192: Crisis in the Battle

Lu Yang's warning was still ringing in their ears when the ground beneath them underwent a sudden, violent change!

"Watch the ground!" Mu Wanqing's urgent voice rang out, laced with panic—her Wood-Yang Spirit Body had the most direct perception of the dangerous fluctuations coming from deep within the earth!

Before she could finish speaking, the solid ground beneath everyone's feet suddenly softened, instantly collapsing into a viscous, slippery quicksand bog! An irresistible suction force erupted from their ankles, deathly gripping their feet and dragging them downward!

"Oh no!" Ning Hong reacted the fastest. With a low shout, her movement technique unfolded like lightning. Her toes nimbly tapped a protruding beast bone nearby, using the leverage to leap upward! Even so, the foul-smelling, thick mud had already coated her boots up to her calves.

Lu Yang and Spring Breeze possessed deep cultivation and a steady Foundation. They instantly poured spiritual Qi into their legs, struggling against the suction to barely stabilize themselves, but movement had become exceptionally difficult.

Yu Xuan and Transforming Rain were half a beat slower, and the mud instantly rose past their ankles! A cold, eerie energy rapidly spread upward along their calves, causing the flow of spiritual Qi within their bodies to suddenly stagnate!

Mu Wanqing's situation was the most critical! Her Physical Body's strength was the weakest, and the pure vitality currently being radiated by her Wood-Yang Spirit Body acted like the most enticing bait on this desolate wasteland of death, drawing the frenzied focus of the malevolent will beneath the ground!

The quicksand-like mud instantly swallowed her calves. The powerful dragging force caused her body to jerk violently, and she looked as if she were about to lose her balance and fall into the mire!

"Wanqing!" Spring Breeze and Lu Yang shouted in alarm almost simultaneously. Spring Breeze was the closest; a fierce light flashed in her eyes as the radiance of the longsword in her hand surged. Instead of slashing at the ground, she thrust it with precise ferocity into the earth beside Mu Wanqing!

Majestic spiritual Qi erupted, and the blade shuddered violently!

Boom! The violent Sword Qi forcibly blasted an opening in the viscous mud, temporarily cutting off that terrifying pulling force! Beside them, Transforming Rain reacted extremely quickly, reaching out like lightning to firmly grab the unstable Mu Wanqing and drag her back to her side.

Just as the group was trapped by this eerie bog and exhausted from dealing with it, the true attack arrived!

Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!

The white bones scattered and piled around them began to emit ear-piercing sounds of friction and snapping under the control of an invisible force, rapidly assembling and piecing together! In the blink of an eye, seven or eight "Skeleton Soldiers" with twisted, eerie forms had taken shape!

Some were humanoid skeletons, while others were haphazardly cobbled together from beast bones. Deep within their hollow eye sockets, murky dark-red points of light flickered like ghost fires!

They brandished crude bone blades and bone spears, carrying a thick, decaying, fishy wind as they lunged silently but with startling speed toward the group!

At the same time, the ground shook violently! The earth around everyone suddenly arched upward and tore open! Several massive "Earth Peoples," forcibly condensed from sand and gravel, burst forth from the ground!

Their bodies were enormous and their movements slightly sluggish, but every step they took made the earth tremble!

Even more chillingly, several "Stone Peoples" composed of pure, hard rock also rose with a roar. Their massive stone fists clenched and smashed down with a heavy whistling sound, completely sealing off any room for evasion above and on the flanks!

With the Skeleton Soldiers' sharp spears and blades biting from the front, Earth Peoples surrounding them from the sides, stone fists like mountains smashing from above, and the bog sinking beneath their feet, the shadow of death instantly enveloped them!

"Form a formation! Repel the enemy!" Lu Yang's shout exploded like thunder. Firelight surged from his hand as a condensed, blood-like crimson fire blade whistled out, precisely slashing toward the nearest lunging humanoid skeleton! Boom! The fire blade hit the skeleton's skull dead center, and the blazing flames instantly consumed the red light in its eyes. The bones exploded upon impact. Fire naturally countered the sinister and evil, proving highly effective against these skeletons animated by Death Qi.

Ning Hong's figure was like a phantom, rapidly shifting and dodging between the protruding beast bones and rocks. The cicada-wing-thin short blade in her hand flashed repeatedly with cold light. Every strike she made was a tricky thrust into the gaps of the skeletal joints or a precise severing of the energy nodes that maintained their movement.

