Bitter Battle

This time, the Demon Beasts held the advantage, so they had no intention of facing off. The moment they arrived, they launched their attack.

The Blazing Lion took the lead, charging at the very front. Wang Shouye repeated his old trick, sending out a water dragon to meet the Blazing Lion.

The Blazing Lion opened its mouth and spat out a fireball the size of a human head, only for the water dragon to scatter it with one claw. Flames flew in every direction, but the water dragon's body was agile, dodging every last spark.

Moments later, the water dragon and the Blazing Lion engaged in close combat. A layer of flames wrapped around the Blazing Lion's entire body. Every collision with the water dragon produced a cloud of white mist, consuming some of the water dragon and flames, which Wang Shouye and the Blazing Lion immediately replenished with spiritual energy.

Man and beast fought to a standstill. The battle had become a war of attrition, testing whose spiritual energy reserves ran deeper.

Wang Daoyuan had no interest in merely standing by and watching. He pulled out three Rain Transformation Talismans and threw them out. A dark cloud appeared from nowhere above the Blazing Lion, covering an area of more than twenty zhang, and soon a torrential downpour came crashing down.

Under the heavy rain, the Water Dragon Technique's power increased slightly, though not by much. The Blazing Lion, however, suffered greatly. The flames around its body were constantly weakened by the rainwater, forcing it to increase its spiritual energy output just to barely keep the flames from going out. Its spiritual energy consumption rose dramatically.

As a result, the originally evenly matched battle shifted in Wang Shouye's favor. The Blazing Lion tried to flee the area beneath the dark cloud, but how could Wang Shouye let it have its way? The water dragon wrapped itself tightly around the Blazing Lion, making it impossible for the beast to move even a single step.

Dragon and lion tangled together. Their spells could no longer gain any traction, leaving them no choice but to fight with claws and fangs.

Wang Daoyuan's series of moves had the Blazing Lion thoroughly pinned down, drawing praise from everyone present.

Li Xinghe, the Li Clan's patriarch, actually began giving an on-the-spot lesson to the younger members of his clan. He highly praised Wang Daoyuan for his flexible mind, his skill at seizing opportunities, and his reasonable use of the resources at hand to achieve greater results. He even called upon the Li Clan's younger generation to learn from Comrade Wang Daoyuan...

The other Demon Beasts would not stand idly by and watch. Nine Demon Beasts charged toward the Wang Clan's remaining nine people.

Before long, the Demon Beasts collided with the seven meat shields. Wang Daoxing faced a monkey. It was slightly smaller than a human and lacked the exaggerated muscles of ape-type Demon Beasts, but it was incomparably nimble.

The monkey was covered in white fur, yet its two eyes were golden. This was an exceedingly rare Golden Eye Spirit Monkey. Its pair of golden eyes possessed exceptional sight and even had the divine ability to dispel illusions. Invisibility, disguise, earth escape, and the like—none could hide beneath those golden eyes.

These Demon Beasts advanced and retreated in perfect order. Someone, or a high-ranked Demon Beast, was clearly controlling them from behind the scenes. There might be twists and turns in this demon-slaying battle. If this spirit monkey was not dealt with, then should they need to flee using earth escape, they could very well fall into its hands.

Wang Daoxing swung his massive wolf-toothed club at the spirit monkey. Unfortunately, the spirit monkey was simply too agile. Though the club whirled up and down, it could not even touch a single hair on the monkey.

Wang Daoxing was a Body Cultivator. His physical body was far stronger than that of ordinary cultivators, and with that massive wolf-toothed club, even a turtle-type spirit beast would be injured if it took one of his blows.

Yet great power also meant great consumption. If he kept failing to hit the spirit monkey, his stamina would soon be exhausted. Whenever he tried to attack another Demon Beast, the spirit monkey would sneak up to ambush him from the side, forcing him to turn back and remain entangled with it.

The six uncles faced eight Demon Beasts stronger than themselves. Being able to barely hold their ground with the Golden Armor Talismans was already impressive enough; offering aid was simply out of the question.

The Wang Clan's people were already weaker than the Demon Beasts. If even one more of them collapsed from exhaustion, they truly would be unable to keep fighting.

