Sensing something amiss, the hidden spectators turned back just in time to see Mo Xuan lower his hand slightly, sheathing his sword with unhurried ease. Then he beckoned to them both with a casual, almost lazy gesture — as if to say that ending things here, with weapons alone, would be far too shallow a finish for a fight this interesting.
They exchanged a glance, something unspoken passing between them, and then all three surged forward at once.
The cliff echoed now with the dull, percussive thud of fists, palms, and elbows instead of the ringing clash of steel. One set of strikes exploded outward with fiery force behind every blow. The other moved like cold water finding the shortest path around any obstacle. Mo Xuan met both without panic, using the balance struck between Yin and Yang to dissolve the heavier blows into something lighter and redirect the straighter attacks harmlessly into empty air.
Their fists, their palms, their elbows — every strike still carried genuine Sword Intent behind it, even stripped entirely of blades. Left strike. Right strike. Low sweep. Four exchanges passed in rapid succession. Then five. Then six, the pace never slowing, each combatant reading the other's rhythm and adjusting half a beat ahead.
The longer the exchange dragged on, the more visibly excited the fiery one became, thrilled by an opponent who refused to simply fold. The frost-cloaked one, by contrast, grew only calmer, settling deeper into focus with every exchange. And Mo Xuan found himself growing more curious than either of them, meeting each attack the way water meets stone — soft against hard, gently deflecting heavy, never once forcing a confrontation he could simply redirect instead.
Frustration flared behind both their eyes as neither managed to land a single clean hit.
Then, without warning, the two of them leapt backwards together, landing in perfect unison several paces from Mo Xuan. Their individual Cosmic Souls surfaced quietly behind them, growing from something small and barely visible into a fuller presence, as though each one were drilling its way out from some hidden layer of space. Two lotuses took shape in that instant — one radiating heat, the other radiating cold — hovering just behind each of their shoulders like silent witnesses to what came next.
They clasped hands between them, and flame and frost began spiralling around their joined grip. Their Cosmic Souls dissolved into streams of pure energy, flowing down through their bodies and along their clasped hands, converging at the point of contact where a lotus began forming, rotating slowly around a single shared centre.
Mo Xuan's pupils contracted. For the first time since stepping onto Sword Cliff, his instincts warned him of genuine danger.
The lotus blooming between their joined palms was unlike anything he'd seen before — half crimson, half icy white, the two halves meeting at a boundary so perfectly balanced. Its beauty alone was enough to make anyone watching forget, if only for a moment, exactly how deadly it actually was.
One of them spoke first. "Let's end this."
The other finished the thought. "Twin Lotus — Harmony Bloom."
Flame and frost no longer opposed each other within the technique. Instead, they revolved around a shared centre, perfectly balanced, forming a slowly rotating lotus that radiated both searing heat and biting cold in the same breath. The surrounding Sword Intent stirred in response, and even the ancient scar carved into the cliff face seemed to hum faintly, as though recognising something worth paying attention to.
Mo Xuan's expression turned solemn. He exhaled slowly, and behind him, his own Cosmic Soul began to manifest, streams of black-and-white energy gathering into shape as he prepared to meet whatever came next.
The lotus rotated lazily.
Then it was in front of him.
Before Mo Xuan could fully react, it had already closed the distance in far less time than its lazy rotation suggested it should have taken.
He stepped aside, activating Cloudwalk Script to put a sliver of distance between himself and the technique. Runes flashed beneath his feet with every step, faint symbols flickering like stepping stones made of light as he moved. But the lotus wasn't simply fast — it had locked onto him specifically, tracking his position.
His body blurred, shifting from one position to another in rapid succession. No matter where he appeared, the spinning lotus was already there waiting, its flame-and-frost aura fixed on his presence. This isn't a normal attack, Mo Xuan thought, his expression sinking slightly as the realisation settled in.
