136: That was Master's blood

Luo Ximei's figure tumbled through the air.

She forcefully twisted her body mid-air, stomping heavily in the Void Realm with both feet to dissipate the immense force, landing steadily.

The ground cracked beneath her feet, and fissures spread outwards.

She looked up, her arm holding the banner pole slightly numb, her chest churning with surging Qi and blood.

Across from her, the Skeleton Monarch's soul fire flickered in its eye sockets as it advanced step by step.

The cracks on its body, caused by the beam of resentment, were completely healed, even more solid than before.

On the other side of the battlefield, separated by the Wall of Vengeful Spirits.

At the wound on Su Lin's left arm, blood-colored Evil Qi and golden spiritual energy were engaged in a direct confrontation.

He mobilized the spiritual energy within his body, slowly forcing out the foreign energy that was attempting to corrode his Meridians.

The Blood Shadow Asura gave him no chance to breathe.

The entire battlefield's blood Qi came alive. Dozens of blood shadows, indistinguishable from its main body, simultaneously condensed from all directions.

Each one carried the pressure of the Initial Stage of Void Refinement; they had no fixed weapons, any part of their bodies could transform into the most lethal blades, attacking Su Lin from tricky angles.

Su Lin's eyes were calm; he chose not to retreat.

The ancient sword of destiny wove circle after circle in his hand, its golden sword light forming an impenetrable defense.

The clanging sounds of impact merged into a continuous din.

Every attack from the blood shadows was incredibly precise; they shared a single killing intent, cooperating flawlessly.

Su Lin's figure moved continuously amidst the siege, the sword light flashing each time, just enough to block a fatal attack.

Just a hair's breadth away, a sharp claw could have torn open his throat.

Just a hair's breadth away, a bone spike could have pierced his heart.

But it was this minuscule distance that became an insurmountable chasm for the blood shadows.

Su Lin's defense was flawlessly perfect, a manifestation of battle instinct honed through countless trials, a testament to the insights of the Mahayana Stage.

However, such a defense consumed an enormous amount of energy.

The spiritual energy within his body was rapidly draining away.

On the other side, Luo Ximei faced the relentlessly advancing Skeleton Monarch, the Battle Intent in her eyes burning even more fiercely.

"Stubborn bone, what this Venerable One loves to crush most are stubborn bones!"

She plunged the myriad soul banner into the ground beside her, her hands rapidly forming seals.

Dark red Devilish Qi surged wildly from her body, no longer a mere release of power, but beginning to weave into a massive magic array.

As the magic array took shape, the space behind her began to distort.

Overwhelming darkness instantly enveloped the battlefield; these solidified devil claws instantly attacked the Skeleton Monarch.

The Skeleton Monarch roared skyward, abandoning the giant axe in its hand, crossing its arms to guard its front.

Dense, eerie blue soul fire erupted from the gaps in all its bones, forming a massive bone shield in front of it.

Darkness and the bone shield collided with a deafening roar.

The tips of the devil claws scraped dazzling sparks on the bone shield, embedding deeply into it.

Cracks spread across the bone shield, yet it stubbornly resisted the advance of the devil claws.

The two were locked in a pure contest of strength.

Luo Ximei's face flushed, pushing the Devilish Qi within her body to its limit.

The power of the devil claw intensified, and more cracks appeared on the bone shield.

It was about to shatter!

Just as the bone shield was on the verge of collapsing, the soul fire in the Skeleton Monarch's eye sockets abruptly constricted.

It made a move that even Luo Ximei found surprising.

It actually voluntarily abandoned the bone shield's defense, allowing the devil claw to tear through the shield and grasp its chest.

Pfft!

The hard sternum was easily crushed, and five sharp claws plunged deeply into its chest cavity.

However, the Skeleton Monarch did not retreat; instead, it used this opportunity to firmly embrace the devil claw with its two massive bone arms.

