Sheet Shadow
“My shifu frequently reminded us to kill Sword Shadow Dust Gale’s disciple if we met him. I’m Zhuang Yuanlang.”
Zhuang Yuanlang threw his book up. A gust of wind tore his book apart, paper strewn in the sky, yet none of the sheets descended.
“You want to kill me?”
Mu Yu had his sword at the ready. Paper wasn’t hard enough to be harmful; however, Zhuang Yuanlang’s intent to kill was worn as a coat. Using a book as a weapon was something Mu Yu saw for the first time.
“Defeating you and taking a finger will be enough.”
Using a hand wave, Zhuang Yuanlang added a spin to a sheet and sent it at Mu Yu. Mu Yu raised his sword. Mu Yu expected a hard clash, yet the sheet dropped to the ground after making contact. Frowning, Mu Yu sent a jet of sword qi back, yet it hit a sheet of paper as if it was a breeze that merely blew the sheet elsewhere. His slash didn’t damage a single sheet.
“Shifu only ever lost to one man – your shifu, Sword Shadow Dust Gale. Shifu was unable to counter Celestial Swords Nine Summons. Your shifu slashed off his proud finger. That’s why we were told to take your finger before killing you.”
Using his fingers, Zhuang Yuanlang propelled multiple spinning sheets Mu Yu’s way.
“That’s why you want to defeat me to avenge your shifu?”
Mu Yu spawned four more Shadow Splitter Swords to be on the safe side. All of his hard attacks went to waste on the sheets that flopped as soon as he hit them. He could shred one using sword qi, but there wasn’t just one.
“Shifu created numerous peculiar styles purely to prove there’s a style superior to Celestial Swords Nine Summons. My style is one of them.”
With a point of his finger, Zhuang Yuanlan had two sheets slip past Mu Yu’s sword and slice his right arm.
Mu Yu struggled to find a chance to seize the offensive advantage. A single slipup would’ve resulted in him being cut. He copped seven cuts prior to figuring out it was fruitless to try and intercept the sheets.
“Haha, I heard one of the techniques from Celestial Swords Nine Summons, namely Falling Shadow Destruction, is designed to counter a rain of projectile attacks. Would it be able to counter my Sheet Shadow?”
Mu Yu, indeed, used Falling Shadow Destruction to counter the bird fiend and Qiao Xue’s ice pick projectiles, but it was useless against the sheets of paper. Falling Shadow Destruction was a hard against hard technique. Sheet Shadow was a gentle force. The only option was to done spiritual qi as armour. That also failed, nonetheless, as the technique somehow penetrated straight through Mu Yu’s spiritual qi armour.
Swordplay was an ever-evolving game. Gentle techniques could counter rigid techniques. Howbeit, the two could be combined to supplement the other. Mu Yu had trouble dealing with the technique that was adapting to either rigid or fluid at will.
Mu Yu advanced and deployed a howling stream of sword qi to block out the revolving sheets. He racked his brains for counters. Alas, nothing came to mind. The sheets nullified his ferocious sword qi attacks without effort.
Because Xiaoshuai stayed inside Mu Yu’s shirt, a sheet cut him. It didn’t leave a mark, but it enraged him. “If only we could just burn all these annoying sheets of damn paper.”
Inspired, Mu Yu charged again with two Shadow Splitter Swords. He lulled in the sheets and clanged his swords together the instant before they had him surrounded, generating sparks. He whipped out a pill fire stone to intensify the fire, engulfing the sheets in fire. Unexpectedly, the inferno only lasted for a second.
“You wish you could burn my Sheet Shadow.”
Zhuang Yuanlang was privy to the weakness of his technique. Therefore, he came up with the idea of smearing a liquid that made them impervious to fire onto his weapons.
“I only need one finger. You should just chop one off for me. It’ll save you a lot of misery.”
“I don’t subscribe to sadism!”
Mu Yu started pushing the sheets back again, but it only took a second for them to cling to him again.
“It’s time to wrap this up.”
Zhuang Yuanlang held his arm out and clenched his fist. The sheets came together to become a shabby paper sword. He closed in and forced Mu Yu to defend!
Clang! Mu Yu invaded the paper sword with his sword qi. The paper sword’s corner perked up and began to absorb the sword qi. The two continued engaging in a string of exchanges that destroyed the flowers and plants in the garden. Nobody minded the damage as they were focused on the duel.
Mu Yu never had to fight anyone who knew every technique in Celestial Swords Nine Summons besides his seniors. Zhuang Yuanlang was able to defuse every strike despite the assortment of variations Mu Yu offered.
“I’ll make you a scabbard.”
Zhuang Yuanlang intercepted Mu Yu’s thrust with one of his own. However, Zhuang Yuanlang turned his sword into a scabbard upon the moment of contact. Though Mu Yu summoned another Shadow Splitter Sword, his opponent already manage to capture all five of his swords hovering around in that short moment.
“I’m not impressed. I don’t understand why the old geezer is so intent on beating Celestial Swords Nine Summons.” Zhuang Yuanlang commanded his sheets to surround Mu Yu. “I’m going to turn you into a sticky rice dumpling.”
Mu Yu fused his five swords together to break out of their restraints. The single sword executed five techniques. The technique was supposed to give the impression of one sword and without any disadvantage. It was supposed to break any def-
“You’re just dancing around ridiculously.”
With a grunt, Sheet Shadow followed the wind to form a defensive wall in front of Zhuang Yuanlang. Each sheet flapped as it prepared to take Mu Yu’s Regenesis head on. As a result, instead of Mu Yu’s sword qi blasting apart the wall, the sheets clung to the sword tip before it made contact. The sword qi would shake the sheet off, but given the sheer number of sheets peeling off its sword qi, the strike was harmless before it could reach its target.
Zhuang Yuanlang threatened Mu Yu into retreating with another wave of attacks and took Mu Yu’s sword before the latter could retrieve it.
“How are you going to utilise Dustfallen Swordplay without your sword. Is it really this embarrassing? Heaven forbid I comprehend why the old geezer fears it,” jeered Zhuang Yuanlang, playing with Mu Yu’s sword.
Mu Yu had never been defeated technically. The two were close in terms of cultivation, yet the swordplay Mu Yu was so proud of was effortlessly broken down. He always thought he was undefeatable against those equal in cultivation as long as he had his swordplay. He bought into the legends that claimed his shifu’s swordplay was invincible. Thus, being soundly defeated on a technical level to someone with inferior cultivation was mentally crushing.
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