Fortunately, Tie Qingyao had been clever enough to lay formations across this plain early on.
Tie Zhan swept his surroundings out of the corner of his eye. Aside from the Azure-Faced Lion King, Silverback Azure Ape, and Red-Mane Boar, a Transformation Middle Stage Black-Scaled Ghost Python lurked on the perimeter.
The beast coiled atop a huge boulder, its body wrapped around the rock. Its slit pupils watched the battlefield coldly, its forked tongue flicking in and out, as though waiting for a chance to deliver a killing blow.
Its two earlier attacks had been as silent as an assassin's. Working with the other great demons, it had already destroyed a Fourth-Tier Low-Grade Formation, leaving Tie Qingyao badly injured in the process.
Four of them. Two at Transformation Peak, one at the late stage, and one at the middle stage.
Bitterness filled Tie Zhan's heart. Fortunately, they were in the Nine Netherworlds Forbidden Grounds. Although the Spirit-Severing Qi was dense, the Nine Cauldrons automatically opened up a clear space around them. They could replenish their True Essence, and the formations could draw on spiritual qi from the earth veins.
Those beasts, meanwhile, could only use their physical bodies.
Otherwise, even as a True Lord ranked somewhere in the one hundred and eighties on the Heavenly Gang Ranking, he could not have protected the two younger members of his clan.
Even he himself would have been in grave danger.
"Qingyao, how much longer can you hold on?" he asked heavily.
Tie Qingyao did not answer. She had no strength to spare for an answer.
Her entire mind was focused on the three formations. The tearing sensation in her sea of consciousness had turned into a terrifying burning pain. Every breath burned away her divine sense; every breath consumed her lifespan. She had