He slid back again, runes forming beneath his soles as he shifted position once more, but the lotus chased him like a shadow that refused to be shaken loose no matter how he moved. While dodging, his mind kept circling back to the principles of Yin and Yang, turning the problem over from every angle, until an idea finally struck him — destabilising the technique's core might break its lock on him entirely. It would also, almost certainly, cause it to explode.
He weighed that risk for exactly as long as it took to accept it, then began forming a series of hand seals while continuing to dodge the incoming attack trailing him. By the time his preparation was ready, he'd already decided there was no better option available.
Seeing this, he stopped retreating, still keeping enough distance from the incoming lotus to give himself room to work. A sword appeared in his hand, and he traced a circle through the air — but stopped halfway, cutting the motion short like tracing only half a moon. Taiji Severance — but unlike the full, overwhelming force of the technique he'd once used against the Demon Tiger, this version was far more restrained.
He completed the sequence in a few heartbeats. A single black-and-white arc, almost unassuming in its simplicity, swept out and passed directly through the lotus.
At first, nothing seemed to happen. Then the lotus paused mid-rotation, seeming to freeze in place for just an instant, before it began shaking violently.
Mo Xuan moved immediately, completing another series of hand seals in rapid succession, one array after another flaring to life around the trembling lotus until they formed a barrier cage meant to contain whatever was about to happen. He wasn't finished yet when, across from him, the two figures reacted on instinct — a stacked rune defence snapping into place in front of them at the same moment an identical defensive rune formed in front of Mo Xuan, all three of them bracing simultaneously for what was coming.
The ground began to shake as the lotus quaked harder, the tremor building for only a few seconds before—
BOOOOM.
It exploded.
The explosion shook the entire cliff face, the sound rolling outward and echoing off the surrounding rock like a second detonation chasing the first. The barrier cage held for the briefest moment before cracking, then shattering outright as the released energy tore through it and continued on to shatter every other layer of defence standing between the blast and its targets.
All three of them were thrown apart by the force of it. Mo Xuan landed several meters away, sliding hard across the stone before planting his sword into the ground to arrest his momentum, his breathing already ragged and uneven from the impact.
Across from him, the fiery one rolled back to her feet almost immediately, refusing to stay down even for a moment. The frost one steadied herself just beside her a beat later, one hand braced against the stone.
None of them had come through unharmed. Mo Xuan's sleeve had been partially frozen solid before the heat from the same explosion scorched it away entirely. The other two had lost their cloaks completely — the force of the blast had torn them away in the same instant, leaving both of them exposed to the moonlight for the first time since Mo Xuan had first laid eyes on them.
For several breaths, no one moved. All three looked equally sorry for themselves, equally embarrassed by the state they'd been reduced to. Mo Xuan's upper robe had been torn away as well, leaving his torso bare, muscles still tense from the fight and marked with fresh bruising, Soul Power flickering faintly across his skin like residual traces of lightning that hadn't quite finished discharging.
None of them spoke. For a heartbeat, the three simply stared at one another, each waiting to see whether someone would move first.
Without a word, all three sat down exactly where they stood, crossed their legs, and began circulating their energy in unison. The chaotic aftermath of the explosion still raged through their bodies, and if left unaddressed, it risked settling into hidden injuries that would only surface later, when they were least prepared for them.
For a while, only the sound of quiet breathing and the faint hum of circulating Soul Power filled the broken cliff. Above and around them, the hidden spectators who'd gathered to watch began dispersing, several of them exchanging brief updates through Spiritual Sense before slipping away entirely.
Moments later, as if it had been coordinated beforehand, all three opened their eyes at the exact moment.
The fiery one laughed — a bright, carefree sound that rolled easily through the stillness of the cliff, entirely at odds with the destruction still settling around them. "Wonderful," she said, and both of them rose to their feet together.
When Mo Xuan finally looked up, he went completely still, stunned into silence. For the first time, he got a proper, unobstructed look at the two figures without their cloaks in the way.