2
Yingkong walked towards Zhao Zhuikong step by step, Excalibur in her hands. Zhao Zhuikong and her materialised in each other’s field of vision at the same moment, while narrow yet deep scars continuously formed on the ground around them.
Yingkong’s figure was crystal clear in Zhao Zhuikong’s eyes. Although she was fast, both had reaction speed and dynamic vision beyond that of normal people, and thus Zhao Zhuikong’s eyes continued to lock onto her despite her speed. However, Zhao Zhuikong appeared blurry to Yingkong. He would vanish from his position from time to time, flashing to another spot within her field of vision. In previous engagements, Yingkong had never been able to even get near him. Her main strength was force redirection and control in a melee, so a mid range battle wasn't her forte. A peak combatant like Zhao Zhuikong could ignore any mid range attacks of hers.
Thus, she had to use her force redirection and control if she wanted victory. This could be seen from her spar with Zheng. Outside of overwhelming attacks like Chaos, Genesis Splitter, Zheng wouldn't dare tangle with her in close combat using his normal Destruction.
Every attempt Yingkong made to close in on him, even if she risked her life to suffer attacks in the process, should have logically ended in her catching him. After all, one was chasing and one was retreating. This was unless he was far too much faster than Yingkong. But the gap in strength between the two would have been ridiculous if so, and he would need to have unlocked the late fourth stage to do so. Thus, although he was fast, it wasn't enough for him to leisurely retreat from Yingkong.
Curiously however, every single time Yingkong was about to reach him, his speed would suddenly accelerate, and he would move to the far away with an abnormal speed, making her unable to chase up to him.
It would have been fine if that was it as Yingkong still had other methods to fight him. However, what forced her to stop everytime was his attacking method. The dagger could attack through the air, reaching even two hundred meters away. Yingkong’s initial guessed it to be a type of incredibly fast vibrational telekinesis to reach this power and range. But every time Zhao Zhuikong used that strange acceleration, despite her clearly having dodged the attack trajectory, the attack trajectory would bend towards her. As it continued to add up, her injuries were actually much worse than they looked.
(Perhaps the guess at the start was wrong. The telekinesis… was a lie?)
These doubts surfaced in Yingkong’s mind, sp she asked those two questions. The first, asking whether he could still be as fast carrying someone, was to ascertain if he was using his own body’s speed and telekinesis to reach his current speed. The second question was to determine if he had lied for the first question.
As the two began their attacks again, Yingkong once again disregarded injuries to close in to Zhao Zhuikong. Zhao Zhuikong smiled slightly as his speed boosted suddenly again, the dagger not being brandished just once, but continuously vibrating. Everything before him began to disintegrate. Before their dynamic vision, it looked like the air was shattering into pieces like glass, while the ground was sliced into tiny chunks. However, the one sent
Yingkong, who should have originally been within this attack range, had suddenly appeared in front of Zhao Zhuikong. In the instant he attacked, his stomach and chest had suffered multiple blows, with a sword scar tracing from his right chest to shoulder appearing as well. Although it had only broken open the skin, its position was the heart area, a critical area.
"A strange attack, my dear little apple. Your Light of the Soul isn’t that bad. Still, why do I feel like I’m facing two people, one attacking me and one escaping my attack range?" Zhao Zhuikong slowly rose from the ground, his head lowered to look at that injury on his chest, before he suddenly smiled towards Yingkong.
(How sharp. That keen observation skill is almost like a beast’s. Perhaps, big brother, you’re the person who is actually the greatest genius in the assassin clan’s history.)
Yingkong slightly smiled, not saying another word, while the atmosphere calmed down some with neither attacking.
"Little apple… do you know the meaning of this final battle?" Zhao Zhuikong suddenly looked at the sky, before opening his mouth to speak after a long time.
"What do you mean? Are you trying to talk about fate or continuing to act crazy?" Yingkong asked curiously.
"No, not such small matters." Zhao Zhuikong’s head lowered. His slight smile remained, but the madness in his eyes was gone. "It’s another kind of feeling that I’ve been feeling recently. But it's fine if you don't know. Speaking of fate, is our fight not counted as fate? Day by day, I’ve been looking forward to little apple maturing and ripening. Now that you’re before me, I unexpectedly feel rather reluctant to part in my heart."
"Is it loneliness? Big brother…" Yingkong smiled warmly, and there was no longer a trace of coldness, but instead the warmth towards one’s family. "I was lonely, just as big brother is. I wasn't able to bear those crimes and pain like big brother. I was only able to keep sleeping like a child. Is that why you killed my other personality? You felt reluctant to part, or you felt lonely?"
"But I was luckier than big brother. Comrades I could trust appeared by my side. Emotions filled my secondary personality’s heart, emotions even the sleeping me could feel. That warmth and security let me better understand why you were lonely. That's why I woke up. This time, it's my turn to bear everything. I may not know the meaning of this final battle, but to us, this is our final battle!" As she finished speaking, she vanished again.
"Is that so?" Zhao Zhuikong didn't move, but suddenly extended a hand. Yingkong shockingly suddenly appeared there, running towards him. However, she was getting slower and slower.
"Little apple, that is not the answer I wanted. If you insist on that answer, I can only pluck you now. Peel off that tender skin of yours. Pick out those pristine white bones of yours! Just thinking about little apple rotting like that makes me want to come!"
With a quiver of the blade, a visible red line flew out in the direction the dagger slashed at, rending apart all in its way. The fabric of space seemed no exception, as scars like the cracks of a mirror were left in it. The red line was directed at the decelerating Yingkong. In but a moment, an invisible heavy sword was suddenly slashing upwards from his right. The slash was very abrupt, but Zhao Zhuikong used his dagger to block it as if he already had foreknowledge of it, while he borrowed the sword’s force to move backwards.
However, just as he moved half a meter away, a jade white and delicate palm suddenly extended from the direction he was moving in. He didn't dare let it touch him and he immediately accelerated, moving nearly ten meters away in the blink of an eye. However, an invisible heavy sword was blocking his path of retreat. The acceleration led the sword to piercing directly into his stomach from behind. Although it was only able to penetrate centimeters before he flashed away, this was still the first time Yingkong had harmed him in this fight.
"How beautiful, little apple. Or should I say… my two little apples!" Zhao Zhuikong rubbed his back, smiling as if he couldn't feel the pain. Yingkong was standing behind him, Excalibur in hand, with several drops of blood on its tip. The drops of blood looked like they were floating in the air.
"Don't be so shameless, big brother. Your Light of the Soul is a spatial type, but you said it was the most ordinary telekinesis. That was lying." Yingkong said lightly.
Light of the Soul was an organism’s ability from their deepest parts. Every organism, even the small bacteria, had its own unique Light of the Soul. However, Light of the Soul slept in the deepest depths of the human consciousness, even lower than the lower consciousness. This location could be considered where the most fundamental essence of the organism existed.
Apart from a tiny minority of gifted people, the majority of people would never touch their Light of the Soul in their life. Even that tiny majority would only sense its existence, and using it was an impossibility.
The word constraint in genetic constraint showed the problem. You had to unlock the constraint step by step until the fourth stage. Each person would be able to use tentatively use their Light of the Soul then. However, their inner demons from the depths of their consciousness would appear too. This was known as the heart's devil! Zhao Zhuikong’s little sister Zhao Ruikong had directly come into contact with the deepest depths of the consciousness and been controlled by her heart’s devil, which was why the following tragedies had happened. It was the final and greatest barrier in obtaining Light of the Soul.