Naturally, Wang Daoyuan would not allow that to happen. He drew one Talisman from the stack in his hand and activated the spell within. Hundreds of grape-sized fireballs appeared out of thin air before Wang Daoyuan, then flew toward the spirit monkey.

This was the first-rank spell, Fire Rain Technique. The fireballs flew at extreme speed and were numerous beyond count, densely packed like raindrops.

The Fire Rain Technique was fast and covered a wide area, but its destructive power was extremely weak, making it of little use against most Demon Beasts. However, against a Demon Beast like the spirit monkey, which could not take much punishment and relied entirely on agility to stay alive, it produced miraculous results.

No matter how agile the spirit monkey was, it could not possibly dodge every one of the hundreds of tiny fireballs raining down over such a wide area. As long as a fireball struck it, with its meager defenses, it would surely be injured and its agility affected.

Once its agility was impaired, the spirit monkey would lose the skill it relied on to make a living. Then, would it not be meat on the chopping block?

The spirit monkey also knew that being struck by these tiny fireballs meant certain death. Thus, it used every trick in its arsenal to evade them.

Relying on its golden eyes and agility, it truly dodged more than half of the fireballs. But Wang Daoxing had no intention of letting it off easily. While it focused all its attention on dodging the fireballs, he seized the chance to finish it off.

Wang Daoxing swung his wolf-toothed club with all his strength, the roaring wind unceasing. Dodging the tiny fireballs was already difficult enough for the spirit monkey. With the wolf-toothed club added to the mix, it became harder still.

Distracted by too many things at once, it was soon struck by a fireball and suffered a minor injury. Though the wound was not severe, it seriously affected its agility. Before long, the spirit monkey failed to dodge in time and was struck by the wolf-toothed club, dying on the spot.

After dealing with the spirit monkey, Wang Daoxing found a new target. It was a bear, brown all over and more than two zhang long. There was nothing particularly remarkable about it; it was likely a Demon Beast evolved from an ordinary brown bear.

Usually, Demon Beasts of this sort possessed no innate spells. Compared with before they evolved into Demon Beasts, their Physical Bodies were simply stronger and their strength greater.

To Wang Daoxing, such an opponent was a living target—just one that could take a beating and could not be clubbed to death in short order.

Wang Daoxing's side was temporarily free of problems, but the six uncles were beginning to falter. Two of them were already over one hundred and ten years old. Frail with age, even if they rested quietly at home, they likely had only a few years left to live.

Yet now, they were desperately resisting Demon Beasts stronger than themselves. Even with the Golden Armor Talismans protecting them, their bodies still had to bear the shock of every collision with the Demon Beasts. After dozens of exchanges, the blood and qi of the two uncles churned violently. They were on the verge of being unable to hold on.

If the two of them fell, the other four uncles would be facing seven Demon Beasts and would quickly be defeated as well. If a breach opened here in the Wang Clan's line and the Demon Beasts escaped, then when the Netherworld Sect investigated afterward, none of them would be able to bear the consequences.

Twelfth Uncle Wang Zhiming had already rushed over to share the pressure, but they were still only barely holding on and could lose at any moment.

Wang Daoyuan could no longer wait for an opportunity. He could only scatter Talismans by the handful. Though this greatly eased the pressure on the meat shields, it also cost them the chance to finish off their opponents.

The two sides had fallen into a war of attrition, and neither could quickly defeat the other. But time was not on the Wang Clan's side. The two elderly uncles could still collapse at any moment, and other Demon Beasts might arrive at any time.

The hands of the two uncles, both over one hundred and ten years old, trembled constantly around their magic artifacts, nearly unable to hold them. Their legs shook as well, as though a gust of wind could blow them over. Their strength had already run dry. The only reason they had lasted until now was by forcing themselves onward with one last breath.

On Wang Shouye's side, one hand controlled the water dragon as it fought the Blazing Lion, while his other hand gathered spiritual energy, as though he intended to form another water dragon.

Wang Daoyuan had already decided to bring out his trump card—a second-rank Talisman. He simply could not bring himself to hide his cards while watching his clansmen die.