"Boom!" An explosion erupted from within the ice crystal. The Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear was already renowned for its powerful defenses and a pair of claws nearly at the extreme of sharpness. Xiong Jun, the king of the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bears, was even more powerful, but even he had been badly injured by that explosion.
"Damn it, Ice Empress! Is this the only way you know how to fight?" Xiong Jun roared as he swung both Dark Gold Terrorclaws at Ice Empress, their strikes cutting through the air with a shrill whistle.
"Do you think I'm stupid enough to test my strength against you?" As she spoke, Ice Empress activated the Eternal Frozen Domain. Emerald light spread out around her and enveloped Xiong Jun, then began condensing into solid ice. But his sharp claws tore it apart. "This isn't over yet." The shattered ice exploded around Xiong Jun in an instant. The blast left him dazed, and before he could recover, another attack came straight at him: Ice Empress's Ice Emperor's Wrath.
"Ah! Ah!" Everything happened too quickly for Xiong Jun to dodge, so he could only block with both claws. But the moment he caught the attack, another explosion rang out against his claws, blasting him backward in a series of retreats. Even Xiong Jun's powerful defenses couldn't withstand being hit like this, so he could only begin dodging Ice Empress's attacks, cursing inwardly: Where did those guys go? Why isn't anyone helping me? It wasn't that the others didn't want to help Xiong Jun; they were all too busy fending for themselves.
In the dense forest in the distance, branches were growing wildly. Millions of trees seemed to grow as one, their boughs shooting out like blades in orderly rows. Then a great blaze engulfed them, burning fiercely through the forest. A gale swept in, and the raging fire and wind intertwined, forming a red tornado that rampaged through the woods. Myriad Demon King could only control the trees to stop the flames from spreading. The one responsible for all this was the Wolf King, who was now manipulating the Elements of Wind and Fire to attack the woods where Myriad Demon King was.
"Go distract him from controlling the trees," the Wolf King said, turning to Raven.
"You don't need to remind me. I know what to do. Li Ya, sing loudly and show these big lugs what art is." With that, Raven flew away.
Li Ya nodded at her words and began singing the Mermaid Song.
In the forest, Myriad Demon King was controlling the trees to stop the fire from spreading. The towering trees lined up in orderly rows, then grew thick bark to form a firebreak. Just as Myriad Demon King was about to take his next step, a beautiful song drifted over from the distance. The moment he heard it, he felt his mind stall for an instant. Then he sensed that his body and his control over his Spiritual Power had both begun to slow. Myriad Demon King immediately realized he was under a mental attack and quickly marshaled his Spiritual Power to defend himself.
"Heh heh, it's not over yet." As the voice reached him, Raven's own feathers shot toward Myriad Demon King like blades.
Myriad Demon King controlled the trees to block them, then launched a counterattack toward the source of the mental assault. Branches grew wildly, lunging toward Raven.
Thanks to Li Ya's singing, Myriad Demon King couldn't control the trees as easily as before. Raven flew through the woods, which stretched around her like a spiderweb, her black silhouette darting among the trees as she continued launching mental attacks at Myriad Demon King. He was so troubled by her that he couldn't concentrate on controlling the trees.
Seeing this, the Wolf King controlled the flames and pressed Myriad Demon King further. Guided by the wind, the fire slipped through the narrow gaps in the tree wall and spread inside. Like a wild horse that had broken free of its reins, it quickly blazed outward.
"Damn it." Seeing this, Myriad Demon King could no longer divide his attention. He used his Spiritual Power to attack indiscriminately in every direction, trying to drive Raven away outright.
When Raven saw Myriad Demon King's all-encompassing mental attack coming, she could only retreat with a curse. Seeing that he had achieved his goal, Myriad Demon King went back to focusing on fighting the flames. But by then, the fire had swallowed most of the forest and surrounded him, spreading faster and faster. Myriad Demon King could only control the trees to close in around himself and keep the flames from reaching him.
Seeing Myriad Demon King trapped there, the Wolf King breathed a slight sigh of relief and continued controlling the flames to keep him pinned down.
"Hey, why'd you come back looking so disheveled?" the Wolf King teased when Raven returned. Li Ya looked over too and saw that Raven's face was covered in black soot.
"You've got some nerve asking. That guy couldn't keep dragging things out with me, so he pulled a vicious move and forced me to retreat. No, that's not the point. Why the hell is your fire burning me too?" Raven said, staring suspiciously at the Wolf King.
Seeing Raven get the worst of it made the Wolf King very happy. He casually hurled a ball of water at her face, then said cheerfully, "What other reason could there be? You're just too weak. Otherwise, you wouldn't have retreated early and still gotten burned. Here, go wash your face."
Raven's face was soaked by the water ball. Hearing the Wolf King mock her, she cursed that stupid dog to herself, but since she really had been the one to retreat early, she didn't say it aloud. She turned and went to Li Ya instead. Li Ya could only wipe her face for her and comfort her, telling her not to take it to heart.
Myriad Demon King was trapped there and in a sorry state, but someone else was in an even worse predicament: the Scarlet King.
At first, the Scarlet King had thought he wouldn't need long to deal with A-Tai and Xiao Bai. But they didn't fight him head-on as he'd hoped. Instead, they took turns ambushing him, one after the other. Sometimes A-Tai attacked from the front while Xiao Bai ambushed him from behind; sometimes Xiao Bai faced him head-on while A-Tai attacked from the rear.
Once again, A-Tai came in front of the Scarlet King, raised his fist, and swung it at him. The Scarlet King had just braced himself to meet the attack when Xiao Bai hurled an Ice Meteor at him from behind. The Scarlet King wanted to turn around and defend himself, but A-Tai's attack didn't let up. The two worked together with such speed and coordination that the Scarlet King had no time to dodge and could only take the hit head-on. As for why Xiao Bai and A-Tai worked together so well, it was because they had often fought each other back in the Far North and had developed a tacit understanding.
After a few rounds of this, the Scarlet King was already close to his limit. "Ah! Don't you have any honor? Do you have the guts to fight me fair and square?" the Scarlet King roared angrily.
At his words, A-Tai and Xiao Bai replied in perfect unison, "We don't have the guts."
"You two..." After saying this, the Scarlet King felt as if he were about to cough up blood in anger. He hadn't expected these two to be so shameless. If he hadn't spent years in the Star Dou Forest without learning many words, he would have already been spewing curses.
The battle in the sky was still raging. Red, white, black, and green energy collided in midair. Snow Empress attacked Di Tian with Emperor Sword: Peerless, while Di Tian responded with the Black Dragon Sword in hand. Evil Lord kept watch over Bi Ji to stop her from going forward to help, leaving her no choice but to face him. White and black clashed, bounced apart, then clashed again. The sky echoed with the blasts of colliding energy and the clash of blades. Watching the battle between black and white, Evil Lord thought that while they could manage for a short time, neither Snow Empress nor Huo Yuhao and the others could keep it up for long. The best thing to do now was end the fight quickly.
"Though barging into your battle like this is unfair, I'll have to offend you, Di Tian, so we can end this fight as soon as possible." With that, Evil Lord released his Spiritual Power to seal off this patch of sky, then sent a mental attack straight toward Di Tian. He didn't use his signature technique, only the simplest, most ordinary application of Spiritual Power, backed by his powerful Cultivation, and directed it at Di Tian.
"Di Tian, watch out!" Bi Ji said, already preparing to heal him.
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