Fighting side by side…
The last time Xia Lingshuang had heard those words was in her previous life. Hearing them again now, especially from Wu Yan’s mouth, gave her an inexplicably strange feeling.
If they were in the outside world, Xia Lingshuang had 100 ways to defeat Lei Wei, who had been forcibly boosted from the Nascent Soul Stage to the Soul Transformation Stage by demonic chi. But here, she was like a rootless tree. Every bit of spiritual power she used was gone for good, while Lei Wei was like a fish in water, with a never-ending reserve of demonic chi.
“FROSTFALL!”
A silver-white sword light flashed, and a ring of ice suddenly appeared above Lei Wei. Beneath the ice ring, Lei Wei felt his mobility restricted, and even the circulation of demonic chi within his body slowed down.
“Trivial tricks!” Lei Wei snarled. Crackling thunder erupted from within his body, shattering the ice ring in an instant. “Elder Xia, surely you didn’t think you could trap me with such a petty maneuver?”
Lei Wei raised his hands with palms facing each other. Purple light flickered as demonic chi gathered from all directions between his palms. A terrifying thunderstorm began to take shape, and the very space trembled as lightning, saturated with vast amounts of demonic chi, lashed out.
“Elder Xia, have a taste of the move I prepared specifically for you!” Lei Wei rotated his arms counterclockwise, and the overwhelming sphere of lightning was ready to launch.
At that moment, a dark shadow appeared by his side. A green sword glow flashed by, striking his protective lightning shield and sending sparks flying before quickly vanishing. That single strike was enough to break Lei Wei’s offensive rhythm, causing the trajectory of the terrifying lightning ball to shift.
‘A chance!’
Xia Lingshuang seized the opportunity Wu Yan had created. She lunged forward, the freezing edge of Shuang Hua cold enough to bite as she sliced the lightning ball in half from bottom to top. The split halves of the lightning ball exploded on either side of Yu Qingyao and the others who were in the back, rescuing Gu Jian.
“Junior Sister Yu, are you finished?” On the left, Zhao Wuji’s hands were a blur of motion as his long sword danced with light, striking down the stray bolts of lightning that scattered from the explosion. On the right, Lin Xiao acted as a human shield. Although he couldn’t block every attack, he still helped Yu Qingyao and Su Qianqian withstand a great deal of damage.
“Almost!” The demonic chi seals on the chains were like mice facing a cat before her Nirvana Fire. Wherever the Nirvana Fire touched, the demonic chi was incinerated. In the blink of an eye, the two chains binding Gu Jian were about to be completely burned away.
“Senior Sister Su.” Seeing that Gu Jian was about to be freed, Yu Qingyao called out to Su Qianqian. The moment Gu Jian collapsed, the black stone tablet turned into a streak of light and flew to Yu Qingyao’s waist.
“Got it!” Su Qianqian caught the falling Gu Jian and pulled healing pills from her storage bag, stuffing them into his mouth.
Yu Qingyao’s face was pale, and her right hand trembled as she threw Spirit Recovery Pills into her own mouth. In this environment, converting all her spiritual power into Nirvana Fire was taxing; even with her techniques from the Tribulation Transcendence Stage of her previous life, she couldn’t sustain it for long. Fortunately, the result was good. Gu Jian had been saved, and the stone tablet was in their hands. Now, they only had to wait for Wu Yan and Xia Lingshuang to defeat Lei Wei.
‘Senior Sister, Master, you must win!’ Yu Qingyao prayed silently as she watched the black figure moving along the edge of the battlefield.
On that side of the battlefield, Wu Yan maintained an irregular pattern of counterattacks, harrassing Lei Wei as he fought Xia Lingshuang. She was well aware of her own strength. Even if Lei Wei was a fraudulent Soul Transformation Stage cultivator, as long as he was filled with demonic chi, she couldn’t face him head-on without using the Soul Governance Art. Therefore, all she could do was constantly disrupt Lei Wei’s rhythm so Xia Lingshuang could gradually gain the upper hand.
“Hahahahaha!” Mid-air, Lei Wei covered his face with his right hand and burst into a wild laughter. “You two have truly made me angry!”
His voice was thick with fury, and the lightning surrounding him surged even more violently.
“I will ensure you both die without a place to be buried!!”
Rumble, rumble, rumble—
Violent thunder echoed across the entire swamp land. Arcs of lightning snaked across the ground, and the high temperatures caused the swamp gas to explode repeatedly, filling the clearing with thick smoke.
The bright purple lightning that had originally covered the arena turned into a dark purple, demonic-chi-infused lightning. However, the weakness of this domain-type skill remained the same. A cold white vortex lingered in the depths of Wu Yan’s eyes. The world lost its color to her, turning into a vision of pure black and white lines. Lightning, frost, fire, spiritual chi, and demonic chi… everything was dismantled into flowing trajectories.
As she moved with flashes of speed, she constantly searched for Lei Wei’s “point.” With a Nascent Soul Stage physical body, Lei Wei couldn’t possibly endure the Soul Transformation cultivation level granted by massive amounts of demonic chi for long. What she needed to do was attack the nodes where the demonic chi circulated during every strike. Every time he was hit, his momentum would weaken to some degree. That was exactly why he had chosen to activate his domain skill now.
He was afraid that if things continued like this, he would be defeated.
‘The point this time is right there!’
The thin blade of Wu Nian pointed toward Lei Wei’s left ribs. Xia Lingshuang, who was fighting Lei Wei head-on, keenly sensed Wu Yan’s movement and understood her next plan. However, a high-density lightning net surrounded Lei Wei. Under normal circumstances, Wu Yan would never be able to enter.
A flash of resolve crossed Xia Lingshuang’s eyes.
“DEMON LIGHTNING PALM!” In a flash of electricity, Lei Wei’s right hand, encased in a dark purple gauntlet, became an afterimage as it struck directly toward Xia Lingshuang’s heart.
Facing Lei Wei’s swift strike, Xia Lingshuang didn’t retreat. Instead, she advanced. The frosty spiritual chi vanished from her skin as she actively deactivated her protective chi. Lei Wei immediately understood her intention, and the lightning in his palm surged even more violently. The terrifying current had already burned several large holes in Xia Lingshuang’s purple long sleeves.
“You want to trade injury for injury? Can you even afford the price!” Lei Wei believed that with his demonic chi armor, Xia Lingshuang’s move was nothing but a fool’s dream. Once he dealt with her, he could turn Wu Yan into ash with a mere gesture.
When his palm was only 10 inches from Xia Lingshuang’s chest, she suddenly let go of her long sword.
“SHUANG HUA, DISPERSE!”
Hum!