As the words fell, Murong Zhuangning thrust her sword forward.
The thrust was so fast that Qu Ming's pupils had no time to contract.
A silver-purple sword light burst from the tip.
Midair, it became the enormous phantom of a Purple Phoenix. Its wings spread dozens of yards across.
Every feather was a razor-sharp strand of Sword Qi, and every strand held an edge that could sever mountains and rivers.
The Purple Phoenix threw back its head and cried out, then swooped down. Wings like blades, talons like hooks, beak like a sword—it struck straight at Qu Ming's head.
Wherever the phantom passed, space was sliced into countless fragments.
Each fragment reflected the Purple Phoenix, like shattered mirrors all capturing the same divine bird from antiquity.
"A fine sword."
"Come on, then."
At last, a trace of gravity flashed through Qu Ming's pure-blue eyes.
He jerked his head back and let out a low roar.
It sounded like ten thousand beasts roaring together in the Abyss, shaking the air above the Arena.
Every scale on his body stood on end, each one like a blade drawn from its sheath.
Deep-blue light surged from beneath them, forming a thick suit of armor around him.
He raised both claws skyward and spread all ten talons. Ten deep-blue pillars of light gathered at their tips, each containing the purest bloodline power of the Chaos Ancient Clan.
"Abyss-Devouring Claw: Sky-Splitting!"
He tore both claws forward. The ten pillars merged into one enormous deep-blue claw.
It was twice the size of his earlier Abyss-Devouring Claw, its five fingers like pillars propping up the heavens.
At its center spun a bottomless vortex of darkness, turning so furiously it seemed ready to swallow the entire sky.
The Purple Phoenix and the deep-blue claw collided with a thunderous