Her movements were clean and efficient. In the blink of an eye, two nearby skeletal beast soldiers had been dismantled into pieces by her.

However, on the other side of the battlefield, the Water element was naturally countered by the Earth element.

The situation for Yu Xuan, Spring Breeze, and Transforming Rain suddenly deteriorated!

"Mystic Water Shield!" Yu Xuan reacted extremely quickly, her hands forming seals. A blue light shield rippling with water patterns instantly condensed in front of her.

Bang! A heavy mud fist swung by an Earth People smashed violently against the light shield! Although the flexible water shield wasn't shattered in a single blow, the pure water spirit energy on the shield's surface clashed violently with the foul earth scent carried by the mud fist, emitting a "hissing" corrosive sound! The Mystic Water Shield vibrated violently, its radiance fading rapidly. Yu Xuan's face turned slightly pale as her spiritual Qi consumption spiked, and the dragging of the bog beneath her feet made her stance even more unstable.

Transforming Rain gave a delicate shout, her longsword sweeping out as several sharp, water-blue Sword Qi beams shot through the air toward a tall Stone People's chest!

Thud, thud, thud! The Sword Qi, which was enough to pierce through metal, hit the hard rock surface and only left a few faint white marks! The spiritual Qi contained within the Sword Qi was like a clay ox entering the sea, instantly swallowed up by the thick rock body, failing even to hinder its steps! The Stone People seemed entirely oblivious as its massive stone arm swept across with a heavy wind! Transforming Rain's expression changed, and she had to retreat hastily, awkwardly dodging the blunt force of the strike while also having to divide her soul to resist the suction of the bog beneath her feet.

The most worrying one was Spring Breeze!

As a Peak Foundation Establishment expert, she should have been able to handle this with ease. Now, however, her brow was furrowed, and there was a rare sense of being constrained in her movements!

She attempted to bind it: "Water Binding Technique!" Deep blue water flowed like spirit snakes, coiling around an Earth People's legs. The Earth People's figure only paused slightly before the mud on its surface surged and wriggled violently. The pure spiritual Qi contained in the Water Binding Technique was actually rapidly absorbed and swallowed by it! Instead, the Earth People let out a roar, and its movements suddenly accelerated!

Spring Breeze's eyes turned sharp as she changed her move to an attack! She pointed her fingers like a sword, and a condensed-to-the-limit, almost dark-blue water Sword Qi shot through the air. Carrying a bone-chilling coldness, it precisely targeted the vital joint of another Stone People!

Clang! An ear-piercing sound of metal striking stone rang out! The Sword Qi gouged a deep pit into the rock, sending stone fragments flying! But this strike, which was enough to heavily injure a Cultivator of the same rank, only caused the Stone People to stall for half a breath! Worse, the flying stone fragments didn't scatter; instead, they were drawn by an invisible force and slowly flowed back toward the damaged area! The deep pit was actually closing at a speed visible to the naked eye!

Spring Breeze's heart sank! Her water-attribute attacks had minimal effect on these monsters composed of earth and stone with cores buried deep underground! They could even be absorbed or quickly repaired by the opponent! Although her cultivation was high, the natural elemental counter was fully exposed at this moment; she had majestic spiritual Qi but found it difficult to harm their essence! The restraint of the bog beneath her feet made it even harder to fully utilize her movement techniques. For a time, she was actually being besieged by several Earth Peoples and Stone Peoples, forced into a corner and left somewhat flustered. The situation was quite passive!

"Damn it! These ghost things aren't afraid of water at all!" Transforming Rain exerted herself to parry a stone fist, unable to stop herself from cursing under her breath.

"They are just Puppets! The core is underneath!" Lu Yang swung his flames to incinerate the lunging Skeleton Soldiers while his sharp gaze swept across the battlefield. He instantly perceived the key—whether it was the Skeleton Soldiers or the earth and stone Puppets, they were all closely connected to the ground beneath them, with energy surging up incessantly from deep underground!

"We must sever their connection with the earth veins, or drag out the core Earth Spirit controlling them from behind the scenes!" Thoughts whirled through his mind. "The water system is being deathly countered, and Wanqing's spirit body is being strongly suppressed by the thick Death Qi here... the effect of fire on heavy earth and stone is also greatly diminished..."