It was certain that Shangguan Bing Xue was walking a path destined to lead her to possess great control over the battlefield and her enemies in general. She, just like Bai Zemin and any other currently powerful soul evolvers, had carefully chosen her skills and did not learn actives just to gain some immediate power but focused on continuous growth for better long-term performance in the future.
However, the fact that Shangguan Bing Xue was a soul evolver with great crowd control abilities did not mean that in a 1 vs 1 battle she was weak; even if her true ability was destined to show more on a battlefield with numerous enemies.
She possessed powerful skills, and among them, her most powerful skill in explosive and destructive terms was precisely Inferno.
Bai Zemin was forced to close his eyes as a blinding flash covered his vision and at the same time as a terrifying heat wave hit the area, he quickly thought of retreating but soon found himself being swept away by a gust of wind at the same time as an unfamiliar but somehow familiar scent enveloped him.
“Looks like you ran into a troublesome enemy, Little King.”
Shangguan Xinyue’s voice sounded in Bai Zemin’s ears at the same time as his body was blown away by powerful gusts of wind. He did not fight back, and when he opened his eyes he was shocked by what he saw.
A huge column of yellow flames seemed to split a large part of the battlefield in two. The column of flames was so thick that a building would look miniature in comparison. Moreover, the column of flames was so terrifying that it seemed to be the support of the sky as Bai Zemin could see how the dirt on the ground was turned into lava and the havoc spread everywhere.
This was the second time Bai Zemin saw Shangguan Bing Xue using Inferno, but compared to the previous time it was like comparing the flame of a lighter to the flame of a volcano; there was simply no room to compare at all.
Soon, Bai Zemin found himself standing next to Shangguan Bing Xue and Shangguan Xinyue.
He frowned as he saw that although they were both fine their faces were slightly pale. In addition, Bai Zemin also noticed a trace of a burn on Shangguan Bing Xue’s left arm.
She obviously had not been able to get out of the earlier magic attack unscathed.
“Bing Xue, are you all right?” he asked with genuine disquiet.
Shangguan Bing Xue had a serious expression on her face illuminated by the glow of the column of yellow flames still burning in the distance. Her white hair fluttered wildly because of the winds surrounding them but she focused on using her right hand extended outward as a connector to feed the magical power of her Inferno skill with more and more Mana.
“Don’t worry… I’m okay.” Shangguan Bing Xue said even though she was actually experiencing great pain as the enemy’s mana kept worsening the burn. She held her eyes fixed on the pillar of fire and asked in a serious voice, “What’s with that alligator? Is it the unknown enemy you told me about previously?”
“Yeah.” Bai Zemin nodded with a frown as he looked toward the pillar of fire with a serious expression. “He’s stronger than I expected. I have to admit that I’m not confident of beating him in a 1 vs 1 as he seems to have prepared beforehand to fight me.”
For the past two months, Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue kept in touch so even though they hadn’t seen each other in over 60 days the two had heard each other’s voice at least 1 time every 2 nights with the only exception being the last half month.
Thanks to their constant nightly chats, Bai Zemin had a good idea of how things were in southern China and Shangguan Bing Xue had a broad picture of how things were on the battlefield in Inner Mongolia.
Therefore, she knew that Bai Zemin could not unleash his full strength as he needed to save Mana, Stamina, and hide some trump cards in case the Fourth Order enemy in the enemy ranks attacked.
Wouldn’t it be stupid to use, for example, Blazing Blood Punishment, to kill countless Unranked enemies and thus save the lives of a few thousand allies at the cost of losing his most powerful skill which could give way for the enemy to attack and perhaps wipe out the entire allied army? It was just that Shangguan Bing Xue did not expect the enemy to be this strong.
She had headed north immediately after receiving no news from Bai Zemin or the main army, and now she felt fortunate that she had made that decision.
“That alligator’s magic power is too high, it melted my ice wall in a matter of seconds.” Shangguan Bing Xue said in a serious voice. “I don’t even have confidence in inflicting serious damage to him with Inferno so I hope you have something in store.”
“About that…”
As Bai Zemin told his plan, Shangguan Bing Xue and Shangguan Xinyue’s eyes lit up. However, after hearing the final part, both women frowned.
“You… Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Shangguan Bing Xue asked worriedly.
“Well, we just have to do it.” Bai Zemin said with a shrug.
Shangguan Bing Xue glared at him and it was obvious that her anger was rising. However, before she could say anything Shangguan Bing Xue was interrupted by her mother.
“Bing Xue, since our Little King has a plan then let’s do our best to help him.” Shangguan Xinyue frowned as she looked at the pillar of flames and said in a low voice, “I’m afraid it’s not like we have much of a choice here.”
Shangguan Xinyue was a level 156 soul evolver whose magic power was frighteningly high, so much so that even her daughter could not defeat her in a heavy combat. However, she could sense that the enemy was in a completely different league.
“Believe in me.” Bai Zemin nodded as he handed her an earring exactly like the one he had given Lilith before she left except this one did not have the Legend grade feather. “This will surely help more than a little.”
Shangguan Bing Xue looked at the earring in surprise and subconsciously took it using her left hand, which earned her a wince of pain when she moved her arm. However, all pain disappeared when she saw the object’s records.
“This is…”
Unfortunately, she didn’t have time to be surprised as she immediately felt the power of her skill begin to fade so she hurriedly took off the earring from her right ear and exchanged it for the one Bai Zemin had given her.
