His pupils contracted sharply. Xue Mingqing almost instantly started to turn and retreat, summoning the Snow Dragon back to help.
But he had only just turned around, and the Snow Dragon had only just stopped breathing dragonfire—right at the moment it was returning to his aid!
A black ghost claw emerged without a sound, like a bolt of lightning, and seized Xue Mingqing by the throat!
"Ugh?!"
His pupils contracted sharply as Gui Mei lifted him off the ground by the neck!
Grabbing at the ghost claw with both hands, Xue Mingqing struggled against the suffocating pressure in his body. His face twisted as he parted his lips, seeming to want to ask something.
But he stopped, the question catching in his throat.
He had wanted to ask how Gui Mei had gotten behind him.
But—
Looking at Gui Mei's gloomy, spectral body, flickering in and out of sight, he fell silent.
Her Martial Soul was a ghost. If she wanted, she could stay intangible the entire time and refuse to fight him. He wouldn't even be able to touch her.
In other words, she could afford to fail countless times, while Xue Mingqing had only one chance to land a fatal blow before she could react and turn intangible—one chance to kill her.
"Heh...? What's wrong, gone mute? Nothing to say now?"
Still gripping Xue Mingqing by the throat, Gui Mei watched his face gradually flush red and taunted him in a frigid voice.
At the same time, she kept tightening her grip...
This brat was too strange. If she let him live, who knew what other tricks he had up his sleeve?
So she would strangle him now and nip the trouble in the bud!
But just as Gui Mei was about to kill Xue Mingqing, two piercing