Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

She took in a deep breath and calmed herself down before calling out to the two sword spirits.      

"What is it?"      

Their voices perked up, eager and curious to hear what she was about to say.      

"It's a Heaven Realm Expert this time, do you think we can do it?" she asked.     

Senior Zhen responded with a chuckle.      

"I don't remember the last time I was brought up against such a foe. However, I can't say that I'm excited. Although you are not yet strong enough to use me to my full power, it's enough for this fight."     

As for Xue Yue, she spoke out in the same fashion as always.      

"We'll kill that bastard and if you can't do it, I'll do it. What better chance will we get than right now?"      

She practically spat those words out making Ming Yue smile.     

"Alright, let's finish this."     

Her eyes opened, bright and brimming with confidence and determination. That short exchange took no longer than a few seconds. But with it, she felt different.      

She held Blood Moon and the Black Blade tightly. Both swords seemed to respond in kind, letting out a resonant howl together.      

And then she lunged into action!     

Just as Elder Xiang and Elder Hua attacked, Ming Yue moved quicker than both of them, reaching the Ascetic first.      

They gazed into each other's eyes while her swords clashed with his Heavenly Domain. He had lifted his hand up to stop it before parrying the attack. And he waved his other hand, smacking away the two elder's weapons.      

While Elder Shen and Elder Hua backed off, Ming Yue stood before him.     

"Three Sky Realm Experts? Nothing will change."     

By now, the injuries that Hongyu had inflicted on him had healed already, recovering his full strength.      

And despite her attack being parried, she attacked immediately after forcing him to deflect every move. Both swords danced in this battle, twirling as the blades reflected the daylight. She was fast and unrelenting, making over a hundred moves in under a minute. In fact, it seemed like she was almost dancing in front of him.      

Both elders joined when they could, building on the tempo of the fight.      

Together they fought in unison, attacking whenever an opportunity revealed itself. This may have been the trio's first time fighting together but they were seasoned fighters after all.      

"Yes, like that! That is how you fight!"     

While Ming Yue led the tempo, Elder Xiang and Elder Hua helped to maintain it. Together, they gave the Ascetic no time to relax, barely any time to think.      

But with his face showing no change in emotion, it seemed as if he had returned to his withdrawn persona. And he didn't seem very bothered by the situation.      

He brought his hands together, crossing them before waving once. The space around him seemed to rippled like a wave and the trio were suddenly forced back. It was as if an invisible wall had moved them away.      

"It is pointless. This is nothing more than inferior cultivation before me. "     

Having put some distance between them, the Ascetic suddenly leaped up into the sky, looking down on them.      

"Reflecting Grief, the Weight of Sin, Merciful Palm."      

Bringing his hand out, he aimed his open palm down at the land full of destruction. The space around his palm rippled and a nigh invisible force came down.      

"Run!"     

Sensing the danger, Ming Yue shouted out for the others to run, joining them in their escape. Every few seconds, they would glance up at the sky, watching a giant palm descend upon them. They could see its silhouette through the warped space that it contained itself in.      

But the attack was large and imposing, certainly a technique to be wary of.  With just its sheer size, any regular folk would've thought that it was the work the Heaven.     

"We're barely going to get out of it!"     

The other two looked, seeing the palm grow bigger and bigger with each passing second, coming closer to them.      

Ming Yue ran as fast as she could while Elder Xiang lagged behind her. And Elder Hua was behind the both of them.      

As the giant palm came closer, Ming Yue ran toward Elder Hua, lifting her up and carrying her out of it.      

"Oh my, how embarrassing!"     

Certainly, the Medicinal Elder was not as swift as Ming Yue or Elder Xiang but her face reddened when she realized what the young cultivator was doing.      

"Oh, we're almost out of it, we're right under the tip of the index finger!" Elder Hua pointed.      

They ran as quickly as possible, just barely escaping the giant palm. There was a loud rumbling as the Ascetic's technique crashed into the land, leaving behind a palm print of that very size.      

"Are you really sure that you want to kill him?" Elder Xiang asked, looking back at the scale of the Ascetic's move. Everything under that palm strike had been flattened, crushed to barely anything. The ground seemed to have made a perfect mold of his palm.      

Ming Yue let Elder Hua down and nodded.      

"Of course."      

She then looked up, seeing the Ascetic coming for them. Putting his hand out, he made a grabbing motion, trying to capture them.      

But Ming Yue responded in kind, making a vertical strike with the Black Blade. It howled, cutting at the space before it and revealing the empty void. the invisible force that came for them soon met its end with the Black Blade's technique.      

And both of them still had plenty of moves to make. While he flew down towards them, Ming Yue flew up to face him and she went with Storm Lances, launching a dozen of them at him.      

They all reached their target but the Ascetic was untouched.      

Fighting in the air, Ming Yue seemed to gain more freedom in the way she moved. Circling around her opponent, she released a constant flurry of attacks, going faster and stronger with each move.     

He moved his hands in accordance with whatever weapon came closest to him, deflecting every attack. Knowing the capabilities of the Black Blade, he wasn't going to just sit there and let their strikes connect. He was wary of the sword and its ability to tear space apart.      

But throughout all of this, the young cultivator's mind seemed to have reached this strange state. In the face of adversity, her connection to both swords strengthened.      

Her efforts began to culminate in this fight.      

"I can see it", she muttered to herself, "The Lunar Storm Sword."     

With him as her opponent, she used him to perfect it, to flesh out how exactly this fighting style would work.     

After all, it was supposed to represent a storm. It had be wild, unpredictable, unprovoked. It could be fast or slow, violent or calm, it was utterly flexible.     

"If he is going to be the mountain that cannot be moved, I'll be the storm that reduces it to rubble."      

Her entire presence began to change. The rhythm she once had was no longer there. The way she used her swords started to change.      

"She's really doing it."     

Elder Xiang noticed as did the Ascetic, who narrowed his eyes.      

"Creating your own sword art at a time like this? Certainly a genius but was that the right move to make?"     

He suddenly flicked his wrist, launching an invisible wall toward her. But she avoided it, using the attack as a foothold and launching herself at him.      

Blood Moon came first, a diagonal slash followed by a horizontal one. It was nothing more than a red flicker as she brandished it. And a dozen more moves were made before the Black Blade made appeared. It was for a split second, like lightning.      

The sword flashed in the middle of all those other attacks, thrusting it toward his chest. But such an attack was stopped by his Heavenly Domain though her sword was less than an inch away from his skin.