A One-Sided Battle! A Great Gift
"Young Master!"
Qing Lin cried out in delighted surprise inwardly. She obediently closed her eyes and thought of nothing, allowing that soul force to guide her.
Just then, an energy barrier appeared out of thin air, encompassing an area several li across.
Dark purple cold-attribute patterns flowed across the barrier's walls, accompanied by traces of spatial power that completely separated the world inside from the world outside. Such a display was possible only when a High-Rank Dou Emperor deployed an energy barrier.
At the same time, snowflakes suddenly began to drift down from the sky.
It was snowing at the edge of the Tagor Desert in June. Naturally, that was unusual.
Some of the snowflakes landed on Bai Ya and Lu Man, and both immediately noticed the flow of Dou Qi within them beginning to slow. The temperature around them was dropping sharply.
The snowflakes carried an exceptionally tyrannical power of ice that clung to their Dou Qi meridians like frozen shackles.
"Oh no, it's an ambush!"
Lu Man's expression changed drastically, and she realized what was happening at once, but it was already too late.
A thin cyan line suddenly appeared atop a barren mountain ahead and shot out at tremendous speed, causing space to tremble.
It was Wind Attribute Dou Qi condensed to the extreme, moving so fast that even the air had no time to produce a sonic boom.
Its target was Lu Man.
"Damn it."
Lu Man was circulating her Dou Qi to counter the effects of the icy power when she suddenly sensed disaster bearing down on her.
The killing intent carried by the thin cyan line enveloped her entire body like something tangible. Without hesitation, she used Blood Escape. A layer of blood mist rose around her as she abruptly shifted to the side.
But the barrier was already in place, and she could not escape far.
Blood Escape only allowed her to avoid being struck by the Dou Technique. Her body still slammed into the energy barrier, and she violently spat out a mouthful of blood.
"A wind-attribute Dou Technique with this much power..."
"The Misty Cloud Sect Master, Yun Yun!"
Lu Man immediately guessed the identity of the person who had attacked.
Just then, Queen Medusa descended from high in the sky, her black hair flying as her hands rapidly formed seals. Terrifying Dou Qi surged from his body, combining with the power of heaven and earth to form several small energy snakes that swept toward Bai Ya, blotting out the sky.
"Damn it, it's that madwoman Medusa!"
Bai Ya cursed furiously, his eight wings beating wildly.
The icy power was hampering his ability to circulate his Dou Qi. To resist now, he could only burn his blood to counter the erosion of the Ice Dou Qi, then use a bloodline Dou Technique to defend himself.
"Black Heavenly Defense."
A gray-green energy barrier formed around Bai Ya, with snakeskin patterns flowing across its surface.
Seeing this, Queen Medusa changed her hand seals. Instead of sending the small purple energy snakes crashing straight into the barrier Bai Ya had formed, she guided them past it.
Immediately afterward, a thirty-meter-long dragon condensed from Ice Dou Qi appeared ahead, summoned by Chu Xiao.
"Mysterious Ice Dragon Soaring!"
Hai Bodong controlled the ice dragon, sending it crashing into its energy barrier from the side.
"Boom!"
The instant the long dragon struck, icy power erupted, freezing the entire energy barrier solid.
Thick blue ice formed over the surface of the gray-green barrier. Cracks spread across it, and then it shattered with a crash.
"Snake Seal!"
The moment the barrier shattered, Medusa changed her hand seals again. The small purple energy snakes circling nearby immediately converged, plunging into the Eight-Winged Black Serpent Emperor from every direction at once.
"Aah-!"
Bai Ya let out a bloodcurdling scream, his massive body convulsing violently in midair.
After the small purple energy snakes burrowed into its body, they transformed into chains of seals that wound through its bloodline and around its dantian, relentlessly suppressing the Dou Qi it could draw upon.
Its presence began to weaken rapidly, falling from the sixth tier until it barely stopped at the third tier, a level comparable to a Da Dou Shi.
