57: Chapter 57 The Mantis Stalks the Cicada, Unaware of the Oriole Behind

Smoke and dust billowed across the sky, obscuring the vision atop the city wall.

A clear yet somewhat mocking laughter leisurely drifted out from the mist, breaking the dead silence.

"Clap, clap, clap—"

"Brilliant, truly brilliant. I actually underestimated you natives and almost fell for your joint scheme."

Hearing this voice, the expressions of Tram and Melola changed drastically at the same time. Tram felt his heart instantly sink to the bottom, while Melola felt its heart instantly sink to the bottom.

As the smoke and dust slowly dissipated, Liang Feifan's figure clearly emerged.

Suspended in front of him was a layer of crystal-clear, scorching Flame Divine Shield. The fatal blow that Tram unleashed by exhausting eighty percent of his battle qi only pierced halfway into the shield's surface before being firmly locked in place, unable to advance even a fraction of an inch further.

"Impossible!"

Tram's eyes widened in utter disbelief, the blood and qi surging in his chest nearly spinning out of control.

This sword strike condensed eighty percent of his battle qi and was his trump card ultimate killing move. Even if a Grade 9 Knight took it head-on, they would inevitably suffer severe injuries.

He originally thought this sword would definitely kill the enemy, but he never expected that it couldn't even break the opponent's defense.

Meanwhile, the surrounding battle situation was not ideal either.

Although the number of Fire Sprite outside the city had suffered heavy losses, it still firmly controlled the upper hand, slaughtering the city defense soldiers into a continuous retreat and causing heavy casualties.

Looking at the nonchalant Liang Feifan before them, Tram wore a grim expression as dark as water, his heart filled with powerlessness and unwillingness, while Melola wore a grim expression, its heart filled with powerlessness and unwillingness.

"Could my Xuanming City truly fall into the hands of the god-desecrator today?"

A trace of despair surged into Tram's heart and Melola's heart simultaneously, and the belief in defending the city to the death was on the verge of collapsing.

However, Liang Feifan, who looked calm and composed on the outside, was far less relaxed on the inside than he appeared.

"How close. Fortunately, I accumulated some divine power during this period; otherwise, I really would have capsized in the gutter today."

The Flame Divine Shield just now had almost hollowed out all the divine power reserves of this avatar of his.

At this moment, his figure was already slightly illusory, and his aura was faintly fluctuating. He was actually at the end of his tether now.

He suppressed the unstable aura in his body and condescendingly overlooked the two heavily injured and battered individuals, his tone carrying a charitable detachment and arrogance: "How is it? Surrender. Submit to me, and I can spare your lives."

"Dream on! We would rather die than surrender!" Tram's eyes split open from anger, roaring sternly with an unyielding backbone.

Although Melola remained silent, it still quietly stood before the formation without a shred of retreat, already demonstrating its determination to fight to the death and never surrender through its actions.

"What a pity."

Liang Feifan gently shook his head, the last shred of patience in his eyes completely exhausted.

The next second, Lava Giant no longer held back, unleashing all its violent magma power. Blazing flames swept across the city wall, and every bombardment carried a world-destroying might.

Rolling seas of fire ravaged the battlefield. After only a few rounds, Tram's armor shattered and his entire body was drenched in blood, while Melola's divine robe was tattered and its spiritual power was exhausted. Both of them were heavily injured.

Just as the battle situation on the city wall was settling, in an inconspicuous and quiet corner of Xuanming City, Su Ming stood quietly in the shadows, faintly overlooking the overall situation and slightly shaking his head.

"Yelie, make your move. Finish him. This Xuanming City is in my pocket."

As the words fell, the shadow at Su Ming's feet rippled slightly. A pitch-black, silent shadow quietly detached, merged into the void, and stealthily crept away without a trace.

Atop the city wall, Liang Feifan looked at the two who refused to yield to the death, leaving only full of regret in his heart, and coldly ordered: "Lava Giant, crush them!"

Receiving the order, Lava Giant's fists wrapped in towering flames, its massive body lunging forward with a bang. Its giant palm enveloped the momentum of wind and thunder, fiercely grabbing down towards the two heavily injured individuals.

Tram and Melola were entirely exhausted and unable to dodge. Ultimate despair instantly flooded Tram's mind and Melola's mind, leaving them able only to close their eyes and wait for death.

But at this life-and-death split second, the anticipated destruction did not arrive.

The two raised their eyes in astonishment, only to see that Liang Feifan, who had just held victory in his grasp, suddenly had his face covered in extreme astonishment and disbelief.

Two gruesome bloody holes burst open without warning right at his chest's heart position and the center of his glabella!