Within its chest cavity, the core of the eerie blue soul fire glowed with an unsettling light at this moment.

Not good!

She tried to retract the devil claw, but found it firmly clamped by the opponent's bone arms, unable to move.

The next moment, the soul fire core within the Skeleton Monarch's chest cavity exploded with a roar.

Su Lin's battlefield was equally perilous.

He had already cut down thirty-seven blood shadow Clones, but new Clones would immediately condense from the blood Qi throughout the battlefield, endlessly.

Although the wound on his left arm had stopped bleeding, each sword swing aggravated the injury, causing an extremely subtle delay in his movements.

In a contest between Revered Masters, a hair's breadth difference leads to a thousand-mile error.

The Blood Shadow Asura's main body seized this fleeting opportunity.

It appeared silently behind Su Lin, forming a perfect pincer attack with another Clone.

Su Lin parried the Clone's attack with a backhand sword swing, but it was this very action that made him a split second slower when facing the main body's killing blow.

A blood-colored blade, condensed from pure Evil Qi, pierced through his protective spiritual light, entering his right waist and exiting from the other side.

Intense pain struck, and Su Lin let out a muffled groan.

"Revered Master!!!"

The moment the blood-colored blade pierced Su Lin's waist, Luo Ximei's movements froze.

She maintained her posture to resist the explosion, but her blood-red pupils pierced through the Wall of Vengeful Spirits, locking onto the shocking wound on Su Lin's body.

Time slowed around her.

The roar of the explosion, the sound of the Skeleton Monarch's bones shattering after its self-detonation, everything became blurred.

In her world, there was only that single point of bright red.

That was Revered Master's blood.

"You... all..."

The temperature around her plummeted, the dark red Devilish Qi no longer a violent outpouring, but an extreme inward contraction, condensing into a substance nearly black.

She slowly straightened up, letting the aftershocks of the soul fire explosion impact her body; scorched marks appeared on her tight-fitting combat attire, but she was oblivious.

The Wall of Vengeful Spirits that separated the two, upon contact with the aura emanating from her, caused the faces composed of resentment on the wall to show expressions of terror.

They began to shrink back, moving away from this existence that made even them tremble.

"You... seek... death..."

She gently waved the banner.

A pitch-black chain, devoid of any luster, shot out from the banner like lightning, its speed transcending the limits of space, instantly appearing behind the Skeleton Monarch.

The Skeleton Monarch sensed the danger behind it, abruptly turned, and used its two massive bone arms to block.

However, the chain passed through its arms as if illusory.

Without any obstruction, it precisely pierced into the massive cavity in its chest, created by the self-detonation, firmly locking onto the flickering soul fire core.

The Skeleton Monarch's massive body suddenly stiffened.

It could feel its source of life being forcibly stripped from its body by an irresistible force.

"Come here."

Luo Ximei commanded softly.

The black chain suddenly tightened, beginning to drag backward.

The Skeleton Monarch's ten-zhang-tall body was pulled stumbling backward by this force; it dug its feet deeply into the ground, trying to resist, but the force grew stronger and stronger.

Its soul fire core was slowly pulled out of the chest cavity, exposed to the air.

The eerie blue flame, having left the protection of the body, let out a mournful cry.

Luo Ximei looked at the soul fire dragged before her, her face devoid of any expression.

She extended her other hand, fingers splayed.

The black chain released its hold, and the soul fire core flew directly into her palm.

The Skeleton Monarch, at the moment of losing its core, ceased all struggle.

Its massive body still maintained its resisting posture, but the flames in its eye sockets were completely extinguished, becoming two hollow black holes.

Luo Ximei held the soul fire, feeling the pure energy contained within it.

Ordinarily, she might have refined and absorbed it.

But now, she was not in the mood.

Her five fingers slowly closed.

"Bang."

With a faint muffled sound, the soul fire core was easily crushed in her palm, turning into countless dancing blue light specks.