In just a second, Shangguan Bing Xue activated Ice Maker and created small square objects. Four small ice cubes that contained over 700 Mana points each.
Bai Zemin quickly activated Crimson Lightning Flash and created four clones of himself. Each clone took one ice cube piece before disappearing as if they had vanished into thin air, much to the surprise of the two females next to him.
Neither of them had time to ask questions when they heard a slightly angry voice coming from the pillar of flame.
“To think that a First Order soul evolver and a Second Order soul evolver would be able to harm me to this extent…”
BOOOOOOOOM!!!
The pillar of flames exploded outward and a great whirlwind blew in all directions.
As flames rained down from the sky onto the now snowless ground, Thao Zhi rose up enveloped in strong winds as he stared with murderous intent at the group of three.
The black cloak covering his body was gone, revealing a dark green magic robe with golden embroidery. However, except for the parts that the magic robe covered, both the hands and part of the arms and half of the scales on Thao Zhi’s face had half-scorched off.
“Die.” Thao Zhi pointed his magic staff and said in a slightly cold voice, “Black Calamity.”
Under the incredulous eyes of Bai Zemin and the two females beside him, a huge black portal-like mouth suddenly opened in front of Thao Zhi and a simply giant claw-like hand shot forward without warning.
“Lightning Dragon!” Shangguan Xinyue pointed forward and a purple dragon over 500 meters long roared high into the clouds before plummeting towards the claw covered in black scales.
Despite its size, however, the lightning dragon Shangguan Xinyue had formed using the atmosphere to her advantage was as small as a worm in front of a snake and after hitting the black claw it exploded violently.
BOOM!!!!
Part of the black claw was covered with purple flashes but its advance did not stop at all, and upon seeing this Shangguan Xinyue raised both hands towards the sky and called several lightning dragons that assaulted the claw one after another.
Despite her tremendously pale face due to the previous Mana consumption, Shangguan Bing Xue unsheathed her sword and slashed diagonally, which caused a huge amount of white mist to shoot forward.
“Blizzard!”
Thanks to Shangguan Xinyue’s high magic power and Shangguan Bing Xue’s crowd control ability, as well as her high magic power, the colossal black claw finally began to lose a bit of speed and power.
Bai Zemin did not attempt to dodge the incoming attack, if it was that easy then they would have done it before but he and the two women beside him could feel that the enemy magic attack was fixed on them so evading it was probably going to be more troublesome than facing it.
As the black claw was covered by a layer of ice with purple lightning binding it like chains, Bai Zemin tightened his grip on Annihilation of the Falling Sky wrapped in purple flames and with a mighty stomp shot forward.
Taking advantage of the momentum of speed, he used all his Strength to fiercely slash forward at the same time as his voice spread out like a roar in the middle of the sky.
“Rumbling the Heavens, Shaking the Earth!!!”
Thanks to the fact that Annihilation of the Falling Sky was an indestructible weapon, Bai Zemin didn’t have to worry about overusing Rumbling the Heavens, Shaking the Earth!
However, what happened next made his blood run cold.
After his weapon struck the claw’s open palm, the sky rumbled as if it would collapse at the burst of power that Bai Zemin’s attack had. But to his disbelief, Bai Zemin felt the half behind the physical power of his attack disappear as soon as it came into contact with the enemy attack.
It was only after seeing several giant scales shatter and red blood pour out of the large claw that Bai Zemin understood what was happening.
“You thought that because I’m a mage I don’t have my physical attacking ways?” Thao Zhi snorted and rose even higher as he waved his staff. A golden colored magic spear appeared behind his back and while pointing forward he said coldly, “You’re still too green, you brats!”
Roar!!!
The claw retreated towards what Bai Zemin now knew was a portal after being wounded and as Bai Zemin’s body flew backwards over 200 meters he quickly used this to his advantage to head towards Shangguan Bing Xue.
Swoosh!
Bai Zemin felt a presence behind him, glaring at his back with burning fury. He waved his left hand from the bottom up and shouted loudly, “Bing Xue, do it now! Hurry!”
Shangguan Bing Xue was also shocked, the presence that was trying to come out of the portal had literally ruined everything they had planned before!
However, she wasn’t second in command of the Transcendent faction only below one and above millions for nothing.
“Endless Ice!”
Shangguan Bing Xue’s voice had barely fallen when Thao Zhi’s expression changed slightly as he sensed four fluctuations of mana not far from where he stood from four different corners.
Before he could even take another breath, four clones identical to Bai Zemin appeared forming a four-cornered square, enclosing Thao Zhi and the portal inside.
‘Invisible…? Don’t tell me! The Cosmic Particle Cannon too…!!!’
Swoosh! SwoOSH! SWOOSH!
Thao Zhi’s pupils contracted fiercely at the thought of something and ignoring the huge sphere of ice exploding outward from the four ice cubes in the clones’ hands he abruptly turned his head back just in time to see a flash of red light approaching at astonishing speeds from the base 100 kilometers to the south.
An even more frightening fluctuation of mana engulfed Thao Zhi, and just at that moment before the huge ice sphere closed he saw the young human male catching a crimson trident engulfed in purple flames that had come from the ground as if it had a life of its own.
Within a split second of the ice creation closing, Bai Zemin turned 360 degrees and ferociously threw the blood trident forward making full use of his nearly 6000 Strength points.
“Blazing Blood Punishment!!!”
The sound barrier shattered and just before it was too late Bai Zemin caught a glimpse of his attack hitting the creature in the portal.
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