Barely Over
Mingyu lowered her head and glanced at the Ink Cloud in her hand.
Mingyu raised her head and looked at Lü Qiansha in the distance.
Lü Qiansha also saw it. He had just been forced back two steps by Duan Jian's Duan Jian and was looking for an opportunity to counterattack when he caught a glimpse of Mingyu out of the corner of his eye, and his pupils suddenly contracted.
He sensed it. The aura of that Spirit God had changed, becoming completely different from before. Although Mingyu was also Spirit God before, his aura was restrained, giving him the feeling that he was "usable but not ruthless enough."
But now Mingyu stood there holding that dark sword, his aura so heavy it felt as if the entire forest had pressed down on him, a sense of oppression that sent chills down his spine.
Without further hesitation, Lü Qiansha swung his right claw, forcing Duan Jian back two steps, then turned and ran.
He ran towards the depths of the jungle, his four feet pounding the ground, each step leaving a shallow dent. He was running much faster than before, clearly running for his life.
But he was fast, Duan Jian was even faster.
Duan Jian didn't stop after being forced back by that claw. He suddenly pushed off with his feet, and his whole body chased after it like a dark red afterimage.
Black Dragon's wings spread wide behind him, creating a gust of wind with each flap. He was even slightly faster than Lü Qiansha. In just a few steps, he caught up to Lü Qiansha's side and rear, sweeping his broadsword horizontally towards Lü Qiansha's hind leg.
Lü Qiansha had no choice but to change direction. He shifted his body to avoid the blade, but his speed was slowed down. Duan Jian didn't give him a chance to regain his speed; the blade turned and slashed upwards, aiming for his abdomen.
Lü Qiansha dodged to the side, and Duan Jian followed up with another slash, aiming for his right foreleg. Lü Qiansha dodged again, and Duan Jian chased after him. The two became entangled in the jungle. Lü Qiansha tried to run, but Duan Jian wouldn't let go, his blade flashing one after another at him. Although he dodged or blocked every slash, he just couldn't pick up the speed.
Just then, Lü Qiansha did something.
While dodging Duan Jian's blade, he took out a Stone from his Space Ring.
The Stone was exactly the same as the one Lü Qianmo had just used, about the size of a thumb, grayish-white in color, with fine cracks covering its surface, from which a very faint golden light shone. He crushed the Stone with one hand, and a shield appeared around him.
As soon as the shield appeared, the surrounding air seemed to freeze for a moment. Duan Jian's blade struck the surface of the shield, but was deflected with a clang, leaving only a shallow white mark on the blade. Unconvinced, Duan Jian slashed three more times, each time being deflected by the shield, without even making a crack.
Lü Qiansha breathed a sigh of relief. He was glad that he was about to escape.
This shield is enough to withstand a full-force attack from Demi-God- level expert. As long as he can hold out for a short while and create distance to disappear into the depths of the dense forest, these people will not be able to catch up with him.
He glanced back at Duan Jian, a sinister smile creeping across his face. Dark red flames erupted beneath his feet once more, preparing to accelerate.
But as soon as he turned his head, he saw Mingyu already standing in front of him.
Mingyu was much faster than Lü Qiansha had anticipated. It slashed from the side, holding Ink Cloud, its dark body almost invisible in the jungle. Its aura was extremely concealed, and Lü Qiansha Lü Qiansha n't react until it appeared three steps away from him.
He subconsciously activated his shield, and the grayish-white light membrane around him thickened, with runes flashing wildly, pushing the shield's strength to its limit.
Mingyu didn't stop. It gripped the hilt of Ink Cloud's sword with both hands, pouring all of its Dark Law into the blade.
The dark patterns on the sword's blade lit up under the infusion of the Power of Law. A dark halo spread from the spine of the sword to the two sides of the blade, and every pattern was glowing. The light was deep and heavy, as if it had compressed the shadows of the entire forest onto the blade.
The light converged on the surface of the blade, shrinking into an extremely thin, almost invisible dark film that clung to the edge, quiet and profound.
Then it slashed down with its sword.
When Ink Cloud's blade touched the surface of the shield, there was no sound of metal clashing, nor any fluctuation of Spiritual Power colliding.
Where the sword blade touched, the grayish-white shield seemed to be sliced open from the inside, splitting from the point of contact to both sides. The cracks spread along the patterns of the runes, covering the entire shield in just a few breaths.
The shield was as fragile as paper in front of Ink Cloud's blade. It disintegrated in less than a blink of an eye, and grayish-white fragments flew to both sides, turning into tiny specks of light and dissipating into the air.
Lü Qiansha's eyes widened suddenly. His shield, which he considered his trump card and could even withstand a full-force attack from Demi-God, had shattered just like that.
It was sliced open like tofu by an inconspicuous, dark-colored Long Sword.
He opened his mouth, and a short, sharp sound squeezed out of his throat. The pronunciation of that syllable was different from before, carrying an undisguised fear that seemed to be squeezed from the deepest part of his throat.
Ink Cloud's sword didn't stop. After shattering the shield, it slashed down directly across the top of Lü Qiansha's head.
Where the blade touched, the flesh and bones on Lü Qiansha's head seemed to melt from the inside, silently splitting open from the point of contact to both sides.
The sword's edge advanced downwards along the crack, cutting through the skull, the brain, the cervical vertebrae, the chest cavity, and the abdominal cavity, continuing its downward journey.
Lü Qiansha's dark golden vertical pupils flashed for a final moment as the sword sliced through the space between his eyes, then quickly dimmed, the light extinguishing completely within a few breaths.
His body was cleaved in two by the sword's edge, the two halves slowly falling to either side and crashing onto the jungle ground with two dull thuds.
Dark red blood gushed from the cuts in both halves of the body, pooling into a large, dark, damp patch on the soil.
The cut is clean and smooth.
After doing all this, Ink Cloud slipped from Mingyu's hand, the sword falling to the ground with a crisp clang.
Mingyu's body began to shrink from the size of a normal person, shrinking back inch by inch. His shoulders narrowed, his torso thinned, and his limbs shortened. In a few breaths, he returned to the size of a thumb.
It hovered about a foot off the ground, its dark body standing quietly. But if you looked closely, you could see the luster on its edges undulating slightly, and its chest heaving much faster than usual.
It was panting. A Spirit God, after wielding a sword and unleashing a strike, was panting like a fish thrown ashore.
Duan Jian stood to the side, still clutching his broadsword, staring at the two halves of the corpse on the ground, stunned for a moment. Then he turned to look at Mingyu, his lips moved, but he didn't say anything.
Du Ze and Lu Piao caught up from behind, both of them covered in sweat, their clothes stained with blood and mud. Lu Piao's short knife had two new cuts, and Du Ze's Thunderfire Scale Armor was mostly shattered.
They stood beside Duan Jian, looking at the corpse on the ground, then at Mingyu, who was hanging in mid-air, panting, and remained silent.
Shen Fei stood there, watching this scene, and finally felt a sense of relief. His knees buckled, and he almost knelt down, but he held on with his last bit of strength.
Nie Li walked over from the side, reached out and helped him up. The two leaned against each other, neither of them saying a word, just standing there catching their breath.
Yu Yan floated over from behind and stopped next to Mingyu. The two Spirit God hung side by side, one with its pale golden flames dimmed, and the other with its dark body still undulating slightly.
Yu Yan turned her head to look at Mingyu and said softly, "Not bad?"
Mingyu didn't answer immediately. It hovered there, its chest heaving twice before finally managing to squeeze out a hoarse word. "... Okay."
The battle is finally over.