200: Chapter 199 Chase and Escape
Greyish-white sand and dust exploded into a mushroom-shaped cloud in the air. A scorching airwave surged from behind, knocking Xu Tao, who was running at the very back, off balance.
Xu Tao stumbled for a few steps. He simply deactivated his Armorization, poured all his spiritual power into his legs, and dashed forward with his head down.
The Desert Emperor Scorpion's six black eyes lit up in the dust like six dark-red lanterns, locking onto his position through the smoke and clouds.
Its giant pincers opened, aiming their jaws at his back.
Lin Fan saw this scene from mid-air.
He activated Thousand Shadow Moon Guard with full force, and twelve Clones split from his body, running in different directions.
The Desert Emperor Scorpion's six eyes turned simultaneously, switching rapidly between the twelve Clones, a hint of hesitation flashing in its eyes.
In that instant, Xu Tao ran another dozen or so meters forward, widening the distance.
But the hesitation lasted for less than two seconds.
The Desert Emperor Scorpion's tail stinger suddenly turned, not aiming at any specific person, but at the center of the Clones.
The purple light point at the tip of its tail exploded, and a ring of dark purple spiritual energy shockwave rippled outward with the scorpion's tail as the center.
Wherever the shockwave passed, Lin Fan's Clones shattered like bubbles.
The dark purple poison mist produced when the Clones shattered spread around the scorpion's head, mixed with the Moonlit Bone-Eroding Poison attached to Xiao Zhuang's Taiyin Piercer, specifically targeting the nervous System.
The six eyes on the Desert Emperor Scorpion's head were enveloped by the poison mist. A thin purple mist film formed on the surface of its eyes, blurring its vision.
Shen Shuang looked back and saw that the poison mist had taken effect. Without hesitation, the golden shell patterns of the Bladed Armor Turtle on her right arm lit up, and she slammed a punch into the sandy surface.
The exploding sand wall was not meant to block the scorpion, but to provide a visual reference for the others.
One couldn't see the direction in the poison mist, but the position where the sand wall rose was the direction of the light pillar.
She was using the sand wall as a signpost.
Ye Wushuang was running at the very front of the team. His right eye, the Bright Mist Phantom Pupil, remained clear within the poison mist—the mist had no effect on the Bright Mist Phantom Pupil.
The lightning from the Thunder-Scaled Hou Rabbit on his right leg blasted cracks into the sand, creating pits that provided temporary cover for those running behind.
The Desert Emperor Scorpion's twin pincers began to swing violently, moving faster and faster, actually whipping up a massive sandstorm.
It not only blew away the poison mist but also swept toward Lin Fan and the others.
The sandstorm came too quickly.
The diameter of the tornado expanded from several meters to dozens of meters, spreading in all directions from the scorpion's body. Wherever it passed, a thick layer of sand was shaved off, revealing the dark, hard soil layer beneath.
"Scatter! Don't bunch up!"
Shen Shuang's voice was torn to shreds in the wind and sand.
Experience from military training manifested at this moment.
Shen Shuang, Yu Nian, and Xu Tao instinctively scattered in three different directions, forming a triangular formation that surrounded Lin Fan, Ye Qing, Ye Wushuang, and Xu Ziyan in the middle.
This was a standard defensive formation against area-of-effect attacks; even if the sandstorm swept everyone in, they wouldn't all lose their combat effectiveness at once.
The Desert Emperor Scorpion pushed both its pincers forward simultaneously.
Two purple light orbs shot from the tips of its pincers, flying directly above the seven people's heads before colliding with each other.
The moment the light orbs collided, they didn't explode but merged into a larger light orb. Spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the surface of the orb, with blinding purple light leaking from the cracks.
Yu Nian was quick to react. The lightning from the Swift Thunder Eagle on his left arm converged into a lightning pillar as thick as an arm, shooting toward the light orb.
He had timed it perfectly—detonating the light orb before its internal energy reached the critical point meant the explosion's power would only be thirty percent of its original strength.
The moment the lightning pillar hit the light orb, blinding purple light exploded, and a shockwave rippled in all directions.
Yu Nian was blown away by the shockwave, tumbling several times in mid-air, with scorched marks burned onto the surface of his wings by the purple spiritual energy.