"It's over."
Lu Man stuffed a medicinal pill into her mouth and watched the scene unfold, her face deathly pale and her whole body chilled.
In a direct fight, neither she nor Bai Ya could defeat Queen Medusa, and now Bai Ya was as good as crippled.
Besides Queen Medusa, the other side also had Yun Yun of the Misty Cloud Sect and a mysterious ice-type Dou Emperor.
Alone, she was no match for them at all.
"Whoosh!"
A streak of light flashed across the sky and landed on the Eight-Winged Black Serpent Emperor's back, scooping Qing Lin into his arms.
"There's someone else!" Lu Man was numb.
At that very moment, Queen Medusa, Yun Yun, and Hai Bodong all turned their gazes to her.
"I surrender! Don't kill me!" Lu Man immediately raised her hands to show that she would not resist.
Resistance was useless. Queen Medusa alone could suppress her, let alone the two other Dou Emperors and a High-Rank Dou Wang watching from the side.
She couldn't win. She couldn't win at all.
"What do you say?" Yun Yun asked Lu Yuan.
Queen Medusa stood with her arms folded, looking as though she would defer entirely to Lu Yuan.
Hai Bodong flew to Lu Yuan's side and nodded to him, then raised a hand and froze the Eight-Winged Black Serpent Emperor solid.
Lu Man's pupils contracted. All three of them, including Queen Medusa, actually took orders from Lu Yuan!?
"Young Master!"
Qing Lin opened her eyes and saw Lu Yuan's face. Tears of joy immediately streamed down her cheeks.
Lu Man and Bai Ya: !
Qing Lin's young master actually had such a formidable background!?
"Why are you crying?" Lu Yuan looked down at her with a faint smile. "Haven't I come to take you home?"
"Young Master, Qing Lin, Qing Lin almost thought it would be a long time before, before I could see you again." Qing Lin buried her head in Lu Yuan's chest.
"You've turned into a little crycat." Lu Yuan chuckled and spoke without looking up. "Sorry to trouble you three, but please kill them. My maid can't be made to suffer this grievance for nothing."
The color instantly drained from Lu Man's face. "Don't kill me. I can make it up to you. That would be more useful than killing me."
"No need," Lu Yuan said flatly, with no interest in hearing more.
It was only because Heavenly Snake Mansion valued Qing Lin's Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils and had no means of taking them that Qing Lin had not been killed or reduced to a cripple.
In the original course of events, Lu Man and Bai Ya had found Qing Lin long ago, but had stayed behind the scenes and watched her get captured by the Mo Clan, wanting to know what the Mo Clan had that could take the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils.
Besides that, after Qing Lin grew stronger, the people of Heavenly Snake Mansion wanted to force her to marry and have children, keeping both her and the bloodline of the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils within Heavenly Snake Mansion.
And all of this had been brought about by Lu Man and Bai Ya.
Lu Yuan would not show them the slightest courtesy.
"Do it." Queen Medusa attacked without hesitation.
As for the people of Heavenly Snake Mansion, she was happy to kill every one she encountered.
Hai Bodong and Yun Yun did not dawdle either, attacking at once.
"Mysterious Ice Dragon Soaring!"
"Extreme Wind: Meteor Kill."
Holding Qing Lin, Lu Yuan brought the frozen "third-tier" Eight-Winged Black Serpent Emperor down below, three flowers appearing in his pitch-black eyes.
"Seal!"
A powerful soul force poured into the Eight-Winged Black Serpent Emperor's serpent soul, using the Snake Seal as a foundation to send it into a deep sleep.
"All right." Lu Yuan patted Qing Lin's head. "Stop crying for now."
"Xian'er told me your Azure-Feathered Flame Snake is gone."
"That works out, then. Seal this Eight-Winged Black Serpent Emperor."
"You won't need to release it for use in the future. Just keep it in your pupil space and turn it into a resource to make you stronger."