dao couldn’t see the battle at all. They could only sense that their Daoist Master Lin Hui’s aura was still present and had not weakened. All of them waited with bated breath.

The only effect their battle had on the surroundings was that the people and fleets at the coastal port felt the waves growing somewhat larger.

"I don’t believe you don’t have a limit!" Tuyue attacked madly, her speed increasing. She could still get faster!!

This is unbelievable!!

Lin Hui cursed inwardly. He could barely see her figure anymore, which meant the speed gap between them was nearing an unmanageable level.

And as she had said, Micro-flash was indeed reaching its limit.

Actively using this Special Effect could grant absolute invincibility against all external attacks, but there was a cooldown of just under a second.

He couldn’t use it again during that interval; he could only rely on himself to endure!

Moreover, actively using Micro-flash put a great strain on his Heart and Spirit.

After just this short time, he was already feeling a faint sense of exhaustion.

Even executing his Swordsmanship with all his might wouldn’t drain him this much.

So at this moment, Lin Hui knew he couldn’t drag this out.

Taking advantage of the moment Micro-flash evaded another of Tuyue’s palm strikes, he flashed back several hundred meters and raised his longsword horizontally.

"Wind!"

Instantly, a gale swept out, surrounding him for dozens of meters.

This was Gale Swordsmanship, used for short-range acceleration.

He had only just initiated the Swordsmanship when, in the next instant, a pale blue palm struck him squarely in the chest.

BOOM!!

He had finally failed to dodge in time, and the palm hit his chest.

The Wind of Surrounding held for another instant before shattering, slightly reducing the attack’s speed.

BANG!!!

Lin Hui held his Ruyi horizontally like a sword, desperately blocking the palm.

CHH CHH CHH CHH—Layers of airflow rippled out fiercely from behind him.

That was the wind helping him dissipate the force.

But it was no use!

The terrifyingly immense force was far beyond what Lin Hui could withstand.

Like an infant hit head-on by a giant truck, his entire body went rigid for an instant, then he was blasted backward.

His flying body created rings of sonic booms in mid-air, piercing through the fog. After flying for several thousand meters, he slammed violently into the sea.

BOOM!

The sea surface erupted in a colossal wave hundreds of meters high. It shattered in mid-air, turning into a rain of spray that lingered for a long time without falling, instead adding to the thickness of the surrounding fog.

"Now that’s more like it." Tuyue retracted her hand, her expression returning to its previous smile, as if her earlier fury had been an illusion.

"I thought you were actually going to force me to use my true form. I didn’t expect... Hmm?"

Suddenly, her expression froze, and she looked up at the sky.

"What is this!?"

It wasn’t just her. At that moment, Gongsun Xinlian and the other two City Lords of Black Cloud City all looked up at the sky at the same time.

RUMBLE...

A sudden thunderclap tore through the mist, its pale blue light illuminating everything on the sea’s surface.

It also lit up the immense sight that had appeared in the sky.

—It was a gigantic vortex that covered the entire sky above the sea!

The vortex didn’t seem to have appeared suddenly, but had been gathering for some time, only now taking its final form.

Dark clouds now filled the sky, flashing with lightning. From the center of the massive vortex, a thin, grayish-black tail was rapidly growing downward.

Directly below this tail, countless motes of seawater and mist were also spinning at high speed, linking upward to form another similar, thin tail.

Under everyone’s stunned gazes, the two tails met.

CRACK.

A flash of lightning streaked by, simultaneously illuminating a well-proportioned, sword-wielding figure within the point of convergence.