He gritted his teeth and stabilized his posture, not falling.
The main force of the shockwave had been reduced by more than half after Yu Nian detonated it early, but the residual power still scattered the seven people.
Shen Shuang was pushed back several steps by the shockwave. The shell patterns of the Bladed Armor Turtle on her right arm lit up as she tanked the residual impact.
Xu Tao was knocked to the ground and rolled twice, then immediately shouted toward Xu Ziyan.
"Watch out!"
He noticed that the Desert Emperor Scorpion was already closing in on Xu Ziyan.
Xu Ziyan was pushed several steps forward to the left by the shockwave, his right foot stepping into a pit blasted by lightning, causing him to lose his balance and fall toward the sand.
The moment he fell, the fox tails of the Three-Tailed Snowfield Fox on his right hand instinctively burst from his palm. Three white fox tails propped him up against the sand, bouncing him back into a standing position.
By this time, the Desert Emperor Scorpion had already reached his back, its tail poised and ready to strike.
At the critical moment, Ye Qing flashed, her figure vanishing from the sand and reappearing in front of Xu Ziyan.
The moment she landed, the Shadow Lock from the Underworld Moss on her left hand shot forward.
Five deep purple chains shot from the five fingers of her left hand. They didn't wrap around the scorpion's body but instead entangled its pincers.
The barbs on the chains pierced into the gaps of the carapace inside the pincers, injecting a ghostly green toxin. The speed at which the Desert Emperor Scorpion's giant pincers closed slowed down significantly.
But the chains only held for less than two seconds before the scorpion's pincers snapped open, and all five Shadow Locks shattered simultaneously.
Two seconds were enough.
The moment the chains shattered, Ye Wushuang's right eye, the Bright Mist Phantom Pupil, locked onto the Desert Emperor Scorpion's head—the position of those six black eyes.
A blinding white light lit up in his right eye. It wasn't Extreme Phantom Light, but Mental Pierce.
Seeing this, Lin Fan also launched a Mental Shock.
Two streams of Mental Energy accurately pierced into the pupil of the Desert Emperor Scorpion's top-left eye.
After piercing the eye, the two mental attacks traveled along the optic nerve to the head ganglion and exploded inside it.
All six eyes on the Desert Emperor Scorpion's head blinked violently at the same time.
The closing motion of the giant pincers stopped, followed by an ear-splitting roar, and the charging of its tail stinger was also interrupted.
Its head instinctively tilted to the right, attempting to move its left eye out of Ye Wushuang's line of sight.
Shen Shuang seized this moment.
The golden shell patterns of the Bladed Armor Turtle on her right arm lit up to the extreme, while the frost carapace of the Frost Spirit Python on her left arm spread up to her shoulder.
She slammed both fists into the sand simultaneously.
Armor Blade Crush and Frost Spirit Burst exploded in the sand layer directly beneath the scorpion's body, blasting a huge depression into the sandy surface.
Two of the Desert Emperor Scorpion's eight jointed legs lost their footing, and its body tilted to the left.
Yu Nian dove down from the sky.
He slammed like a cannonball toward the seam of the carapace on the left side of the tilted scorpion.
The lightning from the Swift Thunder Eagle on his left arm was not released outward but was entirely condensed on the surface of his fist, which was wrapped in a layer of lightning membrane as thin as a cicada's wing.
The moment he hit the carapace seam, the lightning membrane exploded, pouring all the fist-sized lightning energy into the seam.
The lightning exploded in the muscle tissue beneath the carapace. Although it didn't cause substantial damage to the Desert Emperor Scorpion, it made the muscles on the left side of its body suddenly stiffen, increasing the tilt angle even more.
Lin Fan finished charging in the air.
All three pairs of small light wings on his right ankle fully unfurled.
Heavenly Light Instant Step erupted with full force, his figure turning into a silver-white line of light as he dove down from the sky.
Holy Radiance Prison was fully condensed—a silver-white light bullet was kicked out from his toes.
A blinding light screen formed beneath the scorpion's head. Everyone hurriedly took advantage of the moment the enemy was blinded to continue fleeing toward the light pillar.