The black staff in the old man's hand pointed forward, and a dozen or so illusory ice phoenixes drifted out from it. Like phantoms, they swooped toward the enemy, pecking at it.
Sizzle, sizzle—the surface of the enormous tail crackled with electric snakes. That tail likewise split into a dozen or so afterimages, lashing toward the ice phoenixes. The two sides became entangled in the void.
The two women in black also attacked without hesitation. Two scarlet flying cords coiled through the void like dragons, one on each side, strangling toward the enormous tail. Several afterimages were scorched by the scarlet cords, smoke billowing from them, and in the blink of an eye, several tail shadows were destroyed.
Several illusory ice phoenixes took advantage of the opening and swarmed forward, their sharp claws and beaks tearing and biting into the thick tail.
A pained hiss came from beneath the thunder sap. Lu Xiaotian retreated, and two streaks of white light flashed. A male and a female cultivator, both drenched in blood, suddenly burst out from within. Their faces were filled with terror, and they looked as though they had yet to recover from the shock.
The ground trembled, and more thunder sap, alive with leaping electric snakes, surged out from below like a fountain.
The man and woman had only flown a dozen or so yards into the air when two tails stretched out from below. Moving later yet arriving first, they wrapped around the pair. Mouths resembling suction cups suddenly appeared along the tails, which were slightly thinner than the one before. They latched onto the man and woman, and viscous thunder sap separately enveloped them. The pair's shrill screams from within the thunder sap made Hu Xiaofeng and the old man with the black staff's hearts seize. One