Severe pain and dead silence instantly swallowed his perception. He didn't even have time to let out half a scream before the brilliance in his eyes rapidly extinguished, and his body turned into countless points of light inch by inch, completely dissipating between heaven and earth.

He was filled with utter incomprehension and ten thousand strands of unwillingness.

He had clearly covered his whole body with divine power and set up layer upon layer of defenses to rule out all possibilities of a sneak attack;

He had clearly taken the absolute upper hand, being only the final half-step away from taking Xuanming City.

He clearly had victory in hand, so why did he die so 'sloppily'?

But no matter how much doubt and unwillingness there was, it was ultimately meaningless.

Following the fall of Liang Feifan's avatar, the deity-less Lava Giant and the sky-full of Fire Sprite were also forcibly repatriated back to the Divine Realm.

On the battlefield, the sea of fire receded and the heat waves dissipated.

Naturally, normal circumstances would not be like this. When a deity falls, under normal circumstances, its dependents would fall into a riot.

However, this time was merely a trial, and the deity did not truly die. Therefore, once the divine power avatar fell, its dependents would be repatriated back into its own Divine Realm.

It's just that this kind of repatriation was not one hundred percent safe either, as it required traversing space during the journey.

And when traversing the void, there was a very small probability of encountering spatial turbulence. Once sucked in, the dependents would be directly annihilated and completely perish.

If one encountered this situation, they could only consider themselves unlucky.

...

Everyone in the extraterrestrial realm fortress also saw the scene of Liang Feifan being eliminated.

Everyone was filled with emotion and felt a deep sense of regret.

Liang Feifan's talent and strength were unquestionable, absolutely belonging to the first tier among the testers. Even Vice President Xiao Jinghan had previously listed him as a key recommended genius.

Yet he happened to run into Su Ming.

Within the crowd, Mo Tiance's eyes lit up, staring fixedly at Su Ming's figure in the light screen, his eyes filled with rich satisfaction and appreciation.

"I didn't expect this youth to secretly hide a hero dependent. Moreover, looking at the power of its recent attack, I'm afraid its strength cannot be underestimated."

Hearing this, the surrounding academy bigwigs all cast envious glances at Principal Ning Zhengqi.

Although Mo Tiance did not explicitly state he wanted to recruit Su Ming, this evaluation had already made Su Ming the tester most expected to enter the Nine Divine Mansions in this trial.

At this moment, Su Ming was completely oblivious to the outside world's attention and heated discussions.

His gaze calmly fell upon the surviving Tram and Melola.

The two looked at Yelie, who had appeared out of thin air and was wreathed in an aura of death, their bodies tensed and their remaining eyes filled with utmost vigilance.

"Who on earth are you, Your Excellency?" Melola forcefully propped up its heavily injured body, speaking in a hoarse voice filled with wariness.

Yelie remained silent and answered not a single word.

The pitch-black figure suddenly became illusory. Before the afterimage in place dissipated, its true body had already teleported behind Melola, reaching the ultimate speed without leaving a trace.

The heavily injured Melola had no time to make any reaction at all. The priest's frail body had zero resistance before Yelie.

It instinctively reached out to cover its throat, which was continuously spewing blood, its pupils shrinking sharply, its eyes filled with incomprehension and despair. Its body heavily crashed onto the ground, completely losing all breath.

Seeing this, Tram was scared out of his wits, not daring to stay even a shred longer. He turned around and tried to flee for his life at all costs.

His injuries were even heavier than Melola's, and he was already at the end of his rope. He knew deeply that he simply couldn't block this eerie black shadow, and his only chance of survival was to escape.

But everything was already too late.

Yelie's figure was like a ghost, quietly appearing behind him.

The dark blue, icy Corrosion God Shadow Blade instantly pierced into his heart, twisting gently.

Tram's entire body stiffened, his power instantly hollowed out, and his massive body fell powerlessly from the air, crashing heavily to the ground and completely perishing.

The remaining garrison soldiers on the city wall had just secretly rejoiced because the external enemy was wiped out and the formidable enemy exited, but in a flash, they witnessed the defender and the priest being killed one after another. Everyone was completely dumbfounded on the spot, their minds shaken, falling into extreme panic.

"Monster... This is a monster!"

Piercing screams rose and fell one after another.

Only then did everyone discover in shock that at some unknown time, countless gruesome skeletal undead had quietly emerged from the alleys, city walls, and corners in all directions of Xuanming City.

The icy aura of death enveloped the entire city, completely sealing off all routes of retreat.

No one dared to resist anymore, nor did they have the strength to resist.

Su Ming slowly walked into the city, effortlessly incorporating this Xuanming City with a population of 300,000 into his palm.