The Queen Descends!

That was... Zhao Zixuan!

The Blade Queen, freshly transformed and emerged from her cocoon!

Zhao Zixuan's appearance had changed completely!

She no longer looked like the delicate campus beauty she had once been. Although her face was still the same... deep within her eyes lurked overwhelming bloodlust and an indifference to all living things.

Even her body no longer seemed human!

Now, Zhao Zixuan's entire body was encased in thick, purple-black carapace. It gleamed like metal, its savage contours resembling an exquisite suit of naturally formed armor! Its defensive strength surpassed the carapace of a Giant Mantis Beast by ten times, twenty times, or perhaps even more!

With the outer carapace's natural defenses alone, even Elder Xu, with his Earth Rank strength, probably could not break through it unless he unleashed his trump card!

Once reinforced with Cosmic Force.

Its strength would increase another five or six times, or more!

In midair, Zhao Zixuan flew at incredible speed as a streak of purple light. Wings formed from black bones extended from her back!

A thin layer of purple Cosmic Force flowed over those skeletal wings, giving them the shape of a pterosaur's membranous wings... with a single beat of her purple skeletal wings, Zhao Zixuan shot forward through the air, covering dozens or even a hundred meters!

She flew so fast that she had already broken the sound barrier. Like a missile glowing purple, she streaked in from afar like a flash of lightning.

Elder Xu rose, gathering formidable power within his body once more.

He forcibly seized the power that had already dispersed and drew it back into his body, even at the cost of grievous injury!

His power seemed to approach the level it had reached during his final clash with Yang Yu once again.

He raised his head and stared into the distant southeastern sky.

In the blink of an eye, Zhao Zixuan drew near. Soon, a beat of her skeletal wings brought her directly above Elder Xu.

Whoooosh!

Vast fluctuations of power spread outward in visible waves, rippling through the air!

Zhao Zixuan swept her cold gaze from side to side.

Within her psychic perception... Elder Xu was the only person here whose life force she could sense.

She expanded her range of perception.

Soon, Zhao Zixuan breathed a sigh of relief.

In a lake several hundred meters away, she sensed Yang Yu's faint presence, along with... the life forces of a group of Giant Mantis Beasts.

A brief scan was enough for Zhao Zixuan to know that Yang Yu was gravely wounded.

For the moment, however, his life was not in danger!

Zhao Zixuan turned her attention away from Yang Yu and focused her gaze entirely on Elder Xu on the ground.

"Was it you? Did you harm my master?" Zhao Zixuan's voice was icy, devoid of any human emotion. At that moment, she seemed like a lofty deity passing judgment on a wicked mortal who had committed a terrible crime.

"I don't understand what you're talking about." Elder Xu narrowed his eyes, a dangerous, cold gleam flickering within them.

"Are you with that brat from earlier? If you want revenge, stop wasting words."

"Make your move!" Elder Xu growled.

"You harmed my master and show no remorse... death is your sentence!" Zhao Zixuan's expression grew colder still. Then her hovering body vanished in a blur. A boom rang through the sky, and ripples spread through the surrounding air.

In a flash, Zhao Zixuan swooped like a hawk striking a rabbit. Holding nothing back, she descended with an overwhelmingly powerful presence and closed in on Elder Xu!

"Die!"

With that cold shout, Zhao Zixuan swung her right arm and drove her palm toward Elder Xu.

The purple-black carapace covering her arm changed violently, sprouting vicious spikes without warning! And that was not all. Just before her palm struck, all five of her fingers abruptly lengthened!

Her five fingers descended like blades!

They carried such tremendous wind pressure that they blasted away the bloodstained black soil beneath Elder Xu's feet!

Foul-smelling dirt mingled with the wind and rain filling the air. An enormous blaze of light surged around Elder Xu, and in an instant, he raised his palm to meet Zhao Zixuan with all his strength.

Elder Xu specialized in palm techniques.

Zhao Zixuan had no suitable weapon either. She, too, fought barehanded, relying entirely on her body!

Palm against palm, fist against fist!

The two tangled in close combat, exchanging dozens, then hundreds of blows in the blink of an eye!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The earth thundered. Blurred figures flashed across the ground, each movement accompanied by a deafening crash as the black soil exploded, leaving an enormous crater!

After only a few dozen seconds of combat, the ground was riddled with craters of every size, as though a meteor shower had struck it.

The intensity of this battle far exceeded that of Yang Yu's earlier fight with Elder Xu.

Whoosh—

Shhk!

The violent thunder of battle suddenly stopped.

After a soft sound, Elder Xu and Zhao Zixuan separated. They had fought a life-or-death battle for dozens of seconds, exchanging at least four or five hundred blows.

"You..." Elder Xu stared at Zhao Zixuan in disbelief. He raised a hand and clutched his neck tightly.

Blood poured through the gaps between his fingers.

It was a fatal wound!

His artery and windpipe had been slashed open, torn apart!

Elder Xu's lips quivered. He wanted to say something more, but in the end... he could not utter a word. His life force ebbed away with the blood gushing between his fingers.

Thud!

Elder Xu fell with his eyes wide open, unwilling to accept his end!

Even in death, his eyes would not close!

"You couldn't withstand a single blow." Zhao Zixuan glanced at Elder Xu's fallen body. Once she confirmed that he was dead, the savage spikes protruding from her carapace slowly retracted, returning to normal.

Even the metallic purple-black armor covering her body contracted and sank beneath her skin.

With the carapace gone, Zhao Zixuan once again became the fresh-faced university beauty in a white dress.

Unless they had seen it with their own eyes.

No one would ever have guessed that she had just killed an Earth Rank expert whose power was fully unleashed!

In fact, given Elder Xu's condition just then.

Although he had been slightly weaker than during his final clash with Yang Yu, probably only a Heaven Tier expert could have killed him so swiftly and cleanly.

Yang Yu had transformed Zhao Zixuan into a Blade Queen.

And the Blade Queen was an exceptionally formidable being within the legacy of the Insectoid Civilization.

Although she was currently only a Blade Queen of the lowest rank.

She still belonged to the commander class of the Insectoid Legion... the Insectoid Legion demanded a great deal of its commanders, in both strength and every other respect!

Naturally, the methods used to transform and evolve them were completely different from those used for ordinary Insect Race creatures!

Everything was carried out to the most perfect, highest standards!

After her transformation and evolution, every aspect of Zhao Zixuan had reached perfection... Although she was only at the Earth Rank, her strength already rivaled that of an ordinary expert who had just entered the Heaven Tier.

At the Earth Rank, she was already able to fight an ordinary Heaven Tier expert, hold her own, and survive!

Moreover, her aptitude and comprehension were both extraordinarily strong.

She was the equivalent of an outstanding genius among cultivators!

PS: Thanks to "PhantomZhuBlack" for the tip! Please recommend and bookmark!