Chapter 855

The duel bars any method touching soul or mind. Feng Jin Huang set this rule to block Fang Yuan’s guts Gu, though she will suffer first for it. ^{ch. 855}

She flicks a speck of golden light at the flames in his hands, which would have failed his refinement and forced a restart had it struck, but Fang Yuan has already guarded so vital a point, and it is blocked three inches out. Only afterward do onlookers realize she struck first and he blocked it. She answers by using a second killer move. ^{ch. 855}

Fang Yuan privately judges her choice sensible. She is young yet deeply aware of her own strengths and weaknesses, and he stays unmoved, refining as before. With one of her five attacks spent and a second killer move running, her speed sharply increases and Fang Yuan falls behind, and freed of his pressure she relaxes and gains a little more. ^{ch. 855}

Each side has five chances to attack. The rank allowed is capped from one to five in turn, defense limited the same way. This restrains Fang Yuan, since his immortal killer moves would otherwise overwhelm her, though her Gu Immortal parents’ backing leaves little chance he could kill her. ^{ch. 855}

Time passes and Fang Yuan falls further behind, yet unhurried. He is still refining single orifice charcoal Gu step by step as Feng Jin Huang begins the rank two double orifice stove Gu. She soon adds a third killer move, and an hour later attacks again and adds a fourth while he defends, leaving six lumps of fire fed by small wishful hands. ^{ch. 855}

Her speed now far surpasses his. She reaches rank three three orifices fire hut Gu while he has barely begun the rank two stove Gu. Spectators wonder what he is playing at, and Sun Yao and Qin Juan expect her to win. ^{ch. 855}

Feng Jin Huang has used only two of her five attacks to his none. She wonders briefly whether her terms were so alluring that he means to forfeit. ^{ch. 855}

Fifteen minutes later her dominance is extremely obvious, leading Fang Yuan by a huge distance. Her fire hut Gu past the halfway mark, Fang Yuan judges the moment right. He sends out a Gu worm, telling her that he is attacking. Her attention snaps to him even as she keeps refining, wary of why he would warn her first. ^{ch. 855}

He names it rank one ghost fire Gu. She reasons the rank must be genuine but the form could be disguised, and stays extremely careful as it drifts toward her, then suddenly speeds up. Confident of an easy block, she is caught off guard when the fire halts short and circles her instead of striking. ^{ch. 855}

She realizes the duel’s defense only covers a meter around her. Since the fire never crosses that line she cannot defend against it at all, its hovering pressure itself the attack, meant to divide her attention. Onlookers call it sinister, Sun Yao a shameless loophole and Qin Juan a classic, rule-abiding tactic instead. ^{ch. 855}

Cold sweat beads on her forehead. A ghost fire can injure the soul, and much of her mental energy is gone, yet watching it instead of refining will cost her speed regardless. Destroying it would waste her third attack, a rank three method against a mere rank one Gu, and she suspects that is exactly his intent. ^{ch. 855}

Controlling it costs Fang Yuan little, his mind untaxed by any killer move. Seeing she has not destroyed it, he laughs and produces a second ghost fire Gu, naming it rank two and announcing his method openly where hers struck in secret. Twice the size of the first, it stops a meter away and the two now circle her together, the pressure on her doubling at once. ^{ch. 855}