It was a strange thing.
The one who had caught the other off guard was clearly the old woman. This was a technique honed by a madwoman who had devoted her entire life to swordsmanship. There was no possibility that she had made a mistake, and calling her intuition prophetic would hardly have been an exaggeration.
And yet, the one shedding blood was the exact opposite.
It was no coincidence or stroke of luck. This had not happened merely once or twice. No matter how many times their swords clashed, the same situation kept repeating itself.
Even just now.
A cherry-blossom-colored flash streaked forward. Lightning wrought from a human body—the secret art ‘Extreme Thunder (極雷),’ containing thousands of years of accumulated history.
A single flash that far transcended anything the five senses could perceive.
React to it? Impossible. By the time one came to their senses, they would either be thinking from within a body already hacked into pieces or be torn to shreds by the ensuing blast.
But there were beings in this world who could turn the impossible into the possible.
Unfortunately, the man before the old woman was one of them. Not a being who merely submitted to the laws of the world,…