Chapter 73

Dark clouds slowly covered the purple moonlit sky, making the night even deeper and darker.

Geiger's eyes were bright, like the glowing eyes of a beast in the darkness, his two blades held in front of him, his body slightly crouched as he adjusted to the best position, ready to pounce at any moment.

His mind was rapidly simulating the thoughts of how to kill the other person.

If the injury was not an accident, he had to take the most serious attitude.

Xia Lan took a step forward, the first time he had taken the initiative in this battle. He held his sword in one hand, dragging it casually on the grass, leaving shallow grooves.

His body was relaxed, but his grip on the sword was firm.

He was luring the other person to attack first, so that he could seize the opportunity to kill him in one move.

He was not Geiger's match, that was the fundamental fact. After his body was injured, the gap in strength between them became even more obvious. However, after the "Swordsmanship Subtlety" was activated, their actual combat power became balanced, even reversed.

Rash attacks would only waste unnecessary energy, or even be futile. A calm and rational mind told him that if he wanted to kill the other person, he could only wait, wait for the opportunity to strike back.

But there was an important prerequisite for killing the other person: the other person would not escape.

He was confident he could kill him, but he could not stop the other person from escaping, because he could not catch up with him.

Therefore, he had to be cautious and pay attention to any signs of the other person's intention to escape.

Xia Lan's body moved closer, and Geiger's steps lightly made a backward movement. The moment he saw Xia Lan lift his foot to step on the ground, Geiger's body moved without warning, the intense killing intent from his dual blades rushing forward in an instant.

Geiger's speed exceeded Xia Lan's reaction, so even though he had anticipated the move, he could only hastily block.

The sparks from the collision of the blades and swords ignited the beginning of the battle.

Faced with Geiger's storm of attacks, Xia Lan found no opportunity to counterattack. The long sword he used to parry was even struggling. At that moment, he suddenly realized that the other person was exhausting his energy.

From the chase to the injury, Xia Lan's internal energy had already been drained by more than half. Perhaps Geiger had seen this and was using all his energy in the attack.

How terrifying it was for a high-ranking swordsman to fully unleash his internal energy, Xia Lan, as a high-ranking swordsman himself, knew very well. Such a large-scale consumption and depletion of internal energy not only doubled his agility but also caused hidden injuries that were difficult to recover from.

If it were not a last resort, Xia Lan would not take such a desperate action. Once his internal energy was depleted without killing the enemy, the consequences would be even more unimaginable.

But why did Geiger do this? Was it worth it to pay everything to kill him?

Human hearts are hard to fathom.

Faced with such an unexpected situation, even if Xia Lan had anticipated the other person's weakness, it was difficult to counterattack because the other person's speed had completely suppressed him. Any action other than blocking was extremely difficult.

After calm consideration, the good news was that Geiger's actions could delay until his internal energy was depleted, allowing for a counter-kill. The bad news was that if he wanted to keep up with the other person's wave of attacks, he had to continuously consume his internal energy.

What they were currently facing was who would deplete their internal energy first.

In the intense clash, Geiger felt a shock. He had thought that by unleashing his strongest form, he could quickly kill the other person, but as time quietly passed, he still saw no decisive victory.

He was very clear that he would never be able to break through the threshold of a high-ranking swordsman in his lifetime, due to his talent and limitations.

He was a high-ranking swordsman created by the organization. He was not weaker than any other high-ranking swordsman, but he did not have the qualifications to reach the peak like other ordinary high-ranking swordsmen.

He did not care about the consequences of fully unleashing his internal energy. The hidden injuries were a tumor for high-ranking swordsmen to step into the FerNu law, which must be removed.

However, he did not have such considerations because he could not reach that realm.

Afterward, he could basically recover to normal by taking a certain secret medicine, so there was no need to worry.

He was confident that he was stronger than any other high-ranking warrior, thanks to the infinite burst of his internal energy.

But when his reliance on the burst of internal energy failed this time, no matter how crazily he attacked, the other person could always block it in advance, as if seeing through every move.

He could feel the other person's struggle. Every time he wanted to stop, the devil inside him told him not to, that the next strike might finish the other person off.

His internal energy was rapidly depleting. Geiger's mind was very clear that if he could not kill the other person soon, his own situation would fall into a difficult predicament.

If—

At this moment, he suddenly thought of giving up. This was not the first time he had encountered such a difficult opponent in his life, and he did not want it to be the last.

Because he did not want to die.

Everyone cherished their lives, and Geiger was no exception. However, returning to the organization in such a sorry state, the cold eyes and ridicule of his comrades, the cold treatment and scolding of his superiors, all these scenes seemed to be imprinted in his mind, unable to be erased.

Xia Lan keenly noticed a moment of distraction in Geiger's eyes during his frenzied attack. He sensed the other person's unintentional retreat. If he did not do something, the other person might withdraw from the battle and escape during the burst of internal energy, and then he would only be able to watch helplessly.

His blocks began to show unintentional lapses, making his defense even more difficult, but this was the result of his calm thinking. He could not let him escape. If he wanted to continue the attack, he had to make the other person see the hope of victory.

Geiger's short blades began to frequently cut Xia Lan's body. Soon, Xia Lan's school uniform was tattered and stained with blood, but there were no fatal wounds.

Health: 39/300

Every lapse was carefully thought out by Xia Lan. He would not allow any fatal wounds to appear again.

Because—

Absolute power in a deathtrap! The power of near-death!

He was avoiding it. The power of the deathtrap had been on cooldown for years, but since his mission began, he had never used this power again.

The power was still deeply imprinted in his mind. He knew very well that if he used this power, he could easily kill anyone, whether it was the current Geiger or his planned mission target.

He knew the power of that force, as if he could hold the world in the palm of his hand.

But, he was afraid that after using that power, his broken mind could no longer bear it, and the memories that had been deeply buried in the hidden grave would resurface.

When the pale little hand from the grave reached out of the soil, and the small head with those deep, hollow eyes looked at him, and the voice "Big Brother Xia Lan" echoed on the twilight plain, he was afraid he could never turn back.

He persisted, he lived, without regret.

What he wanted, what he thought, without any regrets.

So, he rejected that little hand, rejected the intense pleading in her eyes.

He turned around.

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